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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="covid-19-sentry">Covid-19 Sentry</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-preprints">From Preprints</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-pubmed">From PubMed</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-patent-search">From Patent Search</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-preprints">From Preprints</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>SARS-CoV-2 mechanisms of action and impact on human organism, risk factors and potential treatments. An exhaustive survey.</strong> -
<div>
Novel COVID-19 is the most considerable health threat the humanity has faced in decades, with global impact also in the social and economic scopes. Moreover, SARS-CoV-2 involves an unprecedented exciting scientific challenge that has focused all efforts on defeating the new coronavirus. Research results are continuously increasing and updating knowledge about the virus and the disease, and understanding the virus characteristics is essential in order to identify and attack its weak points, as well as uncovering the host reactions to search for treatments. Through this survey we will offer the reader a thorough exposition on how SARS-CoV-2 infects and affects the organism, the wide set of risk factors that impact the course of the disease, related biomarkers, and potential drugs and treatments against the virus host entry and the consequences of the infection.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/v6zym/" target="_blank">SARS-CoV-2 mechanisms of action and impact on human organism, risk factors and potential treatments. An exhaustive survey.</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Identifiability as an “Antidote”: Exploring Emotional Contagion and the Role of Anonymity in Twitter Discussions on Misinformation</strong> -
<div>
Misinformation carries both distorted facts and sophisticated emotional signals. Comparing to facts that could be labeled as true or false, we are more concerned about contaminative negative emotions transferring digital-ly among users. In this study, we explored an emotional contagion effect among misinformation discussion participants on Twitter. We analyzed the sentiment of 573 tweets in 192 discussion threads. Our result revealed that highly emotional tweets do not have a universal effect on the online discussions, but it affects those individuals with limited social and personal identity cues (i.e., being anonymous). We found that anonymous members of the online discussion are more susceptible to emotional contagions than those are not. We also suggest coping strategies that protect social media users’ emotional well-being during the era COVID-19.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/4p5rj/" target="_blank">Identifiability as an “Antidote”: Exploring Emotional Contagion and the Role of Anonymity in Twitter Discussions on Misinformation</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>The Host Interactome of Spike Expands the Tropism of SARS-CoV-2</strong> -
<div>
The SARS-CoV-2 virus causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (COVID-19) and has rapidly created a global pandemic. Patients that survive may face a slow recovery with long lasting side effects that can afflict different organs. SARS-CoV-2 primarily infects epithelial airway cells that express the host entry receptor Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2) which binds to spike protein trimers on the surface of SARS-CoV-2 virions. However, SARS-CoV-2 can spread to other tissues even though they are negative for ACE2. To gain insight into the molecular constituents that might influence SARS-CoV-2 tropism, we determined which additional host factors engage with the viral spike protein in disease-relevant human bronchial epithelial cells (16HBEo-). We found that spike recruited the extracellular proteins laminin and thrombospondin and was retained in the endoplasmatic reticulum (ER) by the proteins DJB11 and FBX2 which support re-folding or degradation of nascent proteins in the ER. Because emerging mutations of the spike protein potentially impact the virus tropism, we compared the interactome of D614 spike with that of the rapidly spreading G614 mutated spike. More D614 than G614 spike associated with the proteins UGGT1, calnexin, HSP7A and GRP78/BiP which ensure glycosylation and folding of proteins in the ER. In contrast to G614 spike, D614 spike was endoproteolytically cleaved, and the N-terminal S1 domain was degraded in the ER even though C-terminal S2-only proteoforms remained present. D614 spike also bound more laminin than G614 spike, which suggested that extracellular laminins may function as co-factors for an alternative, S2-only dependent virus entry. Because the host interactome determines whether an infection is productive, we developed a novel proteome-based cell type set enrichment analysis (pCtSEA). With pCtSEA we determined that the host interactome of the spike protein may extend the tropism of SARS-CoV-2 beyond mucous epithelia to several different cell types, including macrophages and epithelial cells in the nephron. An S2-only dependent, alternative infection of additional cell types with SARS-CoV-2 may impact vaccination strategies and may provide a molecular explanation for a severe or prolonged progression of disease in select COVID-19 patients.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.16.431318v1" target="_blank">The Host Interactome of Spike Expands the Tropism of SARS-CoV-2</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Single-Domain SARS-CoV-2 S1 and RBD Antibodies Isolated from Immunized Llama Effectively Bind Targets of the Wuhan, UK, and South African Strains in vitro</strong> -
<div>
The spreading of SARS-CoV-2 variants has become a major challenge of the current fight against the pandemic. Of particular concerns are the strains that have arisen from the United Kingdom (UK) and South Africa. The UK variant spreads rapidly and is projected to overtake the original strain in the US as early as in March 2021, while the South African variant appears to evade some effects of the current vaccines. Potential false-negative diagnosis using currently available antigen kits that may not recognize these variants could cause another wave of community infection. Therefore, it is imperative that antibodies used in the detection kits are validated for binding against these variants. Here we report that the nanoantibodies (nAbs in our terminology, also referred to as VHH fragments, single domain antibodies, nanobodiesTM) that we have developed for rapid antigen detection test bind the receptor binding domain (RBD) of the S1 protein from the original COVID-SARS-2 virus as well as those from the UK and South African variants. This finding validates our antibodies used in our assay for the detection of these major variant strains.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.15.431198v1" target="_blank">Single-Domain SARS-CoV-2 S1 and RBD Antibodies Isolated from Immunized Llama Effectively Bind Targets of the Wuhan, UK, and South African Strains in vitro</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Identification of common key genes and pathways between Covid-19 and lung cancer by using protein-protein interaction network analysis</strong> -
<div>
COVID-19 is indeed an infection that is caused by a recently found coronavirus group, a type of virus proven to cause human respiratory diseases. The high mortality rate was observed in patients who had pre-existing health conditions like cancer. However, the molecular mechanism of SARS-CoV-2 infection in lung cancer patients was not discovered yet at the pathway level. This study was about determining the common key genes of COVID-19 and lung cancer through network analysis. The hub genes associated with COVID-19 and lung cancer were identified through Protein-Protein interaction analysis. The hub genes are ALB, CXCL8, FGF2, IL6, INS, MMP2, MMP9, PTGS2, STAT3 and VEGFA. Through gene enrichment, it is identified both COVID-19 and lung cancer have a common pathway in EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor resistance, IL-17 signalling pathway, AGE-RAGE signalling pathway in diabetic complications, HIF-1 signalling pathway and pathways in cancer.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.16.431364v1" target="_blank">Identification of common key genes and pathways between Covid-19 and lung cancer by using protein-protein interaction network analysis</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Live attenuated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate: Protective immunity without serious lung lesions in Syrian hamsters</strong> -
<div>
Various COVID-19 vaccine candidates are currently under clinical trial. However, no live attenuated vaccine has been developed yet, despite their generally high efficacy. Here, we established temperature-sensitive mutant strains of SARS-CoV-2, whose growth was significantly slower than that of the parent strain at 37{ring}C. One of the strains, A50-18, which presented mutations in nonstructural protein 14, did not replicate at all at 37{ring}C in vitro. In vivo experiments demonstrated that this strain replicated inefficiently in the lungs of Syrian hamsters, and intra-nasal inoculation induced sufficient anti-SARS-CoV-2-neutralizing antibodies to protect against wild type virus infection. These results suggest that the A50-18 strain could be a promising live attenuated vaccine candidate against SARS-CoV-2.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.15.430863v1" target="_blank">Live attenuated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate: Protective immunity without serious lung lesions in Syrian hamsters</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Characterization of humoral and SARS-CoV-2 specific T cell responses in people living with HIV</strong> -
<div>
There is an urgent need to understand the nature of immune responses generated against SARS-CoV-2, to better inform risk-mitigation strategies for people living with HIV (PLWH). Although not all PLWH are considered immunosuppressed, residual cellular immune deficiency and ongoing inflammation could influence COVID-19 disease severity, the evolution and durability of protective memory responses. Here, we performed an integrated analysis, characterizing the nature, breadth and magnitude of SARS-CoV-2-specific immune responses in PLWH, controlled on ART, and HIV negative subjects. Both groups were in the convalescent phase of predominately mild COVID-19 disease. The majority of PLWH mounted SARS-CoV-2 Spike- and Nucleoprotein-specific antibodies with neutralizing activity and SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell responses, as measured by ELISpot, at levels comparable to HIV negative subjects. T cell responses against Spike, Membrane and Nucleocapsid were the most prominent, with SARS-CoV-2-specific CD4 T cells outnumbering CD8 T cells. Notably, the overall magnitude of SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell responses related to the size of the naive CD4 T cell pool and the CD4:CD8 ratio in PLWH, in whom disparate antibody and T cell responses were observed. Both humoral and cellular responses to SARS-CoV-2 were detected at 5-7 months post-infection, providing evidence of medium-term durability of responses irrespective of HIV serostatus. Incomplete immune reconstitution on ART and a low CD4:CD8 ratio could, however, hamper the development of immunity to SARS-CoV-2 and serve as a useful tool for risk stratification of PLWH. These findings have implications for the individual management and potential effectiveness of vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 in PLWH.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.15.431215v1" target="_blank">Characterization of humoral and SARS-CoV-2 specific T cell responses in people living with HIV</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Favourable antibody responses to human coronaviruses in children and adolescents with autoimmune rheumatic diseases</strong> -
<div>
Differences in humoral immunity to coronaviruses, including severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), between children and adults remain unexplained and the impact of underlying immune dysfunction or suppression unknown. Here, we examined the antibody immune competence of children and adolescents with prevalent inflammatory rheumatic diseases, juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), juvenile dermatomyositis (JDM) and juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus (JSLE), against the seasonal human coronavirus (HCoV)-OC43 that frequently infects this age group. Despite immune dysfunction and immunosuppressive treatment, JIA, JDM and JSLE patients mounted comparable or stronger responses than healthier peers, dominated by IgG antibodies to HCoV-OC43 spike, and harboured IgG antibodies that cross-reacted with SARS-CoV-2 spike. In contrast, responses to HCoV-OC43 and SARS-CoV-2 nucleoproteins exhibited delayed age-dependent class-switching and were not elevated in JIA, JDM and JSLE patients, arguing against increased exposure. Consequently, autoimmune rheumatic diseases and their treatment were associated with a favourable ratio of spike to nucleoprotein antibodies.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.15.431291v1" target="_blank">Favourable antibody responses to human coronaviruses in children and adolescents with autoimmune rheumatic diseases</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>A chicken IgY can efficiently inhibit the entry and replication of SARS-CoV-2 by targeting the ACE2 binding domain in vitro</strong> -
