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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>U.S. CDC support to international SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence surveys, May 2020–February 2022</strong> -
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SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence surveys provide critical information to assess the burden of COVID-19, describe population immunity, and guide public health strategies. Early in the pandemic, most of these surveys were conducted within high-income countries, leaving significant knowledge gaps in low-and middle-income (LMI) countries. To address this gap, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is supporting serosurveys internationally. We conducted a descriptive analysis of international serosurveys supported by CDC during May 12, 2020–February 28, 2022, using an internal tracker including data on the type of assistance provided, study design, population surveyed, laboratory testing performed, and status of implementation. Since the beginning of the pandemic, CDC has supported 72 serosurveys (77 serosurvey rounds) in 35 LMI countries by providing technical assistance (TA) on epidemiologic, statistical, and laboratory methods, financial assistance (FA), or both. Among these serosurvey rounds, the majority (61%) received both TA and FA from CDC, 30% received TA only, 3% received only FA, and 5% were part of informal reviews. Fifty-four percent of these serosurveys target the general population, 13% sample pregnant women, 7% sample healthcare workers, 7% sample other special populations (internally displaced persons, patients, students, and people living with HIV), and 18% assess multiple or other populations. These studies are in different stages of implementation, ranging from protocol development to dissemination of results. They are conducted under the leadership of local governments, who have ownership over the data, in collaboration with international partners. Thirty-four surveys rounds have completed data collection. CDC TA and FA of SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence surveys will enhance the knowledge of the COVID-19 pandemic in almost three dozen LMI countries. Support for these surveys should account for current limitations with interpreting results, focusing efforts on prospective cohorts, identifying, and forecasting disease patterns over time, and helping understand antibody kinetics and correlates of protection.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.01.22275786v1" target="_blank">U.S. CDC support to international SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence surveys, May 2020–February 2022</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Vaccine effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 reinfection during periods of Alpha (B.1.1.7), Delta (B.1.617.2) or Omicron (B.1.1.529) dominance: A Danish nationwide study</strong> -
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Introduction Individuals with a prior severe acute respiratory corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection have a moderate to high degree of protection against reinfection, though seemingly less so when the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 started to circulate. The aim of this study was to evaluate the vaccine effectiveness (VE) against SARS-CoV-2 reinfection, that is, in individuals with prior SARS-CoV-2 infection, during periods with different dominant SARS-CoV-2 variants. Methods A nationwide cohort study design including all individuals with a confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, who were alive and residing in Denmark between 1 January 2020 and 31 January 2022 were used. Using Danish nationwide registries, we obtained information on SARS-CoV-2 infections, Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination, age, sex, comorbidity, staying at hospital and region of affiliation. The study population included were individuals with prior SARS-CoV-2 infection. Crude and adjusted estimates of VE against SARS-CoV-2 reinfection with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using Poisson and Cox regression models, respectively. The VE estimates were calculated separately for three periods with different dominant SARS-CoV-2 variants (Alpha (B.1.1.7), Delta (B.1.617.2), or Omicron (B.1.1.529)) and by time since vaccination using unvaccinated as the reference. Findings The study population comprised of 209,814 individuals infected before or during the Alpha period, 292,978 before or during the Delta period and 245,530 before or during the Omicron period. Of these, 40,281 individuals had completed their primary vaccination series during the Alpha period (19.2%), 190,026 during the Delta period (64.9%) and 158,563 during the Omicron period (64.6%). VE against reinfection following any COVID-19 vaccine type administered in Denmark, peaked at 85% (95% CI: 37% to 97%) at 104 days or more after vaccination during the Alpha period, 88% (95% CI: 81% to 92%) 14-43 days after vaccination during the Delta period and 60% (95% CI: 58% to 62%) 14-43 days after vaccination during the Omicron period. Waning immunity was observed, and was most pronounced during the Omicron period. Interpretation This study shows that, in previously infected individuals, completing a primary vaccination series was associated with a significant protection against SARS-CoV-2 reinfection compared with no vaccination for all three variant periods. Even though vaccination seems to protect to a lesser degree against reinfection with the Omicron variant, these findings are of public health relevance as they show that previously infected individuals still benefit from COVID-19 vaccination in all three variant periods.
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.01.22275858v1" target="_blank">Vaccine effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 reinfection during periods of Alpha (B.1.1.7), Delta (B.1.617.2) or Omicron (B.1.1.529) dominance: A Danish nationwide study</a>
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<li><strong>COVID-19 is not an Independent Cause of Death</strong> -
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The COVID-19 pandemic has had overwhelming global impacts with deleterious social, economic, and health consequences. To assess the COVID-19 death toll researchers have estimated declines in 2020 life expectancy at birth. Because data are often available only for COVID-19 deaths, the risks of dying from COVID-19 are assumed to be independent of those from other causes. We explore the soundness of this assumption based on data from the US and Brazil, the countries with the largest number of reported COVID-19 deaths. We use three methods. One estimates the difference between 2019 and 2020 life tables and therefore does not require the assumption of independence. The other two assume independence to simulate scenarios in which COVID-19 mortality is added to 2019 death rates or is eliminated from 2020 rates. Our results reveal that COVID-19 is not independent of other causes of death. The assumption of independence can lead to either an overestimate (Brazil) or an underestimate (US) of the decline in e0, depending on how the number of other reported causes of death changed in 2020.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.01.22275878v1" target="_blank">COVID-19 is not an Independent Cause of Death</a>
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<li><strong>Artificial intelligence tool for the study of COVID-19 microdroplet spread across the human diameter and airborne space</strong> -
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The 2019 novel coronavirus (SARS-COV2 / COVID-19), with a point of origin in Wuhan, China, has spread rapidly all over the world. It turned into a raging pandemic wrecking havoc on health care facilities, world economy and affecting everyone’s life to date. With every new variant, rate of transmission, spread of infections and the number of cases continues to rise at an international level and scale. There are limited reliable researches that study microdroplets spread and transmissions from human sneeze or cough in the airborne space. In this paper, we propose an intelligent technique to visualize, detect, measure the distance of the spread in a real-world settings of microdroplet transmissions in airborne space, called ”COVNET45”. In this paper, we investigate the microdroplet transmission and validate the measurements accuracy compared to published researches, by examining several microscopic and visual images taken to investigate the novel coronavirus (SARS-COV2 / COVID-19). The ultimate contribution is to calculate the spread of the microdroplets measurements precisely with graphical presentation.
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.01.22275872v1" target="_blank">Artificial intelligence tool for the study of COVID-19 microdroplet spread across the human diameter and airborne space</a>
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<li><strong>Symptom variation, correlations, and relationship to physical activity in Long Covid: intensive longitudinal study</strong> -
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Background People with Long Covid (Post-Acute Sequelae of Covid-19) describe multiple symptoms which vary between and within individuals over relatively short time intervals. We aimed to describe the real-time associations between different symptoms and between symptoms and physical activity at the individual patient level. Methods and Findings Intensive longitudinal study of 82 adults with self-reported Long Covid (median duration 12-18 months). Data collection involved a smartphone app with 5 daily entries over 14 days and continuous wearing of a wrist accelerometer. Data items included 7 symptoms (Visual Analog Scales) and perceived demands in the preceding period (Likert scales). Activity was measured using mean acceleration in the 3-hour periods preceding and following app data entry. Analysis used within-person correlations of symptoms pairs and both pooled and individual symptom networks derived from graphical vector autoregression. App data was suitable for analysis from 74 participants (90%) comprising 4022 entries representing 77.6% of possible entries. Symptoms varied substantially within individuals and were only weakly auto-correlated. The strongest between-subject symptom correlations were of fatigue with pain (partial coefficient 0.5) and cognitive difficulty with light-headedness (0.41). Pooled within-subject correlations showed fatigue correlated with cognitive difficulty (partial coefficient 0.2) pain (0.19) breathlessness (0.15) and light-headedness (0.12) but not anxiety. Cognitive difficulty was correlated with anxiety and light-headedness (partial coefficients 0.16 and 0.17). Individual participant correlation heatmaps and symptom networks showed no clear patterns indicative of distinct phenotypes. Symptoms, including fatigue, were inconsistently correlated with prior or subsequent physical activity: this may reflect adjustment of activity in response to symptoms. Delayed worsening of symptoms after the highest activity peak was observed in 7 participants. Conclusion: Symptoms of Long Covid vary within individuals over short time scales, with heterogenous patterns of symptom correlation. The findings are compatible with altered central symptom processing as an additional factor in Long Covid.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.31.22275746v1" target="_blank">Symptom variation, correlations, and relationship to physical activity in Long Covid: intensive longitudinal study</a>
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<li><strong>Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 breakthrough infections in healthcare workers vaccinees with BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNtech) in Bogota, Colombia</strong> -
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The healthcare workers are considered as a high-risk group for infection with SARS-CoV-2, so they were included in the first stage of the National Plan for Vaccination against COVID-19 in Colombia. An ongoing prospective cohort study to evaluate immune response to vaccination included 490 workers from health institutions in Bogota, Colombia, vaccinated between March and June 2021 with BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNtech). Multiple samples were collected during a follow-up period of 6 months after immunization. We report cases of asymptomatic and symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections detected in this cohort. For each participant demographic data, vaccination dates, results for SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR, and detection of antibody (IgG) tests during the follow-up period were collected. SARS-CoV-2 infection was detected in 38 (7.7 %) volunteers. Of these, 81.6% had a positive RT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2, and 18.4% were confirmed by detection of IgG anti-SARS-CoV-2 nucleoprotein; 76.3% of infections occurred after 7 days of second dose. A total of 57.9% of the cases were asymptomatic. No hospitalizations or deaths were registered. When infection occurred, 81.6% of infected participants had presence of IgG anti-S antibodies. In 12 samples in which genomic characterization was achieved, 83.4% corresponded to the variant Mu, 8.3% Gamma, and 8.3% Delta. All findings agree with other reports in different studies that show the benefit of COVID-19 vaccines, protecting specially against severe disease but not against infection or re-infection.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.31.22274501v1" target="_blank">Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 breakthrough infections in healthcare workers vaccinees with BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNtech) in Bogota, Colombia</a>
