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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="covid-19-sentry">Covid-19 Sentry</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-preprints">From Preprints</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-pubmed">From PubMed</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-patent-search">From Patent Search</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-preprints">From Preprints</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Genomic screening of 16 UK native bat species through conservationist networks uncovers coronaviruses with zoonotic potential</strong> -
<div>
There has been limited characterisation of bat-borne coronaviruses in Europe. Here, we screened for coronaviruses in 48 faecal samples from 16 of the 17 bat species breeding in the UK, collected through a bat rehabilitation and conservationist network. We recovered nine (two novel) complete genomes across six bat species: four alphacoronaviruses, a MERS-related betacoronavirus, and four closely related sarbecoviruses. We demonstrate that at least one of these sarbecoviruses can bind and use the human ACE2 receptor for infecting human cells, albeit suboptimally. Additionally, the spike proteins of these sarbecoviruses possess an R-A-K-Q motif, which lies only one nucleotide mutation away from a furin cleavage site (FCS) that enhances infectivity in other coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2. However, mutating this motif to an FCS does not enable spike cleavage. Overall, while UK sarbecoviruses would require further molecular adaptations to infect humans, their zoonotic risk is unknown and warrants closer surveillance.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.17.524183v5" target="_blank">Genomic screening of 16 UK native bat species through conservationist networks uncovers coronaviruses with zoonotic potential</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Role of SARS-CoV-2 mutations in the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic</strong> -
<div>
RNA viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, evolve by mutation acquisition, or by hybridization between viral genomes. The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic provided an exceptional opportunity to analyze the mutations that appeared over a three-year period. In this study, we analysed the type of mutations and their epidemic consequences on the thousands of genomes produced in our laboratory. These were obtained by next-generation sequencing from respiratory samples performed for genomic surveillance. The frequencies of mutations were calculated using Nextclade, Microsoft Excel, and an in-house Python script. In total, 61,397 genomes matching 483 Pangolin lineages were analyzed; 22,225 nucleotide mutations were identified, and of them 220 (1.0%) were each at the root of at least 836 genomes, a frequency threshold classifying mutations as hyperfertile. Two of these seeded the pandemic in Europe, namely a mutation in the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase associated with an increased mutation rate (P323L) and one in the spike protein (D614G), which plays a particular role in virus fitness. Most of these 220 hyperfertile mutations occurred in areas not predicted to be associated with increased virulence. Their number was 8+/-6 (0-22) per 1,000 nucleotides on average per gene. They were 3.7 times more frequent in accessory than informational genes (14 versus 4; p= 0.0037). Particularly, they were 4.1 times more frequent in ORF8 than in the gene encoding RNA polymerase. Interestingly, stop codons were present in 97 positions, almost only in six accessory genes including ORF7a (25 per 100 codons) and ORF8 (21). Furthermore, 1,661 mutations (16.3%) were associated with a lower number of offspring (50-835) and classified as fertile. In conclusion, except for two initial mutations that could predict a change in the dynamics of the epidemic (mutation rate and change in the virus attachment site), most of the hyperfertile mutations did not predict the emergence of a new epidemic form. Significantly, some mutations were in non-coding areas and some consisted of stop codons, indicating that some genes (particularly ORF7a and ORF8) were rather non-virulence genes at a given stage of the epidemic, which is an unusual concept for viruses.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.01.538506v1" target="_blank">Role of SARS-CoV-2 mutations in the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Senior care reforms in India: Reimagining the Senior care paradigm.</strong> -
<div>
Population ageing is a global phenomenon, and the number of people over 60 years has been rising rapidly across the world. With a decreasing fertility rate (less than 2.0) and increasing life expectancy (more than 70 years), India is also witnessing exponential growth in the number and proportion of elderly people, i.e., people over 60 years. The number of elderly currently comprises a little over 10% of the population, translating to about 104 million, and is projected to reach 319 million, comprising 19.5% of the total population by 2050.Despite the efforts by the government, private sector and civil society; the senior care system faces many challenges, including a lack of infrastructure and capacities to support the health and welfare of the elderly, a lack of evidence-based geriatric illness management and knowledge repository, absence of enabling frameworks and monitoring mechanisms, and inadequate emergency response infrastructure. A fragmented and narrow social support system, limited awareness, loss of social support, inaccessible physical infrastructure, and inadequate R&amp;D activities further add to these challenges. Further, challenges associated with financial insecurities like inadequate financial security nets, deficient financial planning and increased vulnerability to financial abuse and fraud also impact seniors in a negative manner. Additionally, digital inequalities have emerged as a significant challenge for seniors, as witnessed during the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown experience.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/tnr98/" target="_blank">Senior care reforms in India: Reimagining the Senior care paradigm.</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Chronic alcohol consumption dysregulates innate immune response to SARS-CoV-2 in the lung</strong> -
<div>
Alcohol consumption is widespread with over half of the individuals over 18 years of age in the U.S. reporting alcohol use in the last 30 days. Moreover, 9 million Americans engaged in binge or chronic heavy drinking (CHD) in 2019. CHD negatively impacts pathogen clearance and tissue repair, including in the respiratory tract, thereby increasing susceptibility to infection. Although, it has been hypothesized that chronic alcohol consumption negatively impacts COVID-19 outcomes; the interplay between chronic alcohol use and SARS-CoV-2 infection outcomes has yet to be elucidated. Therefore, in this study we investigated the impact of chronic alcohol consumption on SARS-CoV-2 anti-viral responses in bronchoalveolar lavage cell samples from humans with alcohol use disorder and rhesus macaques that engaged in chronic drinking. Our data show that in both humans and macaques, the induction of key antiviral cytokines and growth factors was decreased with chronic ethanol consumption. Moreover, in macaques fewer differentially expressed genes mapped to Gene Ontology terms associated with antiviral immunity following 6 month of ethanol consumption while TLR signaling pathways were upregulated. These data are indicative of aberrant inflammation and reduced antiviral responses in the lung with chronic alcohol drinking.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.02.539139v1" target="_blank">Chronic alcohol consumption dysregulates innate immune response to SARS-CoV-2 in the lung</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Host-Microbiome Associations in Saliva Predict COVID-19 Severity</strong> -
<div>
Established evidence indicates that oral microbiota plays a crucial role in modulating host immune responses to viral infection. Following Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2, SARS-CoV-2, there are coordinated microbiome and inflammatory responses within the mucosal and systemic compartments that are unknown. The specific roles that the oral microbiota and inflammatory cytokines play in the pathogenesis of COVID-19 are yet to be explored. We evaluated the relationships between the salivary microbiome and host parameters in different groups of COVID-19 severity based on their Oxygen requirement. Saliva and blood samples (n = 80) were collected from COVID-19 and from non-infected individuals. We characterized the oral microbiomes using 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing and evaluated saliva and serum cytokines using Luminex multiplex analysis. Alpha diversity of the salivary microbial community was negatively associated with COVID-19 severity. Integrated cytokine evaluations of saliva and serum showed that the oral host response was distinct from the systemic response. The hierarchical classification of COVID-19 status and respiratory severity using multiple modalities separately (i.e., microbiome, salivary cytokines, and systemic cytokines) and simultaneously (i.e., multi-modal perturbation analyses) revealed that the microbiome perturbation analysis was the most informative for predicting COVID-19 status and severity, followed by the multi-modal. Our findings suggest that oral microbiome and salivary cytokines may be predictive of COVID-19 status and severity, whereas atypical local mucosal immune suppression and systemic hyperinflammation provide new cues to understand the pathogenesis in immunologically naive populations.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.02.539155v1" target="_blank">Host-Microbiome Associations in Saliva Predict COVID-19 Severity</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>A Systematic Review of Peruvian Contributions to Scientific Publications on Experimental Research Against COVID-19</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
One of the countries most adversely affected by the COVID-19 outbreak was Peru. Worldwide scientific knowledge creation has significantly grown because of this pandemic. This systematic study aims to examine several facets of Peru9s experimental scientific production concerning COVID-19. Between December 2019 and June 2022, searches were made in the PubMed database for experimental scientific articles created in Peruvian institutions. The systematic review resulted in nine studies that meet the requirements. Data were extracted and analyzed on the type of biomedical research, the study9s applicability, the thematic area and specific thematic, journal impact factor and quartile, funding, grants, and institution of affiliation for the first and correspondence authors. The results revealed that Peru needs to promote policies to boost research funding and the number of researchers to produce information that will be useful for managing diseases in the future. Yet, despite the funding provided by national organizations like National Council for Science, Technology, and Technological Innovation (CONCYTEC), there were few publications and little international collaboration. The studies that have been published focus mostly on applied research in the areas of diagnostics, sanitary products, and treatment and transmission, and they have great visibility because they are indexed in Q1 journals. This thorough study revealed Peru9s inadequate reaction to COVID-19 regarding experimental scientific research. Peruvian authorities should think about supporting the required policies to boost the number of researchers and financial aid to produce information that may be utilized to manage potential new diseases in the future.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.03.23289455v1" target="_blank">A Systematic Review of Peruvian Contributions to Scientific Publications on Experimental Research Against COVID-19</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>A Citizens’ Hearing: Examining Canada’s Covid Response</strong> -
<div>
An increasing number of Canadians are concerned about how the COVID-19 crisis was handled by our governments and institutions. We are alarmed by the serious consequences of their decisions and, at times, their apparent indifference to the costs. Those consequences include tragic impacts on the personal lives of many, violations of constitutionally guaranteed rights and freedoms in the name of health security, and economic impacts of lockdown measures, which subjected millions of Canadians to business closures, loss of income, and unemployment. Canadians are asking many questions: Were the measures taken by governments in Canada appropriate to the perceived threat? Were they based on sufficient clinical and statistical evidence? Were they suitably focused? How effective were they? Were there any conflicts of interest at play? Was there enough emphasis on prevention and early treatment? On informed consent? Was sufficient debate permitted? In attempting to prevent COVID-19, what other maladies were we ignoring or fostering? Did the public health interventions, such as mandatory vaccinations, cause more harm than good? These concerns have given rise to a growing demand for an Independent National Inquiry into the management of the COVID-19 crisis in Canada. To encourage and inform such an inquiry, from June 22nd – 24th 2022, the Canadian Covid Care Alliance, in partnership with the Canadian Adverse Event Reporting System (CAERS), Fearless Canada, United Healthcare Workers of Ontario and the Frontier Centre For Public Policy among others, sponsored a cross-country live streamed event moderated by a diverse panel of experts to: Hear testimony illustrating the harms that have resulted from government policies implemented to cope with the COVID-19 outbreak; Receive scientific, medical, and legal testimony as to alternative approaches that were ignored - or even condemned - which might have been pursued; Generate recommendations to ensure that Canadians never again experience the degree of loss, trauma and disruption caused by the official response to COVID-19. A Citizens’ Hearing consists of testimonies challenging the official responses of Canada’s federal and regional governments and recommendations for better handling the next public health crisis, should one of such a scale occur again. Canada’s response to COVID-19 has been far from perfect. We can and should learn from our mistakes. The landscape of this enormous challenge has been and is constantly changing. A Citizens’ Hearing aims to contribute to a national conversation of truth and understanding that might lead us to a new resilience and emergency preparedness. To face the next health crisis, we must change the narrative from one of fear and reaction to one of confidence in a properly managed, proactive and nuanced emergency management process that reacts to real world data, and keeps dialogue and consultation with a cross-section of stakeholders open and transparent.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/sk3d5/" target="_blank">A Citizens’ Hearing: Examining Canada’s Covid Response</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Greater social network complexity mitigates pandemic-related negativity</strong> -
