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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>Transparent Communication About COVID-19 Vaccines Is Not Sufficient for Acceptance but It is Necessary for Trust</strong> -
<div>
During the rapid development and rolling-out of vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, researchers have called for an approach of “radical transparency”, where vaccine information is transparently disclosed to the public, even if negative information can decrease vaccine uptake. Consistent with theories about the psychology of conspiracy beliefs, these calls predict that a lack of transparency may reduce trust in health authorities and facilitate the spread of conspiracy theories, which may limit the long-term capabilities of health authorities during and after the pandemic. On the basis of pre-registered experiments conducted on large, representative samples of Americans and Danes (N &gt; 13,000), the present study contrasts the effects of vague vaccine communication with transparent communication, which discloses either positive or negative vaccine features. The evidence demonstrates that transparent negative communication may indeed harm vaccine acceptance here and now but that it increases trust in health authorities. Furthermore, the alternative of vague, reassuring communication does not increase vaccine acceptance either and leads to both lower trust and higher endorsements of conspiracy theories.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/vx84n/" target="_blank">Transparent Communication About COVID-19 Vaccines Is Not Sufficient for Acceptance but It is Necessary for Trust</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Gender and Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Undergraduate and Graduate Students’ Mental Health and Treatment Use amid the COVID-19 Pandemic</strong> -
<div>
Objective: To investigate gender and racial/ethnic disparities in mental health and treatment use in college and graduate students amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: Based on a large-scale online survey (N = 1,415) administered during the weeks following a pandemic-related university-wide campus closure in March 2020, we examined gender and racial disparities in current internalizing severity and treatment use with t-tests and logistic regression models. Results: Specifically, we found that students with marginalized gender (e.g., woman [p &lt; .001], non-binary gender [p &lt; .001]) or Hispanic/Latinx identity (p = .002) reported higher levels of internalizing problem severity compared to their privileged counterparts (e.g., man, non- Hispanic/Latinx White). Regarding treatment use, Asian (p &lt; .001) and multiracial students (p = .002) reported lower treatment use after controlling for internalizing problem severity. Internalizing severity was generally associated with higher treatment use (logit = 0.53, p = .001), indicating a match of objective needs with service use. However, this relationship was offset by a negative interaction between internalizing problem severity and Asian (logit = -0.49, p &lt; .001) or Black identity (logit = -0.57, p = .03) in predicting treatment use. Conclusion: The findings revealed unique mental health challenges faced by different demographic groups and served as a call that specific actions to enhance mental health equity, such as continued mental health support for students with marginalized gender identities, additional COVID-related mental and practical support for Hispanic/Latinx students, and promotion of mental health awareness and trust in Asian/Black students, are desperately needed.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/qhy5j/" target="_blank">Gender and Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Undergraduate and Graduate Students’ Mental Health and Treatment Use amid the COVID-19 Pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Site-specific steric control of SARS-CoV-2 spike glycosylation</strong> -
<div>
A central tenet in the design of recombinant vaccines is the display of native-like antigens in the elicitation of protective immunity. However, the diversity of global vaccine strategies against Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) poses challenges to benchmark antigens across global vaccine programs. Here, we investigate the glycosylation of a variety of recombinant SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins from five different laboratories and compare them against the glycan shield of an infectious virus. The site-specific stalling of glycan maturation is a highly sensitive reporter of local protein structure and we find there is remarkable conservation of this feature across all samples. Analysis of molecular dynamics simulations of a fully glycosylated spike supports a model of steric restrictions that shape enzymatic processing of the glycans. Furthermore, we show that there is a conserved glycosylation pattern across the monomeric receptor binding domain (RBD) protein and the complete trimeric spike (S) protein. This is in contrast to RBD glycosylation in Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) where quaternary architecture limits glycan processing when in the context of full-length MERS-CoV S protein. These results suggest that spike-based immunogen glycosylation reproducibly recapitulates viral glycosylation.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.08.433764v1" target="_blank">Site-specific steric control of SARS-CoV-2 spike glycosylation</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>The FDA-approved drug cobicistat synergizes with remdesivir to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 replication</strong> -
<div>
Combinations of direct-acting antivirals are needed to minimize drug-resistance mutations and stably suppress replication of RNA viruses. Currently, there are limited therapeutic options against the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and testing of a number of drug regimens has led to conflicting results. Here we show that cobicistat, which is an-FDA approved drug-booster that blocks the activity of the drug metabolizing proteins Cytochrome P450-3As (CYP3As) and P-glycoprotein (P-gp), inhibits SARS-CoV-2 replication. Cell-to-cell membrane fusion assays indicated that the antiviral effect of cobicistat is exerted through inhibition of spike protein-mediated membrane fusion. In line with this, incubation with low micromolar concentrations of cobicistat decreased viral replication in three different cell lines including cells of lung and gut origin. When cobicistat was used in combination with the putative CYP3A target and nucleoside analog remdesivir, a synergistic effect on the inhibition of viral replication was observed in cell lines and in a primary human colon organoid. The cobicistat/remdesivir combination was able to potently abate viral replication to levels comparable to mock-infected cells leading to an almost complete rescue of infected cell viability. These data highlight cobicistat as a therapeutic candidate for treating SARS-CoV-2 infection and as a potential building block of combination therapies for COVID-19.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.09.434219v1" target="_blank">The FDA-approved drug cobicistat synergizes with remdesivir to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 replication</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>In vitro rapid inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 by visible light photocatalysis using boron-doped bismuth oxybromide</strong> -
<div>
Inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater and on surfaces is critical to prevent the fecal-oral and fomite transmission, respectively. We hypothesized that visible light active photocatalysts could dramatically enhance the rate or extent of virus inactivation and enable the use of visible light rather than shorter wavelength ultraviolet light. A novel visible light active photocatalyst, boron-doped bismuth oxybromide (B-BiOBr), was synthesized and tested for its SARS-CoV-2 inactivation towards Vero E6 cell lines in dark and under irradiation at 426 nm by a light emitting diode (LED) in water. SARS-CoV-2 inactivation in the presence of B-BiOBr (0.8 g/L) under LED irradiation reached 5.32-log in 5 min, which was 400 to 10,000 times higher than those achieved with conventional photocatalysts of tungsten or titanium oxide nanomaterials, respectively. Even without LED irradiation, B-BiOBr inactivated 3.32-log of SARS-CoV-2 in the dark due to the ability of bismuth ions interfering with the SARS-CoV-2 helicase function. LED irradiation at 426 nm alone, without the photocatalyst, contributed to 10% of the observed inactivation and was attributed to production of reactive oxygen species due to blue-light photoexcitation of molecules in the culture media, which opens further modes of action to engineer disinfection strategies. The visible light active B-BiOBr photocatalyst, with its rapid SARS-CoV-2 inactivation in the presence and absence of light, holds tremendous opportunities to build a healthy environment by preventing the fecal-oral and fomite transmission of emerging pathogens.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.09.434359v1" target="_blank">In vitro rapid inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 by visible light photocatalysis using boron-doped bismuth oxybromide</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>A recombinant ACE2 Triple Decoy that traps and neutralizes SARS-CoV-2 shows enhanced affinity for highly transmissible SARS-CoV-2 variants</strong> -
<div>
The highly-transmissible SARS-CoV-2 variants now replacing the first wave strain pose an increased threat to human health by their ability, in some instances, to escape existing humoral protection conferred by previous infection, neutralizing antibodies, and possibly vaccination. Thus, other therapeutic options are necessary. One such therapeutic option that leverages SARS-CoV-2 initiation of infection by binding of its spike receptor binding domain (S RBD) to surface-expressed host cell angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is an ACE2 decoy that would trap the virus by competitive binding and thus inhibit propagation of infection. Here, we used Molecular Dynamic (MD) simulations to predict ACE2 mutations that might increase its affinity for S RBD and screened these candidates for binding affinity in vitro. A double mutant ACE2(T27Y/H34A)-IgG1FC fusion protein was found to have very high affinity for S RBD and to show greater neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 in a live virus assay as compared to wild type ACE2. We further modified the double mutant ACE2 decoy by addition of an H374N mutation to inhibit ACE2 enzymatic activity while maintaining high S RBD affinity. We then confirmed the potential efficacy of our ACE2(T27Y/H34A/H374N)-IgG1FC Triple Decoy against S RBD expressing variant-associated E484K, K417N, N501Y, and L452R mutations and found that our ACE2 Triple Decoy not only maintains its high affinity for S RBD expressing these mutations, but shows enhanced affinity for S RBD expressing the N501Y or L452R mutations and the highest affinity for S RBD expressing both the E484K and N501Y mutations. The ACE2 Triple Decoy also demonstrates the ability to compete with wild type ACE2 in the cPass surrogate virus neutralization in the presence of S RBD with these mutations. Additional MD simulation of ACE2 WT and decoy interactions with S RBD WT or B.1.351 variant sequence S RBD provides insight into the enhanced affinity of the ACE2 decoy for S RBD and reveals its potential as a tool to predict affinity and inform therapeutic design. The ACE2 Triple Decoy is now undergoing continued assessment, including expression by a human adenovirus serotype 5 (hAd5) construct to facilitate delivery in vivo.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.09.434641v1" target="_blank">A recombinant ACE2 Triple Decoy that traps and neutralizes SARS-CoV-2 shows enhanced affinity for highly transmissible SARS-CoV-2 variants</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>COVIDrugNet: a network-based web tool to investigate the drugs currently in clinical trial to contrast COVID-19</strong> -
<div>
The COVID-19 pandemic poses a huge problem of public health that requires the implementation of all available means to contrast it, and drugs are one of them. In this context, we observed an unmet need of depicting the continuously evolving scenario of the ongoing drug clinical trials through an easy-to-use, freely accessible online tool. Starting from this consideration, we developed COVIDrugNet (http://compmedchem.unibo.it/covidrugnet), a web application that allows users to capture a holistic view and keep up to date on how the clinical drug research is responding to the SARS-CoV-2 infection. Here, we describe the web app and show through some examples how one can explore the whole landscape of medicines in clinical trial for the treatment of COVID-19 and try to probe the consistency of the current approaches with the available biological and pharmacological evidence. We conclude that careful analyses of the COVID-19 drug-target system based on COVIDrugNet can help to understand the biological implications of the proposed drug options, and eventually improve the search for more effective therapies.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.05.433897v1" target="_blank">COVIDrugNet: a network-based web tool to investigate the drugs currently in clinical trial to contrast COVID-19</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Systemic Tissue and Cellular Disruption from SARS-CoV-2 Infection revealed in COVID-19 Autopsies and Spatial Omics Tissue Maps</strong> -
<div>
The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus has infected over 115 million people and caused over 2.5 million deaths worldwide. Yet, the molecular mechanisms underlying the clinical manifestations of COVID-19, as well as what distinguishes them from common seasonal influenza virus and other lung injury states such as Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), remains poorly understood. To address these challenges, we combined transcriptional profiling of 646 clinical nasopharyngeal swabs and 39 patient autopsy tissues, matched with spatial protein and expression profiling (GeoMx) across 357 tissue sections. These results define both body-wide and tissue-specific (heart, liver, lung, kidney, and lymph nodes) damage wrought by the SARS-CoV-2 infection, evident as a function of varying viral load (high vs. low) during the course of infection and specific, transcriptional dysregulation in splicing isoforms, T cell receptor expression, and cellular expression states. In particular, cardiac and lung tissues revealed the largest degree of splicing isoform switching and cell expression state loss. Overall, these findings reveal a systemic disruption of cellular and transcriptional pathways from COVID-19 across all tissues, which can inform subsequent studies to combat the mortality of COVID-19, as well to better understand the molecular dynamics of lethal SARS-CoV-2 infection and other viruses.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.08.434433v1" target="_blank">Systemic Tissue and Cellular Disruption from SARS-CoV-2 Infection revealed in COVID-19 Autopsies and Spatial Omics Tissue Maps</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>The N501Y spike substitution enhances SARS-CoV-2 transmission</strong> -
