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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>Evaluating Real-World COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness Using a Test-Negative Case-Control Design</strong> -
<div>
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It is important to assess the extent to which the real-world effectiveness of marketed vaccines is consistent with that observed in the clinical trials, and to characterize how well vaccines prevent COVID-19 symptoms. We conducted a modified test-negative design (TND) to evaluate the RW effectiveness of three COVID-19 vaccines by leveraging data from an on-going, US community-based registry. Vaccine effectiveness was examined in two ways: considering cases who (1) tested positive for COVID-19 (695 cases, 1,786 controls) and who (2) tested positive with at least one moderate/severe COVID-19 symptom (165 cases, 2,316 controls). Any vaccination (full or partial) was associated with a 95% reduction in the odds of having a positive COVID-19 test [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 0.05 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.04, 0.06)]. Full vaccination was associated with an aOR of 0.03 (95% CI: 0.03, 0.05) while partial vaccination had an aOR of 0.08 (95% CI: 0.06, 0.12). Any vaccination was associated with a 71% reduction in the odds of testing positive and having at least one moderate/severe symptom (aOR=0.29 (95% CI: 0.20, 0.40)). High effectiveness was observed across all three vaccine manufacturers both for prevention of positive COVID-19 test results and prevention of moderate/severe COVID-19 symptoms.
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.06.22268726v1" target="_blank">Evaluating Real-World COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness Using a Test-Negative Case-Control Design</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Updated projections for COVID-19 omicron wave in Florida</strong> -
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In this report, we use a detailed simulation model to assess and project the COVID-19 epidemic in Florida. The model is a data-driven, stochastic, discrete-time, agent based model with an explicit representation of people and places. Using the model, we find that the omicron variant wave in Florida is likely to cause many more infections than occurred during the delta variant wave. Due to testing limitations and often mild symptoms, however, we anticipate that omicron infections will be underreported compared to delta. We project that reported cases of COVID-19 will continue to grow significantly and peak in early January 2022, and that the number of reported COVID-19 deaths due to omicron may be 1/3 of the total caused by the delta wave.
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.06.22268849v1" target="_blank">Updated projections for COVID-19 omicron wave in Florida</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Older Adults Mount Less Durable Humoral Responses to a Two-dose COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine Regimen, but Strong Initial Responses to a Third Dose</strong> -
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Background. Two-dose mRNA vaccines reduce COVID-19 related hospitalization and mortality, but immune protection declines over time. As such, third vaccine doses are now recommended, particularly for older adults. We examined immune response durability up to 6 months after two vaccine doses, and immunogenicity after a third vaccine dose, in 151 adults ranging in age from 24 to 98 years. Methods. Specimens were collected from 81 healthcare workers (median age 41 years), 56 older adults (median 78 years) and 14 COVID-19 convalescent individuals (median 48 years), at one, three and six months following the second dose, and from 15 HCW, 28 older adults and 3 convalescent individuals at one month following a third dose. Binding antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 spike receptor binding domain were quantified using a commercial immunoassay. Virus neutralizing activity was assessed using a live SARS-CoV-2 infection assay. Results. Compared to healthcare workers, older adults displayed ~0.3 log10 lower peak binding antibodies one month after the second dose (p&lt;0.0001) and modestly faster rates of antibody decline thereafter (p=0.0067). A higher burden of chronic health conditions was independently associated with faster rates of antibody decline after correction for age, sociodemographic factors, and vaccine-related variables. Peak neutralizing activity was 4-fold lower in older adults one month after the second dose (p&lt;0.0001) and became undetectable in the majority of individuals by six months. One month after a third dose, binding antibodies and neutralizing activities surpassed peak values achieved after two doses in both healthcare workers and older adults, and differences between these groups were no longer statistically significant. Compared to both naive groups, convalescent individuals displayed slower rates of binding antibody decline (p&lt;0.006) and maintained higher neutralizing activity six months after the second dose. Conclusions. Immune responses to two-dose COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are overall weaker in older adults, and also decline more quickly over time, compared to younger adults. A third COVID-19 mRNA vaccine dose enhanced binding and neutralizing antibodies to levels higher than those observed after two vaccine doses, but the rate of decline of these responses should be monitored, particularly in older adults with a higher burden of chronic health conditions.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.06.22268745v1" target="_blank">Older Adults Mount Less Durable Humoral Responses to a Two-dose COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine Regimen, but Strong Initial Responses to a Third Dose</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Effect of Vaccination on Household Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 Delta VOC</strong> -
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The SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant of concern (VOC), which has shown increased transmission compared with previous variants, emerged rapidly globally during the first half of 2021, and became one of the most widespread SARS-CoV-2 variants worldwide. We utilized total population data from 24,693 Danish households with 53,584 potential secondary cases to estimate household transmission of the Delta VOC in relation to vaccination status. We found that the vaccine effectiveness against susceptibility (VES) was 61% (95%-CI: 59-63) and that the vaccine effectiveness against transmissibility (VET) was 42% (95%-CI: 39-45). We also found that unvaccinated individuals with an infection exhibited a higher viral load (one third of a standard deviation) compared to fully vaccinated individuals with a breakthrough infection. Our results imply that vaccinations reduce susceptibility as well as transmissibility. The results are important for policy makers to select strategies for reducing transmission of SARS-CoV-2.
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.06.22268841v1" target="_blank">Effect of Vaccination on Household Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 Delta VOC</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Protection of Hamsters Challenged with SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern by Two Doses of MVC-COV1901 Vaccine Followed by a Single Dose of Beta Variant Version of MVC-COV1901</strong> -
<div>
The current fight against COVID-19 is compounded by the Variants of Concern (VoCs), which can diminish the effectiveness of vaccines and potentially increase viral transmission and severity of disease. MVC-COV1901 is a protein subunit vaccine based on the prefusion SARS-CoV-2 spike protein (S-2P) and is adjuvanted with CpG 1018 and aluminum hydroxide. In this study, we used the Delta variant to challenge hamsters inoculated with S-2P from the Wuhan wildtype and the Beta variant in two-dose or three-dose regimens. Two doses of wildtype S-2P followed by the third dose of Beta variant was shown to induce the highest neutralizing antibody titer against live SARS-CoV-2 of the wildtype and all current VoCs, as well as improved neutralization against Omicron variant pseudovirus compared to three doses of wildtype S-P. All regimens of vaccination were able to protect hamsters from SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant challenge and resulted in reduced lung live virus titer and pathology. Three doses of vaccination also significantly reduced lung viral RNA titer, regardless of whether the wildtype or Beta variant S-2P was used as the third dose. Based on the immunogenicity and viral challenge data, two doses of wildtype S-2P followed by the third dose of Beta variant S-2P induced potent antibody immune responses against the VoCs.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.29.462344v3" target="_blank">Protection of Hamsters Challenged with SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern by Two Doses of MVC-COV1901 Vaccine Followed by a Single Dose of Beta Variant Version of MVC-COV1901</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Heterologous immunization with inactivated vaccine followed by mRNA booster elicits strong humoral and cellular immune responses against the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant</strong> -
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Abstract Background There has been an unprecedented global effort to produce safe and effective vaccines against SARS-CoV-2. However, production challenges, supply shortages and unequal global reach, together with an increased number of breakthrough infections due to waning of immunity and the emergence of new variants of concern (VOC), have prolonged the pandemic. To boost the immune response, several heterologous vaccination regimes have been tested and have shown increased antibody responses compared to homologous vaccination. Here we evaluated the effect of mRNA vaccine booster on immunogenicity in individuals who had been vaccinated with two doses of inactivated vaccines. Methods The levels of specific antibodies against the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the spike protein from wild-type virus and the Beta, Delta and Omicron variants were measured in healthy individuals who had received two doses of homologous inactivated (BBIBP-CorV or CoronoVac) or mRNA (BNT162b2 or mRNA-1273) vaccines, and in donors who were given an mRNA vaccine boost after two doses of either vaccine. Pre-vaccinated healthy donors, or individuals who had been infected and subsequently received the mRNA vaccine were also included as controls. In addition, specific memory B and T cell responses were measured in a subset of samples. Results A booster dose of an mRNA vaccine significantly increased the level of specific antibodies that bind to the RBD domain of the wild-type (6-fold) and VOCs including Delta (8-fold) and Omicron (14-fold), in individuals who had previously received two doses of inactivated vaccines. The level of specific antibodies in the heterologous vaccination group was furthermore similar to that in individuals receiving a third dose of homologous mRNA vaccines or boosted with mRNA vaccine after natural infection. Moreover, this heterologous vaccination regime significantly enhanced the specific memory B and T cell responses. Conclusions Heterologous prime- boost immunization with inactivated vaccine followed by an mRNA vaccine boost markedly increased the levels of specific antibodies and B and T cell responses and may thus increase protection against emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants including Omicron.
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.04.22268755v2" target="_blank">Heterologous immunization with inactivated vaccine followed by mRNA booster elicits strong humoral and cellular immune responses against the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant</a>
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<li><strong>Differential Effects of Race/Ethnicity and Social Vulnerability on COVID-19 Positivity, Hospitalization, and Death in the San Francisco Bay Area</strong> -
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BACKGROUND: Higher COVID-19 incidence and morbidity have been amply documented for US Black and Hispanic populations but not as clearly for other racial and ethnic groups. Efforts to elucidate the mechanisms underlying racial health disparities can be confounded by the relationship between race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status. OBJECTIVE: Examine race/ethnicity and social vulnerability effects on COVID-19 outcomes in the San Francisco Bay Area, an ethnically and socioeconomically diverse region. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. SETTING: Geocoded patient records from the University of California, San Francisco Health system between January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020. PATIENTS: Patients who underwent polymerase chain reaction testing for COVID-19. EXPOSURES: Race/ethnicity and Social Vulnerability Index (SVI). MAIN MEASURES: COVID-19 test frequency, positivity, hospitalization rates, and mortality. KEY RESULTS: Higher social vulnerability, but not race/ethnicity, was associated with less frequent testing yet a higher likelihood of testing positive. Asian hospitalization rates (11.5%) were double that of White patients (5.4%) and exceeded the rates for Black (9.3%) and Hispanic (6.9%) groups. A modest relationship between higher hospitalization rates and increasing social vulnerability was evident only for White individuals. The Hispanic group had the lowest mean age at death and thus highest years of expected life lost due to COVID-19. CONCLUSIONS: COVID-19 outcomes were not consistently explained by greater socioeconomic vulnerability. Asian individuals showed disproportionately high rates of hospitalization regardless of socioeconomic status. Study of the San Francisco Bay Area population not only provides valuable insights into the differential contributions of race/ethnicity and social determinants of health to COVID-19 outcomes but also emphasizes that all racial groups have experienced the toll of the pandemic, albeit in different ways and to varying degrees.
