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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>Projecting the transition of COVID-19 burden towards the young population while vaccines are rolled out: a modelling study</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
SARS-CoV-2 infection causes most cases of severe illness and fatality in older age groups. In China, over 85% of individuals aged ≥12 years have been vaccinated against COVID-19 (albeit with vaccines developed against historical lineages), while children aged 0-11 years are currently not eligible for vaccination (as of September 2021). The aim of this work is to assess whether the importation of Delta variant infections will shift the COVID-19 burden from adults to children. We developed an age-structured susceptible-infectious-removed model of SARS-CoV-2 transmission dynamics to simulate the epidemics triggered by the importation of Delta variant infections and project the age-specific incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infections, cases, hospitalisations, intensive care unit (ICU) admissions, and deaths. In the context of the vaccination programme targeting individuals aged ≥12 years (as of September 2021), and in the absence of non- pharmaceutical interventions, the importation of Delta variant infections could lead to widespread transmission and substantial disease burden in mainland China, even with vaccination coverage as high as 97% across the currently eligible age groups. The symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections and hospitalisation are projected to shift towards children and young adolescents, with 13% of symptomatic infections and 30% of hospitalisations occurring in those aged 0-11 years. Extending the vaccination roll-out to include children aged 3-11 years is estimated to dramatically decrease the burden of symptomatic infections and hospitalisations within this age group (54% and 81%, respectively), but would have a low impact on protecting infants (aged 0-2 years). Our findings highlight the need to strengthen vaccination efforts by simultaneously extending the target population and elevating vaccine effectiveness.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article- link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.14.21265032v1" target="_blank">Projecting the transition of COVID-19 burden towards the young population while vaccines are rolled out: a modelling study</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>A wind speed threshold for increased outdoor transmission of coronavirus: An ecological study</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background To examine whether outdoor transmission may contribute to the COVID-19 epidemic, we hypothesized that slower outdoor wind speed is associated with increased risk of transmission when individuals socialize outside. Methods Daily COVID-19 incidence reported in Suffolk County, NY, between March 16th-December 31st, 2020, was the outcome. Average wind speed and maximal daily temperature were collated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Negative binomial regression was used to model incidence rates while adjusting for susceptible population size. Results Cases were very high in the initial wave but diminished once lockdown procedures were enacted. Most days between May 1st, 2020, and October 24th, 2020, had temperatures 16-28C and wind speed diminished slowly over the year and began to increase again in December 2020. Unadjusted and multivariable-adjusted analyses revealed that days with temperatures ranging between 16-28C where wind speed was &lt;8.85 kilometers per hour (KPH) had increased COVID-19 incidence (aIRR=1.45, 95% C.I.=[1.28-1.64], P&lt;0.001) as compared to days with average wind speed &gt;=8.85 KPH. Conclusion Throughout the U.S. epidemic, the role of outdoor shared spaces such as parks and beaches has been a topic of considerable interest. This study suggests that outdoor transmission of COVID-19 may occur by noting that the risk of transmission of COVID-19 in the summer was higher on days with low wind speed. Outdoor use of increased physical distance between individuals, improved air circulation, and use of masks may be helpful in some outdoor environments where airflow is limited.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.05.21251179v2" target="_blank">A wind speed threshold for increased outdoor transmission of coronavirus: An ecological study</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Interactions among common non-SARS-CoV-2 respiratory viruses and influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on their circulation in New York City</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background Non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) and voluntary behavioral changes during the COVID-19 pandemic have influenced the circulation of non-SARS-CoV-2 respiratory infections. We aimed to examine interactions among common non-SARS-CoV-2 respiratory virus and further estimate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on these viruses. Methods We analyzed incidence data for seven groups of respiratory viruses in New York City (NYC) during Oct 2015 - May 2021 (i.e., before and during the COVID-19 pandemic). We first used elastic net regression to identify potential virus interactions and further examined the robustness of the found interactions by comparing the performance of Auto Regressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) models with and without the interactions. We then used the models to compute counterfactual estimates of cumulative incidence and estimate the reduction during the COVID-19 pandemic period from March 2020 to May 2021, for each virus. Results We identified potential interactions for three endemic human coronaviruses (CoV-NL63, CoV-HKU, and CoV-OC43), parainfluenza (PIV)-1, rhinovirus, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). We found significant reductions (by ~70-90%) in cumulative incidence of CoV-OC43, CoV-229E, human metapneumovirus, PIV-2, PIV-4, RSV, and influenza virus during the COVID-19 pandemic. In contrast, the circulation of adenovirus and rhinovirus was less affected. Conclusions Circulation of several respiratory viruses has been low during the COVID-19 pandemic, which may lead to increased population susceptibility. It is thus important to enhance monitoring of these viruses and promptly enact measures to mitigate their health impacts (e.g., influenza vaccination campaign and hospital infection prevention) in the coming months.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.14.21264861v1" target="_blank">Interactions among common non-SARS-CoV-2 respiratory viruses and influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on their circulation in New York City</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Duration of viral shedding and culture positivity with post-vaccination breakthrough delta variant infections</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Isolation guidelines for SARS-CoV-2 are largely derived from data collected prior to emergence of the delta variant. We followed a cohort of ambulatory patients with post-vaccination breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infections with longitudinal collection of nasal swabs for SARS-CoV-2 viral load quantification, whole genome sequencing, and viral culture. All delta variant infections (8/8, 100%) in our cohort were symptomatic, compared with 64% (9/14) of non-delta variant infections. Delta variant breakthrough infections were characterized by higher initial viral load, longer duration of virologic shedding by PCR (median 13.5 vs 4 days, hazard ratio [HR] 0.45, 95%CI 0.17-1.17), greater likelihood of replication competent virus at early stages of infection (6/8 [75%] vs 3/14 [23%], P=0.03), and longer duration of culturable virus (median 7 vs 3 days, HR 0.38, 95%CI 0.14-1.02) compared to non-delta variants. Nonetheless, no individuals with delta variant infections had replication competent virus by day 10 after symptom onset or 24 hours after resolution of symptoms. These data support current US Center for Disease Control isolation guidelines and reinforce the importance of prompt testing and isolation among symptomatic individuals with delta variant breakthrough infections. Additional data are needed to evaluate these relationships among asymptomatic and more severe delta variant breakthrough infections.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.14.21264747v1" target="_blank">Duration of viral shedding and culture positivity with post-vaccination breakthrough delta variant infections</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>NSAIDs/Nitazoxanide/Azithromycin Immunomodulatory COVID Protocol Might Inhibit SARS CoV-2 Replication Through Disruption of NF-κB Signaling</strong> -
<div>
In March 2020, I’ve sent a correspondence to NEJM (20-06753) calling the claims that led the world to avoid non- steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in COVID-19 management as a scam and it was rejected by this journal as well as more than a dozen of other journals until published almost six months later at the reputable InflammoPharmacology. In April 2020, a concept paper was rapidly published as a letter to the editor favoring nitazoxanide over ivermectin for management of COVID-19 together with azithromycin. Since then, a protocol has evolved to safely manage dozens of pediatric, geriatric, adult and pregnant COVID-19 patients and it was rejected by dozens of journals since May 2020 (20-19376) and eventually it was published in August 2021 only after publishing several papers to justify its academic basis in highly reputable journals. I repeat my long-ignored claim NSAIDs/Nitazoxanide/Azithromycin immunomodulatory protocol (Kelleni’s Protocol) a game-changer that might end this pandemic safely and immediately and, in this manuscript, I’m adding more recent evidence that justify my claim.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/g2h74/" target="_blank">NSAIDs/Nitazoxanide/Azithromycin Immunomodulatory COVID Protocol Might Inhibit SARS CoV-2 Replication Through Disruption of NF-κB Signaling</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Memory B cell and humoral responses elicited by Sputnik V in naïve and COVID-19-recovered vaccine recipients</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The development of effective vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 remains a global health priority. Despite extensive use, the effects of Sputnik V on B cell immunity need to be explored in detail. We show that B memory cell (MBC) and antibody responses to Sputnik V were heavily dependent on whether the vaccinee had a history of SARS-CoV-2 infection or not. <i>In vitro</i> stimulated MBCs from previously infected recipients of Sputnik V secreted a significant amount of anti-RBD IgG both on days 28 and 85 from the beginning of vaccination. These antibodies demonstrated robust neutralization of the Wuhan Spike-pseudotyped lentivirus. In the naïve group of vaccinees, the level of anti-RBD IgG secretion was five- to- six-fold reduced compared to that of the recovered group, and maximum virus neutralization (Wuhan spike) was achieved only on day 85. Sera from all the recovered and most naïve Sputnik V recipients were neutralizing against the ancestral Wuhan and mutant B.1.351 viruses. Thus, our in-depth analysis of MBC responses in Sputnik V vaccinees complements traditional serological approaches and may provide important outlook into future B cell responses upon re-encounter with the emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html- link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.13.21264894v1" target="_blank">Memory B cell and humoral responses elicited by Sputnik V in naïve and COVID-19-recovered vaccine recipients</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>“I had no life. I was only existing”. Factors shaping the mental health and wellbeing of people experiencing long Covid: a qualitative study.</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background Around one in 10 people who have COVID-19 report persistent symptoms or “long Covid”. Impaired mental health and wellbeing is commonly reported including anxiety, depression and reduced quality of life. There is however, limited in-depth research exploring why mental health and wellbeing have been impacted among people experiencing long Covid. Aims To explore factors impacting mental health and wellbeing, from the perspective of people with long Covid. Method Semi-structured qualitative interviews that were audio-recorded and transcribed. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. 21 people with long Covid participated in the study. Participants were eligible to take part if they self-reported a positive swab test/antibody test, or one or more commonly reported COVID-19 symptoms at illness onset and experiences of one or more long Covid symptom three or more weeks following illness onset. Results Five themes were identified across participant accounts regarding factors impacting mental health and wellbeing including i) experiences of care and understanding from others; ii) lack of service and treatment options; iii) severe disruption to daily life iv) uncertainty of illness trajectories and v) changes to identity. Conclusions People with long Covid experience a range of factors that negatively impact their mental health and wellbeing. Providing patient centred health services that integrate the rapidly evolving research in this area is important, as are peer support groups and supported approaches to self-management.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.13.21264855v1" target="_blank">“I had no life. I was only existing”. Factors shaping the mental health and wellbeing of people experiencing long Covid: a qualitative study.</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Connecting Self-Reported Social Distancing to Real-World Behavior During the COVID-19 Pandemic</strong> -
<div>
In an effort to combat COVID-19 and future pandemics, researchers have attempted to identify the factors underlying social distancing. Yet, much of this research relies on self-report measures. In two studies, we examine whether self- reported social distancing predicts objective distancing behavior. In Study 1, individuals’ self-reported social distancing predicted decreased mobility (assessed via smartphone step-counts) during the COVID-19 pandemic. While participants high in self-reported distancing (+1 SD) exhibited a 33% reduction in daily step-count, those low in distancing (-1 SD) exhibited only a 3% reduction. Study 2 extended these findings to the group-level. Self-reported social distancing at the U.S. state level accounted for 20% of the variance in states’ objective reduction in overall movement and visiting nonessential services (calculated via the GPS coordinates of ~15 million people). Collectively, our results indicate that self-reported social distancing tracks actual social distancing behavior.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/kvnwp/" target="_blank">Connecting Self-Reported Social Distancing to Real-World Behavior During the COVID-19 Pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Psychiatric Manifestations and Associated Risk Factors among Hospitalized Patients with COVID-19 in Edo State, Nigeria.</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Objective The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has had devastating effects globally. These effects are likely to result in mental health problems at different levels. Although studies have reported the mental health burden of the pandemic on the general population and frontline health workers, the impact of the disease on the mental health of patients in COVID-19 treatment and isolation centres have been understudied in Africa. We estimated the prevalence of depression and anxiety and associated risk factors in hospitalized persons with COVID-19. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 489 patients with COVID-19 at the three government-designated treatment and isolation centres in Edo State, Nigeria. The 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) tool were used to assess depression and anxiety respectively. Binary logistic regression was applied to determine risk factors of depression and anxiety. Results Of the 489 participants, 49.1% and 38.0% had depressive and anxiety symptoms respectively. The prevalence of depression, anxiety, and combination of both were 16.2%, 12.9% and 9.0% respectively. Moderate-severe symptoms of COVID-19, ≥14 days in isolation, worrying about the outcome of infection and stigma increased the risk of having depression and anxiety. Additionally, being separated/divorced increased the risk of having depression and having comorbidity increased the risk of having anxiety. Conclusion A substantial proportion of our participants experienced depression, anxiety and a combination of both especially in those who had the risk factors we identified. The findings underscore the need to address these risk factors early in the course of the disease and integrate mental health interventions into COVID-19 management guidelines.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article- html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.12.21264913v1" target="_blank">Psychiatric Manifestations and Associated Risk Factors among Hospitalized Patients with COVID-19 in Edo State, Nigeria.</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>A review of the effectiveness and experiences of welfare advice services co-located in health settings: a critical narrative systematic review.</strong> -