<div>
COVID-19 pneumonia is spreading widely in the world now. Currently, no specific antiviral drugs have been developed. The vaccine is the most effective way to control the epidemic. Passive immune antibodies are also an effective method to prevent and cure COVID-19 pneumonia. We used SARS-CoV-2 S-RBD as an antigen to immunize layers in order to extract, separate and purify SARS-CoV-2-IgY from egg yolk. SARS-CoV-2-IgY(S-IgY) can block the entry of SARS-CoV-2 into the Cells and reduce the viral load in cells. The EC50 of W3-IgY (S-IgY in the third week after immunization) is 1.35 {+/-} 0.15 nM. The EC50 of W9-IgY (S-IgY in the ninth week after immunization) is 2.76 {+/-} 1.54 nM. When the dose of S-IgY is 55 nM, the fluorescence representing intracellular viral protein is obviously weakenedin Immunofluorescence microscopy. Results of Sars-CoV-2/VeroE6 cell experiment confirmed that S-IgY had strong antiviral effecton SARS-Co-V-2, and its EC50 is 27.78 {+/-} 1.54nM vs 3259 {+/-} 159.62 nM of Redesivir (differ&gt;106 times, P&lt;0.001 ). S-IgY can inhibit the entry and replication of SARS-CoV-2, which is related to its targeting the ACE2 binding domain. S-IgY is safe, efficient, stable and easy to obtain. This antibody may have the potential to be an effective method for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 pneumonia.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.16.430255v1" target="_blank">A chicken IgY can efficiently inhibit the entry and replication of SARS-CoV-2 by targeting the ACE2 binding domain in vitro</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>A glycan gate controls opening of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein</strong> -
<div>
SARS-CoV-2 infection is controlled by the opening of the spike protein receptor binding domain (RBD), which transitions from a glycan-shielded (down) to an exposed (up) state in order to bind the human ACE2 receptor and infect cells. While snapshots of the up and down states have been obtained by cryoEM and cryoET, details of the RBD opening transition evade experimental characterization. Here, over 200 s of weighted ensemble (WE) simulations of the fully glycosylated spike ectodomain allow us to characterize more than 300 continuous, kinetically unbiased RBD opening pathways. Together with biolayer interferometry experiments, we reveal a gating role for the N-glycan at position N343, which facilitates RBD opening. Residues D405, R408, and D427 also participate. The atomic-level characterization of the glycosylated spike activation mechanism provided herein achieves a new high-water mark for ensemble pathway simulations and offers a foundation for understanding the fundamental mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2 viral entry and infection.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.15.431212v1" target="_blank">A glycan gate controls opening of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Transfer learning via multi-scale convolutional neural layers for human-virus protein-protein interaction prediction</strong> -
<div>
To predict interactions between human and viral proteins, we combine evolutionary sequence profile features with a Siamese convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture and a multi-layer perceptron (MLP). Our architecture outperforms various feature encodings-based machine learning and state-of-the-art prediction methods. As our main contribution, we introduce two types of transfer learning methods (i.e., frozen type and fine-tuning type) that reliably predict interactions in a target human-virus domain based on training in a source human-virus domain, by retraining CNN layers. Our transfer learning strategies can effectively apply prior knowledge transfer from large source dataset/task to small target dataset/task to improve prediction performance. Finally, we utilize the frozen type of transfer learning to predict human-SARS-CoV-2 PPIs, indicating that our predictions are topologically and functionally similar to experimentally known interactions.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.16.431420v1" target="_blank">Transfer learning via multi-scale convolutional neural layers for human-virus protein-protein interaction prediction</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Timeline of the Works on the Correlation between COVID-19 and Y-DNA Haplogroup R1b</strong> -
<div>
Soon after the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic, many works have been reporting a yet-to-be-explained correlation of COVID-19 prevalence and severity with Y-DNA haplogroup R1b frequency. Here a chronologically ordered list of such works is provided.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/gvxjw/" target="_blank">Timeline of the Works on the Correlation between COVID-19 and Y-DNA Haplogroup R1b</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>What is essential travel? Socio-economic differences in travel demand during the COVID-19 lockdown</strong> -
<div>
The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly reshaped urban mobility. During the lockdown, workers teleworked if possible and left home only for essential activities. Our study investigates the spatial patterns of essential travel and their socio-economic differences during the COVID-19 lockdown phase in comparison with the same period in 2019. Using data from Columbus, Ohio, we categorized travelers into high, moderate, and low socio-economic status (SES) clusters and modeled travel demand of SES clusters for both phases using spatially weighted interaction models. Then, we characterized the SES variability in essential travel based on frequently visited business activities from each cluster. Results suggest that disparities in travel across SES clusters existed prior to COVID-19 are exacerbated during the pandemic lockdown. The diffused travel pattern of high and moderate SES cluster became localized while the pre-existing localized travel pattern of low SES cluster became diffused. During the lockdown, the low and moderate SES clusters travelled mostly for work with long and medium distance trips, respectively, while the high SES cluster travelled mostly for recreational and other non-work purposes with short distance trips. This study draws some conclusions and implications to help researchers and practitioners plan for resilient and economically vibrant transportation systems in response to future shocks.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/qtkhb/" target="_blank">What is essential travel? Socio-economic differences in travel demand during the COVID-19 lockdown</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Prioritizing allocation of COVID-19 vaccines based on social contacts increases vaccination effectiveness</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
We study allocation of COVID-19 vaccines to individuals based on the structural properties of their underlying social contact network. Even optimistic estimates suggest that most countries will likely take 6 to 24 months to vaccinate their citizens. These time estimates and the emergence of new viral strains urge us to find quick and effective ways to allocate the vaccines and contain the pandemic. While current approaches use combinations of age-based and occupation-based prioritizations, our strategy marks a departure from such largely aggregate vaccine allocation strategies. We propose a novel approach motivated by recent advances in (i) science of real-world networks that point to efficacy of certain vaccination strategies and (ii) digital technologies that improve our ability to estimate some of these structural properties. Using a realistic representation of a social contact network for the Commonwealth of Virginia, combined with accurate surveillance data on spatiotemporal cases and currently accepted models of within- and between-host disease dynamics, we study how a limited number of vaccine doses can be strategically distributed to individuals to reduce the overall burden of the pandemic. We show that allocation of vaccines based on individuals9 degree (number of social contacts) and total social proximity time is significantly more effective than the currently used age-based allocation strategy in terms of number of infections, hospitalizations and deaths. Our results suggest that in just two months, by March 31, 2021, compared to age-based allocation, the proposed degree-based strategy can result in reducing an additional 56−110k infections, 3.2− 5.4k hospitalizations, and 700−900 deaths just in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Extrapolating these results for the entire US, this strategy can lead to 3−6 million fewer infections, 181−306k fewer hospitalizations, and 51−62k fewer deaths compared to age-based allocation. The overall strategy is robust even: (i) if the social contacts are not estimated correctly; (ii) if the vaccine efficacy is lower than expected or only a single dose is given; (iii) if there is a delay in vaccine production and deployment; and (iv) whether or not non-pharmaceutical interventions continue as vaccines are deployed. For reasons of implementability, we have used degree, which is a simple structural measure and can be easily estimated using several methods, including the digital technology available today. These results are significant, especially for resource-poor countries, where vaccines are less available, have lower efficacy, and are more slowly distributed.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.04.21251012v2" target="_blank">Prioritizing allocation of COVID-19 vaccines based on social contacts increases vaccination effectiveness</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Minimizing loss of life in Covid-19 in a 100 day period in the U.S.A. by personalized-dose vaccination and distribution of a limited vaccine supply</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background: We aimed at minimizing loss of lives in the Covid-19 pandemic in the USA by identifying optimal vaccination strategies during a 100-day period with limited vaccine supplies. While lethality is highest in the elderly, transmission and case numbers are highest in the younger. A strategy of first vaccinating the elderly is widely used, thought to protect the vulnerable, elderly best. Despite lower immunogenicity in the elderly, mRNA vaccines retain high efficacy, implying that in the younger, reduced vaccine doses might suffice, thereby increasing vaccination counts with a given vaccine supply. Methods: Using published immunogenicity data of the Moderna mRNA-1273 vaccine, we examined the value of tailored-dose vaccination strategies, using a modeling approach incorporating age-related vaccine immunogenicity, social contact patterns, population structure, Covid-19 case and death rates in the USA in late January 2021. An increase if the number of persons that can be vaccinated and a potential reduction of the individual protective efficacy was accounted for. Results: Age-tailored dosing strategies reduced cases faster, shortening the pandemic, reducing the delay to reaching &lt;100′000 cases/day from 64 to 30 days and avoiding 25′000 deaths within 100 days in the USA. In an ′elderly first′ vaccination strategy, mortality is higher even in the elderly. Findings were robust with transmission blocking efficacies of reduced dose vaccination between 30% to 90%, and with a vaccine supply from 1 to 3 million full dose vaccinations per day. Conclusion: Rapid reduction of Covid-19 case and death rate in the USA in 100 days with a limited vaccine supply is best achieved when personalized, age-tailored dosing for highly effective vaccines is used. Protecting the vulnerable is most effectively achieved by dose tailored vaccination of all population segments, while an ′elderly first′ approach costs more lives, even in the elderly.