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.04.22268760v2" target="_blank">Differential Effects of Race/Ethnicity and Social Vulnerability on COVID-19 Positivity, Hospitalization, and Death in the San Francisco Bay Area</a>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>An integrated lab-on-a-chip device for RNA extraction, amplification and CRISPR-Cas12a-assisted detection for COVID-19 screening in resource-limited settings</strong> -
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In response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and disparities of vaccination coverage in low-and middle-income countries, it is vital to adopt a widespread testing and screening programme, combined with contact tracing, to monitor and effectively control the infection dispersion in areas where medical resources are limited. This work presents a lab- on-a-chip platform, namely IFAST-CRISPR, as an affordable, rapid and high-precision molecular diagnostic means for SARS- CoV-2 detection. The herein proposed sample-to-answer platform integrates RNA extraction, amplification and CRISPR-Cas- based detection with lateral flow readout in one device. The microscale dimensions of the device containing immiscible liquids, coupled with the use of silica paramagnetic beads and GuHCl, streamline sample preparation, including RNA concentration, extraction and purification, in 15 min with minimal hands-on steps. By combining RT-LAMP with CRISPR- Cas12 assays targeting the nucleoprotein (N) gene, visual identification of ≥ 470 copies mL-1 genomic SARS-CoV-2 samples was achieved in 45 min, with no cross-reactivity towards HCoV-OC43 nor H1N1. On-chip assays showed the ability to isolate and detect SARS-CoV-2 from 1,000 genome copies mL-1 of replication-deficient viral particles in 1 h. This simple, affordable and integrated platform demonstrated a visual, faster, and yet specificity and sensitivity-comparable alternative to the costly gold-standard RT-PCR assay, requiring only a simple heating source. Further investigations on multiplexing and direct interfacing of the accessible Swan-brand cigarette filter for saliva sample collection could provide a complete work flow for COVID-19 diagnostics from saliva samples suitable for low-resource settings.
</p>
</div></li>
</ul>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.06.22268835v1" target="_blank">An integrated lab-on-a-chip device for RNA extraction, amplification and CRISPR-Cas12a-assisted detection for COVID-19 screening in resource-limited settings</a>
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<ul>
<li><strong>Should rapid antigen tests be government funded in Australia? An economic evaluation</strong> -
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Objective: Easy and equitable access to testing is a cornerstone of the public health response to COVID-19. Currently in Australia, testing using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests for COVID-19 is free-to-the-user, but the public purchase their own Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs). We conduct an economic analysis of government-funded RATs in Australia. Design: An interactive decision tree model was developed to compare one policy in which government-funded RATs are free-to-the-user, and one in which individuals purchase their own RATs. The decision tree represents RAT and PCR testing pathways for a cohort of individuals without COVID-19-like symptoms, to estimate the likelihood of COVID-19 positive individuals isolating prior to developing symptoms and the associated costs of testing, from a government perspective. Data sources: Test costs and detection rates were informed by published studies, other input parameter values are unobservable and uncertain, for which a range of scenario analyses are presented. Data synthesis: Assuming 10% prevalence of COVID-19 in a cohort of 10,000 individuals who would use government-funded RATs, the model estimates an additional 464 individuals would isolate early at a cost to the government of around $52,000. Scenario analyses indicate that the incremental cost per additional COVID-19 positive individual isolating with no symptoms remains at a few hundred dollars at 5% prevalence, rising to $2,052 at 1% prevalence. Conclusions: Based on the presented decision tree model, even only minor reductions in COVID-19 transmission rates due to early isolation would justify the additional costs associated with a policy of government-funded RATs.
</p>
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.03.22268709v2" target="_blank">Should rapid antigen tests be government funded in Australia? An economic evaluation</a>
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<li><strong>Mental health assessment of Israeli adolescents before and during the COVID-19 pandemic</strong> -
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The measures used to contain the COVID-19 pandemic caused severe disruption to the lives of children and adolescents, compromising their mental health and wellbeing. In this study we assessed the incidence rates of psychiatric diagnoses and drugs in Israeli adolescents before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Analysis of health records data of over 200,000 12-17 years old adolescents identified a significant increase in all mental health diagnoses and most psychiatric drugs dispensation during the COVID-19 period compared to a corresponding pre-COVID period. A gender sub-analysis revealed that most of this increase was associated with adolescent girls. Girls exhibited increases of 68% in depression, 67% in eating disorders, 42% in anxiety and 29% in stress-related diagnoses during the COVID-19 period, which are significantly higher rates than those seen in boys and in the pre-COVID period. Sector sub- analysis showed that the increase was mainly in the general Jewish sector with almost no significant increases in the Arab and ultra-orthodox sectors. Our study highlights the mental health burden of Israeli adolescents during the pandemic and suggests that careful consideration should be given to it while deciding on measures to mitigate the pandemic.
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.06.22268809v1" target="_blank">Mental health assessment of Israeli adolescents before and during the COVID-19 pandemic</a>
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<li><strong>The Governance of Pandemics in Primary Health Care: The Governance Strategies Adopted by Health Facility Governing Committees in Times of COVID Pandemic in Tanzania</strong> -
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The governance of COVID 19 in Lower and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) is very critical for curbing its effects. However, it is unknown what governance strategies are adopted by Health Facility Governing Committees (HFGCs) s as a response to the pandemic. We employed an exploratory qualitative design to study the governance strategies adopted by HFGCs during the COVID19. Since COVID 19 is new, an inductive approach was used as it involves analyzing collected data with little or no predetermined theory for the study. A purposive sampling technique was employed in which multistage clustered sampling was used to select regions, councils, health facilities and respondents. In-depth interviews with HFGCs chairpersons and Focus Group Discussions with members of HFGCs were used to collect data. The data were analyzed based on the themes which emerged during data collection. We found five governance strategies that were found to be commonly adopted by many HFGCs which are financial allocation, re-planing, mobilization of resources, community sensitization and mobilization of stakeholders. however, these governance structures were not all adopted by all HFGCs. The HFGCs slowly adopted governance strategies in the times of COVID 19 pandemics because were unprepared. Despite being empowered by the Direct Health Facility Financing, still, the newest of the COVID 19 has been a challenge to many HFGCs. This calls for urgent capacity building for governance institutions on how to deal will pandemics in primary health facilities.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.03.22268663v1" target="_blank">The Governance of Pandemics in Primary Health Care: The Governance Strategies Adopted by Health Facility Governing Committees in Times of COVID Pandemic in Tanzania</a>
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<li><strong>The impact of demographic factors on numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths in Europe and the regions of Ukraine</strong> -
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The accumulated numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths per capita are important characteristics of the pandemic dynamics that may also indicate the effectiveness of quarantine, testing, vaccination, and treatment. The statistical analysis based on the number of cases per capita accumulated to the end of June 2021 showed no correlations with the volume of population, its density, and the urbanization level both in European countries and regions of Ukraine. The same result was obtained with the use of fresher datasets (as of December 23, 2021). The number of deaths per capita and per case may depend on the urbanization level. For European countries these relative characteristics decrease with the increase of the urbanization level. Opposite trend was revealed for the number of deaths per capita in Ukrainian regions.
</p>
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.05.22268787v1" target="_blank">The impact of demographic factors on numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths in Europe and the regions of Ukraine</a>
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<li><strong>Association between vaccination status and reported incidence of post-acute COVID-19 symptoms in Israel: a cross- sectional study of patients infected between March 2020 and November 2021</strong> -
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Background: Long COVID is a post-severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection syndrome characterised by not recovering for several weeks or months following the acute episode. The effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines against long-term symptoms of COVID19 is not well understood. We determined whether vaccination was associated with reporting long-term symptoms post-SARS-CoV-2 infection by comparing, among individuals previously infected with SARS-CoV-2, those who were vaccinated to those who were not, in terms of self-reported long-term symptoms. Methods: We invited individuals who were PCR tested for SARS-CoV-2 infection at participating hospitals between March 2020-June 2021 to fill an online questionnaire that included baseline demographics, details of their acute episode and information about symptoms they were currently experiencing. Using binomial regression, we compared vaccinated individuals with those unvaccinated in terms of self-reported symptoms post-acute infection. Results: Of 951 previously infected individuals who filled the survey 637(67%) were vaccinated. The most commonly reported symptoms were; fatigue (22%), headache (20%), weakness (13%), and persistent muscle pain (10%). After adjusting for follow-up time and baseline symptoms, fully vaccinated (2 or more doses) individuals were less likely than unvaccinated individuals to report any of these symptoms by 64%, 54%, 57%, and 68% respectively, (Risk ratios 0.36, 0.46, 0.43, 0.32, p&lt;0.04 in the listed sequence). Conclusions: Vaccination with at least two doses of COVID-19 vaccine was associated with a substantial decrease in reporting the most common post-acute COVID19 symptoms. Our results suggest that, in addition to reducing the risk of acute illness, COVID-19 vaccination may have a protective effect against long COVID.
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.05.22268800v1" target="_blank">Association between vaccination status and reported incidence of post-acute COVID-19 symptoms in Israel: a cross-sectional study of patients infected between March 2020 and November 2021</a>
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<li><strong>Durability of Protection against COVID-19 Breakthrough Infections and Severe Disease by Vaccines in the United States</strong> -
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Abstract Objectives: Determine durability of protection by the three currently available COVID-19 vaccines in the United States (US) following primary vaccination against breakthrough infections, hospitalizations, and intensive care unit (ICU) admissions. Methods: Using claims and laboratory data covering 168 million lives, we conducted a matched case-control study with fully vaccinated individuals between January 1 and September 7, 2021. Odds ratios (OR) for developing outcomes in months two through six following full vaccination were estimated relative to the first month after full vaccination for each vaccine separately. Results: Evidence of waning protection against infections started in month 2 from vaccination for both BNT162b2 (OR [95% CI] in month 6+, 2.93 [2.72, 3.15]) and mRNA-1273 (OR [95% CI] in month 6+, 2.76 [2.51, 3.04]), and in month 4 for Ad26.COV2.S (OR [95% CI] in month 5+, 1.31 [1.18, 1.47]). Evidence of waning protection against hospitalization started in month 2 for BNT162b2 (OR [95% CI], 3.97 [3.26, 4.83] in month 6+) and in month 3 for mRNA-1273 (OR 95% CI, 1.66 [1.26, 2.19] in month 6+). There was no evidence of waning protection against hospitalization for Ad26.COV2.S (OR [95% CI], 1.25 [0.86, 1.80] in month 5+). No waning of protection was observed at any time for ICU admissions for all three vaccines. Conclusions: Following primary vaccination, all three vaccines showed strong and durable protection against ICU admissions. Ad26.COV2.S showed a more durable level of protection against breakthrough infections and hospitalizations in line with published evidence of its durable antibody and cellular immune response, although its Vaccine Effectiveness (VE) at baseline after a single-dose is lower than that for the two-dose mRNA vaccines. Additional studies are needed to understand durability following homologous or heterologous boosters.