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The links between financial insecurity and poor health and wellbeing are well established. Individuals experiencing financial insecurity are also more likely to face challenges in accessing the support services they need. There is evidence of unequal uptake of welfare support and benefits, particularly in some ethnic minority groups. The COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated financial insecurity for the most vulnerable and action is needed to improve the support provided for those affected during the recovery from the pandemic. One approach to improving uptake of benefits has been to deliver welfare services within health settings. This has the potential to increase income and possibly improve health. We conducted systematic review with a critical narrative synthesis to assess the health, social and financial impacts of welfare advice services co-located in health settings and explore the facilitators and barriers to successful implementation of these services, in order to guide future policy and practice. The review identified 14 studies published in the UK from 2010. The services provided generated on average 27GBP of social, economic and environmental return on investment per 1GBP invested. Individuals on average benefitted from an additional 2,757GBP household income per annum and cost savings for the NHS were demonstrated. The review demonstrated that improvements to health were made by addressing key social determinants of health, thereby reducing health inequalities. Co-located welfare services actively incorporated elements of proportionate universalism and targeted those, who due to predominately health needs, were most in need of this support. The nature of the welfare advice service, how it operates within a health setting, and how visible and accessible this service is to participants and professionals referring into the service, were seen as important facilitators. Co-production during service development and ongoing enhanced multi-disciplinary collaboration were also considered vital to the success of co-located services.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.13.21264938v1" target="_blank">A review of the effectiveness and experiences of welfare advice services co-located in health settings: a critical narrative systematic review.</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Human-Network Regions as Effective Geographic Units for Disease Mitigation</strong> -
<div>
Susceptibility to infectious diseases such as COVID-19 depends on how they spread, and many studies have captured the decrease in COVID-19 spread due to reduction in travel. However, less is known about practical geographic boundaries for that limit the spread of COVID-19 to adjacent places. To detect such boundaries, we apply community-detection algorithms to large networks of mobility and social-media connections to construct geographic regions that reflect natural human movement and relationships at the county level for the continental United States. We measure COVID-19 cases, case rates, and case-rate variations across adjacent counties and examine how often COVID-19 crosses the boundaries of these functional regions. We find that regions that we construct using GPS-trace networks and especially commuter networks have the smallest rates of COVID-19 case rates along the boundaries, so these regions may reflect natural partitions in COVID-19 transmission. Conversely, regions that we construct from geolocated Facebook friendships and Twitter connections yield the least effective partitions. Our analysis reveals that regions that are derived from movement flows are more appropriate geographic units than states for making policy decisions about opening areas for activity, assessing vulnerability of populations, and allocating resources. Our insights are also relevant for policy decisions and public messaging in future emergency situations.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/4mp6x/" target="_blank">Human-Network Regions as Effective Geographic Units for Disease Mitigation</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Evaluation of COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough infections among immunocompromised patients fully vaccinated with BNT162b2</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Objective: To evaluate COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough infections among immunocompromised (IC) individuals. Methods: Individuals vaccinated with BNT162b2 were selected from the US HealthVerity database (12/10/2020-7/8/2021). COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough infections were examined in fully vaccinated (≥14 days after 2nd dose) IC individuals (IC cohort), 12 mutually exclusive IC condition groups, and a non-IC cohort. IC conditions were identified using an algorithm based on diagnosis codes and immunosuppressive (IS) medication usage. Results: Of 1,277,747 individuals ≥16 years of age who received 2 BNT162b2 doses, 225,796 (17.7%) were identified as IC (median age: 58 years; 56.3% female). The most prevalent IC conditions were solid malignancy (32.0%), kidney disease (19.5%), and rheumatologic/inflammatory conditions (16.7%). Among the fully vaccinated IC and non-IC cohorts, a total of 978 breakthrough infections were observed during the study period; 124 (12.7%) resulted in hospitalization and 2 (0.2%) were inpatient deaths. IC individuals accounted for 38.2% (N=374) of all breakthrough infections, 59.7% (N=74) of all hospitalizations, and 100% (N=2) of inpatient deaths. The proportion with breakthrough infections was 3 times higher in the IC cohort compared to the non-IC cohort (N=374 [0.18%] vs. N=604 [0.06%]; unadjusted incidence rates were 0.89 and 0.34 per 100 person-years, respectively. Organ transplant recipients had the highest incidence rate; those with &gt;1 IC condition, antimetabolite usage, primary immunodeficiencies, and hematologic malignancies also had higher incidence rates compared to the overall IC cohort. Incidence rates in older (≥65 years old) IC individuals were generally higher versus younger IC individuals (&lt;65). Limitations: This retrospective analysis relied on coding accuracy and had limited capture of COVID-19 vaccine receipt. Conclusions: COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough infections are rare but are more common and severe in IC individuals. The findings from this large study support FDA authorization and CDC recommendations to offer a 3rd vaccine dose to increase protection among IC individuals.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article- link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.12.21264707v1" target="_blank">Evaluation of COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough infections among immunocompromised patients fully vaccinated with BNT162b2</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Japanese Dictionary for Sentiment Analysis of Counselling Text</strong> -
<div>
Chat-based counselling has become increasingly popular in the era of telecommunication. The need for accessible therapy has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Given its text-based nature, chat-based counselling provides an opportunity for machine-based analysis. It even has the potential to provide machine-based counselling services. However, the informational resources for machine-based analysis and interaction are rather scarce especially in a Japanese-language context. We created a Japanese dictionary for sentiment analysis, using a technique via machine-based text analysis, tailored for counselling related text. It includes 2389 words that were frequently used in chat-based counselling corpora. The following attributes were included for each word: (1) valence rating by the general public, (2) valence rating by clinical psychologists, (3) emotionality, and (4) body-relatedness.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/2g6jt/" target="_blank">Japanese Dictionary for Sentiment Analysis of Counselling Text</a>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A phylogeny-based metric for estimating changes in transmissibility from recurrent mutations in SARS-CoV-2</strong> -
<div>
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) emerged in late 2019 and spread globally to cause the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the constant accumulation of genetic variation in the SARS-CoV-2 population, there was little evidence for the emergence of significantly more transmissible lineages in the first half of 2020. Starting around November 2020, several more contagious and possibly more virulent Variants of Concern (VoCs) were reported in various regions of the world. These VoCs share some mutations and deletions that haven arisen recurrently in distinct genetic backgrounds. Here, we build on our previous work modelling the association of mutations to SARS-CoV-2 transmissibility and characterise the contribution of individual recurrent mutations and deletions to estimated viral transmissibility. We then assess how patterns of estimated transmissibility in all SARS-CoV-2 clades have varied over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic by summing transmissibility estimates for all individual mutations carried by any sequenced genome analysed. Such an approach recovers the Delta variant (21A) as the most transmissible clade currently in circulation, followed by the Alpha variant (20I). By assessing transmissibility over the time of sampling, we observe a tendency for estimated transmissibility within clades to slightly decrease over time in most clades. Although subtle, this pattern is consistent with the expectation of a decay in transmissibility in mainly non-recombining lineages caused by the accumulation of weakly deleterious mutations. SARS-CoV-2 remains a highly transmissible pathogen, though such a trend could conceivably play a role in the turnover of different global viral clades observed over the pandemic so far.
</div></li>
</ul>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.06.442903v2" target="_blank">A phylogeny-based metric for estimating changes in transmissibility from recurrent mutations in SARS-CoV-2</a>
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<ul>
<li><strong>Alterations in CD39/CD73 Axis of T cells associated with COVID-19 severity</strong> -
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Purinergic signaling modulates immune function and is involved in the immunopathogenesis of several viral infections. This study aimed to investigate alterations in purinergic pathways in COVID-19 patients. Lower plasma ATP and adenosine levels were identified in mild and severe COVID-19 patients associated with proinflammatory cytokine profiles compared to healthy controls. Mild COVID-19 patients presented lower frequencies of CD4+CD25+CD39+ (activated/memory Treg) and CD4+CD25+CD39+CD73+ T cells, and increased frequencies of high differentiated (CD27-CD28-) CD8+T cells compared to health controls. Severe COVID-19 patients also showed higher frequencies of CD4+CD39+, CD4+CD25-CD39+ (memory T effector cell), high differentiated CD8+ T cells (CD27-CD28-) and diminished frequencies of CD4+CD73+, CD4+CD25+CD39+ mTreg, CD4+CD25+CD39+CD73+, CD8+CD73+ and low-differentiated CD8+ T cells (CD27+CD28+) in the blood in relation to mild COVID-19 patients and controls. Moreover, severe COVID-19 patients presented higher expression of PD-1 on low-differentiated CD8+ T cells. Both severe and mild COVID-19 patients presented higher frequencies of CD4+Annexin-V+ and CD8+Annexin-V+ T cells, showing increased T cell apoptosis. Plasma samples collected from severe COVID-19 patients were able to decrease the expression of CD73 on CD4+ and CD8+ T cells of a healthy donor. Interestingly, the in vitro incubation of PBMC from severe COVID-19 patients with adenosine reduced the NF-kB activation in T cells and monocytes. Together, these data add new knowledge regarding the immunopathology of COVID-19 through purinergic regulation, especially concerning adenosine deficiency.
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.18.21263782v2" target="_blank">Alterations in CD39/CD73 Axis of T cells associated with COVID-19 severity</a>
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<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>Randomized Study to Evaluate Intranasal Dose of STI-2099 (COVI-DROPS™) in Outpatient Adults With Mild COVID-19 Infection</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: COVI-DROPS;   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>Evaluating Safety, Tolerability, and Potential Efficacy of Intranasal AD17002 in Adults With Mild COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: AD17002;   Biological: Placebo (Formulation buffer)<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Advagene Biopharma Co. Ltd.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Lymphatic Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine to Enhance Coronavirus (COVID-19) Vaccination Efficacy</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Other: Lymphatic OMM;   Other: Light Touch<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Rowan 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>Efficacy and Safety of Ergoferon for COVID-19 Prevention During Vaccination Against SARS-CoV-2</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Immunization Against COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Ergoferon;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Materia Medica Holding<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>Efficacy of Home Inspiratory Muscle Training in Post-covid-19 Patients: a Randomized Clinical Trial</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Device: Inspiratory muscle training<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:  <br/>
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Ph 2 Trial With an Oral Tableted COVID-19 Vaccine</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: VXA-CoV2-1.1-S;   Other: Placebo Tablets<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Vaxart<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>Impact of Nudges on Downloads of COVID-19 Exposure Notification Smartphone Apps: A Randomized Trial</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Behavioral: Self-Benefit/Social Norm;   Behavioral: Self- Benefit/No Social Norm;   Behavioral: Other Benefit/Social Norm;   Behavioral: Other Benefit/No Social Norm<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of Pennsylvania;   Pennsylvania Department of Health<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Cardiovascular Assessment in Patient Recovered From COVID-19 and Recovery of Autonomic Nervous System in Association With the Severity of the Disease</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: Non invasive cardiovascular monitoring with CNAP device of arterial pressure, ECG and respiratory activity<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   IRCCS Policlinico S. Donato<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Safety and Immunogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 Protein Subunit Recombinant Vaccine</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: SARS-CoV-2 Protein Subunit Recombinant Vaccine;   Biological: SARS-CoV-2 Inactivated Vaccine<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   PT Bio Farma;   Fakultas Kedokteran Universitas Indonesia;   National Institute of Health Research and Development, Ministry of Health Republic of Indonesia<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 Safety and Tolerability Study of BDB-001 in Mild, Moderate COVID-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: BDB-001 injection<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:  <br/>