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<li><strong>Antiviral immune responses, cellular metabolism and adhesion are differentially modulated by SARS-CoV-2 ORF7a or ORF7b</strong> -
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SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of the present COVID-19 pandemic, possesses eleven accessory proteins encoded in its genome, and some have been implicated in facilitating infection and pathogenesis through their interaction with cellular components. Among these proteins, accessory protein ORF7a and ORF7b functions are poorly understood. In this study, A549 cells were transduced to express ORF7a and ORF7b, respectively, to explore more in depth the role of each accessory protein in the pathological manifestation leading to COVID-19. Bioinformatic analysis and integration of transcriptome results identified defined canonical pathways and functional groupings revealing that after expression of ORF7a or ORF7b, the lung cells are potentially altered to create conditions more favorable for SARS-CoV-2, by inhibiting the IFN-I response, increasing proinflammatory cytokines release, and altering cell metabolic activity and adhesion. Based on these results, it is reasonable to suggest that ORF7a and ORF7b could be targeted by new therapies or used as future biomarkers during this pandemic.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.01.494101v1" target="_blank">Antiviral immune responses, cellular metabolism and adhesion are differentially modulated by SARS-CoV-2 ORF7a or ORF7b</a>
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<li><strong>SUMOylation of SARS-CoV-2 Nucleocapsid protein enhances its interaction affinity and plays a critical role for its nuclear translocation</strong> -
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Viruses, such as SARS-CoV-2, infect hosts and take advantages of host cellular machinery for their genome replication and new virion production. Identification and elucidation of host pathways for viral infection are critical for understanding the viral life cycle and novel therapeutics development. SARS-CoV-2 N protein is critical for viral RNA(vRNA) genome packaging in new virion formation, Here, we report that identification of SUMOylation sites of SARS-CoV-2 N protein and role of SUMO modification in N protein interaction affinity with itself using our qFRET/MS coupled method. We found, for the first time, that the SUMO modification of N protein can significantly increase its interaction affinity with itself and may support its oligomer formation. One of the identified Lys residues, K65 was critical for N protein translocation to nucleus, where the vRNA replication and packaging take place. The in vitro assessment of the affinity of N protein to N protein with SUMO mutants provides insight of the oligomerized N protein formation after SUMO modification. These results suggest that the host human SUMOylation pathway may be very critical for N protein functions in viral replication. The host SUMOylation pathway may be a critical host factor for the SARS-CoV-2 virus life cycle. Identification and inhibition of critical host SUMOylation could provide a novel strategy for future anti-viral therapeutics development, such as SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.31.494262v1" target="_blank">SUMOylation of SARS-CoV-2 Nucleocapsid protein enhances its interaction affinity and plays a critical role for its nuclear translocation</a>
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<li><strong>Malinformation – an emergent problem for medical journals and scientific communication</strong> -
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Background: Misinformation and disinformation are problems increasingly recognized in medicine. However, much less attention has been paid to their insidious relative, malinformation, the presentation of curated facts in manner that presents a false narrative and/or creates a misleading impression by leaving out important context. Unlike its better-known relatives, malinformation depends not on false information but instead employs cherry-picked facts and deliberate omissions to mislead. Medical journals are the vanguards of new research and analysis in biomedicine; yet results and commentary published in them can easily be misrepresented to produce malinformation. These distortions can be introduced by third parties interpreting the research, the authors themselves, or both. Methods: We present a case study of the article about a COVID-19 vaccine with the highest Altmetric score in history. Employing Altmetric and sentiment analysis to quantify its context, spread and interpretation, we analyzed how the presentation of the article is likely to adversely affect future public understanding of science and trust in the safety of COVID-19 vaccines. Results: Our analysis suggests the selective and leading presentation made this an especially powerful piece of malinformation, in large part because the imprimatur of a respected medical journal gave it a veneer of legitimacy. Sentiment analysis suggests it has been chiefly amplified by antivaccine activists and conspiracy theorists worldwide, with negative ramifications for vaccine acceptance. Conclusion: To maintain public trust in medical science, authors, editors, and reviewers need be aware of the potential for malinformation and decontextualized misappropriation of bona fide results.
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/g4jwr/" target="_blank">Malinformation – an emergent problem for medical journals and scientific communication</a>
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<li><strong>Anti-COVID-19 Activity of FDA Approved Drugs through RNA G-quadruplex Binding</strong> -
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The COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has caused millions of infections and deaths worldwide. Limited treatment options and the threat from emerging variants underline the need for novel and widely accessible therapeutics. G-quadruplexes (G4s) are nucleic acid secondary structures known to affect many cellular processes including viral replication and transcription. We identified heretofore not reported G4s with remarkably low mutation frequency across &gt;4 million SARS-CoV-2 genomes. The G4 structure was targeted using FDA approved drugs that can bind G4s - Chlorpromazine (CPZ) and Prochlorperazine (PCZ). We found significant inhibition in lung pathology and lung viral load of SARS-CoV-2 challenged hamsters when treated with CPZ, PCZ that was comparable to the widely used antiviral drug Remdesivir. In support, in vitro G4 binding, inhibition of reverse transcription from RNA isolated from COVID-infected humans, and attenuated viral replication and infectivity in vero cell cultures were clear in case of both CPZ/PCZ. Apart from the wide accessibility of CPZ/PCZ, targeting relatively invariant nucleic acid structures poses an attractive strategy against fast mutating viruses like SARS-CoV-2.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.31.493843v1" target="_blank">Anti-COVID-19 Activity of FDA Approved Drugs through RNA G-quadruplex Binding</a>
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<li><strong>SARS-CoV-2 Variant Spike and accessory gene mutations alter pathogenesis</strong> -
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The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is a major public health crisis. Despite the development and deployment of vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, the pandemic persists. The continued spread of the virus is largely driven by the emergence of viral variants, which can evade the current vaccines through mutations in the Spike protein. Although these differences in Spike are important in terms of transmission and vaccine responses, these variants possess mutations in the other parts of their genome which may affect pathogenesis. Of particular interest to us are the mutations present in the accessory genes, which have been shown to contribute to pathogenesis in the host through innate immune signaling, among other effects on host machinery. To examine the effects of accessory protein mutations and other non-spike mutations on SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis, we synthesized viruses where the WA1 Spike is replaced by each variant spike genes in a SARS-CoV-2/WA-1 infectious clone. We then characterized the in vitro and in vivo replication of these viruses and compared them to the full variant viruses. Our work has revealed that non-spike mutations in variants can contribute to replication of SARS-CoV-2 and pathogenesis in the host and can lead to attenuating phenotypes in circulating variants of concern. This work suggests that while Spike mutations may enhance receptor binding and entry into cells, mutations in accessory proteins may lead to less clinical disease, extended time toward knowing an infection exists in a person and thus increased time for transmission to occur.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.31.494211v1" target="_blank">SARS-CoV-2 Variant Spike and accessory gene mutations alter pathogenesis</a>
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<li><strong>Adults’ Health-Related Problem Solving Is Facilitated by Number Lines, But Not Risk Ladders and Icon Arrays</strong> -
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Visual displays, such as icon arrays and risk ladders, are often used to communicate numerical health information. Number lines improve reasoning with rational numbers but are seldom used in health contexts. College students compared rates for information related to COVID-19 (e.g., number of deaths and number of cases) in one of four randomly-assigned conditions: icon arrays, risk ladders, number lines, or no accompanying visual display. As predicted, number lines facilitated performance on these problems – the number line condition outperformed the other visual display conditions, which did not perform any better than the no visual display condition. In addition, higher performance on the health-related math problems was associated with higher COVID-19 worry for oneself and others, higher perceptions of COVID-19 severity, and higher endorsement of intentions to engage in preventive health behaviors, even when controlling for baseline math skills. These findings have important implications for effectively presenting health statistics.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/h3stw/" target="_blank">Adults’ Health-Related Problem Solving Is Facilitated by Number Lines, But Not Risk Ladders and Icon Arrays</a>
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<li><strong>Effectiveness of a Fourth Dose of COVID-19 Vaccine among Long-Term Care Residents in Ontario, Canada: Test-Negative Design Study</strong> -
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Background: As of December 30, 2021, Ontario long-term care (LTC) residents who received a third dose of COVID-19 vaccine ≥84 days previously were offered a fourth dose to prevent a surge in COVID-19-related morbidity and mortality due to the Omicron variant. Methods: We used a test-negative design and linked databases to estimate the marginal effectiveness (4 versus 3 doses) and vaccine effectiveness (VE; 2, 3, or 4 doses versus no doses) of mRNA vaccines among Ontario LTC residents aged ≥60 years who were tested for SARS-CoV-2 between December 30, 2021 and April 27, 2022. Outcome measures included any Omicron infection, symptomatic infection, and severe outcomes (hospitalization or death). Results: We included 13,654 Omicron cases and 205,862 test-negative controls. The marginal effectiveness of a fourth dose (with 95% of fourth dose vaccine recipients receiving mRNA-1273) ≥7 days after vaccination versus a third dose received ≥84 days prior was 19% (95% Confidence Interval [CI], 12-26%) against infection, 31% (95%CI, 20-41%) against symptomatic infection, and 40% (95%CI, 24-52%) against severe outcomes. VE (compared to an unvaccinated group) increased with each additional dose, and for a fourth dose was 49% (95%CI, 43-54%), 69% (95%CI, 61-76%), and 86% (95%CI, 81-90%), against infection, symptomatic infection, and severe outcomes, respectively. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that compared to a third dose received ≥84 days ago, a fourth dose improved protection against infection, symptomatic infection, and severe outcomes caused by Omicron among long-term care residents. Compared to unvaccinated individuals, fourth doses provide strong protection against severe outcomes, but the duration of protection remains unknown.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.15.22273846v2" target="_blank">Effectiveness of a Fourth Dose of COVID-19 Vaccine among Long-Term Care Residents in Ontario, Canada: Test-Negative Design Study</a>