<div>
Having strong, diverse social relationships is tightly linked to myriad physical and mental health benefits by mitigating the negative impacts of adverse events. The COVID-19 pandemic brought increased uncertainty and changes to our social lives that reduce the spread of COVID-19 (e.g., social distancing), but also likely impacted emotional well-being. We investigated how one of these changes – changing social networks – relates to emotional bias (a proxy for well-being), specifically one’s tendency to interpret ambiguous stimuli as positive or negative (i.e., valence bias). Participants (N = 614) categorized the valence of clearly (angry and happy expressions) and ambiguously valenced stimuli (surprised expressions), and were asked about their social network before and during the pandemic. Compared to before the pandemic, participants reported a decrease in overall network size (p &lt; .001) and number of embedded networks (i.e., a measure of network complexity represented by number of areas of social activity; p &lt; .001). In a model with all three social network dimensions (size, complexity, diversity), network complexity uniquely predicted valence bias (p = .02). Specifically, participants with greater social network complexity during the pandemic showed a more positive bias. Further, participants that did not experience a pandemic-related reduction in network complexity were protected from pandemic-related increases in negativity (p &lt; .001). In other words, having a more complex social network could act as a protective factor against adverse outcomes in times of uncertainty.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/w2grz/" target="_blank">Greater social network complexity mitigates pandemic-related negativity</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>ON THE TREATMENT OF SARS-COV-2 INCLUDING OMICRON TYPE</strong> -
<div>
Objective: The aim of this research is to introduce new method of the treatment/control of Omicron Virus and answer some major questions regarding the cure of COVID-19 and the new type: Omicron. Background: We have selected 24 patients (12 females plus 12 males) aged from 15-64 years of old contaminated severe Omicron virus and used the novel methods on the treatment of these patients. Introduction: The Omicron variant (B.1.1.529) is a variant of SARS-CoV-2 which was first reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) from South Africa on 24 November 2021. Omicron multiplies around 70 times faster than the Delta variant in the bronchi but some evidence suggests that it is less severe than previous strains, specifically compared to the Delta variant. Omicron might be less able to penetrate deep lung tissue. Omicron infections are 91 percent less fatal than the delta variant, with 51 percent less risk of hospitalization. Materials and Methods: The Omicron virus has strongly high rate of mutation compared with other kinds of Coronaviruses and therefore; cause severe symptoms of inflammation in the patients including lungs. In our research, all the patients were under unique control. They received HBO2T with 2% Ozone mixture with Oxygen in special cube. Also they had an injection of liquid ozone which dramatically decline the inflammation in all tissues. They had under strict diet of special Ketogenic diet to maintain their mitochondria to remain high metabolism to hamper the fatigue and tiredness. The had also gain supplements necessary for the disease. Results: all the patient showed full recovery in 3 days, but they had fatigue and tiredness which we had to give them MTC oil 30 grams/day and coconut oil 30 grams/day as well which reduced the tiredness of the patients dramatically and remain their metabolism in a normal state. As a whole, all the patients recovered in 7 days without any symptoms including coughing, tiredness, fever and etc. Conclusion: Using the novel methodology of the treatment of SARS-CoV including Omicron had positive results on the patients. HBO2T plus specific Ozone therapy dramatically reduced the inflammation in all tissues of the patients. This novel method is a breakthrough in the science of Infectious Diseases including Omicron virus.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/wumg6/" target="_blank">ON THE TREATMENT OF SARS-COV-2 INCLUDING OMICRON TYPE</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>ISLAMIC FASTING DURING RAMADAN WILL NEGATIVELY IMPACT ON PANDEMIC OF COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2)</strong> -
<div>
The aim of this review is to prove Islamic Fasting during COVID-19 pandemic has negative effect on the spreading of the virus. Basically Water makes up about 60% of one’s body weight. Fasting in Islamic religion is to stop drinking and eating any kinds of food/drinks (Water). even a little amount is forbidden during this month (Ramadan) and the duration is almost 29-30 days. In this review, we have mentioned the impact of fasting in causing Organ/Cellular inflammation, dehydration, dampen cellular/body metabolism which reduces producing enough ATP by mitochondrion through citric acid cycle (CAC) which causes body and organ weakness, dizziness, tiredness and reduction in immune system functioning of the body and increasing the amounts of Reactive Oxygen Species in cells that increasing the possibility of contamination the fasted individual to several important diseases. Infectious diseases including microbial/viral diseases, high abnormal heart rate as a result of falling blood volume which put high pressure on heart and worsen heart disease. The humidity and temperature of the environment in spring time is also help spreading viruses including SARS-CoV-2. Based on evidences in this article, Islamic Fasting during the pandemic of COVID-19 will increase the rate of contaminated people.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/w2kna/" target="_blank">ISLAMIC FASTING DURING RAMADAN WILL NEGATIVELY IMPACT ON PANDEMIC OF COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2)</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Distance to Vaccine Sites is Associated with Lower COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake</strong> -
<div>
COVID-19 remains a leading cause of preventable deaths in the United States, despite widespread availability of vaccines. Conventional wisdom ties failure to vaccinate primarily to vaccine-skeptic beliefs (e.g., conspiracy theories, partisanship). Yet in this research, we find that vaccination is also hindered by travel distance to vaccine sites (a form of friction, or structural barriers). In study 1, Californians living farther from vaccine sites had lower vaccination rates. In study 2, vaccine site openings in Chicago were followed by an uptick in vaccination in the vaccine site’s surrounding zip code. These results proved robust in multiverse analyses using thousands of models to account for a wide range of covariates, outcome measures, and distance indicators. COVID-19 vaccination is hampered not just by vaccine-hesitant beliefs, but also structural barriers such as distance. Thus, efforts to address vaccine hesitancy might well focus not only on changing beliefs but also minimizing friction.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/mux5s/" target="_blank">Distance to Vaccine Sites is Associated with Lower COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>INTRODUCING COVID-19 AS AN EVOLUTIONARY METABOLIC INFECIOUS DISEASE (EMID) The Prime Cause and Representing Alternative Treatment for COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2)</strong> -
<div>
Background: Coronaviruses are a group of related viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans, coronaviruses cause respiratory tract infections that can range from mild to lethal. Mild illnesses include some cases of the common cold, while more lethal varieties can cause SARS, MERS, and COVID-19. The outbreak was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, declared to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 30 January 2020, and recognized as a pandemic on 11 March 2020. Introduction: Coronaviruses are the subfamily Orthocoronavirinae, within the family of Coronaviridae, order Nidovirales, and realm Riboviria. They are enveloped viruses with a positive-sense single-stranded RNA genome and a nucleocapsid of helical symmetry. The genome size of coronaviruses is approximately from 26 to 32 kilobases. Coronaviruses were first discovered in the 1930s and Human coronaviruses were discovered in the 1960s. The earliest ones studied were from human patients with the common cold, which were later named human coronavirus 229E and human coronavirus OC43. Other human coronaviruses have since been identified, including SARS-CoV in 2003, HCoV NL63 in 2004, HKU1 in 2005, MERS-CoV in 2012, and SARS-CoV-2 in 2019. Most of these have involved serious respiratory tract infections. Discussions and Results: Based on our multidisciplinary research, we have found the major cause and some treatments methods for fighting this powerful pathogen. The prime cause of COVID-19 is pushing the mitochondrial to lose MMP. A loss of the MMP by any mechanism leads to functional and structural collapse of the mitochondria and cell death. Mitophagy plays an important role in maintaining mitochondrial homeostasis, but can also eliminate healthy mitochondria in cases such as cell starvation, viral invasion, and erythroid cell differentiation. The mitochondrial fusion and fission are highly dynamic. Viruses specially COVID-19, interfere with these processes to distort mitochondrial dynamic to facilitate their proliferation. Thus, interfering with these processes promotes the interference of different cellular signaling pathways. The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) escapes the innate immune response by translocating its ORF-9b to mitochondria and promotes proteosomal degradation of dynamin-like protein (Drp1) leading to mitochondrial fission. We also researched on Ultrasonic Energy to destroy the virus which lead to positive results but it needs more future research. The most destructive way of viruses is to enhance Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) and free radicals in human contaminated cell which cause inflammation in a host cell. ELF-EMF convert free radicals 2 into less active molecules and eliminate them into two pathways which has been discussed in the discussion part. Using ELF-EMF affects the second pathway that relies on the activity of the catalase and superoxide dismutase enzymes which is the most effective pathway. For the best result of treatment, is the use of low-frequency magnetic fields (LFMF) plus EMF-ELF which penetrate into deeper tissues, cells and mitochondria. We also have gone through many researches since 1920 and found if we emit the frequency as the same frequency of COVID-19, can cause resonance in the virus and destroy it. So we measured the SARS-CoV-2 frequency by Cyclotron and calculated the frequency of the virus is 30 KHz-500 KHz. Conclusion: COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) is one of the most complex virus which has been discovered since 2020. Until today, there has been no Antiviral Drug which can be useful in the treatment of this infectious disease has been discovered till today. COVID-19 genomic sequence containing SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and Influenza A. Therefore; there is a high possibility of continuing COVID-19 even in summer. To gain the best result in treatment, we should use low-frequency magnetic fields (LFMF) plus EMF which penetrate into deeper tissues, cells and mitochondria in order to reduce ROS and Inflammation. In order to destroy SARS-CoV-2 virus in environment and also in infected individuals, we should use ELF-EMF plus LFMF. We also have gone through many researches since 1920 and found if we emit the frequency as the same frequency of COVID-19, it can cause resonance in the virus and destroy it. So we measured the SARS-CoV-2 frequency by Cyclotron and calculated the frequency of the virus that id is 30 KHz-500 KHz. The differences in the frequencies is due to the size of the virus which is from 26 to 32 Kilobases.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/fp7uw/" target="_blank">INTRODUCING COVID-19 AS AN EVOLUTIONARY METABOLIC INFECIOUS DISEASE (EMID) The Prime Cause and Representing Alternative Treatment for COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2)</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>On the Neglected Shifting balance theory, Bateson–Dobzhansky–Muller model &amp; Quantum evolution plus the Role of Mitochondrial Membrane Potential (MMP) Impact on COVID-19</strong> -
<div>