Staidson (Beijing) Biopharmaceuticals Co., Ltd;   Beijing Defengrui Biotechnology Co. Ltd<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Acetylsalicylic Acid in COVID-19 (ASA-SARS)</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   SARS-CoV2 Infection;   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Low-dose acetylsalicylic acid;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Barcelona Institute for Global Health;   Hospital Universitario de Torrejón,Madrid;   Hospital Universitario Infanta Leonor;   Fundació Institut de Recerca de l’Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau;   Hospital del Mar;   Hopsital Central de Maputo, Mozambique<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>Pulmonary Function in Patients Recovering From COVID19 Infection : a Pilot Study</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Diagnostic Test: diaphragm ultrasonography<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   University Hospital, Limoges<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Safety and Immunogenicity Study of Booster Vaccination With Medium-dosage or High-dosage SARS-CoV-2 Inactivated Vaccine for Prevention of COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: High-dosage SARS-CoV-2 vaccine;   Biological: Medium-dosage SARS-CoV-2 vaccine<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Sinovac Biotech Co., Ltd<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Evaluation of the Efficacy of Probiotics to Reduce the Occurrence of Long COVID</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Dietary Supplement: Probiotics;   Dietary Supplement: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Centre de recherche du Centre hospitalier universitaire de Sherbrooke;   Lallemand Health Solutions<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Telerehabilitation in COVID-19 Survivors</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   Telerehabilitation<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Other: telerehabilitation;   Other: home exercise program;   Other: informed program<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Bandırma Onyedi Eylül 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>SARS-CoV-2-specific Humoral and Cell-mediated Immune Responses after Immunization with Inactivated COVID-19 Vaccine in Kidney Transplant Recipients (CVIM 1 Study)</strong> - Immunogenicity following inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccination among solid organ transplant recipients has not been assessed. Seventy-five patients (37 kidney transplant [KT] recipients and 38 healthy controls) received two doses, at 4-week intervals, of an inactivated whole-virus SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. SARS-CoV-2-specific humoral (HMI) and cell-mediated immunity (CMI) were measured before, 4 weeks post-first dose, and 2 weeks post-second dose. The median (IQR) age of KT recipients was 50 (42-54)…</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>Small molecule interactions with the SARS-CoV-2 main protease: In silico all-atom microsecond MD simulations, PELE Monte Carlo simulations, and determination of in vitro activity inhibition</strong> - The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. With some notable exceptions, safe and effective vaccines, which are now being widely distributed globally, have largely begun to stabilise the situation. However, emerging variants of concern and vaccine hesitancy are apparent obstacles to eradication. Therefore, the need for the development of potent antivirals is still of importance. In this context, the SARS-CoV-2 main protease…</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>Arglabin could target inflammasome-induced ARDS and cytokine storm associated with COVID-19</strong> - Arglabin (l(R),10(S)-epoxy-5(S),5(S),7(S)-guaia-3(4),ll(13)-dien-6,12-olide), is a natural sesquiterpene γ-lactone which was first isolated from Artemisia glabella. The compound has been shown to possess anti-inflammatory activity through inhibition of the NLR Family pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome and production of proinflammatory cytokines including interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-18. A more hydrophilic derivative of the compound also exhibited antitumor activity in the breast,…</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>Melatonin mitigates Chloroquine-induced defects in porcine immature Sertoli cells</strong> - Chloroquine (CQ) could function as a lysosomotropic agent to inhibit the endolysosomal trafficking in the autophagy pathway, and is widely used on malarial, tumor and recently COVID-19. However, the effect of CQ treatment on porcine immature Sertoli cells (iSCs) remains unclear. Here we showed that CQ could reduce iSC viability in a dose-dependent manner. CQ treatment (20 μM) on iSCs for 36h could elevate oxidative stress, damage mitochondrial function and promote apoptosis, which could be…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>In vitro induction of interleukin-8 by SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein is inhibited in bronchial epithelial IB3-1 cells by a miR-93-5p agomiR</strong> - One of the major clinical features of COVID-19 is a hyperinflammatory state, which is characterized by high expression of cytokines (such as IL-6 and TNF-α), chemokines (such as IL-8) and growth factors and is associated with severe forms of COVID-19. For this reason, the control of the “cytokine storm” represents a key issue in the management of COVID-19 patients. In this study we report evidence that the release of key proteins of the COVID-19 “cytokine storm” can be inhibited by mimicking 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>Anti-inflammatory effect of Kaba Sura Kudineer (AYUSH approved COVID-19 drug)-A Siddha poly-herbal formulation against lipopolysaccharide induced inflammatory response in RAW-264.7 macrophages cells</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: . Together, this study has proven that KSK could be a potential therapeutic drug for alleviating excessive inflammation in many inflammation-associated diseases like COVID-19.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Role of Traditional Chinese Medicine in COVID-19: Theory, Initial Clinical Evidence, Potential Mechanisms, and Implications</strong> - CONCLUSION: While there is initial support for the use of Traditional Chinese Medicine for COVID-19, conclusions cannot be drawn to support its use as a replacement for conventional COVID-19 treatment, given the lack of high-quality evidence from strictly-designed randomized controlled trials. However, there is initial evidence suggesting that TCM may serve as an effective adjunct to conventional treatments in alleviating COVID-19 symptoms. More research is needed to confirm the efficacy 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>Structure and Dynamics of RNA Guanine Quadruplexes in SARS-CoV-2 Genome. Original Strategies against Emerging Viruses</strong> - Guanine quadruplex (G4) structures in the viral genome have a key role in modulating viruses’ biological activity. While several DNA G4 structures have been experimentally resolved, RNA G4s are definitely less explored. We report the first calculated G4 structure of the RG-1 RNA sequence of SARS-CoV-2 genome, obtained by using a multiscale approach combining quantum and classical molecular modeling and corroborated by the excellent agreement between the corresponding calculated and experimental…</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>Acetylation of H3K27 activated lncRNA NEAT1 and promoted hepatic lipid accumulation in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease via regulating miR-212-5p/GRIA3</strong> - Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) was a world-wide health burden. H3K27 acetylation, long non-coding RNA (lncRNA), and miRNA were all implicated in NAFLD regulation, yet the detailed regulatory mechanism was not well understood. LncRNA NEAT1, miR-212-5p, and GRIA3 expression were detected both in high fatty acid-treated hepatocytes cells and NAFLD patients. Lipid droplets were stained and analyzed by oil red O staining. Expression of fatty acid synthase (FASN), acetyl-CoA carboxylase…</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>Sweet Drugs for Bad Bugs: A Glycomimetic Strategy against the DC-SIGN-Mediated Dissemination of SARS-CoV-2</strong> - The C-type lectin receptor DC-SIGN is a pattern recognition receptor expressed on macrophages and dendritic cells. It has been identified as a promiscuous entry receptor for many pathogens, including epidemic and pandemic viruses such as SARS-CoV-2, Ebola virus, and HIV-1. In the context of the recent SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, DC-SIGN-mediated virus dissemination and stimulation of innate immune responses has been implicated as a potential factor in the development of severe COVID-19. Inhibition of…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Inhibition of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Replication by Hypertonic Saline Solution in Lung and Kidney Epithelial Cells</strong> - An unprecedented global health crisis has been caused by a new virus called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). We performed experiments to test if a hypertonic saline solution was capable of inhibiting virus replication. Our data show that 1.2% NaCl inhibited virus replication by 90%, achieving 100% of inhibition at 1.5% in the nonhuman primate kidney cell line Vero, and 1.1% of NaCl was sufficient to inhibit the virus replication by 88% in human epithelial lung cell…</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>Characterization of Phytochemicals in Ulva intestinalis L. and Their Action Against SARS-CoV-2 Spike Glycoprotein Receptor-Binding Domain</strong> - Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) has caused a severe impact on almost all aspects of human life and economic development. Numerous studies are being conducted to find novel therapeutic strategies to overcome COVID-19 pandemic in a much effective way. Ulva intestinalis L. (Ui), a marine microalga, known for its antiviral property, was considered for this study to determine the antiviral efficacy against severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). The algal sample…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Evidence of SARS-CoV-2-Specific Memory B Cells Six Months After Vaccination With the BNT162b2 mRNA Vaccine</strong> - SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines have demonstrated high efficacy and immunogenicity, but limited information is currently available on memory B cell generation and long-term persistence. Here, we investigated spike-specific memory B cells and humoral responses in 145 subjects, up to 6 months after the BNT162b2 vaccine (Comirnaty) administration. Spike-specific antibodies peaked 7 days after the second dose and significant antibody titers and ACE2/RBD binding inhibiting activity were still observed after…</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>ORF3a Protein of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Inhibits Interferon-Activated Janus Kinase/Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription Signaling via Elevating Suppressor of Cytokine Signaling 1</strong> - Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused a crisis to global public health since its outbreak at the end of 2019. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the pathogen of COVID-19, appears to efficiently evade the host immune responses, including interferon (IFN) signaling. Several SARS-CoV-2 viral proteins are believed to involve in the inhibition of IFN signaling. In this study, we discovered that ORF3a, an accessory protein of SARS-CoV-2, inhibited IFN-activated…</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>Integrin activation is an essential component of SARS-CoV-2 infection</strong> - SARS-CoV-2 infection depends on binding its spike (S) protein to angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). The S protein expresses an RGD motif, suggesting that integrins may be co-receptors. Here, we UV-inactivated SARS-CoV-2 and fluorescently labeled the envelope membrane with octadecyl rhodamine B (R18) to explore the role of integrin activation in mediating cell entry and productive infection. We used flow cytometry and confocal microscopy to show that SARS- CoV-2^(R18) particles engage…</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>스몰 RNA 검출 방법</strong> - 본 발명은 스몰(small) RNA의 분석 및 검출 방법에 관한 것이다. 특히, 본 발명은 짧은 염기서열의 RNA까지 분석이 가능하면서도 높은 민감도 및 정확도로 정량적 검출까지 가능하여 감염증, 암 등 여러 질환의 진단 용도로도 널리 활용될 수 있다. - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=KR336674313">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>健康智能检测方法、装置、电子设备及可读存储介质</strong> - 本申请公开了一种健康智能检测方法、装置、电子设备及可读存储介质，其方法包括获取音频信号，并对所述音频信号进行预处理，得到检测信号；将所述检测信号转化为矩阵数字矩阵；将得到的矩阵数字矩阵作为检测样本，输入健康智能检测模型中，以获取检测结果；其中，所述健康智能检测模型是采用迁移学习和卷积神经网络对训练样本进行训练得到的。本申请由于卷积神经网络各组件或部分组件基于迁移学习进行了重新训练，显著提升了对人们健康检测的准确度；且本申请中的健康智能检测模型为分类模型，计算量小，可将其部署于人们的移动终端中，使用方便，极大程度上提升了用户的使用感受。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN337672106">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>MACHINE LEARNING TECHNIQUE TO ANALYSE THE CONDITION OF COVID-19 PATIENTS BASED ON THEIR SATURATION LEVELS</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU335054861">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>单克隆抗体32C7及其制备方法和用途</strong> - 本发明公开了单克隆抗体32C7及其制备方法和用途。本发明通过制备针对于新冠病毒RBD结构域的中和抗体32C7，在体外通过表面等离子共振检测抗体32C7可以有效地与新冠病毒的S蛋白的RBD结构域结合，通过转基因小鼠感染模型验证了抗体32C7的中和能力，测定了中和抗体32C7对于新冠感染后的肺部病毒滴度和相关炎症因子的抑制效果，结果显示该中和抗体能够明显的抑制病毒在体内的复制并降低炎症因子的产生和肺部炎症浸润。单克隆中和抗体32C7抑制新冠病毒的进入宿主细胞，达到新冠病毒中和抗体的治疗作用，可有效用于治疗或者预防新冠病毒感染引起的呼吸系统损伤。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN336730149">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>单克隆抗体35B5及其制备方法和用途</strong> - 本发明公开了单克隆抗体35B5及其制备方法和用途。本发明通过制备针对于新冠病毒RBD结构域的中和抗体35B5，在体外通过表面等离子共振检测抗体35B5可以有效地与新冠病毒的S蛋白的RBD结构域结合，通过转基因小鼠感染模型验证了抗体35B5的中和能力，测定了中和抗体35B5对于新冠感染后的肺部病毒滴度和相关炎症因子的抑制效果，结果显示该中和抗体能够明显的抑制病毒在体内的复制并降低炎症因子的产生和肺部炎症浸润。单克隆中和抗体35B5抑制新冠病毒的进入宿主细胞，达到新冠病毒中和抗体的治疗作用，可有效用于治疗或者预防新冠病毒感染引起的呼吸系统损伤。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN336730150">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A HERB BASED COMPOSITION ANTI VIRAL MEDICINE FOR TREATMENT OF SARS COV 2 AND A METHOD FOR TREATING A PERSON INFECTED BY THE SARS COV 2 VIRUS</strong> - A Herbal composition, viz., PONNU MARUNTHU essentially comprising of ALLUIUM CEPA extract. [concentrated to 30%] 75%, SAPINDUS MUKOROSSI - extract [Optimised] 10%, CITRUS X LIMON - extract in its natural form 05 TRACYSPERMUM AMMI (L) – extract 07%,ROSA HYBRIDA - extract 03%, PONNU MARUNTHU solution 50 ml, or as a capsulated PONNU MARUNTHU can be given to SARS cov2 positive Patients, three times a day that is ½ an hour before food; continued for 3 days to 5 days and further taking it for 2 days if need be there; It will completely cure a person. When the SARS cov2 test shows negative this medicine can be discontinued. This indigenous medicine and method for treating a person inflicted with SARS COV 2 viral infection is quite effective in achieving of much needed remedy for the patients and saving precious lives from the pangs of death and ensuring better health of people. - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=IN334865051">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>治疗或预防新冠病毒的靶点</strong> - 本发明提供一种蛋白片段，是如下至少一种：A1)氨基酸酸序列如SEQ ID NO.1所示；A2）氨基酸序列如SEQ ID NO.1第12位‑34位所示；A3）将A1)的蛋白片段的第18、19、28和29位中的任意一个或几个氨基酸残基经过一个或几个氨基酸残基的取代、缺失、添加得到的与A1)所示的蛋白片段具有90％以上的同一性的蛋白片段；A4）氨基酸酸序列如SEQ ID NO.2所示；A5）氨基酸序列如SEQ ID NO.2第32‑41位所示；A6）将A4)的蛋白片段的第35和36位中的任意1个或2个氨基酸残基经过一个或几个氨基酸残基的取代、缺失、添加得到的与A4)所示的蛋白片段具有90％以上的同一性的蛋白片段。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN336197499">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>以痘苗病毒为载体的新冠疫苗</strong> - 本申请涉及一种基于经过基因工程改造的痘苗病毒为载体的新型冠状病毒南非突变株疫苗。所述疫苗以A46R缺陷的痘苗病毒为载体携带新冠病毒南非突变株S基因核酸序列，所述痘苗病毒载体还可以携带IL‑21，该疫苗在免疫小鼠后可以产生针对新冠病毒南非突变株的抗体。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN337671415">link</a></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>氧化钛负载银单原子的材料在病毒消杀中的应用</strong> - 本发明属于生物医药领域，尤其涉及一种负载银单原子的材料在病毒消杀中的应用，所述氧化钛负载银单原子材料具有以下的结构：银单原子以单分散的形式，稳定地锚定于氧化钛的表面和/或骨架中，键合方式为Ti‑O‑Ag；银单原子的嵌合使Ag单原子和氧化钛的电子结构带隙范围为2.9‑3.2</p></li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">eV；氧化钛负载银单原子材料具有较银纳米颗粒更加优异的催化活性，具有过氧化物酶活性，利用羟基自由基可高效破坏核酸和蛋白质的原理来实现广谱消杀病毒，银单原子的嵌合使Ag单原子和氧化钛的电子结构带隙变小，对可见光的敏感性更强，可将光照射下的光催化诱导光动力杀伤病毒。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN337671299">link</a></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Anti-Sars-Cov-2 Neutralizing Antibodies</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU333857732">link</a></li>
