navan
/
Daily-Dose
mirror of https://github.com/navanchauhan/Daily-Dose.git
1
0
Fork 0
Code Issues Projects Releases Wiki Activity

Added daily report

This commit is contained in:
Navan Chauhan 2021-03-20 12:53:05 +00:00
parent c702cfaaea
commit 2f44cce793
3 changed files with 861 additions and 2 deletions
Show Stats Download Patch File Download Diff File Expand all files Collapse all files

233
archive-covid-19/20 March, 2021.html Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,233 @@
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="" xml:lang="" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head>
<meta charset="utf-8"/>
<meta content="pandoc" name="generator"/>
<meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes" name="viewport"/>
<title>20 March, 2021</title>
<style type="text/css">
code{white-space: pre-wrap;}
span.smallcaps{font-variant: small-caps;}
span.underline{text-decoration: underline;}
div.column{display: inline-block; vertical-align: top; width: 50%;}
</style>
<title>Covid-19 Sentry</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
<body>
<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>COVID-19 Implications of the Physical Interaction of Artificial Fog on Respiratory Aerosols</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
<b>Introduction</b> Artificial fog is used in the film, television, and live entertainment industries to enhance lighting, as a visual effect, and to create a specific sense of mood or atmosphere. This study investigated whether the suspension time of respiratory aerosols spiked with tagged DNA tracers would change in the presence of glycerin- or glycol-containing artificial fogs. <b>Methods &amp; Materials</b> Respiratory aerosols with tagged DNA tracers were sprayed into a closed environment without and with glycerin- or glycol-containing artificial fog, with air samples taken at regular intervals to determine the decay of tagged DNA tracer over time. The study treatments included Control (no fog), Glycerin Low (3 mg/m<sup>3</sup>), Glycerin High (~15 mg/m<sup>3</sup>), Glycol Low (~5 mg/m<sup>3</sup>), and Glycol High (~40 mg/m<sup>3</sup>). <b>Results</b> All artificial fog treatments had lower mean log reduction curves compared to the Control treatment. Compared to the Control and Glycerin Low treatments, the differences in mean log reduction for nearly all other artificial fog treatments were statistically significant (p&lt;0.001); the difference between Control and Glycerin Low treatments was not statistically significant (p=0.087). The differences in mean log reduction between treatments using the same artificial fog type were not statistically significant. <b>Conclusion</b> Artificial fog use does not increase suspension time of respiratory aerosols, and therefore does not appear to increase the risk of airborne transmission of diseases from respiratory aerosols, such as COVID-19. Of the two types of artificial fogs investigated, that containing glycol decreased suspension time more than that containing glycerin. In practice, the additional reduction in suspension time provided by the physical interaction of respiratory aerosols with artificial fog does not suggest any practical benefit for using artificial fog as a control measure.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.18.21253891v1" target="_blank">COVID-19 Implications of the Physical Interaction of Artificial Fog on Respiratory Aerosols</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>A Prospective Study of Long-Term Outcomes Among Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients with and without Neurological Complications</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background: Little is known regarding long-term outcomes of patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Methods: We conducted a prospective study of 6-month outcomes of hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Patients with new neurological complications during hospitalization who survived were propensity score-matched to COVID-19 survivors without neurological complications hospitalized during the same period. The primary 6-month outcome was multivariable ordinal analysis of the modified Rankin Scale(mRS) comparing patients with or without neurological complications. Secondary outcomes included: activities of daily living (ADLs;Barthel Index), telephone Montreal Cognitive Assessment and Neuro-QoL batteries for anxiety, depression, fatigue and sleep. Results: Of 606 COVID-19 patients with neurological complications, 395 survived hospitalization and were matched to 395 controls; N=196 neurological patients and N=186 controls completed follow-up. Overall, 346/382 (91%) patients had at least one abnormal outcome: 56% had limited ADLs, 50% impaired cognition, 47% could not return to work and 62% scored worse than average on ≥1 Neuro-QoL scale (worse anxiety 46%, sleep 38%, fatigue 36%, and depression 25%). In multivariable analysis, patients with neurological complications had worse 6-month mRS (median 4 vs. 3 among controls, adjusted OR 2.03, 95%CI 1.22-3.40, P=0.01), worse ADLs (aOR 0.38, 95%CI 0.29-0.74, P=0.01) and were less likely to return to work than controls (41% versus 64%, P=0.04). Cognitive and Neuro-QOL metrics were similar between groups. Conclusions: Abnormalities in functional outcomes, ADLs, anxiety, depression and sleep occurred in over 90% of patients 6-months after hospitalization for COVID-19. In multivariable analysis, patients with neurological complications during index hospitalization had significantly worse 6-month functional outcomes than those without.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.18.21253881v1" target="_blank">A Prospective Study of Long-Term Outcomes Among Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients with and without Neurological Complications</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Generation of Inhibitory Autoantibodies to ADAMTS13 in Coronavirus Disease 2019</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Objectives: It has recently been shown that von Willebrand factor (vWf) multimers may be a key driver of immunothrombosis in Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Since COVID-19 is associated with an increased risk of autoreactivity, the present study investigates, whether the generation of autoantibodies to ADAMTS13 contributes to this finding. Design: Observational prospective controlled multicenter study. Setting: Blood samples and clinical data of patients with COVID-19 were collected regularly during hospitalization in the period from April to November 2020. Patients: 90 patients with confirmed COVID-19 of mild to critical severity and 30 healthy controls participated in this study. Measuerements and Main Results: Antibodies to ADAMTS13 occurred in 31 (34.4%) patients with COVID-19. Generation of ADAMTS13 antibodies was associated with a significantly lower ADAMTS13 activity (56.5%, interquartile range (IQR) 21.25 vs. 71.5%, IQR 24.25, p=0.0041), increased disease severity (severe or critical disease in 90% vs. 62.3%, p=0.0189), and a trend to a higher mortality (35.5% vs. 18.6%, p=0.0773). Median time to antibody development was 11 days after first positive SARS-CoV-2-PCR specimen. Conclusion: The present study demonstrates for the first time, that generation of antibodies to ADAMTS13 is a frequent finding in COVID-19. Generation of these antibodies is associated with a lower ADAMTS13 activity and an increased risk of an adverse course of the disease suggesting an inhibitory effect on the protease. These findings provide a rationale to include ADAMTS13 antibodies in the diagnostic workup of SARS-CoV-2 infections.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.18.21253869v1" target="_blank">Generation of Inhibitory Autoantibodies to ADAMTS13 in Coronavirus Disease 2019</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Diagnostic accuracy of rapid antigen tests in pre-/asymptomatic close contacts of individuals with a confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background Pre-/asymptomatic close contacts of SARS-CoV-2 infected individuals were tested at day 5 after contact by real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Diagnostic accuracy of antigen-detecting rapid diagnostic tests (Ag-RDT) in pre-/asymptomatic close contacts was up till now unknown. Methods We performed a prospective cross-sectional diagnostic test accuracy study. Close contacts (e.g. selected via the test-and-trace program or contact tracing app) aged ≥16 years and asymptomatic when requesting a test, were included consecutively and tested at day 5 at four Dutch public health service test sites. We evaluated two Ag-RDTs (BD VeritorTM System Ag-RDT (BD), and Roche/SD Biosensor Ag-RDT (SD-B)) with RT-PCR as the reference standard. Virus culture was performed in RT-PCR positive individuals to determine the viral load cut-off above which 95% was culture positive, as a proxy of infectiousness. Results Of 2,678 BD-tested individuals, 233 (8.7%) were RT-PCR positive and BD detected 149 (sensitivity 63.9%; 95% confidence interval 57.4%-70.1%). Out of 1,596 SD-B-tested individuals, 132 (8.3%) were RT-PCR positive and SD-B detected 83 (sensitivity 62.9%; 54.0%-71.1%). When applying an infectiousness viral load cut-off &gt;= 5.2 log10 gene copies/mL, the sensitivity was 90.1% (84.2%-94.4%) for BD, 86.8% (78.1% to 93.0%) for SD-B overall, and 88.1% (80.5%-93.5%) for BD, 85.1% (74.3%-92.6%) for SD-B for those still asymptomatic at the actual time of sampling. Specificity was &gt;99% for both Ag-RDTs in all analyses. Conclusions The sensitivity for detecting SARS-CoV-2 of both Ag-RDTs in pre-/asymptomatic close contacts is over 60%, increasing to over 85% after applying an infectiousness viral load cut-off.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.18.21253874v1" target="_blank">Diagnostic accuracy of rapid antigen tests in pre-/asymptomatic close contacts of individuals with a confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>The ongoing evolution of variants of concern and interest of SARS-CoV-2 in Brazil revealed by convergent indels in the amino (N)-terminal domain of the Spike protein</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Mutations at both the receptor-binding domain (RBD) and the amino (N)-terminal domain (NTD) of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike (S) glycoprotein can alter its antigenicity and promote immune escape. We identified that SARS-CoV-2 lineages circulating in Brazil with mutations of concern in the RBD independently acquired convergent deletions and insertions in the NTD of the S protein, which altered the NTD antigenic-supersite and other predicted epitopes at this region. These findings support that the ongoing widespread transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in Brazil is generating new viral lineages that might be more resistant to neutralization than parental variants of concern.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.19.21253946v1" target="_blank">The ongoing evolution of variants of concern and interest of SARS-CoV-2 in Brazil revealed by convergent indels in the amino (N)-terminal domain of the Spike protein</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Predicting clinical outcomes in the Machine Learning era: The Piacenza score a purely data driven approach for mortality prediction in COVID-19 Pneumonia</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background Several models have been developed to predict mortality in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia, but only few have demonstrated enough discriminatory capacity. Machine-learning(ML) algorithms represent a novel approach for data-driven prediction of clinical outcomes with advantages over statistical modelling. We developed the Piacenza score, a ML-based score, to predict 30-day mortality in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia. Methods 852 patients (mean age 70years, 70%males) were enrolled from February to November 2020. The dataset was randomly splitted into derivation and test. The Piacenza score was obtained through the Naive Bayes classifier and externally validated on 86 patients. Using a forward-search algorithm the following six features were identified: age; mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration; PaO2/FiO2 ratio; temperature; previous stroke; gender. In case one or more of the features are not available for a patient, the model can be re-trained using only the provided features. We also compared the Piacenza score with the 4C score and with a Naive Bayes algorithm with 14 variables chosen a-priori. Results The Piacenza score showed an AUC of 0.78(95% CI 0.74-0.84, Brier-score 0.19) in the internal validation cohort and 0.79(95% CI 0.68-0.89, Brier-score 0.16) in the external validation cohort showing a comparable accuracy respect to the 4C score and to the Naive Bayes model with a-priori chosen features, which achieved an AUC of 0.78(95% CI 0.73-0.83, Brier-score 0.26) and 0.80(95% CI 0.75-0.86, Brier-score 0.17) respectively. Conclusion A personalized ML-based score with a purely data driven features selection is feasible and effective to predict mortality in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.16.21253752v1" target="_blank">Predicting clinical outcomes in the Machine Learning era: The Piacenza score a purely data driven approach for mortality prediction in COVID-19 Pneumonia</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>COVID-19 Neuropathology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center/New York Presbyterian Hospital</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Many patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection develop neurological signs and symptoms, though, to date, little evidence exists that primary infection of the brain is a significant contributing factor. We present the clinical, neuropathological, and molecular findings of 41 consecutive patients with SARS-CoV-2 infections who died and underwent autopsy in our medical center. The mean age was 74 years (38-97 years), 27 patients (66%) were male and 34 (83%) were of Hispanic/Latinx ethnicity. Twenty-four patients (59%) were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). Hospital-associated complications were common, including 8 (20%) with deep vein thrombosis/pulmonary embolism (DVT/PE), 7 (17%) patients with acute kidney injury requiring dialysis, and 10 (24%) with positive blood cultures during admission. Eight (20%) patients died within 24 hours of hospital admission, while 11 (27%) died more than 4 weeks after hospital admission. Neuropathological examination of 20-30 areas from each brain revealed hypoxic/ischemic changes in all brains, both global and focal; large and small infarcts, many of which appeared hemorrhagic; and microglial activation with microglial nodules accompanied by neuronophagia, most prominently in the brainstem. We observed sparse T lymphocyte accumulation in either perivascular regions or in the brain parenchyma. Many brains contained atherosclerosis of large arteries and arteriolosclerosis, though none had evidence of vasculitis. Eighteen (44%) contained pathologies of neurodegenerative diseases, not unexpected given the age range of our patients. We examined multiple fresh frozen and fixed tissues from 28 brains for the presence of viral RNA and protein, using quantitative reverse-transcriptase PCR (qRT- PCR), RNAscope, and immunocytochemistry with primers, probes, and antibodies directed against the spike and nucleocapsid regions. qRT-PCR revealed low to very low, but detectable, viral RNA levels in the majority of brains, although they were far lower than those in nasal epithelia. RNAscope and immunocytochemistry failed to detect viral RNA or protein in brains. Our findings indicate that the levels of detectable virus in COVID-19 brains are very low and do not correlate with the histopathological alterations. These findings suggest that microglial activation, microglial nodules and neuronophagia, observed in the majority of brains, do not result from direct viral infection of brain parenchyma, but rather likely from systemic inflammation, perhaps with synergistic contribution from hypoxia/ischemia. Further studies are needed to define whether these pathologies, if present in patients who survive COVID-19, might contribute to chronic neurological problems.