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

Added daily report

This commit is contained in:
Navan Chauhan 2021-11-20 12:48:10 +00:00
parent 3166739c4d
commit 39972f51b7
3 changed files with 778 additions and 2 deletions
Show Stats Download Patch File Download Diff File Expand all files Collapse all files

212
archive-covid-19/20 November, 2021.html Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,212 @@
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="" xml:lang="" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head>
<meta charset="utf-8"/>
<meta content="pandoc" name="generator"/>
<meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes" name="viewport"/>
<title>20 November, 2021</title>
<style type="text/css">
code{white-space: pre-wrap;}
span.smallcaps{font-variant: small-caps;}
span.underline{text-decoration: underline;}
div.column{display: inline-block; vertical-align: top; width: 50%;}
</style>
<title>Covid-19 Sentry</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
<body>
<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="covid-19-sentry">Covid-19 Sentry</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-preprints">From Preprints</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-pubmed">From PubMed</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-patent-search">From Patent Search</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-preprints">From Preprints</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Metformin Suppresses SARS-CoV-2 in Cell Culture</strong> -
<div>
People with diabetes are reported to have a higher risk of experiencing severe COVID-19 complications. Metformin, a first-line medication for type 2 diabetes, has antiviral properties. Some studies have indicated its prognostic potential in COVID-19. Here, we report that metformin significantly inhibits SARS-CoV-2 growth in cell culture models. SARS-CoV-2 infection of gut epithelial cell line, Caco2, resulted in higher phosphorylation of AMPK. Metformin reduced viral titers in the infected cells by nearly 99%, and by about 90% when cells were treated prior to infection. Metformin pre-treatment resulted in further phosphorylation of AMPK and caused a ten-fold reduction of viral titers indicating its potential in preventing naive infections. Confirming the positive impact of AMPK activation, another AMPK activator AICAR substantially inhibited of viral titers and, AMPK inhibitor Compound C, augmented it considerably. Metformin treatment post-SARS-CoV-2 infection resulted in nearly hundred-fold reduction of viral titers, indicating that the antiviral potency of the drug is far higher in infected cells, while still being able to reduce fresh infection. Metformin displayed SARS-CoV-2 TCID50 and TCID90 at 3.5 and 8.9 mM, respectively. In conclusion, our study demonstrates that metformin is very effective in limiting the replication of SARS-CoV-2 in cell culture and thus possibly could offer double benefits to diabetic COVID-19 patients by lowering both blood glucose levels and viral load.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.18.469078v1" target="_blank">Metformin Suppresses SARS-CoV-2 in Cell Culture</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>The unmitigated profile of COVID-19 infectiousness</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Quantifying the temporal dynamics of infectiousness of individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2 is crucial for understanding the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and for analyzing the effectiveness of different mitigation strategies. Many studies have tried to use data from the onset of symptoms of infector-infectee pairs to estimate the infectiousness profile of SARS-CoV-2. However, both statistical and epidemiological biases in the data could lead to an underestimation of the duration of infectiousness. We correct for these biases by curating data from the initial outbreak of the pandemic in China (when mitigation steps were still minimal), and find that the infectiousness profile is wider than previously thought. For example, our estimate for the proportion of transmissions occurring 14 days or more after infection is an order of magnitude higher - namely 19% (95% CI 10%-25%). The inferred generation interval distribution is sensitive to the definition of the period of unmitigated transmission, but estimates that rely on later periods are less reliable due to intervention effects. Nonetheless, the results are robust to other factors such as the model, the assumed growth rate and possible bias of the dataset. Knowing the unmitigated infectiousness profile of infected individuals affects estimates of the effectiveness of self-isolation and quarantine of contacts. The framework presented here can help design better quarantine policies in early stages of future epidemics using data from the initial stages of transmission.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.17.21266051v1" target="_blank">The unmitigated profile of COVID-19 infectiousness</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Low neutralizing antibody titers against the Mu variant of SARS-CoV-2 in BNT162b2 vaccinated individuals</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background Global surveillance programs for the virus that causes COVID-19 are showing the emergence of variants with mutations in the Spike protein, including the Mu variant, recently declared as a Variant of Interest (VOI) by the World Health Organization. Because these types of variants can be more infectious or less susceptible to antiviral treatments and vaccine-induced antibodies. Objectives To evaluate the sensitivity of the Mu variant (B.1.621) to neutralizing antibodies induced by the BNT162b2 vaccine. Study design Three of the most predominant SARS-CoV-2 variants in Colombia during the epidemiological peaks of 2021 were isolated. Microneutralization assays were performed by incubating 120 TCDI50 of each SARS-CoV-2 isolate with five 2-fold serial dilutions of sera from 14 BNT162b2 vaccinated volunteers. The MN50 titer was calculated by the Reed-Muench formula Results The three isolated variants were Mu, a Variant of Interest (VOI), Gamma, a variant of concern (VOC), and B.1.111 that lacks genetic markers associated with greater virulence. At the end of August, the Mu and Gamma variants were widely distributed in Colombia. Mu was predominant (49%), followed by Gamma (25%). In contrast, B.1.111 became almost undetectable. The evaluation of neutralizing antibodies suggests that patients vaccinated with BNT162-2 generate neutralizing antibody titers against the Mu variant at significantly lower concentrations relative to B.1.111 and Gamma. Conclusions This study shows the importance of continuing with surveillance programs of emerging variants as well as the need to evaluate the neutralizing antibody response induced by other vaccines circulating in the country against Mu and other variants with high epidemiological impact.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.19.21266552v1" target="_blank">Low neutralizing antibody titers against the Mu variant of SARS-CoV-2 in BNT162b2 vaccinated individuals</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies Using Dried Blood Spot for At-Home Collection</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The utilization of vaccines to fight the spread of SARS-CoV-2 has led to a growing need for expansive serological testing. To address this, an EUA approved immunoassay for detection of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 in venous serum samples was investigated for use with dried blood spot (DBS) samples. Results from self-collected DBS samples demonstrated a 98.1% categorical agreement to venous serum with a correlation (R) of 0.9600 while professionally collected DBS samples demonstrated a categorical agreement of 100.0% with a correlation of 0.9888 to venous serum. Additional studies were performed to stress different aspects of at-home DBS collection, including shipping stability, effects of interferences, and other sample-specific robustness studies. These studies demonstrated a categorical agreement of at least 95.0% and a mean bias less than ±20.0%. Furthermore, the ability to track antibody levels following vaccination with the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine was demonstrated with serial self-collected DBS samples from pre- dose (Day 0) out to 19 weeks.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.19.21266532v1" target="_blank">Monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies Using Dried Blood Spot for At-Home Collection</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies seroprevalence among patients submitted to treatment for tuberculosis in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: a cross-sectional study.</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Due to tuberculosis (TB) patients` pulmonary damages, some authors believe that a SARS-CoV-2 coinfection may result in unfavorable outcomes. A cross-sectional anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies seroprevalence study was conducted at a TB treatment tertiary referral unit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to estimate the proportion (in %) of TB patients exposed to the new coronavirus and their main outcomes. Of 83 patients undergoing TB treatment, 26.5% have already been infected by the new coronavirus. Most patients were asymptomatic (69%) or had mild COVID-19 cases (31%). Only one patient required hospitalization. Among the symptoms and signs presented, the most frequently reported were: fever, headache, and myalgia. People with less education and less purchasing power seemed to had been more exposed to SARS- CoV-2.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.17.21266274v1" target="_blank">Anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies seroprevalence among patients submitted to treatment for tuberculosis in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: a cross-sectional study.</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Humoral immune response after COVID-19 infection or BNT162b2 vaccine among older adults: evolution over time and protective thresholds.</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
INTRODUCTION The objectives of this study were to assess the dynamics of the SARS-CoV-2 anti-RBD IgG response over time among older people after COVID-19 infection or vaccination and its comparison with speculative levels of protection assumed by current data. METHODS From November 2020 to October 2021, we included geriatric patients with serological test results for COVID-19. We considered antibody titre thresholds thought to be high enough to protect against SARS-CoV-2 infection: 141 BAU/ml for protection/vaccine efficacy &gt; 89.3%. Three cohorts are presented. A vaccine group (n=34) that received two BNT162b2/Comirnaty injections 21 days apart, a group of natural COVID-19 infection (n=32) and a third group who contracted COVID-19 less than 15 days after the first BNT162b2/Comirnaty injection (n=17). RESULTS 83 patients were included, the median age was 87 (81-91) years. In the vaccine group at 1 month since the first vaccination, the median BAU/ml with IQR was 620 (217-1874) with 87% of patients above the threshold of 141 BAU/ml. Seven months after the first vaccination the BAU/ml was 30 (19-58) with 9.5% of patients above the threshold of 141 BAU/ml. In the natural COVID-19 infection group, at 1 month since the date of first symptom onset, the median BAU/ml was 798 (325-1320) with 86.7% of patients above the threshold of 141 BAU/ml and fell to 88 (37-385) with 42.9% of patients above the threshold of 141 BAU/ml at 2 months. The natural infection group was vaccinated three months after the infection. Five months after the end of the vaccination cycle the BAU/ml was 2048 (471-4386) with 83.3% of patients above the threshold of 141 BAU/ml. DISCUSSION On the humoral level, this supports the clinical results describing the decrease in vaccine protection over time.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.19.21266252v1" target="_blank">Humoral immune response after COVID-19 infection or BNT162b2 vaccine among older adults: evolution over time and protective thresholds.</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Mechanistic insights into global suppressors of protein folding defects</strong> -
<div>
Most amino acid substitutions in a protein either lead to partial loss of function or are near neutral. Several studies have shown the existence of second-site mutations that can rescue defects caused by diverse loss of function mutations. Such global suppressor mutations are key drivers of protein evolution. However, the mechanisms responsible for such suppression remain poorly understood. To address this, we characterized multiple suppressor mutations both in isolation and in combination with inactive mutants. We examined five global suppressors of the bacterial toxin CcdB, the known M182T global suppressor of TEM-1 {beta}-lactamase, the N239Y global suppressor of p53-DBD and three suppressors of the SARS-CoV-2 spike Receptor Binding Domain. The suppressors both alone, and in conjunction with inactive mutants, stabilise the protein both thermodynamically and kinetically in-vitro, predominantly through acceleration of the refolding rate parameters. When coupled to inactive mutants they promote increased in-vivo solubilities as well as regain-of-function phenotypes. Our study also demonstrates that the global suppressor approach can be used to consistently stabilise wild-type proteins, including for downstream translational applications.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.18.469098v1" target="_blank">Mechanistic insights into global suppressors of protein folding defects</a>
</div></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Community Seed Groups: Biological and Especially Social Investigations Can Support Crisis Response Capacity</strong> -
<div>
The food system is comprised of biophysical and social processes affecting everyone, and food system citizen and community science offer opportunities for research, especially on unstudied aspects of that system, including responses to crises and disasters. We describe how community science work on food crop seeds responded to the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic, and how this response built on the social investigations that are part of that ongoing work. To address a number of the crises of the Anthropocene, groups and individuals have been creating infrastructure supporting community-driven seed research and provision. Some organizations investigate community development of locally adapted crops, and introduction of novel materials for testing in new environments, as well as alternative social organization and processes supportive of this research and aligned with their values. Looking at examples of two active, United States–based, community seed organizations, represented by two of the co-authors, we outline the values and theoretical grounding of this work, and how responding to the acute crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic has challenged these organizations to rapidly develop seed distribution work in ways consistent with their values and missions. Meeting these immediate needs has meant temporarily pivoting from the longer-term evolutionary processes of their community science biological investigations; still, existing social investigations remained relevant and useful in their pandemic work. The effectiveness of this crisis response provides an example of explicitly values-driven research, and indicates the importance of recognizing the implicit social investigations of community science that sometimes experiment with alternative approaches to organizing society to achieve both immediate results, and longer term, prosocial change.