</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Complex Business of Vaccine Mandates</strong> - Tougher mandates may be necessary—but we shouldn’t ignore the harm that they can cause. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/science/medical-dispatch/the-complex-business-of-vaccine-mandates">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Trump Presidency Is Still an Active Crime Scene</strong> - It’s hard to consign the Trump years to the history books when we remain in the middle of the crisis that it sparked. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/the-trump-presidency-is-still-an-active-crime-%20scene">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Mysterious Case of the COVID-19 Lab-Leak Theory</strong> - Did the virus spring from nature or from human error? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/science/elements/the-mysterious-case-of-the-covid-19-lab-leak-theory">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Joe Biden’s Afghanistan Problem</strong> - If the Administration fails to help stabilize the beleaguered country, a withdrawal that appeared politically deft could prove damaging. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/joe-bidens-afghanistan-problem">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Jeff Bezos Thrusts Into Space</strong> - While the world burns. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/cartoons/blitts-kvetchbook/jeff-bezos-thrusts-into-space">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Fake rhino horns were supposed to foil poachers. What went wrong?</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/cvui0mmXuJGhqThV0x3R-sfuStw=/0x0:4000x3000/1310x983/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70010169/GettyImages_1019891812.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
An official with Malaysia’s Department of Wildlife and National Parks holds one of 50 rhino horns that it seized in August 2018. Together, the horns were worth $50 million. | Manan Vatsyayana/AFP via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure></li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Why buzzy tech often fails to protect wildlife.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="n3Tjvi">
Several years ago, a Seattle-based tech startup called Pembient turned heads when it announced a plan to <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/3kwzxk/synthetic-
rhino-horn-made-with-a-3-d-printer-is-the-latest-tool-to-fight-poaching">3D-print rhinoceros horns</a> to help combat illegal poaching.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KcXlIn">
The idea sounded simple: Hunters are killing rhinos for their valuable horns, so flooding the market with synthetic but otherwise identical horns could undermine demand for the real thing. It’s a creative approach to the plight of rhinos, a problem that conservation groups have long<strong> </strong>struggled to solve. “Can we save the rhino from poachers with a 3D printer?” read <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/may/24/artificial-3d-printed-fake-rhino-horn-poaching">one headline</a> in 2015.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yXFvGN">
Fast-forward to today and neither Pembient nor any other tech firm has disrupted the market for rhino horn. The startup is out of money and far from developing a commercial product. A few other similar efforts have popped up here and there — most recently <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/education-50184280">in 2019</a>, when scientists said they could make synthetic<strong> </strong>horns out of horsehair — but these products have yet to catch on.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YO80p8">
At the same time, companies like Pembient have stoked a debate among scientists over the value and ethics of synthetic animal parts in the campaign<strong> </strong>against poaching. Some researchers argue that selling fake horns could disrupt the market and help save rhinos, while a more vocal<strong> </strong>group of organizations says doing so could subvert law enforcement and prop up illegal trade.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="286leT">
The debate also raises questions about the role of tech in wildlife conservation. Though often perceived as a scientific problem, the biodiversity crisis is <a href="https://www.vox.com/22584103/biodiversity-species-conservation-debate">equally</a> a social, political, and economic issue. Experts told Vox that high-tech approaches sometimes overlook the roots of the crisis, from the economic drivers of poaching to the political underpinnings of habitat loss. Cutting-edge tools can<em> </em>help, they say, but only if they’re developed to address the whole picture of biodiversity — and in partnership with those who are directly involved in conservation.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/aBAcEqRlhI90iv57wKG-OpW-nEA=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22926414/GettyImages_200155467_001.jpg"/> <cite>James Warwick/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
A rare black rhino in Lake Nakuru National Park, Kenya.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h3 id="dMJjxW">
The big idea: Flood the market with fake rhino horns
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Q7PJ9Z">
Earth is home to five rhino species, three in Asia and two in Africa, and most of them are threatened with extinction. The number of Africa’s critically endangered black rhinos, for example, is down more than 90 percent, from around <a href="https://www.savetherhino.org/rhino-info/population-figures/">70,000 in 1970 to roughly 5,500</a> today. (That’s up from an all-time low of about 2,400 rhinos in the 1990s.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="C73qP6">
Poaching is a major force behind these declines. Hunters kill rhinos and saw off their horns, which are incredibly valuable<strong> </strong>in the underground market, selling for roughly $4,000 to $8,000 per pound, raw, according to <a href="https://wildlifejustice.org/wp-
content/uploads/2019/02/FINAL-raw-rhino-horn-digital-1.pdf">one 2019 report</a>. Many horns, which can weigh several pounds each, are sold in China, Vietnam, and other East Asian countries. Some people consume rhino horn powder as a salve for various ailments, <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-asked-people-in-vietnam-why-they-use-rhino-horn-
heres-what-they-said-116307">such as hangovers and cancer</a>, or carve them into valuable trinkets that tend to signify wealth, according to Michael ‘t Sas-Rolfes, an economist and wildlife trade expert at the University of Oxford.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qew8H0">
For decades, environmental groups have sought to fight poaching with law enforcement and campaigns to change consumer behavior around rhino horn in East Asia. Some of these efforts have helped — poaching rates are down from <a href="https://www.savetherhino.org/rhino-info/poaching-stats/">their peak</a> in the mid-2000s — but rhinos, which play a key role in the ecosystem and <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/articles/heres-what-might-happen-local-
ecosystems-if-all-rhinos-disappear-180949896/">help maintain African grasslands</a>, continue to perish.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jD6sSs">
Pembient sought to tackle the problem head-on when it launched in 2015. “By creating an unlimited supply of horns at one-eighth of the current market price, there should be far less incentive for poachers to risk their lives or government officials to accept bribes,” Matthew Markus, Pembient’s founder, <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/3appoo/were_the_founders_of_pembient_a_startup_thats/">wrote</a> on Reddit not long after the company launched.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/LbXJAJ8WEWSpGpNyAAWhQ_cvNZ0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22926419/GettyImages_1215969539.jpg"/> <cite>Sepia Times/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
A cup carved out of rhino horn from the early 17th century in China.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="e-image">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/2f8e3H-TfdHW9WwctSspOCx1QEw=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22926425/GettyImages_90763201.jpg"/> <cite>SSPL/Getty Images</cite></p>
<figcaption>
To this day, rhino horns are carved and sold as trinkets in markets in East Asia. Here, another cup, possibly from China.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VAl7Ad">
The company originally focused on developing synthetic rhino horn powder — the substance that some consume for its perceived medicinal properties — but it eventually pivoted to developing physical synthetic horns with <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/06/10/fact-
check-company-3-d-printed-rhino-horns-help-slow-down-poaching/7523775002/">3D printing techniques</a>. Solid rhino horns are much harder to replicate than powder, Markus told Vox, and people looking to buy carvings are less likely to care whether<strong> </strong>they’re sourced from the real thing.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="a8zKcg">
A handful of other companies with similar ideas have sprung up over the years, including US-based firms Rhinoceros Horn LLC and Ceratotech. None seem to have infiltrated the market in a serious way.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8IUDiK">
Huyen Hoang, the co-founder of Rhinoceros Horn LLC, which <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2012/12/13/511506/10015692/en/Saving-Rhinos-crowdfunding-
campaign-on-IndieGoGo-com-to-fund-ethical-alternative-to-rhino-horn-launched-by-Rhinoceros-Horn-LLC.html">set out in 2012 to make a synthetic horn powder</a>, told Vox his company “pioneered” the concept of synthetic horn and actually got its product into stores. He declined to say how much of it the company sold or whether it’s still on the market. The company has no online presence. Hoang suggested that Rhinoceros Horn LLC clashed with conservation groups, which saw the poaching crisis differently. “Too much politics for me and my co-founder,” he said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WeI7V2">
The founder of Ceratotech, Garrett Vygantas, said his company still plans to grow rhino horns from scratch in a lab, but it needs more money to develop the product. “A viable prototype will require a sizable investment, which is where I’m held up,” he told Vox.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="r0w5FX">
Meanwhile, in 2019, researchers at Oxford and Fudan University in Shanghai <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-52527-5">published a paper</a> showing that<strong> </strong>synthetic rhino horns can be made by bundling together tail hairs from a horse. “We leave it to others to develop this technology further with the aim to confuse the trade, depress prices and thus support rhino conservation,” Fritz Vollrath, a professor at Oxford and a study author, <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/11/191108074856.htm">said</a> in a statement.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/Ro3Mu3CDfa2HL_mSsQfwhx_6OyY=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22929184/media_springernature_com_41598_2019_52527_Fig1_HTML.jpg"/></p>
<cite>Ruixin Mi, et al./<a class="ql-link" href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-52527-5" target="_blank">Nature</a></cite>
<figcaption>
A drawing of a rhino with two microscopic views — length-wise (B) and a cross-section (C) — of a real rhino horn, which consists of tightly packed hairs.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h3 id="mmnsPJ">
Would synthetic horns curb poaching?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hiV90O">
There’s not a ton of research into this question, but two studies suggest that identical fakes could, in fact, lower the cost and undercut the supply of authentic horns.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="upFMDV">
“Economic principles tell us that the availability of synthetic horns can reduce the supply of wild horns — and even drive out wild horn sellers completely from the horn market,” Frederick Chen, an economist at Wake Forest University, wrote in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921800916310308">one of the studies</a>, published in the journal <em>Ecological Economics</em><strong> </strong>in<strong> </strong>2017. (Chen is also a co-author on the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800919321895?via%3Dihub">other study</a>, along with ‘t Sas-Rolfes, which similarly suggests that synthetic horns could reduce poaching under certain conditions. It was published earlier this year.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4q2TLX">
According to Markus, trust among consumers would erode if they learned the market was full of fakes, which in turn would reduce the value of authentic horns. For example, if a would-be buyer thinks there’s a 50 percent chance that a horn product might be fake, they might pay 50 percent less for it. “They are going to be much more hesitant to transact,” Markus said — and that could ultimately limit the incentive to kill rhinos.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CfaduD">
But many conservation and animal welfare groups aren’t convinced. They say the situation on the ground is far more complicated than what economic models can tell us — and that making fake horns, let alone with 3D printers, is simply a bad idea.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="
" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/P2pDK4N8qKx20qMtzNTdcEVO9HU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22926432/GettyImages_1235432184.jpg"/> <cite>David Talukdar/NurPhoto via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Government officials in India burn rhino horns at a stadium near Kaziranga National Park on September 22, 2021. Burning horns is a controversial but widely used approach that aims to suppress illegal wildlife trade.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jDisP0">
One of the most compelling arguments against the technology is that it could stymie<strong> </strong>law enforcement and possibly even provide a legal cover for illicit trade.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ki3GaH">
Under a global treaty called CITES, which regulates the trade of thousands of plants and animals, transporting rhino horns internationally is illegal. It’s not clear whether the treaty would apply to synthetic horns, if they’re indistinguishable from the real thing. And if it doesn’t, enforcement officers would need a way to tell real horns from fake ones in order to determine what is and isn’t illicit. Poachers trying to transport wild horns could otherwise claim that their haul is fake.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RJuhGv">
“It gives a cover to poachers,” said Jonathan Kolby, a wildlife trade consultant and former wildlife inspector at the US Fish and Wildlife Service. “Their alibi can be, ‘Oh, it’s a fake and therefore not a crime.’
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dDceTj">
One possible way around that issue, according to Markus, is to insert a biomarker, or hidden signature, into fake horns that customs officials can detect. But, as he acknowledges, that opens up an avenue for consumers to tell them apart, too. <a href="https://ecoevorxiv.org/y6pzk/">Research suggests</a> that those consumers are willing to pay more for wild horns.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Z48JsD">
Major conservation groups like the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) also worry that even fake horns could fuel the market for wild animal products and thus fuel poaching. “Creation of a synthetic rhino horn still props up the demand of rhino horn,” Colby Loucks, vice president of WWF’s wildlife conservation program, told Vox. In other words, it’s hard to say if more fake horns would truly shrink the market for the real stuff.
</p>
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According to the conservationists and scientists who spoke to Vox, so-called high-tech solutions often neglect the intricate web of social and political forces that they exist in.
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<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/i5S7sykw8ua6BvuzlEmo7osHNvw=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22926462/GettyImages_861414326.jpg"/> <cite>Carl de Souza/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
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Felipe Spina Avino, a conservation analyst at WWF, uses a drone to map part of a nature reserve in the Brazilian Amazon in 2017.