<div>
Beginning in the summer of 2020, a variant of SARS-CoV-2, the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic, emerged in the United Kingdom (UK). This B.1.1.7 variant increased rapidly in prevalence among sequenced strains, attributed to an increase in infection and/or transmission efficiency. The UK variant has 19 nonsynonymous mutations across its viral genome including 8 substitutions or deletions in the spike protein, which interacts with cellular receptors to mediate infection and tropism. Here, using a reverse genetics approach, we show that, of the 8 individual spike protein substitutions, only N501Y exhibited consistent fitness gains for replication in the upper airway in the hamster model as well as primary human airway epithelial cells. The N501Y substitution recapitulated the phenotype of enhanced viral transmission seen with the combined 8 UK spike mutations, suggesting it is a major determinant responsible for increased transmission of this variant. Mechanistically, the N501Y substitution improved the affinity of the viral spike protein for cellular receptors. As suggested by its convergent evolution in Brazil and South Africa, our results indicate that N501Y substitution is a major adaptive spike mutation of major concern.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.08.434499v1" target="_blank">The N501Y spike substitution enhances SARS-CoV-2 transmission</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Quantitative proteomics of hamster lung tissues infected with SARS-CoV-2 reveal host-factors having implication in the disease pathogenesis and severity</strong> -
<div>
Syrian golden hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) infected by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) manifests lung pathology that resembles human COVID-19 patients. In this study, efforts were made to check the infectivity of a local SARS-CoV-2 isolate in hamster model and evaluate the differential expression of lung proteins during acute infection and convalescence. The findings of this study confirm the infectivity of this isolate in vivo. Analysis of clinical parameters and tissue samples shows a similar type of pathophysiological manifestation of SARS-CoV-2 infection as reported earlier in COVID-19 patients and hamsters infected with other isolates. The lung-associated pathological changes were very prominent on the 4th day post-infection (dpi), mostly resolved by 14dpi. Here, we carried out quantitative proteomic analysis of the lung tissues from SARS-CoV-2-infected hamsters at day 4 and day 14 post infection. This resulted in the identification of 1,585 differentially expressed proteins of which 68 proteins were significantly altered among both the infected groups. Pathway analysis revealed complement and coagulation cascade, platelet activation, ferroptosis and focal adhesion as the top enriched pathways. In addition, we also identified altered expression of two pulmonary surfactant-associated proteins (Sftpd and Sftpb), known for their protective role in lung function. Together, these findings will aid in the identification of candidate biomarkers and understanding the mechanism(s) involved in SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.09.434371v1" target="_blank">Quantitative proteomics of hamster lung tissues infected with SARS-CoV-2 reveal host-factors having implication in the disease pathogenesis and severity</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Spike mutations in SARS-CoV-2 variants confer resistance to antibody neutralization</strong> -
<div>
New SARS-CoV-2 variants continue to emerge from the current global pandemic, some of which can replicate faster and with greater transmissibility and pathogenicity. In particular, UK501Y.V1 identified in UK, SA501Y.V2 in South Africa, and BR501Y.V3 in Brazil are raising serious concerns as they spread quickly and contain spike protein mutations that may facilitate escape from current antibody therapies and vaccine protection. Here, we constructed a panel of 28 SARS CoV 2 pseudoviruses bearing single or combined mutations found in the spike protein of these three variants, as well as additional nine mutations that within or close by the major antigenic sites in the spike protein identified in the GISAID database. These pseudoviruses were tested against a panel of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), including some approved for emergency use to treat SARS CoV 2 infection, and convalescent patient plasma collected early in the pandemic. SA501Y.V2 pseudovirus was the most resistant, in magnitude and breadth, against mAbs and convalescent plasma, followed by BR501Y.V3, and then UK501Y.V1. This resistance hierarchy corresponds with Y144del and 242-244del mutations in the N-terminal domain as well as K417N/T, E484K and N501Y mutations in the receptor binding domain (RBD). Crystal structural analysis of RBD carrying triple K417N E484K N501Y mutations found in SA501Y.V2 bound with mAb P2C-1F11 revealed a molecular basis for antibody neutralization and escape. SA501Y.V2 and BR501Y.V3 also acquired substantial ability to use mouse and mink ACE2 for entry. Taken together, our results clearly demonstrate major antigenic shifts and potentially broadening the host range of SA501Y.V2 and BR501Y.V3, which pose serious challenges to our current antibody therapies and vaccine protection.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.09.434497v1" target="_blank">Spike mutations in SARS-CoV-2 variants confer resistance to antibody neutralization</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Serological surveys to estimate cumulative incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in adults (Sero-MAss study), Massachusetts, July-August 2020- a mail-based cross-sectional study</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is an unprecedented global health crisis. The state of Massachusetts was especially impacted during the initial stages; however, the extent of asymptomatic transmission remains poorly understood due to limited asymptomatic testing in the “first wave.” To address this gap, a geographically representative and contact-free seroprevalence survey was conducted in July-August 2020, to estimate prior undetected SARS-CoV-2 infections. Methods Students, faculty, librarians and staff members at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst without a previous COVID-19 diagnosis were invited to participate in this study along with one member of their household in June 2020. Two separate sampling frames were generated from administrative lists: all undergraduates and their household members (primary sampling group) were randomly selected with probability proportional to population size. All staff, faculty, graduate students and librarians (secondary sampling group) were selected as a simple random sample. After informed consent and a socio-behavioral survey, participants were mailed test kits and asked to return self-collected dried blood spot (DBS) samples. Samples were analyzed via ELISA for anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies, and then IgM antibodies if IgG-positive. Seroprevalence estimates were adjusted for survey non-response. Binomial models were used to assess factors associated with seropositivity in both sample groups separately. Results Approximately 27,000 persons were invited via email to assess eligibility. Of the 1,001 individuals invited to participate in the study, 762 (76%) returned blood samples for analysis. In the primary sampling group 548 returned samples, of which 230 enrolled a household member. Within the secondary sampling group of 214 individuals, 79 enrolled a household member. In the primary sample group, 36 (4.6%) had IgG antibodies detected for an estimated weighed prevalence for this population of 5.3% (95% CI: 3.5 to 8.0). In the secondary sampling group, 10 (3.4%) of 292 individuals had IgG antibodies detected for an estimated adjusted prevalence of 4.0% (95% CI: 2.2 to 7.4). No samples were IgM positive. No association was found in either sample group between seropositivity and self-reported work duties or customer-facing hours. In the primary sampling group, self-reported febrile illness since Feb 2020, male sex, and minority race (Black or American Indian/Alaskan Native) were associated with seropositivity. No factors except geographic regions within the state were associated with evidence of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection in the secondary sampling group. Interpretation This study provides insight into the seroprevalence of university-related populations and their household members across the state of Massachusetts during the summer of 2020 of the pandemic and helps to fill a critical gap in estimating the levels of sub-clinical and asymptomatic infection. Estimates like these can be used to calibrate models that estimate levels of population immunity over time to inform public health interventions and policy.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.05.21249174v2" target="_blank">Serological surveys to estimate cumulative incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in adults (Sero-MAss study), Massachusetts, July-August 2020- a mail-based cross-sectional study</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Covid-19 and Human Resource Management: a study on Moldavia, Romania</strong> -
<div>
Dramatic changes due to the current COVID-19 coronavirus have unparalleled effects on businesses across the globe and have deeply affected human resources management. HRM has taken the lead in handling employees to deal with pressures and continue to work remotely to continue its activities in a vague current and unforeseen future. However, the HRM had to contend with the pandemic lock-down dismissal and staff reduction. The paper is focused on the analysis approach used by qualitative experts. It addresses the problems faced by HRM in Romania, identifies the human resources ramifications of the situation and identifies solutions. It addresses the problems HRM has been facing in Romania, ascertains the effects the crisis has on human resources, points out the strategies companies implemented, and make s suggestions for addressing the crisis from the point of view of HRM. Based on the results, this study recommend the following: giving more consideration for worker mental wellbeing, performing medical tests during the selection process, and encouraging the sick employees to remain at home and developing crisis management plans.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://thesiscommons.org/9jvyd/" target="_blank">Covid-19 and Human Resource Management: a study on Moldavia, Romania</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Categorizing the Status of COVID-19 Outbreaks Around the World</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Although the SARS-CoV-19 virus spread rapidly around in world in early 2020, disease epidemics in different places evolved differently as the year progressed - and the state of the COVID-19 pandemic now varies significantly across different countries and territories. We have created a taxonomy of possible categories of disease dynamics, and used the evolution of reported COVID-19 cases relative to changes in disease control measures, together with total reported cases and deaths, to allocate most countries and territories among the possible categories. As of 31 January 2021, we find that the disease was (1) kept out or suppressed quickly through quarantines and testing &amp; tracing in 39 countries with 29 million people, (2) suppressed on one or more occasions through control measures in 74 countries with 2.49 billion people, (3) spread slowly but not suppressed, with cases still increasing or just past a peak, in 31 countries with 1.45 billion people, (4) spread through the population, but slowed a result of control measures, leading to a “flattened curve” and fewer infections than if the epidemic were unmitigated, in 32 countries with 2.24 billion people, and (5) spread through the population with some but limited mitigation in 5 countries with 168 million people. In addition, several countries have experienced increases in cases after disease appeared to have finished spreading due to declining numbers of susceptible people. For some of these countries - for example Kenya, Pakistan and Afghanistan - the resurgences can be explained by the relaxation of control measures (and may have been enhanced by disease spread in population segments that experienced lower infection levels during the first waves). For other countries, the resurgences point to the effects of new virus variants with higher-transmissibility or immunity resistance - including most countries in Southern Africa (where the B.1.351 variant has been identified) and several countries in West Africa (maybe due to the B.1.351 or a different variant). These findings are consistent with mounting evidence of high infection rates in several low- and middle-income countries, both from seroprevalence studies and estimates of actual deaths from COVID-19 combined with estimates of expected mortality rates. We estimate that 1.3-3.0 billion people, or 17-39% of the global population, have been infected by SARS-CoV-2 to date, and that at least 5 million people have died from COVID-19 - much higher than reported cases and deaths. Disease control policies and vaccination strategies should be designed based on the state of the COVID-19 epidemic in the population - and consequently may need to be different in different countries.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.08.21252586v1" target="_blank">Categorizing the Status of COVID-19 Outbreaks Around the World</a>
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<li><strong>Beliefs about Mask Efficacy and the Effect of Social Norms on Mask Wearing Intentions for COVID-19 Risk Reduction</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