</div></li>
</ul>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/swv47/" target="_blank">Community Seed Groups: Biological and Especially Social Investigations Can Support Crisis Response Capacity</a>
</div>
<ul>
<li><strong>COVID-19 Stress and Sexual Identities</strong> -
<div>
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted lives and resulted in high levels of stress. While the evidence at the societal level is clear, there have been no population-based studies of pandemic-based stress focusing on individuals who identify as sexual minorities. Drawing on representative data collected during the pandemic, National Couples’ Health and Time Use Study, we find that partnered (cohabiting or married) individuals who identified as sexual minorities experienced higher levels of stress than individuals who identified as heterosexual. However, variation exists observed among sexual minority adults. Although economic resources, discrimination, social and community support and health conditions are tied to reported stress levels they do not explain differentials according to sexual identity. These results provide evidence that sexual minority adults faced greater stress during the pandemic and the importance of recognizing that sexual minorities are not a monolithic group with varying stress responses to the pandemic.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/69gjs/" target="_blank">COVID-19 Stress and Sexual Identities</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>COVID Oximetry @home: evaluation of patient outcomes</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background: COVID-19 has placed unprecedented demands on hospitals. A clinical service, COVID Oximetry @home (CO@h) was launched in November 2020 to support remote monitoring of COVID-19 patients in the community. Remote monitoring through CO@h aims to identify early patient deterioration and provide timely escalation for cases of silent hypoxia, while reducing the burden on secondary care. Methods: We conducted a retrospective service evaluation of COVID-19 patients onboarded to CO@h from November 2020 to March 2021 in the North Hampshire (UK) community led service (a collaboration of 15 GP practices covering 230,000 people). We have compared outcomes for patients admitted to Basingstoke &amp; North Hampshire Hospital who were CO@h patients (COVID-19 patients with home monitoring of SpO2 (n=115)), with non-CO@h patients (those directly admitted without being monitored by CO@h (n=633)). Crude and adjusted odds ratio analysis was performed to evaluate the effects of CO@h on patient outcomes of 30-day mortality, ICU admission and hospital length of stay greater than 3, 7, 14, and 28 days. Results: Adjusted odds ratios for CO@h show an association with a reduction for several adverse patient outcome: 30-day hospital mortality (p&lt;0.001 OR 0.21 95% CI 0.08-0.47), hospital length of stay larger than 3 days (p&lt;0.05, OR 0.62 95% CI 0.39-1.00), 7 days (p&lt;0.001 OR 0.35 95% CI 0.22-0.54), 14 days (p&lt;0.001 OR 0.22 95% CI 0.11-0.41), and 28 days (p&lt;0.05 OR 0.21 95% CI 0.05-0.59). No significant reduction ICU admission was observed (p&gt;0.05 OR 0.43 95% CI 0.15-1.04). Within 30 days of hospital admission, there were no hospital readmissions for those on the CO@h service as opposed to 8.7% readmissions for those not on the service. Conclusions: We have demonstrated a significant association between CO@h and better patient outcomes; most notably a reduction in the odds of hospital lengths of stays longer than 7, 14 and 28 days and 30-day hospital mortality.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.29.21257899v2" target="_blank">COVID Oximetry <span class="citation" data-cites="home">@home</span>: evaluation of patient outcomes</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Delivering unemployment assistance in times of crisis</strong> -
<div>
Key Insights ● The COVID-19 public health emergency caused widespread economic shutdown. The resulting surge in unemployment and Unemployment Insurance benefits claims threatened to overwhelm the legacy systems state workforce agencies rely on to collect, process, and pay claims. ● In the State of Rhode Island, we developed a scalable cloud solution to collect Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims robustly and securely. These claims are part of a new program created under the CARES Act that extended Unemployment Insurance benefits to independent contractors and gig- economy workers not covered by traditional Unemployment Insurance programs. ● Our new system was developed, tested, and deployed within ten days following the passage of the CARES Act, making Rhode Island the first state in the country to collect, validate, and pay Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims. A cloud-enhanced interactive voice response system was deployed a week later to handle the corresponding surge in weekly certifications for continuing unemployment benefits. ● Cloud solutions can augment legacy systems by offloading processes that are more efficiently handled in modern scalable systems, reserving the limited resources of legacy systems for what they were originally designed for. This agile use of combined technologies allowed Rhode Island to deliver timely Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits with an estimated cost savings of $502 thousand (representing a 411% return on investment).
</div>
<div class="article- link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/p9yk7/" target="_blank">Delivering unemployment assistance in times of crisis</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on community antibiotic prescribing and stewardship: a qualitative interview study with general practitioners in England</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on the delivery of primary care services. We aimed to identify general practitioners (GPs) perceptions and experiences of how the COVID-19 pandemic influenced antibiotic prescribing and antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) in general practice in England. Twenty-four semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 GPs at two time-points: autumn 2020 (14 interviews) and spring 2021 (10 interviews). Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed and analysed thematically, taking a longitudinal approach. Participants reported a lower threshold for antibiotic prescribing (and fewer consultations) for respiratory infections and COVID-19 symptoms early in the pandemic, then returning to more usual (pre-pandemic) prescribing. They perceived less impact on antibiotic prescribing for urinary and skin infections. Participants perceived the changing ways of working and consulting (e.g., proportions of remote and in-person consultations), and the changing patient presentations and GP workload as influencing the fluctuations in antibiotic prescribing. This was compounded by decreased engagement with, and priority of, AMS due to COVID-19-related urgent priorities. Re-engagement with AMS is needed, e.g., through reviving antibiotic prescribing feedback and targets/incentives. While the pandemic disrupted the usual ways of working, it also produced opportunities, e.g., for re-organising ways of managing infections and AMS in the future.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article- link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.19.21266529v1" target="_blank">Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on community antibiotic prescribing and stewardship: a qualitative interview study with general practitioners in England</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Nanoviricides platform technology based NV-CoV-2 polymer increases the half-life of Remdesivir in vivo</strong> -
<div>
So far, there are seven coronaviruses identified that infect humans and only 4 of them belong to the beta family of coronavirus (HCoV-HKU1, SARS-CoV-2, MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV). SARS family are known to cause severe respiratory disease in humans. In fact, SARS-CoV-2 infection caused a pandemic COVID-19 disease with high morbidity and mortality. Remdesivir (RDV) is the only antiviral drug so far approved for COVID-19 therapy by the FDA. However, the efficacy of RDV in vivo is limited due to its low stability in presence of plasma. This is the report of analysis of the non- clinical pharmacology study of NV-CoV-2 (Polymer) and NV-CoV-2-R (Polymer encapsulated Remdesivir) in both infected and uninfected rats with SARS-CoV-2. Detection and quantification of NV-CoV-2-R in plasma samples was done by MS-HPLC chromatography analyses of precipitated plasma samples from rat subjects. (i) NV-CoV-2-R show RDV peak in MS-HPLC chromatography, whereas only NV-CoV-2 does not show any RDV-Peak, as expected. (ii) NV-CoV-2 polymer encapsulation protects RDV in vivo from plasma-mediated catabolism. (iii) Body weight measurements of the normal (uninfected) rats after administration of the test materials (NV-CoV-2, and NV-CoV-2-R) show no toxic effects on them. Our platform technology based NV-387-encapsulated-RDV (NV-CoV-2-R) drug has a dual effect on coronaviruses. First, NV-CoV-2 itself as an antiviral regimen. Secondly, RDV is protected from plasma-mediated degradation in transit, rendering altogether the safest and an efficient regimen against COVID-19.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.17.468980v1" target="_blank">Nanoviricides platform technology based NV-CoV-2 polymer increases the half-life of Remdesivir in vivo</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Diagnostic accuracy of three prevailing rapid antigen tests for detection of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the general population: cross sectional study</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Objective To assess the diagnostic accuracy of three rapid antigen tests (Ag-RDTs) for detecting SARS-CoV-2 infection in the general population. Design Cross-sectional study with follow-up using pseudonymised record linkage. Setting Three Dutch public health service COVID-19 test sites. Participants Consecutively included individuals aged 16 years and older presenting for SARS-CoV-2 testing. Main outcome measures Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of BD-Veritortm System (Becton Dickinson), PanBio (Abbott), and SD-Biosensor (Roche Diagnostics), applying routinely used sampling methods (combined oropharyngeal and nasal [OP-N] or nasopharyngeal [NP] swab), with molecular testing as reference standard. For SDBiosensor, the diagnostic accuracy with OP-N sampling was also assessed. A viral load cutoff (≥5.2 log10 SARS-CoV-2 E-gene copies/mL) served as a proxy of infectiousness. Results SARS-CoV-2 prevalence and overall sensitivities with 95% confidence intervals were 188/1441 (13.0%) and 129/188 (68.6% [61.5%-75.2%]) for BD-Veritor, 173/2056 (8.4%) and 119/173 (68.8% [61.3%-75.6%]) for PanBio, and 215/1769 (12.2%) and 160/215 (74.4% [68.0%-80.1%]) for SD-Biosensor with routine sampling, and 164/1689 (9.7%) and 123/164 (75.0% [67.7%-81.4%]) for SD-Biosensor with OP-N sampling. In those symptomatic or asymptomatic at sampling, sensitivities were 72.2%-83.4% and 54.0%-55.9%, respectively. With a viral load cut-off, sensitivities were 125/146 (85.6% [78.9%-90.9%]) for BD-Veritor, 108/121 (89.3% [82.3%-94.2%]) for PanBio, 160/182 (87.9% [82.3%-92.3%]) for SD-Biosensor with routine sampling, and 118/141 (83.7% [76.5%-89.4%]) with OP-N sampling. Specificities were &gt;99%, and positive and negative predictive values &gt;95%, for all tests in most analyses. 