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<li><strong>Trends, variation and clinical characteristics of recipients of antivirals and neutralising monoclonal antibodies for non-hospitalised COVID-19: a descriptive cohort study of 23.4 million people in OpenSAFELY</strong> -
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Objectives Ascertain patient eligibility status and describe coverage of antivirals and neutralising monoclonal antibodies (nMAB) as treatment for COVID-19 in community settings in England. Design Cohort study, approved by NHS England. Setting Routine clinical data from 23.4m people linked to data on COVID-19 infection and treatment, within the OpenSAFELY-TPP database. Participants Non-hospitalised COVID-19 patients at high-risk of severe outcomes. Interventions Nirmatrelvir/ritonavir (Paxlovid), sotrovimab, molnupiravir, casirivimab or remdesivir, administered in the community by COVID-19 Medicine Delivery Units. Results We identified 102,170 non-hospitalised patients with COVID-19 between 11th December 2021 and 28th April 2022 at high-risk of severe outcomes and therefore potentially eligible for antiviral and/or nMAB treatment. Of these patients, 18,210 (18%) received treatment; sotrovimab, 9,340 (51%); molnupiravir, 4,500 (25%); Paxlovid, 4,290 (24%); casirivimab, 50 (&lt;1%); and remdesivir, 20 (&lt;1%). The proportion of patients treated increased from 8% (180/2,380) in the first week of treatment availability to 22% (420/1870) in the latest week. The proportion treated varied by high risk group, lowest in those with Liver disease (12%; 95% CI 11 to 13); by treatment type, with sotrovimab favoured over molnupiravir/Paxlovid in all but three high risk groups: Down syndrome (36%; 95% CI 31 to 40), Rare neurological conditions (46%; 95% CI 44 to 48), and Primary immune deficiencies (49%; 95% CI 48 to 51); by ethnicity, from Black (10%; 95% CI 9 to 11) to White (18%; 95% CI 18 to 19); by NHS Region, from 11% (95% CI 10 to 12) in Yorkshire and the Humber to 23% (95% CI 22 to 24) in the East of England); and by deprivation level, from 12% (95% CI 12 to 13) in the most deprived areas to 21% (95% CI 21 to 22) in the least deprived areas. There was also lower coverage among unvaccinated patients (5%; 95% CI 4 to 7), those with dementia (5%; 95% CI 4 to 6) and care home residents (6%; 95% CI 5 to 6). Conclusions Using the OpenSAFELY platform we were able to identify patients who were potentially eligible to receive treatment and assess the coverage of these new treatments amongst these patients. Targeted activity may be needed to address apparent lower treatment coverage observed among certain groups, in particular (at present): different NHS regions, socioeconomically deprived areas, and care homes.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.07.22272026v2" target="_blank">Trends, variation and clinical characteristics of recipients of antivirals and neutralising monoclonal antibodies for non-hospitalised COVID-19: a descriptive cohort study of 23.4 million people in OpenSAFELY</a>
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<li><strong>Diagnostic accuracy of the Panbio™ COVID-19 Antigen rapid test device for SARS-CoV-2 detection in Kenya, 2021: A field evaluation</strong> -
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Background: Accurate and timely diagnosis is essential in limiting the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. Real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR), the reference standard, requires specialized laboratories, costly reagents, and a long turnaround time. Antigen rapid diagnostic tests (Ag RDTs) provide a feasible alternative to rRT-PCR since they are quick, relatively inexpensive, and do not require a laboratory. The WHO requires that Ag RDTs have a sensitivity ≥80% and specificity ≥97%. Methods: This evaluation was conducted at 11 health facilities in Kenya between March and July 2021. We enrolled persons of any age with respiratory symptoms and asymptomatic contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases. We collected demographic and clinical information and two nasopharyngeal specimens from each participant for Ag RDT testing and rRT-PCR. We calculated the diagnostic performance of the Panbio™ Ag RDT against the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention9s (CDC) rRT-PCR test. Results: We evaluated the Ag RDT in 2,245 individuals where 551 (24.5%, 95% CI: 22.8-26.3%) tested positive by rRT-PCR. Overall sensitivity of the Ag RDT was 46.6% (95% CI: 42.4-50.9%), specificity 98.5% (95% CI: 97.8-99.0%), PPV 90.8% (95% CI: 86.8-93.9%) and NPV 85.0% (95% CI: 83.4-86.6%). Among symptomatic individuals, sensitivity was 60.6% (95% CI: 54.3-66.7%) and specificity was 98.1% (95% CI: 96.7-99.0%). Among asymptomatic individuals, sensitivity was 34.7% (95% CI 29.3-40.4%) and specificity was 98.7% (95% CI: 97.8-99.3%). In persons with onset of symptoms &lt;5 days (594/876, 67.8%), sensitivity was 67.1% (95% CI: 59.2-74.3%), and 53.3% (95% CI: 40.0-66.3%) among those with onset of symptoms &gt;7 days (157/876, 17.9%). The highest sensitivity was 87.0% (95% CI: 80.9-91.8%) in symptomatic individuals with cycle threshold (Ct) values ≤30. Conclusion: The overall sensitivity and NPV of the Panbio™ Ag RDT were much lower than expected. The specificity of the Ag RDT was high and satisfactory; therefore, a positive result may not require confirmation by rRT-PCR. The kit may be useful as a rapid screening tool for only symptomatic patients in high-risk settings with limited access to RT-PCR. A negative result should be interpreted based on clinical and epidemiological information and may require retesting by rRT-PCR.
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.23.22275439v2" target="_blank">Diagnostic accuracy of the Panbio™ COVID-19 Antigen rapid test device for SARS-CoV-2 detection in Kenya, 2021: A field evaluation</a>
</div></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Safety and Efficacy Study of Hymecromone Tablets for the Treatment of Patients With COVID-19.</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Hymecromone tablets;   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Shanghai Zhongshan Hospital<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Study to Assess the Safety and Immunogenicity of a COVID-19 Vaccine Booster in Healthy Adults</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: Prime-2-CoV_Beta<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University Hospital Tuebingen;   FGK Clinical Research GmbH;   VisMederi srl;   Staburo GmbH;   Viedoc Technologies AB<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Eucalyptus Oil as Adjuvant Therapy for Coronavirus Disease 19 (COVID-19)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Eucalyptus Oil;   Drug: Standard COVID medication<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Hasanuddin University;   Ministry of Agriculture, Republic of Indonesia<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Study of Oral High/Low-dose Cepharanthine Compared With Placebo in Non Hospitalized Adults With COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Asymptomatic COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Cepharanthine;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine;   YUNNAN BAIYAO GROUP CO.,LTD<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Study to Learn About the Study Medicine (Called Nirmatrelvir/Ritonavir) in Pregnant Women With Mild or Moderate COVID-19.</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: nirmatrelvir;   Drug: ritonavir<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Pfizer<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Evaluation of COVID-19 Vaccines Given as a Booster in Healthy Adults in Indonesia (MIACoV Indonesia)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Pfizer-BioNTech Standard dose;   Biological: AstraZeneca Standard dose;   Biological: Pfizer-BioNTech Fractional dose;   Biological: AstraZeneca Fractional dose;   Biological: Moderna Standard dose;   Biological: Moderna Fractional dose<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Murdoch Childrens Research Institute;   Universitas Padjadjaran (UNPAD);   Universitas Indonesia (UI);   Health Development Policy Agency, Ministry of Health Republic of Indonesia;   Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations;   The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Study to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of DXP604 in Patients With Mild to Moderate COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: DXP604<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Wuhan Institute of Biological Products Co., Ltd<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Immunogenicity and Safety of a Third Dose of COVID-19 Vaccine(Vero Cell), Inactivated in the Elderly</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: COVID-19 Vaccine (Vero cell), Inactivated<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Sinovac Research and Development Co., Ltd.<br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Efficacy, Safety and Immunogenicity Study of the Recombinant Two-component COVID-19 Vaccine (CHO Cell)(Recov)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Recombinant two-component COVID-19 vaccine (CHO cell);   Biological: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Jiangsu Rec-Biotechnology Co., Ltd.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Sequential Immunization of Two Doses of Inactivated COVID-19 Vaccine (Omicron) in Vaccinated Population Aged 18 Years and Above</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: BIBP Omicron Inactivated COVID-19 vaccine (Vero Cell);   Biological: WIBP Omicron Inactivated COVID-19 vaccine (Vero Cell);   Biological: COVID-19 Vaccine (Vero Cell), Inactivated<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   China National Biotec Group Company Limited;   Beijing Institute of Biological Products Co Ltd.;   Wuhan Institute of Biological Products Co., Ltd;   The University of Hong Kong<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Immunogenicity and Safety of Booster Immunization of COVID-19 Vaccine (Vero Cell), Inactivated (Omicron Variant) in Healthy People Aged 18 Years and Above</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: COVID-19 Vaccine (Vero cell), Inactivated (Omicron variant);   Biological: COVID-19 Vaccine (Vero cell), Inactivated (CZ strain)<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Sinovac Research and Development Co., Ltd.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Phase 1b Trial to Evaluate the Safety and Immunogenicity of a SARS-CoV-2 mRNA Chimera Vaccine Against COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: RQ3013;   Biological: Comirnaty<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Walvax Biotechnology Co., Ltd.;   Shanghai RNACure Biopharma Co., Ltd.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Inhaled Interferon α2b Treatment in Mild-to-moderate COVID-19 Infected Children</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   Children<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Inhaled Interferon α2b;   Other: Standard of Care<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Children’s Hospital of Fudan University;   RenJi Hospital;   Shanghai Children’s Hospital;   Shanghai Children’s Medical Center Affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine<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>INTEGrating Ag-RDTs for COVID in MNCH,HIV and TB Services in Cameroon and Kenya:A Cluster Randomized Trial of Two Models</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Diagnostic Test: Test all<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation;   UNITAID;   Kenya Ministry of Health;   Ministry of Public Health, Cameroon<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>Paxlovid in the Treatment of COVID-19 Patients With Uremia</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   Uremia<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Paxlovid;   Drug: standard-of-care<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Ruijin Hospital<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>What Is an Antibody Test? Characteristics of Antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 and Their Tests</strong> - Antibodies play a major role in immune responses against viruses, which inhibit infection by binding to target viral antigen. Antibodies are induced by viral entry to the body and vaccination that artificially induces immune responses; therefore, antibody tests are used in research for infection history and evaluation of vaccine efficacy. Currently, antibody tests against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) by immunochromatography, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay…</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>Suite of TMPRSS2 Assays for Screening Drug Repurposing Candidates as Potential Treatments of COVID-19</strong> - SARS-CoV-2 is the causative viral pathogen driving the COVID-19 pandemic that prompted an immediate global response to the development of vaccines and antiviral therapeutics. For antiviral therapeutics, drug repurposing allows for rapid movement of the