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.30.21250834v4" target="_blank">Minimizing loss of life in Covid-19 in a 100 day period in the U.S.A. by personalized-dose vaccination and distribution of a limited vaccine supply</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 Safety and Efficacy of a Single Dose of STI-2020 (COVI-AMG™) to Treat COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: COVI-AMG;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>An Effectiveness Study of the Sinovac’s Adsorbed COVID-19 (Inactivated) Vaccine</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: Adsorbed COVID-19 (Inactivated) Vaccine<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Butantan Institute<br/><b>Enrolling by invitation</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Telerehabilitation in Covid-19 After Hospital Discharge</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Other: Standard Physiotherapy program;   Other: Telerehabilitation<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Universidad de Granada<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 of the Kinetics of COVID-19 Antibodies for 24 Months in Patients With Confirmed SARS-CoV-2 Infection</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Covid19;   SARS-CoV 2<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: Sampling by venipuncture<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Centre Hospitalier Régional d’Orléans<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>Effect of Prone Position onV/Q Matching in Non-intubated Patients With COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: prone position<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Southeast University, China<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 Convalescent Plasma Therapy</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   SARS-CoV-2 Infection;   COVID-19 Infection<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: Convalescent plasma<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Angelica Samudio;   Consejo Nacional de Ciencias y Tecnología, Paraguay;   Ministerio de Salud Pública y Bienestar Social, Paraguay;   Centro de información y recursos para el desarrollo, Paraguay<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>Oxidative Stress Parameters, Trace Element and Quality of Life in Women Before and After Covid-19 Vaccines</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid-19 Vaccine<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: CoronoVac Vaccine<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Izmir Bakircay University;   Cigli Regional Training Hospital;   Muğla Sıtkı Koçman 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>Effectiveness of Ivermectin in SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: Ivermectin<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   FMH College of Medicine and Dentistry<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>COVID Antithrombotic Rivaroxaban Evaluation</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: Rivaroxaban 10 mg<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Hospital Alemão Oswaldo Cruz;   Bayer;   Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein;   Hospital do Coracao;   Hospital Sirio-Libanes;   Hospital Moinhos de Vento;   Brazilian Research In Intensive Care Network;   Brazilian Clinical Research Institute<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>AGILE (Early Phase Platform Trial for COVID-19)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: CST-2: EIDD-2801;   Drug: CST-2: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of Liverpool;   University of Southampton;   Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine;   Lancaster University;   Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Study to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of Prothione™ Capsules for Mild to Moderate Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Placebo;   Drug: Prothione™ (6g)<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Prothione, LLC<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Pulmonary Rehabilitation of Patients With a History of COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Procedure: Pulmonary rehabilitation<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   University of Rzeszow<br/><b>Enrolling by invitation</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ivermectin Role in Covid-19 Clinical Trial</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: ivermectin;   Drug: hydroxychloroquine;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Elaraby Hospital;   Shebin-Elkom Teaching Hospital<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>Safety, Tolerability and Efficacy Of S-1226 in Moderate Severity Covid-19 Bronchiolitis/Pneumonia</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Covid19;   SARS-CoV-2 Infection<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: S-1226<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   SolAeroMed 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>Community Network-driven COVID-19 Testing of Vulnerable Populations in the Central US</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: Social Network Strategy + COVID-19 messaging<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   University of Chicago<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-pubmed">From PubMed</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Evidence that Ginkgo Biloba could use in the influenza and coronavirus COVID-19 infections</strong> - Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic invades the world. Public health evaluates the incidence of infections and death, which should be reduced and need desperately quarantines for infected individuals. This article review refers to the roles of Ginkgo Biloba to reduce the risk of infection in the respiratory tract, the details on the epidemiology of corona COVID-19 and influenza, and it highlights how the Ginko Biloba could have been used as a novel treatment.Ginkgo Biloba can reduce the risk 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>Nonstructural protein 7 and 8 complexes of SARS-CoV-2</strong> - The pandemic outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) across the world has led to millions of infection cases and caused a global public health crisis. Current research suggests that SARS-CoV-2 is a highly contagious coronavirus that spreads rapidly through communities. To understand the mechanisms of viral replication, it is imperative to investigate coronavirus viral replicase, a huge protein complex comprising up to 16 viral nonstructural and associated host proteins, which is the most…</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>Potent, Novel SARS-CoV-2 PLpro Inhibitors Block Viral Replication in Monkey and Human Cell Cultures</strong> - Antiviral agents blocking SARS-CoV-2 viral replication are desperately needed to complement vaccination to end the COVID-19 pandemic. Viral replication and assembly are entirely dependent on two viral cysteine proteases: 3C-like protease (3CLpro) and the papain-like protease (PLpro). PLpro also has deubiquitinase (DUB) activity, removing ubiquitin (Ub) and Ub-like modifications from host proteins, disrupting the host immune response. 3CLpro is inhibited by many known cysteine protease…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Quantifying Absolute Neutralization Titers against SARS-CoV-2 by a Standardized Virus Neutralization Assay Allows for Cross-Cohort Comparisons of COVID-19 Sera</strong> - The global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has mobilized efforts to develop vaccines and antibody-based therapeutics, including convalescent-phase plasma therapy, that inhibit viral entry by inducing or transferring neutralizing antibodies (nAbs) against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spike glycoprotein (CoV2-S). However, rigorous efficacy testing requires extensive screening with live virus under onerous biosafety level 3 (BSL3) conditions, which…</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 Sialylation in Respiratory Viral Infection and Treatment</strong> - Respiratory infections caused by viruses such as influenza and coronavirus are a serious global problem due to their high infection rates and potential to spark pandemics, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic. Although preventing these infections by using vaccines has been the most successful strategy to date, effective vaccines are not always available. Therefore, developing broad-spectrum anti-viral drugs to treat such infections is essential, especially in the case of immunocompromised…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Coronavirus helicases: attractive and unique targets of antiviral drug-development and therapeutic patents</strong> - INTRODUCTION: Coronaviruses encode a helicase that is essential for viral replication and represents an excellent antiviral target. However, only a few coronavirus helicase inhibitors have been patented. These patents include drug-like compound SSYA10-001, aryl diketo acids (ADK), and dihydroxychromones. Additionally, adamantane-derived bananins, natural flavonoids, one acrylamide derivative [(E)-3-(furan-2-yl)-N-(4-sulfamoylphenyl)acrylamide], a purine derivative…</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 infection remodels the host protein thermal stability landscape</strong> - The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a global threat to human health and has compromised economic stability. In addition to the development of an effective vaccine, it is imperative to understand how SARS-CoV-2 hijacks host cellular machineries on a system-wide scale so that potential host-directed therapies can be developed. In situ proteome-wide abundance and thermal stability measurements using thermal proteome profiling (TPP) can inform on global changes in…</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>Medicinal plants: Treasure for antiviral drug discovery</strong> - The pandemic of viral diseases like novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) prompted the scientific world to examine antiviral bioactive compounds rather than nucleic acid analogous, protease inhibitors, or other toxic synthetic molecules. The emerging viral infections significantly associated with 2019-nCoV have challenged humanity’s survival. Further, there is a constant emergence of new resistant viral strains that demand novel antiviral agents with fewer side effects and cell toxicity. Despite…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>In vitro selection of an RNA aptamer yields an interleukin-6/interleukin-6 receptor interaction inhibitor</strong> - Interleukin-6 (IL-6) binds to the IL-6 receptor (IL-6R) subunit, related to autoimmune diseases and cytokine storm in COVID-19. In this study, we performed systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment and identified a novel RNA aptamer. This RNA aptamer not only bound to IL-6R with a dissociation constant of 200 n m, but also inhibited the interaction of IL-6R with IL-6.</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>De novo design of new chemical entities for SARS-CoV-2 using artificial intelligence</strong> - Background: The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has severely affected the health and economy of several countries. Multiple studies are in progress to design novel therapeutics against the potential target proteins in SARS-CoV-2, including 3CL protease, an essential protein for virus replication. Materials &amp; methods: In this study we employed deep neural network-based generative and predictive models for de novo design of small molecules capable of inhibiting the 3CL protease. The generative model…</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>Are vanadium complexes druggable against the main protease m(pro) of sars-cov-2? - a computational approach</strong> - In silico techniques helped explore the binding capacities of the SARS-CoV-2 main protease (M^(pro)) for a series of metalloorganic compounds. Along with small size vanadium complexes a vanadium-containing derivative of the peptide-like inhibitor N3 (N-[(5-methylisoxazol-3-yl)carbonyl]alanyl-l-valyl-N1-((1R,2Z)-4-(benzyloxy)-4-oxo-1-{[(3R)-2-oxopyrrolidin-3-yl] methyl }but-2-enyl)-l-leucinamide) was designed from the crystal structure with PDB entry code 6LU7. On theoretical grounds our…</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>Effect of Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine on COVID-19 Virological Outcomes: An Updated Meta-Analysis</strong> - As anti-malarial drugs have been found to inhibit Corona viruses in vitro, studies have evaluated the effect of these drugs inCOVID-19 infection. We conducted an updated meta-analysis of clinical trials and observational studies published till June 2020. Patients with reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) confirmed Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (COVID-19) infection were included. The drugs used in the intervention group are Chloroquine (CQ)/Hydroxychloroquine…</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>EGCG, a green tea polyphenol, inhibits human coronavirus replication in vitro</strong> - COVID-19 pandemic results in record high deaths in many countries. Although a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 is now available, effective antiviral drugs to treat coronavirus diseases are not available yet. Recently, EGCG, a green tea polyphenol, was reported to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 3CL-protease, however the effect of EGCG on coronavirus replication is unknown. In this report, human coronavirus HCoV-OC43 (beta coronavirus) and HCoV-229E (alpha coronavirus) were used to examine the effect of EGCG on…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Discovery and structural optimization of 3-O-beta-chacotriosyl oleanane-type triterpenoids as potent entry inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 virus infections</strong> - Currently, SARS-CoV-2 virus is an emerging pathogen that has posed a serious threat to public health worldwide. However, no agents have been approved to treat SARS-CoV-2 infections to date, underscoring the great need for effective and practical therapies for SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks. We reported that a focused screen of OA saponins identified 3-O-β-chacotriosyl OA benzyl ester 2 as a novel small molecule inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2 virus entry, via binding to SARS-CoV-2 glycoprotein (S). We performed…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Neutralizing antibodies targeting the SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain isolated from a naive human antibody library</strong> - Infection with SARS-CoV-2 elicits robust antibody responses in some patients, with a majority of the response directed at the receptor binding domain (RBD) of the spike surface glycoprotein. Remarkably, many patient-derived antibodies that potently inhibit viral infection harbor few to no mutations from the germline, suggesting that naïve antibody libraries are a viable means for discovery of novel SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies. Here, we used a yeast surface-display library of human naïve…</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>Compositions and methods for detecting SARS-CoV-2 spike protein</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU317343760">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>新冠病毒疫苗表达抗原蛋白的电化学发光免疫检测试剂盒</strong> - 本发明提供一种新冠病毒疫苗表达抗原蛋白的电化学发光免疫检测试剂盒，所述试剂盒至少包含：包被有链霉亲和素的孔板、生物素标记的抗新冠棘突蛋白抗体1、SULFO标记的抗新冠棘突蛋白抗体2、洗涤液、读数液、新冠病毒S蛋白标准品和新冠病毒RBD蛋白标准品。