Background: Approximately 80% of all viruses are RNA viruses and they contain their specific RNA helicases. Defective RNA helicases have been linked to infectious diseases (Viral Infections). Materials and Methods: The articles have gone through many types of research from the beginning of the epidemic of Coronaviruses through history and we introduced the neglected hypothesis of Shifting balance theory, Bateson–Dobzhansky–Muller model &amp; Quantum evolution. In the ancestral population, the genotype is AABB. When two populations become isolated from each other, new mutations can arise. In one population A evolves into a, and in the other B evolves into b. When the two populations hybridize it is the first time A and B interact with each other. When these alleles are incompatible, we speak of Dobzhansky–Muller incompatibilities plus the role of MMA in mitochondria in spreading SARS-CoV-19 through populations and the result of an infection in COVID-19. Results: In viruses specifically COVID-19, Ribosomal Frameshift is programmed to allows the virus to encode multiple types of proteins from the same mRNA. HIV-1 (human immunodeficiency virus), RSV (Rous sarcoma virus), and all types of influenza viruses use Ribosomal Frameshift. they rely on frameshifting to create a proper ratio of normal translation and trans-frame (encoded by frameshifted sequence) proteins. Notably, its use in viruses is primarily for compacting more genetic information into a shorter amount of genetic material. Conclusion: to find the genome sequence of COVID-19 we also used Nanopore sequencing that introduced and manufactured by Oxford scientists, due to differences in the action of infection in the host, we could not reach any results since the Novel Virus has not a stable genome (which is quite dynamic) since through our deep research, each virus contains its specific genome sequencing and we cannot claim that COVID-19 has one specific genome sequence like MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV or any types of viruses which has been discovered and contains their specific genome.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/b5dr3/" target="_blank">On the Neglected Shifting balance theory, Bateson–Dobzhansky–Muller model &amp; Quantum evolution plus the Role of Mitochondrial Membrane Potential (MMP) Impact on COVID-19</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>THE NEGATIVE IMPACT OF The HOMININ’s DPP4 GENE INHERITED from NEANDERTHALS to PANDEMIC of COVID-19</strong> -
<div>
Background: According to preliminary sequences from 2010, 99.7% of the nucleotide sequences of the modern human and Neanderthal genomes are identical, compared to humans sharing around 98.8% of sequences with the chimpanzee. … In contrast, the difference between chimpanzees and modern humans is approximately 1,462 mtDNA base pairs. Materials and Methods: Neanderthal-inherited genetic material is found in all non-African populations and was initially reported to comprise 1 to 4 percent of the genome. This fraction was later refined to 1.5 to 2.1 percent. We had gone through many researches of Neanderthals affected gene flow in humans. Results: It is estimated that 20 percent of Neanderthal DNA currently survives in modern humans. Modern human genes involved in making keratin, a protein constituent of skin, hair, and nails, have especially high levels of introgression. For example, approximately 66% of East Asians contain a POUF23L variant introgressed from Neanderthals, while 70% of Europeans possess an introgressed allele of BNC2. Our finding shines a light on an enzyme called dipeptidyl peptidase4 (DPP4). Scientists already know the protein allows another coronavirus, which causes Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome (MERS), to bind to and enter human cells. The new analysis, of DPP4 gene variants among COVID-19 patients, suggests the enzyme also provides SARS-CoV-2 with a second door into our cells, along with its usual infection route via the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor on cell surfaces. Conclusion: Most Europeans, Asians, and Native Americans harbor a handful of genes from Neanderthals, up 1.8% to 2.6% of their DNA. Studies of ancient DNA in Neanderthal fossils have shown the hominin’s DPP4 gene subtly differs from the typical human one. Conclusion: The hominin’s DPP4 gene inherited from Neanderthals plays a major role in Immune System Disorders and Lower Immune response in many diseases. This gene plays a major role in affecting humans with COVID-19 and spreading it through the world. All humans contain this gene from 1 to 4 percent. East Asians, Europeans, Middle and south Americans conveys more, hence; native Africans contain less amounts of hominin’s DPP4 gene. Therefore; East Asians, Europeans, Middle and south Americans are prone to severe COVID-19.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/6fhz9/" target="_blank">THE NEGATIVE IMPACT OF The HOMININ’s DPP4 GENE INHERITED from NEANDERTHALS to PANDEMIC of COVID-19</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>THE HISTORICAL/EVOLUTIONARY CAUSE AND POSSIBLE TREATMENT OF PANDEMIC COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2, 2019CORONAVIRUS)</strong> -
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Background: A virus is a small infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses can infect all types of life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea. In evolution, viruses are an important means of horizontal gene transfer, which increases genetic diversity in a way analogous to sexual reproduction. Influenza (Including (COVID-19), is an infectious disease caused by an influenza virus. Some viruses especially smallpox, throughout history, has killed between 300-500 million people in its 12,000year existence. As modern humans increased in numbers, new infectious diseases emerged, including SARS-CoV-2. We have two groups of virus, RNA and DNA viruses. The most brutal viruses are RNA ones like COVID-19 (Sars-CoV-2 [1] Introduction: Coronaviruses are a group of viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans, coronaviruses cause respiratory tract infections that are typically mild, such as some cases of the common cold (among other possible causes, predominantly rhinoviruses), though rarer forms can be lethal, such as SARS, MERS, and COVID-19. Symptoms vary in other species: in chickens, they cause an upper respiratory tract disease, while in cows and pigs they cause diarrhea. Coronaviruses constitute the subfamily Orthocoronavirinae, The genome size, coronaviruses ranges from approximately 27 to 34 kilobases, the largest among known RNA viruses. Discussions and Results: We have researched from the first virus in the planet to the last mutated version which is SARS-COV-2. We have collected many informative data in tables and figures to reach the main cause of 2019Coronavirus and calculated the probability and estimated deaths in the current time. We have discussed about the possible treatment and prevention of the virus and did algebraic calculations on the epidemiology, the size and even the future of this pandemic. The only era which any virus had not been epidemic, were through world war 2, were the German scientists had found the way to fight any viral infections which is very important and can help scientists to reach the main treatment of the new 2019-Coronavirus. We have sorted the deadly and non-deadly coronaviruses and explained how this epidemic had begun through Evolutionary Medicine (EM). The result of the article is that 16% of the whole population in the world has been contaminated which is 1248000000 of 7.8 billion people world-wide. SARS-CoV-2 is an RNA Virus. its nucleic acid is 2 single-stranded RNA (ssRNA). The polarity of this virus is positive-sense ((+) ssRNA). Positivesense viral RNA is similar to mRNA and thus can be immediately translated by the host cell. Recombination in RNA viruses appears to be an adaptation for coping with genome damage. Recombination can occur infrequently between animal viruses of the same species but of divergent lineages. The resulting recombinant viruses may sometimes cause an outbreak of infection in humans. RNA viruses have very high mutation rates This is one reason why it is difficult to make effective vaccines to prevent diseases caused by RNA viruses. The resulting recombinant viruses causes an outbreak of infection in humans. Conclusion: In conclusion, the mutation of the SARSCoV and influenza viruses through Drift and Reassortment is the main cause of SARS-CoV-2 through natural selection, Lamarckian Evolution and coevolution which caused this RNA virus so powerful, unpredicted and different in the genome size and nations worldwide. The first Pandemic of Influenza was first detected in 1732 and this virus evolved through natural selection till 2019 which caused the worldwide pandemic of SARS-CoV-2. Based on many studies, inhalation of Ozone plus Sulfur Dioxide, increasing the amounts of L-Glutathione (Which is low in children and older adults and this is the main reason why older adults and children die from this disease.) plus Viral Phage Therapy (VPT) which we discussed fully in this article can be the possible prime treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection. The seasonal temperature cannot be useful in controlling/reducing the pandemic of this virus since the natural selection, Lamarckian Evolution and high mutation of the virus helps its survival. No antiviral drugs will be useful against SARSCoV-2 because of high rate of mutation and primarily adaptation of the virus to the drugs and even the environmental Temperature.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/276qn/" target="_blank">THE HISTORICAL/EVOLUTIONARY CAUSE AND POSSIBLE TREATMENT OF PANDEMIC COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2, 2019CORONAVIRUS)</a>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Long COVID-19 Syndrome Lifestyle Intervention Study</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Long COVID-19 Syndrome<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Dietary Supplement: Low carbohydrate diet intervention<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   University of Southern California<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>Working Towards Empowered Community-driven Approaches to Increase Vaccination and Preventive Care Engagement</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Other: mHealth Outreach;   Other: Care Coordination<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of California, San Diego;   San Ysidro Health Center<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Coping and Resilience Intervention for Adolescents</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Pandemic<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Behavioral: Coping and Resilience Intervention for Adolescents;   Other: Printing materials of Coping and Resilience Intervention for Adolescents<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Taipei Medical University<br/><b>Enrolling by invitation</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 Modified Diaphragmatic Training for Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease Post Covid-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   GERD;   Post COVID-19 Condition;   Diaphragm Issues<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Other: modified diaphragmatic training;   Other: standard diaphragmatic training<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Indonesia University<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>COVID-19 Vaccination Detoxification</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19 Stress Syndrome;   COVID-19 Vaccine Adverse Reaction;   COVID-19-Associated Thromboembolism;   COVID-19 Post-Intensive Care Syndrome;   COVID-19-Associated Stroke;   COVID-19 Respiratory Infection<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Combination Product: Atorvastatin Calcium Tablets<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Yang I. Pachankis<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>The Safety, Tolerability and Pharmacokinetics Study of RAY1216 in Healthy Adult Participants</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019)<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: RAY1216 dose 1;   Drug: RAY1216 dose 2;   Drug: RAY1216 dose 3;   Drug: RAY1216 dose 4 &amp;ritonavir   Drug: RAY1216 dose 5;   Drug: RAY1216 dose 6;   Drug: RAY1216 dose 7;   Drug: RAY1216 dose 8;   Drug: RAY1216 dose 9;   Drug: RAY1216 dose 10<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Guangdong Raynovent Biotech Co., Ltd<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Computerized Training of Attention and Working Memory in Post COVID-19 Patients With Cognitive Complaints</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   Cognitive Impairment;   Cognition Disorder;   Memory Disorders;   Attention Deficit;   Memory Impairment;   Memory Loss;   Attention Impaired<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Device: RehaCom<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Erasmus Medical Center<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Study in Healthy Volunteers to Evaluate the Safety, Tolerability, Pharmacokinetics, and Drug-Drug Interaction Potential of Single and Multiple Doses of ALG-097558</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: ALG-097558;   Drug: Placebo;   Drug: Midazolam;   Drug: Itraconazole;   Drug: Carbamazepine;   Drug: ALG-097558 in solution formulation;   Drug: ALG-097558 in tablet formulation<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Aligos Therapeutics<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>Strategies and Treatments for Respiratory Infections &amp;Amp; Viral Emergencies (STRIVE): Immune Modulation Strategy Trial</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: abatacept infusion;   Drug: Placebo group<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   University of Minnesota<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>Immunoadsorption Study Mainz in Adults With Post-COVID Syndrome</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Post-COVID-19 Syndrome;   Post-COVID Syndrome;   Post COVID-19 Condition<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Device: Immunoadsorption;   Device: Sham-apheresis<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   University Medical Center Mainz<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>Evaluation of the Efficacy and Safety of Nano-S1</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Pneumonia<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: NANOS1 , argent colloïdal ,<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   General Administration of Military Health, Tunisia<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Digital Mental Health Care for COVID-19 High-Risk Populations - Phase 2</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Stigma, Social;   Help-Seeking Behavior<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Other: Adjusted Content Intervention;   Other: Non-Adjusted Intervention Video<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene, Inc.;   Columbia University<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Vaccine Hesitancy in Black/African Americans With Rheumatic Diseases</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Rheumatic Diseases;   COVID-19 Vaccine;   COVID-19;   SLE<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: COVID-19 vaccine and booster training, and importance<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Northwestern University;   Brigham and Women’s Hospital;   Boston Children’s Hospital;   Boston Medical Center<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Study of mRNA-based Influenza and SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) Multi-component Vaccines in Healthy Adults</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   SARS-CoV-2;   Influenza<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Fluarix;   Biological: mRNA-1083.1;   Biological: mRNA-1083.2;   Biological: mRNA-1083.3;   Biological: mRNA-1010.4;   Biological: mRNA-1283.222;   Biological: mRNA-1273.222;   Biological: mRNA-1010;   Biological: Fluzone HD<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   ModernaTX, Inc.