61.3% of false negative Ag-RDT participants returned for testing within 14 days (median of 3 days, interquartile range 3) of whom 90.3% tested positive. Conclusions The overall sensitivities of the three Ag-RDTs were 68.6%-75.0%, increasing to at least 85.6% after the viral load cut-off was applied. For SD-Biosensor, the diagnostic accuracy with OP-N and NP sampling was comparable. Over 55% of false negative Ag-RDT participants tested positive during follow-up.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.19.21266579v1" target="_blank">Diagnostic accuracy of three prevailing rapid antigen tests for detection of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the general population: cross sectional study</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Effectiveness of digital contact tracing for COVID-19 in New South Wales, Australia</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background: Digital proximity tracing applications were rolled out early in the COVID-19 pandemic in many countries to complement conventional contact tracing. Empirical evidence about their benefits for pandemic response remains scarce. We evaluated the effectiveness and usefulness of 9COVIDSafe9, Australia9s national smartphone-based proximity tracing application for COVID-19. Methods: In this prospective study, conducted in New South Wales, Australia between May and November 2020, we calculated the positive predictive value and sensitivity of COVIDSafe, its additional contact yield, and the number of averted public exposure events. Semi-structured interviews with public health staff were conducted to assess the application9s usefulness. Results: There were 619 confirmed COVID-19 cases and over 25,300 close contacts during the study period. COVIDSafe was used by 137 (22%) cases and detected 79 (0.3%) close contacts. It had a positive predictive value of 39% and a sensitivity of 15%, and detected 17 (0.07%) additional close contacts that were not identified by conventional contact tracing. The application generated a substantial additional workload for public health staff and was not considered useful. Conclusions: COVIDSafe was not sufficiently effective to make a meaningful contribution to the COVID-19 response in Australia9s most populous state over a 6-month period. This contrasts optimistic projections from modelling studies about the added value of digitally supported contact tracing. We found no evidence that it adds value to conventional contact tracing, and recommend that their implementation should always include comprehensive effectiveness evaluations.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.18.21266558v1" target="_blank">Effectiveness of digital contact tracing for COVID-19 in New South Wales, Australia</a>
</div></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Study to Evaluate the Effects of RO7496998 (AT-527) in Non-Hospitalized Adult and Adolescent Participants With Mild or Moderate COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: RO7496998;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:  <br/>
Hoffmann-La Roche<br/><b>Suspended</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>Mesenchymal Stem Cell Secretome In Severe Cases of COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Injection of secretome - mesenchymal stem cell;   Other: Placebo;   Drug: Standard treatment of Covid-19<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Indonesia University<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cell Derived Extracellular Vesicles Infusion Treatment for Mild-to-Moderate COVID-19: A Phase II Clinical Trial</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: ExoFlo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Direct Biologics, LLC<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>The South Proxa-Rescue AndroCoV Trial Against COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Proxalutamide;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Corpometria Institute;   Hospital da Brigada Militar de Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre, Brazil;   Hospital Arcanjo Sao Miguel, Gramado, Brazil;   Hospital Unimed Chapeco, Chapeco, Brazil<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>Vitamin D Supplementation and Clinical Improvement in COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Dietary Supplement: Vitamin D3 10000 IU;   Dietary Supplement: Vitamin D3 1000 IU<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Bumi Herman<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>Feasibility Pilot Clinical Trial of Omega-3 Supplement vs. Placebo for Post Covid-19 Recovery Among Health Care Workers</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Omega-3 (EPA+DHA);   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Hackensack Meridian Health<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>Adding Colchicine to Tocilizumab in Patients With Severe COVID-19 Pneumonia.</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Pneumonia<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: Colchicine<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:  <br/>
Hamad Medical Corporation<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>Controlled Trial of Angiotensin Receptor Blocker (ARB) &amp; Chemokine Receptor Type 2 (CCR2) Antagonist for the Treatment of COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   SARS-CoV2 Infection<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Candesartan Cilexetil;   Drug: Repagermanium;   Drug: Candesartan Placebo;   Drug: Repagermanium Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:  <br/>
University of Sydney;   The George Institute for Global Health, India<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>Partnerships to Address COVID-19 Inequities</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Behavioral: Crowdsourced campaign package;   Behavioral: Standard information<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Duke University<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Study to Evaluate the inHaled Recombinant COVID-19 Vaccine (Adenovirus Type 5 Vector) On the Protective-Efficacy in Adults (SeiHOPE)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Recombinant COVID-19 vaccine (adenovirus type 5 vector) for Inhalation (Ad5-nCoV-IH);   Biological: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   CanSino Biologics Inc.;   Beijing Institute of Biotechnology<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>Pharmacokinetics, Pharmacodynamics, and Safety of Single-dose Sotrovimab in High-risk Pediatric Participants With Mild to Moderate COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: Sotrovimab<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:  <br/>
GlaxoSmithKline;   Vir Biotechnology, Inc.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>PREVENT-COVID-19: A Q-Griffithsin Intranasal Spray</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Prevention<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Q-Griffithsin;   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Kenneth Palmer;   United States Department of Defense<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>the Safety and Efficacy of Meplazumab in Patients With COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Meplazumab for Injection;   Drug: Sterile normal saline (0.9%)<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Jiangsu Pacific Meinuoke Bio Pharmaceutical 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>Health Information Technology for COVID-19 Testing in Schools (SCALE-UP Counts)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Behavioral: Text Messaging (TM);   Behavioral: Text Messaging + Health Navigation (TM+HN)<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of Utah;   Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Covid-19 Pandemic and Use of Video Laryngoscopy</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Pneumonia<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Device: Videolaryngoscope;   Device: Macintosh Laryngoscope<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Van Bölge Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-pubmed">From PubMed</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Discovery of Camellia sinensis catechins as SARS-CoV-2 3CL protease inhibitors through molecular docking, intra and extra cellular assays</strong> - CONCLUSION: Together, EC-C (1), etc-pyrrolidinone C and D (6), and GCG are strong 3CLpro inhibitors. Our results suggest that structural modification of catechins could be conducted by esterificating the 3-OH as well as changing the configuration of C-3, C-3’’’ or C-5’’’ to discover strong SARS-CoV-2 inhibitors.</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>Phosphatidylserine receptors enhance SARS-CoV-2 infection</strong> - Phosphatidylserine (PS) receptors enhance infection of many enveloped viruses through virion-associated PS binding that is termed apoptotic mimicry. Here we show that this broadly shared uptake mechanism is utilized by SARS-CoV-2 in cells that express low surface levels of ACE2. Expression of members of the TIM (TIM-1 and TIM-4) and TAM (AXL) families of PS receptors enhance SARS-CoV-2 binding to cells, facilitate internalization of fluorescently-labeled virions and increase ACE2-dependent…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Iota-carrageenan and xylitol inhibit SARS-CoV-2 in Vero cell culture</strong> - Last year observed a global pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2) infection affecting millions of individuals worldwide. There is an urgent unmet need to provide an easily producible and affordable medicine to prevent transmission and provide early treatment for this disease. Since the nasal cavity and the rhinopharynx are the sites of initial replication of SARS-CoV-2, a nasal spray may be an effective option to target SARS-CoV-2 infection. In this…</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>Ficus hirta Vahl. promotes antioxidant enzyme activity under ammonia stress by inhibiting miR-2765 expression in Penaeus vannamei</strong> - Ficus hirta Vahl. has been reported to have hepatoprotective, antitumor, antibacterial functions, and is used to treat severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Ammonia nitrogen is one of the most common environmental stress factors in aquaculture. Long-term exposure to high concentrations of ammonia nitrogen can induce oxidative stress and increase the risk of infections. However, whether Ficus hirta Vahl. has effect on ammonia nitrogen stress is unclear. In present study we…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SARS-CoV-2 may affect the immune response via direct inhibition of T cell receptor: Mechanistic hypothesis and rationale</strong> - During co-evolution with their hosts, many viruses have evolved a membrane fusion mechanism to facilitate host cell entry. Examples are human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronaviruses 1 and 2 (SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2). These viruses can also infect immune cells (e.g., T cells), providing one of the possible mechanisms for the T cell lymphopenia observed in patients with these infections. Previously, we hypothesized and confirmed in vivo that like…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The role of microRNAs in solving COVID-19 puzzle from infection to therapeutics: A mini-review</strong> - Nowadays, one of the major global health concerns is coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Even though numerous treatments and vaccines to combat this virus are currently under development, the detailed molecular mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of this disease are yet to be elucidated to design future therapeutic tools against SARS-CoV-2 variants. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small (20-24 nucleotides),…</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>All hands on deck: SARS-CoV-2 proteins that block early anti-viral interferon responses</strong> - Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection is responsible for the current pandemic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Like other pathogens, SARS-CoV-2 infection can elicit production of the type I interferon (IFN) cytokines by the innate immune response. A rapid and robust type I and III IFN response can curb viral replication and improve clinical outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 infection. To effectively replicate in the host, SARS-CoV-2 has evolved mechanisms for evasion of…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Antiviral and cytotoxic effects of a traditional drug <em>KanthaRasaVillai</em> with a cocktail of metallic nanoparticles</strong> - CONCLUSION: The anticancer and antiviral properties in the ancient herbomineral drug with a cocktail of metal nanoparticles acknowledge the traditional medical practice as a pioneering approach for present-day ailments. However, the study concludes that the use of KRV depends on safety dosage and genuine preparation as described by ancient saints.</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>Yindan Jiedu granules exhibit anti-inflammatory effect in patients with novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) by suppressing the NF-kappaB signaling pathway</strong> - CONCLUSION: YDJDG may shorten the COVID-19 course and delay its progression by suppressing inflammation via targeting the NF-κB pathway.</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>Absent antibody production following COVID19 vaccination with mRNA in patients under immunosuppressive treatments</strong> - Patients undergoing immunosuppressive treatments have a higher need for protection against coronavirus disease (COVID19) that follows infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus but their ability to respond sufficiently to COVID vaccines is uncertain. We retrospectively evaluated SARS-CoV-2 spike subunit 1 (S1)-specific antibody levels after two mRNA doses in 242 patients with underlying chronic inflammatory, hematooncological or metabolic diseases and in solid organ transplant recipients. S1-specific…</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 comparison between virus- versus patients-centred therapeutic attempts to reduce COVID-19 mortality</strong> - AbstractSince December 2019, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has changed our lives. Elderly, and those with comorbidities represent the vast majority of patients hospitalized with severe COVID-19 symptoms, including acute respiratory disease syndrome, and cardiac dysfunction. Despite a huge effort of the scientific community, improved treatment modalities limiting the severity and mortality of…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on hospital presentations and admissions in the context of low community transmission: evidence from time series analysis in Melbourne, Australia</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: Our analyses suggest citizens were willing and able to present with life-threatening conditions during Melbourne’s lockdowns, and that switching to telemedicine did not cause widespread spill-over from primary care into ED. During a pandemic, lockdowns may not inhibit appropriate hospital attendance where rates of infectious disease are low.</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>Bemcentinib and gilteritinib inhibit cell growth and impair the endo-lysosomal and autophagy systems in an AXL- independent manner</strong> - AXL, a receptor tyrosine kinase from the TAM (TYRO3 AXL and MER) subfamily, and its ligand growth arrest specific 6 (GAS6) are implicated in pathogenesis of a wide array of cancers, acquisition of resistance to diverse anti-cancer therapies and cellular entry of viruses. The continuous development of AXL inhibitors for treatment of cancer and COVID-19 patients underscores the need to better characterize the cellular effects of AXL targeting. In the present study, we compared the cellular…</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>25-Hydroxycholesterol Inhibits Kaposi’s Sarcoma Herpesvirus and Epstein-Barr Virus Infections and Activates Inflammatory Cytokine Responses</strong> - Oncogenic gammaherpesviruses express viral products during latent and lytic infection that block the innate immune response. Previously, we found that Kaposi’s sarcoma herpesvirus (KSHV/human herpesvirus-8) viral microRNAs (miRNAs) downregulate cholesterol biogenesis, and we hypothesized that this prevents the production of 25-hydroxycholesterol (25HC), a cholesterol derivative. 25HC blocks KSHV de novo infection of primary endothelial cells at a postentry step and decreases viral gene…</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>Prevalence of depression, anxiety, and psychological distress in patients with epilepsy during COVID-19: A systematic review</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: People with epilepsy were considered as a susceptible group to the impact of the pandemic. Therefore, great attention should be paid to PWE and adequate psychological supports provided in this period to relieve or inhibit risks to mental health in PWE.</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A DOORBELL SYSTEM FOR MONITORING AND RECORDING A PHYSIOLOGICAL DATA OF A PERSON</strong> - AbstractTitle: A doorbell system for monitoring and recording a physiological data of a person The present invention provides a doorbell system 500 for monitoring and recording a physiological data of a person. The doorbell system 500 having a transmitter module 100 and a receiving module 200. The transmitter module 100 is having a TOF sensor module 110, an ultrasound detector 120, and an infrared detector 130. Further, a speech recognition system 150, a facial recognition system 160, and a temperature detector 190 are provided for recognizing speech, face, and temperature of the person by comparing pre-stored data. A controlling module 180 is set with a predefined commands for communicating with the transmitter module 100 and receiving module 200. The collected facial and speech data is compared and matched with the pre-stored data then the temperature detector 190 triggers and the door opens when the captured body temperature of the person is matched within the predefined range of temperature.Figure 1 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=IN340503637">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A study of contemporary trends in investing patterns, household savings, and economic investment.</strong> - Because household savings and household investments are intertwined and interdependent, they are discussed briefly in this paper. Household savings account for more than half of a country’s capital formation, which fluctuates due to a variety of economic factors such as inflation and interest rates. Households should gradually shift their savings and investments from physical assets to financial assets to avoid a sudden change in wealth. They should also save and invest using a variety of platforms. Trends in investing and saving will be easier to track and measure this way. This year’s domestic saving rate in India is 2.3 percent lower than last year’s and 1.2 percent lower than the year before. Since 2011, general domestic savings have been steadily declining, with the trend continuing into the following year. According to official data, the GDP in 2020 shrank by 23.9%, the least in previous years and the least since the Covid-19 pandemic in previous years. As a result, the information presented in this paper is drawn from and evaluated from other sources - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=IN340502149">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Use of Diminazene Aceturate, Xanthenone, ACE 2 activators or analogs for the Treatment and therapeutic use of COVID-19 on human patients.</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU340325322">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>ACTIVE RIDER SAFETY SYSTEM FOR TWO WHEELERS</strong> - The present invention relates to an active rider safety system for two wheelers comprising, a protective case equipped by a user for riding, where the case is integrated with multiple piezoelectric sensor that determines fastening of the case by user, a processing unit linked to the sensor, where the unit detects absence of case upon fetching data from the sensor below a threshold value and thereby terminates operation of ignition by stopping a coupled motor operated via a radio frequency module, an alcohol detection sensor that detects presence of alcohol and send data to processing unit, a temperature sensor that measures temperature of the user, an accelerometer sensor that activates upon ignition us tuned on to determine presence of a crash and a navigation module that via communication module sends location of user to pre saved users and concerned authorities. - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=IN340503361">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and uses thereof I</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU339290405">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and uses thereof II</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU339290406">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Secured Health monitoring system using cloud computing</strong> - As used in public health surveillance, the invention generally relates to remote health monitoring systems with cloud computing. This is particularly relevant about a multi-user remote health monitoring system that can detect and gather data from healthcare professionals on the ground and systems in laboratories and hospitals to help the public health sector. It is possible to utilize the system for tracking, monitoring, and collecting patient data and for querying and collecting more information on the health of the people. - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=IN340500672">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Bst DNA聚合酶重组突变体、其编码DNA及超快磁珠LAMP检测方法</strong> - 本发明在野生型Bst DNA聚合酶序列上进行了Ser358Asp、Thr480Asn、Asp533Glu、Ala539Gly几个点位的突变，然后将进行点突变后的Bst DNA聚合酶的292‑305的氨基酸EGLLKVVRPDTKKV替换成DPLPDLIHPRTLRL，在突变后Bst DNA聚合酶序列的C端融合了一个DNA结合蛋白，在突变后Bst DNA聚合酶序列的N端融合了一个HP47多肽序列（SEQ ID No.17），在HP47多肽序列前面融合了一个CL7‑SUMO‑Tag，得到一种具有高活性和热稳定性的Bst DNA聚合酶重组突变体Super‑Bst（SEQ ID No.16）。Super‑Bst在热稳定性、特异性、链置换能力、延伸能力和逆转录酶活性上得到了显著地提升，能够耐受高盐和各类抑制剂，且可以通过原核表达和亲和纯化大量获得。本发明还公开了其编码DNA，以及一种超快磁珠LAMP检测方法。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN341345614">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>一种新型冠状病毒及其德尔塔突变株检测试剂盒及其检测方法</strong> - 本发明提供了一种新型冠状病毒及其德尔塔突变株检测试剂盒及其检测方法，属于分子生物学检测技术领域。本发明重新设计了一系列引物探针组，增加检测靶点，从而有效区分新型冠状病毒野生型和德尔塔突变株。可用于体外定性检测新型冠状病毒或德尔塔突变株感染的肺炎疑似病例、疑似聚集性病例患者、其他需要进行新型冠状病毒感染诊断或鉴别诊断者的鼻咽拭子、痰液等样本中的新型冠状病毒基因。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN341345646">link</a></p></li>
<li><strong>Zusammensetzung zur nutritiven Ergänzung bei Infektanfälligkeit und geschwächtem Immunsystem</strong> -
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Zusammensetzung, insbesondere geeignet zur nutritiven Ergänzung oder diätetischen Behandlung bei Infektanfälligkeit und geschwächtem Immunsystem, dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass die Zusammensetzung als wirksame Bestandteile Lactobacillus coryniformis, Selen und Zink umfasst.