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.05.22268648v1" target="_blank">Durability of Protection against COVID-19 Breakthrough Infections and Severe Disease by Vaccines in the United States</a>
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<li><strong>Diminished antibody response against SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant after third dose of mRNA vaccine in kidney transplant recipients</strong> -
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Abstract: Background: Available SARS-CoV-2 vaccines have reduced efficacy against the Omicron variant in immunocompetent individuals. Kidney transplant recipients (KTRs) have diminished antiviral responses to wild-type SARS- CoV-2 after vaccination, and data on antiviral responses to SARS-CoV-2 variants, including the Omicron variant, are limited. Methods: We conducted a prospective, multi-center cohort study of 51 adult KTRs who received three doses of BNT162b2 or mRNA-1273. Blood and urine samples were collected before and four weeks after the third vaccine dose. The primary outcome was anti-viral antibody responses against wild-type and variants of SARS-CoV-2. Secondary objectives included occurrence of breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infection and non-invasive monitoring for rejection using serum creatinine, proteinuria, donor-derived cell-free DNA and donor-specific antibodies. Sera from pre-pandemic healthy controls and KTRs were used for comparison. Results: 67% of KTRs developed anti-wild-type spike antibodies after the third vaccine dose, similar to the Alpha (51%) and Beta (53%) variants, but higher than the Gamma (39%) and Delta (25%) variants. No KTRs had neutralizing responses to the Omicron variant before the third vaccine dose. After the third dose, fewer KTRs had neutralizing responses to the Omicron variant (12%) compared to wild-type (61%) and Delta (59%) variants. Three patients (6%) developed breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infection at a median of 89 days. No KTRs developed allograft injury, de novo donor-specific antibodies or allograft rejection. Conclusion: In KTRs, a third dose of mRNA vaccines increases antibody responses against wild-type and variants of SARS-CoV-2, while neutralizing responses to the Omicron variant remain markedly reduced.
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.03.22268649v1" target="_blank">Diminished antibody response against SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant after third dose of mRNA vaccine in kidney transplant recipients</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>Phase III Study of Novaferon in Non-hospitalized Adult Patients With Mild COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Novaferon;   Biological: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Genova Inc.;   Tokyo Shinagawa Hospital<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Human COVID-19 Immunoglobulin (COVID-HIG) Therapy for COVID-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Human COVID-19 immunoglobulin (pH4) for intravenous injection;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Sinopharm Wuhan Plasma-derived Biotherapies Co., Ltd.;   China National Biotec Group Company Limited;   Beijing Tiantan Biological Products Co., Ltd.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Telemedicine Brief Mindfulness Intervention in Post-COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Post COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: Mindfulness<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:  <br/>
Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi Onlus;   Catholic University of the Sacred Heart<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>Immunogenicity and Safety of a Booster Dose of the SpikoGen COVID-19 Vaccine</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: SARS-CoV-2 recombinant spike protein + Advax-SM adjuvant;   Biological: Saline placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Cinnagen;   Vaxine Pty Ltd<br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Safety, Tolerability, and Efficacy Study of IBI314 in Mild to Moderate Patients With COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: IBI314(low dose);   Biological: IBI314(high dose);   Biological: IBI314(medium dose);   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:  <br/>
Innovent Biologics (Suzhou) Co. Ltd.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>PTX-COVID19-B, an mRNA Humoral Vaccine, Intended for Prevention of COVID-19 in a General Population. This Study is Designed to Demonstrate the Safety, Tolerability, and Immunogenicity of PTX-COVID19-B in Comparison to the Pfizer- BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine.</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19 Vaccine<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: PTX-COVID19-B;   Biological: Pfizer- BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine;   Biological: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Providence Therapeutics Holdings Inc.<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Quality of Life and Lung Function on Post Covid-19 Patient</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: breathing exercise, Aerobic exercises<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Qassim University<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Multicenter Double Blind, Parallel-group Phase 2/3 Trial, to Study Raloxifene in Adult COVID-19 Patients.</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   SARS CoV 2 Infection<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Raloxifene;   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Dompé Farmaceutici S.p.A<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>Safety &amp; Immunogenicity of Booster SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine (Vero Cell)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: SARS-COV-2 Vaccine (Vero Cell-Sinopharm) Inactivated<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   PT. Kimia Farma (Persero) Tbk<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>Spa Rehabilitation, Antioxidant and Bioenergetic Supportive Treatment of Patients With Post-Covid-19 Syndrome</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Respiratory Infection<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Dietary Supplement: ubiquinol (reduced coenzyme Q10);   Other: mountain spa rehabilitation;   Diagnostic Test: 2x14 ml of peripheral blood collected in a tube with anticoagulant<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Comenius University;   Sanatórium of Dr. Guhr, n.o.<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 Effect of Nicotinamide Mononucleotide (NMN) As an Adjuvant to Standard of Care (SOC) On Fatigue Associated With COVID-19 Infection</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Infection<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Other: Nicotinamide Mononucleotide;   Other: Nicotinamide Mononucleotide with L-Leucine;   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:  <br/>
Vedic Lifesciences Pvt. 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>A Live Recombinant Newcastle Disease Virus-vectored COVID-19 Vaccine Phase 1 Study.</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   SARS-CoV-2<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Sodium Chloride;   Biological: NDV- HXP-S IN low dose;   Biological: NDV-HXP-S IM low dose;   Biological: NDV-HXP-S IN high dose;   Biological: NDV- HXP-S IM high dose<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Sean Liu<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 Effectiveness of RPSG Intervention for Nurses During the COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Behavioral: RPSG;   Behavioral: AVMBM<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   National Taiwan University Hospital<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Symptom-based Rehabilitation Compared to Usual Care in Post-COVID - a Randomized Controlled Trial</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   Long-COVID<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Other: symptom-focused rehabilitation;   Other: usual care<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Schön Klinik Berchtesgadener Land;   Bavarian State Office for Health and Food Safety;   Praxis im Zentrum Erlangen;   Pneumologen Lichterfelde Berlin;   Pneumopraxis Marburg;   COVID ambulance Philipps-University Marburg;   Pneumologie Elisenhof Munich;   COVID ambulance Pneumology LMU Munich;   COVID ambulance psychology LMU Munich;   University Clinic Augsburg;   COVID ambulance Schön Klinik Schönau<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Efficacy of Oral Rinses for Inactivation of COVID-19 (MOR2)</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   Coronavirus Infection;   SARS CoV 2 Infection<br/><b>Interventions</b>:  <br/>
Other: Placebo Comparator: Sterile Water;   Other: 27% Ethanol plus essential oils;   Other: 0.075% Cetylpyridinium Chloride<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-pubmed">From PubMed</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>An update on drugs with therapeutic potential for SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) treatment</strong> - The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the greatest threats to human health in the 21st century with more than 257 million cases and over 5.17 million deaths reported worldwide (as of November 23, 2021. Various agents were initially proclaimed to be effective against SARS-CoV-2, the etiological agent of COVID-19. Hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir/ritonavir, and ribavirin are all examples of therapeutic agents, whose efficacy against COVID-19 was later disproved. Meanwhile, concentrated efforts of…</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>Antiviral activity of 5-aminolevulinic acid against variants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2</strong> - CONCLUSION: Our study suggests that 5-ALA with SFC warrants accelerated clinical evaluation as an antiviral drug candidate for treating patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 variants.</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>Nafamostat reduces systemic inflammation in TLR7-mediated virus-like illness</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: Our data indicate that R848 administration provides a useful model of ssRNA virus infection, which induces inflammation in the periphery and CNS, and virus infection-like illness. In turn, we show that nafamostat has a systemic anti-inflammatory effect in the presence of the TLR7/8 agonist. Therefore, the results indicate that nafamostat has anti-inflammatory actions, beyond its ability to inhibit TMPRSS2, that might potentiate its anti-viral actions in pathologies such as 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>Inflammasome activation in neutrophils of patients with severe COVID-19</strong> - Infection by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) engages the inflammasome in monocytes and macrophages and leads to the cytokine storm in COVID-19. Neutrophils, the most abundant leukocytes, release neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), which have been implicated in the pathogenesis of COVID-19. Our recent study shows that activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome is important for NET release in sterile inflammation. However, the role of neutrophil inflammasome formation…</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>Cangma Huadu granules, a new drug with great potential to treat coronavirus and influenza infections, exert its efficacy through anti-inflammatory and immune regulation</strong> - CONCLUSION: CMHD can significantly combats viral infections caused by HCoV-229E and H1N1, and the mechanism may be related to its multiple functions of anti-inflammatory, immunity regulating and inhibiting NF-κB signal transduction pathway.