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<h3 id="InH2bf">
When tech does and doesn’t work
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Over her 20-year tenure at the nonprofit Save the Rhino, Cathy Dean, the group’s CEO, has reviewed a number of ideas proposed by tech companies to stop poaching. From making rhino powder to building secret cameras to hide in horns, these products are often disconnected from the reality on the ground, and from the needs of people who manage rhino populations, Dean said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RupWby">
“I have a rather cynical belief,” she said,<strong> </strong>“that the rhino poaching crisis has created a commercial market for companies to try to come up with solutions that desperate and possibly gullible rhino site owners feel compelled to try, because they hope it might be the solution to all of their problems.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6WTwK7">
In one case, she explained, a company contacted<strong> </strong>Save the Rhino with an idea for a tracking device that would be inserted into rhino horns. Dean asked the company for some additional information on their product — how big was the device, how long did its battery last, etc. — that she said would help determine whether something like it could really work. In response, Dean went on, the company simply pointed her to a rendering of the device. “It was literally a computer drawing of a doughnut,” she said, with no measurements or sense of scale. “I use it in lectures as an example of how science needs to be better informed by people on the ground.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nqg9Y3">
The good thing is that tools developed in collaboration with local communities, law enforcement, and park rangers — that is, people who actually face the challenges of conservation directly — <em>can</em> help limit poaching.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FMJu7K">
Take, for example, WWF’s work in Kenya’s Masai Mara National Reserve. Originally, the group had planned to use small surveillance drones to help park rangers prevent poaching. After spending a few nights with rangers in the reserve, however, Eric Becker, a conservation engineer at WWF, realized that drones wouldn’t be that helpful after all. What the rangers needed instead was simple night vision, said Becker, as poachers tend to operate under the cover of darkness.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xaOw1p">
WWF provided the thermal imaging equipment — and <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/thermal-technology-promises-to-halt-poaching-of-rhinos">it worked</a>. “Parachuting into a place with a solution and trying to fit it around their problem,” he said, “doesn’t ever work.” Broadly speaking, drone technology has largely failed to deliver on the promise to help curb poaching, WWF’s Loucks added.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="07AYis">
Groups hoping to help should also consider that poaching, like other drivers of biodiversity loss, is a social issue, not a matter of science or technology, according to ‘t Sas-Rolfes. If people consume wild rhino horn because they believe it has medicinal properties, then a synthetic version may not be an adequate replacement.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jDTTTH">
Patronizing those who consume rhino horn based on their beliefs — as Western media <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2014/08/08/extinction-by-traditional-chinese-medicine-an-environmental-
disaster/?sh=15fd7475bd31">sometimes does</a> — is probably not helping either, ‘t Sas-Rolfes added, noting that negative attitudes toward using rhino horn can provoke a backlash. “You’ve seen some consumption that’s almost conspicuous,” he said. Trying to transform the views of people who believe in traditional medical systems, such as traditional Chinese medicine, is not only challenging but risks “charges of insensitivity, cultural imperialism, or even racism,” Hubert Cheung, a researcher at the University of Queensland in Australia, wrote in a <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/pan3.10166">2020 paper</a>. Conservation would be more effective if scientists had a stronger understanding of traditional Chinese medicine and engaged with people who practice it, he wrote, “to ensure that interventions are culturally appropriate and socially compatible.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LBn6ic">
At least for now, the prospect of flooding the market with synthetic horns remains a hypothetical scenario. Pembient doesn’t have enough money to invest in the next stage of development, Markus said, and so far it hasn’t seen “great results” in the lab. That’s to say nothing of the controversy surrounding these products and the regulatory hurdles they’d have to clear. “It doesn’t leave us in a very good position,” Markus said. “But, you know, we’ve yet to call it quits.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AThBPS">
</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>The past, present, and future of body image in America</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Illustration of six different women in various scenes and poses." src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/tOl4TROMIwY5m4_RmxXR0CgDylI=/950x0:5395x3334/1310x983/cdn.vox-
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Amanda Northrop/Vox
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Millennials grew up hating their bodies. Does Gen Z have to be the same?
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For Isheyla Elena Ariza, the body-shaming started in middle school.
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At her predominantly white school in California, “I was a part of a small minority group of Latinos, and a lot of us looked different,” Ariza told Vox. “We weren’t petite, you know, didn’t have blonde, straight hair.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZMlaKt">
Ariza was bullied again and again over her curly hair, her skin tone, and her weight. “I’d get called ‘elephant,’” she said. One year, “there was a rumor that went around that I was pregnant, but I was just chunky.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fAogLk">
Soon Ariza started skipping meals and taking diet pills. Sometimes she’d go days without eating. “I was so focused on how heavy I was, and I wanted to change that because I wanted to be like other girls,” she said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VMEUqB">
Ariza is 21 now, solidly part of Generation Z, a group that’s supposedly growing up in a better environment for body image than generations past. Today’s teenagers and 20-somethings can follow influencers and writers like Gabi Gregg and Aubrey Gordon who dismantle fatphobia and show what it’s like to be confident and joyful at a variety of sizes. Popular brands like American Eagle offer sizes 24 and beyond, advertised by models and activists like <a href="http://www.femestella.com/american-eagle-curvy-jeans-size-22-model/">Saaneah Jamison</a>. Once a radical movement, the term “body positivity” is now mainstream, espoused by celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Jameela Jamil. With a little curation, you can fill up your Instagram feed with messages of self-love and health at every size.
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CP6F3wiLtT8/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QJMw6j">
But as Ariza’s experience makes abundantly clear, bullying over weight and appearance is far from a thing of the past. In some ways, it might be worse now: The sheer number of images young people have to deal with every day has multiplied a thousandfold, and those images are often manipulated with Photoshop or filters that create a homogeneous appearance that’s unattainable for many people. “They manipulate your features to become Eurocentricized,” Reanna A. Shanti Bhagwandeen, a freshman at Bates College, told Vox. “It gets rid of, I guess, me.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="b0NgJf">
Meanwhile, many young people today say the term “body positivity” has been coopted by thin, white, or light-skinned celebrities and influencers — the same people whose looks have been held up as the beauty ideal for generations. What’s more, some of those influencers celebrate features once stereotypically associated with Black women, like full lips, even as Black women themselves remain discriminated against for their appearance.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="D3X4pP">
Given all this, perhaps it’s no wonder that Instagram apparently makes body image issues worse for one in three teen girls, according to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-knows-instagram-is-toxic-for-teen-girls-
company-documents-show-11631620739">Facebook’s internal research</a>. Or that eating disorders, far from disappearing with the advent of body positivity discourse, are actually on the rise.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="s4B96O">
Indeed, the history of body image and appearance culture in America over the past 40 years can feel like an endless dance: two steps forward, two steps back, with little progress in any direction. Where once beauty standards were enforced by a handful of magazines and consumer brands, that enforcement has now been outsourced to individual users of Instagram and TikTok, who have more than filled the void of “aspirational” images that require extensive body modification to achieve. And those who have always profited from people’s insecurities about their bodies — namely, the weight loss and cosmetic surgery industries — are making more money than ever.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uxh6Qi">
Breaking that cycle is easier said than done. But young people and educators say what’s needed most at this particular stage in the body image wars are guides to help people navigate the torrent of information they now get about their appearance. Teens and kids especially need regular education about “social media and what healthy relationships look like, and what body image means,” Pascale Saintonge Austin, who oversees the <a href="https://www.childrensaidnyc.org/programs/teenhealth/jam-
peer-education">Just Ask Me peer education program</a> at the New York nonprofit Children’s Aid, told Vox. “There just needs to be more of a conversation with our young people.”
</p>
<h3 id="GnFXDb">
Fatphobia in America has a long history that’s inextricably tied to racism
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="w2PsBi">
Debates about body image in America go back long before today’s millennial versus Gen Z divide. Indeed, the ideal of thinness first came to this country through the European slave trade, according to Sabrina Strings, a sociology professor at the University of California Irvine and author of <em>Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia</em>. Beginning in the 18th century, Europeans were looking for ways to draw distinctions between themselves and the people around the world they had enslaved and colonized. They could no longer rely on skin color alone, since generations of rape by colonists had led to a wide continuum of skin tones among people that European powers still wanted to control. So they started talking about weight.
</p>
<div class="c-float-left c-float-hang">
<figure class="e-image">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/VRy_nOA5prm8kDwR1FNaHsqOyK0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22903741/9781479886753.jpeg"/> <cite><a class="ql-link" href="https://nyupress.org/9781479886753/fearing-the-black-body/" target="_blank">NYU Press</a></cite></p>
<figcaption>
The cover image of Sabrina Strings’s book is a 19th-century illustration by Sebastien Coeure that depicts Saartjie Baartman. Baartman was an enslaved woman whose physique was displayed in exhibitions in England and France.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rjh6yK">
Europeans, primarily the French and English, began making the racist and pseudoscientific claim that “Europeans have a great deal of self-control,” which gave them the right to manage not just themselves but others, Strings told Vox. By the same token, they claimed that Black people couldn’t control their appetites, loved food, and tended to be heavier. “This began the whole idea that Black people, as a race, were prone to what was considered a low form of corpulence that should be avoided,” Strings said.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xPp9Wd">
These ideas took root in the US in the early 19th century and sparked a movement to “push for thinness as evidence of racial propriety, and also Christian propriety,” at a time when white Protestant Americans were responding to increased immigration from places like Ireland with anxiety and xenophobia, Strings said. The racialized ideal of thinness faced pushback from its inception — “we can start to see some people questioning these ideas even as they’re being promoted,” Strings said. However, the coordinated movements toward body acceptance and against fatphobia that are better known today didn’t begin until the 1960s and ’70s.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="P7wc6F">
In 1969, Bill Fabrey and Llewelyn Louderback <a href="https://msmagazine.com/2019/10/18/the-feminist-history-of-fat-liberation/">founded the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA)</a> in response to weight discrimination their wives had faced. In the 1970s, two members of the group, Judy Freespirit and Sarah Fishman, created the more radical Fat Underground, inspired by feminist and queer activism. Black writers and activists were also linking weight discrimination and racism, as <a href="https://zenerations.org/2020/08/21/the-black-history-of-the-body-positive-movement/">Briana Dominici notes at Zenerations</a>. “I’m a woman,” welfare activist Johnnie Tillmon wrote in 1972. “I’m a Black woman. I’m a poor woman. I’m a fat woman. I’m a middle-aged woman. In this country, if you’re any one of those things you count less as a human being.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5z1XE0">
Despite such bold statements of the problem, the racial politics of fatphobia got less attention than the connections between gender discrimination and misogyny, Strings said. And overall, American culture was slow to change.
</p>
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The 1980s and ’90s were “an age of monoculture,” Marisa Meltzer, author of <em>This Is Big: How the Founder of Weight Watchers Changed the World — and Me</em>, told Vox. In that pre-social media era, beauty “was dictated kind of top-down by mega-conglomerates” that would anoint celebrities from Cindy Crawford to Christy Turlington to Gwyneth Paltrow as the ideal du jour. “It was always aspirational, and it would always be people who were unbelievably perfect,” Meltzer said. And perfect, in those days, meant thin.
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<div>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/e9x-70brsPLSeo7a1q6P2wQZnRE=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22903773/GettyImages_2220758_copy.jpg"/> <cite>Frank Micelotta/Getty Images</cite>
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Back row from left, models Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford, Lauren Hutton, and Beverly Johnson; front row from left, Christy Turlington and Naomi Campbell in 1993.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MsyzmU">
It was the age of Jenny Craig, the weight loss empire founded in 1983. It was the age of Oprah’s famous wagon moment, when the host wheeled out 67 pounds of animal fat to represent her recent weight loss (she <a href="https://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/oprahs-top-20-moments">later said</a> she’d lost the weight by eschewing all solid food for four months). It was the age when what passed for body diversity was putting a model who was maybe a size 4 instead of a size 0 on the cover of Seventeen magazine, as <a href="https://annehelen.substack.com/p/the-millennial-
vernacular-of-fatphobia">Anne Helen Petersen recently recalled</a> — and some readers still wrote in to complain that the model was too fat.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qOtxOj">
Convincing ordinary people they were too big, too flawed, too <em>something</em> was also a booming business. In the early ’90s, Jenny Craig was bringing in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1992/08/06/business/jenny-craig-reports-earnings-for-qtr-to-june-30.html">more than $400 million</a> a year, with a big chunk of that <a href="http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/jenny-craig-inc-
history/">channeled right back into advertising</a>. Ads for <a href="https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-
xpm-1988-07-13-0050290113-story.html">diet supplements</a> and other weight loss aids — along with ads featuring very thin women selling all manner of products as a path to an impossibly narrow beauty ideal — boosted magazines’ bottom lines as <a href="https://adage.com/article/news/magazines-teen-age-girls-advertisers-heed-seventeen-ad-
pages-7-newsstand-sales-post-stunning-30-increase/74077">advertising revenue soared</a> during the 1990s.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BFQpo2">
The monoculture enforced and policed by media and diet companies, of course, didn’t affect everyone in the same ways. Black readers of teen magazines, for example, were more likely to critique teen magazines and less likely to see them as representations of reality, Petersen wrote. At the same time, Black Americans and other Americans of color were affected by the ideal of thinness put forth in such magazines even if they didn’t personally buy into it. The same racist ideology developed to excuse slavery and colonialism has continued to play out in weight discrimination across American history.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4m8oav">
“If you are a fat Black person, particularly a fat Black woman, you are more likely to receive worse medical care, you’re more likely to be discriminated against at your job,” Strings said. “There are all these ways in which having more than one identity characteristic that Americans deem to be coarse will put you in a position for facing greater amounts and different forms of oppression.”