existing clinical candidates and therapies into human clinical trials to be tested as COVID-19 therapies. One effective antiviral treatment strategy used early in symptom onset is to prevent viral entry. SARS-CoV-2 enters ACE2-expressing cells…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Synthetic Heparan Sulfate Mimetic Pixatimod (PG545) Potently Inhibits SARS-CoV-2 by Disrupting the Spike-ACE2 Interaction</strong> - Heparan sulfate (HS) is a cell surface polysaccharide recently identified as a coreceptor with the ACE2 protein for the S1 spike protein on SARS-CoV-2 virus, providing a tractable new therapeutic target. Clinically used heparins demonstrate an inhibitory activity but have an anticoagulant activity and are supply-limited, necessitating alternative solutions. Here, we show that synthetic HS mimetic pixatimod (PG545), a cancer drug candidate, binds and destabilizes the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein…</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-Resolution Magic-Angle Spinning NMR Spectroscopy for Evaluation of Cell Shielding by Virucidal Composites Based on Biogenic Silver Nanoparticles, Flexible Cellulose Nanofibers and Graphene Oxide</strong> - Antiviral and non-toxic effects of silver nanoparticles onto in vitro cells infected with coronavirus were evaluated in this study using High-Resolution Magic-Angle Spinning Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (HR-MAS NMR) spectroscopy. Silver nanoparticles were designed and synthesized using an orange flavonoid-hesperetin (HST)-for reduction of silver(I) and stabilization of as obtained nanoparticles. The bio-inspired process is a simple, clean, and sustainable way to synthesize biogenic silver…</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>Unravelling the Therapeutic Potential of Botanicals Against Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD): Molecular Insights and Future Perspectives</strong> - Background: COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) is a serious health problem worldwide. Present treatments are insufficient and have severe side effects. There is a critical shortage of possible alternative treatments. Medicinal herbs are the most traditional and widely used therapy for treating a wide range of human illnesses around the world. In several countries, different plants are used to treat COPD. Purpose: In this review, we have discussed several known cellular and molecular…</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>Binding of SARS-CoV-2 protein ORF9b to mitochondrial translocase TOM70 prevents its interaction with chaperone HSP90</strong> - The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), remains a great threat to global health. ORF9b, an important accessory protein of SARS-CoV-2, plays a critical role in the viral host interaction, targeting TOM70, a member of the mitochondrial translocase of the outer membrane complex. The assembly between ORF9b and TOM70 is implicated in disrupting mitochondrial antiviral signaling, leading to immune evasion. We describe 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>High-throughput drug screening allowed identification of entry inhibitors specifically targeting different routes of SARS-CoV-2 Delta and Omicron/BA.1</strong> - The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has continuously evolved, resulting in the emergence of several variants of concern (VOCs). To study mechanisms of viral entry and potentially identify specific inhibitors, we pseudotyped lentiviral vectors with different SARS-CoV-2 VOC spike variants (D614G, Alpha, Beta, Delta, Omicron/BA.1), responsible for receptor binding and membrane fusion. These SARS-CoV-2 lentiviral pseudoviruses were applied to screen 774 FDA-approved…</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>Exploration of potential inhibitors for SARS-CoV-2 Mpro considering its mutants via structure-based drug design, molecular docking, MD simulations, MM/PBSA and DFT calculations</strong> - The main protease (Mpro) of SARS-COV-2 plays a vital role in the viral life cycle and pathogenicity. Due to its specific attributes, this 3-chymotrypsin like protease (3Cl-P) can be a reliable target for the drug design to combat COVID-19. Since the advent of COVID-19, Mpro has undergone many mutations. Here, the impact of 10 mutations based on their frequency and 5 more based on their proximity to the active site was investigated. For comparison purposes, the docking process was also performed…</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>Performance of nasopharyngeal swab and saliva in detecting Delta and Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variants</strong> - A prospective cohort study was conducted during the Delta and Omicron SARS-CoV-2 epidemic waves from paired nasopharyngeal swab (NPS) and saliva samples taken from 624 participants. The study aimed to assess if any differences among participants from both waves could be observed and if any difference in molecular diagnostic performance could be observed among the two sample types. Samples were transported immediately to the laboratory to ensure the highest possible sample quality without any…</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 therapies: do we see substantial progress?</strong> - The appearance of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) and its spread all over the world is the cause of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, which has recently resulted in almost 400 million confirmed cases and 6 million deaths, not to mention unknown long-term or persistent side effects in convalescent individuals. In this short review, we discuss approaches to treat COVID-19 that are based on current knowledge of the mechanisms of viral cell receptor…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Structural and biochemical mechanism for increased infectivity and immune evasion of Omicron BA.2 variant compared to BA.1 and their possible mouse origins</strong> - The Omicron BA.2 variant has become a dominant infective strain worldwide. Receptor binding studies show that the Omicron BA.2 spike trimer exhibits 11-fold and 2-fold higher potency in binding to human ACE2 than the spike trimer from the wildtype (WT) and Omicron BA.1 strains. The structure of the BA.2 spike trimer complexed with human ACE2 reveals that all three receptor-binding domains (RBDs) in the spike trimer are in open conformation, ready for ACE2 binding, thus providing a basis for 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>Metformin: Is it a drug for all reasons and diseases?</strong> - Metformin was first used to treat type 2 diabetes in the late 1950s and in 2022 remains the first-choice drug used daily by approximately 150 million people. An accumulation of positive pre-clinical and clinical data has stimulated interest in re-purposing metformin to treat a variety of diseases including COVID-19. In polycystic ovary syndrome metformin improves insulin sensitivity. In type 1 diabetes metformin may help reduce the insulin dose. Meta-analysis and data from pre-clinical and…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Lianhuaqingwen alleviates p53-mediated apoptosis in alveolar epithelial cells to prevent LPS-induced ALI</strong> - CONCLUSION: Lianhuaqingwen inhibits p53-mediated apoptosis in alveolar epithelial cells, thereby preventing LPS-induced ALI.</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>Investigation on anti-Corona viral potential of Yarrow tea</strong> - Achillea millefolium (Yarrow) is a herbaceous plant of Greek origin noted to treat pneumonia, common cold, cough, and other respiratory disorders. The flowers and leaves are the core part used to prepare herbal tea that gains the world’s recognition as medicinal tea. Coronavirus disease is spreading across the globe, and numerous approaches are lodged to treat virus-induced lung inflammation. Here, we used the network pharmacology, metabolite analysis, docking and molecular simulation and…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Seeking antiviral drugs to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 RNA dependent RNA polymerase: A molecular docking analysis</strong> - COVID-19 outbreak associated with the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) raised health concerns across the globe and has been considered highly transmissible between people. In attempts for finding therapeutic treatment for the new disease, this work has focused on examining the polymerase inhibitors against the SARS-CoV-2 nsp12 and co-factors nsp8 and nsp7. Several polymerase inhibitors were examined against PDB ID: 6M71 using computational analysis evaluating the…</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 Atrocity of American Gun Culture</strong> - After mass shootings like those in Uvalde and Buffalo, pro-gun officials say they don’t want to politicize tragedy. But the circumstances that allow for the mass murder of children are inherently political. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/06/06/the-atrocity-of-american-gun-culture">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Staff of Uvalde’s Local Paper Cover the Worst Day of Their Lives</strong> - The paper’s employees lost neighbors, acquaintances, and a daughter in a school shooting. Then they had to report the story. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-southwest/the-staff-of-uvaldes-local-paper-cover-the-worst-day-of-their-lives">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What the End of Roe v. Wade Will Mean for the Next Generation of Obstetricians</strong> - An aspiring ob-gyn’s views on abortion might determine what training she seeks out, which specialities she pursues, and where she chooses to live. In a post-Roe world, that self-sorting process would grow even more intense. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-education/what-the-end-of-roe-v-wade-will-mean-for-the-next-generation-of-obstetricians">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>When Cars Kill</strong> - A boy’s death launches a movement to end pedestrian and cyclist fatalities in New York City and beyond. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-local-correspondents/when-cars-kill-pedestrians">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Is Joe Manchin About to Play the Role of Democratic Spoiler Again?</strong> - Preliminary talks about a new spending bill are under way, but the senator from West Virginia is demanding it be constructed on his terms. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/is-joe-manchin-about-to-play-the-role-of-democratic-spoiler-again">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>The simple, impactful way to make cars cleaner</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="The Ford Maverick hybrid wins the North American Truck of the Year award as the 2022 North American Car, Truck, and Utility Vehicle of the Year award ceremony at Huntington Place in Detroit on January 11, 2022. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/iGoWMF3DIFJT6YkzbB3AaI5Ga8U=/444x0:4000x2667/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70934880/GettyImages_1237662344.0.jpeg"/>
<figcaption>
Hybrid-electric cars are an important way to improve fuel economy. The Ford Maverick hybrid pickup truck gets 42 miles per gallon in the city. | Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
In the age of electric vehicles, higher gas mileage is more important than ever.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CfhVE8">
The electric vehicle revolution is charging ahead: Global passenger EV sales grew by <a href="https://about.bnef.com/blog/zero-emission-vehicle-transition-council-progress-dashboard/">103 percent</a> in 2021. In the last quarter of 2021, they accounted for 13 percent of all new vehicle sales.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zVEdmB">
And many more EVs are continuing to roll out. Just last week, Ford delivered the first <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-26/ford-f-150-lightning-first-sale-goes-to-would-be-tesla-cybertruck-buyer?sref=qYiz2hd0">electric version of its F-150 truck</a>, the best-selling vehicle in the United States, to a customer in rural Michigan. Ford plans to invest $25 billion in EVs through 2025. General Motors has <a href="https://www.chevrolet.com/electric/bolt-ev">two versions of the Bolt</a> for sale, and is planning to begin delivering its <a href="https://www.gmc.com/electric/hummer-ev">Hummer EV this fall</a>. By 2025, GM will invest $27 billion in EVs and by 2035, the company says it will be all-electric.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5dGq1P">
As <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/01/energy/gas-prices-inflation/index.html">gasoline prices reach record highs</a> and the summer road trip season kicks off, getting around without gas is a more appealing prospect than ever. And this year may be an inflection point, where the number of internal combustion engines on the road <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-01/when-will-gas-cars-be-phased-out-sales-peaked-and-soon-the-fleet-will-too?sref=JMv1OWqN">reach their peak</a>. Countries like <a href="https://www.coltura.org/world-gasoline-phaseouts">Finland, Germany, and New Zealand</a> have plans to phase out gasoline vehicles entirely.