本发明以生物素标记的抗新冠棘突蛋白的抗体1与链霉亲和素板进行连接作为固定相，以新冠S蛋白、RBD蛋白作为参照品，可被SULFO标记的抗体2识别，从而检测新冠抗原的表达情况。该试剂盒能准确灵敏地定量检测不同基质中的新冠S蛋白、RBD蛋白，样品的前处理过程简单，耗时少，可同时检测大量样品。本发明对于大批量样品的新冠病毒疫苗表达抗原的检测具有重要意义。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN317672956">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>陶瓷复合涂料、杀毒陶瓷复合涂料及其制备方法和涂层</strong> - 本发明是关于一种陶瓷复合涂料、杀毒陶瓷复合涂料及其制备方法和涂层。该涂料包括30<sub>99.9%无机树脂、0.1</sub>70%氮化硅、0<sub>10%功能助剂、0</sub>18%无机颜料和0<sub>2%其他功能助剂；无机树脂由有机烷氧基硅烷、有机溶剂和硅溶胶混合、反应，抽醇，添加去离子水获得；有机烷氧基硅烷、有机溶剂和硅溶胶的质量比为1</sub>1.6：0.5~0.8：1。所要解决的技术问题是如何制备一种贮存稳定性好、可常温固化且膜层的物理化学性能优异的涂料；该涂料VOC含量低，具有良好的安全生产性，且涂料成膜过程中的VOC排放很低，利于环保；该膜层的硬度高、柔韧性好，不易开裂，且可以接触性杀灭病毒和细菌；该涂料既可常温固化，也可加热固化，无需现场两个剂型调配，施工方便，成本节约，从而更加适于实用。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN317672744">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SARS-CoV-2 antibodies</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU315792577">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SARS-CoV-2 antibodies</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU315792579">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>病毒核酸提取或保存试剂、引物探针组合、病毒扩增试剂、试剂盒及其应用</strong> - 本发明涉及病毒检测领域，特别涉及病毒核酸提取或保存试剂、引物探针组合、病毒扩增试剂、试剂盒及其应用。本发明病毒检测装置提供了一种简单易行的病毒核酸提取方法，整个过程大约5‑15分钟，回收纯化的核酸，可用于病毒核酸的检测。包括PCR、NASBA、LAMP、RPA等。相比较于传统的病毒提取方法，本方法病毒核酸回收率高、用时少、操作方便、易于临床推广。本发明涉及单管同时检测新型冠状病毒COVID‑19 N和ORF基因以及人源内参基因的等温扩增引物、探针组合序列和反应缓冲液，该体系特异性好，灵敏度高（50 cp/mL），特异性高，只需20 min的检测时间，最快可在10 min左右报阳性。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN317398766">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>一种侧链修饰的聚氨基酸及其制备方法和用途</strong> - 本发明提供了一种侧链修饰的聚氨基酸及其制备方法，所述侧链修饰的聚氨基酸具有如下优势：（1）主链和侧链结构及其连接方式都可以灵活选取，使制得的聚合物胶束具有良好生物相容性和靶向递送效率，（2）聚氨基酸主链的电荷极性为电正性，对主链的电荷调节促进胶束的pH值响应，帮助RNA从“溶酶体陷阱”中逃离进入胞浆，（3）通过量化侧链修饰脂肪链的链长、饱和度和脂肪链数量来控制侧链的疏水性部分，精确调节疏水部分的体积和缔合作用强度，（4）由于RNA和DNA在结构和负电性上的相似性，高效构建包裹和递送体，（5）通过双亲性功能高分子的侧链修饰引入不同的生物功能基团，实现递送体系对靶点组织和部位的特异性结合，提高靶向递送效果。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN317398760">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>靶向SARS-CoV-2冠状病毒的抗体及其诊断和检测用途</strong> - 本发明涉及靶向SARS‑CoV‑2冠状病毒的抗体及其诊断和检测用途。具体涉及特异性结合冠状病毒S蛋白的抗体或其抗原结合片段和抗体对以及包含所述抗体或其抗原结合片段和抗体对的检测产品。本发明还涉及编码所述抗体或抗原结合片段的核酸及包含其的宿主细胞，以及制备所述抗体或抗原结合片段的方法。此外，本发明涉及所述抗体或其抗原结合片段、抗体对的预防、治疗或诊断用途。相较于常规的IgG/IgM检测，该检测方法直接检测样本中病毒的RBD蛋白，可以有效避免可能的样本中无关IgG/IgM对于检测的干扰，有效提高检测的灵敏度。所述抗体或抗体对可用于诊断和/或检测冠状病毒。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN317346928">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A PHARMACEUTICAL COMPOSITION OF NITAZOXANIDE AND MEFLOQUINE AND METHOD THEREOF</strong> - A pharmaceutical composition for treating Covid-19 virus comprising a therapeutically effective amount of a nitazoxanide or its pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof and an mefloquine or its pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof is disclosed. The pharmaceutical composition comprises the nitazoxanide in the ratio of 0.05% to 66% w/v and the mefloquine in the ratio of 0.05% to 90% w/v. The composition is found to be effective for the treatment of COVID -19 (SARS-CoV2). The pharmaceutical composition of nitazoxanide and mefloquine has been found to be effective and is unexpectedly well tolerated with a low rate of side-effects, and equally high cure-rates than in comparable treatments. - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=IN316412781">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>TREATMENT OF COVID-19 WITH REBAMIPIDE</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU315792482">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Evolution of Alexey Navalny’s Nationalism</strong> - The Russian opposition politician has placed the right to self-determination at the center of his politics. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-evolution-of-alexey-navalnys-nationalism">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>History Will Find Trump Guilty</strong> - The former President avoided conviction in the Senate, but his era will be recalled for its authoritarian politics and lawless compulsions. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/history-will-find-trump-guilty">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Fight for Fifteen at an Orlando McDonald’s</strong> - For Cristian Cardona and his co-workers, the pandemic brought new meaning to a nationwide movement to raise the minimum wage. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/us-journal/the-fight-for-fifteen-at-an-orlando-mcdonalds">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>When Climate Change and Xenophobia Collide</strong> - During a hurricane, migrants in the Bahamas were told that they could seek shelter without fear. More than a thousand were deported, reflecting a global trend. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/when-climate-change-and-xenophobia-collide">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Survival Center Tries to Survive the Pandemic</strong> - Bobby Simpson has been distributing food in Kentucky for decades. Now the people who usually help him help others are hurting, too. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/us-journal/a-survival-center-tries-to-survive-the-pandemic">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Why Biden can’t ignore Iraq and Afghanistan, even if he might want to</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/gh1te4LRpxR38XA5Jnt7tOcE8nk=/469x0:3310x2131/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/68827408/1231073314.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Afghanistan’s forces take part in a military operation against Taliban militants in Shirzad, Afghanistan, on February 9. | Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua via Getty
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Biden can’t forever ignore the forever wars.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="y11298">
When President Joe Biden gave his first <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/02/04/remarks-by-president-biden-on-americas-place-in-the-world/">foreign policy address</a> two weeks ago, he didn’t once mention the words “Iraq” or “Afghanistan.” But events in those two countries over the past 24 hours have offered a stark reminder to the administration that it can’t forever ignore America’s forever wars.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="plM1hu">
In Iraq, <a href="https://twitter.com/OIRSpox/status/1361581419227734016?s=20">rockets</a> seemingly launched by an <a href="https://twitter.com/PhillipSmyth/status/1361440123737542660?s=20">Iranian-backed militia</a> on Monday killed a non-American civilian contractor at a military base in Erbil. Nine others were injured, including four US contractors and one service member, according to Col. Wayne Marotto, the spokesperson for the US-led coalition against ISIS.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ELJpc2">
And in Afghanistan, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/15/world/asia/taliban-afghanistan.html">Taliban has closed in on major cities</a> just a few months before the scheduled departure of US forces on May 1. The insurgent group released an <a href="http://alemarahenglish.net/?p=42767">open letter</a> to Americans on Tuesday, basically asking the Biden administration to trust the Taliban to lead the nation and respect human rights after the troops leave — a dubious claim at best.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hQDjDd">
Even as Biden would prefer to spend most of his time addressing <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/8/18/21334630/joe-biden-foreign-policy-explainer">the coronavirus, China, and climate change</a>, it’s clear that, like every president since George W. Bush, he’ll continually have his attention diverted toward Afghanistan and Iraq.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UtTm7Q">
It’s not that he and his team have neglected those countries. Defense chiefs from NATO nations are meeting over the next two days in large part to discuss plans for <a href="https://www.defense.gov/Explore/News/Article/Article/2503402/nato-defense-ministers-to-discuss-future-of-alliance-during-ministerial/">Afghanistan and Iraq</a>. The administration is also <a href="https://www.vox.com/22272240/biden-trump-national-security-council-yemen-myanmar">reviewing</a> its policies in the two countries, weighing what to keep from the past four years and what to change.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="S6oSs0">
But recent events have added an extra sense of urgency, with US troops under threat in an increasingly unstable Iraq, and a tough decision looming for the president in Afghanistan: leave the country to almost certain ruin, or stay and face another deadly fighting season against the Taliban?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3IObde">
In normal times, those would be tough issues for any administration to handle. In this era, they’re extra difficult.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xZOreO">
“It does seem like the bandwidth for Afghanistan and Iraq is limited,” said Andrew Watkins, senior analyst for Afghanistan at the International Crisis Group. “It’s not that there’s no interest; it’s just that there are other priorities.”
</p>
<h3 id="JzEz4s">
Iraq “will put itself on the agenda”
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kr4S9s">
Iran has long used its ties to <a href="https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/shia-militia-mapping-project">Shia militia groups in Iraq</a>, many of which are funded and directed by Tehran, to expand its influence in the country and thwart the US war effort there, including through attacks <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/3/13/21178125/us-attack-iraq-iran-hezbollah-pentagon">targeting US, Iraqi, and other international troops</a>. Monday’s attack, then, was a lethal continuation of that standoff.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/OUPdtBwcG2riA22fbe_oNlGOMk8=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22308403/1231195522.jpg"/> <cite>Safin Hamed/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
A worker cleans shattered glass outside a damaged shop on February 16 following a rocket attack in Erbil, Iraq.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cjL7sM">
It’s unclear why the rocket attacks happened now. The most likely explanation experts have offered is that <a href="https://twitter.com/AOstovar/status/1361429942739763203?s=20">Iran is trying to pressure the US</a> to lift sanctions on it and reenter the nuclear deal. Whatever the reason, the assault makes clear that Iraq remains a battleground between the US and Iran — meaning it will continue to be a problem for the Biden administration as long as US forces remain in the country.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2PpuKQ">
“Iraq is going to keep rearing its head,” said Randa Slim, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington, DC. “It will put itself on the agenda.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cY55O3">
Some analysts I spoke to said their hope is that the Biden team won’t view its Iraq policy solely as an extension of Iran policy. Indeed, beyond the Iranian proxy problem, Iraq is suffering from a <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/sada/81976">deep governance crisis as millions go hungry due to a collapsing economy</a>. Experts fear an Iraq in decline could prove fertile ground for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/19/us/politics/isis-iraq-syria.html">ISIS’s resurgence</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XbMMyw">
For the moment, though, experts aren’t overly pleased by what they see from Biden’s team.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ofbi0q">
“During the Obama administration, [Iraq] policy was crafted to not aggravate Iran and sometimes work indirectly together, whether to guard the nuclear deal or fight ISIS, with little regard to Iraq itself,” said Rasha Al Aqeedi, senior analyst at the Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy in DC. “Under Trump, Iraq was merely a front to confront Iran. It appears the Biden administration is readopting the former’s policy.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QoXPkl">
“Not considering an independent Iraq policy has had an awful outcome” in the past, she concluded.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BpYeDT">
The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment. But the administration has been saying the right things, at least so far. A <a href="https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Releases/Release/Article/2503969/readout-of-secretary-of-defense-lloyd-j-austin-iiis-call-with-iraqi-minister-of/source/GovDelivery/">summary</a> of a Tuesday call between Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Iraqi counterpart noted that “the United States remains committed to supporting our Iraqi partners in their efforts to defend Iraq’s sovereignty” and the reaffirmation of the “strategic partnership” between the two countries.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="u23m8Y">
But whether Biden can sustain the needed time and attention for such complicated, long-term problems in Iraq — with all that’s already going on in the world — remains an early question.