</p>
<h3 id="ZLiOUM">
In the 2000s, “body positivity” started to go mainstream
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eW0N4k">
Even as these forms of oppression have persisted, movements opposing fatphobia have grown in visibility and strength. In the 2000s, for example, bloggers and writers like Marianne Kirby and Lesley Kinzel helped bring fat acceptance closer to the mainstream, as Evette Dionne notes in her <a href="https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/fragility-body-positivity">history of the movement</a>. Beginning around 2008, body positivity advocates, many of them women of color, began posting photos, essays, and poetry on Tumblr and Facebook in an effort to “normalize being bigger and being happy, or being bigger and just being comfortable in your skin,” Stephanie Yeboah, a blogger and author of the book <a href="https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/books/13503"><em>Fattily Ever After: A Black Fat Girl’s Guide to Living Life Unapologetically</em></a>, told Vox <a href="https://www.vox.com/22526590/wrinkles-skin-botox-aging-pandemic-
filler">earlier this year</a>. The body positivity movement at that time was predominantly led by “larger fat Black women,” and functioned as “a safe space for marginalized bodies to come together and celebrate and normalize ourselves,” Yeboah said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3IpARa">
As activists and writers have been pushing for change, mass culture has been evolving, too. In 2004, Dove launched its now-famous Campaign for Real Beauty, which featured a diverse group of women posing in their underwear. All of the women had hourglass figures, were relatively young, and appeared not to have physical disabilities — still, none was conventionally model-skinny, and a campaign showcasing even somewhat larger bodies was revelatory for the time. “I feel like that would seem really anodyne now,” Meltzer said, but “that, to me, seems like it was a turning point.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kfInTq">
Nothing happened overnight — in 2012, when writer and influencer Gabi Gregg <a href="https://latimesblogs.latimes.com/alltherage/2012/06/fatkini-bathing-suit.html">posed in a “fatkini”</a> and wrote about it for xoJane, the image of a size 18 woman proudly modeling swimwear was still unusual enough to go viral. And swimwear options for women Gregg’s size were still few and far between. The winds of change were blowing, however, as companies realized they could make money selling to the millions of American consumers who were being ignored or alienated by ultra-skinny models and restrictive size ranges.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Bmp0HG">
In 2016, Sports Illustrated put <a href="https://www.teenvogue.com/story/most-inclusive-fashion-and-beauty-moments-of-the-decade">its first plus-size model</a>, Ashley Graham, on the cover. In 2019, brands like American Eagle and Anthropologie began <a href="https://www.glamour.com/gallery/fashion-brands-extended-plus-sizes">expanding their sizing</a>. The rise of direct-to-consumer brands advertising on Instagram also meant a wider array of sizes and a more diverse group of models appearing in customers’ feeds. Meanwhile, whether through TV shows like <em>Girls</em> or even the (then less derogatory) archetype of the <a href="https://www.vox.com/22466574/gaslight-gatekeep-girlboss-meaning">girlboss</a>, “third-wave feminist-style thoughts were becoming very mainstream,” Meltzer said.
</p>
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22903828/GettyImages_510378566_copy.jpg"/> <cite>Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Sports Illustrated</cite>
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Ashley Graham was the first plus-size model to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated, in 2016.
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<pre><code> &lt;img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-</code></pre>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">cdn.com/thumbor/z85boLuwzkbHoFBkUYP493JtRdA=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox- cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22903829/GettyImages_634602306_copy.jpg" /&gt; <cite>FilmMagic</cite></p>
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Lena Dunham gained attention for unapologetically baring her non-model body on <em>Girls</em>.
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</figure>
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In the age of putting <a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2018/2/15/16995962/prabal-gurung-fashion-pregnancy-me-too">“The Future Is Female”</a> on T-shirts, it was no longer “aspirational” for brands to embrace a restrictive, skinny-only aesthetic. Instead, projecting at least a veneer of inclusivity became the norm.
</p>
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“These ideas that were once a little more fringe, or a little more academic, or like things that you had to really explain to people, are now very normal,” Meltzer said: “that clothes should be made for everyone, and that beauty should be for everyone, and that representation is important.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HH679h">
Indeed, <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22226997/body-
positivity-instagram-tiktok-fatphobia-social-media">body positivity</a>, once a movement for and by people living in marginalized bodies, has become ubiquitous, a watchword routinely blazoned across Instagram and TikTok by ordinary people and popular influencers alike. On a recent search, #bodypositivity had 15.2 billion views on TikTok and 8.9 million posts on Instagram. With a few clicks, anyone can access memes saying things like “every body is a bikini body” or “work out because you love your body, not because you hate it.” Or you can find <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/tanyachen/influencers-viral-body-positive-tiktok-chain">TikTok stars showing off their bellies</a> and proclaiming that fat rolls are normal.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kEYOA3">
We’ve come a long way from the days when a size 4 model on the cover of a magazine could be the subject of controversy. And, in many important ways, we haven’t.
</p>
<h3 id="zBkgne">
Social media brought an onslaught of information about our bodies and other people’s
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9zJwuH">
Maybe the biggest difference between the media environment today and in the ’80s or ’90s is that there’s just more now, of everything. Growing up, magazines were dominated by super-skinny models, but “you could take a break,” Austin said. “There was no Facebook or anything like that,” and “it’s not like you had Netflix or DVR.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ih6siG">
Today, by contrast, “it’s so much information,” Austin said. That information can include body-positive messages, but it also, increasingly, includes images of people who have had plastic surgery or use filters or Photoshop to look a certain way. “Everything is so enhanced,” Austin said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NCdizk">
That includes non-Black people trying to attain features once stereotypically associated with Black women, such as full lips or a large butt, Austin said. The appropriation of such features is all part of the same racist tradition that gave rise to fatphobia in the US in the first place, Strings, the sociologist, said. “There are many people who are saying disrespectful things about fat people on the internet,” and especially about fat Black women, she said. But “you will also see a lot of these same people trying to get butt injections or lip injections.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9IFLbk">
“It’s not just the fear of Black people,” Strings explained. “It’s the fear and desire of Black people that keeps racism going.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tv8OH1">
Even those who supposedly embrace a more inclusive ideal also participate in such appropriation. “Body positivity — I’m not quite sure how it sits with me,” Bhagwandeen said. She points to celebrities like Kim Kardashian, who has <a href="https://www.insider.com/kim-kardashian-body-positive-fragrance-campaign-has-key-flaw-critics-point-
out-2018-10">championed body positivity</a> in the past but who is also “capitalizing off of BIPOC culture, aspects, identities.”
</p>
<div class="c-float-left">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/HuNAJw_pZc2P-7OMdavOSGgDjA0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22922298/GettyImages_1148086797_copy.jpg"/> <cite>Sean Zanni/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images</cite>
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Kim Kardashian with Kanye West at the 2019 Met Gala.
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pcubYi">
Meanwhile, some say the current embrace of body diversity has its limits. As a child, Wendy Marroquin, now a high school junior in Los Angeles, always saw “white, blonde, thin women who didn’t eat much” held up as the ideal, they told Vox in an email. Things have changed, but only a little: “Curves are in now but the slim waist stays.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6bpoi1">
“These ‘ideal’ bodies pushed by the media made me feel insecure about my body and at one point I even hated my body, the body that does so much for me,” Marroquin said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="urzUph">
Moreover, many complain that the ideals of body positivity have been watered down to the point where the supposed “movement” is now dominated by relatively thin women who get praise for showing belly rolls when they sit down or other small deviations from the stereotypical ideal, as Vox’s Rebecca Jennings <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22226997/body-positivity-
instagram-tiktok-fatphobia-social-media">reported earlier this year</a>. “A lot of fat people have rolls 24/7,” said <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@sheismarissamatthews/video/6905577277182971141?lang=en">TikToker <span class="citation" data-cites="sheismarissamatthews">@sheismarissamatthews</span></a>. “Contorting your body so that you have rolls when you don’t naturally have them is not helpful, and taking the face of a movement that is not meant for you is also not helpful.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZRBwGl">
While social media can provide positive affirmations, it can also just be a distributed version of the old magazine- and TV- driven culture of insufficiency and insecurity. Instead of a few editors and advertising firms driving the image choices, now it’s a larger number of influencers and TikTok stars — and while the details of the preferred aesthetic may change, the pressure to attain it arguably does not.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ifNUW3">
Nor do the ultimate beneficiaries: The diet industry was <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210326005126/en/U.S.-Weight-Loss-Diet-Control-Market-
Report-2021-Market-Reached-a-Record-78-Billion-in-2019-but-Suffered-a-21-Decline-in-2020-Due-to-COVID-19---Forecast-
to-2025---ResearchAndMarkets.com">booming pre-pandemic</a> and is poised for a rebound, with <a href="https://www.bustle.com/wellness/noom-weight-loss-app">companies like Noom</a> gaining in popularity. Meanwhile, after a lull when many elective procedures were canceled in 2020, cosmetic surgery is by all accounts <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/road-to-recovery/plastic-surgery-cosmetic-covid-
zoom/2020/12/07/6283e6d2-35a2-11eb-b59c-adb7153d10c2_story.html">roaring back</a> — even with lockdowns, Americans spent more than <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-aesthetic-society-releases-annual-statistics-revealing-
americans-spent-over-9-billion-on-aesthetic-plastic-surgery-in-2020-301258033.html">$9 billion</a> on aesthetic procedures last year. Social media platforms have given rise to their own plastic surgery trends — consider the <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22598377/bbl-brazilian-butt-lift-miami-cost-tiktok">Brazilian butt lift</a>, which, as Jennings puts it, “attempts to recreate the way we look when our bodies are filtered through the internet.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KxPYCj">
Now, just as in the past, constantly seeing images of supposedly ideal bodies can invite comparison and self-judgment, making young people feel worse about themselves. According to internal Facebook research presented in March 2020 and <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-knows-instagram-is-toxic-for-teen-girls-company-documents-
show-11631620739">obtained by the Wall Street Journal</a>, “thirty-two percent of teen girls said that when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made them feel worse.”
</p>
<div>
<aside id="SUNpwN">
<q>Body positivity has been watered down to the point where the supposed “movement” is now dominated by relatively thin women who get praise for showing belly rolls</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ab74a1">
Those feelings, in turn, can have real mental health consequences. Among teenagers who had suicidal thoughts, 13 percent of British users and 6 percent of American ones traced those thoughts back to Instagram, the Journal reported. Meanwhile, rates of eating disorders appear to have increased in recent years, despite the rise of body positivity rhetoric. According to one <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/109/5/1402/5480601">2019 study</a>, the lifetime prevalence of these disorders went up from 3.5 percent from 2000-2006 to 7.8 percent from 2013-2018. Though many factors are surely at play in this rise, other <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5003636/">research</a> has found an association between social media use and concerns about eating.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="N9bYvJ">
The images on social media can have a psychological impact beyond eating disorders as well. “Teens blame Instagram for increases in the rate of anxiety and depression,” said one slide in the internal Facebook presentation, according to the Journal. “This reaction was unprompted and consistent across all groups.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vkiZ5F">
Despite such concerning findings, it’s important to recognize that social media platforms don’t exist in a vacuum. Indeed, they’re reflecting back and amplifying messages that young people are also getting, just like in generations past, from their family, their peers, and everyone they encounter in a culture built on racist and fatphobic ideas.
</p>
<aside id="LIVrNZ">
<div>
</div>
</aside>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="riRRxP">
Bhagwandeen, for example, started struggling with her self-image when she was a young child after her uncle told her that a famous Bollywood actor would “never like you” because “you’re too dark.” Over the next few years, she began using skin lightening creams and internalizing the idea that “Eurocentric features were better than mine.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Hx3g97">
Today, she’s in a better place, embracing her brown skin, curly hair, and “just myself, holistically.” But “it’s still hard for me,” she said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AW644c">
“I don’t really like looking in the mirror still, or even looking on Instagram and stuff like that,” Bhagwandeen explained. “It’s still in the back of my head that, like, I’m not good enough.”
</p>
<h3 id="g3LqUJ">
You can find real body positivity today — but you have to look for it
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5pI8Wc">
For Bhagwandeen, what’s helped the most is “surrounding myself with people who look like me,” people who “really reaffirm that I am normal.” If there’s a way through this particular fraught moment in American body image discourse, many say it’s finding a way to cut through the negative messages to find the role models, peers, and resources that can support you and lift you up.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DZqgur">
Perhaps more so than in generations past, those resources are out there — they just have to be found amid all the noise. “I thought for a while that I was too fat or too short because all I ever saw everywhere I looked was slim and tall women,” Marroquin recalls. But “I’ve slowly unlearned that through various different representations in the media like Savage X Fenty’s ad models, Lizzo and different women in media just being at peace with their bodies.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BUe02n">
Marroquin has also channeled their experiences into helping other young people. As a volunteer with the nonprofit Peer Health Exchange, they helped design the app <a href="https://www.selfsea.org/">selfsea</a>, which provides first-person videos of teens talking about issues including body image, sexuality, mental health, and more. They got involved because they wanted to make sure other young people got to see representations not just of all body types but of all genders, “because at times the body positivity movement is more directed to women-identifying folks but fails to shed light on male-identifying and nonbinary folks or even intersex folks,” they explained. “We as young people need to see people from the whole spectrum so our future generations don’t develop an unhealthy relationship with their bodies.”
</p>
<div>
<div class="c-image- grid">
<div class="c-image-grid__item">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/AK0ixjfhYD2kxkpl1VnqSd6Q6Yo=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22922310/GettyImages_1342616103.jpg"/> <cite>Roy Rochlin/Getty Images For Amazon Studios</cite>
<figcaption>
Guests attend the Savage X Fenty Show Vol.3 on September 25, 2021.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<div class="c-image-grid__item">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/aW2UteSLov8UxXD2hiZ1f3YEkzA=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22922311/GettyImages_1235841791.jpg"/> <cite>JOCE/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Lizzo in October 2021 in Los Angeles.