</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=DE342285160">link</a></li>
</ul></li>
</ul>
<script>AOS.init();</script></body></html>

564
archive-daily-dose/20 November, 2021.html Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,564 @@
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="" xml:lang="" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head>
<meta charset="utf-8"/>
<meta content="pandoc" name="generator"/>
<meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes" name="viewport"/>
<title>20 November, 2021</title>
<style type="text/css">
code{white-space: pre-wrap;}
span.smallcaps{font-variant: small-caps;}
span.underline{text-decoration: underline;}
div.column{display: inline-block; vertical-align: top; width: 50%;}
</style>
<title>Daily-Dose</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><style>*{overflow-x:hidden;}</style><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
<body>
<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>“Wokeness” Is Not the Democrats’ Problem</strong> - Some in the Party chastise the left for driving away moderate voters, but they fail to consider why their own base isn’t turning out in larger numbers. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/wokeness-is-not-the-problem">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Can a Vastly Bigger National-Service Program Bring the Country Back Together?</strong> - The idea has a remarkably broad array of supporters, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Stanley McChrystal. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/can-a-vastly-bigger-national-service-program-bring-the-country-%20back-together">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How Big a Threat Is Steve Bannon?</strong> - The case of Donald Trump’s former adviser marks a strange and perilous period in American democracy. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/how-big-a-threat-is-steve-bannon">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Outsized Meaning of the Rittenhouse Verdict</strong> - A Wisconsin self-defense law made it difficult for the jury to convict—an outcome that was celebrated by the Republican Party’s violent fringe. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-outsized-meaning-of-the-rittenhouse-verdict">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The John Smiths of America</strong> - One was an internationally known expert in molecular biology; another was a miner who loved to play checkers. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/afterword/the-john-smiths-of-america">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Two confusing questions about Covid-19 boosters, answered</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="President Biden receiving a Covid-19 booster shot at the White House." src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/yQSe4fqPmau4g3Xggc5y2HcaKZc=/67x0:7352x5464/1310x983/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70167769/1343309826.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
President Joe Biden, eligible because he is older than 65, received a booster shot for Covid-19 in September. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Should I get it? And, if I do, am I taking a dose from someone who needs it more?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="n7P15G">
The big Covid topic on everyone’s minds is boosters.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LyUugG">
On Friday morning, the FDA <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/19/us/politics/coronavirus-boosters-fda.html">authorized</a> Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna booster shots for all adults ages 18 and up.<strong> </strong>And later in the day, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) followed suit.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="O1tZ6u">
The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/11/19/cdc-advisers-pfizer-moderna-booster-shots-adults/">CDC said</a> that every adult who is at least six months removed from their second shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine can get a third shot. And it recommended that people over the age of 50 or in long-term care settings make sure they do so.
</p></li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="O9FpGO">
The long-awaited decision comes after months in which the boundaries of who can get a booster have been widening. The Biden administration first <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?514148-1/president-biden-remarks-
booster-shots">announced</a> its plans to make boosters widely available in August. Since then, we’ve seen the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/booster-shot.html">rollout of boosters</a> to Pfizer and Moderna recipients <a href="https://www.vox.com/coronavirus-covid19/2021/9/24/22691355/covid-booster-shot-cdc-fda-
pfizer-approval">over age 65, and those who are 18 or older who are immunocompromised</a> or at high risk of infection. All adult Johnson &amp; Johnson one-dose recipients have also been approved for booster shots, two months after their first.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H5QgMd">
The fact is, the federal government has been lagging on this front. Several states have already gotten ahead of the federal government by approving boosters for adults: Colorado, California, New Mexico, and Arkansas, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/11/16/booster-vaccine-eligibility-states/">among others</a>, have all moved in the last few weeks to declare nearly all adults eligible. And based on anecdotal accounts, even adults not eligible yet have been able to get a booster shot.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dVKEEc">
That has left people anticipating official federal guidance that anyone who wants a booster can get one — and it has also <a href="https://www.vox.com/22770682/covid-19-vaccine-booster-shots-policy-goal">fostered confusion</a> over what exactly the US’s public health game plan is, and whether getting the booster is the right personal choice for any given person.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="i2Iwk3">
Those <a href="https://www.vox.com/22770682/covid-19-vaccine-booster-shots-policy-
goal">questions</a> will only loom larger now, with the expanded booster eligibility. Here’s how to help you think through the situation.
</p>
<h3 id="NAiWNr">
I’m healthy and not at higher risk for serious disease. Should I get a booster?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zlQms4">
Personally, this describes my situation — and I’m getting one.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qpGFNi">
If you got two shots of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, as I did, you’re already fairly well-protected from severe Covid-19 outcomes. The main thing a booster does is make you less likely to get infected and (mildly)<strong> </strong>sick — but that’s still good to have.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RWr0FQ">
We have a lot more data on these vaccines than we did when they were first approved. We know that they generally <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/11/11/science/vaccine-
waning-immunity.html">remain very effective against severe illness and death even a year</a> after someone gets two shots. But they do wane in effectiveness against infection. Six months after your second dose, the vaccine is less protective against catching Covid-19 and, perhaps, virus spread.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="66ejry">
That’s because antibody levels in the blood decline over time. Experts <a href="https://www.vox.com/22770682/covid-19-vaccine-booster-shots-policy-
goal">disagree on how much people<strong> </strong>should worry about that</a>. Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told me that a healthy, functioning immune system gradually prunes blood antibodies for infections the body hasn’t encountered, and it doesn’t mean you won’t fight off Covid-19 just fine (likely<strong> </strong>suffering only mild, maybe even unnoticeable illness, if you do catch it).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zaY41x">
There’s a fair debate to be had about whether preventing infection, if illness is likely to be mild, is all that important as a public health priority. But even though I won’t get all that sick if I get Covid-19 because I’m fully vaccinated, I prefer not to get it at all. The booster does reduce my risk of becoming infected with Covid-19 — period. For me, that’s sufficient to take a booster, especially given that I didn’t have bothersome side<strong> </strong>effects from the first two shots.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="59BPHi">
This lukewarm recommendation becomes a much stronger one for older adults and others at elevated risk from Covid-19 due to their health or setting. If your immune system functions less well, then <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/02/health/immunocompromised-covid-vaccine.html">at least one additional shot</a> might be needed just to get your immune system to the level of readiness that other people were at after two shots. That’s well worth it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="beGqIy">
And if you got <a href="https://www.vox.com/22770682/covid-19-vaccine-booster-shots-policy-goal">Johnson &amp; Johnson</a>, you should definitely get a booster (which the CDC had already approved) to combat some waning in vaccine efficacy for the one-dose shot.
</p>
<h3 id="6Wk8Rw">
If I’m healthy and get a booster, am I taking a dose away from someone who needs it more?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2mjfCF">
A lot of Covid-19 questions are complicated, but here’s one thing we can be fairly sure of: Your booster shot, if you choose to get one, is very likely not directly coming at the expense of other people, experts told me.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JLiO90">
The concern stems from the fact that many people in the US will be getting their third shot when about <a href="https://www.vox.com/22759707/covid-19-vaccine-gap-covax-rich-poor-countries-boosters">half of the world hasn’t had even one shot</a>. That’s not just an injustice and a humanitarian wrong, it’s also strategically foolish: <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22598415/covid-vaccinate-world-virus-variant-delta-lambda">Virus variants can develop more easily</a> when Covid-19 cases are high, and vaccines are the most effective way to lower them.
</p>
<aside id="8Wt9hg">
<div>
</div>
</aside>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BbvXUq">
If skipping a booster would get that shot to someone in a poor country instead, I’d prefer to do that.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="thRXUQ">
But that’s not really how vaccine allocation works. Many months <a href="https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/pfizer-and-biontech-announce-
agreement-us-government-600">ago, </a>the US placed orders with Moderna and Pfizer for millions of doses of their vaccines. Other countries and international organizations did the same.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oZh8K3">
Those orders, experts told me, are being fulfilled in the order they were placed — so if Moderna is committed to delivering 20 million doses to the US first, then 10 million to France next, that’s the order they will send them. And if the US orders additional doses now in response to increased demand from booster-getters like us, that request will be at the back of the queue.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4s55Wk">
Not getting your booster won’t get that shot to people in other countries who need them more. What might help, Amanda Glassman, senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, told me, is queue-swapping: the US formally ceding its place in line to other countries that need it more or to <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-
perfect/22440986/covax-challenges-covid-19-vaccines-global-inequity">Covax, the international alliance to vaccinate the world</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="21zH12">
<a href="https://www.unicef.org/coronavirus/donate-doses-now">Unicef has called on the US and other rich countries to do just that.</a> The US also could — and should — donate excess doses (it has donated roughly <a href="https://www.vox.com/22759707/covid-19-vaccine-gap-covax-rich-poor-countries-boosters">200 million of them</a> so far), but it’s unclear how demand for boosters this fall and winter will affect the odds of new donations of excess doses in the future; the US plans to fulfill its remaining unfulfilled pledges of <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2021/09/22/biden-raise-world-vaccine-pledge-more-than-1-1-billion-
doses/5803965001/">donating more than a billion doses</a> through <a href="https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-
covid-19/issue-brief/tracking-u-s-covid-19-vaccine-donations/">purchase orders for Covax currently in the queue</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="K0vPWZ">
If you’re frustrated, like I am, that millions of vaccines are going unused in the US while they’re badly needed elsewhere, you should absolutely push for the US to give up its place in line. But skipping a booster shot won’t change how many doses Moderna or Pfizer will deliver to the US before they move on to the next country on their list.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SliPIj">
And within the US, we have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/16/us-throws-
out-millions-doses-covid-vaccine-world-shortages">plenty of supply of mRNA vaccines</a> at this point — so getting a booster isn’t taking one from your neighbors either.