</p>
<h3 id="ZsvbQu">
Afghanistan’s US troop-withdrawal deadline is fast approaching
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="geqsAa">
By May 1, Biden must make a crucial decision: withdraw all 2,500 US troops from Afghanistan, or stay involved in the 20-year war?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Olmyj5">
Such a choice was forced on this administration by the last one. The <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2020/2/29/21158939/us-taliban-sign-peace-deal-troops-afghanistan">US and the Taliban last February struck a deal</a>: All American troops would leave the country by early May, and in the meantime the Taliban wouldn’t attack US or NATO coalition troops. Both sides have held their ends of the bargain, as roughly 10,000 service members have left the country while the US has suffered <a href="https://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/us-goes-one-year-without-a-combat-death-in-afghanistan-as-taliban-warn-against-reneging-on-peace-deal-1.661464">no combat deaths</a>.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/nJPPc_z5PC1uIFtVKHrCntkI8fg=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22308406/1231073325.jpg"/> <cite>Xinhua/Saifurahman Safi via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Afghan National Security Forces take part in a military operation against Taliban militants in Shirzad, Afghanistan, on February 9.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1qGEwH">
<a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/21439556/2020-election-trump-biden-peace-war">Biden has promised to bring home US combat troops from Afghanistan</a>, but he never committed to doing so right away, giving himself until the <a href="https://www.cfr.org/article/presidential-candidates-war-afghanistan">end of his first term</a>. He also said he would still potentially keep a small US military presence in the country to continue counterterrorism operations <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/international/536694-recalibrating-us-strategy-for-peace-in-afghanistan">against ISIS and al-Qaeda</a>. That meant it was always possible Biden wouldn’t abide by the terms of the Trump-era deal.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xfqxkw">
His administration has signaled as much. In January, chief Pentagon spokesperson <a href="https://apnews.com/article/troop-withdrawals-military-and-defense-taliban-john-kirby-afghanistan-5fe4ff472db4e9795cab2a520053229e">John Kirby</a> said the Taliban’s violence against Afghans and continued ties to al-Qaeda cast doubt on America’s scheduled departure in May, and the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/15/world/asia/taliban-afghanistan.html">New York Times</a> reported this week that the Defense Department has requested more military options for the country — including an increase of troops.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Fdef4y">
Administration officials and experts tell me Biden’s team is deep into its Afghanistan policy review. Some worry, that it’s a plodding process that could run up to the May 1 deadline. “They seem pretty set on taking their time,” said the International Crisis Group’s Watkins. Meanwhile, two US officials told me the review is nearly complete, well ahead of schedule.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QfbIA1">
Still, that the review hasn’t wrapped may explain why the Taliban put out a letter Tuesday pressuring the US to get out sooner rather than later. “The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is aware of its obligations, other parties must also discharge their own obligations,” read the <a href="http://alemarahenglish.net/?p=42767">statement</a> by Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar Akhund, chief of the Taliban’s political office, using the group’s preferred name for its political organization.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FJcYfP">
Of course, Biden faces a near-impossible decision. If he commits to the withdrawal, many analysts fear the Taliban will exploit the resulting vacuum to push for another complete takeover of the country. The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/15/world/asia/taliban-afghanistan.html">New York Times</a> reports that the insurgent group has taken military outposts outside major cities like Kunduz and Kandahar, perhaps in preparation for such a fight.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oNMGq7">
But if Biden chooses to keep US troops in the country, it’s likely the US will see more Americans killed, adding to the <a href="https://www.defense.gov/casualty.pdf">2,400</a> already lost since the US invaded the country in 2001. What’s more, violating the terms of the US-Taliban agreement<strong> </strong>might end any near-term chance for peace. “It could be a generationally defining moment in the Taliban where they decide talking isn’t worth it,” Watkins told me.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="znWCip">
There are other issues that will come up during the NATO meeting this week, and discussions there might inform what Biden will do. But the looming deadline might be cause for the administration — and the president in particular — to prioritize Afghanistan policy more than it has already.
</p></li>
<li><strong>Why the Texas power grid is struggling to cope with the extreme cold</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="The Texas Capitol is surrounded by snow on February 15 in Austin, Texas." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/B9nif6CPyALZD1OPg237XJqC4cQ=/353x0:5612x3944/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/68825373/GettyImages_1231190396.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
A sudden winter storm has triggered power outages across Texas, including its capital, Austin. | Montinique Monroe/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A sudden spike in energy demand and a loss of natural gas, coal, nuclear, and wind energy during a winter storm triggered blackouts across the state.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RXTsWz">
Winter Storm Uri chilled large areas of the western, central, and southern US over the weekend, straining the power grid in some places so badly that millions of Americans have had to go without power in temperatures below freezing.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vrRJnt">
The <a href="https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/discussions/hpcdiscussions.php?disc=pmdspd">National Weather Service</a> on Monday reported that 150 million Americans were under various winter storm warnings, with heavy snow and ice still likely to sweep from the southern Plains, to the Ohio Valley, to the Northeast.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MIZlmg">
Thousands of utility customers in states like <a href="https://www.wwltv.com/article/weather/severe-weather/power-outages-latest-updates-winter-storm-louisiana/289-c55bfe6f-b4fd-41e5-835d-58873d70c671">Louisiana</a> and <a href="https://www.wtok.com/2021/02/15/mississippi-power-outage-update/">Mississippi</a> suffered blackouts as ice knocked out power lines.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vBSYql">
Texans, however, may be shivering more than others, with some of the coldest temperatures in 30 years, and some of the biggest power grid problems. More than <a href="https://poweroutage.us/area/state/texas">4.2 million customers</a> had lost power as of Tuesday morning, when temperatures dipped as low as 4 degrees Fahrenheit — lower than Anchorage, Alaska — in cities like Dallas. Flights were canceled out of <a href="https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/austin-airport-flights-canceled-winter-weather/269-954ab80c-f1c3-4931-9154-de0f8a64e2f7">Austin-Bergstrom International Airport</a>. On Sunday, President Joe Biden approved a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/02/14/president-joseph-r-biden-jr-approves-texas-emergency-declaration/">state of emergency</a> declaration for Texas following a request from Gov. Greg Abbott.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="F90SJT">
For residents of the Lone Star State, the problem stems from both a record spike in electricity demand in a place that rarely gets this cold, as well as an unexpected drop in the supply of energy from <a href="https://www.statesman.com/story/news/politics/2021/02/15/rolling-texas-blackouts-2-million-without-power-statewide/6752280002/">natural gas, coal, wind, nuclear, and solar</a> sources besieged by cold and ice.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nLym6Z">
This combination of shortfalls has forced power grid operators to conduct rolling blackouts, where power is shut off to different areas for a limited period of time. Local utilities are asking customers to conserve power and set their thermostats lower. For some customers, these blackouts aren’t rolling, instead stretching on for an unknown duration. On Tuesday afternoon, grid operators told Texas legislators that <a href="https://www.dallasnews.com/news/weather/2021/02/16/ercot-says-they-have-no-idea-when-texas-power-outages-will-end/">outages could last for days</a> and that they weren’t sure when the power outages would end.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TPbs5S">
In Harris County, which includes the city of Houston, health workers <a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Harris-County-hustles-to-distribute-8-400-15952293.php">scrambled to distribute Covid-19 vaccines</a> as freezers lost power and backup generators failed. The county had to hurriedly administer 8,500 doses of the Covid-19 Moderna vaccine, which must be stored at temperatures between minus 13 degrees and 5 degrees Fahrenheit.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GFnQNZ">
Throughout the state, the <a href="https://twitter.com/HaydenJSparks/status/1361421456484093955">National Guard has been deployed</a> and 135 public warming centers have opened up to give people a respite from the frigid weather, although Covid-19 precautions remain in effect.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GDsj2H">
Texas’s grid crisis is a stark reminder that extreme weather events like Uri remain a threat to energy infrastructure across the country. There are, however, some unique factors in Texas that have put the state in such a precarious position. And with more frigid weather in store this week, Texans can’t come in from the cold just yet.
</p>
<h3 id="Uw6x8J">
Why the extreme cold has the Texas power grid shaking in its boots
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZHqAfh">
Unlike other states, Texas operates its own internal power grid that serves much of the state. Managed by the nonprofit Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or <a href="http://www.ercot.com/">ERCOT</a>, the grid provides 90 percent of the state’s electricity and serves 26 million customers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4Hzb1B">
It draws on a diverse range of power sources in a competitive market. The <a href="https://www.eia.gov/state/?sid=TX#tabs-4">largest source of electricity</a> in Texas is natural gas, followed by wind and solar, coal, then nuclear. The state is the largest oil, natural gas, and wind energy producer in the US.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="h8A7Mw">
The sudden cold snap this weekend put the state’s ample resources to the test, with demand reaching a record high peak for the winter, more than 69,000 megawatts. That’s 3,200 MW higher than the previous record set in 2018.
</p>
<div id="L1EPqy">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ERCOT?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ERCOT</a> set a new winter peak demand record this evening, reaching 69,150 MW between 6 and 7 p.m. This is more than 3,200 MW higher than the previous winter peak set back in January 2018. Thanks to everyone who has been conserving today. We appreciate it! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/conserve?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#conserve</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/saveenergy?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#saveenergy</a> <a href="https://t.co/eq56LLxcAS">pic.twitter.com/eq56LLxcAS</a>
</p>
— ERCOT (<span class="citation" data-cites="ERCOT_ISO">@ERCOT_ISO</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/ERCOT_ISO/status/1361142665140711427?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 15, 2021</a>
</blockquote></div></li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oiU9Xe">
As demand reached new heights, the supply of electricity fell drastically in the past few days, far below what operators expected. Ordinarily, ERCOT plans for winter to be much warmer and anticipates a lower energy demand. Power providers often schedule downtime and maintenance during the winter months to prepare for the massive annual surge in electricity demand in the hot Texas summer. The state’s ample wind and solar energy resources are also diminished in the winter, so ERCOT doesn’t depend on them to meet much of the demand they anticipate.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PFq0b0">
However, the cold itself posed a direct challenge to the power sources that the state was counting on. <a href="https://www.statesman.com/story/news/2021/02/14/historic-winter-storm-freezes-texas-wind-turbines-hampering-electric-generation/4483230001/">Wind turbines</a> iced up. Coal piles froze.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="a5PJeN">
The biggest shortfall in energy production stemmed from natural gas. <a href="https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/local/ozarks/2021/02/15/springfield-city-utilities-issues-alert-natural-gas-shortage-cold-weather/6750133002/">Gas pipelines</a> were blocked with ice or their compressors lost power. Much of the gas that was available was prioritized for heating homes and businesses rather than generating electricity. That’s helpful for people who use gas for heating but less so for those who use electric furnaces.