</p>
<div id="rxkLjA">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
A bit of a milestone: <br/>After 130 years or so of growth, the global fleet of cars with only an internal combustion engine will probably peak in 2022. EVs are already the auto industry’s sales growth driver. Soon they will be the fleet growth driver too. <a href="https://t.co/C2GeXoIKnZ">https://t.co/C2GeXoIKnZ</a> <a href="https://t.co/wWJ1poyBVs">pic.twitter.com/wWJ1poyBVs</a>
</p>
— Nat Bullard (<span class="citation" data-cites="NatBullard">@NatBullard</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/NatBullard/status/1531996117918949376?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 1, 2022</a>
</blockquote></div></li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zOq9rv">
But while many car companies are driving toward a future filled with electrons, it’s their conventional cars that will be most consequential for the global climate in the meantime. Transportation is the largest source of carbon dioxide emissions in the US — and cars and light trucks account for <a href="https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/fast-facts-transportation-greenhouse-gas-emissions">60 percent</a> of this share. In 2021, President Joe Biden <a href="https://www.vox.com/22397364/earth-day-us-climate-change-summit-biden-john-kerry-commitment-2030-zero-emissions">committed to cutting US emissions</a> 50 to 52 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, which would demand huge cuts in emissions from cars, vans, pickup trucks, and crossover SUVs.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cWVZAF">
However, despite their growing popularity and availability, electric vehicles still account for just <a href="https://graphics.reuters.com/AUTOS-ELECTRIC/USA/mopanyqxwva/">3 percent of new car sales</a> in the US, and the average car stays on the road for <a href="https://www.caranddriver.com/research/a32758625/how-many-miles-does-a-car-last/">more than 11 years</a>. That means, by 2035, only 13 percent of vehicles in the US may be electric.So even though EV adoption is accelerating, it will take them <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/03/10/climate/electric-vehicle-fleet-turnover.html">years to catch up</a> to gasoline and diesel cars.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FGGVxM">
Meeting climate change goals thus demands a less glamorous and more incremental approach too: Increasing efficiency. And that requires regulations, which the auto industry, oil companies, and some states have long resisted.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="u6xxbw">
“Efficiency regulations are still really important even as automakers are making pledges to electrify their fleets,” said <a href="https://www.cmu.edu/epp/people/faculty/kate-whitefoot.html">Kate Whitefoot</a>, an associate professor of engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lKNmcT">
In particular, California has been a leader in setting cutting edge targets for pollution from vehicles, pushing automakers to hit increasingly tough benchmarks. It’s a privilege the Golden State has held for decades due to a legal quirk. But earlier this month, <a href="https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2022/05/13/attorneys-general-17-republican-states-sue-epa/3931652485744/">17 state Republican attorneys general sued</a> to block the Environmental Protection Agency from upholding California’s special status. If successful, the suit could derail progress toward more efficient cars and trucks.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="78FZVS">
There are other hurdles too. Americans still love big cars. New cars are getting more expensive. The economy is unstable, and inflation and supply chain crunches are making it harder to buy new cars, including EVs. For carmakers, that’s all making it tough to plan ahead. They crave certainty, which is why some are pushing themselves harder to clean up their fleets than regulations require, with EVs and with increasing efficiency.
</p>
<h3 id="wBydff">
Why the whole country cares so much about California’s car rules
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="p8rWwc">
California historically received an <a href="https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/resources/fact-sheets/california-waiver-facts">exemption from federal rules</a> on emissions from cars and light-duty trucks under the Clean Air Act. With that privilege, Sacramento has set even more stringent regulations than Washington has for pollutants coming out of tailpipes, including nitrogen oxides, particulates, and, in 2013, carbon dioxide.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qaplYm">
A key thing to note is that vehicle emissions and fuel economy are closely related, but they aren’t the same thing. They’re also regulated by different agencies. California can set air pollution standards, but only the federal government — namely, the Department of Transportation’s <a href="https://www.nhtsa.gov/">National Highway Traffic Safety Administration</a> — can set fuel economy rules.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GLCpbf">
Additionally, <a href="https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2019-06/zev_regulation_factsheet_082418_0.pdf">since 1990</a>, the Golden State has been rolling out a mandate for <a href="https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/zero-emission-vehicle-program/about">zero-emission vehicles</a> that requires manufacturers to sell a certain number of battery-electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids, and hydrogen-powered cars. In so doing, California has become a laboratory for regulations on cars and trucks.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="View from behind of red Chevrolet Bolt electric car, with logo visible, in Danville, California, March, 2020." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/4pzT4buLYCzWDBgnFFevM52Nn9o=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23602187/GettyImages_1210574152.jpeg"/> <cite>Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Unlike the federal government, California requires manufacturers to sell zero-emissions vehicles in the state.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="obCeEZ">
“California gets to experiment,” said <a href="https://policyintegrity.org/about/bio/meredith-hankins">Meredith Hankins</a>, a senior attorney at the Institute for Policy Integrity at the New York University School of Law. “They get to kind of go first and explore how much can we reduce emissions.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZRpQCV">
When California implements a set of regulations on cars, the federal government watches and sees how feasible they are and often uses the state’s experience as the basis for new nationwide regulations. But as the most populated state and the largest auto market, California can set the de facto standard for much of the rest of the country even before the federal government can act.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cgIK6e">
The California Air Resources Board, which regulates pollution from vehicles, is now in the process of updating its <a href="https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/barcu/regact/2022/accii/isor.pdf">regulations for clean cars</a>. The agency’s proposal again aims for a higher pollution standard than the federal government. It also aims to increase the number of zero-emissions cars and trucks sold in the state. “The federal government does not have a requirement for [zero-emissions vehicle] sales, unlike California, so there is nothing to compare,” CARB Spokesperson David Clegern told Vox in an email.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RLBg4T">
Right now, <a href="https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2022-05/%C2%A7177_states_05132022_NADA_sales_r2_ac.pdf">17 other states</a> have adopted California’s benchmarks for vehicle pollution outright. Car companies, rather than redesigning their vehicles for every state, usually use the California rules as their benchmark for the whole country.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wdIYVP">
That special status didn’t sit right with some people, including former President Donald Trump. He <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/11/5/20942457/california-trump-fuel-economy-auto-industry">revoked California’s authority</a> to set its own emissions standards. Then, President Joe Biden <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/09/biden-restores-california-ability-to-set-its-own-auto-pollution-rules.html">restored the waiver</a> in March.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Vdnl99">
Republican attorneys general from those 17 other states then sued to stop the EPA from restoring California’s special status, arguing that it gives California unfair leverage over the market and raises the costs of cars. And a group of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/20-us-states-back-epa-restoring-california-emissions-rules-2022-05-19/">20 more states and the District of Columbia</a> came out in favor of keeping the status.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mu1FQq">
It’s hard to say where the litigation will go, but courts have long upheld California’s special status. “It’s a very well-established provision, and now red states are arguing that it’s unconstitutional,” Hankins said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ciLHXb">
This year, the federal government updated its own vehicle efficiency rules, known as <a href="https://www.nhtsa.gov/laws-regulations/corporate-average-fuel-economy">Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards</a>. They require the US auto industry to average 49 miles per gallon across the fleet by model year 2026, up from the current benchmark of <a href="https://apnews.com/article/climate-business-donald-trump-united-states-environment-f46e6892e95d83a41f75b9d56edadbda">28 mpg</a> enacted under Trump. According to the Transportation Department, the new rules will cut fuel consumption by more than 200 billion gallons through 2050 compared to the current standard.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W6sNf0">
“These improvements will also make our country less vulnerable to global shifts in the price of oil, and protect communities by reducing carbon emissions by 2.5 billion metric tons,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in an <a href="https://www.nhtsa.gov/press-releases/usdot-announces-new-vehicle-fuel-economy-standards-model-year-2024-2026">April statement</a>.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg speaks during an event about fuel economy standards at the headquarters of the Department of Transportation April 1, 2022 in Washington, DC. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Tj6E3Q-ddU3-F7vrJjU-4WhV77Q=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23602181/GettyImages_1239664784.jpeg"/> <cite>Drew Angerer/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced new federal fuel economy rules for cars and trucks in April this year.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LyiMfC">
For the <a href="https://www.ibisworld.com/industry-statistics/market-size/car-automobile-manufacturing-united-states/">$100 billion US auto industry</a> reeling from global supply chain disruptions, getting any standard nailed down is a relief. “Uncertainty in and of itself has a lot of impact on the industry in terms of long R&amp;D planning,” Whitefoot said. Designing a car can take years and if the goalposts keep moving, companies struggle to get cars ready for the showroom. Some car companies have challenged federal regulations and California’s waiver in the past but are now on the sidelines, hoping that the dust settles quickly.