In the absence of widespread vaccination for COVID-19, governments and public health officials have advocated for the public to wear masks during the pandemic. The decision to wear a mask in public is likely affected by both beliefs about its efficacy and the prevalence of the behavior. Greater mask use in the community may encourage others to follow this norm, but it also creates an incentive for individuals to free ride on the protection afforded to them by others. We report the results of two vignette-based experiments conducted in the United States and Italy to examine the causal relationship between beliefs, social norms, and reported intentions to engage in mask promoting behavior. We find that providing factual information about how masks protect others increases the likelihood that someone would wear a mask or encourage others to do so in the United States, but not in Italy. There is no effect of providing information about how masks protect the wearer in either country. Additionally, greater mask use increases intentions to wear a mask and encourage someone else to wear theirs properly in both the United States and Italy. Thus, community mask use may be self-reinforcing.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.02.21252722v1" target="_blank">Beliefs about Mask Efficacy and the Effect of Social Norms on Mask Wearing Intentions for COVID-19 Risk Reduction</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>Study to Evaluate a Single Dose of STI-2020 (COVI-AMG™) in Hospitalized Adults With COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: COVI-AMG;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Safety &amp; Efficacy of Low Dose Aspirin / Ivermectin Combination Therapy for Treatment of Covid-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: 3-dayIVM 200 mcg/kg/day/14-day 75mgASA/day + standard of care (intervention 1)<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Makerere University;   Ministry of Health, Uganda;   Mbarara University of Science and Technology;   Joint Clinical Research Center<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>Clinical Study in the Treatment of Patients With COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Molixan;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Pharma VAM<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>Diagnostic Performance of the ID Now™ COVID-19 Screening Test Versus Simplexa™ COVID-19 Direct Assay</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Diagnostic Test: ID Now™ COVID-19 Screening Test<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Groupe Hospitalier Paris Saint Joseph<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 and Efficacy Study of Human Monoclonal Antibodies, BRII-196 and BRII-198 for the Treatment of Patients With COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: BRII-196 and BRII-198;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Brii Biosciences, Inc.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Dose-Ranging Study to Assess the Safety and Efficacy of Melatonin in Outpatients Infected With COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Melatonin;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   State University of New York at Buffalo;   National Center for Advancing Translational Science (NCATS)<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Study to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of Brilacidin in Hospitalized Participants With COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Brilacidin;   Drug: Placebo;   Drug: Standard of Care (SoC)<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Innovation Pharmaceuticals, Inc.<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Safety, Tolerability and Pharmacokinetics of Second Generation VIR-7831 Material in Non-hospitalized Participants With Mild to Moderate COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: VIR-7831 (Gen1);   Biological: VIR-7831 (Gen2)<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Vir Biotechnology, Inc.;   GlaxoSmithKline<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>DCI COVID-19 Surveillance Project</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Diagnostic Test: SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR Assay for Detection of COVID-19 Infection<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Temple University;   Dialysis Clinic, Inc.<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Safety and Efficacy of Thymic Peptides in the Treatment of Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients in Honduras</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: Thymic peptides<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Universidad Católica de Honduras;   Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Safety, Tolerability, and Immunogenicity of the COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate (VBI-2902a)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: VBI-2902a;   Biological: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   VBI Vaccines Inc.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Effectiveness of the Adsorbed Vaccine COVID-19 (Coronavac) Among Education and Law Enforcement Professionals With Risk Factors for Severity</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: Adsorbed SARS-CoV-2 (inactivated) vaccine<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Fundação de Medicina Tropical Dr. Heitor Vieira Dourado;   Butantan Institute<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>Breathing Exercise After COVID-19 Pneumonia</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Other: Breathing exercise with the phone application;   Other: Breathing exercise<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Tokat Gaziosmanpasa University<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>COVID-19 Vaccination of Immunodeficient Persons (COVAXID)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: Comirnaty (COVID-19, mRNA vaccine)<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Karolinska University Hospital;   Karolinska Institutet<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>Comparison of Remdesivir and Tocilizumab Versus Hydroxychloroquine and Tocilizumab Combination in COVID-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Covid19;   Pneumonia<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Remdesivir;   Drug: Hydroxychloroquine;   Drug: Tocilizumab<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   October 6 University;   Beni-Suef University<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-pubmed">From PubMed</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Between two storms, vasoactive peptides or bradykinin underlie severity of COVID-19?</strong> - Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), continues to be a world-wide pandemic with overwhelming socioeconomic impact. Since inflammation is one of the major causes of COVID-19 complications, the associated molecular mechanisms have been the focus of many studies to better understand this disease and develop improved treatments for patients contracting SARS-CoV-2. Among these, strong emphasis has been placed on pro-inflammatory…</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>Calcium sensing receptor hyperactivation through viral envelop protein E of SARS CoV2: A novel target for cardio-renal damage in COVID-19 infection</strong> - Over the recent decades, a number of new pathogens have emerged within specific and diverse populations across the globe, namely, the Nipah virus, the Ebola virus, the Zika virus, and coronaviruses (CoVs) to name a few. Recently, a new form of coronavirus was identified in the city of Wuhan, China. Interestingly, the genomic architecture of the virus did not match with any of the existing genomic sequencing data of previously sequenced CoVs. This had led scientists to confirm the emergence of 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>Association between ABO blood types and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), genetic associations, and underlying molecular mechanisms: a literature review of 23 studies</strong> - An association of various blood types and the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been found in a number of publications. The aim of this literature review is to summarize key findings related to ABO blood types and COVID-19 infection rate, symptom presentation, and outcome. Summarized findings include associations between ABO blood type and higher infection susceptibility, intubation duration, and severe outcomes, including death. The literature suggests that blood type O may serve as…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The in-vitro effect of famotidine on sars-cov-2 proteases and virus replication</strong> - The lack of coronavirus-specific antiviral drugs has instigated multiple drug repurposing studies to redirect previously approved medicines for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus behind the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. A recent, large-scale, retrospective clinical study showed that famotidine, when administered at a high dose to hospitalized COVID-19 patients, reduced the rates of intubation and mortality. A separate, patient-reported study associated famotidine use with improvements in…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Lost in deletion: The enigmatic ORF8 protein of SARS-CoV-2</strong> - The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) genome contains nine open reading frames (ORFs) that encode for accessory proteins which, although dispensable for viral replication, are important for the modulation of the host infected cell metabolism and innate immunity evasion. Among those, the ORF8 gene encodes for the homonymous multifunctional, highly immunogenic, immunoglobulin-like protein that was recently found to inhibit presentation of viral antigens by class I major…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>An in-silico approach to identify the potential hot spots in SARS-CoV-2 spike RBD to block the interaction with ACE2 receptor</strong> - A novel acute viral pneumonia induced by SARS-CoV-2 exploded at the end of 2019, causing a severe medical and economic crisis. For developing specific pharmacotherapy against SARS-CoV-2, an in silico virtual screening was developed for the available in-house molecules. The conserved domain analysis was performed to identify the highly conserved and exposed amino acid regions in the SARS-CoV-2-S RBD sites. The Protein-Protein interaction analyses demonstrated the higher affinity between the…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Intestinal SGLT1 as a therapeutic target in COVID-19-related diabetes: A “two-edged sword” hypothesis</strong> - Emerging data are linking coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) with an increased risk of developing new-onset diabetes. The gut has been so far out of the frame of the discussion on the pathophysiology of COVID-19-induced diabetes, with the pancreas, liver, and adipose tissue being under the spotlight of medical research. Sodium-glucose co-transporters (SGLT) 1 represent important regulators of glucose absorption, expressed in the small intestine where they mediate almost all sodium-dependent…</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>Ensemble-based screening of natural products and FDA-approved drugs identified potent inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 that work with two distinct mechanisms</strong> - The recent outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 is responsible for high morbidity and mortality rate across the globe. This requires an urgent identification of drugs and other interventions to overcome this pandemic. Computational drug repurposing represents an alternative approach to provide a more effective approach in search for COVID-19 drugs. Selected natural product known to have antiviral activities were screened, and based on their hits; a similarity search with FDA approved drugs was performed using…</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 SARS-CoV-2 spike binding DNA aptamer that inhibits pseudovirus infection by an RBD independent mechanism</strong> - The receptor binding domain (RBD) of the spike glycoprotein of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (CoV2-S) binds to the human angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) representing the initial contact point for leveraging the infection cascade. We used an automated selection process and identified an aptamer that specifically interacts with CoV2-S. The aptamer does not bind to the RBD of CoV2-S and does not block the interaction of CoV2-S with ACE2. Notwithstanding, infection studies revealed potent and…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Tandem high-dose influenza vaccination is associated with more durable serologic immunity in patients with plasma cell dyscrasias</strong> - Patients with plasma cell dyscrasias (PCDs) experience an increased burden of influenza, and current practice of single-dose annual influenza vaccination yields suboptimal protective immunity in these patients. Strategies to improve immunity to influenza in these patients are clearly needed. We performed a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial comparing tandem Fluzone High-Dose influenza vaccination with standard-of-care influenza vaccination. Standard-of-care vaccination…</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>Oral Angiotensin Converting Enzyme Inhibitors for the Treatment of Delayed Inflammatory Reaction of Dermal Hyaluronic Acid Fillers Following COVID-19 Vaccination - A Model for Inhibition of Angiotensin II-Induced Cutaneous Inflammation</strong> - No abstract</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Robust correlations across six SARS-CoV-2 serology assays detecting distinct antibody features</strong> - CONCLUSION: Our comprehensive analyses provide important insights into SARS-CoV-2 humoral immunity across distinct serology assays and their applicability for specific research and/or diagnostic questions to assess SARS-CoV-2-specific humoral responses.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Routine use of immunosuppressants is associated with mortality in hospitalised patients with COVID-19</strong> - CONCLUSION: Despite possible indication bias, until further evidence emerges we recommend adhering to public health measures, a low threshold to seek medical advice and close monitoring of symptoms in those who take immunosuppressants routinely regardless of their indication. However, it should be noted that the inability to control for the underlying condition requiring immunosuppressants is a major limitation, and hence caution should be exercised in interpretation of the results.</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 Hydroalcoholic Extract of Uncaria tomentosa (Cat’s Claw) Inhibits the Infection of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) In Vitro</strong> - The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a serious problem for public health since it was identified in the province of Wuhan (China) and spread around the world producing high mortality rates and economic losses. Nowadays, the WHO recognizes traditional, complementary, and alternative medicine for treating COVID-19 symptoms. Therefore, we investigated the antiviral potential of the hydroalcoholic extract of Uncaria tomentosa stem bark from Peru against SARS-CoV-2 in vitro. The…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Inhibitory efficacy of RNA virus drugs against SARS-CoV-2 proteins: An extensive study</strong> - Herein we have made a comprehensive analysis of inhibitory efficacy of 16 RNA virus drugs against RdRp, Mpro and PLpro proteins of SARS-CoV-2. Analysis of docked conformation revealed that Baloxavir marboxil (BMX) corresponds to the highest binding energy. Analysis of residue confirmed that BMX strongly interact with these three proteins involving H-bonding, ionic as well as hydrophobic interactions. Molecular dynamics simulation and analysis of parameters like RMSD, RMSF, binding energy…</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>Sars-CoV-2 vaccine antigens</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU318283136">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SARS-COV-2 BINDING PROTEINS</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU318004130">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Compositions and methods for detecting SARS-CoV-2 spike protein</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU317343760">link</a></p></li>
<li><strong>Aronia-Mundspray</strong> -
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Anordnung zum Versprühen einer Substanz in die menschliche Mundhöhle und/oder in den Rachen, dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass die Anordnung eine Sprühflasche mit einer Substanz aufweist, die wenigstens Aroniasaft und eine Alkoholkomponente aufweist.