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.16.21253167v1" target="_blank">COVID-19 Neuropathology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center/New York Presbyterian Hospital</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>COVID-19 collateral damage: psychological distress and behavioral changes among older adults during the first outbreak in Stockholm, Sweden</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Introduction: During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Swedish public health authorities provided recommendations for 70+ year old people. They were strongly encouraged to self-isolate but remain physically active in a safe manner. This study aimed to explore the indirect, negative effects of COVID-19 restrictions (collateral damage) by exploring to what extent adherence to such recommendations might have impacted the lives and health of older adults living in central Stockholm. Methods: An ad-hoc phone questionnaire was administered by trained staff between May and June 2020 to a random sample of older adults 68+ years old (n=1231), who had attended the regular follow-up assessment of the longitudinal Swedish National study on Aging and Care in Kungsholmen (SNAC-K) during 2016-2019. We explored three dimensions of collateral damage, namely psychological distress (feelings of worry, stress and loneliness), reductions in social and physical activities, and reductions in medical and social care use. Logistic regression models were used to test the association between age, sex, education and living arrangement, and the risk of collateral damage. Results: Vast majority of participants adhered to the recommendations, with over three quarters practicing self-isolation (n=928). Half of the sample reported psychological distress, 55.3% reported reductions in social or physical activity, and 11.3% reported decreased medical or social care use. Over three quarters of participants were affected by at least one of the three collateral damage dimensions. Female sex was the strongest sociodemographic predictor of individual as well as co-occurring dimensions of collateral damage. Conclusion: COVID-19 and its restrictions during the first half of 2020 have had a negative effect on the health and lives of a majority of elderly living in central Stockholm. Women were at a particularly higher risk of these negative consequences. We emphasize the need for predefined, evidence-based interventions to address these negative consequences.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.16.21253750v1" target="_blank">COVID-19 collateral damage: psychological distress and behavioral changes among older adults during the first outbreak in Stockholm, Sweden</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Cancer services during the COVID-19 pandemic: systematic review of patients’ and caregivers’ experiences</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background Cancer patients have faced intersecting crises in the face of COVID-19 pandemic. This review aimed to examine patients9 and caregivers9 experiences of accessing cancer services during the COVID-19 pandemic and perceived impact of the pandemic on their psychological wellbeing. Methods A protocol-led (CRD42020214906) systematic review was conducted by searching six databases including EMBASE, MEDLINE and CINAHL for articles published in English-language between 1/2020-12/2020. Data were extracted using a pilot-tested, structured data extraction form. Thematic synthesis of data was undertaken and reported as per the PRISMA guideline. Results A total of 1110 articles were screened of which 19 studies met the inclusion criteria. Studies originated from 10 different countries including the US, UK, India and China. Several themes were identified which were categorised into seven categories. Postponement and delays in cancer screening and treatment, drug shortages and inadequate nursing care were commonly experienced by patients. Hospital closures, resource constraints, national lockdowns and patient reluctance to use health services because of infection worries contributed to the delay. Financial and social distress, isolation; and spiritual distress due to the uncertainty of rites as well as fulfilment of last wishes were also commonly reported. Caregivers felt anxious about infecting cancer patients with COVID-19. Conclusions Patients and caregivers experienced extensive impact of COVID-19 on cancer screening, treatment and care, and their own psychological wellbeing. Patient and caregiver views and preferences should be incorporated in ensuring resilient cancer services that can minimise the impact of ongoing and future pandemic on cancer care and mitigate patient fears.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.19.21253949v1" target="_blank">Cancer services during the COVID-19 pandemic: systematic review of patients’ and caregivers’ experiences</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Smoking and Vaping Among a National Sample of U.S. Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Introduction: With concerns about cigarette smoking as a risk factor for severe disease from COVID-19, understanding nicotine and tobacco use patterns is important for preventive efforts. We aimed to understand changes in product use behaviors among U.S. adult combustible cigarette smokers and electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) users. Methods: In August 2020, we conducted a cross-sectional survey of a nationally-representative sample of adults age &gt;18 in the NORC AmeriSpeak Panel who reported past 6-month use of combustible cigarettes or e-cigarettes. Multivariable logistic regression assessed factors associated with increased product use and quit attempts since hearing about COVID-19. Results: 1024 past 6-month cigarette smokers and/or e-cigarette users were surveyed. Among cigarette smokers, 45% reported no change in cigarette smoking and 33% increased cigarette smoking since hearing about COVID-19. Higher stress was associated with increased cigarette smoking. Among e-cigarette users, 41% reported no change in and 23% reported increasing e-cigarette use. 26% of cigarette smokers and 41% of e-cigarette users tried to quit because of COVID-19. Higher perceived risk of COVID-19 was associated with attempts to quit combustible cigarettes (AOR 2.37, 95% CI 1.59-3.55) and e-cigarettes (AOR 3.14, 1.73-5.70). Conclusions: Cigarette and e-cigarette use patterns varied in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Most cigarette smokers and e-cigarette users perceived product use as increasing COVID-19-related health risks, and this was associated with attempts to quit. Others, especially those reporting higher stress, increased product use. Proactive provision of cessation support to smokers and e-cigarette users may help mitigate stress-related increases in product use during the COVID-19 pandemic.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.18.21253902v1" target="_blank">Smoking and Vaping Among a National Sample of U.S. Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Comparing the efficacy of anti‐infectious drugs for the treatment of mild to severe COVID-19 patients: a protocol for a systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background: COVID-19 is a viral infection spreading at a great speed and has quickly caused an extensive burden to individuals, families, countries, and the world. No intervention has yet been proven highly effective for the treatment of COVID-19. Different drugs were being evaluated and reported through randomized clinical trials, and more are currently under trial. This review aimed to compare the efficacy of anti-infectious drugs with a comparator of the standard of care or placebo in patients with COVID-19. Methods and analysis: Two independent review authors will extract data and assess a risk of bias using RoB2. Randomized controlled trials (RCT) that evaluate single and/or combined antiviral drugs recommended by WHO latest guideline for the treatment of COVID-19 will be included. We will search for Pub Med, the Cochrane Center for Clinical Trial database (CENTRAL), clinicaltrials.gov, etc. databases for articles published in the English language between December 2019 to April 2021. We will follow the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols (PRISMA-P) involving Network Meta-analysis guidelines for the design and reporting of the results. The primary endpoints will be time to clinical recovery and time to RNA negativity. The certainty of evidence will be evaluated using the GRADE extension of NMA. Data analysis will be performed using the frequentist NMA approach with a netmeta package implemented in R. Ethics and dissemination: There are no ethical considerations associated with this study as we will use publicly available data from previously published studies. We plan to publish results in open access peer-reviewed journals. PROSPERO registration number: ID=CRD42021230919.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.19.21253957v1" target="_blank">Comparing the efficacy of anti‐infectious drugs for the treatment of mild to severe COVID-19 patients: a protocol for a systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Sarcopenic obesity and the risk of hospitalisation or death from COVID-19: findings from UK Biobank</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS;CoV-2 virus). The role of skeletal muscle mass in modulating immune response is well documented. Whilst obesity is well-established as a key factor in COVID-19 infection and outcome, no study has examined the influence of both sarcopenia (low muscle mass) and obesity, termed sarcopenic obesity on COVID-19 risk. Methods This study uses data from UK Biobank. Probable sarcopenia was defined as low handgrip strength. Sarcopenic obesity was mutually exclusively defined as the presence of obesity and low muscle mass (based on two established criteria: appendicular lean mass (ALM) adjusted for either: 1) height and 2) body mass index (BMI)). Severe COVID-19 was defined by a positive test result in a hospital setting or death with a primary cause reported as COVID-19. Fully adjusted logistic regression models were used to analyse the associations between sarcopenic status and severe COVID-19. This work was conducted under UK Biobank application number 52553. Results We analysed data from 490,301 UK Biobank participants. 2203 (0.4%) had severe COVID-19 infection. Individuals with probable sarcopenia were 64% more likely to have had severe COVID-19 infection (odds ratio (OR) 1.638; P&lt;.001). Obesity increased the likelihood of severe COVID-19 infection by 76% (P&lt;.001). Using either ALM index and ALM/BMI index to define low muscle mass, those with sarcopenic obesity were 2.6 times more likely to have severe COVID-19 (OR: 2.619; P&lt;.001). Sarcopenia alone did not increase the risk of COVID-19. Conclusions Sarcopenic obesity may increase the risk of severe COVID-19 infection, over that of obesity alone. The mechanisms for this are complex but could be a result of a reduction in respiratory functioning, immune response, and ability to respond to metabolic stress.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.19.21253945v1" target="_blank">Sarcopenic obesity and the risk of hospitalisation or death from COVID-19: findings from UK Biobank</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Assessing the utility of lymphocyte count to diagnose COVID-19</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background: COronaVirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) can be challenging to diagnose, because symptoms are non-specific, clinical presentations are heterogeneous, and false negative tests can occur. Our objective was to assess the utility of lymphocyte count to differentiate COVID-19 from influenza or community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). Methods: We conducted a cohort study of adults hospitalized with COVID-19 or another respiratory infection (i.e., influenza, CAP) at seven hospitals in Ontario, Canada.The first available lymphocyte count during the hospitalization was used. Standard test characteristics for lymphocyte count (x109/L) were calculated (i.e., sensitivity, specificity, area under the receiver operating curve [AUC]). All analyses were conducting using R. Results: There were 869 hospitalizations for COVID-19, 669 for influenza, and 3009 for CAP. The mean age across the three groups was 67 and patients with pneumonia were older than those with influenza or COVID19, and approximately 46% were woman. The median lymphocyte count was nearly identical for the three groups of patients: 1.0 x109/L (interquartile range [IQR]:0.7,2.0) for COVID-19, 0.9 x109/L (IQR 0.6,1.0) for influenza, and 1.0 x109/L (IQR 0.6,2.0) for CAP. At a lymphocyte threshold of less than 2.0 x109/L, the sensitivity was 87% and the specificity was approximately 10%. As the lymphocyte threshold increased, the sensitivity of diagnosing COVID-19 increased while the specificity decreased. The AUC for lymphocyte count was approximately 50%. Interpretation: Lymphocyte count has poor diagnostic discrimination to differentiate between COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses. The lymphopenia we consistently observed across the three illnesses in our study may reflect a non-specific sign of illness severity. However, lymphocyte count above 2.0 x109/L may be useful in ruling out COVID-19 (sensitivity = 87%).