</p>
<h3 id="IH6ORo">
Automakers know how to build cleaner, more efficient cars, but will people buy them?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vhXn2C">
It’s clear that the global auto industry thinks that electric cars and trucks are the future. Toyota, the world’s biggest carmaker, is <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/14/22833997/toyota-ev-investment-lexus-concept-vehicles">investing $17.6 billion</a> to produce a line of 30 battery electric vehicles by 2030. <a href="https://www.caranddriver.com/news/g35562831/ev-plans-automakers-timeline/">Mercedes</a> is planning to introduce 10 new EVs this year. Nissan plans to launch eight EVs by the end of 2023. Acura, Audi, BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Land Rover, Toyota, Volkswagen, and Volvo all have big EV releases scheduled between now and 2025
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="engXaW">
And, of course, there are car companies that exclusively make EVs, like <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/07/business/lucid-air-review.html">Lucid</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/24/business/polestar-volvo-electric-vehicles-evs.html?action=click&amp;module=RelatedLinks&amp;pgtype=Article">Polestar</a>, and <a href="https://rivian.com/r1t">Rivian</a>. EV manufacturer Tesla became <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/20/business/tesla-stock-elon-musk.html">the most valuable car company in the world</a>.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A ship is loaded with electric cars produced by U.S. automaker Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory at a port in east China’s Shanghai, May 11, 2022" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/8bL571bCSbqXSjrIfFYoRNhNy6s=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23602123/GettyImages_1241015588.jpeg"/> <cite>Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Cars from EV-maker Tesla, currently the most valuable car company in the world, prepare for shipment.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ovP3dr">
But car companies also have a lot of room for improvement with their gasoline and diesel offerings. Some are already using new technologies to make their fleets do more with less. “Electric hybridization represents the ultimate efficiency approach for gasoline-fueled vehicles,” according to a report last year from the <a href="https://nap.nationalacademies.org/download/26092">National Academies</a>. “The internal combustion engine can achieve higher efficiency when specifically developed to take advantage of hybrid synergies.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mmohn9">
This includes a range of systems for melding electric motors to gasoline engines, from automatically stopping and starting engines at stoplights, to acceleration assist systems, to plug-in hybrids that can run fully on electricity or gasoline. Meanwhile, the engines themselves can run at higher compression ratios, and automakers can add more gears to transmissions in order to increase fuel efficiency. Using lighter materials like aluminum and improving aerodynamics can also help cars travel further with less fuel.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zToBDw">
The problem is that Americans increasingly want more legroom, ground clearance, trunk space, and power, which in turn demands more energy to move around. That has “offset some of the fleetwide benefits that otherwise would have been achieved from the improvements within each vehicle type,” according to the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/automotive-trends">EPA’s automotive trends report</a>. Even <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/electric-vehicles-are-getting-bigger-and-heavier-why/2022/02/07/a8d55e68-87ea-11ec-838f-0cfdf69cce3c_story.html">electric vehicles are getting bigger</a>, eating into their performance advantages.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="04m7s0">
Carmakers also like making larger cars because they tend to have <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/21/business/suv-sales-best-sellers.html">higher profit margins</a>. In 2018, Ford said that, aside from the Mustang, it would <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/business/autos/ford-stop-making-all-passenger-cars-except-mustang-n869256">stop making sedans altogether</a>, instead focusing on trucks, SUVs, and crossovers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3YctPS">
Since fuel economy regulations are scaled by the size of the vehicle, it’s a further <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0301421511008779">incentive to make larger cars</a>. That’s helped create entirely new categories of vehicles like the <a href="https://advocacy.consumerreports.org/research/the-rise-of-the-crossover-the-segment-thats-really-driving-the-auto-industrys-sales">crossover</a>, a taller, heavier vehicle built on a car platform (in contrast to sport utility vehicles, which are typically built on truck platforms). <a href="https://www.repairerdrivennews.com/2021/01/06/ihs-markit-suvs-crossovers-likely-reached-50-market-share-in-2020-trucks-hit-20/">SUVs and crossovers</a> now account for half of cars sold in the US. Now, Ford’s <a href="https://www.ford.com/suvs/mach-e/">electric Mustang is an SUV</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Tc50KG">
Bigger cars are also more expensive. The average new car in the US now <a href="https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a38748092/new-car-average-sale-prices-47100/">costs more than $47,000</a>. The median income in the US is <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2021/demo/p60-273.html">$41,000</a>, and <a href="https://uspirg.org/feature/usp/driving-debt">85 percent of new car purchases</a> require loans. Automotive debt in the US now <a href="https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/blog/rising-car-prices-means-more-auto-loan-debt/">tops $1.4 trillion</a>. For most households, transportation is the second-largest expense after housing, and for much of the US, there’s no way to get around without driving. People are <a href="https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/travel_monitoring/21martvt/">driving more</a> as well.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WZOKG0">
On top of all that, big cars are more dangerous for people outside of them. Larger vehicles have contributed to a rise in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/14/us/pedestrian-deaths-pandemic.html">pedestrian fatalities</a>. These vehicles often have <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/14/21065319/suv-truck-front-blindspot-children-injury-death-wthr-13">massive blind spots</a> that are particularly dangerous for children. But for passengers and drivers, <a href="https://www.iihs.org/topics/vehicle-size-and-weight">they’re safer than smaller cars</a>.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="The 2022 Ford Mustang Mach-E GT is displayed during the Chicago Auto Show at McCormick Place in Chicago, " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/xP2HkO5OBsnsZUtg2jW79DfqzoY=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23602214/GettyImages_1238549222.jpeg"/> <cite>Joel Lerner/Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Ford turned its electric Mustang Mach-E GT in an SUV.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Va9f8g">
All of this has created a situation where it’s harder to convince people to buy new, more efficient cars or electric vehicles, and those vehicles are not as clean or safe as they could be.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zTgOpD">
Some lawmakers have called for government discounts to encourage people to swap their <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/17/22334634/schumer-electric-vehicle-swap-discount-infrastructure-interview">gas guzzlers for fuel sippers</a> alongside more incentives for EVs. The Biden administration is also investing the infrastructure to support cleaner vehicles, including <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2021/12/15/22838211/ev-charging-biden-tesla-supercharger-rivian">$7.5 billion</a> to build 500,000 EV charging stations across the country and close to $10 billion to support <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22973204/hydrogen-energy-power-toyota-mirai-climate-change">hydrogen fuels for vehicles</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xx0g3M">
But the cars themselves still have to get far cheaper to replace more existing cars in order to draw down the greenhouse gas emissions from driving. It will also require a more extensive reimagining of transportation. About 75 percent of vehicle trips in the US are <a href="https://www.energy.gov/eere/vehicles/articles/fotw-1042-august-13-2018-2017-nearly-60-all-vehicle-trips-were-less-six-miles">less than 10 miles</a>, which is a huge opportunity for alternatives to driving — cycling, scooters, car sharing, public transit.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PN1l5l">
So while electric vehicles may be the destination for the auto industry, the road ahead is filled with potholes and detours. Increasing fuel efficiency will make sure carmakers will stay on course.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6gdxMv">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rSb4l3">
</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Might I suggest not listening to famous people about money?</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Tom Brady surrounded by confetti." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/SX71dkz-jh4aOZhPzYTw8zUYTHE=/0x0:2795x2096/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70934752/1300926338.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Tom Brady is very good at football and maybe not the best authority on where to invest your money. | Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
If you are mad at Tom Brady about crypto, you should also be mad at Tom Selleck about reverse mortgages.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="34L3YL">
Amid the current <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/23071245/bitcoin-price-crypto-ethereum-nfts-defi-stablecoin">crypto</a> crash, many people are a little miffed at the celebs who have been shilling for this stuff. Gwyneth Paltrow, Tom Brady, Reese Witherspoon, and even Larry David were all happy to assist in the mainstreaming of cryptocurrencies in recent months, only to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/17/business/media/crypto-gwyneth-paltrow-matt-damon-reese-witherspoon.html">go quiet</a> now that the going has gotten a little tough. For Matt Damon, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hBC5TVdYT8">fortune favors the brave</a>” … who are apparently not brave enough to say maybe it was a bit of an oops to try to get regular people to gamble their hard-earned money on hyper-speculative assets.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="91cz8q">
If crypto were so certain to make you money, to a certain extent, why would it need this many high-profile celebrity endorsements? After all, money is the most famous celebrity there is.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hK7qVO">
Here’s the thing: famous people are endorsing and backing financial products and services all the time — products and services that fall across the spectrum of sketchiness. If you’re going to get mad at LeBron James for appearing in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lc3ltA1yFo">Crypto.com ad</a>, you probably should also be annoyed about those <a href="https://www.newretirement.com/retirement/tom-selleck-reverse-mortgages-telling-truth/">Tom Selleck reverse mortgage commercials</a>, or the spots where <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4JWdGG8MVs">William Devane talks about buying gold</a>, or the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/23/investing/spac-arod-kaepernick-celebrities/index.html">litany of A-listers</a> getting into <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22303457/spacs-explained-stock-market-ipo-draftkings">SPACs</a>. In the 1990s, Whoopi Goldberg was a <a href="https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/517911/bitcoin-rise-and-fall-flooz-e-currency">spokeswoman for Flooz</a>, that era’s cyber currency that was <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/flooz-com-collapse-linked-to-massive-credit-card-fraud/">ultimately brought down because of crime and fraud</a>.
</p>
<aside id="eu2k5Y">
<div>
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</aside>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3492ax">
This may seem a little obvious to point out — celebrities are always doing endorsements — but I do think them doing so, specifically, with regard to money is worth dwelling on. Personal finance and investing are supposed to be kind of unsexy; how you’re allocating your 401(k) isn’t particularly cool. Now, marketers and advertisers and culture writ large have managed to turn it into a <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22922511/crypto-nfts-sports-betting-money-hobby">hobby</a> and a lifestyle. Trust has declined so much in traditional financial institutions. People might figure that Bear Stearns wasn’t doing a bang-up job back in the 2000s, so why not take a chance on whatever Floyd Mayweather says is a good idea now? Companies are able to maneuver this institutional distrust, replacing cold, untrustworthy, and faceless banks with likable celebrities, whom consumers might be more open to.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RXc2Uo">
Banks left customers “high and dry” after the 2008 global financial crisis, explained Ana Andjelic, a brand executive and expert in the <a href="https://andjelicaaa.substack.com/">sociology of business</a>. “What is this trust replaced with?” she said. “With brands, with celebrities.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="S05a2Y">
Yes, famous people are often wealthy, but not because they took part in a get-rich-quick scheme or made one clever investment in some obscure product. They often have financial advisers who are helping them manage and build their wealth — and those advisers aren’t telling them to pile into dogecoin.
</p>
<h3 id="vaJ1wz">
Celebrities = $$$
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="688wdf">
Companies enlist famous people to try to sell their stuff because they know that it can work. According to one 2012 <a href="https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=40853">study</a> out of Harvard Business School, athlete endorsers lead to a 4 percent increase in sales. <a href="https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/bitstream/123456789/69296/1/The_influence_of_celebrity_endorsements_on_stock_prices.pdf">Multiple</a> <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1252119">studies</a> have found that celebrity endorsement announcements boost stock prices.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zbuAJD">
When it comes to finance specifically, the rich and famous aren’t the most influential in consumers’ lives, but they do make somewhat of a difference. A 2021 Morning Consult <a href="https://morningconsult.com/2021/09/21/kim-kardashian-crypto-celebrity/">survey</a> found that 20 percent of investors and 45 percent of crypto owners would invest in cryptocurrency if famous people endorsed it (though still behind financial advisers, family members or friends, and business reporters). Younger consumers may also be more swayed by fame — CreditCards.com <a href="https://www.creditcards.com/statistics/financial-influence-poll/">found</a> that 28 percent of Gen Zers and 24 percent of millennials said they were looking for financial advice from social media and influencers.
</p>
<div class="c-float-left">
<aside id="uMVeYM">
<q>Making a financial product mainstream renders it more comfortable for consumers</q>
</aside>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KGMBkT">
Because people are no longer plopped in front of network TV on a Friday night, captive audience to commercials, brands are relying increasingly heavily on celebrities and influencers to connect with consumers, explained Shiv Gupta, a digital marketer and principal at the consulting firm Quantum Sight. “The channels are shrinking,” he said. A celebrity can catapult your product to consumers through their existing audiences and spheres of influence. You can see how it happened with crypto. “You’ve had the nerdsphere or the geeksphere push the concept of crypto as something that has potential,” Gupta said. “The next step was Larry David and all the others who came in and started discussing crypto. It was more about saying, ‘See, it’s mainstream.’”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Z0FAvS">
Making a financial product mainstream renders it more comfortable for consumers, making them feel like it’s okay to give this a try. It may make them overlook the stakes as well, even in spaces where the stakes are high.