</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=DE319581893">link</a></li>
</ul></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>基于水疱性口炎病毒载体的新型冠状病毒嵌合重组疫苗及其制备方法与应用</strong> - 本发明公开了基于水疱性口炎病毒载体的新型冠状病毒嵌合重组疫苗及其制备方法与应用。该重组疫苗的活性成分为重组病毒rVSV‑SARS‑CoV/2‑RBD，为将水疱性口炎病毒的糖蛋白G替换为嵌合囊膜蛋白S后得到的病毒；所述嵌合囊膜蛋白S为将SARS‑CoV囊膜蛋白S的RBD替换为SARS‑CoV‑2囊膜蛋白S的RBD后得到的蛋白；所述SARS‑CoV囊膜蛋白S的RBD的氨基酸序列为SARS‑CoV囊膜蛋白S氨基酸序列的第315‑536位；所述SARS‑CoV‑2囊膜蛋白S的RBD的氨基酸序列为SARS‑CoV‑2囊膜蛋白S氨基酸序列的第319‑541位。该重组病毒对新冠病毒的疫苗研制具有重要意义。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN319598609">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>一种3-羟基丁酰化修饰蛋白质药物及其制备方法和应用</strong> - 本发明涉及医药技术领域，公开了一种3‑羟基丁酰化修饰蛋白质药物（例如抗体）及其制备方法和应用，特别是一种3‑羟基丁酰化修饰抗体及其制备方法和应用。发明人经过大量实验发现，3‑羟基丁酸及其类似物修饰蛋白质药物（例如抗体）后，可以显著提高蛋白质药物的热稳定性、对蛋白酶水解的抗性，降低蛋白质药物的等电点，并显著延长其在受试者体内的半衰期，进而提高其药效。修饰后所得蛋白质药物在科研和临床方面具有广阔的应用前景和较高的商业价值。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN318140486">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>新冠病毒重组融合蛋白、其制备方法和应用</strong> - 本发明提供一种新冠病毒重组融合蛋白、其制备方法和应用。本发明通过对新冠病毒S和N重组融合蛋白的基因序列进行设计，选择最优的片段进行整合，再通过人源HEK293细胞系统重组表达融合蛋白，经过纯化后对融合蛋白的分子量、纯度进行检测，最后利用融合蛋白制成新冠病毒抗体胶体金检测试纸条/试剂盒。与单独使用S蛋白或N蛋白制备的胶体金检测试纸条相比，该重组融合蛋白制备的胶体金检测试纸条具有更高的灵敏度和更低的漏检率。此外，本发明提供的新冠病毒重组融合蛋白可广泛应用于不同平台技术的新冠抗体检测试剂盒开发，如胶体金、荧光免疫层析、化学发光和酶联免疫等。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN318140491">link</a></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Atemluft-Desinfektionsvorrichtung und Atemschutzmaske</strong> -
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Atemluft-Desinfektionsvorrichtung mit einem am Körper eines Lebewesens (2) tragbaren Gehäuse (32), aufweisend:</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">eine im Gehäuse (32) ausgebildete frei durchströmbare Atemluft-Bestrahlungskammer (33), die frei von den Strömungswiderstand erhöhenden Einbauten oder Umlenkabschnitten ist, und die an einem Ende (34.1) der Atemluft-Bestrahlungskammer (33) eine im Strömungsweg der Nase und/oder dem Mund des Lebewesens (2) zugewandte erste Durchtrittsöffnung (35.1) aufweist und an einem anderen Ende (34.2) der Atemluft-Bestrahlungskammer (33) eine im Strömungsweg von der Nase und/oder von dem Mund des Lebewesens (2) abgewandte zweite Durchtrittsöffnung (35.2) aufweist, wobei die Atemluft-Bestrahlungskammer (33) von wenigstens einer UV-reflektierenden Kammer-Innenwand (36) begrenzt ist, die aus einem wärmeleitenden Material besteht,</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">wenigstens eine im Gehäuse (32) angeordnete, in die Atemluft-Bestrahlungskammer (33) einstrahlende UV-LED-Einheit (31, 31.1, 31.2), die ausgebildet und eingerichtet ist, den Innenraum der Atemluft-Bestrahlungskammer (33) mit UV-Strahlen vollständig zu beaufschlagen, und</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">wenigstens einen sich außerhalb der Atemluft-Bestrahlungskammer (33) erstreckenden Kühlkörper (37), der thermisch sowohl an die wenigstens eine UV-LED-Einheit (31, 31.1, 31.2), als auch an die aus dem wärmeleitenden Material bestehende Kammer-Innenwand (36, 39, 40) angekoppelt ist.</p></li>
</ul>
<img alt="embedded image" id="EMI-D00000"/>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></p>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=DE319581907">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>制备重组新型冠状病毒Spike蛋白的方法</strong> - 本发明提供了一种制备重组新型冠状病毒Spike蛋白的方法。本发明首先提供以下多肽作为信号肽在制备重组新型冠状病毒Spike蛋白中的应用：SEQ ID No. 10所示氨基酸序列组成的多肽。本发明采用特定信号肽，构建含有编码重组新型冠状病毒Spike蛋白的多核苷酸的表达载体，转染哺乳动物细胞以分泌表达重组新型冠状病毒Spike蛋白，可显著提高Spike蛋白在HEK293细胞中的分泌表达水平。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN319598598">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>新型冠状病毒抗体检测试剂盒及其制备方法与应用</strong> - 本发明提供一种新型冠状病毒抗体检测试剂盒及其制备方法与应用。所述试剂盒包括：IgG结合分子，抗IgM抗体，荧光标记的新型冠状病毒S1蛋白，荧光标记的新型冠状病毒N蛋白，S1蛋白的hIgG抗体阳性标准品，N蛋白的hIgG抗体阳性标准品，S1蛋白的hIgM抗体阳性标准品，N蛋白的hIgM抗体阳性标准品，阴性对照hIgG抗体样品，阴性对照hIgM抗体样品；其中，所述IgG结合分子与抗IgM抗体负载于不同粒径的纳米颗粒上。本发明的试剂盒用于新型冠状病毒抗体检测，可在1‑2h内快速完成血清中新型冠状病毒中和性抗体的检测，待检样品用量少，特异性强，灵敏度高，重复性好，操作简单，实验室要求低以及安全性高。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN319598593">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What the Coronavirus Variants Mean for the End of the Pandemic</strong> - The virus is mutating—but we can still beat it, one vaccination at a time. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/science/medical-dispatch/what-the-coronavirus-variants-mean-for-the-end-of-the-pandemic">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Vicar of Christ Calls on the Grand Ayatollah</strong> - In a historic meeting in Iraq, the leaders of Catholicism and Shiite Islam urged coexistence among the Abrahamic faiths. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-vicar-of-christ-calls-on-the-grand-ayatollah">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Civilian Climate Corps Is a Big-Government Plan That All Americans Can Embrace</strong> - Biden’s proposal draws on a New Deal program that created jobs and helped unite the country. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-civilian-climate-corps-is-a-big-government-plan-that-all-americans-can-embrace">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Fight Against Vaccine Misinformation</strong> - Society’s return to normal depends on widespread acceptance of the vaccine. Distrust stands in the way. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-uk/the-fight-against-vaccine-misinformation">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Who Ordered a Smear Campaign Against Andrew Cuomo’s First Accuser?</strong> - When Lindsey Boylan first publicly accused New York’s Governor of sexual harassment, in December, damaging government documents about her were leaked to the press. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-local-correspondents/who-ordered-a-smear-campaign-against-andrew-cuomos-first-accuser">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Dark matter holds our universe together. No one knows what it is.</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/334guVF9g3iT79_HDtk3rlkuVNM=/625x0:5625x3750/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/67980173/lede01_final.9.jpg"/>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Dark matter, unexplained.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4TGBVq">
If you go outside on a dark night, in the darkest places on Earth, you can see as many as 9,000 <a href="https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-resources/how-many-stars-night-sky-09172014/">stars</a>. They appear as tiny points of light, but they are massive infernos. And while these stars seem astonishingly numerous to our eyes, they represent just the tiniest fraction of all the stars in our galaxy, let alone the universe.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cGf8oc">
The beautiful challenge of stargazing is keeping this all in mind: Every small thing we see in the night sky is immense, but what’s even more immense is the unseen, the unknown.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9Ql5o4">
I’ve been thinking about this feeling — the awesome, terrifying feeling of smallness, of the extreme contrast of the big and small — while reporting on one of the greatest mysteries in science for <a href="http://vox.com/unexplainable"><em>Unexplainable</em></a>, a brand new Vox podcast about unanswered questions in science. You can listen to the episode below (and <a href="https://pod.link/unexplainable">subscribe</a> wherever you listen to podcasts!).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KGNphr">
It turns out all the stars in all the galaxies, in all the universe, barely even begin to account for all the <em>stuff</em> of the universe. Most of the matter in the universe is actually unseeable, untouchable, and, to this day, undiscovered.
</p>
<div id="6XLMZQ">
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5s2ZSQ">
Scientists call this unexplained stuff “dark matter,” and they believe there’s five times more of it in the universe than normal matter — the stuff that makes up you and me, stars, planets, black holes, and everything we can see in the night sky or touch here on Earth. It’s strange even calling all that “normal” matter, because in the grand scheme of the cosmos, normal matter is the rare stuff. But to this day, no one knows what dark matter actually is.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="08f2ZP">
“I think it gives you intellectual and kind of epistemic humility — that we are simultaneously, super insignificant, a tiny, tiny speck of the universe,” <a href="https://campuspress.yale.edu/priya/">Priya Natarajan</a>, a Yale physicist and dark matter expert, said on a recent phone call. “But on the other hand, we have brains in our skulls that are like these tiny, gelatinous cantaloupes, and we have figured all of this out.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xcCD78">
The story of dark matter is a reminder that whatever we know, whatever truth about the universe we have acquired as individuals or as a society, is insignificant compared to what we have not yet explained.
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<div id="uQIxGe">
<div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kcj11R">
It’s also a reminder that, often, in order to discover something true, the first thing we need to do is account for what we don’t know.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zEPHj4">
This accounting of the unknown is not often a thing that’s celebrated in science. It doesn’t win Nobel Prizes. But, at least, we can know the size of our ignorance. And that’s a start.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wDu5U5">
But how does it end? Though physicists have been trying for decades to figure out what dark matter is, the detectors they built to find it have gone silent year after year. It makes some wonder: Have they been chasing a ghost? Dark matter might not be real. Instead, there could be something more deeply flawed in physicists’ understanding of gravity that would explain it away. Still, the search, fueled by faith in scientific observations, continues, despite the possibility that dark matter may never be found.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MRGH0b">
To learn about dark matter is to grapple with, and embrace, the unknown.
</p>
<h3 id="nl2Y94">
The woman who told us how much we don’t know
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oXI36M">
Scientists are, to this day, searching for dark matter because they believe it is there to find. And they believe so largely because of Vera Rubin, an astronomer who died in 2016 at age 88.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7DAHro">
Growing up in Washington, DC, in the 1930s, like so many young people getting started in science, Rubin fell in love with the night sky.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wgb9pH">
Rubin shared a bedroom and bed with her sister Ruth. Ruth was older and got to pick her favorite side of the bed, the one that faced the bedroom windows and the night sky.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0ZN31Q">
“But the windows captivated Vera’s attention,” <a href="https://www.the-scientist.com/author/ashley-yeager-44">Ashley Yeager</a>, a journalist writing a forthcoming biography on Rubin, says. “Ruth remembers Vera constantly crawling over her at night, to be able to open the windows and look out at the night sky and start to track the stars.” Ruth just wanted to sleep, and “there Vera was tinkering and trying to take pictures of the stars and trying to track their motions.”