</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>Interferon Control of Human Coronavirus Infection and Viral Evasion: Mechanistic Insights and Implications for Antiviral Drug and Vaccine Development</strong> - Recognition of viral infections by various pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) activates an inflammatory cytokine response that inhibits viral replication and orchestrates the activation of adaptive immune responses to control the viral infection. The broadly active innate immune response puts a strong selective pressure on viruses and drives the selection of variants with increased capabilities to subvert the induction and function of antiviral cytokines. This revolutionary process dynamically…</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>Sandacrabins - Structurally unique antiviral RNA polymerase inhibitors from a rare myxobacterium</strong> - We report structure elucidation and total synthesis of five unprecedented terpenoid-alkaloids, the sandacrabins, alongside with the first description of their producing organism Sandaracinus defensii MSr10575, which expands the Sandaracineae family by only its second member. The genome sequence of S. defensii as presented in this study was utilized to identify enzymes responsible for sandacrabin formation, whereby dimethylbenzimidazol, deriving from cobalamin biosynthesis, was identified as key…</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 antagonist of TRPM2 and TRPV4 channels: Carvacrol</strong> - The overload cytosolic free Ca^(2+) (cCa^(2+)) influx-mediated excessive generation of oxidative stress in the pathophysiological conditions induces neuronal and cellular injury via the activation of cation channels. TRPM2 and TRPV4 channels are activated by oxidative stress, and their specific antagonists have not been discovered yet. The antioxidant and anti-Covid-19 properties of carvacrol (CARV) were recently reported. Hence, I suspected possible antagonist properties of CARV against…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A New Remote Guided Method for Supervised Web-Based Cognitive Testing to Ensure High-Quality Data: Development and Usability Study</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that the RGT methodology could help ameliorate concerns regarding online data quality- particularly for studies involving high-risk or rare cohorts-and offer an alternative for collecting high-quality human cognitive data without requiring in-person physical attendance.</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>Obatoclax inhibits SARS-CoV-2 entry by altered endosomal acidification and impaired cathepsin and furin activity in vitro</strong> - Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the emerging severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has set off a global pandemic. There is an urgent unmet need for safe, affordable, and effective therapeutics against COVID-19. In this regard, drug repurposing is considered as a promising approach. We assessed the compounds that affect the endosomal acidic environment by applying human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (hACE2)-expressing cells infected with a SARS-CoV-2 spike…</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>Antiviral drugs : Potent agents, promising therapies for COVID-19 and therapeutic limitations</strong> - Antiviral drugs inhibit viral replication by interaction with specific elements of the viral replication cycle. Directly acting antiviral agents have revolutionized the therapeutic options for chronic infections with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV). Pharmacological developments constantly improve therapeutic and prophylactic options for diseases caused by herpes viruses, which is of particular relevance for immunocompromised patients. While…</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>Structures and therapeutic potential of anti-RBD human monoclonal antibodies against SARS-CoV-2</strong> - Background: Administration of potent anti-receptor-binding domain (RBD) monoclonal antibodies has been shown to curtail viral shedding and reduce hospitalization in patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, the structure-function analysis of potent human anti-RBD monoclonal antibodies and its links to the formulation of antibody cocktails remains largely elusive. Methods: Previously, we isolated a panel of neutralizing anti-RBD monoclonal antibodies from convalescent patients and showed their…</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>Case Report: Clinical Management of a Patient With Metastatic Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Newly Receiving Immune Checkpoint Inhibition During Symptomatic COVID-19</strong> - Effects of initiation of programmed-death-protein 1 (PD1) blockade during active SARS-CoV-2 infection on antiviral immunity, COVID-19 course, and underlying malignancy are unclear. We report on the management of a male in his early 40s presenting with highly symptomatic metastatic lung cancer and active COVID-19 pneumonia. After treatment initiation with pembrolizumab, carboplatin, and pemetrexed, the respiratory situation initially worsened and high-dose corticosteroids were initiated due to…</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>Activation of Sphingomyelinase-Ceramide-Pathway in COVID-19 Purposes Its Inhibition for Therapeutic Strategies</strong> - Effective treatment strategies for severe coronavirus disease (COVID-19) remain scarce. Hydrolysis of membrane-embedded, inert sphingomyelin by stress responsive sphingomyelinases is a hallmark of adaptive responses and cellular repair. As demonstrated in experimental and observational clinical studies, the transient and stress-triggered release of a sphingomyelinase, SMPD1, into circulation and subsequent ceramide generation provides a promising target for FDA- approved drugs. Here, we report…</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>Janus kinase-targeting therapies in rheumatology: a mechanisms-based approach</strong> - The four Janus kinase (JAK) proteins and seven signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) transcription factors mediate intracellular signal transduction downstream of cytokine receptors, which are implicated in the pathology of autoimmune, allergic and inflammatory diseases. Development of targeted small-molecule therapies such as JAK inhibitors, which have varied selective inhibitory profiles, has enabled a paradigm shift in the treatment of diverse disorders. JAK inhibitors…</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>Hung Thanh Phan COVID-19 NEW SOLUTION</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU344983394">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>METHODS OF TREATING SARS-COV-2 INFECTION</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU344309338">link</a></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>피라졸 유도체의 폐섬유증 치료제</strong> - 본 발명은 피라졸 유도체인 하기 화학식 1의 화합물 또는 이의 약학적으로 허용가능한 염을 포함하는, 폐섬유증 치료용 약학적 조성물 또는 항바이러스제를 제공한다 &lt;화학식 1&gt;</p></li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">(상기 화학식 1에서 R은 발명의 설명에서 정의한 바와 같다.).</p>
<pre><code> JPEG
pat00008.jpg
72
66 - [link](https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=KR345008871)</code></pre>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>一种疾病相关标志物的筛选方法、应用及试剂盒</strong> - 本发明公开了一种疾病相关标志物的筛选方法、应用及试剂盒。筛选方法包括：使用能够结合免疫球蛋白（Ig）的物质，分别从第一批健康样本血清和患病样本血清中纯化出Ig复合物；将与Ig相结合的蛋白进行蛋白质谱测序分析，比较健康样本与患病样本的差异，找到只出现在患病样本中的差异蛋白，即为该疾病相关潜在标志物。另外还可以通过以下步骤进一步验证该潜在标志物：使用第二批健康样本和患病样本的血清（扩大病例），纯化获得Ig复合物，利用差异蛋白的特异性抗体进行进一步鉴定。该方法先从血清中获得Ig复合物（而不是全血清），再将与Ig相结合的蛋白进行蛋白质谱测序联合特异性抗体分析，能够快速有效地筛选出疾病相关标志物。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN345651106">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>一种慢性淋巴细胞白血病SSCR风险模型及其建立方法和应用</strong> - 本发明提供一种慢性淋巴细胞白血病SSCR风险模型及其建立方法和应用，属于疾病预后和分子生物学技术领域。本发明采用高通量测序的慢性淋巴细胞白血病(CLL)表达谱，进一步证实CLL的异质性，验证基于CLL细胞分化的CLL患者分类，预测患者预后。本发明将CLL细胞按分化状态分为两组，并对CLL细胞分化相关基因进行鉴定。最后，选择4个最具预后意义的CLL细胞分化相关基因，建立基于CLL细胞分化相关基因的SSCR风险评分模型，经验证该风险评分模型对CLL患者总生存期及首次治疗时间预测具有良好的可靠性。该评分系统可以帮助医生根据CLL细胞分化状况预测患者的预后，选择最佳的治疗方案，具有良好的实际应用价值。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN345651062">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>一种流感新冠联合疫苗及其制备方法</strong> - 本发明公开了一种流感新冠联合疫苗，包括以下质量浓度的原料：含RBD‑Fc融合蛋白的重组新冠疫苗1‑100μg/mL；含H1N1型流感病毒的流感亚单位疫苗1‑50μg/mL；含H3N2型流感病毒的流感亚单位疫苗1‑50μg/mL；含B型流感病毒的流感亚单位疫苗1‑50μg/mL；氢氧化铝溶液，其中铝离子在流感新冠联合疫苗中的终浓度为0.5‑2.0mg/mL；余量为PBS磷酸缓冲液。制备方法：称取各原料；将四种疫苗分别用PBS磷酸缓冲液稀释后与氢氧化铝溶液混合；按照等体积比例混合，即得。本发明为含铝佐剂的新型冠状病毒疫苗和含铝佐剂的流感亚单位疫苗的联合疫苗，联合后，两种抗原组分疫苗之间没有相互抑制，能很好兼容。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN345598579">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>REAL-TIME REST BREAK MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR WORKPLACE</strong> - The present invention relates to a real-time rest break management system for workplace that comprises of a work desk, wherein first portion is incorporated with a biometric unit 4 for authenticating first user, and a second portion with a telescopic panel 2 associated with a weight sensor 6 and timer unit 7 calculating weight of head/hand manifesting user presence and their resting time period is mounted with an inflated cushion 5, an interactive primary display unit 1 attached over desk enables user to set first/second threshold time for sleeping/taking break, further linked with a tracking interface keeping track of activities and a vibrating unit crafted inside the cushion 5 which is linked to a secondary display unit 8 of second user, giving them access to actuate vibrating unit generating impulses to wake first user when threshold time period is exceeded by the first user. - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=IN342791215">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>一种瑞德西韦的合成方法</strong> - 本发明涉及一种瑞德西韦的合成方法，包括以下步骤：将(2R,3R,4S,5R)‑2‑(4‑氨基吡咯[2,1‑f][1,2,4]三嗪‑7‑基)‑3,4‑二羟基‑5‑(羟甲基)四氢呋喃‑2‑碳腈、2,2‑二甲氧基丙烷和第一酸催化剂加入第一溶剂中，搅拌，经2,2‑二甲氧基丙烷保护邻二羟基合成中间体4，反应完毕后调碱降温；将无水氯化镁和中间体7加入反应中，通氮气流保护，搅拌均匀后滴加碱催化剂，升温搅拌，合成中间体5，反应完毕后进行提取分液；向反应中滴加第二酸催化剂，搅拌，经过后处理得到瑞德西韦粗品。本发明的三步反应均以第一溶剂为介质进行反应，仅在三步反应完成后进行后处理浓缩溶剂，减少浓缩溶剂的次数，降低工业成本。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN345598362">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>一种基于宏基因组学的病原微生物检测方法及装置</strong> - 本发明公开了一种基于宏基因组学的病原微生物检测方法及装置，包括：获取待检测样本的宏基因组测序数据；对宏基因组测序数据进行预处理，得到目标数据；对目标数据进行筛选，得到目标序列；对目标序列进行聚类分析，获得待测样本的候选物种类别；将目标数据与非冗余参考基因集进行比对，并计算每个基因在单个样本中的丰度，得到待测样本的目标物种分类信息；将目标数据与病原微生物可检测数据库中的信息进行比对，获得待测样本的耐药基因和毒性元件信息；将目标物种分类信息、耐药基因和毒性元件信息，确定为待检测样本的检测结果。本发明提升了病原微生物检测适用性范围和病原检测准确性。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN345598129">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>CONJUNTO DE ESCOBILLA Y ESCOBILLERO CON AUTOLIMPIEZA</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=ES342833480">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>The January 6th Criminal Case Against Donald Trump</strong> - It’s too early to say what investigators will find, but whether to prosecute the former President is becoming the defining issue of Attorney General Merrick Garland’s tenure. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-january-6th-criminal-case-against-donald-trump">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Is a Civil War Ahead?</strong> - A year after the attack on the Capitol, America is suspended between democracy and autocracy. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/is-a-civil-war-ahead">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Russian Memory Project That Became an Enemy of the State</strong> - Two courts have ordered the shutdown of Memorial, a human-rights organization that documents the history of Soviet state terror. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-russian-memory-project-that-became-an-enemy-of-the-state">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Wild, Wonderful World of Estate Sales</strong> - The estate-sale industry is fragile and persistent in a way that doesn’t square with the story of the world as we have come to expect it. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/on-and-off-the-avenue/the-wild-wonderful-world-of-estate-sales">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Biden, Back Into the Breach</strong> - A year after the January 6th insurrection at the Capitol, the President delivered the speech that he never wanted to give. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/joe-biden-back-into-the-breach">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>The Supreme Court could hand down another major attack on Roe v. Wade any day now</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Protesters hold signs that read “Vote pro-choice,” “Abortion is healthcare,” and “In the U.S.,
women’s bodies are under attack.”" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/QByfq1aqbm-
pXbOXtUn4pQjm1rU=/222x0:3778x2667/1310x983/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70358580/GettyImages_1356661439.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Protesters hold signs in front of the US Supreme Court during the “Hold The Line For Abortion Justice” Women’s March on December 1, 2021 . | Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for Women’s March Inc