<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Efficacy of an Smartphone App Intervention Based on Self-compassion for Mental Health Among University Students</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Mental Health Issue<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Behavioral: mHealth Intervention Based on Self-Compassion;   Behavioral: Psychoeducation Intervention<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Federal University of Health Science of Porto Alegre;   Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-pubmed">From PubMed</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong><em>In silico</em> evaluation of some commercially available terpenoids as spike glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2 - inhibitors using molecular dynamic approach</strong> - Coronavirus, an extremely contagious infections disease had a harmful effect on the world’s population. It is a family of enveloped, single-stranded, positive-strand RNA viruses of Nidovirales order belongs to coroviridae family. At present, worldwide several lakhs of deaths and several billions of infections have been reported. Hence, the focus of the present study was to assess the SARS-CoV-2 enzyme inhibitory potential of certain commercially available terpenoids using Lamarckian genetic…</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>Infection routes, invasion mechanisms, and drug inhibition pathways of human coronaviruses on the nervous system</strong> - So far, numerous studies have reported on how coronaviruses affect the human nervous system. However, these studies mainly focused on the impact of a single coronavirus on the nervous system, and failed to fully report the invasion mechanisms and the rules of symptoms of the seven human coronaviruses. This research can assist medical professionals in identifying the regularity of coronavirus invasion into the nervous system by examining the impacts of human coronaviruses on the nervous system….</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>High-breathable, antimicrobial and water-repellent face mask for breath monitoring</strong> - Face masks with multiple functionalities and exceptional durability have attracted increasing interests during the COVID-19 pandemic. How to integrate the antibacterial property, comfortability during long-time wearing, and breath monitoring capability together on a face mask is still challenging. Here we developed a kind of face mask that assembles the particles-free water-repellent fabric, antibacterial fabric, and hidden breath monitoring device together, resulting in the highly breathable,…</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>Non-neutralizing antibodies to SARS-Cov-2-related linear epitopes induce psychotic-like behavior in mice</strong> - OBJECTIVE: An increasing number of studies have reported that numerous patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and vaccinated individuals have developed central nervous system (CNS) symptoms, and that most of the antibodies in their sera have no virus-neutralizing ability. We tested the hypothesis that non-neutralizing anti-S1-111 IgG induced by the spike protein of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) could negatively affect the CNS.</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>Furin as a therapeutic target in cystic fibrosis airways disease</strong> - Clinical management of cystic fibrosis (CF) has been greatly improved by the development of small molecule modulators of the CF transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR). These drugs help to address some of the basic genetic defects of CFTR; however, no suitable CFTR modulators exist for 10% of people with CF (PWCF). An alternative, mutation-agnostic therapeutic approach is therefore still required. In CF airways, elevated levels of the proprotein convertase furin contribute to the…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Clomipramine inhibits dynamin GTPase activity by L-α-phosphatidyl-L-serine stimulation</strong> - Three dynamin isoforms play critical roles in clathrin-dependent endocytosis. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) enters host cells via clathrin-dependent endocytosis. We previously reported that 3-(3-chloro-10,11-dihydro-5H-dibenzo[b,f]azepin-5-yl)-N,N-dimethylpropan-1-amine (clomipramine) inhibits the GTPase activity of dynamin 1, which is in mainly neuron. Therefore, we investigated whether clomipramine inhibits the activity of other dynamin isoforms in this study. We…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>An ACAT inhibitor suppresses SARS-CoV-2 replication and boosts antiviral T cell activity</strong> - The severity of disease following infection with SARS-CoV-2 is determined by viral replication kinetics and host immunity, with early T cell responses and/or suppression of viraemia driving a favourable outcome. Recent studies uncovered a role for cholesterol metabolism in the SARS-CoV-2 life cycle and in T cell function. Here we show that blockade of the enzyme Acyl-CoA:cholesterol acyltransferase (ACAT) with Avasimibe inhibits SARS-CoV-2 pseudoparticle infection and disrupts the association of…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Improved recovery of SARS-CoV-2 from wastewater through application of RNA and DNA stabilising agents</strong> - Wastewater Based Epidemiology (WBE) has become an integral part of the public health effort to track the levels of SARS-CoV-2 within communities. Detection of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater can be challenging due to relatively low levels of virus within the sample. The wastewater matrix is also comprised of commercial and domestically derived contaminants, as well as RNases, all of which can adversely affect RT-qPCR analysis. To improve SARS-CoV-2 detection within wastewater samples we investigated…</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>Single-Virus Fusion Measurements Reveal Multiple Mechanistically Equivalent Pathways for SARS-CoV-2 Entry</strong> - Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) binds to cell surface receptors and is activated for membrane fusion and cell entry via proteolytic cleavage. Phenomenological data have shown that SARS-CoV-2 can be activated for entry at either the cell surface or in endosomes, but the relative roles in different cell types and mechanisms of entry have been debated. Here, we used single-virus fusion experiments and exogenously controlled proteases to probe activation directly. We…</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>HDAC6 Degrades nsp8 of Porcine Deltacoronavirus through Deacetylation and Ubiquitination to Inhibit Viral Replication</strong> - Porcine deltacoronavirus (PDCoV) is an emerging swine enteropathogenic coronavirus that has the potential to infect humans. Histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) is a unique type IIb cytoplasmic deacetylase with both deacetylase activity and ubiquitin E3 ligase activity, which mediates a variety of cellular processes by deacetylating histone and nonhistone substrates. In this study, we found that ectopic expression of HDAC6 significantly inhibited PDCoV replication, while the reverse effects could be…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Impaired potency of neutralizing antibodies against cell-cell fusion mediated by SARS-CoV-2</strong> - The SARS-CoV-2 Omicron subvariants have dominated the pandemic due to their high transmissibility and immune evasion conferred by the spike mutations. The Omicron subvariants can spread by cell-free virus infection and cell-cell fusion, the latter of which is more effective but has not been extensively investigated. In this study, we developed a simple and high-throughput assay that provides a rapid readout to quantify cell-cell fusion mediated by the SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins without using live…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>In silico Study of Antiviral Activity of Polyphenol Compounds from <em>Ocimum basilicum</em> by Molecular Docking, ADMET, and Drug-Likeness Analysis</strong> - CONCLUSION: Based on the data obtained, Apigenin-7-glucuronide and dihydrokaempferol-3-glucoside are compounds that have more potential to have an antiviral effect on the main protease enzyme than aesculetin. Based on pharmacokinetic parameters and drug-likeness, three compounds can be used as lead compounds for further research.</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>Targeting the vital non-structural proteins (NSP12, NSP7, NSP8 and NSP3) from SARS-CoV-2 and inhibition of RNA polymerase by natural bioactive compound naringenin as a promising drug candidate against COVID-19</strong> - The prevalence of SARS-CoV-2-induced respiratory infections is now a major challenge worldwide. There is currently no specific antiviral drug to prevent or treat this disease. Infection with COVID-19 seriously needs to find effective therapeutic agents. In the present study, naringenin, as a potential inhibitor candidate for RNA Polymerase SARS-CoV-2 was compared with remdesivir (FDA-approved drug) and GS-441,524 (Derivative of the drug remdesivir) by screening with wild-type and mutant…</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 single inactivating amino acid change in the SARS-CoV-2 NSP3 Mac1 domain attenuates viral replication and pathogenesis <em>in vivo</em></strong> - Despite unprecedented efforts, our therapeutic arsenal against SARS-CoV-2 remains limited. The conserved macrodomain 1 (Mac1) in NSP3 is an enzyme exhibiting ADP-ribosylhydrolase activity and a possible drug target. To determine the therapeutic potential of Mac1 inhibition, we generated recombinant viruses and replicons encoding catalytically inactive NSP3 Mac1 domain by mutating a critical asparagine in the active site. While substitution to alanine (N40A) reduced activity by ∼10-fold,…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>An <em>in vitro</em> experimental pipeline to characterize the binding specificity of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies</strong> - The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has led to over 760 million cases and &gt;6.8 million deaths worldwide. We developed a panel of human neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) targeting the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein using Harbour H2L2 transgenic mice immunized with Spike receptor binding domain (RBD) (1). Representative antibodies from genetically-distinct families were evaluated for inhibition of…</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Limits of Joe Biden’s Calls for Press Freedom</strong> - After decades of exposing corruption in Guatemala, the journalist José Rubén Zamora has been jailed. Why can’t the U.S. help him? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/the-limits-of-joe-bidens-calls-for-press-freedom">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Deregulating Banks Is Dangerous</strong> - As First Republic Bank is sold to JPMorgan, the Federal Reserve relearns some important lessons. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/deregulating-banks-is-dangerous">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Renewed Importance of the Texas Gay Rodeo</strong> - As conservative politicians try to control expressions of gender and sexuality, a rural haven from hostility offers competition and comfort. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-southwest/the-renewed-importance-of-the-texas-gay-rodeo">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Jonah Peretti Has Regrets About BuzzFeed News</strong> - The site’s founder and C.E.O. valued fun and experimentation on the Internet, but never found a way to make “free journalism purpose-built for social media” profitable. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-communications/jonah-peretti-has-regrets-about-buzzfeed-news">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Why Russian Élites Think Putin’s War Is Doomed to Fail</strong> - Rival factions are jockeying for power as the country navigates a crisis with no clear way out. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/why-russian-elites-think-putins-war-is-doomed-to-fail">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>A Covid outbreak at a CDC conference is ironic. But is it a big deal?</strong> -
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<img alt="A blue sign reading “CDC” at the CDC headquarters building in Atlanta, Georgia, on a cloudy day." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/LhgJKGqvOLSS-UGnQ9gP3Ta3VBQ=/222x0:3778x2667/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72248131/1207345894.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
The CDC conference outbreak can teach us how to think about Covid-19 risk at mass events in 2023. | Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
3 takeaways about the current state of the pandemic.