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<aside id="xOhevN">
<q>It wasn’t that everything we knew about matter was wrong. It was that everything we knew about normal matter was insignificant.</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NSedoG">
Not everyone gets to turn their childlike wonder and captivation of the unknown into a career, but Rubin did.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="feSFXz">
Flash-forward to the late 1960s, and she’s at the Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, Arizona, doing exactly what she did in that childhood bedroom: tracking the motion of stars.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BbTxeA">
This time, though, she has a cutting-edge telescope and is looking at stars in motion at the edge of the Andromeda Galaxy. Just 40 years prior, Edwin Hubble had determined, for the first time, that Andromeda was a galaxy outside of our own, and <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/11/20/13677046/edwin-hubble-andromeda-galaxy">that galaxies outside our own even existed</a>. With one observation, Hubble doubled the size of the known universe.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YpWh2E">
By 1960, scientists were still asking basic questions in the wake of this discovery. Like: How do galaxies move?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="twKHBo">
Rubin and her colleague Kent Ford were at the observatory doing this basic science, charting how stars are moving at the edge of Andromeda. “I guess I wanted to confirm Newton’s laws,” Rubin said in an archival interview with science historian David DeVorkin.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/rX272ejRZjFGOzdHKzL_qZRt-5M=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22050865/GettyImages_635841992.jpg"/> <cite>Alan Dyer/Universal Images Group/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
The Andromeda Galaxy.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rKiBi1">
Per Newton’s equations, the stars in the galaxy ought to move like the planets in our solar system do. Mercury, the closest planet to the sun, orbits very quickly, propelled by the sun’s gravity to a speed of around 106,000 mph. Neptune, far from the sun, and less influenced by its gravity, moves much slower, at around 12,000 mph.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="U1Gcpx">
The same thing ought to happen in galaxies too: Stars near the dense, gravity-rich centers of galaxies ought to move faster than the stars along the edges.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DTSN6j">
But that wasn’t what Rubin and Ford observed. Instead, they saw that the stars along the edge of Andromeda were going the same speed as the stars in the interior. “I think it was kind of like a ‘what the fuck’ moment,” Yeager says. “It was just so different than what everyone had expected.”
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/P-AOVNkXd3aXbbLDR8mxOj6_I34=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22050933/galaxy_curves_smaller.gif"/> <cite><a class="ql-link" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Eclipse.sx" target="_blank">Ingo Berg</a>/Wikipedia</cite>
<figcaption>
On the left, what Rubin expected to see: stars orbiting the outskirts of a galaxy moving slower than those near the center. On the right, what was observed: the stars on the outside moving at the same speed as the center.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8HY9ET">
The data pointed to an enormous problem: The stars couldn’t just be moving that fast on their own.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H7KRua">
At those speeds, the galaxy should be ripping itself apart like an accelerating merry-go-round with the brake turned off. To explain why this wasn’t happening, these stars needed some kind of extra gravity out there acting like an engine. There had to be a source of mass for all that extra gravity. (For a refresher: Physicists consider gravity to be a consequence of mass. The more mass in an area, the stronger the gravitational pull.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gqZb7Z">
The data suggested that there was a staggering amount of mass in the galaxy that astronomers simply couldn’t see. “As they’re looking out there, they just can’t seem to find any kind of evidence that it’s some normal type of matter,” Yeager says. It wasn’t black holes; it wasn’t dead stars. It was something else generating the gravity needed to both hold the galaxy together and propel those outer stars to such fast speeds.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="D0L6md">
“I mean, when you first see it, I think you’re afraid of being … you’re afraid of making a dumb mistake, you know, that there’s just some simple explanation,” Rubin later recounted. Other scientists might have immediately announced a dramatic conclusion based on this limited data. But not Rubin. She and her collaborators dug in and decided to do a systematic review of the star speeds in galaxies.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="p5tTn9">
Rubin and Ford weren’t <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588&amp;xs=1&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fd41586-019-02603-7&amp;referrer=vox.com&amp;sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Fscience-and-health%2F21537034%2Fdark-matter-unexplainable-podcast" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">the first group</a> to make an observation of stars moving fast at the edge of a galaxy. But what Rubin and her collaborators are famous for is verifying the finding across the universe. “She [studied] 20 galaxies, and then 40 and then 60, and they all show this bizarre behavior of stars out far in the galaxy, moving way, way too fast,” Yeager explains.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="p6Ge3U">
This is why people say Rubin ought to have won a Nobel Prize (the prizes are only awarded to living recipients, so she will never win one). She didn’t “discover” dark matter. But the data she collected over her career made it so the astronomy community had to reckon with the idea that most of the mass in the universe is unknown.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="65Qpnh">
By 1985, Rubin was confident enough in her observations to declare something of an anti-eureka: announcing not a discovery, but a huge absence in our collective knowledge. “Nature has played a trick on astronomers,” she’s paraphrased <a href="https://www.iau.org/static/publications/ga_newspapers/19851101.pdf">as saying at an</a> International Astronomical Union conference in 1985, “who thought we were studying the universe. We now know that we were studying only a small fraction of it.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WnmC94">
To this day, no one has “discovered” dark matter. But Rubin did something incredibly important: She told the scientific world about what they were missing.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Fqv3py">
In the decades since this anti-eureka, other scientists have been trying to fill in the void Rubin pointed to. Their work isn’t complete. But what they’ve been learning about dark matter is that it’s incredibly important to the very structure of our universe, and that it’s deeply, deeply weird.
</p>
<h3 id="oiHYSs">
Dark matter isn’t just enormous. It’s also strange.
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2zoPLr">
Since Rubin’s WTF moment in the Arizona desert, more and more evidence has accumulated that dark matter is real, and weird, and accounts for most of the mass in the universe.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="U9z51Z">
“Even though we can’t see it, we can still infer that dark matter is there,” <a href="http://www.kzurek.theory.caltech.edu/about">Kathryn Zurek</a>, a Caltech astrophysicist, explains. “Even if we couldn’t see the moon with our eyes, we would still know that it was there because it pulls the oceans in different directions — and it’s really very similar with dark matter.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MNPSco">
Scientists can’t see dark matter directly. But they can see its influence on the space and light around it. The biggest piece of indirect evidence: Dark matter, like all matter that accumulates in large quantities, has the ability to warp the very fabric of space.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="APISBE">
“You can visualize dark matter as these lumps of matter that create little potholes in space-time,” Natarajan says. “All the matter in the universe is pockmarked with dark matter.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5Be36N">
When light falls into one of these potholes, it bends like light does in a lens. In this way, we can’t “see” dark matter, but we can “see” the distortions it produces in astronomers’ views of the cosmos. From this, we know dark matter forms a spherical cocoon around galaxies, lending them more mass, which allows their stars to move faster than what Newton’s laws would otherwise suggest.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/7SRIjoBUyBuccbewFiR1KUJyqYU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22053291/heic1506f.jpg"/> <cite>NASA, ESA, D. Harvey (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland), R. Massey (Durham University, UK), Harald Ebeling (University of Hawaii at Manoa) and Jean-Paul Kneib (LAM)</cite>
<figcaption>
This is a NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy cluster <a class="ql-link" href="http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic1215b/" target="_blank">MACS J0717.5+3745</a>. Shown in blue on the image is a map of the dark matter found within the cluster.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XdK7Rr">
These are indirect observations, but they have given scientists some clues about the intrinsic nature of dark matter. It’s not called dark matter because of its color. It has no color. It’s called “dark” because it neither reflects nor emits light, nor any sort of electromagnetic radiation. So we can’t see it directly even with the most powerful telescopes.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ogk5pW">
Not only can we not see it, we couldn’t touch it if we tried: If some sentient alien tossed a piece of dark matter at you, it would pass right through you. If it were going fast enough, it would pass right through the entire Earth. Dark matter is like a ghost.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lJiPBf">
Here’s one reason physicists are confident in that weird fact. Astronomers have made <a href="https://chandra.harvard.edu/graphics/resources/handouts/lithos/bullet_lithos.pdf">observations of galaxy clusters that have slammed</a> into one another like a head-on collision between two cars on the highway.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Q8KGBK">
Astronomers deduced that in the collision, much of the normal matter in the galaxy clusters slowed down and mixed together (like two cars in a head-on collision would stop one another and crumple together). But the dark matter in the cluster didn’t slow down in the collision. It kept going, as if the collision didn’t even happen.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hhYqya">
The event is recreated in this animation. The red represents normal matter in the galaxy clusters, and the blue represents dark matter. During the collision, the blue dark matter acts like a ghost, just passing through the normal colliding matter as if it weren’t there.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/dHKUG4ftoRWTY6vaWpNyTQq3m9M=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22051458/bullet_cluster_gif.gif"/> <cite>John Wise of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology</cite>
<figcaption>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Kby62A">
(A note: These two weird aspects of dark matter — its invisibility and its untouchability — are connected: Dark matter simply does not interact with the electromagnetic force of nature. The electromagnetic force lights up our universe with light and radiation, but <a href="https://cornellmath.wordpress.com/2007/08/08/why-stuff-is-hard/">it also makes the world feel solid</a>.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="y4B5ud">
A final big piece of evidence for dark matter is that it helps physicists make sense of how galaxies formed in the early universe. “We know that dark matter had to be present to be part of that process,” astrophysicist <a href="http://www.astrokatie.com/">Katie Mack</a> explains. It’s believed dark matter coalesced together in the early universe before normal matter did, creating gravitational wells for normal matter to fall into. Those gravitational wells formed by dark matter became the seeds of galaxies.
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So dark matter not only holds galaxies together, as Rubin’s work implied — it’s why galaxies are there in the first place.
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So: What is it?
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To this day, no one really knows what dark matter is.
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Scientists’ best guess is that it’s a particle. Particles are the smallest building blocks of reality — they’re so small, they make up atoms. It’s thought that dark matter is just another one of these building blocks, but one we haven’t seen up close for ourselves. (There are a lot of different proposed <a href="https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/what-is-dark-matter-made-of-these-are-the-top-candidates">particles that may</a> be good dark matter candidates. Scientists still aren’t sure exactly which one it will be.)
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You might be wondering: Why can’t we find the most common source of matter in all the universe? Well, our scientific equipment is made out of normal matter. So if dark matter passes right through normal matter, trying to find dark matter is like trying to catch a ghost baseball with a normal glove.
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Plus, while dark matter is bountiful in the universe, it’s really diffuse. There are just not massive boulders of it passing nearby Earth. It’s more like we’re swimming in a fine mist of it. “If you add up all the dark matter inside humans, all humans on the planet at any given moment, it’s one nanogram,” Natarajan says — teeny-tiny.
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Dark matter may never be “discovered,” and that’s okay
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Some physicists favor a different interpretation for what Rubin observed, and for what other scientists have observed since: that it’s not that there’s some invisible mass of dark matter dominating the universe, but that scientists’ fundamental understanding of gravity is flawed <a href="https://www.wired.com/2017/01/case-dark-matter/">and needs to be reworked</a>.
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While “that’s a definite possibility,” Natarajan says, currently, there’s a lot more evidence on the side of dark matter being real and not just a mirage based on a misunderstanding of gravity. “We would need a new theory [of gravity] that can explain everything that we see already,” she explains. “There is no such theory that is currently available.”
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<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/lWPqoo680_93d2n-259DlZlsgeQ=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22071954/galaxy_cluster_cl_0024_17_zwcl_0024_1652.jpg"/> <cite>NASA, ESA, M.J. Jee and H. Ford (Johns Hopkins University)</cite>
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On the left, a Hubble Space Telescope image of a galaxy cluster. On the right, a blue shading has been added to indicate where the dark matter ought to be.
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It’s not hard to believe in something invisible, Mack says, if all the right evidence is there. We do it all the time.
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“It’s similar to if you’re walking down the street,” she says. “And as you’re walking, you see that some trees are kind of bending over, and you hear some leaves rustling and maybe you see a plastic bag sort of floating past you and you feel a little cold on one side. You can pretty much figure out there’s wind. Right? And that wind explains all of these different phenomena. … There are many, many different pieces of evidence for dark matter. And for each of them, you might be able to find some other explanation that works just as well. But when taken together, it’s really good evidence.”