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</figure>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fP1GRa">
For some, getting involved with education and advocacy can lead to healing. Ariza, now a senior at California State University Dominguez Hills, struggled with food and body image issues until she joined Peer Health Exchange in college and started sharing her feelings about her body with other volunteers. They encouraged her to seek therapy, and she was able to find a therapist through the group’s website. Today, “I really have developed and changed my perspective on myself, especially with my body,” Ariza says. “I feel more confident and more secure.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5hS2dg">
Not all young people have access to something like Peer Health Exchange, however. That’s why many advocate for lessons on body image and social media to be part of regular public education, much the way health class is (or <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/01/nyregion/sometimes-the-birds-and-the-bees-get-short-shrift-in-school.html">used to be</a>). “It needs to be integrated into schools, into after-school programs,” Austin of Just Ask Me said. Unfortunately, health services and after-school programs have seen <a href="https://ny.chalkbeat.org/2020/7/22/21334981/education-budget-cuts-hiring-freeze">cuts in New York City</a> and around the country in recent years, especially as the pandemic led to budget shortfalls.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="InPKLH">
That’s especially shortsighted because such programs “raised young people’s self-esteem, gave them a sense of community,” Austin said. “If all of that is being cut, what options are we giving our kids besides phones?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FQQwgK">
Then there’s the question of what’s on the phones. In the wake of revelations about <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2021/10/3/22707940/frances-haugen-facebook-whistleblower-60-minutes-teen-girls-
instagram">Instagram’s impact on young people</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/10/05/technology/facebook-
whistleblower-frances-haugen">Congress</a> has shown an appetite for increased regulation of social media platforms. Frances Haugen, the former Facebook employee who helped bring the company’s internal research to light, has <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22711551/facebook-whistleblower-congress-hearing-regulation-mark-zuckerberg-frances-
haugen-senator-blumenthal">suggested a number of reforms</a>, including increasing congressional oversight, greater scrutiny into Facebook’s algorithms, and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/05/technology/what-happened-at-
facebook-whistleblower-hearing.html">increasing the minimum age</a> for users from 13 to 17.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hu4NKc">
It’s too soon to tell whether such reforms will pass or whether they’ll have a meaningful impact on the kinds of messages young people get about their bodies. But in the meantime, young people themselves are navigating the confusing sea of contemporary body image discourse, offering guidance and inspiration for others along the way.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="N2Q0X8">
Ariza’s advice is to “unfollow accounts that make you feel like you need to compare yourself or you need to change,” she said. “Follow people who are going to influence you to go on a 30-minute walk or read a new book or go visit this exhibit.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mEaDIo">
For Marroquin, too, avoiding comparison is key. “I’ve started to accept my body more and have tried not to compare myself to other people,” they said. “I really like to remind myself that my body has done nothing wrong.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bJ6QIi">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UINHh5">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9JJJen">
</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>What to know about the latest fight over Trump’s executive privilege claims</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Steve Bannon and two others exit the Manhattan Federal Court on August 20, 2020." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/eoGASJDmJtEBZ7U7836Lh-lbY4g=/0x0:2844x2133/1310x983/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70008388/1228129433.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Former White House strategist Steve Bannon exits the Manhattan Federal Court in New York City on August 20, 2020. | Stephanie Keith/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon is facing a contempt vote by the January 6 committee.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kogv6J">
The House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol will vote Tuesday on whether to hold <a href="https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-subpoenas-steve-bannon-
cc5991e85781e1caa14188ffa021ec1c">Steve Bannon</a>, an adviser<strong> </strong>to former President Donald Trump, in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eLolKd">
The result of the vote will determine what further action the committee can take to secure testimony from Bannon about his role in the riot, and how much Trump knew about or encouraged the attacks. It will also help determine the efficacy of Trump’s claims of executive privilege over his conversations with Bannon, who had no role at the White House after 2017, and other aides, as well as over documents the committee has requested from the National Archives.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LaGLFf">
Bannon, along with former Trump officials Mark Meadows, Dan Scavino, and Kash Patel, was <a href="https://january6th.house.gov/news/press-
releases/select-committee-subpoenas-individuals-tied-former-president-days-surrounding">subpoenaed</a> by the committee in late September. Of the four, only Bannon is currently facing contempt proceedings — potential depositions for Meadows, Scavino, and Patel <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/katy-tur/watch/jan-6-committee-agrees-to-postpone-deposition-
from-patel-meadows-and-scavino-123554885893">have been delayed</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HPupcM">
Should the committee vote to hold Bannon in contempt — which it is almost sure to do, as a bipartisan majority on the committee has <a href="https://www.axios.com/adam-schiff-january-6-committee-witness-testimony-
cb094b7c-6cb5-42bd-997d-fcf8e7035145.html">indicated</a> they would take such measures to secure testimony — it would also signal the renewed power of a congressional subpoena, which members of the Trump administration <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-impeachment-inquiry-donald-trump-ap-top-news-subpoenas-
politics-48c57b063e3a4da699cd9a8ee8dbfe91">repeatedly flouted</a> during his tenure.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ubDBvB">
“This potential criminal contempt referral — or will-be criminal contempt referral for Steve Bannon — is the first shot over the bow,” Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), who serves on the committee, <a href="https://twitter.com/CNNSotu/status/1449733372264296452?s=20">told CNN’s Jake Tapper on <em>State of the Union</em></a> Sunday. “It’s very real, but it says to anybody else coming in front of the committee, ‘Don’t think that you’re gonna be able to just kind of walk away and we’re gonna forget about you. We’re not.’”
</p>
<div id="BGifup">
</div></li>
</ul>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who serves on the Jan. 6 committee, says it’s appropriate for Pres. Biden to say the DOJ should prosecute those who defy congressional subpoenas.<br/><br/>“It’s appropriate. The President has every right to signal and make it clear where the administration stands.” <a href="https://t.co/BuL7jiOO9K">pic.twitter.com/BuL7jiOO9K</a>
</p>
— State of the Union (<span class="citation" data-cites="CNNSotu">@CNNSotu</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNNSotu/status/1449733372264296452?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 17, 2021</a>
</blockquote>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3cGOn4">
If<strong> </strong>the committee does vote to move forward with contempt proceedings, the motion will then go to the whole House for a vote to determine whether Congress should refer the matter to the Justice Department. That vote, which could come as soon as this week, is also likely to succeed, according to <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/10/14/jan-6-committee-hold-bannon-in-contempt-516017">Politico’s Betsy Woodruff Swan and Kyle Cheney</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FurzbH">
What the Department of Justice will decide to do from there, though, is <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/10/16/1046779458/how-the-executive-privilege-claim-figures-into-jan-6-probe">a bit more opaque</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pndh6a">
“The Department of Justice will make its own independent decisions in all prosecutions based solely on the facts and the law. Period. Full stop,” DOJ spokesperson <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/10/15/doj-independence-biden-jan-6-prosections-516114">Anthony Coley</a> said Friday in response to Biden’s suggestion that the DOJ should prosecute Bannon and others who defy congressional subpoenas.
</p>
<div id="zHGNuR">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
DoJ responds to Biden: “The Department of Justice will make its own independent decisions in all prosecutions based solely on the facts and the law. Period. Full stop.” — <a href="https://twitter.com/AnthonyColeyDOJ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"><span class="citation" data-cites="AnthonyColeyDOJ">@AnthonyColeyDOJ</span></a> <a href="https://t.co/hubxYMG95M">https://t.co/hubxYMG95M</a>
</p>
— Katie Benner (<span class="citation" data-cites="ktbenner">@ktbenner</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/ktbenner/status/1449166929898389508?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 16, 2021</a>
</blockquote>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qJTdQs">
Bannon’s defiance is creating such an uproar because his testimony could prove particularly significant to the committee. He <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/23/us/politics/jan-6-committee-trump-white-
house.html?action=click&amp;module=RelatedLinks&amp;pgtype=Article">reportedly spoke with Trump<strong> </strong>in late December prior to the insurrection</a> and urged him to focus his varied efforts to overturn the 2020 election on January 6, the day Congress convened to certify the election results. As <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/18/politics/trump-bannon-stone-giuliani-capitol-riot-invs/index.html">CNN reported</a> in January, Bannon also told listeners of his podcast <em>War Room</em> on January 5 that “All hell is going to break loose tomorrow.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="d1hcvv">
Should Bannon be held in contempt of Congress, consequences could include, potentially, jail time, but only if the DOJ pursues charges against him. Technically, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/whats-stake-trump-allies-facing-contempt-congress-2021-10-14/">according to Reuters,</a> Congress also has the authority to arrest witnesses who refuse to comply with subpoenas, without the involvement of the DOJ. That hasn’t happened in nearly 100 years, however, and it’s unlikely that Congress will pursue this tactic.
</p>
<h3 id="SEQAWg">
Trump is trying to assert executive privilege — even though he’s no longer president
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mkkuLN">
<a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/white-house-pushes-release-jan-documents-trump-
bannon/story?id=80568817">As ABC reported Wednesday</a>, Bannon’s attorney, Robert J. Costello, has written to committee chair Rep. <a href="https://january6th.house.gov/news/press-releases/thompson-statement-cooperation-witnesses">Bennie Thompson</a> (D-MS) that his client won’t comply with the subpoena.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="k8CJvW">
“Until such a time as you reach an agreement with President Trump or receive a court ruling as to the extent, scope and application of the executive privilege, in order to preserve the claim of executive and other privileges, Mr. Bannon will not be producing documents or testifying,” Costello wrote.
</p>
<div id="RUgwQd">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
Steve Bannon team has fired off another letter to Jan 6 committee repeating that they will not cooperate citing Trump executive privilege claims. Letter obtained by <a href="https://twitter.com/ABC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"><span class="citation" data-cites="ABC">@ABC</span></a> below —-&gt; <a href="https://t.co/BU0F9MuFv0">pic.twitter.com/BU0F9MuFv0</a>
</p>
— John Santucci (<span class="citation" data-cites="Santucci">@Santucci</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/Santucci/status/1448426706973433857?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 13, 2021</a>
</blockquote>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="U3E83U">
In addition to Bannon and other Trump officials, the committee has also issued a subpoena to <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/10/13/1045774976/jan-6-panel-issues-subpoena-for-trump-ally-ex-doj-official-jeffrey-
clark">Jeffrey Clark</a>, a DOJ official who backed Trump’s false claims of voter fraud. Trump attempted to install Clark as acting attorney general when <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/10/13/rosen-
jan-6-committee-515910">Jeffrey Rosen</a>, who was in the role from December 2020 to January 2021, refused to involve the DOJ in efforts to overturn the election.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RDPiCe">
Trump has also been attempting to apply this argument to documents sought by the committee. Earlier in October, as <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/10/08/bannon-
jan-6-subpoena-515681">Politico</a> reported at the time, Trump attempted to block 45 specific documents from the committee, citing “executive and other privileges, including but not limited to the presidential communications, deliberative process, and attorney-client privileges” in a letter to national archivist David Ferriero.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9LEkPL">
Trump’s letter is not an official invocation of executive privilege, as PBS NewsHour’s <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/white-house-blocks-donald-trump-from-withholding-documents-on-
jan-6-attack">Yamiche Alcindor</a> points out. In these cases, the sitting president — Biden — has the final say over whether the privilege should apply, unless the courts say differently.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="T8iwSM">
The Biden administration blocked that request, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/white-house-blocks-donald-trump-from-withholding-
documents-on-jan-6-attack">with White House counsel Dana Remus writing to Ferriero</a> that “President Biden has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not in the best interests of the United States, and therefore is not justified as to any of the documents.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pkGTQT">
<a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-joe-
biden-us-supreme-court-congress-capitol-siege-13803c23a094992233df3b6880d2808b">As the AP reported</a> last week, Trump does plan to challenge Biden’s decision in court, and it could go in his favor — other former presidents have been able to exercise executive privilege.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mNBrgV">
However, given the extraordinary nature of the January 6 riots, the norm of confidentiality, which covers former presidents’ records for five years following their term, may be subverted, as it was during Watergate and after the terrorist attacks of September 11.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4bxFJ6">
That won’t stop Trump from <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/10/08/bannon-jan-6-subpoena-515681">attempting to use the same defense</a> to shield other documents from the committee; he has indicated that he will try to protect much of the information<strong> </strong>they subpoena by invoking executive privilege.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cCQP0c">
It’s unclear whether Trump actually has any grounds to claim that privilege, particularly when it comes to his communications with Bannon. Trump is no longer president, and Bannon was acting as a private citizen and not an official White House adviser during the period the committee is investigating.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aKOB46">
Specifically, as University of Kentucky law professor Jonathan Shaub <a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/executive-privilege-and-jan-6-investigation">wrote for Lawfare</a> last month, Trump can’t actually compel anyone to withhold information from the committee; Bannon and other former officials are private citizens now, and the Trump administration has no legal authority over any documents or knowledge in their possession.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="r2xjfi">
And as former federal prosecutor and Brown University professor Jeffrey Robbins told the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/14/us/politics/jan-6-capitol-riot-bannon.html">New York Times</a>, Trump’s arguments for executive privilege are “patently bogus” and lack justification, such as protecting national security.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HCAFhf">
“It’s open contempt of a subpoena without an apparent basis,” Robbins said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Kcwtys">
The actual validity of Trump’s arguments, though, might have less bearing on events than their ability to slow down the process.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XjrKTc">
“Really what Trump is trying to do, he’s trying to run out the clock on the January 6 select committee,” Punchbowl News co-founder John Bresnahan <a href="https://twitter.com/TheSundayShow/status/1449764179464925192?s=20">told MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart on Sunday</a>. “And they need to move as quickly as they can on this.”