</p>
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“A-list celebrities endorsing brands is nothing new, we’ve seen this for decades. Selling crypto and NFTs is, obviously, a lot more complex and I’d say requires more professional responsibility than pitching for typical consumer goods,” said Anindya Ghose, a business professor at NYU. “If you’re endorsing chips and energy drinks, that’s a different thing.”
</p>
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If you bought a bag of chips because some actor said so and it turned out to be gross, whatever. But if you did a reverse mortgage, which <a href="https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-study-finds-reverse-mortgage-advertisements-can-create-false-impressions/">regulators have warned about ads for</a>, and accidentally lost your home because Tom Selleck said, that’s not so good. The focus is on young people and crypto now, but no generation is immune.
</p>
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“There are those who say, ‘Well, I like Tom Selleck, I grew up with Tom Selleck, he seems like a reputable guy. After all, he fought crime on <em>Magnum PI</em>,’” Gupta said. “It’s a generational thing, he’s kind of aging with you.”
</p>
<h3 id="PYO24q">
Probably don’t listen to celebrities about money
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wZbAd8">
If you had asked 2004 me whether I’d be listening to the guy from <em>The OC</em> or the guy from <em>Good Will Hunting </em>about what to do with my money, I’d hopefully have said neither but probably would have said the <em>Good Will Hunting</em> guy. Turns out, 2004 me would have been wrong. You actually should not listen to either of the <em>Good Will Hunting </em>guys because Ben Affleck <a href="https://www.marketingdive.com/news/wynnbet-teams-with-ben-affleck-shaq-as-online-sports-betting-heats-up/605831/">shills for sports betting</a>, which also is often <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22945877/sports-betting-promos-odds-draftkings-caesars">not ideal for the end user’s wallet</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eJlSai">
As it turns out, I maybe should have said <em>The OC</em> guy, Ben McKenzie. He has some points about listening to famous people about money and, specifically, crypto … which is that you should not. McKenzie called celebrities pumping crypto a “moral disaster” in a 2021 write-up for <a href="https://slate.com/technology/2021/10/ben-mckenzie-crypto-celebrities-kardashian-brady-lohan.html">Slate</a> alongside journalist Jacob Silverman. “These rich and famous entertainers might as well be pushing payday loans or seating their audience at a rigged blackjack table,” they wrote. (To be fair, there’s something for McKenzie to gain here, too — he and Silverman are penning a book about crypto scams right now that they are probably being paid for, and he’s fashioned himself an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/31/style/ben-mckenzie-crypto.html">anti-crypto celeb</a>.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0OXNXx">
Celebrities might not have their fans’ best financial interests at heart. Love to Reese Witherspoon, but <a href="https://twitter.com/ReeseW/status/1480953798013054976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1480953798013054976%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fridaythings.com%2Frecent-posts%2Freese-witherspoon-crypto-nfts-tweets-ethereum">her crypto tweet</a>, at least for now, feels fairly irresponsible. “At the end of the day, it’s all about the money,” Andjelic said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rywtBd">
It’s not just that celebrities are encouraging unnecessary risk. Kim Kardashian and Floyd Mayweather <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cryptocurrency-kim-kardashian-celebrity-pump-dump-lawsuit/">may have recently been part of</a> a crypto pump-and-dump scheme. The boxer is no stranger to scandal in the crypto space: In 2018, he and music producer DJ Khaled <a href="https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2018-268">settled charges</a> from the SEC for failing to disclose that they were paid to promote initial coin offerings, or ICOs, a <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/good-bad-and-ugly-side-of-icos">trend so dubious</a> you rarely hear about it anymore. Actor Steven Seagal <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-02-27/steven-seagal-s-crypto-blessing-was-bought">got in trouble</a> for something similar, too.
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<aside id="ShgVB5">
<q>Celebrities and financial brands are joining forces to sell people on a lifestyle, on an aspiration of riches that may not be realistic</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sBa7d7">
It’s easy and tempting to be dismissive of a lot of this — of course celebrities should not be a trusted source of financial information. And regulators do have some say here in protecting consumers — endorsers are <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/topics/truth-advertising/advertisement-endorsements">supposed to be honest</a> about being paid. But famous people are often <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/ca7005fb-e901-3600-9cfc-e464873fadcf">creeping into how we think about money</a> in a way that is a bit uncomfortable. If you really think about it for a beat, celebrities partnering with even traditional names in finance is a little, well, huh. Jennifer Garner seems fine but also is not rich just because she is super savvy with her Capital One card.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="leyRpF">
Celebrities and financial brands are joining forces to sell people on a lifestyle, on an aspiration of riches that may not be realistic. The famous lend their reputations to products that can be dubious. They often do so without acknowledging their own financial stakes — Tom Brady isn’t just a spokesman for crypto exchange FTX, <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/tom-brady-gisele-bundchen-take-equity-stakes-in-crypto-company-ftx-11625016542">he’s an investor</a> in the company — or while brushing over that they can take risks the average person maybe shouldn’t. And the downside risk for lending out their reputations, if a project does go bottom-up, may not be much.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cC5mVy">
“It’s not like oh Tom Brady stopped doing anything and now he’s just a crypto boy, you know?” Andjelic said. “People care for one minute.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8RpsuK">
Except, of course, the people who lost.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aMNCG2">
<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>The Big Squeeze</em></a><em>.</em>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fEmYHz">
<em>Have ideas for a future column? What’s something in the economy that’s just bugging you that you can’t quite put your finger on? Email </em><a href="mailto:emily.stewart@vox.com"><em>emily.stewart@vox.com</em></a>.
</p></li>
<li><strong>The problem with schools turning to surveillance after mass shootings</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A law enforcement officer walks toward the “welcome” sign in front of Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/RazxSUKgkK5unN26DDdSz6ZLOmQ=/385x0:3476x2318/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70934697/GettyImages_1240894949.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
In the wake of school shootings, some schools are turning to technology. | Eric Thayer/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Installing advanced security tech doesn’t appear to stop these tragedies, but it can harm students in other ways.
</p>
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After a shooter killed 21 people, including 19 children, in the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, last week, the United States is yet again confronting the devastating impact of gun violence. While lawmakers have so far <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23141651/gun-control-american-approval-polling">failed to pass meaningful reform</a>, schools are searching for ways to prevent a similar tragedy on their own campuses. Recent history, as well as government spending records, indicate that one of the most common responses from education officials is to invest in <a href="https://www.chalkbeat.org/2022/5/31/23149086/school-hardening-security-uvalde-texas-shooting">more surveillance technology</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3veVVd">
In recent years, schools have installed everything from facial recognition software to AI-based tech, including programs that purportedly <a href="https://www.fox9.com/news/ai-gun-detection-technology-could-be-a-tool-to-thwart-school-shootings">detect signs of brandished weapons</a> and online screening tools that scan students’ communications for mentions of potential violence. The startups selling this tech have claimed that these systems can help school officials <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-do-schools-spot-possible-shooters-before-tragedy-strikes-this-tech-can-help-11653602532">intervene before a crisis happens</a> or respond more quickly when one is occurring. Pro-gun politicians have also advocated for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/23/republicans-mass-shootings-school-surveillance">this kind of technology</a>, and argued that if schools implement enough monitoring, they can <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/05/28/school-safety-technology-shooting-uvalde/">prevent</a> mass shootings.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4VMyra">
The problem is that there’s very little evidence that surveillance technology effectively stops these kinds of tragedies. Experts even warn that these systems can create a culture of surveillance at schools that harms students. At many schools, networks of cameras running AI-based software would join other forms of surveillance that schools already have, like metal detectors and <a href="https://education.uconn.edu/2020/10/27/the-prevalence-and-the-price-of-police-in-schools/">on-campus police officers</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7n00JV">
“In an attempt to stop, let’s say, a shooter like what happened at Uvalde, those schools have actually extended a cost to the students that attend them,” <a href="https://education.jhu.edu/directory/odis-johnson-jr-phd/">Odis Johnson Jr</a>, the executive director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Safe and Healthy Schools, told Recode. “There are other things we now have to consider when we seek to fortify our schools, which makes them feel like prisons and the students themselves feel like suspects.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kXpiw5">
Still, schools and other venues often turn to surveillance technology in the wake of gun violence. The year following the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the local Broward County School District <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/1/25/21080749/surveillance-school-artificial-intelligence-facial-recognition">installed</a> analytic surveillance software from Avigilon, a company that offers AI-based recognition that tracks students’ appearances. After the mass shooting at Oxford High School in Michigan <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/05/26/1101550287/oxford-high-school-michigan-students-walk-out-for-uvalde">in 2021</a>, the local school district <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/oxford-high-school-selects-zeroeyes-ai-gun-detection-for-pilot-program-301553414.html">announced</a> it would trial a gun detection system sold by ZeroEyes, which is one of several startups that makes software that scours security camera feeds for images of weapons. Similarly, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said he would look into <a href="https://www.nysfocus.com/2022/05/10/evolv-weapons-detectors-subway/">weapons detection software</a> from a company called Evolv, in the aftermath of a mass shooting on the city’s subway system.
</p>
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Various government agencies have helped schools purchase this kind of technology. Education officials have requested funding from the Department of Justice’s <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/department-justice-invests-more-87-million-grants-address-school-violence">School Violence Prevention Program</a> for a variety of products, including monitoring systems that look for “warning signs of … aggressive behaviors,” according to a 2019 document Recode received through a <a href="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23602278/Copy_of_FOI_0025_Redacted.pdf">public records request</a>. And generally speaking, surveillance tech has become even more <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkbpz7/tech-companies-want-schools-to-use-covid-relief-money-on-surveillance-tools">prominent</a> at schools during the pandemic, since some districts used Covid-19 relief programs to purchase software designed to make sure students were <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/8/14/21365300/artificial-intelligence-ai-school-reopening-technology-covid-19">social distancing and wearing masks</a>.
</p>
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Even before the mass shooting in Uvalde, many schools in Texas had already installed some form of surveillance tech. In 2019, the state passed a law to “<a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2022/05/26/texas-uvalde-shooting-harden-schools/">harden</a>” schools, and within the US, Texas has the most contracts with digital surveillance companies, according to an analysis of government spending data conducted by the <a href="https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/texas-schools-are-surveilling-students-online-often-without-their-knowledge-or-consent/2734059/">Dallas Morning News</a>. The state’s investment in “security and monitoring” services has grown from $68 per student to $113 per student over the past decade, according to Chelsea Barabas, an MIT researcher studying the security systems deployed at Texas schools. Spending on social work services, however, grew from $25 per student to just $32 per student during the same time period. The gap between these two areas of spending is widest in the state’s most racially diverse school districts.