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.17.21252922v1" target="_blank">Assessing the utility of lymphocyte count to diagnose COVID-19</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Development and validation of the long covid symptom and impact tools, a set of patient-reported instruments constructed from patients’ lived experience</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Objectives To develop and validate patient-reported instruments, based on patients9 lived experiences, for monitoring the symptoms and impact of long covid. Design The long covid Symptom and Impact Tools (ST and IT) were constructed from the answers to a survey with open-ended questions to 492 patients with long covid. Validation of the tools involved adult patients with suspected or confirmed covid-19 and symptoms extending over three weeks after onset. Construct validity was assessed by examining the relations of the ST and IT scores with health related quality of life (EQ-5D-5L), function (PCFS, post-covid functional scale), and perceived health (MYMOP2). Reliability was determined by a test-retest. The “patient acceptable symptomatic state” (PASS) was determined by the percentile method. Results Validation involved 1022 participants (55% with confirmed covid-19, 79% female and 12.5% hospitalised for covid-19). The long covid ST and IT scores were strongly correlated with the EQ-5D-5L (rs = -0.45 and rs = -0.59 respectively), the PCFS (rs = -0.39 and rs = -0.55), and the MYMOP2 (rs = -0.40 and rs = -0.59). Reproducibility was excellent with an interclass correlation coefficient of 0.83 (95% confidence interval 0.80 to 0.86) for the ST score and 0.84 (0.80 to 0.87) for the IT score. In total, 793 (77.5%) patients reported an unacceptable symptomatic state, thereby setting the PASS for the long covid IT score at 30 (28 to 33). Conclusions The long covid ST and IT tools, constructed from patients9 lived experiences, provide the first validated and reliable instruments for monitoring the symptoms and impact of long covid.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.18.21253903v1" target="_blank">Development and validation of the long covid symptom and impact tools, a set of patient-reported instruments constructed from patients’ lived experience</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>The effects of physical distancing and lockdown to restrain SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in the Italian Municipality of Cogne</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 started in Wuhan, China, and is now a pandemic. An understanding of the prevalence and contagiousness of the disease, and of whether the strategies used to contain it to date have been successful, is important for understanding future containment strategies. One strategy for controlling the spread of SARS-CoV-2 is to adopt strong social distancing policies. The Municipality of Cogne (I), adopted strict lockdown rules from March 4, 2020 up to May 18, 2020. This first wave of the pandemic impressed by the extremely low impact of the SARS-CoV-2 on the locals, compared to the number accused on all the Italian territory. Starting from October 2020 up to the end of December, when the second wave hit Italy and Cogne territory, heavier effects were observed. In order to cast light on the effectiveness of the adopted strategy 74,5% of the local population underwent to a blood screening to detect IgM and IgG antibodies and after six months all the people tested positive were again investigated to establish the longitudinal changes in antibodies level. Moreover, within the context of this survey a rare and interesting case of secondary infection has been identified and here presented.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.19.21253962v1" target="_blank">The effects of physical distancing and lockdown to restrain SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in the Italian Municipality of Cogne</a>
</div></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Safety and Tolerability of Emricasan in Symptomatic Outpatients Diagnosed With Mild-COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Emricasan;   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Histogen<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 Reinforcing Standard Therapy in COVID-19 Patients With Repeated Transfusion of Convalescent Plasma</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Other: Convalescent Plasma with antibody against SARS-CoV-2.;   Other: Standard treatment for COVID-19<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Hospital Son Llatzer;   Fundació d’investigació Sanitària de les Illes Balears<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>Diagnostic Performance of the ID Now™ COVID-19 Screening Test Versus Simplexa™ COVID-19 Direct Assay</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Diagnostic Test: ID Now™ COVID-19 Screening Test<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Groupe Hospitalier Paris Saint Joseph<br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Off-the-shelf NK Cells (KDS-1000) as Immunotherapy for COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: KDS-1000;   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Kiadis Pharma<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Study to Assess if a Medicine Called Bamlanivimab is Safe and Effective in Reducing Hospitalization Due to COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Bamlanivimab;   Other: Standard of Care<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Fraser Health;   Fraser Health Authrority Department of Evaluation and Research Services;   Surrey Memorial Hospital Clinical Research Unit;   Centre for Health Evaluation and Outcome Sciences;   Surrey Hospitals Foundation;   BC Support Unit;   University of British Columbia;   Ministry of Health, British Columbia<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>Effects of Telerehabilitation After Discharge in COVID-19 Survivors</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: Telerehabilitation<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Hacettepe University<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Corticosteroids for COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Prednisone;   Device: Point of Care testing device for C-reactive protein<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   University of Alberta<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Covid-19 Vaccination in Adolescents</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Tozinameran;   Biological: Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine;   Biological: CoronaVac<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   The University of Hong Kong<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Efficacy of Adaptogens in Patients With Long COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Dietary Supplement: ADAPT-232 oral solution;   Other: Placebo oral solution<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Swedish Herbal Institute AB;   National Family Medicine Training Centre, Georgia;   Tbilisi State Medical University;   Phytomed AB<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Effectiveness of the Adsorbed Vaccine COVID-19 (Coronavac) Among Education and Public Safety Workers With Risk Factors for Severity</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: Adsorbed SARS-CoV-2 (inactivated) vaccine<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Fundação de Medicina Tropical Dr. Heitor Vieira Dourado;   Butantan Institute<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Improved Oxygen Therapy in Covid-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: oxygen mask<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Region Skane<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>COVID-19 Self-Testing Through Rapid Network Distribution</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Behavioral: COVID-19 self-test;   Behavioral: COVID-19 test referral<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of Pennsylvania;   Public Health Management Corporation<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>Text-based Reminders to Promote COVID-19 Vaccinations</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19, Vaccines<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Behavioral: Self-benefit;   Behavioral: Prosocial-benefit;   Behavioral: Early access;   Behavioral: Fresh start<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of California, Los Angeles;   Carnegie Mellon University<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Text-based Interventions to Promote COVID-19 Vaccinations</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19, Vaccines<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Behavioral: Patient MyChart Scheduling Link;   Behavioral: Patient Educational Video;   Behavioral: Enhanced Follow through Message<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of California, Los Angeles;   Carnegie Mellon University<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Vitamin D3 Levels in COVID-19 Outpatients From Western Mexico</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Dietary Supplement: Vitamin D3<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   University of Guadalajara<br/><b>Completed</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>Messenger RNA vaccines against SARS-CoV-2</strong> - The first two vaccines proven to be effective for inhibiting COVID-19 illness were both mRNA, achieving 95% efficacy (and safety) among 74,000 participants (half receiving placebo) after intramuscular delivery of two shots, 3-4 weeks apart. To view this Bench to Bedside, open or download the PDF.</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>What Do Influenza and COVID-19 Represent for Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease?</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: Once the cytokine storm observed in influenza and COVID-19 is similar to the cytokine pattern observed in IBD patients during the disease flares, the advice is that avoiding the infections is still an optimal option for IBD subjects.</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>Withanone from Withania somnifera Attenuates SARS-CoV-2 RBD and Host ACE2 Interactions to Rescue Spike Protein Induced Pathologies in Humanized Zebrafish Model</strong> - CONCLUSION: In conclusion, this study provided experimental validation for computational insight into the potential of withanone as a potent inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus entry into the host cells.</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>Artificial Intelligence for COVID-19 Drug Discovery and Vaccine Development</strong> - SARS-COV-2 has roused the scientific community with a call to action to combat the growing pandemic. At the time of this writing, there are as yet no novel antiviral agents or approved vaccines available for deployment as a frontline defense. Understanding the pathobiology of COVID-19 could aid scientists in their discovery of potent antivirals by elucidating unexplored viral pathways. One method for accomplishing this is the leveraging of computational methods to discover new candidate drugs…</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 Annona muricata Acetogenins as Potential Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Agents Through Computational Approaches</strong> - Annona muricata, a tropical plant which has been extensively used in ethnomedicine to treat a wide range of diseases, from malaria to cancer. Interestingly, this plant has been reported to demonstrate significant antiviral properties against the human immunodeficiency virus, herpes simplex virus, human papilloma virus, hepatitis C virus and dengue virus. Additionally, the bioactive compounds responsible for antiviral efficacy have also shown to be selectively cytotoxic while inhibiting…</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>Antibodies to neutralising epitopes synergistically block the interaction of the receptor-binding domain of SARS-CoV-2 to ACE 2</strong> - CONCLUSION: COVID-19 convalescent patients have SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies and MBCs, the specificities of which can be defined with short peptides. Epitope-specific antibodies synergistically block RBD-ACE2 interaction.</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>Imaging features of COVID-19: What we can learn from SARS and MERS (Review)</strong> - Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a highly infectious type of pneumonia caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that has rapidly become a global pandemic. COVID-19, SARS and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) are all caused by members of the Coronaviridae family. As expected, emerging genetic and clinical evidence from patients with COVID-19 has indicated that the pathway of infection is similar to that of SARS and MERS. Additionally, much like SARS 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>Macrolides May Prevent Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Entry into Cells: A Quantitative Structure Activity Relationship Study and Experimental Validation</strong> - The global pandemic caused by the emerging severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is threatening the health and economic systems worldwide. Despite the enormous efforts of scientists and clinicians around the world, there is still no drug or vaccine available worldwide for the treatment and prevention of the infection. A rapid strategy for the identification of new treatments is based on repurposing existing clinically approved drugs that show antiviral activity against…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Membrane Nanoparticles Derived from ACE2-Rich Cells Block SARS-CoV-2 Infection</strong> - The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic worldwide necessitates the development of therapeutics against SARS-CoV-2. ACE2 is the main receptor of SARS-CoV-2 S1 and mediates viral entry into host cells. Herein, membrane nanoparticles (NPs) prepared from ACE2-rich cells were discovered to have potent capacity to block SARS-CoV-2 infection. The membranes of human embryonic kidney-239T cells highly expressing ACE2 were applied to prepare NPs using an extrusion method. The nanomaterials, termed ACE2-NPs,…</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>Antiretroviral drug activity and potential for pre-exposure prophylaxis against COVID-19 and HIV infection</strong> - COVID-19 is the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 which has led to 2,643,000 deaths worldwide, a number which is rapidly increasing. Urgent studies to identify new antiviral drugs, repurpose existing drugs, or identify drugs that can target the overactive immune response are ongoing. Antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) have been tested in past human coronavirus infections, and also against SARS-CoV-2, but a trial of lopinavir and ritonavir failed to show any clinical benefit in COVID-19. However, there is…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Discovery of Clioquinol and analogues as novel inhibitors of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 infection, ACE2 and ACE2 - Spike protein interaction in vitro</strong> - Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the etiological agent for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has resulted in an ongoing pandemic. Presently, there are no clinically approved drugs for COVID-19. Hence, there is an urgent need to accelerate the development of effective antivirals. Herein, we discovered Clioquinol (5-chloro-7-iodo-8-quinolinol (CLQ)), a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved drug, and two of its analogues (7-bromo-5-chloro-8-hydroxyquinoline…</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>Nano-formulation of herbo-mineral alternative medicine from <em>linga chenduram</em> and evaluation of antiviral efficacy</strong> - Traditional medicine is becoming a primary source of health care in many countries in recent years. The current study proposes a new dimension of understanding a traditional origin treatment, using herbo-mineral preparations in nanoform. The herbo-mineral preparation, Linga chenduram [HMLC], was prepared according to the ancient palm script protocol dates back to 1000 years. In search of alternative therapy for the coronavirus, an attempt was made to determine this ethnic medicine formulation’s…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Structural basis for bivalent binding and inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 infection by human potent neutralizing antibodies</strong> - Neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (nAbs) to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) represent promising candidates for clinical intervention against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We isolated a large number of nAbs from SARS-CoV-2-infected individuals capable of disrupting proper interaction between the receptor binding domain (RBD) of the viral spike (S) protein and the receptor angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). However, the structural basis for their potent…</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>Hydroxychloroquine, a less toxic derivative of chloroquine, is effective in inhibiting SARS-CoV-2 infection in vitro</strong> - No abstract</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Antiviral Efficacy of Pralatrexate against SARS-CoV-2</strong> - Novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has caused more than 100 million confirmed cases of human infectious disease (COVID-19) since December 2019 to paralyze our global community. However, only limited access has been allowed to COVID-19 vaccines and antiviral treatment options. Here, we report the efficacy of the anticancer drug pralatrexate against SARS-CoV-2. In Vero and human lung epithelial Calu-3 cells, pralatrexate reduced viral RNA copies of SARS-CoV-2 without detectable cytotoxicity, and viral…</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>Peptides and their use in diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU319943278">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A PROCESS FOR SUCCESSFUL MANAGEMENT OF COVID 19 POSITIVE PATIENTS</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU319942709">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Sars-CoV-2 vaccine antigens</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU318283136">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SARS-COV-2 BINDING PROTEINS</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU318004130">link</a></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Bildschirmgerät mit verbesserter Wirkung bei der Befestigung von UV-Entkeimungslampen</strong> -
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
</p><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Ein Bildschirmgerät mit verbesserter Wirkung bei der Befestigung von UV-Entkeimungslampen, umfassend: ein Bildschirmgerät, das einen Umfang hat; eine UV-Entkeimungslampe, die sich am Umfang des Bildschirmgeräts befindet; eine Stromquelle, die elektrisch mit der UV-Entkeimungslampe verbunden ist; eine Steuerschaltung, die elektrisch mit der UV-Entkeimungslampe verbunden ist; und eine Befestigungsvorrichtung, durch die die UV-Entkeimungslampe am Umfang des Bildschirmgeräts befestigbar ist, wobei die Befestigungsvorrichtung einen Sitzkörper, eine erste Klemmplatte und eine zweite Klemmplatte aufweist, wobei der Sitzkörper mit der UV-Entkeimungslampe versehen ist, wobei die erste Klemmplatte und die zweite Klemmplatte beabstandet am Sitzkörper gleitbar angeordnet sind, wodurch ein Klemmabstand zwischen der ersten Klemmplatte und der zweiten Klemmplatte besteht, wobei ein elastisches Element zwischen der zweiten Klemmplatte und dem Sitzkörper angeordnet ist, um die zweite Klemmplatte dazu zu zwingen, sich der ersten Klemmplatte zu nähern.</p></li>
</ul>
<img alt="embedded image" id="EMI-D00000"/>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></p>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=DE320246402">link</a></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Schublade mit antiepidemischer Wirkung</strong> -
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
</p><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Schublade mit antiepidemischer Wirkung, mit einem Schrank (1); mindestens einer Schublade (2), die in dem Schrank (1) angeordnet ist, wobei jede Schublade (2) einen Schubladenraum (25) aufweist; einer UV-Sterilisationsvorrichtung (3), die an der Schublade (2) angeordnet ist; einer Stromquelle (4), die elektrisch mit der UV-Sterilisationsvorrichtung (3) verbunden ist; einer Steuerschaltung (5), die elektrisch mit der Stromquelle (4) und der UV-Sterilisationsvorrichtung (3) verbunden ist; und einem Sensor (6), der elektrisch mit der Steuerschaltung (5) verbunden ist.</p></li>
</ul>
<img alt="embedded image" id="EMI-D00000"/>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></p>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=DE320246401">link</a></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Gerät zur Unterstützung und Verstärkung natürlicher Lüftung</strong> -
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
</p><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Lüftungssystem für einen mit öffnbaren Fenstern (16) ausgestatteten Gebäuderaum, gekennzeichnet dadurch, dass es ein Gehäuse (18) und einen Ventilator (20) aufweist, wobei durch das Gehäuse eine vom Ventilator erzeugte Luftströmung strömen kann, wobei das Gehäuse dafür eine Einströmöffnung (24) für Luft und eine Ausströmöffnung (22) für Luft enthält, wobei eine der beiden Öffnungen der Form eines Öffnungsspalts (26) zwischen einem Fensterflügel (12) und einem Blendrahmen (14) des Fensters (16) angepasst ist.</p></li>
</ul>
<img alt="embedded image" id="EMI-D00000"/>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></p>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=DE319927546">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>X射线图像识别方法、装置、计算机设备及存储介质</strong> - 本申请涉及一种X射线图像识别方法、装置、计算机设备和存储介质。通过获取X射线图像，将X射线图像作为训练样本；构建多注意力交互网络，多注意力交互网络包括卷积批处理标准化网络、特征提取网络和输出网络；其中特征提取网络包括多注意力交互特征提取模块和批标准化模块，特征提取网络通过学习通道之间的相关性，多通道之间的信息交互来达到增强模型的识别能力。利用训练样本对多注意力交互网络进行训练，得到X射线图像识别模型；获取待测X射线图像；将待测X射线图像输入到X射线图像识别模型中，得到X射线图像的类别。本方法减少了网络的参数量和计算量，提高了模型的泛化能力。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN319953046">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>利用HEK293细胞制备新型冠状病毒核衣壳蛋白的方法</strong> - 本发明提供一种利用HEK293细胞制备新型冠状病毒核衣壳蛋白的方法，包括：1）构建新冠病毒核衣壳蛋白（N蛋白）重组表达载体；2）用重组表达载体转染HEK293细胞；3）体外培养细胞，从培养上清中分离纯化N蛋白。利用HEK293表达系统可在短时间内获得大量新冠病毒N蛋白，通过一步亲和层析法可获得纯度高达98%以上的N蛋白。与大肠杆菌相比，采用HEK293表达系统制备的N蛋白在与抗体的结合活性及新冠抗体胶体金检测方面均表现出极大优势，且HEK293表达系统制备的N蛋白其蛋白空间构象接近于病毒N基因在宿主体内的蛋白表达构象，具有更高的免疫诊断和抗体制备的准确性，将其用于制作诊断试剂和疫苗前景广阔。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN319953048">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Compositions and methods for detecting SARS-CoV-2 spike protein</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU317343760">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<script>AOS.init();</script></body></html>

626
archive-daily-dose/20 March, 2021.html Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,626 @@
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="" xml:lang="" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head>
<meta charset="utf-8"/>
<meta content="pandoc" name="generator"/>
<meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes" name="viewport"/>
<title>20 March, 2021</title>
<style type="text/css">
code{white-space: pre-wrap;}
span.smallcaps{font-variant: small-caps;}
span.underline{text-decoration: underline;}
div.column{display: inline-block; vertical-align: top; width: 50%;}
</style>
<title>Daily-Dose</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><style>*{overflow-x:hidden;}</style><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
<body>
<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 Atlanta Shooting and the Dehumanizing of Asian Women</strong> - To live through this period as an Asian-American is to feel trapped in an American tragedy while being denied the legitimacy of being an American. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-atlanta-shooting-and-the-dehumanizing-of-asian-women">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Alabama Workers Trying to Unionize an Amazon Fulfillment Center</strong> - South of Birmingham, warehouse employees are voting on whether to form a union. Their decision could have ripple effects around the country. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/us-journal/the-alabama-workers-trying-to-unionize-an-amazon-fulfillment-center">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How Biden Rattled Putin</strong> - All it seems to take is to say something that’s true. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/how-joe-biden-rattled-vladimir-putin">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Reeducated</strong> - A virtual-reality documentary takes viewers inside Xinjiang’s secret detention camps for Uighurs and other predominantly Muslim minorities. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/video-dept/reeducated-film-xinjiang-prisoners-china-virtual-reality">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How “Reeducated” Was Made</strong> - To produce a film about the inaccessible indoctrination camps of Xinjiang, its creators relied on eyewitness accounts—and virtual reality. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/video-dept/how-reeducated-was-made-xinjiang-china-uighurs-prisoners-eyewitness-accounts">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>How the US and China can jump-start cooperation on climate change</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Seated at an event in 2012 when both were vice presidents, Chinese President Xi Jinping showed President Joe Biden a chocolate-covered macadamia nut while both laughed." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/N4mfV6xfgM0MFIEMNiV-FrfIUdM=/0x0:2667x2000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/68996363/139210826.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, and President Joe Biden, in 2012 when each was the vice president of his country. | Jay L. Clendenin/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
To be legitimate climate leaders on the world stage, the US and China must start by raising ambition at home.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4O7MRE">
Top officials from the US and China met in Alaska this week for their first face-to-face meeting since President Joe Biden took office.<strong> </strong>On the agenda was a full range of issues of importance to both sides — not least of which is climate change.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wdDJF9">
China and the US, the world’s top two economies, together account for <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/each-countrys-share-co2-emissions">43 percent</a> of global carbon dioxide emissions. And while much of the industrialized world is looking to the United States for signaling on climate action, many countries in the developing world look to China for guidance.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vs1vXx">
“The Biden administration coming into office has been a massive shot in the arm. There are countries around the world that were not planning on increasing their Paris targets this year and are now actively reconsidering that. For example, Japan,” <a href="https://asiasociety.org/policy-institute/thom-woodroofe">Thom Woodroofe</a>, senior adviser at Asia Society Policy Institute, told me.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EJZJkl">
“They are doing that because of the Biden administration more so than China, but there are several other countries who will take their lead from China, just as much if not more so. For example, a country like India,” Woodroofe added.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LdINR9">
The last time the US and China collaborated on climate change it resulted in the signing of the landmark Paris Agreement. But relations <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/can-the-united-states-and-china-reboot-their-climate-cooperation/">deteriorated under Trump</a>, so there’s work to be done in reestablishing ties.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JdEOZk">
“Working constructively to bolster these international agreements rather than weaken them, that’s the core part of the cooperation,” <a href="https://www1.villanova.edu/villanova/artsci/psc/facstaff/biodetail.html?mail=deborah.seligsohn@villanova.edu&amp;xsl=bio_long">Deborah Seligsohn</a>, assistant professor of political science at Villanova University, said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YHnN4I">
Appointing John Kerry as the new US climate envoy shows just how eager the Biden administration is to engage and lead the world on climate. A seasoned diplomat, Kerry played a key role in helping to negotiate the Paris Agreement while serving as secretary of state under Obama. Since then, he’s continued to act on climate with his <a href="https://worldwarzero.com/magazine/2020/06/united-we-fight-for-climate/">World War Zero Initiative</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EgBecc">
And in a positive sign that the country is willing to engage with Kerry, China <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-china-idUSKBN2AP0AK">has appointed seasoned climate diplomat Xie Zhenhua</a>, whose <a href="https://www.climatechangenews.com/2016/10/19/podesta-email-dump-reveals-tight-us-china-climate-ties/">close friendship</a> with former US climate diplomat Todd Stern helped broker the original Paris Agreement.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="30S17U">
“Perhaps the biggest signal that [China] wants to find a way to be able to cooperate on climate is the appointment of Xie Zhenhua,” said Woodroofe.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tlZhmo">
“He’s someone who’s a climate person, not a geopolitical person,” Woodroofe added.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AiBJzP">
When Kerry first announced that climate could be treated as a <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/1/27/22252649/john-kerry-climate-change-china">stand-alone issue</a> in US-China negotiations, Beijing <a href="https://supchina.com/2021/01/28/beijing-rejects-idea-of-climate-as-standalone-issue-in-u-s-china-relations/">quickly threw cold water</a> on the idea.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="K1KEQ0">
But in a change of heart, during a March 7 news conference state councilor Wang Yi, China’s highest-ranking diplomat, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/biden-should-reverse-dangerous-practice-taiwan-china-s-foreign-minister-n1259903">said</a> China would be “willing to discuss and deepen cooperation with the United States with an open mind” on key issues like climate — while taking a hard stance on Taiwan.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RKT1TY">
So despite a tense relationship between the US and China on several issues, the selection of high-ranking climate diplomats suggests that a careful collaboration on climate may be possible.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IUs952">