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Brnovich v. Isaacson could trigger a flood of decisions reinstating long-dead anti-abortion laws.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SWw9xQ">
By all outward signs, <em>Roe v. Wade</em> is on its deathbed. In December, the Supreme Court effectively insulated a Texas law that <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/12/10/22827899/supreme-court-texas-abortion-law-sb8-decision-whole-womens-health">bans abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy</a> from judicial review. Then, at oral arguments in <em>Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization</em>, a majority of the justices appeared eager to drastically roll back abortion rights — and perhaps even to <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/12/1/22811837/supreme-court-roe-wade-abortion-doomed-jackson-
womens-health-dobbs-barrett-kavanaugh-roberts">overrule <em>Roe</em> explicitly</a>. A decision in <em>Dobbs</em> is expected by late June.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kKmB7z">
That leaves the right to an abortion in limbo. Technically, decisions like <em>Roe</em> and <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/505/833"><em>Planned Parenthood v. Casey</em></a> (1992), which weakened <em>Roe</em> somewhat but retained core protections for abortion, remain good law. And many state anti-abortion laws are currently blocked by court orders that rely on <em>Roe</em> and <em>Casey</em>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="m2OwET">
But those court orders are unlikely to survive the year and could very well all be lifted this summer, in the likely event that <em>Dobbs</em> overrules or guts <em>Roe</em> and <em>Casey</em>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RedkhF">
Arizona’s Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich, however, apparently doesn’t have the patience to let this process play out. In early December, Brnovich asked the Court to immediately reinstate an enjoined state law restricting certain abortions. That law would prohibit abortion providers from performing an abortion if the provider knows that “<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/21/21A222/204777/20211210193909281_Isaacson%20v%20Brnovich%20SCOTUS%20Application%20for%20Stay%20FINAL.pdf">the abortion is sought solely because of a genetic abnormality of the child</a>” — although it does include an exception if the fetus has a condition that will prove fatal within three months of birth.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="R9fUUj">
The case is <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/brnovich-v-isaacson/"><em>Brnovich v. Isaacson</em></a>, and it remains pending before the justices.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0Jh4ZR">
Though one conservative appeals court did <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=1841078544914894876&amp;hl=en&amp;as_sdt=6&amp;as_vis=1&amp;oi=scholarr">uphold a similar Ohio law</a>, most courts to consider laws banning abortions if the state disagrees with the reason for the abortion have been <a href="https://www.leagle.com/decision/infco20180419126">blocked by</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=8576731037781934340&amp;hl=en&amp;as_sdt=6&amp;as_vis=1&amp;oi=scholarr">lower courts</a>, and there is a very strong argument that these laws violate <em> Casey. </em>A Supreme Court decision reinstating the Arizona law, in other words, would be another loud signal from the justices that <em>Casey</em> is in its final days.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vgeB9O">
Just as significantly, if Brnovich succeeds in his bid to reinstate Arizona’s law, he’s likely to open the floodgates to other Republican officials who wish to reinstate other anti-abortion laws.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9gUBLR">
A decision reinstating the Arizona law would be an announcement that the Supreme Court is open to similar requests to lift existing court orders protecting the right to an abortion. And it would send a clear signal to anti- abortion judges in the lower courts that they are free to start lifting such court orders as well.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="m1YmEb">
According to the Guttmacher Institute, state lawmakers <a href="https://www.guttmacher.org/article/2021/12/state-policy-trends-2021-worst-year-abortion-rights-almost-half-
century?gclid=Cj0KCQiAoNWOBhCwARIsAAiHnEiChyC962sd3cT2heG0iE-Oj9yRHRlsjg95LJ4_dDo3ewmlQneoKw4aAoKmEALw_wcB">enacted 108 abortion restrictions in 2021</a> alone. Eight states still <a href="https://www.guttmacher.org/state-
policy/explore/abortion-policy-absence-roe">retain abortion bans</a> from before 1973, when <em>Roe </em>was handed down, and several others have laws on the books that <a href="https://www.guttmacher.org/state-policy">effectively ban all or most abortions</a>. So, if the courts start allowing these sorts of laws to take effect, the impact on abortion rights could be swift and profound.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="K7f64j">
Given that a decision in <em>Dobbs</em> is at most months away, the long-term impact of an anti-abortion ruling in <em>Isaacson</em> is likely to be minimal. Once <em>Roe</em> is overruled or gutted completely, the process of unwinding court orders blocking anti-abortion laws will happen anyway. But, at the very least, the <em>Isaacson</em> case could have a profound impact on anyone seeking an abortion in the first half of 2022.
</p>
<h3 id="vjIhYB">
Arizona’s law is unconstitutional under <em>Casey</em>
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nlwZfm">
There are several very strong arguments that the Arizona law is unconstitutional under existing precedents.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2eMEST">
First of all, <em>Casey</em> held that “a State may not prohibit any woman from making the ultimate decision to terminate her pregnancy before viability,” where “viability” refers to the moment when a fetus is capable of living outside the womb.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="saK3qx">
As the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit noted in an opinion striking down an Indiana law that is similar to Arizona’s, “<em>Casey</em>’s holding that a woman has the right to terminate her pregnancy prior to viability is <a href="https://www.leagle.com/decision/infco20180419126">categorical</a>.” <em>Casey</em> says that the state may not prohibit “any woman” from terminating a pregnancy prior to viability. That includes people who wish to terminate their pregnancy for reasons that the state disapproves of.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nOrekc">
For what it’s worth, the Sixth Circuit, which is the only circuit to uphold an Arizona-style law, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=1841078544914894876&amp;hl=en&amp;as_sdt=6&amp;as_vis=1&amp;oi=scholarr">rejected the Seventh Circuit’s reasoning</a> on the theory that these kinds of laws do not actually prohibit anyone from getting an abortion. Recall that Arizona’s law only prohibits providers from performing an abortion if they <em>know</em> that their patient is doing so for an impermissible reason. The Sixth Circuit claimed that this requirement that a doctor know their patient’s motive places such laws outside of <em>Casey’</em>s categorical rule because a patient could still obtain an abortion from a doctor who is ignorant of the patient’s motives.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OemWRf">
But even if a judge accepts such sophistry, Arizona’s law runs into a second problem. <em>Casey</em> doesn’t just prohibit pre-viability abortion bans, it also prohibits any abortion law that “has the purpose or effect of placing a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion of a nonviable fetus.” It’s hard to imagine a legitimate purpose — that is, a purpose other than placing obstacles in front of people seeking abortions — to a law that permits abortions, but only if the doctor doesn’t know too much about their patient.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dSlzx0">
The district court that struck down Arizona’s law also gave a third reason why it is unconstitutional. As the Supreme Court held in <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/18pdf/18-431_7758.pdf"><em>United States v. Davis</em></a> (2019), excessively vague laws may be struck down if they fail to “give ordinary people fair warning about what the law demands of them.” And the district court pointed to several provisions of the Arizona law which, it concluded, do not clear this bar. For example, the law “does not offer workable guidance about which fetal conditions” qualify as a “genetic abnormality.”
</p>
<h3 id="anU2LZ">
A decision reinstating the Arizona law would embolden opponents of abortion
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eERbNP">
In any event, the fact that the Sixth Circuit disagrees with several of its fellow circuits about whether Arizona-style laws are constitutional is a good reason for the Supreme Court to hear the <em>Isaacson </em>case eventually. The justices often hear cases where <a href="https://www.vox.com/2014/11/7/7174437/obamacare-supreme-court-
king-two-things-you-need-to-know">two or more federal appeals courts have reached different answers</a> to the same legal question, as the whole purpose of having a single Supreme Court at the apex of the judiciary is to ensure that federal law is uniform throughout the country.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mIBUlp">
But <em>Isaacson</em> arrives at the Supreme Court on the Court’s “<a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/8/11/21356913/supreme-court-shadow-docket-jail-asylum-covid-immigrants-
sonia-sotomayor-barnes-ahlman">shadow docket</a>,” a mix of emergency motions and other matters that are typically decided on a short timeframe and without full briefing or oral argument. Arizona’s attorney general, in other words, hopes to bypass the ordinary process for seeking review of a lower court decision — a process that typically takes months or longer — and obtain a Supreme Court decision reinstating Arizona’s law as soon as possible.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QTcIk4">
If Brnovich can step outside the Court’s normal procedures to obtain such an order, other Republican officials will think they can do so as well. And many lower court judges will likely view such an order as a sign that they should start reinstating anti-abortion laws that were previously struck down.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="te19if">
Thus, in practice, the <em>Isaacson</em> decision could wind up accelerating the demise of <em>Roe,</em> triggering a wave of decisions gutting abortion rights months before <em>Dobbs</em> is handed down.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="716zNa">
Indeed, there is a precedent, of sorts, for the Supreme Court gradually rolling out a major change in its understanding of the Constitution rather than implementing that change abruptly with one definitive decision.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Q1nLbn">
In the lead-up to <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/14pdf/14-556_3204.pdf"><em>Obergefell v. Hodges</em></a> (2015), the Court’s landmark marriage equality decision, multiple lower courts handed down decisions holding that states could not deny marriage rights to same-sex couples. Rather than block these decisions while the Court pondered whether to make marriage equality the law in all 50 states, the Court <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/14pdf/14a840_gol1.pdf">allowed these lower court decisions to take effect</a>. The upshot was that, by the time <em>Obergefell</em> was handed down, marriage equality had already come to much of the country due to these unblocked lower court orders.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dythgv">
There are obvious differences between <em>Obergefell</em> and <em>Dobbs</em> — the former was an expansion of individual rights, while <em>Dobbs </em>is likely to end in a significant contraction of such rights — but the lead-up to <em>Obergefell</em> shows that the Court will sometimes implement a new constitutional rule on a piecemeal basis before implementing it nationwide. That process may already be underway as the Court drafts its <em>Dobbs</em> decision.