</p>
<h3 id="bHVEE1">
Why there has been so much confusion over boosters
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gesPDK">
The confusion surrounding boosters is in some ways an outgrowth of messy communications from the public health establishment. It likely explains the markedly different response to boosters than to the initial wave of vaccines.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VXzviX">
Conversations about boosters have been tinged with ambivalence and uncertainty. In the early days when the vaccines first started rolling out to the larger population, my family and friends drove for hours to land our Covid-19 vaccines. I hate long car rides, but I spent the whole time actively excited. There’s a bit less of that feeling this time (but don’t tell that to our 5-year-old, who was so inspired she declared she’ll invent an immortality shot when she grows up).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="08HyAR">
“We’ve miscommunicated this,” Offit told me. He argues that the adults dying of Covid-19 are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html">almost all people who are unvaccinated</a> or those at much-elevated risk, and the back-and-forth on boosters for healthy people has ended up leaving people confused. Many people who are already very safe from serious infection or death have ended up with the impression they’re at risk, while people who actually are at risk — largely those who are unvaccinated — have ended up with the impression the vaccines don’t really help.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VB3aZr">
And after a year in which much messaging emphasized resource scarcity — that we <a href="https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/public-health/clear-
your-patients-confusion-about-which-masks-work-best">shouldn’t wear N-95 masks lest we take them from doctors and nurses,</a> that we shouldn’t <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/02/06/964139633/is-it-ever-ok-to-
jump-ahead-in-the-vaccine-line">skip our place in the initial vaccine line</a> lest we get a vaccine someone else needed more — there’s been little effort to answer people who wonder, reasonably, if getting a booster takes one from someone who needs it more.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Byclpn">
The FDA and CDC announcements on expanding booster eligibility should hopefully clarify some of the confusion out there. And the science on booster shots will continue to evolve — as we learn more, it should inform our public policies and individual decision-making.<strong> </strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="u5UcEC">
In the meantime, it’s okay to go ahead and grab a booster to increase your protection. The earlier doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are still protective against severe disease and hospitalization, but an added coat of armor — especially since there is little vaccine scarcity in the US — can only help.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="32ni5s">
<strong>Update, November 19, 6:15 pm</strong>: This story was updated to reflect news of the CDC approving expanded booster shot eligibility, after FDA approval earlier in the day.
</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>The smart political argument behind the satire Such a Fun Age</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/Qmelz4btHgFU9vRXOc1VvpLWqiQ=/0x644:1696x1916/1310x983/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70168060/Such_a_Fun_Age.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid | Courtesy of Putnam
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Kiley Reid’s debut novel reveals the lie behind the claims that the Obama age was post-racial.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pIKjqe">
<em>The Vox Book Club is linking to </em><a href="https://go.redirectingat.com/?id=66960X1516588&amp;xs=1&amp;url=https://bookshop.org/shop/voxbookclub&amp;referrer=vox.com&amp;sref=https://www.vox.com/culture/21423100/idiot-
elif-batuman-semiotics-language-word-games&amp;xcust=___vx__p_22491098__t_w__r_vox.com/vox-book-
club__d"><em><strong>Bookshop.org</strong></em></a><em> to support local and independent booksellers.</em>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VsOubo">
Kiley Reid’s <a href="https://go.skimresources.com?id=66960X1516588&amp;xs=1&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fbookshop.org%2Fbooks%2Fsuch-a-fun-
age%2F9780525541905&amp;xcust=VoxSuchaFunAge111921"><em>Such a Fun Age</em></a>, the Vox Book Club’s pick for November, takes place in a very specific age indeed. It’s 2015, the lead-up to the 2016 election. President Barack Obama is in office, Hillary Clinton is expected to be the next president, and pundits are given to smugly declaring America to be post-racist and post-sexist.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zEMaRk">
As <em>Such a Fun Age</em> shows, that was never truly the case. This novel is a satire of polite liberal prejudices, and how they flourish beneath a veneer of colorblind civility.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iTlHCe">
<em>Such a Fun Age</em> concerns 25-year-old Emira. She’s Black, a recent college grad, and struggling to figure out what she wants to do with the rest of her life. Her 26th birthday is approaching, which means she’s about to get kicked off her parents’ health insurance, so she’s got a ticking clock on this problem.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uh3jpu">
But all Emira really likes doing is hanging out with Briar, her 3-year-old white babysitting charge. Emira has tried to imagine getting a permanent nannying position with another family so she can get her own health care, but it’s not children in the abstract she likes: it’s Briar specifically, who is smart and deadpan funny and never stops asking questions.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NhN9VR">
What Emira likes less is Briar’s mother, Alix. And it’s with Alix that Reid’s satire gets most pointed.
</p></li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aPfz5G">
Alix exists as an all-too realistic parody of Lean In white feminism. She’s a sort of proto-influencer who built her brand in the ’00s by writing handwritten letters to companies asking for free products, receiving them, and then blogging about the result. Now, she’s an Instagrammer who runs a coaching business teaching women how to ask for what they want — so long as they are nice, upper-middle-class women who ask politely, respectfully, and on expensive stationery. Her signature hashtag is #LetHerSpeak.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uXg35e">
The tell that Alix’s interest in letting women speak is phony comes early on, when we enter her point of view and learn what she thinks of Briar. Alix is viscerally annoyed by Briar’s voice, which is “loud and hoarse” and “consumed everything in its path.” Briar seems more unruly to Alix than other children her age, less respectable in her curiosity and desires. So though Alix is happy to use Briar as a prop — breastfeeding her from the stage during an event in order to leverage a viral moment, positioning herself as the icon of the modern mom who has it all — she prefers not to pay too much attention to Briar on a day-to-day basis. That’s why she hires Emira.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H0YaEs">
And Alix finds herself fascinated by Emira, much more than she is fascinated by Briar. She wants Emira to use her youth and Blackness and beauty to validate Alix, to affirm that since Alix has a close Black friend and her favorite shoes are from Payless, she’s still cool. She wants, also, to “save” Emira from herself, to teach her how to polish her self-presentation and redo her résumé and start writing handwritten cover letters on beautiful creamy stationery.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fAU9yO">
Emira isn’t particularly interested in any of that, though. She mostly just wants health care, and she wants to be thought of as a human rather than as a prop in white people’s performances of progressivism. That’s why her closest relationship is with Briar, who loves her with a deep and specific gravity. It’s also why she doesn’t care for Alix, who treats her as a trophy — and why she’s more than a little wary of her own white boyfriend, Kelley.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="03cVWG">
While Alix is an obvious villain, a cringey tryhard who might as well be the living embodiment of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHotXbGZiFY">A White Woman’s Instagram</a>, Kelley is a more ambiguous character. We never get inside his head, as we do with Alix, but we can see from the outside that he’s self-confident and genuinely pretty cool, someone easy to like.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="i5I3dl">
But Kelley also, Emira notes with some surprise, seems to only date Black women and have Black friends. He drops the n-word in casual conversation, hard r and all. When Emira talks about racism, he seems very eager to prove that he “gets it,” but she isn’t at all sure that he does. He seems to savor his outrage over her situation in a way she keeps thinking is maybe a little off-putting.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="218IPK">
Kelley and Alix, we eventually learn, have a history. It’s left them resentful of each other — and also eager to use Emira as a pawn in the contest Alix mentally labels Which One of Us Is Actually More Racist?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="p4a0Mm">
And so <em>Such a Fine Age</em> winds up with Emira, now extricated from both Alix and Kelley, thinking not of them but of Briar. Briar was the only person Emira could be sure genuinely loved her in her whole time as a babysitter — but Emira fears that stuck alone with her neglectful mother and all the privileges of whiteness, Briar, too, will come to outsource her emotional labor to someone she can hire. In the world of liberal racism, the problem isn’t hate so much as it is unthinking and callous fetishism.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0b74Ug">
Share your thoughts on <em>Such a Fun Age</em> in the comments section below, and <a href="https://voxmediaevents.com/vox-book-club-such-a-
fun-age">be sure to RSVP for our upcoming live discussion event with Kiley Reid herself</a>. In the meantime, <a href="http://vox.com/book-club-newsletter">subscribe to the Vox Book Club newsletter</a> to make sure you don’t miss anything.
</p>
<h3 id="2MfV6o">
Discussion questions
</h3>
<ol>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SLkxlq">
Let’s talk about that Thanksgiving scene! Alix and Kelley first recognize each other when Alix invites Emira and her boyfriend over for her Thanksgiving party, for which she has decorated with ironic tacky pumpkins and turkeys. Did Thanksgiving strike you as a good time for all these secrets to come out? What about the class politics of Kelley taking Alix’s ironic decor seriously?
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2NbXUH">
Emira winds up as the administrative assistant to a regional director of the US Census Bureau, and from there gets an unspecified promotion. What do you think of Emira winding up in an office dedicated to observing and chronicling demographic shifts in this novel dedicated to satirizing different social demographics? Does it square to you with the ideas Emira is interested in through the rest of <em>Such a Fun Age</em>?
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cPf09L">
Alix is probably the richest character in this novel — awful and cringey, sure, but also compelling in her sheer desperate striving. I often found myself enjoying her despite myself, on the principle that the most interesting character is usually the one who wants things with the most energy, and Alix wants with all her shallow heart. How did you feel about her?
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sgekeX">
While Alix gets to be entertainingly awful, Emira’s job in this book is to put up with a lot, until she doesn’t. How does that change the way you engage with both of them? With Emira playing defense for so much of the book, what are the qualities that make you latch onto her as a protagonist — or not?