</p>
<div id="HxJp1n">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
“The question is really what Trump is trying to do, he’s trying to run out the clock on the January 6th select committee. And they need to move as quickly as they can on this,” <a href="https://twitter.com/bresreports?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"><span class="citation" data-cites="bresreports">@bresreports</span></a> says of the Jan. 6 investigation. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SundayShow?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SundayShow</a> <a href="https://t.co/AWAZDkMBe0">pic.twitter.com/AWAZDkMBe0</a>
</p>
— The Sunday Show with Jonathan Capehart (<span class="citation" data-cites="TheSundayShow">@TheSundayShow</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheSundayShow/status/1449764179464925192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 17, 2021</a>
</blockquote>
</div>
<h3 id="JOCRf9">
Trump’s behavior shows why the January 6 investigation is critical
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Odr50D">
Trump’s attempts to stymie the January 6 investigation underscore exactly why the committee’s efforts are so crucial. Months after Biden took office, Trump and his allies are still using the same tactics that led up to the insurrection to try and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-2024-campaign-
candidacy/2021/10/03/73af3b12-21f8-11ec-b3d6-8cdebe60d3e2_story.html">propel him back to power</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="86vOTL">
At a recent rally in Richmond, Virginia, for example, Trump persisted in claiming that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-glenn-youngkin-virginia-governor-election-
ef10f05ada241421ed40e1d1fbf355cc">the AP reports</a>. Attendees also <a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-
richmond-virginia-election-2020-campaign-2016-89962366d97191095dd04c6b123b2cc2">pledged allegiance</a> to a flag that was reportedly carried at the January 6 Trump rally that preceded the attack on the Capitol.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="B1zWX5">
This month, Trump also <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/576194-trump-wishes-ashli-babbitt-happy-birthday-
calls-for-doj-to-reopen">recorded a birthday message</a> for Ashli Babbitt, who was shot and killed attempting to storm the Capitol on January 6.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kpUDXt">
“Together we grieve her terrible loss. There was no reason Ashli should have lost her life that day,” Trump said in the video, which was played at a gathering of Babbitt’s friends and family last week. “We must all demand justice for Ashli and her family.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jVbrK9">
In the video, Trump also called for the DOJ to reopen an investigation into her death; the department <a href="https://thehill.com/regulation/court-
battles/548225-federal-prosecutors-will-not-bring-charges-against-officer-who-shot">declined to bring charges</a> against the officer who shot Babbitt as she climbed over a barricade near the House chambers during the attack.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vFesio">
As the tempo of Trump’s ongoing rhetoric demonstrates — as recently as Friday, he was calling for 2020 election results in Arizona’s second-most populous county to be <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/trump-switches-
arizona-audit-focus-pima-county-demands-loss-biden-decertified-1639613">decertified</a> — neither he nor his allies intend to stop amplifying the kind of lies that led to the January 6 riot.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BCXETj">
And lawmakers say that is the reason the January 6 committee’s work, including in securing testimony from former Trump officials, is so important: to establish the truth of what actually happened before, during, and after the attack.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5WPbSO">
“This is about the 10-year argument,” Kinzinger <a href="https://twitter.com/CNNSotu/status/1449733372264296452?s=20">told Tapper</a> on Sunday. “What are our kids going to think when they read the history books? Who’s going to win that argument? And I’ve always believed since I’ve been a kid in Sunday school that truth needs to win out.”
</p>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Protesters disrupt flame lighting for the Beijing Winter Games</strong> - The protesters climbed over a fence to enter the grounds and attempted to reach the area where the ceremony was being held.</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>Bhavani Devi wins fencing competition in France</strong> - She is currently ranked 50th in the world and is the top-ranked fencer from 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>Afghanistan Cricket Board seek members’ support ahead of crucial ICC meeting</strong> - Cricket Australia (CA) has already threatened to scrap next month’s one-off test in Hobart between the men’s teams if the new government in Kabul did not allow women to play the sport.</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>T20 World Cup biggest responsibility of career; Dhoni is life coach and a brother: Hardik Pandya</strong> - “If I go to the crease, because of the kind of cricketer I am, they have to keep an eye on me because they know that if this guy clicks, he can take the game away,” the all-rounder said.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>CSK bullish on retaining Dhoni</strong> - CEO Vishwanathan praises his leadership qualities</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>Law and order situation deteriorated in State, alleges Chinarajappa</strong> - ‘Roads are in a bad shape and YSRCP government is not bothered’</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 Congress leader vilified Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel at CWC meet: BJP</strong> - Congress leader Tariq Hameed Karra had reportedly alleged Patel of wanting to keep Jammu and Kashmir out 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>Difficult for middle class to travel even by road: Priyanka Gandhi on rising fuel prices</strong> - The Congress general secretary’s attack on the government came over auto fuels now costing a third more than the rate at which aviation turbine fuel (ATF) is sold to airlines.</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>‘Dalit Bandhu like scheme for other sections soon’</strong> - Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has asserted that Dalit Bandhu, the one of its kind scheme for financial empowerment of Dalits, will be extended t</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Congress, BJP Twitter spat turn personal</strong> - In the heat of bypolls to Hanagal and Sindgi assembly constituencies, Congress and BJP were involved in a spat in Twitter after the former called Prim</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>Pedro Sánchez: Spanish PM vows to outlaw prostitution</strong> - The UN estimates Spain’s sex industry has become worth €3.7bn since decriminalisation in 1995.</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>Peter R de Vries: Suspect denies knowledge of Dutch reporter’s murder</strong> - The suspect appears in court alongside a man accused of shooting Peter R de Vries in Amsterdam.</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>Emiliano Sala: David Henderson pleads guilty to flight charge</strong> - David Henderson admits a charge relating to the flight in which footballer Emiliano Sala died.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Hungary: Mayor Marki-Zay wins run-off to challenge Orban</strong> - Local conservative mayor Peter Marki-Zay is chosen to lead the opposition in next year’s election.</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>Beijing 2022: Protest staged at Winter Olympics torch lighting</strong> - Activists with banners attempt to interrupt the ceremony at Greece’s ancient Olympia on Monday.</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>Liveblog—All the fun stuff from Apple’s “Unleashed” event</strong> - Today’s MacBook-y event gets started at 10:00 am Pacific / 1:00 pm Eastern. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1804900">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Good Life review: A messy RPG as unique as it is ridiculous</strong> - Dogs and cats and sheep, oh my! - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1804686">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Before the new version, let’s revisit 1984’s Dune—the greatest movie ever made</strong> - The pursuit of greatness must embrace the ridiculous. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1802795">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Review: Needle in a Timestack explores how love endures when time is in constant flux</strong> - John Ridley based his film on 1966 short story by award-winning author Robert Silverberg. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1804404">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Robert Pattinson broods and batters his way through new The Batman trailer</strong> - Also: Is that Michael Keaton returning as Batman in sneak peek for <em>The Flash</em> film? - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1804748">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>A young doctor had moved to a small town to replace a doctor who was retiring.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The older doctor suggested that the young one accompany him on his rounds so that the community would become used to their new doctor.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
At the first house a woman complains, “I’ve been a little sick to my stomach.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The older doctor says, “Well, you’ve probably been overdoing the fresh fruit. Why not cut back on the amount you’ve been eating and see if that does the trick?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
As they left, the younger man said “You didn’t even examine that woman, how did you come to your diagnosis so quickly?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“I didn’t have to examine her. You noticed I dropped my stethoscope on the floor in there? Well, when I bent over to pick it up, I noticed a half dozen banana peels in the waste bin. I knew that was what probably was making her sick.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The younger doctor said “Pretty clever. If you don’t mind, I think I’ll try that at the next house.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Arriving at the next house, they spent several minutes talking with a younger woman. She just didn’t have the energy she once had and said “I’m feeling terribly run down lately.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“You’ve probably been doing too much for the Church,” the younger doctor told her. “Perhaps you should cut back a bit and see if that helps.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
As they left, the elder doctor said, “I know that woman well. Your diagnosis is almost certainly correct, she’s very active in the church but how did you arrive at it?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“I did what you did at the last house. I dropped my stethoscope and when I bent down to retrieve it, I noticed the vicar under the bed.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/nothinlefttochoose"> /u/nothinlefttochoose </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/qadq3d/a_young_doctor_had_moved_to_a_small_town_to/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/qadq3d/a_young_doctor_had_moved_to_a_small_town_to/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>T‌‌eacher: “‌‌If I‌‌ g‌‌ave y‌‌ou 2‌‌ c‌‌ats a‌‌nd a‌‌nother 2‌‌ c‌‌ats a‌‌nd a‌‌nother 2‌‌, h‌‌ow m‌‌any w‌‌ould y‌‌ou h‌‌ave?”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
J‌‌ohnny: “‌‌Seven.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
T‌‌eacher: “‌‌No, l‌‌isten c‌‌arefully… I‌‌f I‌‌ g‌‌ave y‌‌ou t‌‌wo c‌‌ats, a‌‌nd a‌‌nother t‌‌wo c‌‌ats a‌‌nd a‌‌nother t‌‌wo, h‌‌ow m‌‌any w‌‌ould y‌‌ou h‌‌ave?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
J‌‌ohnny: “‌‌Seven.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
T‌‌eacher: “‌‌Let m‌‌e p‌‌ut i‌‌t t‌‌o y‌‌ou d‌‌ifferently. I‌‌f I‌‌ g‌‌ave y‌‌ou t‌‌wo a‌‌pples, a‌‌nd a‌‌nother t‌‌wo a‌‌pples a‌‌nd a‌‌nother t‌‌wo, h‌‌ow m‌‌any w‌‌ould y‌‌ou h‌‌ave?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
J‌‌ohnny: “‌‌Six.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
T‌‌eacher: “‌‌Good. N‌‌ow i‌‌f I‌‌ g‌‌ave y‌‌ou t‌‌wo c‌‌ats, a‌‌nd a‌‌nother t‌‌wo c‌‌ats a‌‌nd a‌‌nother t‌‌wo, h‌‌ow m‌‌any w‌‌ould y‌‌ou h‌‌ave?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
J‌‌ohnny: “‌‌Seven!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
T‌‌eacher: “‌‌Johnny, w‌‌here i‌‌n t‌‌he h‌‌eck d‌‌o y‌‌ou g‌‌et s‌‌even f‌‌rom?!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
J‌‌ohnny: “‌‌Because I‌‌’ve a‌‌lready g‌‌ot a‌‌ f‌‌reaking c‌‌at!”
</p>
</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/notriple"> /u/notriple </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/q9ybr3/teacher_if_i_gave_you_2_cats_and_another_2_cats/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/q9ybr3/teacher_if_i_gave_you_2_cats_and_another_2_cats/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>A woman meets a man in a bar. They talk; they connect; they end up leaving together.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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They get back to his place, and as he shows her around his apartment, she notices that one wall of his bedroom is completely filled with soft, sweet, cuddly teddy bears. There are three shelves in the bedroom, with hundreds and hundreds of cute, cuddly teddy bears, carefully placed in rows covering the entire wall!
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It was obvious that he had taken quite some time to lovingly arrange them and she was immediately touched by the amount of thought he had put into organizing the display.
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There were small bears all along the bottom shelf, medium-sized bears covering the length of the middle shelf, and huge, enormous bears running all the way along the top shelf.
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She found it strange for an obviously masculine guy to have such a large a collection of Teddy Bears, but doesn’t mention this to him, and actually is quite impressed by his sensitive side.
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They share a bottle of wine and continue talking and, after a while, she finds herself thinking, “Oh my God! Maybe, this guy could be the one! Maybe he could be the future father my children?” She turns to him and kisses him lightly on the lips. He responds warmly.
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They continue to kiss, the passion builds, and he romantically lifts her in his arms and carries her into his bedroom where they rip off each other’s clothes and make hot, steamy love. She is so overwhelmed that she responds with more passion, more creativity, more heat than she has ever known. After an intense, explosive night of raw passion with this sensitive guy, they are lying there together in the afterglow.
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The woman rolls over, gently strokes his chest and asks coyly, “Well, how was it?”
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The guy gently smiles at her, strokes her cheek, looks deeply into her eyes, and says, “Help yourself to any prize from the middle shelf.”
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<em>[Always loved this joke - another golden oldie]</em>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Waitsfornoone"> /u/Waitsfornoone </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/qa2kqi/a_woman_meets_a_man_in_a_bar_they_talk_they/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/qa2kqi/a_woman_meets_a_man_in_a_bar_they_talk_they/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>What is considered the polite way to end an orgy?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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Thank everyone for coming!
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/MaxGrand"> /u/MaxGrand </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/q9ydrw/what_is_considered_the_polite_way_to_end_an_orgy/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/q9ydrw/what_is_considered_the_polite_way_to_end_an_orgy/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>A man buys a pack of condoms at the pharmacy…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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The pharmacist says “Large pack, huh?” The guy buying says “Yeah. I’m meeting my girlfriend’s parents tonight. After dinner when we go home we’ll be getting it on.” Later at the dinner, the guy is praying before he eats his food. His girlfriend says “I didn’t know you were religious.” The guy replies “I didn’t know your dad was a pharmacist.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/kad143"> /u/kad143 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/qah3ki/a_man_buys_a_pack_of_condoms_at_the_pharmacy/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/qah3ki/a_man_buys_a_pack_of_condoms_at_the_pharmacy/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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