</p></li>
<li><strong>The rehabilitation of Trump national security officials says a lot about Washington</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/g3WyDDh3DMAQigACgtwSQrgzKb0=/333x0:3000x2000/1310x983/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70358536/GettyImages_682868520.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Matt Pottinger, special assistant to then-President Donald Trump and National Security Council senior director for East Asia, in Beijing, China, in 2017. | Mark Schiefelbein/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
How to make Beltway friends and influence policy.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eatxs4">
Matt Pottinger served four years on<strong> </strong>President Donald Trump’s National Security Council, including 15 months<strong> </strong>as deputy adviser, and then resigned mid-insurrection. “The events of that day, January 6, were for me a red line. Decided that it was time to go, and I resigned that afternoon,” he said <a href="https://soundcloud.com/lowyinstitute/the-directors-chair-matt-pottinger-on-his-career-working-for-
president-trump-china-and-covid">six months later</a>. But he hasn’t said much about it since then.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6ZyFLS">
Maybe it’s because he’s been busy, as a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank affiliated with Stanford University. He’s also chair of the China program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and a business consultant at the firm Ergo. Pottinger is most closely associated with <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/01/23/959683134/what-trumps-declassified-asia-strategy-may-mean-for-u-s-china-relations-
under-bi">Trump’s hardline China policy</a>, an approach that Republicans and Democrats have come to broadly support.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hNcc4D">
Many observers initially predicted that working for Trump would turn into a scarlet letter. But service in the Trump White House in the lead-up to the “Stop the Steal” violence hasn’t necessarily been an obstacle for rejoining Washington’s establishment.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TLDpLn">
Top-level personnel, like adviser <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/05/trump-world-where-are-they-now.html">Stephen Miller</a> and Secretary of State <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/04/07/former-trump-cabinet-officials-corporate-
seats/">Mike Pompeo</a>, haven’t been rehabilitated, and former acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller has stayed under the radar since he <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/05/12/trumps-defense-secretary-suddenly-
backs-off-blaming-him-capitol-riot/">testified</a> on the Capitol riot. But <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-21/ex-cia-director-to-advise-super-wealthy-on-risks-for-law-
firm">senior officials</a> and <a href="https://www.hudson.org/experts/1379-ezra-cohen">staffers</a> a <a href="https://prospect.org/power/private-equity-firm-profited-khashoggi-killing-saudi/">few</a> <a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/our-people/stephen-e-biegun/">rungs</a> below — and <a href="http://www.thinktankwatch.com/2021/09/backlash-fiece-as-carnegie-hosts-trump.html">former Trump</a> officials who questioned the election results — have <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-white-house-administration-maga-
alumni-network-database-2021-7">done fine</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HcZhBI">
This isn’t a phenomenon unique to the Trump administration. Whether it’s George W. Bush and his Iraq War or Barack Obama’s Afghanistan surge,<strong> </strong>foreign policy officials have time and time again been able<strong> </strong>to transcend their president and return to positions of power. That<strong> </strong>speaks to the unique mores of Washington, where subject matter expertise is the entry key to the elite club. Members of the foreign policy establishment protect their own — as long as they stay within the bounds of the mainstream policy ideas of the moment. This same principle protected many of the technocrats and appointees who supported the 2003 Iraq War. Their success in <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/11/bush-iraq-hawks-trump-097502">reestablishing themselves</a> as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/23/politics/trump-bush-iraq-war-john-bolton/index.html">trusted</a> <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/1/7/21051868/iraq-war-fleischer-rove-bush-administration-iran-trump">experts</a> has paved the way for other acts that have been forgiven.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hXBCk1">
Trump’s foreign policy was divergent from the Washington norm: He visited Saudi Arabia as his first overseas visit, valued personal diplomacy over longstanding protocol with dictators like Kim Jong Un, and wanted to ditch NATO entirely, among many other erratic moves. But Trump’s undemocratic actions at home were even more divergent.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XT2FwA">
Critics have said that<strong> </strong>anyone who stood by Trump’s side — in any capacity — should have to answer for the former president’s anti- democratic behavior. Pottinger, for example, never publicly pushed election denialism.<strong> </strong>But critics say that’s insufficient for a national security staffer, when the US’s foreign policy is (at least purportedly) based on advancing democracy around the world.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9Mjbhr">
“You can have the most well-crafted China policy in the world, but if Donald Trump prevails in his efforts to dismantle US democracy, what is the point? What are we defending?” said Ben Rhodes, who served as Obama’s deputy national security adviser. “That runs so counter to everything that the American national security establishment is supposed to claim to represent, and it kind of makes a mockery of it.”
</p></li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kv79xK">
But that subject matter expertise — plus the patina afforded by resigning on January 6 — has helped Pottinger, a former journalist, expertly navigate the post-Trump landscape. He even emerged as the White House hero of the initial Covid-19 chaos in New Yorker writer Lawrence Wright’s chronicle of “<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/01/04/the-plague-year">The Plague Year</a>.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mOVyvX">
Pottinger declined an interview request from Vox, and his attorney Mary Boies responded on his behalf. “Matt led the way resigning promptly on January 6 and that action makes spoken denunciation unnecessary and certainly not disqualifying from public service. With Matt’s counsel, the U.S. reversed decades of failed policy toward China, and the new policy has continued under the Biden Administration,” Boies wrote. “This country needs the kind of sound policy that Matt helped craft, not aggressive rhetoric that only further divides the nation.”<strong> </strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Im2tT0">
Yet a lot of that aggressive rhetoric has come from the president whom he served. And the siege of the Capitol was a red line for Pottinger, but apparently not<strong> </strong>Trump’s previous questioning of the integrity of the election that gave rise to the attempt to overturn it, or any <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/11/12/20954985/impeachment-trump-quid-pro-
quo">number</a> of <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/4/26/18517980/trump-unite-the-right-racism-defense-
charlottesville">other</a> <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/6/11/22527796/ig-report-trump-bible-lafayette-square-
protest">incidents</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="97esjz">
But look at what that red line bought Pottinger. The act of resigning set him apart from his boss, National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien, who stayed on through the handoff to President Joe Biden two weeks later. In that role early last January, O’Brien was mostly worried about antifa counterprotesters to the insurrectionists rather than the pro-Trump insurrection itself, according to the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2021/warnings-jan-6-insurrection/">Washington Post</a>. O’Brien hasn’t emerged with the same prestige. He’s been working as a <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/signature-
resolution_dario-higuchi-dj-5-17-21pdf-activity-6803044413091258368-ozF-">mediator</a> for a Los Angeles law firm, an atypical role for a former security chief. He recently started a consulting firm with other officials<strong> </strong>from the Trump White House since many of them had difficulty securing coveted jobs, according to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-12/trump-national-security-adviser-o-brien-starts-consulting-
firm">Bloomberg</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="c3FgPQ">
Yet after a full term alongside Trump, things are going well for Pottinger. This summer, he was the only former Trump White House staffer on the schedule of the eminent Aspen Security Forum. He hopped off early from a panel to serve as an expert witness at the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. This year, Pottinger has appeared twice on CBS’s <em>60 Minutes</em> to talk about the <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-19-wuhan-origins-60-minutes-2021-03-28/">Wuhan lab leak theory</a> of Covid-19’s origins, which he has advanced, and <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/xi-jinping-china-
capitalism-60-minutes-2021-12-05/">China’s aggressive economic policies</a>. Neither time was he asked about Trump.
</p>
<h3 id="MtmrMn">
Experts get a pass
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yPIADN">
One reason that Matt Pottinger was welcomed back into the establishment is that, unlike some of Trump’s unconventional appointees, he had already been a part of the elite.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Lj0UEw">
Pottinger has become the go-to expert on China’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/04/world/asia/matthew-pottinger-trump-china.html">economic</a> and <a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/05/30/donald-trump-matthew-pottinger-asia-218551/">security</a> outlook. He speaks fluent Mandarin, and as China correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, he broke news on companies and took risks to cover politically complex stories about the Communist Party. He changed careers to become a Marine in Iraq and Afghanistan, and then worked at one of the world’s largest hedge funds. Other Trump national security appointees with strong credentials before the administration — like onetime National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster or national security staffers Dina H. Powell McCormick and Nadia Schadlow — have <a href="https://prospect.org/power/mcmaster-lucrative-afterlife-of-a-trump-official/">landed similarly well</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uwQnHU">
Policy officials have often found ways to transcend party politics, even as they work for partisan leaders. In previous administrations, “there is a lot of respect on both parties for the other sides’ experts even when they vehemently disagree. Policy disagreements are normal and helpful,” said Elizabeth Saunders, a professor at Georgetown University who focuses on the presidency and foreign policy.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vuMwwj">
In some ways, this is a practical consideration.<strong> </strong>“Someone’s got to keep the lights on. Someone’s got to run China policy no matter how much you think the president’s good, bad, antidemocratic,” explains Saunders.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AOmXWH">
A concern raised by scholars of US foreign policy is the thin bench of potential staffers for a future Republican administration. If the Democrats were to lose in 2024, it will have been over a decade since a mainstream GOP candidate took the executive branch, and there are thousands of jobs that would need to be filled.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uDfnFf">
This pursuit of Republican foreign policy thinkers — to serve on public panels, testify to Congress, or author articles for prestigious journals like <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/asia/2021-08-23/beijings-american-hustle">Foreign Affairs</a> — has made it appealing to hear from people like Pottinger or McMaster, who do have recent high-level government experience.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/Zsy9jbQy8cHQnM7YiaxrPToEUPc=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23148086/GettyImages_872381484.jpg"/> <cite>AFP via Getty Images</cite></p>
<figcaption>
President Donald Trump stands with National Security Council official Matt Pottinger and White House chief of staff John Kelly at an economic summit in Vietnam, in 2017.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="C8YrvV">
But that deference extends mainly to policy staffers and experts who hew to Washington’s established worldview.<strong> </strong>It is worth emphasizing the Biden administration’s <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/biden-
carries-trump-s-hard-line-toward-beijing-coming-summits-n1282229">continuity with Trump</a> in implementing many of the hawkish China policies of tariffs, sanctions, and strategic competition put forward by Pottinger. “There is a very narrow range of acceptable opinion, and if you’re within it you can weather a lot. Both Pottinger and O’Brien in many respects are inside the Beltway consensus on the big issues of the day,” said Michael Desch, a political scientist at the University of Notre Dame.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="K7IxOJ">
It’s part of the unwritten rules of the elite club of Washington. “If you criticize NATO enlargement or Israel or some of the more foundational cornerstones of post-Cold War American foreign policy, you are more likely to be cast aside than if you worked for years for Donald Trump. And that’s just crazy,” Rhodes said.
</p>
<h3 id="IA2ENE">
Lack of accountability is self-perpetuating
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NhsWCP">
There certainly are former Trump advisers who haven’t been welcomed back, like the short-lived National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/01/us/politics/michael-flynn-guilty-russia-investigation.html">pleaded</a> guilty to lying to the FBI and has <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/longtime-trump-advisers-connected-groups-rally-
led-capitol/story?id=75261028">encouraged</a> challenges to the 2020 election’s integrity. <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/9/4/17817782/steve-bannon-new-yorker-festival-david-remnick">Steve Bannon</a> isn’t speaking at any centrist think tanks or universities anytime soon. But their cases are exceptions that prove the rule. “For me, the real story is the ability of inside-the-Beltway people to escape accountability for dumb things they did when in office, and I think it’s broader than just the Trump administration,” Desch said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xGAKUz">
Many attribute the <a href="https://prospect.org/power/mcmaster-lucrative-afterlife-of-a-trump-
official/">reentry of some Trump officials</a> to Washington to a broader lack of reckoning for the enablers of the Iraq War. It’s well established at this point that President George W. Bush’s primary rationale for invading Iraq, Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/7/9/12123022/george-w-bush-lies-iraq-war">was an outright lie</a>. “The Bush administration had to work assiduously and I think at times dishonestly to make the case for war, and observing after the fact, I can’t point to anyone who was sanctioned for supporting the war,” said Christopher Preble of the Atlantic Council, a global affairs think tank in Washington.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="szn1a5">
Secretary of Defense <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-rumsfeld-killer-of-400000-people-dies-peacefully">Donald Rumsfeld</a>, who planned the war, and Secretary of State <a href="https://prospect.org/politics/invisible-general-how-
colin-powell-conned-america/">Colin Powell</a>, who advocated for it at the United Nations, both maintained platforms before their deaths this year, as have their acolytes. Consider <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/157885/david-
frums-hold-center-trumpocalypse-book-review">David Frum</a>, the speechwriter who coined the “<a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/11/5/9675942/bush-axis-evil-speech">Axis of Evil</a>” tagline that helped sell the war, who has rebranded himself as a popular columnist for the Atlantic.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hegB8f">
And powerful Democrats (Joe Biden, John Kerry, Hillary Clinton) voted for the war. It’s not just that there were never trials or prosecutions for the Bush officials, or tough questions to their <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/sean-hannity/iraq-war-cheerleaders-who-
are-still-around-15-years-later">cheerleaders in academic</a>, <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/society/press-
cheerleaders-afgan-war/">media</a>, and <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/112673/iraq-war-10-year-anniversary-
what-it-was-oppose-it-2003">think tank circles</a>; support for the Iraq debacle has never really been an impediment to career advancement. Quite the opposite: <a href="https://sadat.umd.edu/sites/sadat.umd.edu/files/iraq_war_ad_2002_2.pdf">None of the 33 scholars</a> who signed onto an anti-Iraq War ad in the New York Times two decades ago have ascended to government roles, notes scholar Stephen Walt in <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374280031/thehellofgoodintentions"><em>The Hell of Good Intentions</em></a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HdwuoV">
It’s rare that those who perpetuated foreign policy disasters are even asked about them; one of the few times a journalist did pose such a question produced a revealing sound bite.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="phvOeW">
Broadcast journalist Mehdi Hasan asked John Bolton, the senior Bush diplomat who went on to be Trump’s national security adviser from 2018 to 2019, whether he regretted advocating for the Iraq War, especially in light of the hundreds of thousands of civilians who died. “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G78OFZ2MDkM&amp;t=1s">Bolton said</a>, and called the war a “brilliant military victory by the United States and other coalition forces.”