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sxGLsW">
Kelley’s a deeply ambiguous character, and we never fully find out what his deal is, in part to make the final misdirect land. How did you end up thinking about him by the end of the novel?
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Vk7zPm">
The whole book is built around a video of Emira facing down a racist security guard at a grocery store who has accused her of kidnapping Briar. Emira considers the video humiliating and badly wants to keep it from getting out, but Alix and Kelley both think she should leak it. How do you think about that conflict? Why does Emira want to keep anyone from ever seeing the video, and why are Alix and Kelley so eager to make a fuss over it? Does this story change the way you think about our national pastime of dissecting videos of everyday racism all over social media?
</li>
</ol>
<div id="wWANlR">
<div id="coral_thread">
</div>
</div>
<ul>
<li><strong>Senate rules could undercut Democrats’ prescription drug plan</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/GdZGZIGemY2NQjeKj_cd3-fu-Q8=/0x0:4608x3456/1310x983/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70166460/GettyImages_1156932622.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Democrats have a multi- pronged strategy for addressing drug prices in the Build Back Better Act — but one of those prongs may not be allowed under the Senate’s rules. | Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Democrats want to lower drug costs for commercial health plans — if the Byrd Rule will let them.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="j2726y">
A critical part of <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2021/11/4/22763175/build-back-better-reconciliation-bill-medicare-drug-
prices">Democrats’ plan to control prescription drug prices</a> would apply not only to the government’s Medicare program but also to the commercial market that covers most working Americans — unless the Senate’s rules stop it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="m0CJXY">
Democrats have a multi-pronged strategy for addressing drug prices in <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/10/28/22748554/biden-budget-build-back-better-democrats-child-care-taxes">the Build Back Better Act</a>. First, they would allow Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical manufacturers on the prices of a certain number of prescription drugs, something they have been promising to do for years. But Democrats also want to limit drug companies’ ability to hike the prices of their medications for everyone — regardless of what kind of health insurance they have — in the future.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="i4ktx9">
To do that, Congress has proposed requiring drugmakers to pay rebates for any price increases, in either the Medicare health program or <a href="https://www.kff.org/other/state-
indicator/health-insurance-coverage-of-the-total-population-
cps/?dataView=1&amp;currentTimeframe=0&amp;sortModel=%7B%22colId%22:%22Location%22,%22sort%22:%22asc%22%7D">the commercial health plans</a> that cover 180 million Americans.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Om3v4Z">
But, as Politico <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/11/13/democrats-drug-prices-521213">reported</a> this week, the plan to apply the inflation-indexed rebates to the commercial market could be in trouble.<strong> </strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="w06PbS">
Senate Republicans — at the urging of the drug industry — plan to challenge whether the rebates for commercial health plans are permissible in a bill passed through the budget reconciliation process. If they succeed, it could have significant consequences for US patients and the prices they pay for medicines.
</p>
<h3 id="UGtS6D">
The Byrd Rule could alter Democrats’ drug pricing proposal
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TonDTz">
This precarious situation is a direct consequence of the process Democrats are using to pass the Build Back Better Act: budget reconciliation, which allows them to pass a bill with a slim majority but must meet a certain condition known as the Byrd Rule.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xQIwSz">
In brief, the Byrd Rule requires that all the provisions in a budget reconciliation bill directly change federal spending or revenue.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rLSTjj">
Republicans will argue that the purpose of the provision is to control drug prices for the private plans, full stop, and that does not have anything to do with federal spending or revenue — at least not directly.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="S6ffuf">
The Democratic counterargument would be that applying these rebates to commercial plans would have a serious, more than incidental, effect on the federal budget. The federal government subsidizes almost all private insurance plans in one way or another, and so lower or higher costs for those plans could have major implications and lower costs for private health plans could also mean higher wages for workers, who would then pay more in taxes.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xhNONX">
Who wins is likely ultimately a decision for the Senate parliamentarian.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tzfV8Y">
But what would happen if the parliamentarian determines rebates covering commercial plans cannot be allowed under the Byrd Rule?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NDvVmK">
The big fear, voiced by advocates of the Democrats’ plan, is that drug companies would extract higher prices from the commercial market in order to make up for the revenue they would lose from Medicare once that program’s new price controls take effect.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MsYcDc">
According to several experts, that appears unlikely. Loren Adler, associate director of the USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy, covered why in <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/usc-brookings-schaeffer-on-health-policy/2021/09/24/cost-shifting-in-drug-pricing-
or-the-lack-thereof/">a lengthy analysis</a> published in September.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CghZ9t">
“Fundamentally, for this to occur, it would have to be the case that drug companies are benevolently choosing not to profit-maximize at present,” Adler told me this week, “which I find rather difficult to believe.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TI1cP3">
In other words, drug companies are already charging the highest possible prices they can get in their negotiations with private insurers. They are not suddenly going to be able to secure higher prices in this new reality; private insurers will have the same incentives and leverage to keep costs down that they did before.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dxBk1s">
“Drug companies maximize their profits and get as much as they can out of their negotiations,” Darius Lakdawalla, a USC health economist, told me. “They are not leaving money on the table that they would then choose to scoop up if they lose Medicare profits.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hJyRKL">
Private health plans may actually still see some savings, according to <a href="https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2019-07/Expected_Effects.pdf">the Congressional Budget Office</a>, because inflation penalties in Medicare could discourage drug companies from raising list prices altogether.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2vOpjF">
But the savings would not be as big as they would be if the inflation rebates covered the commercial market as well — and there may be some cases where drug companies charge ahead and hike their list prices higher than inflation anyway.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oZiKtf">
Under the current plan, drugmakers would pay a rebate based on their sales volume in both the Medicare and commercial markets. In that scenario, there would be little reason to raise list prices faster than inflation, because you are paying the penalty based on the entire market.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ofNXAS">
But if those rebates can’t include the commercial market, the penalty will be based on the Medicare market only — making it a smaller price to pay if a company does decide to hike the list price of a drug at a rate higher than inflation.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Yn1Ahg">
“If the penalty is only based on Medicare sales, it still may be worth it financially for drug companies to increase their list price faster than inflation, just as they would have before, even though it won’t mean any higher revenue from Medicare,” Adler said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vWVe3a">
Most people don’t pay the list prices of medications, and health insurers negotiate the prices they pay to drug companies. They will still have the same incentives to drive down that price as much as they can, which should limit the likelihood that drug costs would rise for commercial plans in the aggregate.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="16BRfI">
But rising list prices can still drive up costs to patients, if they must meet their deductible before their insurance kicks in or if they must pay any coinsurance that is based on a list price. Deductibles and coinsurance have been steadily rising as a share of out-of-pocket costs over the past few years, according to <a href="https://www.iqvia.com/-/media/iqvia/pdfs/institute-reports/medicine-spending-and-affordability-in-
the-united-states.pdf?&amp;_=1637171412878">a 2020 report from the IQVIA Institute</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7nXfrM">
Those rising costs can have a deleterious effect on people’s health. About 1 in 12 prescriptions issued for people on commercial plans are abandoned, likely because of the out-of-pocket cost to the patient, a higher rate than is seen in Medicare, according to the same IQVIA report. For uninsured people who pay entirely in cash, and who would still be exposed to price increases going forward, 1 in 5 prescriptions end up being abandoned.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jySuD4">
The bottom line is, if the commercial rebates are nixed under the Byrd Rule, the people on private plans would end up saving less money than they would have if the Democratic plan were enacted in full — and any future price increases that are allowed under a more limited version of the plan could end up hitting certain patients particularly hard.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vHwNJj">
The price controls for only Medicare would still be a big step. But they would end up being a half-measure compared to what Democrats currently propose.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UTskhf">
“The real problem for [large-employer insurance plans] would be the loss of a rare opportunity to gain relief from high drug prices, which are becoming a bigger problem over time,” Paul Ginsburg, a senior health economist at the Brookings Institution, told me.