</p>
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The Uvalde school district had already acquired various forms of security tech. One of those surveillance tools is <a href="https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/texas-school-shooting-uvalde-school-district-school-safety-plan">a visitor management service</a> sold by a company called Raptor Technologies. Another is a social media monitoring tool called <a href="https://www.dallasnews.com/news/investigations/2022/05/25/uvalde-cisd-purchased-social-media-monitoring-service-years-before-shooting/">Social Sentinel</a>, which is supposed to “identify any possible threats that might be made against students and or staff within the school district,” according to <a href="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23602301/PREVENTATIVE_SECURITY_MEASURES_19_20.pdf">a document</a> from the 2019-2020 school year.
</p>
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It’s so far unclear exactly which surveillance tools may have been in use at Robb Elementary School during the mass shooting. JP Guilbault, the CEO of Social Sentinel’s parent company, Navigate360, told Recode that the tool plays “an important role as an early warning system beyond shootings.” He claimed that Social Sentinel can detect “suicidal, homicidal, bullying, and other harmful language that is public and connected to district-, school-, or staff-identified names as well as social media handles and hashtags associated with school-identified pages.”
</p>
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“We are not currently aware of any specific links connecting the gunman to the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District or Robb Elementary on any public social media sites,” Guilbault added. The Uvalde gunman did post ominous photos of two rifles on his Instagram account before the shooting, but there’s no evidence that he publicly threatened any of the schools in the district. He <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/25/us/uvalde-texas-school-shooting-salvador-ramos/index.html">privately messaged</a> a girl he did not know that he planned to shoot an elementary school.
</p>
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Even more advanced forms of surveillance tech have a tendency to miss warning signs. So-called weapon detection technology has accuracy issues and can flag all sorts of items that aren’t weapons, like <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/12/20/21028124/schools-facial-recognition-mass-shootings">walkie-talkies</a>, <a href="https://www.nysfocus.com/2022/05/10/evolv-weapons-detectors-subway/">laptops, umbrellas, and eyeglass cases</a>. If it’s designed to work with security cameras, this tech also wouldn’t necessarily pick up any weapons that are hidden or covered. As critical studies by researchers like <a href="http://gendershades.org/">Joy Buolamwini, Timnit Gebru, and Deborah Raji</a> have demonstrated, racism and sexism can be built inadvertently into facial recognition software. One firm, SN Technologies, offered a facial recognition algorithm to one New York school district that was 16 times more likely to misidentify Black women than white men, according to an <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/qjpkmx/fac-recognition-company-lied-to-school-district-about-its-racist-tech">analysis</a> conducted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. There’s evidence, too, that recognition technology may <a href="https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1559665">identify children’s faces</a> less accurately than those of adults.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VK4er4">
Even when this technology does work as advertised, it’s up to officials to be prepared to act on the information in time to stop any violence from occurring. While it’s still not clear what happened during the recent mass shooting in Uvalde — in part because local law enforcement has shared conflicting accounts <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/5/27/23143997/the-uvalde-police-keep-changing-their-story">about their response</a> — it is clear that having enough time to respond was not the issue. Students <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/27/us/texas-shooting-911-call-press-conference.html">called</a> 911 multiple times, and law enforcement waited more than an hour before confronting and killing the gunman.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uT9zX8">
Meanwhile, in the absence of violence, surveillance makes schools worse for students. Research conducted by Johnson, the Johns Hopkins professor, and <a href="https://socialpolicyinstitute.wustl.edu/people/jason-jabbari/">Jason Jabbari</a>, a research professor at Washington University in St. Louis, found that a wide range of surveillance tools, including measures like security cameras and dress codes, hurt students’ academic performance at schools that used them. That’s partly because the deployment of surveillance measures — which, again, rarely stops mass shooters — tends to increase the likelihood that school officials or law enforcement at schools will punish or suspend students.
</p>
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“Given the rarity of school shooting events, digital surveillance is more likely to be used to address minor disciplinary issues,” Barabas, the MIT researcher, explained. “Expanded use of school surveillance is likely to amplify these trends in ways that have a disproportionate impact on students of color, who are frequently disciplined for infractions that are both less serious and more discretionary than white students.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QPcD4p">
This is all a reminder that schools often don’t use this technology in the way that it’s marketed. When one school <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/1/25/21080749/surveillance-school-artificial-intelligence-facial-recognition">deployed Avigilon’s software</a>, school administrators used it to track when one girl went to the bathroom to eat lunch, supposedly because they wanted to stop bullying. An executive at one facial recognition company <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/12/20/21028124/schools-facial-recognition-mass-shootings">told Recode</a> in 2019 that its technology was sometimes used to track the faces of parents who had been barred from contacting their children by a legal ruling or court order. Some schools have even used monitoring software to track and <a href="https://www.dallasnews.com/news/investigations/2021/09/02/texas-schools-are-watching-millions-of-students-online-often-without-their-knowledge-or-consent/">surveil protesters</a>.
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These are all consequences of the fact that schools feel they must go to extreme lengths to keep students safe in a country that is <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23141964/america-gun-violence-epidemic-chart">teeming with guns</a>. Because these weapons remain a prominent part of everyday life in the US, schools try to adapt. That often means students must adapt to surveillance, including surveillance that shows limited evidence of working, and may actually hurt them.
</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Christian Pulisic critical of US support at win over Morocco</strong> - U.S. captain Christian Pulisic was critical of the level of American support from the crowd of 19,512 at TQL Stadium during a 3-0 win over Morocco in the first of four World Cup warmup matches in June</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>Stat: UEFA Champions League final averages 2.76 million viewers in US</strong> - Real Madrid’s 1-0 victory over Liverpool in the Champions League final set a record for the largest audience to view the final in the U.S. on English-language television</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>Jyothi gunning for glory at the Commonwealth Games</strong> - National record-holder has come a long way since her first victory at an inter-district meet</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>NBA Finals preview | Celtics' solid defence vs Warriors' potent offence</strong> - Ahead of Game 1 of the NBA Finals, the Jayson Tatum-led Boston Celtics have the best road record in this year's postseason (7-2) while the Stephen Curry-led Golden State Warriors are the only team yet to lose at home (9-0)</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>Coach Annese bids adieu to Gokulam</strong> - Italian led Kerala club to back-to-back I-League titles</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>Development in Telangana is nation’s proud: Harish Rao</strong> - ‘Godavari water changing the face of the Sate’</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>Andhra Pradesh: The need of the hour is to have more shelter homes, says Sandeep Pandey</strong> - The Magsaysay awardee says the government has not been doing much for the mentally ill destitute</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>Premiere of ‘Major’ to bring defence personnel, kin together</strong> - Event to be held at Koppam in Palakkad district today</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>Govt. ‘regularises’ continued occupation of bungalows in some cases, says Minister</strong> - Housing and Urban Affairs Minister says exceptions may be made for those who get ‘another job’</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>KCR hosts lunch for Nikhath and Esha Singh</strong> -</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: How long can the Western consensus hold?</strong> - As Russia makes some progress in Donbas, are cracks appearing in the Western consensus over Ukraine?</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>Ukraine war: Russia says US ‘adding fuel to fire’ by sending longer-range rockets</strong> - Moscow responds after President Biden says he will supply Kyiv with new long-range missiles.</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 wants to be called Türkiye in rebranding move</strong> - The country wants to be called Türkiye as part of a campaign launched by its president.</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>Denmark votes to drop EU defence opt-out in ‘historic’ referendum</strong> - Denmark is the latest Nordic country to reassess security policy after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.</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>Ukraine beat Scotland in emotional World Cup play-off</strong> - A heroic Ukraine rouse a performance dripping in spirit and courage to stun Scotland in an historic World Cup play-off semi-final.</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>Manipulating photons for microseconds tops 9,000 years on a supercomputer</strong> - An optical quantum computer does things we can’t computationally model. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1857707">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>NASA chooses two companies to build spacesuits for its 21st-century Moonwalkers</strong> - “We knew there was always a transition to industry in our future.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1857671">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>We may already be falling into the same trap of pandemic unpreparedness</strong> - At Ars Frontiers, virologist Angela Rasmussen laid out how to thwart the next pandemic. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1857700">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>As disruptions in China continue, Apple will start making iPads in Vietnam</strong> - Lockdowns in China have Apple taking new measures to meet potential demand. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1857569">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Same price, different niche: New Dell UltraSharp matches Studio Display at $1,600</strong> - Both monitors offer boosted image quality, built-in webcams with particular appeal to Mac owners. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1857544">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Amber Heard’s net worth is $2.5 million and she now has to pay Johnny Depp $15 million…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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Yeah, she’s forever going to be in Depp!
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Minifig81"> /u/Minifig81 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/v2z3nx/amber_heards_net_worth_is_25_million_and_she_now/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/v2z3nx/amber_heards_net_worth_is_25_million_and_she_now/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>Have you heard the joke about Oedipus and Midas?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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It’s motherfucking gold.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/One-guy-and-his-dog"> /u/One-guy-and-his-dog </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/v2v8rd/have_you_heard_the_joke_about_oedipus_and_midas/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/v2v8rd/have_you_heard_the_joke_about_oedipus_and_midas/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>Did Johnny Depp just win the defamation case or was it…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
misheard?
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/joachim_s"> /u/joachim_s </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/v2ploe/did_johnny_depp_just_win_the_defamation_case_or/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/v2ploe/did_johnny_depp_just_win_the_defamation_case_or/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>Barack Obama goes to a costume party while giving his wife a piggyback ride. Someone asks him what he’s dressed up as and he responds “I’m a snail!”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
That’s M’Shell on my back
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Mob_Rich_Fan"> /u/Mob_Rich_Fan </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/v31pz4/barack_obama_goes_to_a_costume_party_while_giving/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/v31pz4/barack_obama_goes_to_a_costume_party_while_giving/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>If Americans switched from pounds to kilograms overnight</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
There would be mass confusion
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/tobias_drundridge"> /u/tobias_drundridge </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/v2uxey/if_americans_switched_from_pounds_to_kilograms/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/v2uxey/if_americans_switched_from_pounds_to_kilograms/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
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