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Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) held a <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/eis/conference/index.html">conference</a> at an Atlanta hotel. Its purpose: showcase the work of its applied epidemiology trainees, who over the past year have investigated public health matters ranging from cancer to bird flu to infant mortality.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1IlFaI">
This year, the CDC held the conference in person for the first time since 2019 (they also offered a virtual attendance option). On April 27, the last day of the conference, organizers were notified that several attendees had tested positive for Covid-19. As of May 2, 35 cases were linked with the conference, according to a CDC representative.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cBv3Pn">
I attended the middle two days of the conference in person, and on Tuesday, I received a notification email about the cases. The email also noted that the CDC and the Georgia health department are conducting a “rapid assessment” to understand the outbreak’s dynamics, and asked me to fill out a survey that would be sent my way.
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News of the event was <a href="https://twitter.com/TaylorLorenz/status/1652102379574296577">met with</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/SolNataMD/status/1652105901086736384">some</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/dontwantadothis/status/1652087370441793537">schadenfreude</a>, with several commenters jeering at the irony: An agency whose Covid response many viewed as a failure had itself been subject to an outbreak of the infection.
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Scorn aside, there’s actually something to learn here. The outbreak says a lot about the current state of the pandemic, and how to think about Covid-19 risks right now.
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Here are three big lessons.
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<h3 id="wVrmmu">
<ol type="1">
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">If you look for Covid anywhere, you’ll find it everywhere — perhaps especially at large gatherings
</li></ol></h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UrN9X3">
Covid-19 infections look different and less severe now than they did earlier in the pandemic. Due to changes in the virus itself, and because of high rates of community <a href="https://covid19serohub.nih.gov/">Covid-19 immunity</a> due to infection or vaccination, transmission now happens <a href="https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cid/ciad074/7034633">less briskly</a>. More recent waves of infection have been smaller and led to more <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2023/02/rules-asymptomatic-covid-have-changed/673233/">asymptomatic infections</a> and fewer severe outcomes than in earlier times.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TxqZfn">
At the same time, US public health officials are identifying fewer cases than ever before. That’s because so many Covid-19 cases go unrecognized as asymptomatic, are diagnosed by home testing, or aren’t tested for at all.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kYPlCE">
But the virus is clearly still circulating, and large gatherings still raise the risk of transmission. There’s probably more Covid-19 circulating at big events than we realize — but are we looking for it in these settings?
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iPDI6K">
The answer to that question probably varies widely.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fwab2d">
Early last summer, conferences around the world reconvening in person for the first time since 2020 <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/05/11/how-scholarly-meeting-became-superspreader-event">led</a> <a href="https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/16/rsa_covid_risk/">to</a> <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2022/06/14/the-irony-and-ignominy-of-medical-conferences-as-superspreader-events/">Covid-19</a> <a href="https://abovethelaw.com/2022/05/judicial-retreat-turns-into-superspreader-event/">outbreaks</a>. Although some of the conferences involved required proof of vaccination to attend, few deployed screening efforts during the gatherings, and many did not require masks.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="X0TUsm">
Few conference organizers bothered to trace infections among attendees, but infections were there. In a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-04469-8">commentary</a> last December in the journal <em>Nature, </em>Swiss<em> </em>scientist James Kirchner, who acquired the infection at a conference earlier in the year, wrote that his “guerrilla” tactic of sending a self-created survey to attendees identified infections in 28 percent of respondents.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QpKmUt">
Although lots of conferences might be the sites of Covid-19 outbreaks, public health conferences might be more likely to be aware of those outbreaks, and send around messaging on them, just because of who’s organizing and attending. It’s not clear how the CDC identified cases among attendees of last week’s conference, but it wouldn’t be surprising if a conference by and for disease detectives had a particularly proactive approach to case-finding — and if its attendees were more likely to self-report cases than people attending other conferences.
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There’s actually an epidemiologic term for this: detection bias, which happens when different groups collect outcome data differently. Given a CDC conference’s audience and their priorities, it’s more likely Covid-19 transmission happening there would be detected than at a conference for different types of professionals.
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In an email, Kirchner told me organizers of other conferences have told him<strong> </strong>they specifically avoid looking for Covid-19 among attendees because it’s bad for local tourism. That suggests that, broadly, people see the spread of the virus at mass gatherings as a deterrent to attending those gatherings at all.
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But it’s not clear these considerations are really changing people’s decisions to participate in large events. And furthermore, it’s not clear that they should.
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<h3 id="UQZ6Qp">
<ol start="2" type="1">
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Community outbreaks don’t lead to the same harms that they used to
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gEPiOA">
Since January 2022, public health leaders have been saying that Covid-19 transmission in the community — that is, outside of hospitals, nursing homes, prisons, and other facilities — is <a href="https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-science-health-anthony-fauci-9444d63b650b98e235ed2595b0ebe844">no longer a valuable measure</a> of pandemic harms. In that light, an outbreak at a conference just feels less dangerous than it used to.
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That’s largely because many people are now generally at very low risk from being hurt by a Covid-19 infection.
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It’s not that the virus is no longer hurting anyone at all — it is, although at much lower numbers than earlier in the pandemic. According to the CDC, nearly <a href="https://gis.cdc.gov/grasp/COVIDNet/COVID19_5.html#virusTypeDiv">600 people were hospitalized in the US due to Covid-19 infection</a> during the week ending April 22. The same week, there were <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/COVID19/index.htm">793 US deaths involving the virus</a> (the figure may change as new data trickles in).
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Those are real harms. However, they were largely concentrated in specific groups of people, either because of age or disability.
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Look at the chart below, which shows hospitalizations by age group between March 2020 and now. During the week ending April 22, across the US, 76 adults under 50 were hospitalized for Covid-19 — about one and a half per state, on average. The number was slightly higher — an average of 2 per state — for adults 50 to 64 years old.
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In contrast, 400 people 65 and over were hospitalized during the same week. (It’s not clear, though, what proportion of these seniors were living in the wider community. A <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ofid/article/9/Supplement_2/ofac492.1504/6903644?searchresult=1">quarter</a> of people over 65 hospitalized for Covid-19 through January 2022 were residents of long-term care facilities, like nursing homes.)
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<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/L0LOk6n1g8_Ldza2G7z4Cu3hwxw=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24630959/DataWrapper_050323.png"/>
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This is a different situation from, say, January 2022, when more than half of people being hospitalized for Covid-19 were under<em> </em>65.
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When it comes to this particular CDC conference, age differences in severity risk matter. The conference serves as a sort of <a href="https://www.healio.com/news/infectious-disease/20170621/like-a-kid-in-a-candy-store-eis-officers-explain-matching-process">professional speed-dating event</a> that matches incoming trainees with training positions at the agency, and graduating trainees with public health jobs — so its attendees generally skew younger.
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Hospitalizations and deaths aren’t the only outcomes that matter: Long Covid is another potential harm related to infection. Here, too, there’s some reassuring news. Recent research suggests people infected with SARS-CoV-2 now are <a href="http://go.nature.com/3h6vl67">less likely</a> to develop prolonged symptoms than those infected earlier in the pandemic, especially if they’re <a href="https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cid/ciad045/7007177?login=false">vaccinated</a> or have been <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/04/14/1169216517/youre-less-likely-to-get-long-covid-after-a-second-infection-than-a-first">previously infected</a>.
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Nearly all Americans have had the infection <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36451882/">at least once</a>, and there’s <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-01371-9">no scientific consensus</a> about how much risk there is with Covid-19 reinfection, especially in otherwise healthy adults under 65. Many of the studies showing reinfection harms have looked at relatively high-risk populations: older adults and people who had severe first-time Covid-19 infections.
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The upshot is that while Covid-19 does pose a higher risk to older, sicker people, the threat to others is actually quite low. And people who are at higher risk of harm from infection — or who have contact with someone who is — can and often do self-select to avoid large gatherings, or take precautions to prevent infection, like masking and <a href="https://www.vox.com/science/2023/4/22/23689430/vaccine-bivalent-covid-fda-cdc">getting a bivalent vaccine</a>.
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We may be past the point where it’s useful to obsess over the details of Covid-19 outbreaks among largely younger, healthier populations. But it’s still productive to prevent transmission even among low-risk people when it’s not overly burdensome to do so.
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<h3 id="nGS6KL">
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">To many, the benefits of gathering now outweigh the risks
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Large in-person gatherings <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/large-events-benefits-psychology/2021/05/12/d17f8122-b356-11eb-a980-a60af976ed44_story.html">have</a> <a href="https://spssi.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/sipr.12071">benefits</a> that online interactions lack: They provide human connection and a sense of group identity, and especially for job seekers, make it easier to assess interpersonal compatibility.
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To many people, those benefits have long outweighed the risks of infection. Three years into the pandemic, an in-person CDC conference suggests that the math now checks out for public health experts, too.