“The two sides are talking to each other. The channels are there and have been used in the past,” Li Shuo, Beijing-based policy adviser at Greenpeace East Asia, told me in an email. “The question is whether these talks will result in positive outcomes. Climate should provide a safe space for them to conduct an honest conversation. It could, and should, be a stand-alone issue, and not at the expense of other issues.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UJcX9u">
With that in mind, here’s how the US and China could lay the groundwork for addressing the climate emergency, and how the US can pressure China to raise its climate ambition.
</p>
<h3 id="4XBnrf">
Work toward “parallel development” on climate goals in each country
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zaJQeG">
As the world’s largest polluters, the most important task is for the US and China to commit to stronger emission reduction targets than currently proposed. The process begins with both countries delivering results at home independently of each other but with limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius in mind.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ekK9Mi">
“I see the future being more about parallel development,” Seligsohn, the professor at Villanova, said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zw9iOZ">
Biden’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/22242572/biden-climate-change-plan-explained">$2 trillion climate plan</a> is the most ambitious climate platform of any US president in history, but until it gets signed into law, it’s just a platform.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="q3H5OL">
To reassume climate leadership, “the first thing the US has to do is get our own house in order. We’re not in a good position to ask China to do more on climate change if we have nothing on the books,”<a href="https://gufaculty360.georgetown.edu/s/contact/00336000014RXOmAAO/joanna-lewis"> Joanna Lewis</a>, director of the Science, Technology and International Affairs Program at Georgetown University, said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TRqiYw">
And while China’s announcement of its goal to become carbon neutral by 2060 initially sent major shockwaves throughout the climate world, its 14th Five-Year Plan for economic development <a href="https://www.vox.com/22313871/china-energy-climate-change-five-year-plan-wind-solar-coal-oil-gas">left more questions than answers</a> on how the country would get there.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GO9eHl">
As a central part of the 2016 Paris Agreement, <a href="https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/nationally-determined-contributions-ndcs/nationally-determined-contributions-ndcs">nationally determined contributions</a> (NDCs) indicate what each country plans to do domestically to help achieve the broader goal of limiting warming to 1.5 Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MR3O1L">
So more than any high-level meeting or summit, strengthening America’s nationally determined contribution will signal to China and the rest of the globe that “America is back” and put the US in a better position to influence China and other countries to pursue even more aggressive climate plans.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8UbOF9">
“The most important item [the US and China] need to discuss is their respective climate ambition, as embedded in the Nationally Determined Contributions. We need to see joint enhancement of their climate targets,” Greenpeace’s Li said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wb45JS">
Although relations between the two countries are at their iciest in years, each country working to improve its nationally determined commitment under the Paris Agreement is an effective starting point that will improve its ability to influence the rest of the world.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9psbzU">
In December, Chinese president Xi Jinping <a href="https://chinadialogue.net/en/climate/are-chinas-new-2030-climate-targets-ambitious-enough/">announced new NDC targets</a> that weren’t ambitious, but the <a href="https://www.wri.org/blog/2021/02/emissions-reduction-plans-progress-ndcs">formal NDC paperwork hasn’t been submitted</a>, leaving room for the targets to be strengthened ahead of COP26.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KfZ9cd">
<strong> </strong>“Once it becomes clear that the US can put forward an ambitious set of climate targets, then there will be increased pressure on China to engage with the US and potentially revisit the ambition of its own climate targets,” Georgetown’s Lewis said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yHxJkz">
If Biden can set a stronger US target before his summit of world leaders to address the climate emergency on April 22, there will be more pressure on China to match the level of US ambition. In which case, experts suggest China has two choices.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2mliEx">
“One is to do nothing and suffer the cost to its reputation (and potentially further complicate the [US-China] bilateral relationship),” Li said, and, “the other is to further step up ambition.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6TsDJe">
“This is a tightrope that Beijing needs to walk,” Li added, noting the difficulty that lies ahead for China. “What’s clear is this will be a top-level decision over the next few weeks.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ByJXHi">
The same is true for the Biden administration.
</p>
<h3 id="Jrz3nJ">
Compete in helping less-developed countries make the clean energy transition
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aLMiJc">
If the US and China are successful in raising their climate goals at home, the next step is to play a leadership role in helping less-developed countries transition to clean energy.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jDUYga">
Both Washington and Beijing have indicated that they want to play a role in helping developing countries, but China’s status as a global leader on climate change is complicated by the county’s <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-climate-of-chinese-checks-easing-global-warming-by-greening-chinese-foreign-infrastructure-investment/">paradoxical status</a> as both the <a href="https://www.iea-coal.org/global-coal-consumption-is-being-driven-by-developing-countries/">world’s largest</a> coal consumer and <a href="https://time.com/5714267/china-green-energy/">largest renewable-energy producer</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XszkGK">
To be considered a legitimate climate leader on the world stage, experts say that, much like the US must also do, China will have to reckon with its pollution.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MX5Q6F">
“China’s leadership will need to understand, before too long, that there is no way for China to maintain and enhance its standing in the world, with rich and poor countries alike, if climate change starts to wreak widespread havoc and China stands out as the dominant polluter who has refused to do what needed to be done,” Todd Stern, the former climate envoy, <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/can-the-united-states-and-china-reboot-their-climate-cooperation/">wrote</a> in a September 2020 article for the Brookings Institution.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="idxInZ">
China also needs to address the climate impact of its <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/4/6/17206230/china-trade-belt-road-economy">Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)</a> — a massive infrastructure project formally launched in 2013 to increase Chinese influence around the globe. BRI projects are now in at least <a href="https://green-bri.org/countries-of-the-belt-and-road-initiative-bri/">140 countries</a>, representing pretty much every inhabited corner of the planet.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Knlzqw">
Since 2013, the country has invested a total of more than $760 billion in BRI countries with nearly $300 billion going to energy investment, according to data from the American Enterprise Institute’s <a href="https://www.aei.org/china-global-investment-tracker/">China Global Investment Tracker</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kL4ou3">
There are even plans to build a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-arctic/china-unveils-vision-for-polar-silk-road-across-arctic-idUSKBN1FF0J8">Polar Silk Road</a> using Arctic shipping routes, which the recent <a href="https://www.vox.com/22295520/climate-change-shipping-russia-china-arctic">loss of year-round sea ice</a> has made possible.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VM2JQD">
China has been catching flack from critics who say its <a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/02/the-potential-climate-consequences-of-chinas-belt-and-roads-initiative/">plans to build coal plants</a> in developing countries along Belt and Road are just a <a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/02/the-potential-climate-consequences-of-chinas-belt-and-roads-initiative/">way to find markets for its coal</a> companies while decarbonizing at home. And since 2013, the Chinese government has invested $50 billion to build overseas coal projects. Unless China changes course, 60 additional coal plants, emitting<strong> </strong><a href="https://qz.com/1760615/china-quits-coal-at-home-but-promotes-the-fossil-fuel-in-developing-countries">nearly as much carbon dioxide</a> as Spain does each year, could come online in BRI countries.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CoPr1E">
Biden also called out China’s BRI in his <a href="https://joebiden.com/climate-plan/">climate plan</a> for “financing billions of dollars of dirty fossil fuel energy projects across Asia and beyond.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8JnIzN">
To encourage a Chinese shift to clean-energy projects along BRI, Biden <a href="https://joebiden.com/climate-plan/">said</a> on the 2020 campaign trail that, if elected, he would rally the rest of the world to hold China accountable for the environmental impact of its BRI and make the elimination of fossil fuel subsidies a necessary condition for starting any new US-China climate negotiations.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7WmQGG">
Instead of climate legislation, on January 27 President Biden issued an <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/27/executive-order-on-tackling-the-climate-crisis-at-home-and-abroad/">executive order</a> asking the secretaries of State, Treasury, and Energy to work with all relevant agencies and partners of the US government to “identify steps through which the United States can promote ending international financing of carbon-intensive fossil fuel-based energy while simultaneously advancing sustainable development and a green recovery.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BONrhS">
The Biden administration’s strategy is to call China’s bluff on international climate leadership by leaving the country isolated in its support for overseas fossil fuel projects. Feeling the cold shoulder and already committed to addressing climate change as part of its national interests, the hope is that China would then reverse course and use clean-energy alternatives for BRI instead.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VSFEz0">
In 2020, China’s investment in renewable energy (solar, wind, hydropower) accounted for the <a href="https://green-bri.org/china-belt-and-road-initiative-bri-investment-report-2020/">majority of its overseas energy investment</a> for the first time, at 57 percent — a substantial increase from 38 percent in 2019. But China’s state-owned companies and banks <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-china-coal-widerimage/energy-security-and-economic-fears-drive-chinas-return-to-coal-idUSKBN26L3UR">still largely support fossil fuel projects</a> over renewable energy, which means there’s more room for improvement.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uVEm1h">
On February 13, noting the number of intricate steps necessary to pull off Biden’s BRI strategy, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/13/biden-china-coal-fossil-fuels-468903">Politico reported</a> that former climate adviser to President Barack Obama, John Podesta, said Biden’s climate strategy of isolating China as a climate hypocrite would take some “diplomatic choreography” to work.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NRrBUh">
There’s reason to believe the dance between the US and China on climate has already begun.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sounkQ">
As the Wall Street Journal reported on March 9, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-and-china-engage-tentatively-on-climate-change-11615301108">the US and China are co-chairing a G20 group on the economic risks</a> of climate change and ensuring a green recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, which means <a href="https://joebiden.com/climate-plan/">Biden’s plan</a> to pressure China to switch to clean-energy alternatives by seeking a “G20 commitment to end all export finance subsidies of high-carbon projects” is underway, though given the tensions between the two countries, the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-and-china-engage-tentatively-on-climate-change-11615301108">negotiations are progressing at a slow pace</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8gw964">
The best approach to engaging China moving forward, Georgetown’s Lewis <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/766400/summary">wrote in a recent paper</a>, is to “leverage rather than block China’s BRI investments to support regional development needs, while simultaneously redirecting BRI toward greener technologies.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fr5fXW">
But the Biden administration also needs to invest in clean-energy projects for lower- and middle-income countries, not just push China to do so.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="enDmcV">
One way to do that is through the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) <a href="https://www.dfc.gov/who-we-are/overview">established in 2019</a>. And it appears for the Biden administration, that work is already underway.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ga9R2r">
While naming future priorities for DFC’s work at a DFC board meeting <a href="https://www.state.gov/secretary-antony-j-blinken-at-the-u-s-international-development-finance-corporation/">March 9</a>, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said “development finance is a powerful tool for addressing the climate crisis.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YuRqTr">
Blinken said he and Kerry are “very interested in how the DFC can help drive investment toward climate solutions, innovation in climate resilience, renewable energy, and decarbonization technologies.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Wl9rHx">
On March 18, in a display of DFC’s commitment to helping developing countries transition to clean energy, DFC and USAID announced <a href="https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/usaid-dfc-announce-41-million-financing-for-renewable-energy-in-india-121031800508_1.html">$41 million</a> in financing support for renewable energy in India. Blinken also said that Biden’s climate summit of world leaders on April 22 would be a chance to put DFC’s work on display.