</p>
<div id="nhsf1n">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
Me: “All those innocent Iraqi civilians. All the men and women, children killed by U.S. airstrikes. Some in massacres…None of those weigh on your conscience? None of those keep you up at night?”<br/><br/>John Bolton: “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”<a href="https://t.co/nSMmZGg1cJ">pic.twitter.com/nSMmZGg1cJ</a>
</p>
— Mehdi Hasan (<span class="citation" data-cites="mehdirhasan">@mehdirhasan</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/mehdirhasan/status/1316532129384271873?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 15, 2020</a>
</blockquote>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kcKybR">
The persistent failures of US foreign policy since the Cold War, and the lack of accountability for those failures, helped give<strong> </strong>rise to Trump, argues Walt. He writes that “perhaps the greatest barrier to genuine accountability is the self-interest of the foreign policy establishment itself. Its members are reluctant to judge one another harshly and are ready to forgive mistakes lest they be judged themselves.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AHk2Ge">
Other experts have a more generous interpretation of how Washington slouched toward Baghdad. Kori Schake, a former Bush official now at the American Enterprise Institute, told me that policymakers are implementing decisions based on imperfect information and short timelines. “If you are going to have in government people who have never made an inaccurate judgment on foreign and defense policy, you are going to have almost no one who meets this standard,” she said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="D1owSF">
There may be other analogues for the current moment. Few of the Ronald Reagan officials associated with the Iran-Contra arms scandal were rehabilitated. Robert McNamara, the former defense secretary during seven of the most devastating years of the Vietnam War, repudiated his views and still was never really welcomed back into the establishment. “At the end of the day, it comes down to questions of integrity,” Schake said. “Do you judge that these are people of good faith trying to do the right thing? Or do you think they’re a danger and need to be cordoned off from potential future roles?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MVwLJG">
As Pottinger <a href="https://soundcloud.com/lowyinstitute/the-directors-chair-matt-pottinger-on-his-career-working-for-president-trump-
china-and-covid">said</a> last summer, “I’m proud of a lot of things that the administration did, and I think I’ll look back on those years as ones that I’m proud of.”
</p>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How to use rapid tests in the omicron era</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/yFsVVDR4n6hsDDEiiRywhd1jnNQ=/156x0:7189x5275/1310x983/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70358511/GettyImages_1237458822.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Aaron Salvador swabs his nose with a Covid-19 rapid antigen test kit outside the Watha T. Daniel-Shaw Neighborhood Library in Washington, DC, where tests were distributed to residents, on December 29. | Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Rapid tests work with omicron, but there are caveats.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zg6arA">
</p></li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jEI1FS">
Should we be swabbing our noses or our throats for at-home tests? Do rapid tests even detect omicron at all? Are PCR tests the only results we can trust right now?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="frvQDj">
Guidance about how to approach testing in the omicron era seems to be evolving by the day. ​​A recent real-world study that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/05/health/covid-rapid-test-omicron-detection.html">followed 30 subjects</a> likely exposed to omicron found that PCR saliva tests can catch Covid-19 cases three days before rapid antigen tests, which use nasal swabs. These findings, which have not been peer reviewed, seem to confirm after the Food and Drug Administration’s announcement in late December that, while they do detect omicron, rapid antigen tests may now have “<a href="https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/coronavirus-covid-19-and-medical-devices/sars-cov-2-viral-mutations-impact-
covid-19-tests">reduced sensitivity</a>.” But that doesn’t mean rapid tests don’t play a key role in our pandemic response going forward.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vhtFlT">
This is all confusing to a public that’s been pulled in several directions over the course of the pandemic when it comes to guidance and testing. Long delays for PCR test results, <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2021/12/21/22848286/omicron-rapid-test-covid-19-antigen">a shortage of at-home rapid tests</a>, and the wait for more definitive science about the omicron variant have all made it more difficult to figure out <a href="https://www.vox.com/22814390/omicron-covid-19-vaccine-rapid-test-antigen-pcr-vaccine">when and how to to get tested</a>. Nevertheless, public health experts say that, as more become available, rapid tests will be an increasingly vital tool for diagnosing Covid-19 and reducing its spread.
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<aside id="xrYb2r">
<q>“We don’t want the perfect to be the enemy of the good”</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="n3HDMW">
So you might be wondering: What’s the point if rapid tests aren’t as accurate as PCR tests? Well, rapid antigen tests, which look for a <a href="https://www.vox.com/ad/22634843/rapid-antigen-test-home-testing-covid-quickvue">specific protein on the Covid-19 virus</a>, remain extremely effective at confirming positive cases. Put simply, if you test positive on a rapid test, you almost certainly have Covid-19. If you test negative, in some cases, you might still test positive on a PCR test, which is much more sensitive because it tests for genetic evidence of the virus. Rapid tests may not pick up positive cases in people who have been vaccinated or who have recently recovered from Covid-19, since they may produce less virus, one expert told Recode.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pbOFIS">
Rapid tests can also reveal a positive case faster than the labs that process PCR tests, since they can take several days to share results with patients, especially during big waves of infection. Perhaps more importantly, rapid tests can indicate whether someone is contagious enough to spread the virus to others, which is what many people are most worried about.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KwWmhH">
“Given that a rapid antigen test is often the most feasible or available option for many, we don’t want the perfect to be the enemy of the good,” Joshua Michaud, the associate director for global health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, told Recode. He explained that every Covid-19 case that’s caught by someone who could take a rapid antigen test but not a PCR test is a win for public health.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UhylfQ">
Taking rapid tests more frequently also makes them more effective. Most at-home rapid test kits are designed to be conducted over the course of two days, which is why kits typically include two tests. Because each test is a snapshot of the moment it’s taken, multiple tests help reduce the chance of receiving a false negative.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZEsh3G">
Of course, all of this is assuming that you can get your hands on a rapid test. In the weeks since omicron started to spread, rapid tests have been incredibly hard to find in some parts of the country. These tests are out of stock because neither test manufacturers nor the Biden administration anticipated record levels of Covid-19 cases, which have boosted the demand for rapid tests. To confront the shortage, the White House now plans to buy and distribute 500 million free rapid tests in the coming weeks. When that happens, these tests could help catch more positive cases and lower the number of people infected with Covid-19.
</p>
<h3 id="M7SNpV">
How accurate are rapid tests when it comes to omicron?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4Dj4so">
The accuracy of a rapid test depends on how often you’re testing yourself and whether you want to identify a Covid-19 infection or measure your contagiousness. But if you test positive on a rapid test, you should trust the result, assume you’re infectious, and isolate for <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/quarantine-isolation.html">at least five days</a>. If you test positive again after five days, the CDC recommends isolating for five more.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ItOlc2">
Rapid tests, however, are not perfect. Research indicates that antigen tests are less accurate than <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22340744/covid-19-coronavirus-testing-vaccines-rapid-home-antigen">PCR tests</a> — this has been the case since the beginning of the pandemic. PCR tests are processed in a lab, where sophisticated equipment can identify and amplify even the tiniest genetic evidence of the virus that causes Covid-19. These tests are so precise that patients can actually test positive for weeks after they’ve recovered and <a href="https://www.utsouthwestern.edu/covid-19/clinicians/recovered-patients.html">are no longer contagious</a>. The results of rapid tests, meanwhile, can vary based on how much virus is in a patient’s nose at the time the sample is taken and how far along they are in their infection.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UzKSrq">
Scientists explain the difference between rapid tests and PCR tests in two ways: <a href="https://www.fda.gov/media/143737/download">specificity</a>, which reflects a test’s false-positive rate, and sensitivity, which reflects a test’s false-negative rate. Both PCR and rapid tests have high specificity, which means that their positive results are very trustworthy. But while PCR tests tend to have near- perfect sensitivity, rapid antigen tests tend to have a sensitivity around 80 to 90 percent. This means that rapid tests tend to produce more false negatives than PCR tests do.
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<aside id="KKP2VP">
<q>“Most at- home tests are still able to detect infection by omicron because they target a part of the virus that doesn’t mutate that much”</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uXo1Od">
Omicron makes testing even trickier. The sensitivity of rapid tests may be even lower for omicron cases, according to early research from the FDA and other scientists. Another problem is that omicron may propagate <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/02/new-studies-reinforce-belief-that-omicron-
is-less-likely-to-damage-lungs">more in the throat than the lungs</a>, which means it could take longer for Covid-19 to show up in nasal samples, even if someone is symptomatic. It’s possible that vaccinated people and people who have recently recovered from Covid-19 are noticing more false positives on rapid tends because they tend to produce less virus overall.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="k1DGih">
“At-home tests are mostly effective when the person has high viral loads, a time when the person is more likely to transmit the virus,” Pablo Penaloza-MacMaster, a viral immunologist at Northwestern’s medical school, told Recode, “Most at-home tests are still able to detect infection by omicron because they target a part of the virus that doesn’t mutate that much.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iALbiS">
Separate studies from both <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1042688/RA_Technical_Briefing_32_DRAFT_17_December_2021_2021_12_17.pdf">the UK’s Health Security Agency</a> and <a href="https://journals.asm.org/doi/pdf/10.1128/jcm.02479-21">researchers in Australia</a> found that antigen tests are as sensitive to the omicron variant as they were to earlier strains of Covid-19. Again, the FDA does still recommend rapid tests to diagnose positive cases, and test manufacturers say they’re confident in their products’ ability to detect omicron. While early <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/05/health/covid-rapid-test-omicron-detection.html">research</a> indicates saliva tests might detect Covid-19 more quickly, right now most of the PCR tests and all of the available rapid at-home tests that have emergency use authorizations from the FDA use nasal samples.