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For the foreseeable future, attending mass events is going to have Covid-19 risks — but that risk looks a lot different now than it did earlier in the pandemic. It’s impractical to expect that gatherings with others will have no infectious risk. Even public health institutions recognize that.
</p></li>
<li><strong>What the lottery sells — and who pays</strong> -
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<img alt="Lottery balls on a green surface." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/AkmeXMe_XWKG9cGOS4Pnem4csVU=/115x0:2000x1414/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72248075/GettyImages_1392731679.0.jpg"/>
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You’re not buying a lottery ticket, you’re buying a dream. | Flavio Coelho via Getty Images
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Of course you’re not going to win the lottery. And yet.
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The “what I’d do if I won the <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/3/15/18266238/lottery-explained-powerball-mega-millions">lottery</a>” game is a fun one. You get to make up a little dreamland where you are suddenly awash in unimaginable riches. Your biggest problems become figuring out where to buy your second mansion, picking out your yacht, and finally cutting off that one family member who’s a real leech. It’s a fantasy so good it might even make you buy a ticket.
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The exercise can also be a trippy one. You know you’re not going to win. Really. Except maybe there’s a small sliver of hope that you will. I mean, somebody has to win, right? The ugly underbelly here is that sneaking feeling that the lottery, however improbable, may be your only way up. What does it mean when the longest of shots is the only one people feel they’ve got?
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="m6OfJn">
The lottery is a <a href="https://www.vox.com/first-person/2018/10/24/18018720/mega-millions-lottery-power-ball-drawing">fixture in American society</a>. People in the US <a href="https://smartasset.com/taxes/the-economics-of-the-lottery">spent upward of $100 billion</a> on lottery tickets in 2021, rendering it the most popular form of gambling in the country. States promote lottery games as ways to raise revenue — that ticket bought at the gas station isn’t a giant waste of money, it’s actually a way to save the children. But just how meaningful that revenue is in broader state budgets, and whether it’s <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/state-lotteries-transfer-wealth-out-of-needy-communities/">worth the trade-offs to people losing money</a>, is debatable. I’m not saying the lottery is evil, but its costs merit scrutiny.
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America’s lottery bonanza is the subject of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dollar-Dream-Lotteries-Modern-America/dp/0197604889/ref=asc_df_0197604889/"><em>For a Dollar and a Dream: State Lotteries in Modern America</em></a>, by Jonathan D. Cohen. I recently spoke with Cohen, a historian and program director of American Institutions, Society, and the Public Good at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, about the proliferation of lotteries in the US in the late 20th century and what makes states and players tick. Our conversation, edited for length and clarity, is below.
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<strong>So what’s the “that’s how they get you” on lottery tickets? How does it get us?</strong>
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A lot of people plain old like to gamble, and it’s sort of as simple as that. There is, to some degree, this inextricable human impulse to play. But then there’s a lot more going on that lotteries are doing, the big one being that they are dangling the promise of instant riches in an age of inequality and limited social mobility. They know exactly what they’re doing with billboards on the side of the highway with the Mega Millions jackpot and the Powerball jackpot. All it has to say is the size of the prize, and they know they have folks.
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<div class="c-float-right">
<aside id="Xfd92B">
<q>“They are dangling the promise of instant riches in an age of inequality and limited social mobility”</q>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ND75Va">
There are other things they do around the edges to keep people hooked, but the big one is dangling the promise of wealth for all players of all backgrounds.
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<strong>So, the size of the prize matters more than the fact that I know deep down I’m not going to win the lottery? I guess the Powerball jackpot gets to a certain level and I think, well, might as well buy a ticket. </strong>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aCbAxV">
There’s a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1914185">classic study</a> of people’s overestimation of the odds of good things that can happen to them and an underestimation of the bad things. That’s combined with the fact that it’s really easy to tell the difference between a $4 million jackpot, a $40 million jackpot, and a $400 million jackpot, but it’s basically impossible for the brain to fathom the difference between the odds of one in 4 million and one in 40 million or one in 400 million. A one-in-4-million prize already seems so impossible and fantastical that it might as well be one in 400. The actual odds do make a huge difference, but it just doesn’t feel that way because the initial odds are already so fantastic. That couples with this meritocratic belief that we’re all going to be rich someday.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RX9YV1">
<strong>People think winning the lottery is meritocratic? Wouldn’t it be the opposite?</strong>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sM1pcb">
A lot of lottery winners will say, “Oh, I just got lucky and I hit the jackpot.” But a lot of people want it to signify something about them and in the process are willing to take the lottery, which is the quintessential vehicle of chance, and say, “Oh, it’s God. Oh, I deserved it.”
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<aside id="t75Vss">
<q>“It’s chance, of course, but we want to believe that people get their due”</q>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xUuZ1s">
There was a <a href="https://www.today.com/parents/family/geraldine-gimblet-wins-florida-lottery-daughters-cancer-rcna79007">recent news story</a> about a woman who basically bankrupted herself to pay for her daughter’s cancer treatment and then she won the lottery. There’s an implication that someone like that “deserves” to win and that her win is a reward for the way she was living. It’s chance, of course, but we want to believe that people get their due. That’s also why we have this myth of the miserable lottery winner, which is total BS.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wQizME">
<strong>Wait, what’s the miserable lottery winner myth?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Coq59c">
It’s that myth that all lottery winners end up broke and that they don’t know how to handle their money and they’re miserable and they’re all dead within five years, and it’s just not true. Lottery winners just in general are <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/9/23/20870762/money-can-buy-happiness-lottery">objectively happier</a> than the rest of us. There are a handful of outstanding cases — like five, and I know their names — of winners who lost all their money.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="A8nibX">
<strong>To shift a little bit, why is the lottery in modern-day America allowed? How did we wind up with this?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tv9iYj">
There is a historical story of circumstances in the mid-20th century that created states’ need for revenue that compelled them to enact lotteries, that’s one side of the story. And the second side is this belief that gambling is inevitable, that people are always going to play, and therefore the state might as well offer it to make money. But by offering the games, you are just creating more gamblers and enticing more people to play, you are not just capturing this inevitable gambling. You’re creating new generations of gamblers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fIONUp">
<strong>Why did states need money, and why was this the decision that this is the way for states to make money?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ic6fPL">
The immediate post-World War II period was one where states could expand their array of services without especially onerous taxes on the middle class and the working class. By the 1960s, that arrangement began to crumble to a halt because of inflation, because of the cost of the Vietnam War. Lotteries started in the Northeast, states with larger social safety nets that maybe needed extra revenue. They saw the lottery not as a nice little drop in the bucket of state government but as a revenue source that would help get rid of taxation for the rest of history because it would make so much money. It was a belief inspired by all the illegal gambling that was happening at the time. It was gambling that was happening anyway, so let it fund the government. That’s the first wave.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="v6HMIP">
Then, there were just continued budget crises at the state level going into the ’80s and ’90s, especially when it came to education funding in states like California. States have very, very few ways to raise extra revenue without taxation. The lottery, now sports betting, too, and gambling in general is one of those few ways. Once a neighboring state enacts a lottery, it’s like alright, we might as well do one, too. All of a sudden, in the span of five-plus decades, we have 45 lottery states.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NcLFVH">
<strong>Is lottery revenue really significant revenue for states?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tMyUM7">
No, it’s not. It’s very inefficiently collected — of every lottery dollar, no more than 40 percent is going to the state. It also ends up being a drop in the bucket overall for actual state governments, by some estimates, as little as 1 to 2 percent of total state revenue.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0MTm2P">
Between 1964 and 2019, lotteries raised a total of $502 billion. On its face, that sounds like a lot of money, but put in the perspective of total state revenue and income and expenditure in that period, it’s very small.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="V8vLJu">
<strong>And who plays the lottery? Are there certain groups who get caught up more?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tveFP7">
The short answer is everybody plays the lottery; 50 percent of Americans buy a lottery ticket at least once a year. But, of course, the actual distribution of playing is a lot more uneven. A lot of those players are buying one ticket when the Powerball gets big, and that’s all they’ll spend for the year.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fCV9SA">
The real moneymaker is a player base that is disproportionately lower-income, less educated, nonwhite, and male. One in eight Americans buy a lottery ticket once a week, and those groups are disproportionately represented in that group. As much as 70 to 80 percent of total national lottery sales comes from the top 20 to 30 percent of lottery players.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FJvAAK">
The very poor, the bottom quintile of the income distribution, don’t have enough discretionary money to be able to spend that much on lottery tickets. It is regressive, they do spend a larger share of their income, but it’s just not a lot of money overall. A lot of the lottery playing comes from the 21st through the 60th percentile of income distribution, who are people with a couple dollars in their pocket for discretionary spending but maybe not with opportunities for the American dream, for entrepreneurship, for innovation, to get out, to get up, other than through luck of the draw.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Q9CaDL">
<strong>So basically the dream of winning the lottery resonates. That’s why we’re buying the scratch-off ticket? What’s the appeal?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hDIWc9">
You’re scratching real close to the human nature question. Lotteries, in some form, have been around forever. There’s a uniquely American design in the way they’re constituted now, but we’re talking about something that’s sort of fundamental.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="k1De1z">
I think a lot of it has to do with a lack of alternative avenues to social mobility, a lack of upward mobility. A lot of it has to do with feeling chosen, blessed if you want to take the religious framing. You might not have been born at the mansion on the hill, but you deserve that life, so to speak, and this is the way to get it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="whl30a">
In this age of inequality, there’s a lot of acceptance of the very rich, until relatively recently, the veneration of the celebrity CEO. When society, when the economy wasn’t providing a lot of other opportunities, there was always a lottery as a last-ditch chance to get some of that wealth for people. I’m not saying if it weren’t for the lottery, we’d have class warfare. But I do think it acquiesces to an acceptance of inequality and the promise that people will be able to have a chance, however remote, to get that life for themselves, too.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hZrHNz">
<strong>So one thing you mention in the book is that lottery sales increase in times of economic decline. Why is that? Because you’d think when people don’t have money, they’d gamble less, but that’s not what goes on.</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mKlnJs">
It is what goes on with other types of games, just not with lotteries. This is the lynchpin of my contention that lotteries are unlike other types of gambling, which are primarily forms of entertainment. I’m talking about casino betting, horse betting. Lottery does offer entertainment, but more so than the others, it offers the promise of mobility, and there’s the jackpot structure of the games.