</p>
<h3 id="hIQsBb">
Climate responsibility begins at home, but it has worldwide impact
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="g30gIB">
The US alone can’t finance all the clean-energy projects needed to make renewable energy more attractive to developing countries than China’s coal investments in BRI. But it can send a strong message to China and the rest of the international community by finally contributing to international climate funds established under the Paris Agreement.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CXUKtr">
In 2014, then-President Barack Obama <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/11/15/fact-sheet-united-states-support-global-efforts-combat-carbon-pollution-">promised $3 billion</a> for the <a href="https://www.greenclimate.fund/">Green Climate Fund</a>, an international initiative that has committed <a href="https://www.greenclimate.fund/">nearly $8 billion</a> since 2010 to help developing countries address climate change by tying the money to “low-emissions and climate resilient development.” But by the time Obama left office, the US still owed $2 billion.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0NHLES">
During his term, President Donald Trump <a href="https://www.greenbiz.com/article/4-climate-finance-priorities-biden-administration">ended US commitment</a> to the fund. But with Trump out of office, climate activists are now <a href="https://www.climatechangenews.com/2021/02/05/us-campaigners-call-joe-biden-commit-8bn-green-climate-fund/">calling on the Biden administration</a> to step up to the plate.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dQmxqp">
As a part of his climate platform, Biden <a href="https://joebiden.com/climate-plan/">said</a> he will recommit the US to the Green Climate Fund. Climate envoy Kerry has also <a href="https://www.climatechangenews.com/2021/03/12/green-climate-fund-whistleblowers-urge-us-take-money-elsewhere-toxic-workplace-fixed/">echoed that commitment</a>. But if the US does recommit, it should also play a role in helping manage the Green Climate Fund. This would help ensure the money goes to those most vulnerable to climate change, as <a href="https://www.climatechangenews.com/2021/03/12/green-climate-fund-whistleblowers-urge-us-take-money-elsewhere-toxic-workplace-fixed/">recent claims about Fund mismanagement</a> have surfaced.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zp2c1O">
The US may also become a <a href="https://www.greenbiz.com/article/4-climate-finance-priorities-biden-administration">first-time</a> donor to the <a href="https://www.adaptation-fund.org/">Adaptation Fund</a>, which has raised $783 million to help developing countries prepare for climate change impacts.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cVfegy">
The Biden administration is very much aware of its responsibility to help developing countries transition to net-zero economies. During remarks on January 25 at the virtual Climate Adaptation Summit, Kerry promised the Biden administration would “make good” on past promises.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ycge0T">
“Internationally, we intend to make good on our climate finance pledge,” Kerry said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8khwki">
While noting that in the long term the best way to help developing countries address climate change was transitioning to net-zero by 2050 and limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, Kerry said the Biden administration will “significantly increase the flow of finance, including concessional finance, to adaptation and resilience initiatives.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EvRsAF">
There’s no better way to signal that “America is back” on the world stage than for the US to become more active in development finance for countries in need of help. If enough countries increasingly prefer renewable-energy projects, it could pressure China to reconsider its overseas investment in fossil fuels.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zHjwsZ">
There’s already evidence to suggest this is happening. On March 10, the <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/30840645-58d2-4da5-be05-f476623677d2">Financial Times reported</a> that China decided to cancel its coal projects in Bangladesh, citing concerns about pollution.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DzEMDR">
At this point, there’s also significant support among American voters for US-China cooperation on climate change, so it’s just a matter of summoning the political will to make ambitious plans a reality. Recent <a href="https://asiasociety.org/policy-institute/understanding-american-voter-attitudes-toward-us-china-climate-cooperation">polling</a> by the Asia Society Policy Institute and Data for Progress indicates that a majority of likely American voters (56 percent) think the US should work with China to address climate change, setting aside disagreements on other issues to end the emergency.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WeTbsV">
Though the two countries had a <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/3/19/22339770/usa-china-anchorage-alaska-blinken-yang">combative first meeting</a> in front of cameras on Thursday, there are still plenty of ways both sides can work in tandem, if not together, to address climate change.
</p></li>
<li><strong>The history of fetishizing Asian women</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/OAqVyruJHhSCuU58TR0TrcBU788=/309x0:2976x2000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/68995502/AP_317446280051.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Rachelle Ann Go, center, a pop singer from Philippines, plays Gigi in <em>Miss Saigon</em> at the Prince Edward Theater in London in 2014. The musical, which premiered in 1989, has been criticized for Orientalist tropes. | Matt Dunham/AP
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Author and film scholar Celine Parreñas Shimizu on how both hypersexual and docile tropes of Asian women play into the Atlanta shooting.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5mb6br">
Lillian, a young Asian American woman, was fed up with the flurry of fetishizing messages white men were sending her on Tinder. In 2017, she decided to <a href="https://www.instagram.com/thefleshlightchronicles/">create a meme Instagram account</a> to show how men would slide into her inbox with remarks such as “I want to try my first Asian woman” or “I need my yellow fever cured.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iOgSZk">
After more uncomfortable matches on the online dating app, Lillian used the account to speak out about the fetishization and intersection of racism and sexism that Asian women like her often face in real life. Although Lillian’s last post was in 2018, the account still has more than 19,000 followers, many of whom are Asian women who have expressed similar experiences of fetishization in the comments section.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jV4gDG">
For Asian women, the Atlanta spa shootings hit close to home. Robert Aaron Long — the white 21-year-old gunman who was arrested on Tuesday and charged with the killing of eight people, six of whom were Asian women — told the police he had a “<a href="https://www.vox.com/22336271/atlanta-shooter-sex-addiction-robert-aaron-long">sex addiction</a>” and that the spas were a “temptation he wanted to eliminate.” Many were <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CMkOq37rijO/?igshid=wmb8mqza8xma">quick to note the intersections</a> between racism, misogyny, and racial fetishization.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9euq4p">
The stumbles of authorities and media outlets in distinguishing spas from massage parlors alone (the latter of which have a connotation of prostitution and sexualization) show that people were already viewing the case with certain tropes in mind without engaging in the vulnerable realities these workers face.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HsWUpQ">
As <a href="https://www.vox.com/22336317/atlanta-georgia-shootings-racism-misogyny-targeting-asian-women">Vox’s Li Zhou reported</a>, Long’s statement about his “temptation” speaks to the longstanding stereotypes about not just the businesses, but also “Asian American women who have been exoticized and fetishized as sexual partners as far back as the 1800s,” Zhou writes.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2ygAv0">
Even before the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which banned Chinese immigrants from becoming US citizens, the US had passed the <a href="https://immigrationhistory.org/item/page-act/">Page Act of 1875</a>, which ultimately banned the importation of Asian women, who were feared to be engaging in prostitution in the country, whether they were or not. And while many scholars point to different origins of <a href="https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/the-madame-butterfly-effect-asian-fetish-history-pop-culture">Eastern fetishization</a>, film scholar Celine Parreñas Shimizu, author of the book <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/The-Hypersexuality-of-Race"><em>The Hypersexuality of Race</em></a><em>, </em>says the emergence of films and artwork after US-led wars in Asian countries is when the trope of the hypersexual but docile Asian woman really took hold in America.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hn24Sb">
With Asian women, “there’s this construction of a being for others, and a being for the white man, usually that were in these drawings and films and other cultural materials, that really extends to the way that we are capable of giving voice to this gunman who says that he was ‘sexually addicted to the temptations’ that [these Asian workers] offered,” Parreñas Shimizu<strong> </strong>told Vox. Meanwhile, “the Asian women who were killed were essentially silenced.”
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<div id="clLpF4">
<div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BM2Dcd">
I spoke with Shimizu about the history of fetishizing Asian women and how it translates to the shooting in Atlanta. Our interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
</p>
<h4 id="Yn3qYk">
Rachel Ramirez
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="o9jq9B">
People seem quick to want to label the motives of Atlanta shootings with one definitive answer — it’s racism, it’s misogyny, it’s sex addiction. But it’s much more complicated than one thing. How do you see it?
</p>
<h4 id="wVDQGf">
Celine Parreñas Shimizu
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5Icjep">
This particular event of Asian American women who work in a place that’s been attributed to sex work really hit me hard, because I’m a scholar that studies the representations and lives of Asian and Asian American women who are sex workers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AHwA4o">
So for me, I could see their image and their identities catapulted into the national stage in a way that made it clear how much we lacked knowledge of how they got there. Why are they working there? Who are they? Are they immigrant women? What are their circumstances? What I’m thinking about is how their death has led to further silencing and burial — and how this killing has led to the amplification of the gunman’s voice and the simplification of a “sex addiction,” which further dehumanizes and decontextualizes the Asian women.