</p>
<h3 id="dWRNGL">
The filibuster is the problem
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="shqNaU">
Why do prescription drug savings for half of Americans ultimately turn on how one person interprets the Senate’s rules? Because budget reconciliation is dictating the legislative process, leading to half- measures and incoherent policies that do not work as originally intended in the real world.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="r0j9qJ">
So long as the filibuster still exists, budget reconciliation is the only way for the Democrats to move a bill, unless 10 Republicans were willing to break ranks with their party and break a filibuster. That is exceedingly unlikely in a highly polarized Congress.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iC0n6H">
But the budget reconciliation rules place such tight restrictions on which provisions can be included and which ones can’t — all subject to the interpretation of the parliamentarian — that it can be difficult to craft policies that are internally consistent. A prescription drug plan that lowers costs for some people and increases them for others would be entirely the result of this misshapen process.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eIxdSn">
Budget reconciliation wasn’t meant to pass complex legislation. It was created in the 1970s to make sure no amount of partisan gridlock could prevent Congress from dealing with its most basic duty — determining how much the federal government spends and how much revenue it raises. The Byrd Rule exists in the first place, to limit the process’s use to those core functions.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SMfxDQ">
But over time, as bipartisan comity faltered and filibusters against any and every kind of legislation became the norm, budget reconciliation has devolved into the only tool by which a slim Senate majority can advance its legislative agenda. Yet both parties keep bumping up against its limitations.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2XoCNh">
In 2017, Republican majorities struggled to roll back the Affordable Care Act’s insurance reforms in part because a straightforward repeal or even a more modest alteration was not allowed under the Byrd Rule. It didn’t directly affect federal spending or revenue enough to satisfy the parliamentarian, and they were forced to come up with awkward workarounds to clear the Byrd Rule. (Ultimately, they failed to craft a plan that could win 50 votes.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sBPrpM">
Now, Democrats are trying to pass an omnibus social spending bill — which covers everything from prescription drugs to child care to green energy — within the strictures set down by Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) many years ago.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7EVnGg">
If there were no filibuster, they could have simply put up one bill for child care, another bill for green energy, another bill for prescription drugs. Each one could pass on its own merits if it had 50 votes. The provisions wouldn’t be subject to the arbitrary restrictions of budget reconciliation. The plan to apply these drug pricing rebates to the commercial market could be approved as intended. The dissonance would be gone.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="La1fv1">
Instead, Democrats may end up being forced to pass a compromised version of their drug pricing proposal — with significant consequences for millions of patients.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GwJZIf">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HQSUCU">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="o0uyZL">
</p></li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RiHtx4">
</p>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Queen O’ War and Successor catch the eye</strong> - Queen O’ War and Successor caught the eye when the horses were exercised here on Saturday (Nov. 20) morning.Sand track:800m: Magical Rays (rb) 52, 600</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>Cricket Australia chairman admits it was a mistake to not strip Paine of captaincy three years ago</strong> - Paine stepped down as Australia’s Test skipper on Friday after it emerged that he had sent unsolicited explicit image of himself along with a string of lewd messages to a female co-worker in 2017</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>Sindhu exits Indonesia Masters with defeat in semifinal</strong> - She lost to Japanese top seed Akane Yamaguchi 13-21 9-21 in a one-sided duel that lasted just 32 minutes</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>India vs New Zealand 3rd T20 | Ready for clean sweep, Rohit’s India may try new combinations</strong> - Bilateral T20I series in various parts of the globe is fast losing its context due to too many private leagues but for Indian team, after their World Cup disaster, a series win might help in partially healing the wounds</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>Barcelona, Man City drop club crypto sponsors amid concerns</strong> - Premier League champion City suspended a deal with 3Key Technologies after concerns were highlighted about the limited digital footprint of the company and its executives</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>Navjot Singh Sidhu bats for trade, ‘new friendship chapter’ between India &amp; Pakistan as he visits Kartarpur</strong> - Mr. Sidhu said he wants mutual love between India and Pakistan and stressed on opening of trade between the two countries</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What’s black in farm laws except for its ink, asks V.K. Singh</strong> - “In farmers’ organisations, there is a fight for supremacy among themselves. These people cannot think about the benefits to small farmers,” says Union Minister General (Retired) V.K. Singh</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>Narendra Giri death: CBI charges Anand Giri, 2 others with criminal conspiracy, abetment to suicide</strong> - Acharya Narendra Giri, who was the president of the largest organisation of sadhus in India, was found hanging at the Baghambari Mutt in Allahabad</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>GFP working president Kiran Kandolkar quits party ahead of Goa polls, joins TMC</strong> - Kandolkar said only the Mamata Banerjee-led party is capable of defeating the BJP in the next year’s polls</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>Service providers can now check vaccination status of an individual on CoWIN portal with consent</strong> - Employers can use this service to verify vaccination status of employees and resume the functions in offices, workplaces, etc.</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Covid: WHO says it is very worried about Europe surge</strong> - The health organisation’s regional director warns of half a million deaths by March without action.</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>Rotterdam police clash with rioters as Covid protest turns violent</strong> - Seven people are injured in Rotterdam as protests against new coronavirus curbs turn violent.</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>Belarus’s Lukashenko tells BBC: We may have helped migrants into EU</strong> - In an exclusive interview, Alexander Lukashenko says it was “absolutely possible” migrants had help.</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>Belarus migrant crisis: British army engineers to help at Polish border</strong> - About 150 army engineers are to help reinforce the EU border after migrants tried to enter from Belarus.</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>Serious EU intent to fix Northern Ireland border row, says Irish PM</strong> - But Micheál Martin says he is “frustrated” post-Brexit talks are hindering UK-EU relationships.</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>Locked out of “God mode,” runners are hacking their treadmills</strong> - NordicTrack customers were watching Netflix—until the company blocked their access. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1814461">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>DuckDuckGo wants to stop apps tracking you on Android</strong> - The latest update promises to block invasive data collection across your whole phone. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1814467">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Review: Ghostbusters: Afterlife sinks under treacly, over-the-top fan service</strong> - Talented cast and a few fun callbacks can’t make up for tired retread of a plot. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1813894">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Adults nationwide eligible for boosters this weekend as CDC gives sign-off</strong> - CDC advisers voted unanimously to expand booster eligibility. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1814509">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Apple has a new work-from-home policy, but it’s still not what employees want</strong> - Employees will have to work from the office most days by spring. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1814452">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>A man was hunting when a gust of wind blew, the gun fell over &amp; discharged, shooting him in the genitals.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Several hours later, lying in a hospital bed, he was approached by his doctor.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
"Well, sir, I have some good news &amp; some bad news.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The good news is that you are going to be OK.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The damage was local to your groin, there was very little internal damage, &amp; we were able to remove all of the buckshot."
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“What’s the bad news?” asked the hunter.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“The bad news is that there was some pretty extensive buckshot damage done to your willy which left quite a few holes in it. I’m going to have to refer you to my sister.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Well, I guess that isn’t too bad,” the hunter replied.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Is your sister a plastic surgeon?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
" Not exactly answered the doctor………
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
"She’s a flute player in the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She’s going to teach you where to put your fingers so you don’t piss in your eye.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/orgasmic2021"> /u/orgasmic2021 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/qxzk8e/a_man_was_hunting_when_a_gust_of_wind_blew_the/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/qxzk8e/a_man_was_hunting_when_a_gust_of_wind_blew_the/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>Kyle Rittenhouse has a lot of people to thank for his acquittal.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
I suggest he start with the prosecution.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/PygmeePony"> /u/PygmeePony </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/qxnyx2/kyle_rittenhouse_has_a_lot_of_people_to_thank_for/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/qxnyx2/kyle_rittenhouse_has_a_lot_of_people_to_thank_for/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>A gas station owner in Arkansas was trying to increase his sales, so he put up a sign that read: </strong>* “FREE SEX w/fill-up … just guess the right number between 1 &amp; 10.” ***** - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Soon a local redneck pulled in, filled his tank, and asked for his FREE SEX.<br/> The owner told him to pick a number from 1 to 10. If he guessed correctly, he would get his FREE SEX.<br/> The redneck guessed ‘8’. The proprietor said, “You were close. The number was ‘7’. Sorry, but no FREE SEX this time.”<br/> A week later, the same redneck, along w/his brother, Bubba, pulled in for another fill-up. Again he asked for his FREE SEX.<br/> The proprietor again gave him the same story, and asked him to guess the correct number.<br/> The redneck guessed ‘2’ this time.<br/> The proprietor said, “Sorry, it was ‘3’. You were close, but no FREE SEX this time.”<br/> As they were driving away, the redneck said to his brother, “I think that game is rigged, and he doesn’t really give away FREE SEX.”<br/> Bubba replied, “No. it ain’t, Billy Ray. My wife won twice last week.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Waitsfornoone"> /u/Waitsfornoone </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/qxkwnc/a_gas_station_owner_in_arkansas_was_trying_to/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/qxkwnc/a_gas_station_owner_in_arkansas_was_trying_to/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>A woman was out golfing and hit the ball deep into the woods.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
When she went to look for it she found a frog in a trap.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The frog said to her, “If you release me from this trap, I will grant you three wishes.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The woman freed the frog, and the frog said, "Thank you, but I failed to mention that there was a condition to your wishes.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Whatever you wish for, your husband will get times ten!"
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The woman said, “That’s okay.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
For her first wish, she wanted to be the most beautiful woman in the world.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The frog warned her, “You do realize that this wish will also make your husband the most handsome man in the world, an Adonis whom women will flock to.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The woman replied, “That’s okay, because I will be the most beautiful woman and he will have eyes only for me.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
So, KAZAM-she’s the most beautiful woman in the world!
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
For her second wish, she wanted to be the richest woman in the world.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The frog said, “That will make your husband the richest man in the world. And he will be ten times richer than you.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The woman said, “That’s okay, because what’s mine is his and what’s his is mine.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
So, KAZAM-she’s the richest woman in the world!
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The frog then inquired about her third wish, and she answered, “I’d like a mild heart attack.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Moral of the story: Women are clever. Don’t mess with them.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Attention female readers: This is the end of the joke for you. Stop here and continue to feel good.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Male readers: Please scroll down.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The man had a heart attack ten times milder than his wife.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Moral of the story: Women think they’re really smart.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Let them continue to think that way and just enjoy the show.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Note: If you are a woman and are still reading this; it only goes to show that women never listen.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/ClassroomTotal4025"> /u/ClassroomTotal4025 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/qxj3rm/a_woman_was_out_golfing_and_hit_the_ball_deep/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/qxj3rm/a_woman_was_out_golfing_and_hit_the_ball_deep/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>An old couple are celebrating 75 years of marriage</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
At the party one of the grandkids asks the Grandma what is the secret to such a long happy marriage as they never seed to argue or disagree about anything. The grandma tells them a story of when they first got married.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“It was our wedding day and we were very poor so we were heading to our honeymoon on our donkey and cart. We were about an hour into the journey when the donkey just lay down and wouldn’t budge. My new husband said to the donkey”That’s one“. After a few minutes the donkey got up and started going again. After another little while the donkey again sat down and wouldn’t move and my husband said”that’s two“. Again eventually the donkey got up and we were on our way. Then eventually the donkey stopped and wouldn’t go any further and without a word my husband got down and shot the donkey in the head and said”that’s three. “. I was so shocked, I started screaming at my husband”what did you do that for, are you crazy that’s terrible“. My husband turned to me and he said”that’s one".
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Mindwalkers"> /u/Mindwalkers </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/qxtg3c/an_old_couple_are_celebrating_75_years_of_marriage/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/qxtg3c/an_old_couple_are_celebrating_75_years_of_marriage/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
<script>AOS.init();</script></body></html>

4
index.html
View File

File diff suppressed because one or more lines are too long