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<aside id="nXZ3BC">
<q>“With the lottery, you need $2 and you have a chance at a $1.3 billion Powerball jackpot, and no other type of gambling works that way”</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WEyu3C">
With casino games, if you want to win a lot of money, you have to have a lot of money. With sports betting, the amount you can win is dependent on how much money you have to bet. With the lottery, you need $2 and you have a chance at a $1.3 billion Powerball jackpot, and no other type of gambling works that way.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UK0KmB">
<strong>Is there a difference between, say, how scratch-off tickets suck us in versus the Mega Millions or Powerball?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vyhNhr">
Scratch-off is the bread and butter for lottery commissions. Sixty to 65 percent of total lottery sales are scratch tickets, and they are overall pretty regressive, it’s poorer players who are playing them. Lotto games — Powerball, Mega Millions — they are the least regressive lottery game because all these upper-middle-class people play them once in a while when the jackpot gets big. But overall, they’re still no more than 15 percent of total annual lottery sales nationwide. The third category, to be comprehensive, are daily numbers games, which are also very regressive and are especially popular in Black communities.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5pyLES">
<strong>So how do they trick you?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SU9AS9">
Scratch-off tickets do have this unique design fixture, they have tickets called “heart stoppers.” Say your ticket has a two and a 12 and you have to match those numbers. When you scratch the ticket, you might get a three, which is meant to give you the appearance of being only one number away, or you might get a five, which for a second will look kind of like a two. The goal there with the scratch tickets is that even if you do win small prizes, you’re going to invest it back into more tickets.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eDGYg2">
On the prize curve, there are a lot of prizes at the very, very low increments level — $2, $5, $10 — and then at the end a bunch of prizes that are $20,000, $50,000 plus. The idea is that anything less than $20 you’ll just put back into more tickets. You’re at the convenience store, and the games work instantly, so that’s by design.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YMnuNO">
Nowadays, there are all these different types of scratch tickets. Back in the day, it used to be only a $1 price point. Now, there are all these different price points and you can feel like you’re gaming the system by picking and choosing the games you like to play. And, of course, you have this illusion of control by scratching the ticket, removing the foil.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nXrsQQ">
<strong>And the number three being supposedly close to the two you needed is completely arbitrary. </strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="e6j9ha">
It’s arbitrary except for the lottery commission knows that people don’t know that it’s arbitrary, so they purposefully put it there to get people to think that they were only one number away. But it might as well be the letter Z.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="e4RZgj">
<strong>And what about the lotto games? How do they trick you?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ozAkns">
A lot of the tricking that happens on those games people just do to themselves, believing that oh, I had a 54 on my ticket and a 55 came out, I was only one number away. The ping pong balls don’t care about being one number off from one another.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gwt2Xq">
There’s not as much active deception on the part of lottery commissioners on those. They don’t exactly tell you how long the odds are, but the game designs themselves don’t entail deceptions. It’s really all happening in players’ heads. We’re really good at deluding ourselves into thinking we’re going to win a lot of money. We don’t need any help in doing that.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="J09Aq8">
<strong>How does lottery advertising work? What’s the messaging?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eeuqcx">
If you look at the ’80s and ’90s, there was an implicit promise that you’re going to win. You’re going to hit the jackpot, a life of wealth is just around the corner.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9ObpuA">
Lottery commissions have moved away from that message and they now rely on two messages primarily.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="knmTPw">
One is that playing the lottery is fun, the experience of scratching a ticket is fun. Coded in this is an idea that oh the lottery is so wacky and weird and making it into a game, which obscures the regressivity, obscures how much people play. It’s meant for people to take it lightly when of course they know they have lots of committed gamblers who do not take it lightly and who spend a large share of their incomes on tickets.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cO1nOv">
The other major message is about the specific benefit of the money they raise for states, but I’ve never seen that put in context of overall state revenue. The message lotteries are relying on is even if you lose, you should feel good because you did a civic duty to help the state, to help the children or whatever in buying a ticket.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lAgMmY">
<strong>So it’s similar to what’s going on now with sports betting, it’s supposed to be good because it raises money for the state. </strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3PT8Cu">
Yeah, and the percentage the money that states make in sports betting is even lower than it is for lotteries.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9Zjx1P">
The lottery commission itself has every incentive to tell players and voters all the good that it is doing by raising money for the state, notwithstanding the fact that voters get mad at politicians who need to raise taxes because the lottery isn’t actually raising that much money. That’s not the lottery commission’s problem, they don’t have to deal with that.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="V3Vj1n">
The lottery is very intentionally run as a business by states. State lotteries are not subject to oversight from any agency or legislature or official who does not have a direct stake in the lottery making more money.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HC0830">
The question is, is this serving the common good? The states would say yes because we’re raising money. But they are not only raising that money inefficiently but overall doing more harm than good in the ways that they have decided to raise that money.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3CA5FY">
<strong>What is the fix here? In a world where, let’s be honest here, lotteries are not going away, what would at least be better?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="U7w5Qc">
There are a couple fixes that I think would make lotteries less pernicious, less harmful, and more in line with other arms of government that are intended to serve the common good. A lot of these have precedent.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EB2oka">
You could see restrictions on the percentage of a lottery budget that can go to advertising or subject matter restrictions on the lottery advertising itself. If we think lottery advertising is a problem, then we need to do something about it. Another option would be setting a limit on the cost of scratch tickets. <a href="https://lafleurs.com/magazine-feature/magazine-secondary-feature/2022/08/11/the-hourglass-game-texass-100-instant-game/">Texas has introduced a $100 scratch-off ticket</a>, which I think is just unnecessary. Maybe we stop at $20.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QrsbXe">
Similarly, and this was very common during the 1980s, is a limit on the size of jackpots. Now, we have all these interstate games whose whole appeal is they have no cap and they just grow and grow and grow. Take Powerball, the one that you mentioned that maybe you bought tickets for — I don’t judge you, because I did, too. For a lot of people, that’s a gateway drug. It gets people in the door, it gets them dreaming, it creates this desire for wealth that they’re never going to have. If there were a cap on jackpots, they wouldn’t generate as much organic news, and it would be less likely that people would buy that first ticket that might get them in the door and keep them hooked. This was the story of a woman in the conclusion of my book, who bought a ticket on a lark with some friends during a big jackpot. Then, all of a sudden, here she is, 15 years later, spending thousands of dollars a year on lottery tickets.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="90RpeV">
<strong>You’ve talked to a lot of lottery players, people who really have been at it for years, spending $50, $100 a week. What are those conversations like? What surprises you?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="92pOEN">
These people defy the expectations that you might have going into this conversation, which is that these people are irrational, and they’ve been duped, and they don’t know that the odds are bad and that, implicitly, you’re smarter than them because you don’t buy a lottery ticket.
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<aside id="LaaLyt">
<q>“They’ve just come to this logical conclusion that, for better or worse, lotteries are their last, best, or only chance at a new life”</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OqpLPw">
These people go in clear-eyed about the odds and how the games work. Yes, lots of them have these quote-unquote systems that are totally not borne out by statistical reasoning, about lucky numbers and lucky stores and times of day to buy tickets and what types of tickets to buy. They have all sorts of irrational gambling behavior when they play. But they know that for the big games, their odds are long. They’ve just come to this logical conclusion that, for better or worse, lotteries are their last, best, or only chance at a new life.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xa3Bng">
What people do not understand is the value that people get even from losing tickets. When you buy a lottery ticket, you have a couple of minutes, a couple of hours, a couple of days to dream, to imagine the win. These lottery players, especially those who don’t see a lot of prospects for themselves in the economy, they get a lot of value for those tickets.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0YXr4z">
The hope that they provide, as irrational and mathematically impossible as they may know it to be, is what lottery playing is really all about.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5G5qzT">
<em>We live in a world that’s constantly trying to sucker us and trick us, where we’re always surrounded by scams big and small. It can feel impossible to navigate. Every two weeks, join Emily Stewart to look at all the little ways our economic systems control and manipulate the average person. Welcome to </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/the-big-squeeze"><em><strong>The Big Squeeze</strong></em></a><em>.</em>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NF25sR">
<a href="http://vox.com/big-squeeze-newsletter"><em><strong>Sign up to get this column in your inbox</strong></em></a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fEmYHz">
<em>Have ideas for a future column or thoughts on this one? Email </em><a href="mailto:emily.stewart@vox.com"><em><strong>emily.stewart@vox.com</strong></em></a>.
</p></li>
<li><strong>Mind-reading technology has arrived</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A person in a plaid shirt puts a device over the head of a person lying down about to enter an MRI machine." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/_6nt6Bv7ldLnFwuAx_j1Y4tc3ek=/222x0:3778x2667/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72248059/tang_prepping_mri_participant_full.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
PhD student Jerry Tang prepares to collect brain activity data in the Biomedical Imaging Center at the University of Texas at Austin. | Nolan Zunk/The University of Texas at Austin
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
An AI-powered “brain decoder” can now read your thoughts with surprising accuracy.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6yj3q2">
For a few years now, I’ve been writing articles on neurotechnology with downright Orwellian headlines. Headlines that warn “<a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/8/5/20750259/facebook-ai-mind-reading-brain-computer-interface">Facebook is building tech to read your mind</a>” and “<a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/8/30/20835137/facebook-zuckerberg-elon-musk-brain-mind-reading-neuroethics">Brain-reading tech is coming</a>.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UYpbnw">
Well, the technology is no longer just “coming.” It’s here.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="g7xFNf">
With the help of AI, scientists from the University of Texas at Austin have developed a technique that can translate people’s brain activity — like the unspoken thoughts swirling through our minds — into actual speech, according to <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-023-01304-9">a study published in <em>Nature</em></a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IRewkQ">
In the past, researchers have <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-10994-4">shown</a> that they can decode unspoken language by implanting electrodes in the brain and then using an algorithm that reads the brain’s activity and translates it into text on a computer screen. But that approach is very invasive, requiring surgery. It appealed only to a subset of patients, like those with paralysis, for whom the benefits were worth the costs. So researchers also developed<strong> </strong><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7154084/">techniques</a> that didn’t involve surgical implants. They were good enough to decode basic brain states, like fatigue, or very short phrases — but not much more.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rUNCVQ">
Now we’ve got a non-invasive brain-computer interface (BCI) that can decode continuous language from the brain, so somebody else can read the general gist of what we’re thinking even if we haven’t uttered a single word.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CqZbGL">
How is that possible?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1a4ZhK">
It comes down to the marriage of two technologies: fMRI scans, which measure blood flow to different areas of the brain, and large<strong> </strong>AI language models, similar to the now-infamous ChatGPT.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="00KR7W">
In the University of Texas study, three participants listened to 16 hours of storytelling podcasts like <em>The Moth</em> while scientists used an fMRI machine to track the change in blood flow in their brains. That data allowed the scientists, using an AI model, to associate a phrase with how each person’s brain looks when it hears that specific phrase.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PS9p6g">
Because the number of possible word sequences is so vast, and many of them would be gibberish, the scientists also used a language model — specifically, GPT-1 — to narrow down possible sequences to well-formed English and predict which words are likeliest to come next in a sequence.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="a6Tvly">
The result is a decoder that gets the gist right, even though it doesn’t nail every single word. For example, participants were asked to imagine telling a story while in the fMRI machine. Later, they repeated it aloud so the scientists could see how well the decoded story matched up with the original.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wz7OwN">
When the participant thought, “Look for a message from my wife saying that she had changed her mind and that she was coming back,” the decoder translated: “To see her for some reason I thought she would come to me and say she misses me.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VYrzn2">
Here’s another example. When the participant thought, “Coming down a hill at me on a skateboard and he was going really fast and he stopped just in time,” the decoder translated: “He couldn’t get to me fast enough he drove straight up into my lane and tried to ram me.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pM1tdY">
It’s not a word-for-word translation, but much of the general meaning is preserved. This represents a breakthrough that goes well beyond what previous brain-reading tech could do — and one that raises serious ethical questions.