</p>
<h4 id="jRWD4P">
Rachel Ramirez
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lnY8tp">
Talk to me more about this silencing and the intersection of a vulnerability and stigma of these workers. The shooter called these spas “a temptation he wanted to eliminate.” What comes to mind when you hear these words?
</p>
<h4 id="3KACwy">
Celine Parreñas Shimizu
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YAYNqw">
So the arrival of Asian American women can really be captured as a genital event: The Page Act of 1875 reflected the fear of Chinese women as a source of contaminating sexuality. That they were possibly prostitutes.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NFks0m">
That they were possibly going to introduce a polyamorous way of life into the United States at a time when there was a growing influx of Asians to the country. If you look at that law, it’s revealing that race has always been tied to gender and sexual difference. That there’s a fear of genital sex, and that there’s a fear of new kinds of sexual culture that these racialized women were representing.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yA6jus">
At the same time, there was also the beginning of a mass circulation of Asian women in plays; for example, <a href="http://www.mit.edu/course/21/21.german/www/WuWei2.html"><em>The Good Woman of Szechuan</em></a> in the 1880s, <a href="https://www.metopera.org/discover/synopses/madama-butterfly/"><em>Madame Butterfly</em></a><em> </em>in 1904. These cultural productions were occurring at a time of Asian encounters with the West and Western invasions of Asia.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kPuUYY">
There was a production in the circulation of Asian women as sexually different and sexually excessive. They love you so much that they are going to be blinded by your lack of regard and how that love is not reciprocated. It’s such a maddening, scary love and sex and feeling and desire that is contained in an Asian woman’s body. So this is going on in history in the law, and this is going on in popular culture.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Oi4rkT">
When I hear those words, that the Asian women at those spas were “temptations” that he wanted to eliminate, it really captures the legacy of the history and the law and popular culture constructions of Asian women — that they are the vessels of excessive sexuality. For me, it captures producing otherness and the alienation and object status. It’s really a dehumanizing move.
</p>
<h4 id="ozAdrZ">
Rachel Ramirez
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MxJulF">
You mention <a href="http://www.mit.edu/course/21/21.german/www/WuWei2.html"><em>The Good Woman of Szechuan</em></a> and <a href="https://www.metopera.org/discover/synopses/madama-butterfly/"><em>Madame Butterfly</em></a><em> </em>— is it with this kind of representation in art that the Western fetishization of Asian women really takes off?
</p>
<h4 id="Qio8Ff">
Celine Parreñas Shimizu
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H6yUq4">
My first book, <em>The Hypersexuality of Race</em>, chose to begin with <a href="https://www.broadwayworld.com/shows/cast.php?showid=6042">Miss Saigon in 1989</a>, which continues and really was one of the most lucrative Broadway productions. I wanted to begin there, because I was so arrested by the repetition of the same story — like what is so appealing about an Asian woman who loves a white man so much that she will choose to kill herself and give up her child and give it to him?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="U1DJmL">
That was from 1904, so it’s really almost 100 years, and it wasn’t just repeated in Miss Saigon; there were other incarnations of it, like in the movies of Anna May Wong. One of her first films, <a href="https://www.filmpreservation.org/preserved-films/screening-room/the-toll-of-the-sea-1922"><em>Toll of the Sea</em></a>, was the same story in 1920. So my book really concentrates on about 100 years of that repetition. Why are we addicted to that story? What is so arousing and pleasurable about that construction? Who does it serve? It isn’t a happy romance; the man and woman’s intimacy are torn apart. In the end, it’s revealed that she has no value, that she is unimportant.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ClOmO7">
I don’t know where fetishization began. I think there are many stories that we don’t know about, regarding the colonial encounter between Asia and the West. But what I do know is that the hierarchy of value when we enter that relationship between a white man and an Asian woman, whether it’s in the context of the military industrial complex.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Tkw5dW">
One recent story is the one of <a href="https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/timeline-jennifer-laude-killing-joseph-scott-pemberton-release">Jennifer Laude</a>, the trans Filipinx sex worker, who was killed by an American GI in the Philippines. But the United States protected him as soon as he was pronounced guilty; they shuffled him out of the Philippine courthouse, and he was never imprisoned in the Philippines.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DqHpjC">
Most recently, President Duterte pardoned him. The movement of trans Filipinx women who mobilized in order to say her name — and to make sure that her story did not get buried — tell us that the status of Filipinx trans women sex workers reflects the colonial relationship between the Philippines and the United States and the power inequalities between the countries.
</p>
<h4 id="ZzKAtf">
Rachel Ramirez
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="K36Y8C">
I want to stay on this, because I am also thinking of the massive US military presence in Asian countries — particularly in Vietnam, the Philippines, Korea, and Japan — and the immediate colonization of not just the lands but of Asian women’s bodies. That Asian women’s bodies are for Western men’s taking.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tZrxSi">
How does this translate to the events in Atlanta, particularly that the suspect insinuated he wanted to eliminate these spas because he couldn’t control his own addictions?
</p>
<h4 id="OKtUTj">
Celine Parreñas Shimizu
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MBpFLW">
My research on <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/The-Hypersexuality-of-Race"><em>The Hypersexuality of Race</em></a> included uncovering some photographs that I found of women, photographs of the places where they worked, where they were enslaved, essentially. There were makeshift beds and a pile of towels to aid them in cleaning themselves — and there were cartoon images that attributed the slanted vagina onto Asian women.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EzsLve">
There was pornography that eroticized the relationship between the war brides coming back to the US after the Korean War, for example. And this was the first time that Asian women were in pornography that I saw versus white women in yellow face. They were romanticizing the compatibility of a docile war bride, as an ideal American wife, because she was sexually servile but also a domestic servant.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LFRZEq">
There’s this construction of a being for others and a being for the white man, usually that were in these drawings and films and other cultural materials, that really extends to the way that we are capable of giving voice to this gunman who says that he was “sexually addicted to the temptations” that they offered, and how the Asian women who were killed were essentially silenced.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DwcmYZ">
It’s stunning, too, that there’s still this innocence that’s being projected onto a man who killed so many people. How can that innocence not shatter? And how come that person is given the microphone in order to continue this narrative that relegates this sexuality that drives white men crazy? To say that these women hold in their bodies temptations that he can’t resist, and using that as a reason to justify their killing.
</p>
<h4 id="BMx8gF">
Rachel Ramirez
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0tuSGT">
As you mention, on one hand, Asian women are stereotyped as hypersexual; on the other, they are also seen as “submissive” or “docile.” In fact, there was a <a href="https://qz.com/149342/the-uncomfortable-racial-preferences-revealed-by-online-dating/">study done in 2013</a>, which basically found that Asian women are the most “desirable” racial group among white men and other races. How have these two different stereotypes contributed to Asian women being not just objectified but seen by white men as a more “desirable” race?
</p>
<h4 id="KciIkl">
Celine Parreñas Shimizu
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8DkHpx">
The polar way we understand gender as virginal equals good or hypersexual equals bad is particularly a prison for Asian American women, because representations in between are hardly in the movies or are hardly around.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dt3G55">
So whenever we appear, we must contend with the inheritance of excessive sexuality, where you have to say I am not that, and in the act of saying I am not that, it’s easier to go toward the place that says I am a good woman without that scary sexuality. So, it does not allow for Asian American women to define their own sexuality, which would most likely be in the vast expanse of the middle. We really have to live with those scary and very limited polar opposites.
</p>
<h4 id="TliPvO">
Rachel Ramirez
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tuFcnN">
Yes, it seems there is little imagination of Asian women outside of the binary subservient and overtly sexual. Relatedly, there has been some hesitancy to talk about the possibility of these spas in the Atlanta shooting being places of sex work. While we don’t know much about the victims and would never want to assume or lean into stereotypes, are we also ignoring an important vulnerability these women faced, even if by connotation alone, one that is made worse the more we stigmatize it?
</p>
<h4 id="AafLFR">
Celine Parreñas Shimizu
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ey2F0c">
I definitely think that this must be an opportunity for us to educate on the plight of vulnerable, poor, working women in every industry, including the sex industry. While we don’t know if there were indeed sexual transactions, what we do know is it is really important to highlight questions like: Are these women safe at work? What are their conditions of work? How can we improve them, so that they are not any longer some of the most vulnerable in our society?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VUIzQx">
I do see this definitely as an opportunity for us to educate ourselves on the plight that led these women to work there. And also how there is the accepted linkage between Asian and Asian American women and the sex industry, due to the various wars in Asia and the non-accidental ways that the cities and towns that flank the US military bases had a prostitution industry that was supported by the US military industrial complex. We cannot normalize our ignorance around the conditions in which these women live and work. This is definitely an opportunity to improve their situations by finding out more about what we can do to help.
</p>
<h4 id="59Ux78">
Rachel Ramirez
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XCbrIs">
In your book, <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/The-Hypersexuality-of-Race"><em>The Hypersexuality of Race</em></a>, you encourage a shift in thinking about the way Asian women are sexually depicted. How can<em> </em>people move beyond that negative perception of Asian women as submissive sexual objects that have no agency? How should we be thinking about the nuance of Asian women and how does that nuance keep them safe?
</p>
<h4 id="2L0qe0">
Celine Parreñas Shimizu
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bKNXDI">
Sexuality is a part of all of our lives — whether we love it or are ambivalent about it or don’t want to participate in it. It can be a great life-giving source of physical and psychic pleasure of which we should not be deprived, if we wish to participate in it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tbTSW5">
One fear that I have in looking at over 100 years of representing Asian and Asian American women as a source of excessive sexuality is that Asian American women should be encouraged to do the work of defining their sexuality in the face of this heavy truck that is trying to tell them that they are a particular way.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="epUONx">
I concluded my book with a respectful, interrogative celebration of how Asian American women are using film precisely to explore their sexualities — and, of course, it includes their victimization, as well as their empowerment through sexuality.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IwdMbe">
We need to acknowledge this huge systemic force that relegates us into a particular kind of sexual role in society. We must take it in our own hands and really centralize our experiences and follow the lead of our foremothers, including Asian American women who worked in Hollywood and Broadway.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hmbKJr">
I do hope that we can look at the way Asian American women — whether actors, activists, or scholars — have confronted this infliction of perversity and not run away from our own sexualities, and really use it as a force, not only to feel good for ourselves but as an opportunity to capture how we are not yet free and that we have so much possibility to create new narratives about ourselves.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hyMe20">
Why did the killer keep going back to those spas? Why did these women continue to deepen into an object status for him? There’s a pornography to this whole thing in terms of what he chose to see about them, and how he chose to narrate that encounter, in a way that continues their devaluation, so that in his mind, in his actions, their lives were not worth living or saving but instead had to be extinguished.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Bu5FrK">
The long history of brutalization of Asian American women has been a part of this country inside and outside it. We need to question our capacity of repressing those stories — and instead, we need to cultivate the need to hear about them and to know them.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="G7onL7">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uv5zUZ">
</p></li>
<li><strong>The number of Americans getting back on planes is taking off</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Travelers arrive for flights at O’Hare international Airport on March 16, 2021 in Chicago.&amp;nbsp;" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/z5FOez66LBoQkLhQSPgFzpFIrcs=/167x0:2834x2000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/68995416/GettyImages_1307414265.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Americans are eager to get back to normal activities like flying. It’s probably not safe to do that yet. | Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
TSA data shows Americans are flying more than last year, despite the threat of another wave of Covid-19 cases.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="r9Glmz">
The number of people flying each day in the United States officially surpassed last year, according to <a href="https://www.tsa.gov/coronavirus/passenger-throughput">checkpoint data</a> from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). It seems Americans are increasingly behaving like they’re done with the pandemic, even as it continues to wreak havoc on the country.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rolLML">
The number of people who passed through TSA checkpoints at airports in the US surpassed last year’s numbers for the first time earlier this week, with 1.1 million people doing so on Wednesday versus fewer than 954,000 a year ago. That gap was even wider Thursday, with 1.4 million people clearing checkpoints in the US — nearly double what it was a year earlier.