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Meanwhile, experiments around the world are trying to directly detect dark matter. Physicists at the Large Hadron Collider are hoping their particle collisions may one day <a href="https://home.cern/science/physics/dark-matter">produce some detectable</a> dark matter. Astronomers are looking out in space for more clues, hoping one day <a href="https://physics.aps.org/articles/v11/s57#:~:text=A%20search%20for%20gamma%20rays,matter%20particles%20known%20as%20WIMPs.&amp;text=When%20two%20WIMPs%20collide%2C%20they,%2C%20including%20gamma%2Dray%20photons.">dark matter will reveal itself through an explosion</a> of gamma rays. Elsewhere, scientists have burrowed deep underground, shielding labs from noise and radiation, hoping that dark matter will one day pass through a detector they’ve carefully designed and make itself known.
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But it hasn’t happened yet. It may never happen: Scientists <em>hope</em> that dark matter isn’t a complete ghost to normal matter. They hope that every once in a while, when it collides with normal matter, it does something really, really subtle, like shove one single atom to the side, and set off a delicately constructed alarm.
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But that day may never come. It could be dark matter just never prods normal matter, that it remains a ghost.
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“I really did get into this business because I thought I would be detecting this within five years,” <a href="https://cse.umn.edu/physics/priscilla-cushman">Prisca Cushman</a>, a University of Minnesota physicist who works on a dark matter detector, says. She’s been trying to find dark matter for 20 years. She still believes it exists, that it’s out there to be discovered. But maybe it’s just not the particular candidate particle her detector was initially set up to find.
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That failure isn’t a reason to give up, she says. “By not seeing [dark matter] yet with a particular detector, we’re saying, ‘Oh, so it’s not this particular model that we thought it might be.’ And that is an extremely interesting statement. Because all of a sudden an army of theorists go out and say, ‘Hey, what else could it be?’”
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But even if the dark matter particle is never found, that won’t discount all science has learned about it. “It’s like you’re on a beach,” Natarajan explains. “You have a lot of sand dunes. And so we are in a situation where we are able to understand how these sand dunes form, but we don’t actually know what a grain of sand is made of.”
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Embracing the unknown
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H2EiBk">
Natarajan and the other physicists I spoke to for this story are comfortable with the unknown nature of dark matter. They’re not satisfied, they want to know more, but they accept it’s real. They accept it because that’s the state of the evidence. And if new evidence comes along to disprove it, they’ll have to accept that too.
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“Inherent to the nature of science is the fact that whatever we know is provisional,” Natarajan says. “It is apt to change. So I think what motivates people like me to continue doing science is the fact that it keeps opening up more and more questions. Nothing is ultimately resolved.”
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That’s true when it comes to the biggest questions, like “what is the universe made of?”
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It’s true in so many other areas of science, too: Despite the endless headlines that proclaim new research findings that get published daily, there are many more unanswered questions than answered. Scientists don’t really understand how <a href="https://www.bikeradar.com/features/your-bikes-secret-to-staying-upright-is-actually-a-mystery/#:~:text=Everyone%20knows%20how%20a%20bike,castor%20effect%E2%80%9D%20created%20by%20trail.&amp;text=A%20team%20of%20engineers%20says,upright%20even%20without%20these%20things">bicycles stay upright</a>, or know the <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2019/06/25/alzheimers-cabal-thwarted-progress-toward-cure/">root cause of Alzheimer’s disease or how to treat it</a>. Similarly, at the beginning <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2020/3/20/21173472/coronavirus-pandemic-unknowns-questions-seasonality-reinfection-covid-19">of the Covid-19 pandemic, we craved answers</a>: Why do some people get much sicker than others, what does immunity to the virus look like? The truth was we couldn’t yet know (and still don’t, for sure). But that didn’t mean the scientific process was broken.
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The truth is, when it comes to a lot of fields of scientific progress, we’re in the middle of the story, not the end. The lesson is that truth and knowledge are hard-won.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DeIqGY">
In the case of dark matter, it wasn’t that everything we knew about matter was wrong. It was that everything we knew about normal matter was insignificant compared to our ignorance about dark matter. The story of dark matter fits with a narrative of scientific progress that makes us humans seem smaller and smaller at each turn. First, we learned that Earth wasn’t the center of the universe. Now dark matter teaches us that the very stuff we’re made of — matter — is just a fraction of all reality.
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If dark matter is one day discovered, it will only open up more questions. Dark matter could be more than one particle, more than one thing. There could be a richness and diversity in dark matter that’s a little like the richness and diversity we see in normal matter. It’s possible, and this is speculation, that there’s a kind of shadow universe that we don’t have access to — scientists label it the “dark sector” — that is made up of different components and exists, as a ghost, enveloping our galaxies.
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It’s a little scary to learn how little we know, to learn we don’t even know what most of the universe is made out of. But there’s a sense of optimism in a question, right? It makes you feel like we can know the answer to them.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Tqnnli">
There’s so much about our world that’s arrogant: from politicians who only believe in what’s convenient for them to Silicon Valley companies <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/24/technology/facebook-election-misinformation.html">that claim they’re helping the world while fracturing it</a>, and so many more examples. If only everyone could see a bit of what Vera Rubin saw — a fundamental truth not just about the universe, but about humanity.
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“In a spiral galaxy, the ratio of dark-to-light matter is about a factor of 10,” Rubin said in a <a href="https://www.amnh.org/learn-teach/curriculum-collections/cosmic-horizons-book/vera-rubin-dark-matter">2000 interview</a>. “That’s probably a good number for the ratio of our ignorance to knowledge. We’re out of kindergarten, but only in about third grade.”
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<li><strong>Unexplainable: A new podcast about the most fascinating unanswered questions in science</strong> -
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/xxSf8DP19CYwRfCNHJWnwnrbm9o=/317x0:2184x1400/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/68940705/2500x1400___Chorus_Lede_no_logo.0.png"/>
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Facing the unknown can be thrilling. It can be scary. Wherever it’s found, it must be confronted.
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What we don’t know is awesome. Let us explain.
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I have a pot of <a href="https://www.thespruce.com/purple-shamrock-plants-2132875">purple shamrocks</a> growing on my bedroom windowsill; every day, they do a sort of dance. Before the sun rises, the shamrocks stretch out their leaves toward the sky, as if to embrace the coming sunlight before it arrives. And in the evening, they pull their leaves in close to their stems, as if they were tucked in for sleep.
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This day-night cycle is called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyctinasty">nyctinasty</a> and it’s a common behavior among plants. Recently, I was talking to a botanist who told me: No one really knows why these shamrocks, or any plant for that matter, does this daily dance. Charles Darwin <a href="http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F1325&amp;viewtype=text&amp;pageseq=1">himself wondered about it</a>. <a href="https://www.wildflower.org/expert/show.php?id=1493">Botanists still don’t know</a>.
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These shamrocks remind me that the world is still haunted by scientific mysteries. I think about them and I’m filled with wonder. Because for so many stories in science — plant stories, medical stories, space stories, environmental stories, and more — the truth is that we’re still in the middle of them. What we don’t know is still greater than what we do.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gpcldF">
Today, we’re launching a new podcast at Vox in the spirit of embracing the unknown, and the great stories that are borne out of the endeavor. <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/unexplainable/id1554578197"><em>Unexplainable</em></a><em> </em>will explore the most interesting, crucial, and surprising unanswered questions in science.
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The show premieres with two episodes and we’ll release weekly episodes every Wednesday. <em>Unexplainable</em> will also <a href="https://www.vox.com/unexplainable">be available on Vox.com</a>, where you can find new episodes and related stories.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mYEvEm">
Our first episode examines one of the biggest mysteries in the universe: <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/21537034/dark-matter-unexplainable-podcast">dark matter.</a> It’s the substance that holds galaxies together, but no one knows what it is exactly.
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Our second episode is much more down to earth and the question is surprisingly unanswered: How, exactly, do our noses smell? We speak to scientists trying to figure this mystery out, as well as those who are charging ahead with building robot noses, despite not completely understanding how human ones work.
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And in the coming weeks we’ll tell you about more mysteries big and small: stories set deep beneath the Earth, inside people’s homes, at the edge of the solar system, in our bodies, and more.
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Why this show. Why now.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YAvzKR">
We hope the show can <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2019/1/4/17989224/intellectual-humility-explained-psychology-replication">foster intellectual humility</a>, make individuals curious about what they don’t know, and, perhaps, help inspire some to become the ones who help fill in the gaps.
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The past few years have laid bare the destructive warping power of misinformation, of conspiratorial thinking, of climate change denial, of public opinions borne out of spite instead of conviction. Because of technology, it’s never been easier to disseminate lies to ears willing to hear them.
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A show about where knowledge comes from can, simply, help.
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<em>Unexplainable</em> is not about how scientists don’t know <em>anything</em>. Science has learned great, true, foundational things. But what we don’t still know is just massive. And not all unknowns are equally mysterious. There are many shades of “I don’t know” in science, from unanswered questions like “what is dark matter” to smaller gaps in knowledge, like how scientists are not quite sure if climate change is <a href="https://www.vox.com/22287295/texas-uri-climate-change-cold-polar-vortex-arctic">leading to an increased</a> frequency of severe winter weather events.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ml216y">
In developing this show, we are also aware that science has flaws. There’s long been gatekeeping in who gets to ask questions and whose answers are listened to. And the institutions of science sometimes <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/7/14/12016710/science-challeges-research-funding-peer-review-proce">reward flashy, here today gone tomorrow results over rigorous inquiry</a>. In other words, science sometimes gets in its own way of answering questions. We’ll tell those stories, too.
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But what we’ll keep coming back to is the spark that gets scientists going in the first place: curiosity.
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I believe there’s optimism in a question. Why ask one if you don’t believe an answer is possible? Sometimes there can be frustration in a question. Sometimes longing. Sometimes just a fearsome, yet intoxicating, feeling of awe.
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Everything starts with a question. And all questions start with the unknown.
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So come join us, you beautiful curious minds. We’re going off the map.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="i10">
Want to help us explore the unknown?<strong> </strong>Join the <em>Unexplainable</em> community! We’ll send you links to things we mentioned in the episode, ways to contribute to our reporting, and stories that spark your curiosity. To start, simply fill out this <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfh0IRau0VqSIimlIDjBdXz9D1547Yir7Ft10FWp0AWJuk8pQ/viewform">short Google form</a> or <a href="https://confirmsubscription.com/h/d/3514674E7899517F">sign up here</a>.
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<em><strong>Subscribe now to </strong></em><a href="https://www.vox.com/unexplainable"><em><strong>Unexplainable</strong></em></a><em><strong> wherever you listen to podcasts, including </strong></em><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/unexplainable/id1554578197"><strong>Apple Podcasts</strong></a><strong>, </strong><a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/0PhoePNItwrXBnmAEZgYmt?si=CTtJte1DQDOboF_YQh4pPA&amp;nd=1"><strong>Spotify</strong></a><strong>, and </strong><a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vdW5leHBsYWluYWJsZQ?sa=X&amp;ved=0CAYQ27cFahcKEwjY4dzvk5fvAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ"><strong>Google Podcasts</strong></a><strong>. </strong>
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<li><strong>This Democrat has a federal privacy bill Republicans might actually like</strong> -
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<img alt="A picture of Rep. Suzan DelBene superimposed on a United States map with illustrations of padlocks on it." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/2ZqXVL1njpCLA7g3-ogDreYnN9s=/260x0:1820x1170/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/68940296/Pirvacy_Bill.0.jpg"/>
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Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-WA) is ready to move on consumer privacy. | Zac Freeland/Vox
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Rep. Suzan DelBene is the first of several lawmakers to introduce necessary privacy legislation this year.