</p>
<h3 id="tFkRgn">
The staggering ethical implications of brain-computer interfaces
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eF6Cdw">
It might be hard to believe that this is real, not something out of a <a href="https://www.vox.com/technology/2023/3/6/23627351/neal-stephenson-snow-crash-metaverse-goggles-movies-games-tv-podcast-peter-kafka-media-column">Neal Stephenson</a> or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuromancer">William Gibson</a> novel. But this kind of tech is already changing people’s lives. Over the past dozen years, a number of paralyzed patients have received brain implants that allow them to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/13/science/13brain.html">move a computer cursor</a> or <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2015/5/21/8639905/brain-control-robot-arm-paralyzed-quadriplegic">control robotic arms</a> with their thoughts.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fWas4V">
Elon Musk’s Neuralink and Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta are working on BCIs that could <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/8/5/20750259/facebook-ai-mind-reading-brain-computer-interface">pick up thoughts directly from your neurons and translate them into words</a> in real time, which could one day allow you to control your phone or computer with just your thoughts.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jGzXjn">
Non-invasive, even portable BCIs that can read thoughts are still years away from commercial availability — after all, you can’t lug around an fMRI machine, which can <a href="https://heartlandimagingcenters.com/2021/03/19/why-are-mris-so-expensive-at-hospitals/">cost as much as $3 million</a>. But the study’s decoding approach could eventually be adapted for portable systems like functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), which measures the same activity as fMRI, although with a lower resolution.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9wmHOu">
Is that a good thing? As with many cutting-edge innovations, this one stands to raise serious ethical quandaries.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="i7FQh5">
Let’s start with the obvious. Our brains are the final privacy frontier. They’re the seat of our personal identity and our most intimate thoughts. If those precious three pounds of goo in our craniums aren’t ours to control, what is?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5SsmWE">
Imagine a scenario where companies have access to people’s brain data. They could use that data to market products to us in ways our brains find practically irresistible. Since our purchasing decisions are largely driven by unconscious impressions, advertisers can’t get very helpful intel from consumer surveys or focus groups. They can get much better intel by going directly to the source: the consumer’s brain. Already, advertisers in the nascent field of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/business/14stream.html">“neuromarketing”</a> are <a href="https://www.axios.com/2019/06/04/big-tech-advertising-neuroscience-brain-scans">attempting</a> to do just that, by studying how people’s brains react as they watch commercials. If advertisers get brain data on a massive scale, you might find yourself with a powerful urge to buy certain products without being sure why.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qZrYH5">
Or imagine a scenario where governments use BCIs for surveillance, or police use them for interrogations. The principle against self-incrimination — enshrined in the US Constitution — could become meaningless in a world where the authorities are empowered to eavesdrop on your mental state without your consent. It’s a scenario reminiscent of the sci-fi movie<em> Minority Report</em>, in which a special police unit called the PreCrime Division identifies and arrests murderers before they commit their crimes.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fg5d0o">
Some neuroethicists argue that the potential for misuse of these technologies is so great that <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/8/30/20835137/facebook-zuckerberg-elon-musk-brain-mind-reading-neuroethics">we need revamped human rights laws to protect us</a> before they’re rolled out.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XpnscB">
“This research shows how rapidly generative AI is enabling even our thoughts to be read,” Nita Farahany, author of <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-battle-for-your-brain-defending-the-right-to-think-freely-in-the-age-of-neurotechnology-nita-a-farahany/18410880"><em>The Battle for Your Brain</em></a>, told me. “Before neurotechnology is used at scale in society, we need to protect humanity with a right to self-determination over our brains and mental experiences.”
</p>
<aside id="sQOiLv">
<div>
</div>
</aside>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hIcb78">
As for the study’s authors, they’re optimistic — for now. “Our privacy analysis suggests that subject cooperation is currently required both to train and to apply the decoder,” they write.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UQO1gG">
Crucially, the process only worked with cooperative participants who had participated willingly in training the decoder. And those participants could throw off the decoder if they later wanted to; when they put up resistance by naming animals or counting, the results were unusable. For people on whose brain activity the decoder had not been trained, the results were gibberish.
</p>
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“However, future developments might enable decoders to bypass these requirements,” the authors warn. “Moreover, even if decoder predictions are inaccurate without subject cooperation, they could be intentionally misinterpreted for malicious purposes.”
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This is exactly <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2023/3/17/23638325/neurotechnology-ethics-neurofeedback-brain-stimulation-nita-farahany">the sort of future that worries Farahany</a>. “We are literally at the moment before, where we could make choices to preserve our cognitive liberty — our rights to self-determination over our brains and mental experiences — or allow this technology to develop without safeguards,” she told me. “This paper makes clear that the moment is a very short one. We have a last chance to get this right for humanity.”
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<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>White Roses, Shabelle, Siege Perilous, Clifford and Fort Nelson impress</strong> -</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>Prithviraj Tondaiman misses semifinal spot in shoot off</strong> -</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>Sonal Patil sets up a title clash with Kashish Bhatia</strong> - Sports Bureau</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>Indian girls beat Vietnam, to meet New Zealand</strong> - Sports Bureau</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>Jantar Mantar scuffle | Protesting wrestlers say ‘ready to return all our medals and awards’</strong> - Congress leader Rahul Gandhi condemned the ‘manhandling’ of protesting women wrestlers as shameful</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>When Indira Gandhi held sway over the Karnataka voter</strong> - In 1978, the Congress led by Indira Gandhi, which was only formed on the eve of the Karnataka Assembly election, won a comfortable majority, with a 44.25% voteshare, beating expectations of a triangular fight</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Kerala Story row: Musician A.R. Rahman shares video of Hindu wedding on mosque premises at Kayamkulam</strong> - He shared the video of the wedding conducted three years ago and wrote “Bravo love for humanity has to be unconditional and healing”</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>Rare white cobra rescued, released into wild in Coimbatore</strong> - The five-foot-long cobra was handed over by the Trust to the Range Office of Coimbatore Forest Division.</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>Manipur violence | Government issues shoot at sight orders in ‘extreme cases’</strong> - Order issued on behalf of the Governor said ‘shoot at sight’ could be resorted to when persuasion, warning and reasonable force “have been exhausted and the situation could not be controlled”</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>Maoist Lalan Ganjhu, wanted in 145 cases in Jharkhand and Bihar, surrenders</strong> - Lalan Ganjhu, wanted Maoist in 145 cases registered in different police stations, surrenders before the police in Jharkhand’s ’Ranchi</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>Ukraine war: Zelensky visits The Hague after new strikes in Ukraine</strong> - The Ukrainian president is in western Europe amid speculation over Wednesday’s drone attack on the Kremlin.</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>Serbia school attack: Silence and teddies at scene of shooting</strong> - After a 13-year-old opens fire on his class, mourners leave tributes to the murdered children.</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 we know about drone attacks in Russia?</strong> - Russia accuses Ukraine of trying to kill President Putin in a drone attack, which Ukraine denies.</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>Turkey election: Erdogan rival Kilicdaroglu promises peace and democracy</strong> - The Turkish president’s main rival, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, vows greater freedom if he wins the election.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Credit Suisse: Asia investors sue Switzerland over bank collapse</strong> - Investors are suing the Swiss government over its handling of the takeover of Credit Suisse.</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>May the 4th is here again—so save your credits for this Star Wars merch</strong> - Some top picks for your haul of era-spanning Star Wars stuff. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1932300">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The first action-packed trailer for Dune: Part 2 is finally here</strong> - “In the shadows of Arrakis lie many secrets but the darkest of them all may remain.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1936124">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Nintendo Switch accessories deals to get you ready for Tears of the Kingdom</strong> - Save on fun accessories before you glide into Hyrule once more. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1935591">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>“We must regulate AI,” FTC Chair Khan says</strong> - Khan: FTC is “well equipped” to handle AI collusion, fraud, and privacy concerns. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1936486">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Starlink nixes plan to impose 1TB data cap and per-gigabyte overage fees</strong> - Home users won’t have to pay extra for each gigabyte thanks to policy reversal. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1936523">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What does a penis and a Rubik’s cube have in common?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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The longer you play with them, the harder they get.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/BobsterMcBobby"> /u/BobsterMcBobby </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1375ine/what_does_a_penis_and_a_rubiks_cube_have_in_common/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1375ine/what_does_a_penis_and_a_rubiks_cube_have_in_common/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Cassette tapes have side A and side B…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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… so it’s only logical their successor would be the CD.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Newez"> /u/Newez </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13779wv/cassette_tapes_have_side_a_and_side_b/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13779wv/cassette_tapes_have_side_a_and_side_b/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Chuck Norris</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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Chuck Norris told a joke about Jada Smith.
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Will Smith then smacked her.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/ww325"> /u/ww325 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1373dp1/chuck_norris/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1373dp1/chuck_norris/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>My girlfriend said it’s not bad if someone has a small penis</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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I’d still prefer her not having one at all
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Crocodile_Banger"> /u/Crocodile_Banger </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/137gqr2/my_girlfriend_said_its_not_bad_if_someone_has_a/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/137gqr2/my_girlfriend_said_its_not_bad_if_someone_has_a/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Did you hear of the guy who says he has no butthole?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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He’s full of shit.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/xFloppyDisx"> /u/xFloppyDisx </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1371wi9/did_you_hear_of_the_guy_who_says_he_has_no/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1371wi9/did_you_hear_of_the_guy_who_says_he_has_no/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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