</p>
<div id="7s9Qgo">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
The Texas power grid has not been compromised.<br/><br/>The ability of some companies that generate the power has been frozen. <br/><br/>This includes the natural gas &amp; coal generators.<br/><br/>They are working to get generation back on line. <br/><br/>ERCOT &amp; PUC are prioritizing residential consumers. <a href="https://t.co/wDiDXN17Fu">https://t.co/wDiDXN17Fu</a>
</p>
— Greg Abbott (<span class="citation" data-cites="GregAbbott_TX">@GregAbbott_TX</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/GregAbbott_TX/status/1361398774216744967?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 15, 2021</a>
</blockquote>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bqW9zx">
Wholesale natural gas prices, meanwhile, shot up as much as <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-12/weekend-freeze-to-set-records-in-u-s-as-energy-prices-spike">4,000 percent</a>. According to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-12/weekend-freeze-to-set-records-in-u-s-as-energy-prices-spike">Bloomberg</a>, electricity prices in northern Texas jumped to $300 per megawatt-hour, up from the average this month of $18 per megawatt-hour.
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In total, about <a href="http://www.ercot.com/news/releases/show/225244">34,000 megawatts of power generation</a> in Texas went offline during the winter blast, more than 40 percent of peak winter demand. So even with a diverse range of energy sources, Texas was left scrounging for electrons in the bitter cold.
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Many parts of the country suffer outages in extreme weather, but everything is bigger in Texas
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The power grid is a complex beast, but it becomes unstable when there is more energy demand than supply, which forces drastic actions like deliberate blackouts.
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One question many Texans are asking is whether ERCOT should have seen a scenario like this coming and done more to prepare. ERCOT has historically been more worried about meeting peak summer demand, which can top <a href="https://www.eia.gov/electricity/state/texas/">125,000 megawatts</a> as hundreds of thousands of air conditioners switch on to cool during the summer heat.
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However, Texas has faced cold snaps before, and the current winter storm was forecast days in advance. Some <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588&amp;xs=1&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fs41467-018-02992-9%3Fftag%3DYHF4eb9d17&amp;referrer=vox.com&amp;sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2F2021%2F2%2F16%2F22284140%2Ftexas-blackout-outage-winter-storm-uri-ercot-power-grid-cold-snow-austin-houston-dallas" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">research suggests that as climate change warms the Arctic</a>, periods of extreme winter weather may become more frequent in the United States, and cold snaps that stress the power grid may become more common. But other climate researchers are skeptical of these results and think that periods of <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588&amp;xs=1&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fs41558-020-00954-y&amp;referrer=vox.com&amp;sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2F2021%2F2%2F16%2F22284140%2Ftexas-blackout-outage-winter-storm-uri-ercot-power-grid-cold-snow-austin-houston-dallas" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">extreme cold will become less likely</a> as the planet warms.
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ERCOT did do some modeling and planning ahead of this winter, but they used past winters as their benchmarks, which aren’t much help when the cold dips to record-breaking lows. “We studied a range of potential risks under both normal and extreme conditions, and believe there is sufficient generation to adequately serve our customers,” said Peter Warnken, manager of resource adequacy at ERCOT, in a report <a href="http://www.ercot.com/content/wcm/lists/197378/SARA-FinalWinter2020-2021.pdf">forecasting winter energy demand and supply</a> in Texas.
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The state was only expecting to lose about 8,600 megawatts in power generation over the winter, with a peak demand of roughly 58,000 megawatts. That forecast was far off the mark from the 34,000 megawatts that went offline and the peak of 69,000 megawatts in the recent winter storm.
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Part of the problem may also be Texas’s go-it-alone approach to its electricity. “The Texas power grid is really an island,” said <a href="https://www.bakerinstitute.org/experts/daniel-cohan/">Daniel Cohan</a>, an associate professor of environmental engineering at Rice University who has done modeling research on the state’s power systems. “Whatever happens in Texas stays in Texas.” While there are some interconnections between Texas and neighboring states, those power lines aren’t adequate to draw the power it would need to cope with such a massive shortfall.
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<a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2018/1/3/16844854/energy-markets-coal-bailout-winter-cold-snap">Energy trading across states</a> has helped cushion the blow of extreme cold in past winters, but it’s not clear that there would be much power available for Texans to buy from other states right now, as many are also coping with their own soaring energy demands and supply shortfalls.
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The Texas blackouts may also be a symptom of a lack of proper upkeep. “The ERCOT grid has collapsed in exactly the same manner as the old Soviet Union,” Ed Hirs, an energy fellow in the department of economics at the University of Houston, told the <a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Wholesale-power-prices-spiking-across-Texas-15951684.php?utm_campaign=CMS%20Sharing%20Tools%20(Premium)&amp;utm_source=t.co&amp;utm_medium=referral">Houston Chronicle</a>. “It limped along on underinvestment and neglect until it finally broke under predictable circumstances.”
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And Texas isn’t the only part of the country that has struggled to stay warm in chilly winters. In 2019, a winter storm swept across the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/1/31/18205244/polar-vortex-cold-heat-natural-gas">Midwest and Northeast</a>, with spikes in electricity demand and sudden drops in natural gas production that forced people to ration heat and reduce power use.
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On the other end of the spectrum, <a href="https://grist.org/energy/renewables-didnt-cause-californias-blackouts-so-what-did/">California suffered rolling blackouts</a> last summer as energy demand surged amid <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/147256/california-heatwave-fits-a-trend">record-breaking heat</a>. California utilities also shut off power to customers to <a href="https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/general.aspx?id=6442465765">prevent the ignition of wildfires</a>, when high winds picked up amid dry weather.
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These events triggered by weather extremes can overwhelm energy systems, even for those that face such spikes and dips on a regular basis. It’s too reductive to blame any individual factor like intermittent renewable energy, fossil fuel generator shutdowns, decrepit infrastructure, or inadequate planning, though such events often become a <a href="https://twitter.com/tedcruz/status/1296134869320380419">political Rorschach test</a>.
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Rather, it’s a combination of multiple cascading failures that leaves millions of people in the dark. The hope now is that the power outages in Texas will provide important lessons and help avoid similar problems in the future. “I think this is an event that people are going to be looking back at for years,” Cohan said.
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<li><strong>Understanding Silence of the Lambs’ complicated cultural legacy</strong> -
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/J5HQIajzL0A0QRuTws4NqjobGgU=/98x0:1761x1247/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/68827001/silence.0.png"/>
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Jodi Foster’s Clarice Starling in <em>Silence of the Lambs</em>. | Orion Pictures
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30 years after its debut, the classic horror film’s influence is so much bigger than Hannibal Lecter.
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The movie version of <em>The Silence of the Lambs</em> just turned 30 years old, and even setting aside all the fava beans and chianti jokes, it’s not a stretch to call the 1991 horror movie about an epicurean cannibal and the young FBI agent he mentors in the hunt for a serial killer one of the most important films ever made.
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On one level, <em>Silence of the Lambs</em>’ critical accolades speak for themselves. It remains the only horror movie in history to win the Oscar for Best Picture. It is one of <a href="http://oscartrivia.com/acting.html#bothbest">the few films ever</a> to deliver lead acting Oscars to both of its leads: Jodie Foster as the troubled agent Clarice Starling and Anthony Hopkins as psychopath-cum-psychologist Hannibal Lecter — though Hopkins appeared in the movie for less than half an hour. And it’s one of <a href="https://reelrundown.com/film-industry/only-films-to-win-all-big-five-oscars">only three films</a> in history to sweep the “big five” Oscar awards — a full house of the two lead acting Oscars, Best Adapted Screenplay (to writer Ted Tally), Best Picture, and Best Direction to Jonathan Demme.
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Then there’s the cultural staying power of <em>Silence of the Lambs</em> and its characters, as well as the entire series of novels by Thomas Harris on which they’re based. A previous attempt to bring the Harris novels to the screen, Michael Mann’s 1986 film <em>Manhunter</em>, which <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN244X4OiLQ">featured</a> <em>Succession</em>’s Brian Cox as Lecter, was a box office flop. But the success of <em>Silence of the Lambs</em> in 1991 eventually spawned a sequel (2001’s <em>Hannibal</em>), two prequels (2002’s <em>Red Dragon</em> and 2007’s <em>Hannibal Rising</em>), the critically acclaimed NBC series <em>Hannibal</em> (2013-2015), and the CBS crime procedural <em>Clarice</em>, which debuted this month.
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It also engendered decades of parodies, references, and homages throughout every corner of pop culture, from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9cERvUX6sE">Billy Crystal’s famous entrance to the Oscars</a> in 1992 to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Js6-uvTIu0s">comedy sketches</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uS5FvK7AQZ4">Lego reenactments</a>, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfnqIMvrduo">countless riffs in movies and on TV</a>. The sheer cultural dominance of <em>Silence of the Lambs</em> over the years is hard to quantify; at this point, it’s likely that every major scene from the film is recognizable to many Americans, even if they’ve never seen it, just from the overwhelming number of references that have permeated pop culture — from the fava beans to the lotion in the basket to Precious the dog.
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There are few other films in existence that we can make similar claims about — especially R-rated horror movies whose graphic, gory, and/or terrifying content would typically prevent them from reaching cultural saturation. And yet today, one has only to mimic Hannibal Lecter’s unforgettable “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEQZiElLp-E">fffffffff hiss-slurp</a>” to invoke the entire film and our collective impressions of it, both overwrought and chilling.
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Even at 30, <em>Silence of the Lambs</em> — for all it’s been endlessly parodied — remains a well-acted, superbly directed, and deeply disturbing film. Outside of giving us decades of bad Hannibal impressions, it’s had a profound impact on just about every aspect of pop culture: the media’s portrayal of women in the workplace; a collective fascination with serial killers as well as a collective interest in true crime and crime procedurals; the roles that women in Hollywood are “allowed” to play; and the cultural reception not only of horror movies but of genre movies in general. It has also profoundly impacted the trans community, though decidedly not for the better.
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That’s a hell of a legacy for one film to have, so let’s break down some of <em>Silence of the Lambs</em>’ biggest cultural impacts.
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<em>Silence of the Lambs</em> elevated mainstream horror after a decade of schlocky teen camp — and proved genre films could also have prestige
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From the beginning, <em>Silence of the Lambs</em> was a cultural event. I was too young to see the movie when it first came out, but its opening weekend still made a vivid impression on me: I remember my mother’s reaction after attending a packed showing, as she excitedly described the experience of being in the dark with Jodi Foster at the film’s climax.