</p>
<h3 id="GLHPod">
How to use rapid tests in less-than-ideal circumstances
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hKwK0I">
Which brings us back to the question of whether you should be sticking nasal swabs in your throat. There is evidence that saliva samples may be a quicker indicator of Covid-19 cases, but that doesn’t mean you should stop following the directions that come with your test kit. The FDA says that people should not use rapid antigen tests to swab their own mouths. Some experts say you might consider doing so anyway, and point out that other countries, including the UK, have approved rapid antigen tests that use throat swabs and<strong> </strong>released very careful directions about how to do so.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KfPnVJ">
“​​I personally do swab my throat and my nose to get the best sensitivity when I use over-the-counter tests at home,” Michael Mina, an epidemiologist at Harvard, said at a Thursday press conference. “There are risks associated with that, but the biology does tell us that they might be getting better sensitivity earlier.”
</p>
<div id="ucz6t4">
<div style="width: 100%; height: 0; padding-
bottom: 56.25%;">
</div>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZGnV2m">
But the concern with rapid test kits right now is not that people are swabbing their noses, but how often they’re swabbing their noses. A single test could miss a Covid-19 case and produce a false negative, but taking two tests over a 24 to 36 hour period reduces this risk. The more rapid tests you take, the more you reduce your chances of a false negative, and the more times you test negative over multiple days, the more confident you can be that you’re not spreading Covid-19.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Rr8RkK">
Still, the biggest problem right now is that rapid tests are <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2021/12/21/22848286/omicron-rapid-test-covid-19-antigen">pricey and hard to find</a>. Pharmacies have limited the number of test kits people can buy, and many are completely sold out. A single test can also cost more than $10, which means that testing yourself regularly gets expensive quickly. Opportunists have even hoarded tests and <a href="https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2021/consumer-alert-attorney-general-
james-asks-consumers-report-price-gouging-home">engaged in price gouging</a>, which has exacerbated the shortage.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BJdg7B">
If you don’t have enough tests to test yourself regularly, it’s best to test yourself right before seeing vulnerable people, says <a href="https://chs.asu.edu/mara-aspinall">Mara Aspinall</a>, a professor who leads Arizona State’s testing diagnostic commons and a board member for the test manufacturer Orasure, told Recode. “I’m heading to a vulnerable person [or] I’m going into a health care setting, and therefore need to test right beforehand.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="P06i5L">
For now, the best test kit is the test you can get (Wired has <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/best-
rapid-at-home-covid-19-test-kits/">a handy list</a> of the brands currently available). If you’re planning to go somewhere and don’t want to spread the virus, you should take one rapid test the day before traveling, and then a second test immediately before you go. If you only have one rapid test, take it right before you see people.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="o18nyX">
Testing yourself should become easier as more rapid tests become available. In addition to the 500 million free rapid tests that the White House will distribute <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2021/12/21/white-house-to-buy-
ship-500-million-rapid-tests-for-free-beginning-in-january/">beginning later this month</a>, people with private insurance will also be able to get their rapid test purchases reimbursed <a href="https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-
boroughs/news/2022/01/04/biden-rapid-covid-tests-to-be-covered-by-insurance-next-week">starting next week</a>. You should also check with your local health department, as they might be distributing free tests.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bZV0gY">
Even though the rapid test situation is still less than ideal, there are other strategies we can use to protect both ourselves and other people from Covid-19, like getting vaccinated, getting boosted, and wearing a mask. And if you do happen to find some rapid tests, go ahead and grab them. They might just come in handy, especially if you use them correctly.
</p>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>‘Bowled’ that was not to be: Tendulkar-Warne have fun discussion on Stokes’ lucky survival</strong> - Stokes did not offer a shot to a delivery from Cameron Green but the ball brushed the stump and yet didn’t dislodge the bail</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>Australia Border Force cancels Czech player Renata Voracova’s visa</strong> - Voracova had played in Melbourne earlier this week but has been asked to leave Australia after being detained by Border Force officials</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>Fourth Ashes Test | Jonny Bairstow century highlights ‘Pink’ day 3</strong> - At stumps, Bairstow was 103 not out and Jack Leach was on four, with England trailing Australia by 158 runs.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>COVID-19 third wave affects BCCI headquarters</strong> - Fifteen MCA staffers and at least three BCCI staff members have contracted 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>Slow over-rate will lead to a fielder less outside 30 yard circle: ICC changes T20I playing conditions</strong> - The first men’s match to be played under the new playing conditions will be the one-off tie between the West Indies and Ireland at the Sabina Park in Jamaica on January 16</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Special team formed to nab accused in Mudumalai elephant burning case</strong> - The incident happened in the buffer zone of the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve almost a year ago.</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>MUDA reclaims over 50 acres of encroached land in Mysuru in six months</strong> - The eviction of encroachments took place at Devanoor 3rd stage close to Narayana Multispecialty Hospital</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>Anbumani hails SC verdict on 27% OBC reservation</strong> - Terms it a milestone in the history of social justice</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>Farm loan waived in Namakkal and Salem districts</strong> - The Chief Minister has agreed to treat it as a special case: Periyasamy</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>Palaniswami criticises Stalin for not ordering the closure of Tasmac outlets</strong> - Panneerselvam questions the logic behind the government’s deadline for distribution of Pongal gift hampers</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>Kazakhstan unrest: Troops ordered to fire without warning</strong> - The president orders the crackdown on protests, saying “20,000 bandits” had attacked the main city.</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>In pictures: Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas</strong> - Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas from Moscow to Cairo.</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>Lithuania: The European state that dared to defy China then wobbled</strong> - It stood up to China over Taiwan, but this week Lithuania’s president said it made a mistake.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Italy Covid: Bullet forces immunologist to get protection</strong> - Prof Antonella Viola is given police protection after threats are made against her and her family.</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>Passengers from Italy escape quarantine in India</strong> - They were among 125 passengers who tested positive for Covid after arriving on a flight from Milan.</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>Rocket Report: SpaceX raises more cash, Buy your own New Glenn</strong> - “SpaceX … is currently drafting responses for the over 18,000 public comments.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1824110">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Study: 1960 ramjet design for interstellar travel—a sci-fi staple—is unfeasible</strong> - “It is very unlikely that even Kardashev civilizations of type II might build magnetic ramjets.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1821917">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Lawsuit: Facebook recommendations helped extremists meet and plan murder</strong> - Facebook sued by sister of federal security officer shot to death at protest. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1824337">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>GameStop stock takes off as plans for NFT marketplace come into focus</strong> - Two of 2021’s weirdest trends come together to start 2022. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1824353">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Omicron is not mild and is crushing health care systems worldwide, WHO warns</strong> - “Just like previous variants, omicron is hospitalizing people, and it is killing people.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1824343">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>My father once asked me if I knew the difference between heaven and hell…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“In heaven” he said, “the Italians make the food and the British run the government”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
He then paused and said, “In hell, the British make the food and the Italians run the government”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/scrum_lord_69"> /u/scrum_lord_69 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rxwtlq/my_father_once_asked_me_if_i_knew_the_difference/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rxwtlq/my_father_once_asked_me_if_i_knew_the_difference/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>So there I am, alone with my girlfriend. She leans closer and whispers in my ear. . .</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Tell me something you’ve never told anyone at all.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
After a pause, I whisper back “I think the Owl People are already among us.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Who?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Holy shit!”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/RealMcGonzo"> /u/RealMcGonzo </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rxtj15/so_there_i_am_alone_with_my_girlfriend_she_leans/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rxtj15/so_there_i_am_alone_with_my_girlfriend_she_leans/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>There was a German, an Italian and an Irishman on death row.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The warden gave them a choice of three ways to die:
</p>
<ol>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
To be shot
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
To be hung
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
To be injected with the AIDS virus for a slow death.
</li>
</ol>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
So the German said, “Shoot me right in the head.”. Boom, he was dead instantly.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Then the Italian said, “Just hang me.” (Snap, he was dead.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Then the Irishman said, “Give me some of that AIDS stuff.” They gave him the shot, and the Irishman fell down laughing. The guards looked at each other and wondered what was wrong with this guy.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Then the Irishman said, “Give me another one of those shots,” so the guards did. Now he was laughing so hard, tears rolled from his eyes and he doubled over.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Finally the warden said, “What is wrong with you?” The Irishman replied, “You guys are so stupid….. I’m wearing a condom!”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON
-->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/BobScholar"> /u/BobScholar </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rxeytz/there_was_a_german_an_italian_and_an_irishman_on/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rxeytz/there_was_a_german_an_italian_and_an_irishman_on/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>An old man walks up to the counter of a pawn shop holding an old, weathered guitar</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“I’d like your expert opinion on this guitar, how much do you think it’s worth?” asks the old man.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The pawn broker looks it up and down. “Well, I can tell right now that there’s a little warping in the neck, the lacquer is faded and there’s scratches and dents all over it. It’s an old, well-played guitar but I don’t think it’s worth any more than twenty bucks.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The old man reaches his hand out and says, “Okay, if that’s what you think it’s worth.. you have a deal!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Great!” replies the pawn broker, shaking his hand.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Here’s twenty bucks,” says the old man. “I’ll buy it right now!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The broker stops, and suddenly looks confused. “Wait…. <em>buy</em>?” he asks.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Yes!” smiles the old man as he flips the guitar over, “This one has a sticker price of $150, but now that I have your honest opinion I think twenty bucks is a great deal!”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/KeckyOK"> /u/KeckyOK </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rxiaq8/an_old_man_walks_up_to_the_counter_of_a_pawn_shop/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rxiaq8/an_old_man_walks_up_to_the_counter_of_a_pawn_shop/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>Dave and Jim were a couple of drinking buddies who worked as aircraft mechanics in Melbourne, Australia. One day the airport was fogged in and they were stuck in the hangar with nothing to do. Dave said, ‘Man, I wish we had something to drink!’</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Jim says, ‘Me too. Y’know, I’ve heard you can drink jet fuel and get a buzz. You wanna try it?’ So they pour themselves a couple of glasses of high octane booze and get completely smashed. The next morning Dave wakes up and is surprised at how good he feels. In fact he feels GREAT! NO hangover! NO bad side effects. Nothing! Then the phone rings. It’s Jim. Jim says, ‘Hey, how do you feel this morning?’ Dave says, ‘I feel great, how about you?’ Jim says, ‘I feel great, too. You don’t have a hangover?’ Dave says, ‘No that jet fuel is great stuff no hangover, nothing. We ought to do this more often..’ ‘Yeah, well there’s just one thing.’ ‘What’s that?’ ‘Have you farted yet?’ ‘No.’ ‘Well, DON’T - cause I’m in New Zealand’
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/YZXFILE"> /u/YZXFILE </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rxrwlj/dave_and_jim_were_a_couple_of_drinking_buddies/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rxrwlj/dave_and_jim_were_a_couple_of_drinking_buddies/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
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