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Is 2021 the year we’ll finally get a federal consumer privacy law? Barring another worldwide disaster, all signs point to yes — or at the very least, some significant progress toward one. Several senators and representatives who introduced privacy bills in previous sessions told Recode that they will be reintroducing their bills in the months to come. First up is Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-WA), who is introducing her Information Transparency and Personal Data Control Act on Wednesday.
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“We need for folks to understand how critically important privacy is,” DelBene told Recode. “Not only domestically for consumer rights, but how we’re going to have more and more challenges internationally if we don’t address privacy.”
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On a consumer-facing level, DelBene’s bill would require businesses and websites to get users’ permission before sharing their sensitive personal data, including things like Social Security numbers, location, sexual orientation, immigration status, and health information. It would also give users the ability to opt out of the collection, use, or sharing of non-sensitive personal data. Companies collecting data would have to tell users if and why their information is being shared, as well as the categories of third parties with whom it’s being shared. Finally, businesses and websites would have to provide clear and understandable privacy policies, written in “plain language,” as DelBene calls it.
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“We’re focused on opt-in so that privacy is the default,” she said.
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Behind the scenes, businesses would have to submit to a privacy audit every two years, and state attorneys general and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) would have enforcement powers — with the latter given significant resources and authority to enforce the law and create additional regulations as it sees fit.
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“Enforcement is key,” DelBene added. “We can have a privacy policy, but if we don’t have somebody who’s going to be in charge of enforcing it and setting and continuing to make sure that we have strong rules? … That’s obviously critical.”
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DelBene’s bill will likely kick off a new round of attempts to pass a consumer privacy law in this new congressional session. Over the years, the <a href="https://www.commerce.senate.gov/2020/9/revisiting-the-need-for-federal-data-privacy-legislation">Senate</a> and <a href="https://energycommerce.house.gov/newsroom/press-releases/ec-leaders-want-to-know-how-ftc-could-boost-privacy-data-security">House</a> commerce committees have held hearings on consumer privacy, and several members of Congress in both houses and from both parties have proposed bills. Both sides recognize the need for a law. And yet, <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22189727/2020-pandemic-ruined-digital-privacy">we have no law</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zjtQ0M">
Meanwhile, the need for such a law has never been greater. Americans spent more time online than ever during the pandemic, giving their valuable data to a variety of platforms and services that operate with few rules beyond those they make for themselves. These platforms — Facebook and Google chief among them — grow wealthier and more powerful every day, thanks to the virtual mountains of data they collect from billions of people around the world.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dB1Nad">
Meanwhile, other countries and states have started to enact their own data privacy laws. The European Union has the <a href="https://gdpr.eu/what-is-gdpr/">General Data Protection Regulation</a> (GDPR). <a href="https://iapp.org/news/a/indias-data-privacy-bill-under-committee-review/">India</a> and <a href="https://iapp.org/news/a/a-look-at-chinas-draft-of-personal-data-protection-law/">China</a> are proposing their own privacy laws, Californians have their <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/12/30/21030754/ccpa-2020-california-privacy-law-rights-explained">Consumer Protection Act</a> (CCPA) and the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/11/4/21534746/california-proposition-24-digital-privacy-results">Privacy Rights Act</a> (CPRA), and Virginia just passed the <a href="https://iapp.org/news/a/virginia-consumer-data-protection-act-on-the-horizon-now-what/">Consumer Data Protection Act</a> (CDPA). <a href="https://www.govtech.com/policy/Oklahoma-Lawmakers-Introduce-Computer-Data-Privacy-Act.html">Several</a><a href="https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/new-york-legislature-introduces-ccpa-6501577/"> other</a><a href="https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=HF36&amp;type=bill&amp;version=0&amp;session=ls92&amp;session_year=2021&amp;session_number=0"> states</a> are considering their own, including DelBene’s <a href="https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/2021-washington-privacy-act-released-2010940/">home state</a>, Washington. So the lack of a federal privacy law makes the United States look like an outlier.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UYWEgs">
“Having the US absent from that discussion, where it’s the largest economy in the world — and certainly the leader in technology — is just amiss,” Omer Tene, vice president and chief knowledge officer of the International Association of Privacy Professionals, a nonpartisan membership organization, told Recode.
</p>
<h3 id="FsNwyF">
A consumer privacy bill from a former tech executive
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JM6Dl1">
DelBene has been the representative for Washington’s First Congressional District since 2012. Before that, she was an executive at several tech companies, from small startups to the very large Microsoft. So she knows business, she knows tech, and she uses that background to inform some of her legislation and initiatives.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ppassX">
As a member of Congress, DelBene has pushed for the <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22251118/vaccine-health-data-privacy-laws-philadelphia">Public Health Emergency Privacy Act</a>, which would strengthen health privacy protections related to the pandemic, and the <a href="https://delbene.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=1658">Email Privacy Act</a>, which would force law enforcement to get a warrant for emails from third-party providers (currently, they only have to get a warrant for emails that are fewer than 180 days old). She’s also sponsored bills about smart cities, ebooks, telehealth, the Internet of Things, and virtual currency.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W0TVFc">
DelBene’s previous attempts to introduce the Information Transparency and Personal Data Control Act in the last two Congresses didn’t go anywhere. Her latest version has a few changes but isn’t radically different from its forebears. The big difference this time around is that we now have a Democratic-majority House and Senate that makes passing consumer privacy legislation — or any legislation, really — seem much more possible. The real question is what that law will include.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vfx1gC">
“Largely, this is a bipartisan issue, which is room for optimism that [a privacy bill] can pass,” Tene said. “This is a topic that they can find convergence on.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zk7gzM">
DelBene’s bill, which has elements that appeal to both parties, might be a place to find that convergence. DelBene is the chair of the New Democrat Coalition, a caucus of nearly 100 moderate Democrats, and her bill reflects those centrist leanings. It’s more business-friendly than other Democrats’ bills, and in the two areas that Republicans and Democrats are the furthest apart — preemption, which is states’ rights to pass their own, stronger privacy laws; and private right of action, which is consumers’ rights to sue companies if they think their privacy rights have been violated — DelBene’s bill is more on the right-leaning side of things than the left. That said, previous iterations of her bill have had the support of many Democrats (last time, she ended up with 34 co-sponsors) and the endorsement of the New Democrat Coalition.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MtCQGB">
DelBene said she’s hopeful she’ll even get at least one Republican co-sponsor on the bill this time around.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BDk01j">
“We still have work to do to make that happen,” she said. “So we’re going to keep working with everyone.”
</p>
<h3 id="INpRRr">
Where the bill may lose some Democrats (and probably more than a few privacy and consumer advocates)
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qJgoO5">
But the Information Transparency and Personal Data Control Act is missing some things that many privacy and consumer advocates consider to be <a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/06/effs-recommendations-consumer-data-privacy-laws">essential</a>. While it does give consumers the power to opt into the sharing and selling of some types of their data — considered to be a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/06/opinion/data-tech-privacy-opt-in.html">more privacy-forward approach</a> than forcing consumers to do the work to opt out of everything — the bill does not explicitly give consumers the right to access, change, or delete the information a company has collected about them. Those are rights that CCPA and GDPR grant, so it’s conspicuously absent from DelBene’s bill.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HgS13d">
There is also the question of preemption and private right of action. DelBene’s bill would preempt state laws and bar private right of action, which tends to align more with Republicans’ interests than Democrats’.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0sxMMx">
On the first point, DelBene is unequivocal: A federal privacy law must be preemptive.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lOLuKp">
“How does it work if you have a patchwork [of state laws] for your average user, and how does it work for a small business?” DelBene said. “And shouldn’t we have a strong federal law so that people’s rights are protected everywhere in the country, and that we’re bringing that strong point of view to the international table?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ps47DX">
This approach would be nice for big businesses, too, which is why they’ve <a href="https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/02/cisco-like-apple-and-other-tech-giants-now-wants-new-federal-privacy-law/">called for</a> a preemptive federal law; only having to deal with one (ideally weak) law is much easier for them than having to anticipate and adjust to a barrage of constantly evolving rules from 50 states.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sELTb0">
There is an exception to preemption in DelBene’s bill: biometric laws. So Illinois’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/7/23/21335806/facebook-settlement-illinois-facial-recognition-photo-tagging">Biometric Information Privacy Act</a>, which says businesses must get user permission before collecting their biometric data — such as using facial recognition — wouldn’t be touched.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W0JzNa">
But preemptive bills have an increasingly tall hurdle to overcome as more states adopt privacy laws and their residents get rights that a weaker preemptive federal law would then take away. For instance, the American Prospect’s scathing <a href="https://prospect.org/power/moderate-democrats-back-a-privacy-bill-minus-the-privacy/">assessment</a> of DelBene’s bill’s previous iteration called it a “privacy bill, minus the privacy” which would take Californians’ CCPA rights away and give them “next to nothing” in return.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ubDqAw">
There’s also no private right of action in DelBene’s bill, which means that consumers won’t be able to sue businesses if they feel their rights have been violated. State attorneys general and the FTC will be the only parties that can go after those businesses. Private right of action proponents point out that attorneys general and the FTC don’t always have the time or resources to enforce privacy laws, so an extra measure of accountability is necessary. Businesses really don’t like private right of action because it opens them up to lots of <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/7/23/21335806/facebook-settlement-illinois-facial-recognition-photo-tagging">expensive lawsuits</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5ISUYj">
But private right of action can be a difficult sell. Even the CCPA was <a href="https://iapp.org/news/a/ccpa-litigation-shaping-the-contours-of-the-private-right-of-action/#:~:text=Section%201798.150(a)(1,and%20maintain%20reasonable%20security%20procedures">watered down</a> to only grant it for cases where sensitive personal data was exposed because a business didn’t take adequate security precautions to protect it. Virginia’s CDPA doesn’t have it, and the question of whether to include it has delayed Washington state’s attempt to pass its own.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Av1IdZ">
Cameron Kerry, a fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Center for Technology Innovation and co-author of the “<a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/bridging-the-gaps-a-path-forward-to-federal-privacy-legislation/">Bridging the gaps: A path forward to federal privacy legislation</a>” report, thinks we’ll ultimately see a federal privacy law that compromises on both private right of action and preemption.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CIz2f8">
“I think it is sinking in with the industry that it’s probably going to take some kind of private right of action to get legislation passed,” Kerry told Recode. “I think it is sinking in with people who oppose preemption of state laws that it’s also going to take some significant preemption to get a bill passed.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cqiLs3">
DelBene’s solution to the lack of private right of action is a significantly beefed-up FTC, with $350 million in funding and an additional 500 full-time employees who will focus on data privacy and security. That’s a major boost, considering that the FTC currently has about <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/about-ftc/bureaus-offices/office-executive-director/financial-management-office/ftc-appropriation">1,100 full-time employees</a> who are spread across its multiple areas of enforcement (with just <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/reports/reports-response-senate-appropriations-committee-report-116-111-ftcs-use-its-authorities-resources/p065404reportresourcesprivacydatasecurity.pdf">40 to 45 of them</a> in its Division of Privacy and Identity Protection). And the bill gives the FTC the authority to make future regulations that could strengthen or adjust the law, rather than waiting years — even decades — for Congress to act and pass new legislation.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="M1UQNq">
“It’s important that we have the enforcement and rule-making authority to address any issues that arise or something we didn’t catch,” DelBene said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GYH3fG">
At least one privacy advocacy group isn’t quite sold on that reasoning, however.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vH3h5H">
“We’d rather Congress enact privacy safeguards by statute, as opposed to Congress empower an agency to enact privacy safeguards by regulation,” Adam Schwartz, senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told Recode.