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Foster’s agent Starling was terrified as she navigated a pitch-black room, unaware that the film’s villain, Buffalo Bill (played by Ted Levine), was watching her through night-vision goggles. Thanks to director Jonathan Demme’s skillful manipulation of the audience’s point of view, viewers were watching Clarice through the same lenses — and to my preteen ears, listening to my mom recall the ending and the gasps of the audience, few things had ever been more harrowing. That immediate audience buzz made <em>Silence of the Lambs</em> a sleeper hit, propelling it to unexpected box office success.
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The film eventually grossed <a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0102926/">$130 million</a> at the domestic box office — more than any other horror film at that point except <em>Jaws</em> and <em>The Exorcist</em>. In the 15 years after those films, horror had become the realm of schlocky teen slashers, with the focus shifting away from the psychological horror of the ’70s to a more overwrought, teen-friendly aesthetic, in keeping with the ’80s as a whole. The genre became a landscape of elaborate practical effects and gore, punctuated by animatronic creatures (think <em>Gremlins</em> or any ’80s werewolf movie), with campy slashers like <em>Nightmare on Elm Street</em> or <em>Sleepaway Camp</em> prevailing.
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Today, there’s a lot about <em>Silence of the Lambs</em> that feels like caricature. Taken out of the context of the movie and its restrained tone, nearly every famous performance in it can come across as hammy and comical, from Hopkins’s leering Lecter to Foster’s deep Southern drawl to the creepy exaggerated sexism of her FBI colleagues. As a film, however, <em>Silence of the Lambs</em> is methodical, suspenseful, and eerie, with flashes of nightmarish details that hint at a much larger world of horror — and it felt that way to contemporary viewers. “‘The Silence of the Lambs’ is delicious with foreboding, a masterly suspense thriller that toys with our anticipation like a well-fed cat,” Rita Kempley wrote in the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/thesilenceofthelambsrkempley_a0a158.htm">Washington Post’s review of the film</a>. “Adroitly directed by Jonathan Demme, it lurks about the exquisite edge of horror, before finally leaping into an unholy maw of bloody bones and self-awareness.”
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While <em>Silence of the Lambs</em> did owe something to the idea that horror movies are just for teen date nights — it premiered on Valentine’s Day, after all — it also took a drastic tonal shift from most mainstream horror of the era. The film reverted to the much more sophisticated and atmospheric moods of previous decades of horror, announcing ’90s horror as a class that would mix the genre’s most overwrought elements with a thorough grounding in reality, thus paving the way for most of the decade’s important horror work, from <em>The Sixth Sense</em> to <em>The X-Files</em>.
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It also proved that genre films and box office blockbusters could be taken seriously by critics and Academy voters — a subject that remains a sticking point for cinephiles and genre buffs. To date, while <em>Silence of the Lambs</em> is still the only horror film that has won Best Picture, its success and cultural dominance have helped make space for other genre films in the main Oscar categories — like <em>Get Out</em>’s Best Picture nomination in 2017, and fantasy <em>The Shape of Water</em>’s Best Picture win that same year.
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But if <em>Silence of the Lambs</em> felt grounded in reality, despite its many overblown performances and tropes, that was largely thanks to one character — Clarice Starling — and her struggle to navigate a ruthlessly sexist workplace.
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Clarice Starling influenced a generation of women detectives and “strong female characters”
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“I felt the twinge that Clarice had the potential for joining the ranks of the great all-time movie heroines,” Demme told the Hollywood Reporter in 2016, in response to <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/50-best-female-characters-entertainment-industry-survey-results-951483">a survey ranking agent Starling</a> as one of Hollywood’s most loved female heroines. “Jodie led the charge on bringing the film’s theme — one young woman fighting her way through a male-dominated ecosystem to save the life of another young woman — into vivid cinematic focus.”
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Foster’s performance — and the seriousness with which she and Demme took Starling as a character — elevated <em>Silence of the Lambs</em> and made Starling a film icon, a now-<a href="https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/fearless-female-movie-heroes-who-inspire-us/">routine</a> <a href="https://www.goldderby.com/gallery/strong-female-characters-greatest-films/women-taking-charge-norma-rae/">addition</a> to every “strong female character” list. Her mix of fragility, determination, and independence gave her complexity at a time when women’s workplace struggles were <a href="https://slate.com/human-interest/2017/04/director-jonathan-demme-faced-down-silence-of-the-lambs-gay-backlash.html">usually depicted</a> as comedic, and broke ground for an entire generation of female characters. Without her, we arguably wouldn’t have had <em>The X-Files</em>’ agent Scully; <em>Silence of the Lambs</em> <a href="http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/articles/the-x-files-faith-and-paranoia-in-america/">reportedly inspired</a> series creator Chris Carter’s concept of the show as well as <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-SEB-89468">Gillian Anderson’s portrayal</a> of Scully herself.
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<em>Silence of the Lambs</em> also kicked off a decade that saw a huge boom in television crime procedurals, many featuring dogged women ferreting their way through cases while battling institutional sexism. One can trace a direct line from Clarice Starling to characters like <em>Law &amp; Order: SVU</em>’s Olivia Benson or Helen Mirren’s brusque Jane Tennison in the long-running British classic <em>Prime Suspect.</em> Even the string of late ’90s and early 2000s thrillers about broken women surviving trauma seem to have a relationship to Starling or to <em>Silence of the Lambs</em>’ kidnap victim Catherine (Brooke Smith) — think, like, every Ashley Judd thriller of the era, from <em>Kiss the Girls</em> (1997) to <em>Double Jeopardy</em> (1999). At opposite ends of a spectrum of women in uniform, Frances McDormand’s deceptively laconic police chief in <em>Fargo</em> (1996) and Demi Moore’s determined <em>G.I. Jane </em>(1997) also feel like characters who couldn’t exist without Starling.
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Through Clarice Starling, Foster and Demme created a template for women battling organizational sexism outside of the corporate arena of ’80s films, while retaining their rugged individualism. When all efforts to navigate and work within the system have failed, these strong female characters usually find themselves being forced to work on their own, relying on their intuition, training, and judgment with little or no backup. Decades later, agent Starling is still one of the most immediately familiar examples of this trope in action — and one of its best.
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<em>Silence of the Lambs</em> revealed a cultural fascination with serial killers and gave us decades of media devoted to criminal profiling
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Sterling’s methodical approach to profiling and catching serial killer Buffalo Bill is something that resonates in countless works today. One of the most obvious recent examples is <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/8/18/20807968/mindhunter-season-2-review-netflix-btk-true-story">Netflix’s <em>Mindhunter</em></a>, which fits right into the litany of television procedurals and true crime documentaries that have attempted to chronicle similar hunts to profile and catch criminals.
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In 1991, audiences were primed to fear serial killers and abductions after a decade of mass hysteria, warnings of “stranger danger,” and <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/10/30/13413864/satanic-panic-ritual-abuse-history-explained">Satanic Panic</a>. The improbable elements of the plot, like Buffalo Bill’s motive for killing (to make and wear skin suits) or his placement of live moths inside the bodies of his victims, weren’t that outlandish after years of false media claims about nonexistent satanic rituals.
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Additionally, the 1980s were a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45324622">peak time for serial killers</a>. The movie capitalized on their prevalence in headlines, and in fact, real-life serial killers like Ed Gein and John Wayne Gacy, as well as serial abductor Gary Heidnik, all became famous — or at least more famous — after its release because different elements of the Buffalo Bill character were based on them. This was a time rife with depictions of such criminals in true crime writing and tabloid media, so if anything, viewers were likely to expect their serial killers to be garish and horrifically over-the-top.
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Because <em>Silence of the Lambs</em>’ plot validated so many of the dominant ’80s narratives about crime, the movie became the main reference point many people had for understanding such crimes at all. That’s not entirely a good thing: Hannibal Lecter’s popularity <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2021/02/who-is-clarice-without-hannibal-silence-of-the-lambs/618002/">far overshadows</a> that of Clarice, in a way that closely mirrors <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/5/3/18212473/ted-bundy-movie-documentary-true-crime-podcasts">pop culture’s long-established tendency to glamorize</a> and fixate on the criminals at the expense of their victims and the people working to catch them. (This tendency has increasingly been criticized and <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/21494787/american-murder-netflix-review-chris-watts-shanann-watts-case">reversed</a> in recent years in favor of <a href="https://www.vox.com/22258961/netflix-the-ripper-review-yorkshire-ripper-documentary">reframing these narratives</a>, but the cultural fascination with serial killers hasn’t gone away.) If anything, <em>Silence of the Lambs</em>’ popularity validated that approach to true crime for decades.
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Unfortunately, we now know that <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2018/11/12/18044688/criminal-profilers-mindhunter-hannibal-criminal-minds">criminal profiling doesn’t work</a> — a harsh truth that invalidates not only some of the realism of <em>Silence of the Lambs</em> but also the many crime shows that have followed in its wake. It also undermines many of the reasons we attempt to study serial killers to begin with.
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It’s arguable that the movie’s impact on real-world crime narratives has lessened greatly due to the current true crime boom, which has arguably shifted the focus away from glorifying and profiling killers and expanded several related conversations about the justice system. But there’s another real-world community that’s still feeling the film’s repercussions — and not in a good way.