</p>
<aside id="UJqhfv">
<div>
</div>
</aside>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gWs7Hz">
Of course, we’re still nowhere near where we used to be in terms of air travel. In the third week of March 2019, more than 2 million people went through TSA checkpoints each day.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="b9ysxk">
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Chart: More people are going through US airport security than last year" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/lNaWVK-A_N0a53YMJjwFdYguAVc=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22383404/ye5Kw_more_people_are_going_through_us_airport_security_than_last_year.png"/>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yAe64d">
The actual number of commercial flights is still slightly lower than it was at this point last year, according to domestic flight data from <a href="https://www.flightradar24.com/">Flightradar24</a>. That means flights are fuller than they had been at the beginning of the pandemic as well, which <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/25/travel/air-travel-safety-coronavirus.html">might also mean</a> they’re more likely to spread the virus.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BFxxrr">
The surge in air travel is happening for a few reasons, including <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/3/11/22326478/biden-speech-covid-19-vaccine-may-adults">increased vaccination rates</a> that may make people feel more comfortable traveling, spring break for many young Americans, and general fatigue with how the pandemic has changed our lives. It’s been a year since many cities and states around the US went into lockdown and people were urged not to travel. After so much time stuck at home, people seem eager to return to normal life.
</p>
<aside id="nDvIRr">
<div>
</div>
</aside>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4FOVpb">
The state of the pandemic in the US, however, is much worse than it was at this time last year. Currently, there are more than <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html">50,000 new cases</a> recorded each day, compared to a few hundred at this point last year. Even accounting for the fact that Covid-19 tests were less available then, the situation is much worse now. Thousands of Americans are dying each day and cases are spiking in a number of states, such as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/18/us/michigan-covid-19-cases-increase/index.html">Michigan</a>. Additionally, a number of highly contagious Covid-19 variants <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/03/19/virus-variants-mean-our-covid-winter-isnt-over-dont-ease-restrictions-now/">could cause another wave of new cases</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nOtV1h">
Traveling increases people’s chances of getting and spreading the coronavirus, according to the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/travel-during-covid19.html">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)</a>, whose guidelines tell people to delay travel and stay at home. The <a href="https://www.vox.com/22248738/test-covid-flying-mandatory-safe-flights">US requires</a> all people traveling into the US to have a negative Covid-19 test, but the same guidelines aren’t mandatory for people flying within the US. And while a number of industry studies have said that flying is safe, <a href="https://www.vox.com/21525068/covid-19-airplane-risk-coronavirus-pandemic-airports">some of their models are suspect</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CNXFnd">
So even though it’s clear Americans are impatient to get back to activities like flying, it’s not clear yet if <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22330018/covid-vaccine-hesitancy-misinformation-carnegie-mellon-facebook-survey">vaccinations</a> are happening fast enough to prevent another wave.
</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Foreign spectators barred from attending Tokyo Olympics</strong> - Officials said the risk was too great to admit ticket holders from overseas during a pandemic, an idea strongly opposed by the Japanese public.</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>Djokovic pulls out of Miami Open, citing virus restrictions</strong> - “With all restrictions, I need to find balance in my time on tour and at home.”</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>ISSF World Cup | Three shooters test positive for COVID-19</strong> - On Thursday, a top international shooter returned positive for 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>PV Sindhu enters All England semifinals</strong> - The Olympic silver medallist will face Thailand’s sixth seed Pornpawee Chochuwong for a place in the final.</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>Vijender suffers first loss as a professional</strong> - The Indian all at sea against Russia’s Lopsan in the ‘Battle on Ship’</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>Kappan failed to gauge political reality</strong> - ‘All sections of society have benefited from the welfare schemes of LDF govt.’</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>Migrant workers face debt, job loss and separation from families</strong> - A year after the lockdown, jobs are not only harder to find, they pay less</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>NIA taking over Hiran death case no setback to MVA government: Sanjay Raut</strong> - “The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad and Mumbai police are capable of investigating them,” Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut 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>Coronavirus | Case booked against school in Thanjavur for failing to adhere to SOP</strong> - A fine of ₹5, 000 was collected from the school by the civic body</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Coronavirus | Rising cases are because of carelessness of people, says CCMB chief Mishra</strong> - We need to study how the virus behaves in people with different comorbidities, says CCMB Director Rakesh Mishra, ruling out the possibility of mutations causing the surge in cases.</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Covid: France and Poland increase lockdown measures as infections surge</strong> - Some 21 million people in France are affected, while in Poland shops and hotels are shut nationwide.</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>Icelandic volcano erupts near Reykjavik</strong> - Meteorologists say the last known eruption in the area was about 800 years ago.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Domestic violence: Turkey pulls out of Istanbul convention</strong> - Human rights groups say the move is a “huge setback” to efforts to combat domestic violence.</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>Greek bull figurine unearthed after heavy downpour</strong> - A bronze statuette believed to be at least 2,500 years old is found near the ancient site of Olympia.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Covid-19: Ireland to resume Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine rollout</strong> - The Republic’s health minister says administration of the Covid-19 vaccine will resume this weekend.</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>Facebook finally explains its mysterious new wrist wearable</strong> - Will we be able to trust it with a new form of personal data? (Probably not.) - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1750975">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Apple bent its rules for Russia—and other countries will take note</strong> - Russian iPhone buyers soon to see prompts to install software developed in Russia. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1750966">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Hackers are exploiting a server vulnerability with a severity of 9.8 out of 10</strong> - As if the mass-exploitation of Exchange servers wasn’t enough, now there’s BIG-IP. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1751018">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Falcon &amp; Winter Soldier series premiere: More of Disney+‘s slow-burn status quo</strong> - Disney+’s latest won’t unseat <em>Justice League</em> this weekend—but it belongs in your queue. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1750957">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Zuckerberg: Facebook could be in “stronger position” after Apple tracking change</strong> - The change is expected to come with iOS 14.5 within just a few weeks. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1750949">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>An infinite number of mathematicians walk into a bar</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
An infinite number of mathematicians walk into a bar
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The first mathematician orders a beer
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The second orders half a beer
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“I don’t serve half-beers” the bartender replies
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Excuse me?” Asks mathematician #2
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“What kind of bar serves half-beers?” The bartender remarks. “That’s ridiculous.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Oh c’mon” says mathematician #1 “do you know how hard it is to collect an infinite number of us? Just play along”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“There are very strict laws on how I can serve drinks. I couldn’t serve you half a beer even if I wanted to.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“But that’s not a problem” mathematician #3 chimes in “at the end of the joke you serve us a whole number of beers. You see, when you take the sum of a continuously halving function-”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“I know how limits work” interjects the bartender “Oh, alright then. I didn’t want to assume a bartender would be familiar with such advanced mathematics”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Are you kidding me?” The bartender replies, “you learn limits in like, 9th grade! What kind of mathematician thinks limits are advanced mathematics?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“HE’S ON TO US” mathematician #1 screeches
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Simultaneously, every mathematician opens their mouth and out pours a cloud of multicolored mosquitoes. Each mathematician is bellowing insects of a different shade. The mosquitoes form into a singular, polychromatic swarm. “FOOLS” it booms in unison, “I WILL INFECT EVERY BEING ON THIS PATHETIC PLANET WITH MALARIA”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The bartender stands fearless against the technicolor hoard. “But wait” he inturrupts, thinking fast, “if you do that, politicians will use the catastrophe as an excuse to implement free healthcare. Think of how much that will hurt the taxpayers!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The mosquitoes fall silent for a brief moment. “My God, you’re right. We didn’t think about the economy! Very well, we will not attack this dimension. FOR THE TAXPAYERS!” and with that, they vanish.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A nearby barfly stumbles over to the bartender. “How did you know that that would work?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“It’s simple really” the bartender says. “I saw that the vectors formed a gradient, and therefore must be conservative.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/ruskayakrov"> /u/ruskayakrov </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/m8n815/an_infinite_number_of_mathematicians_walk_into_a/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/m8n815/an_infinite_number_of_mathematicians_walk_into_a/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>I was in bed with a blind girl last night and she whispered in my ear “You have the biggest penis I’ve ever laid my hands on!”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
I said “Na, you’re just pullin’ my leg!”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/HellsHeathens"> /u/HellsHeathens </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/m8u792/i_was_in_bed_with_a_blind_girl_last_night_and_she/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/m8u792/i_was_in_bed_with_a_blind_girl_last_night_and_she/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>my husband, who works in a funeral home</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Early one morning, my husband, who works in a funeral home, woke me, complaining of severe abdominal pains. We rushed to the emergency room, where they gave him a series of tests to determine the source of the pain.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
My husband decided not to have me call in sick for him until we knew what was wrong. When the results came back, the nurse informed us that, true to our suspicions, he was suffering from a kidney stone.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
I turned to my husband and asked, “Would you like me to call the funeral home now?” With an alarmed look, the nurse quickly said, “Ma’am, he’s not THAT sick!”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/TrustedChimp495"> /u/TrustedChimp495 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/m90ch7/my_husband_who_works_in_a_funeral_home/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/m90ch7/my_husband_who_works_in_a_funeral_home/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>Rich man, poor man</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A rich man and a poor man are in a bar, discussing what they’d bought for their wives’ birthdays.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The rich man says “I bought my wife two things: a diamond ring and a Mercedes Benz”. The poor man asks why those two things. The rich man says “Well, I thought if she didn’t like the diamond ring, she could use the Mercedes to take it back to the store.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The rich man asks the poor man what he had bought his wife for her birthday. “I bought two things, too” he says. “I bought her a pair of flip flops and a dildo”. “Interesting”, said the rich man “but why those two things?” “Well,” said the poor man “I thought that way, if she didn’t like the flip flops, she could go fuck herself”.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Be_Alert"> /u/Be_Alert </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/m9576b/rich_man_poor_man/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/m9576b/rich_man_poor_man/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>What do you call 10 dicks?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Dix
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/newaussiebloke"> /u/newaussiebloke </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/m90wlt/what_do_you_call_10_dicks/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/m90wlt/what_do_you_call_10_dicks/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
<script>AOS.init();</script></body></html>

4
index.html
View File

File diff suppressed because one or more lines are too long