</p>
<h3 id="fZqHHT">
The Information Transparency and Personal Data Control Act will soon have more progressive competition
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Q9stw4">
DelBene’s bill is the first consumer privacy bill to come out this year, but it won’t be the last. Several have been introduced over the years, all with their own particular quirks. The office of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) told Recode that she’s planning to reintroduce her <a href="https://medium.com/@gillibrandny/the-u-s-needs-a-data-protection-agency-98a054f7b6bf">Data Protection Act</a>, which would establish an agency charged with creating and enforcing privacy regulations. Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown’s office told Recode that he intends to introduce a 2021 version of his Data Accountability and Transparency Act, which he <a href="https://www.brown.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/brown-proposal-protect-consumers-privacy">released in draft form</a> last year. Brown’s bill does away with consumer consent entirely by making the legal default that no personal data is collected, used, or shared at all.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IxgkQY">
And Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) will also be coming out with a new version of his 2019 <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/8/5/21339766/zuckerberg-privacy-law-facebook-congress-wyden">Mind Your Own Business Act</a>, the previous version of which included the creation of a national “do not track” system, gave the FTC to power to levy stiff fines for first-time offenses, called for prison time for company executives who lied to the FTC, and gave users access to the data companies have collected on them.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="glN9DL">
“Yes, I’ll be reintroducing the Mind Your Own Business Act,” Wyden told Recode. “I plan to work closely with my colleagues to move comprehensive privacy legislation.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8hvERL">
There have also been bills from <a href="https://lofgren.house.gov/media/press-releases/eshoo-lofgren-introduce-online-privacy-act">Reps. Zoe Lofgren and Anna Eshoo</a> (both D-CA) and <a href="https://www.moran.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-releases?id=5C11EECE-DE43-4B2B-AEDE-76504D1D6186">Sen. Jerry Moran</a> (R-KS) that could come back this year, and the Senate commerce committee’s Democrats, led by Washington’s <a href="https://www.cantwell.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cantwell-senate-democrats-unveil-strong-online-privacy-rights">Sen. Maria Cantwell</a>, and Republicans, led by Mississippi’s <a href="https://www.commerce.senate.gov/2020/9/wicker-thune-fischer-blackburn-introduce-consumer-data-privacy-legislation">Sen. Roger Wicker</a>, may reintroduce their bills. A bipartisan bill from the commerce committee could have the best chance of succeeding out of all of them, but that’s been a nonstarter so far.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6WWohc">
So after too many years of too little action on consumer privacy legislation, lawmakers might find themselves with an embarrassment of riches. DelBene’s bill might stick out for its bipartisan appeal. Or, with a Democratic majority now in both houses, a more progressive bill might have a better shot. What is clear now is that we need a law, and the sooner the better. DelBene’s is one of what will be many, and it’s a relatively short and simple bill with room to build on, which gives the FTC the power to do just that.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nM7h7Y">
“I wrote this bill as being very foundational,” DelBene said. “We do need to expand beyond this. … If we don’t have fundamental privacy policy, then how are we going to address all the issues that are built on top of that? So we really are starting out making sure that we’re building the infrastructure we need to make sure we’re protecting consumer rights in the digital world.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1N6VHv">
<a href="http://www.vox.com/open-sourced"><em>Open Sourced</em></a><em> is made possible by Omidyar Network. All Open Sourced content is editorially independent and produced by our journalists.</em>
</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>ICC T20I rankings | India move to second spot in team rankings ahead of England series</strong> - England hold the top postion who are seven points ahead of India</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>It felt like going to war: Shubman Gill on Test debut in Australia</strong> - The Indian opening batsman said in spite of all the injuries and 36 all out, the dressing room positivity never changed</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>Southampton to host World Test Championship final between India and New Zealand: ICC</strong> - Initially, the final was supposed to be held at the Lord’s</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>ICC CEO Manu Sawhney sent on “leave”; may resign before term ends</strong> - The International Cricket Council’s Chief Executive Manu Sawhney has been sent on “leave” after his conduct came under the scanner during an internal</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>Varun Chakravarthy fails fitness test again, Natarajan at NCA with shoulder niggle</strong> - Varun Chakravarthy has repeatedly failed to clear the fitness test at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru</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>Parliament proceedings | Mohan Delkar’s death, a blow to dignity of Parliament: Supriya Sule</strong> - Refer to Committee on Privileges his allegations made in Parliament, she urges Speaker</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>Twenty20 releases second list of candidates</strong> - Twenty20 — the corporate-backed political party — has fielded a doctor, retired professor, and a fitness expert as its candidates in Thrikkakara, Erna</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>J&amp;K: Apni Party seeks intervention of Modi, Shah to address concerns of DDC members</strong> - The Apni Party on Wednesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah to resolve protocol power and honorarium issues of D</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>Cabinet clears non-lapsable fund for health care</strong> - Amount accruing from health cess to be managed by Health Ministry.</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>BJP contestant and six others held for distributing cash inRamajanchadrapuram municipality</strong> - The police conducted the raid based on a tip by the locals and ₹37,000 in cash has been seized from them.</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>Russia targets Twitter speed over ‘banned content’</strong> - President Putin has criticised social media companies and Twitter is popular with opposition activists.</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 wave intensifies in Central Europe</strong> - Intensive care cases climb in the Czech Republic as infections in Hungary reach a new high.</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>Greece violence: Officers injured in police brutality protests</strong> - People took to the streets in response to a video that appeared to show a man being beaten by officers.</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: UK rejects ‘false’ vaccine export ban claim by EU</strong> - An EU diplomat is summoned to the Foreign Office following comments by the bloc’s top official.</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>Bialowieza: Poland to resume logging in primeval forest</strong> - Bialowieza forest is at the centre of a long-running row between environmentalists and the government.</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>From buggies to buses, the first Black-owned US automaker did what few others dared</strong> - Few of its products remain, but C.R. Patterson &amp; Sons was an industry trailblazer. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1747991">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Hackers access security cameras inside Cloudflare, jails, and hospitals</strong> - Cloud-based camera service Verkada exposed hardcoded password—and its customers. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1748489">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>As a crop, cannabis has enormous carbon emissions</strong> - Ironically, growing it in a controlled environment has a huge environmental impact. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1748460">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Want some Ryzen in your Surface? Rumor has it Microsoft does, too</strong> - If you prefer a Surface with a heavier multicore punch, we’ve got hopeful news. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1748449">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Tesla: “Full self-driving beta” isn’t designed for full self-driving</strong> - Tesla told California regulators the FSD beta lacks “true autonomous features.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1748020">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Farmer Joe decided his injuries from the accident were serious enough to take the trucking company responsible for the accident to court. In court the trucking company’s fancy lawyer was questioning farmer Joe. “Didn’t you say, at the scene of the accident, ‘I’m fine,’” asked the lawyer.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Farmer Joe responded, “Well. I’ll tell you what happened. I had just loaded my favourite donkey Bessie into the…”I didn’t ask for any details," the lawyer interrupted, “just answer the question. Did you not say, at the scene of the accident, ‘I’m fine!’”. Farmer Joe said, “Well, I had just got Bessie into the trailer and I was driving down the road…” The lawyer interrupted again and said, “Judge, I am trying to establish the fact that, at the scene of the accident, this man told the Police officer on the scene that he was fine. Now several weeks after the accident he is trying to sue my client. I believe he is a fraud. Please tell him to simply answer the question.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
By this time the Judge was fairly interested in Farmer Joe’s answer and said to the lawyer, “I’d like to hear what he has to say.” Joe thanked the Judge and proceeded, “Well, as I was saying, I had just loaded Bessie into the trailer and was driving her down the motorway when this huge semi-truck and trailer ran the stop sign and smacked my truck right in the side. I was thrown into one ditch and Bessie was thrown into the other. I was hurting real bad and didn’t want to move. However, I could hear ol’ Bessie moaning and groaning. I knew she was in terrible shape just by her groans. Shortly after the accident a Policeman came on the scene. He could hear Bessie moaning and groaning so he went over to her. After he looked at her he took out his gun and shot her between the eyes. Then the officer came across the road with his gun in his hand and looked at me.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
He said, “Your donkey was in such bad shape I had to shoot her. How are you feeling?”
</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/throughmethroughyou"> /u/throughmethroughyou </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/m1m3y9/farmer_joe_decided_his_injuries_from_the_accident/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/m1m3y9/farmer_joe_decided_his_injuries_from_the_accident/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>Three brothers age 92, 94 and 96 live in a house together.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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One night the 96 year old draws a bath, puts his foot in and pauses. He yells down the stairs, “Was I getting in or out of the bath?”
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The 94 year old yells back, “I don’t know, I’ll come up and see.” He starts up the stairs and pauses, then he yells, “Was I going up the stairs or coming down?”
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The 92 year old was sitting at the kitchen table having coffee listening to his brothers. He shakes his head and says, “I sure hope I never get that forgetful.” He knocks on wood for good luck. He then yells, “I’ll come up and help both of you as soon as I see who’s at the door.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/watwat-656"> /u/watwat-656 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/m1eueu/three_brothers_age_92_94_and_96_live_in_a_house/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/m1eueu/three_brothers_age_92_94_and_96_live_in_a_house/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>I was verbally harassed by two kids at the park today</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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So I told them off. Then their mother came over to me and said “Leave them the fuck alone! They’re my fucking kids!”
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Trying to think of a witty comeback, I asked her “Are they twins?”
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She replied, “Of course they’re not twins you fucking idiot, one is seven and the other is twelve! How could you possibly think they were twins?!”
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I replied, “Well, I couldn’t imagine anyone fucking you twice.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Chainsmoker88"> /u/Chainsmoker88 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/m1g19w/i_was_verbally_harassed_by_two_kids_at_the_park/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/m1g19w/i_was_verbally_harassed_by_two_kids_at_the_park/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>Insomnia is terrible. But on the plus side…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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Only three more sleeps till Christmas
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/MrChooChoo11"> /u/MrChooChoo11 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/m158mg/insomnia_is_terrible_but_on_the_plus_side/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/m158mg/insomnia_is_terrible_but_on_the_plus_side/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>Two students are waiting to give their oral tests…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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The first student’s turn comes, and he goes inside
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Examiner- Suppose you are traveling by train, and suddenly it gets hot, what will you do?
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Student- I will open the window.
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Examiner- Great, now suppose that the area of the window is 10 sq. ft, the volume of the car is 1000 cubic ft, the train is traveling at 60 miles/hr in the westerly direction, speed of the wind is 20 ft/sec from the south, how long will it take for the compartment to get cold?
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The student can’t answer. After coming out he tells the question to the second student.
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The second student goes in and his test starts.
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Examiner- Suppose you are traveling by train, and suddenly it gets hot, what will you do?
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2nd Student- I will remove my jacket.
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Examiner- It still is hot, then what?
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Student- I will remove my shirt.
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Examiner (angrily)- What are you going to do next, take off all your clothes?
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Student- Yes.
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Examiner (Fuming)- And what if it’s still hot and you nearly go unconscious?
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Student- I will lie there butt naked, dehydrated, dying a slow death, but will never ever open that god damned fucking window.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Crandilya"> /u/Crandilya </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/m1przj/two_students_are_waiting_to_give_their_oral_tests/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/m1przj/two_students_are_waiting_to_give_their_oral_tests/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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