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The film profoundly — if unintentionally — impacted transgender people for the worse
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A <a href="https://qz.com/quartzy/1566136/silence-of-the-lambs-is-a-win-for-women-but-fails-lgbtq-culture/">huge amount</a> of <a href="https://crookedmarquee.com/the-continuing-power-and-complicated-legacy-of-the-silence-of-the-lambs/">discourse</a> has occurred over the past three decades surrounding <em>Silence of the Lambs’</em> transphobia. From the moment of the film’s release, the movie drew sustained criticism from LGBTQ+ people and advocacy groups for its depiction of Buffalo Bill, including <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1992/03/31/the-triumph-of-the-lambs/afbc3636-881a-4918-ba0f-eb11045f7175/">an Oscar-night protest</a> that resulted in the arrests of 10 people.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6BtKTD">
Recall that Buffalo Bill, the film’s villain, is a queer-coded serial killer obsessed with wearing the skins of his victims, keeping their clothes and often dressing like them. This aspect of his character was based on 1950s serial killer Ed Gein, who also served as the basis for Norman Bates’s cross-dressing serial killer in 1960’s <em>Psycho</em>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pmuQAN">
For years, director Jonathan Demme found himself both <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/silence-of-the-lambs-lgbt-criticism_n_5609372">justifying</a> and <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/jonathan-demme-on-gaza-transphobia-in-the-silence-of-the-lambs-and-meryl-streep-as-a-rock-star">apologizing for</a> the film’s portrayal of the character, acknowledging that while the serial killer wasn’t intended to be trans, Demme had failed to get that point across to audiences.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tMPPxU">
In Demme’s defense, <em>Silence of the Lambs</em> explicitly tries to distance Buffalo Bill’s behavior from transgender identity. Lecter observes that Bill isn’t transgender, and Starling reminds the audience that there’s no link between transgender identity and violence. The film overtly tries to separate its villain from the trans community — in stark contrast to many of its predecessors in the horror genre.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EwJTkA">
When <em>Silence of the Lambs</em> came out in 1991, it followed many other horror films that had problematically portrayed transgender and cross-dressing characters — films like <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/jul/25/brian-de-palma-dressed-to-kill-psycho"><em>Psycho</em></a>, <a href="https://idontlikemundays.com/31-days-of-fright-the-house-with-the-laughing-windows/"><em>The House With the Laughing Windows</em></a> (1976), <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/jul/25/brian-de-palma-dressed-to-kill-psycho"><em>Dressed to Kill</em></a> (1980), and <a href="https://www.dreadcentral.com/editorials/295274/going-back-to-sleepaway-camp-revisiting-the-problematic-classic/"><em>Sleepaway Camp</em></a><em> </em>(1983). Almost universally, those films depict queer and genderqueer identity as either synonymous with evil or as the <em>reason</em> for the villainous character’s deviance. (The LGBTQ horror community has since <a href="https://harmonycolangelo.medium.com/the-transgender-defense-of-angela-baker-and-sleepaway-camp-82dd54ddf9cd">reclaimed</a> some of these films, reinterpreting them through trans-positive lenses while still acknowledging their problematic aspects, though transphobia continues to be a pernicious horror film trope, as in 2013’s <a href="https://bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3478531/horror-queers-insidious-chapter-2/"><em>Insidious: Chapter 2</em></a>.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="U4FZtz">
So <em>Silence of the Lambs</em> does notably distance itself from that legacy by insisting that’s not the case with this villain; he just, apparently, happens to cross-dress.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8e5bdb">
When most people think of Buffalo Bill, however, they don’t remember Clarice Starling and Hannibal Lecter clinically discussing how he’s not transgender; they remember, as Vox critic at large Emily VanDerWerff <a href="https://twitter.com/emilyvdw/status/1358873646094118914">recently pointed out</a> on Twitter, “a weirdo serial killer dancing around in women’s clothes.” So its textual denial can only do so much.
</p>
<div id="BT5Kj8">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
Obviously, knowing the intent of a work doesn’t mean shit, because the intent is less important than the impact. And when people saw SotL, they didn’t hear “Buffalo Bill isn’t trans.” They saw a weirdo serial killer dancing around in women’s clothes.
</p>
— Emily VanDerWerff ‍♀️ (<span class="citation" data-cites="emilyvdw">@emilyvdw</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/emilyvdw/status/1358874372753092608?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 8, 2021</a>
</blockquote></div></li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lh3C0v">
In fact, the film’s intentions seem to have amounted to little for many trans people; <a href="https://www.anrdoezrs.net/links/8532386/type/am/sid/vox/https://www.shudder.com/blog/the-lambs-still-scream-reanalyzing-silence-of-the-lambs" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">at Shudder</a>,<strong> </strong>Harmony Colangelo recently wrote about “every experience I’ve had where people compare me to Buffalo Bill, snicker as they’ve asked me if ‘I’d fuck me so hard,’ or generally see me as some sort of threat directly because of this film.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kDrY8F">
“There is no film that leaves me feeling worse than <em>Silence of the Lambs</em>,” she concluded, “and it is elevated because of how I have been treated as a result of it.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Wzs8OI">
Not everyone in the LGBTQ community views <em>Silence of the Lambs</em> as purely transphobic. Some have argued for <a href="https://slate.com/human-interest/2017/04/director-jonathan-demme-faced-down-silence-of-the-lambs-gay-backlash.html">a redemptive view</a> of the film’s queer aesthetic, while others have reframed its perceived depiction of villainous trans identity as “<a href="https://www.them.us/story/trans-artists-empowered-monstrousness">empowered monstrosity</a>.” But it’s difficult to deny that the film has disseminated a transphobic worldview that many viewers readily accepted, regardless of either its intent or the other positive aspects of its legacy. As VanDerWerff <a href="https://twitter.com/emilyvdw/status/1358877275802935297">noted</a>, “It is one of the most influential movies ever made. Its influence includes transphobia.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9VViXF">
In other words, the cultural legacy of <em>The Silence of the Lambs</em> is a mixed bag, full of positives and pejoratives alike, all of which are impossible to ignore.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="x5Pp2L">
We might even say it’s a bit like its main character, Clarice: It’s damaged and imperfect, but it’s unquestionably persistent — and its impact is here to stay.
</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>JLN Stadium at Margao to host ISL final for record third time on March 13</strong> - The first-leg semifinals will be held at two venues - GMC Stadium at Bambolim and JL Nehru Stadium - on March 5 and 6. The return legs are scheduled for March 8 and 9 at the same venues.</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>Ind vs Eng | India keeps all players in squad for last 2 Tests except Thakur</strong> - Shardul Thakur is the only player who has not been kept as he will be released to compete in the Vijay Hazare Trophy.</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>IPL franchise Kings XI Punjab renamed Punjab Kings</strong> - The franchise, jointly owned by Mohit Burman, Ness Wadia, Preity Zinta and Karan Paul, is yet to win an IPL title since the event’s inaugural edition in 2008</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>Cramping at end, Daniil Medvedev beats Andrey Rublev in Australian Open quarterfinal</strong> - No. 4-seeded Medvedev moved into the third Grand Slam semifinal of his career and pushed his current winning streak to 19 matches by beating good pal Rublev 7-5, 6-3, 6-2</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>Ashwin jumps to fifth in Test all-rounder rankings, retains seventh spot among bowlers</strong> - India’s Ravichandran Ashwin jumped to fifth spot among all-rounders in the latest ICC Test Player Rankings following his brilliant show with the bat</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>Software tool for automated diagnosis of COVID-19 lung infection</strong> - IISc-led team comes up with AnamNet, which is freely available to the public</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Petrol at ₹100 | PM Modi says reducing import dependence</strong> - Price of petrol crossed the ₹100 per litre mark in Rajasthan after fuel rates were hiked for the ninth day in a row</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>Allot new exam centres, CBSE told</strong> - The Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights has directed the CBSE Regional Officer here to sanction new examination centres for CBSE s</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>No info on cow science exam, say VCs</strong> - UGC circular says examination will be held on February 25</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>Mumbai Mayor travels in local train to spread awareness about face masks</strong> - She also conducted a raid on a hotel where several people who returned from Gulf countries were quarantined as part of the COVID-19 protocols.</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>Pablo Hasel protests: Thousands demand rapper’s release in Spain</strong> - Demonstrations were seen in dozens of cities after Pablo Hasel was jailed over tweets and lyrics.</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: Dutch crisis as court orders end to Covid curfew</strong> - Judges ordered the measure removed immediately but it will remain in place pending an appeal.</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>China overtakes US as EU’s biggest trading partner</strong> - China’s demand for cars and luxury goods from Europe bounced back in 2020 as its economy recovered.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>In pictures: Greece’s Acropolis blanketed in snow</strong> - The snowfall is some of the heaviest seen in the Greek capital for years.</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 1-4 Paris St-Germain: Kylian Mbappe hat-trick after Lionel Messi opener</strong> - Kylian Mbappe scores a stunning hat-trick as Paris St-Germain rip Barcelona apart in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie at the Nou Camp.</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>Two visionaries: Marie Curie forged a friendship with dancer Loïe Fuller</strong> - Liz Heinecke on her new book <em>Radiant</em>, a parallel biography of two extraordinary women. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1741723">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>France ties Russia’s Sandworm to a multiyear hacking spree</strong> - Destructively minded group has exploited an IT monitoring tool from Centreon. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1742949">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>McLaren drops the V8, moves to V6 plug-in hybrid for its next supercar</strong> - It’s the first car to use McLaren’s new V6, as well as its new MCLA platform. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1742895">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Online fighting games during COVID: How rollback helps us connect</strong> - We played <em>Guilty Gear Strive’s</em> online beta to see how its netcode holds up - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1742694">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>An anniversary for great justice: Remembering “All Your Base” 20 years later</strong> - Back in our day, memes didn’t benefit from centralized services like YouTube, Twitter. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1742713">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>I was reversing my car in the garage and asked my son to spot me, and let me know when I hit the wall.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
I heard a bang. “3:45 PM”, he said.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/theriffguy"> /u/theriffguy </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/llnr2e/i_was_reversing_my_car_in_the_garage_and_asked_my/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/llnr2e/i_was_reversing_my_car_in_the_garage_and_asked_my/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>What’s the difference between a clitoris and Budweiser?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A clitoris only tastes like piss for a minute.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/wotmate"> /u/wotmate </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/llnbsc/whats_the_difference_between_a_clitoris_and/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/llnbsc/whats_the_difference_between_a_clitoris_and/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>Amazing how a colon can completely change the meaning of a sentence</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
For example:
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
-Jane ate her friend’s sandwich.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
-Jane ate her friend’s colon.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/HannibalGoddamnit"> /u/HannibalGoddamnit </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ll5rv7/amazing_how_a_colon_can_completely_change_the/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ll5rv7/amazing_how_a_colon_can_completely_change_the/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>What did the cannibal do after dumping his girlfriend?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Wipe his ass
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/MoneyIsKindaCool"> /u/MoneyIsKindaCool </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/llny7l/what_did_the_cannibal_do_after_dumping_his/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/llny7l/what_did_the_cannibal_do_after_dumping_his/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>A soldier who has recently been promoted to corporal is taken to a bar by his sergeant.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The sergeant orders ten shots of tequila. The corporal is about to order the same, when the sergeant says, “Are you sure about that?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Of course I’m sure!” replies the corporal. “I am no longer a private. I am a corporal now!” So the sergeant lets him order ten shots of tequila.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Afterwards, the two men walk drunk out of the bar and run into two prostitutes, a blonde and a brunette. “Hey!” say the prostitutes. “Wanna have a good time?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“I would!” says the sergeant. “Me too!” says the corporal.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Are you sure about that?” the sergeant asks again. “Of course I’m sure!” replies the corporal. “I am no longer a private. I am a corporal now!” So the sergeant takes the blonde and the corporal takes the brunette.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“I must warn you,” says the brunette, “I have the clap.” Neither of the two soldiers know what “the clap” is, so the sergeant looks it up in his pocket dictionary. “It’s safe,” he tells the corporal.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A week later, the sergeant visits the corporal in the hospital. “Why did you tell me it was safe?” asks the corporal.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“The dictionary told me the clap only affects the privates,” replies the sergeant, “and you are a corporal now.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/wimpykidfan37"> /u/wimpykidfan37 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ll7py7/a_soldier_who_has_recently_been_promoted_to/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ll7py7/a_soldier_who_has_recently_been_promoted_to/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
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