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<title>25 January, 2022</title>
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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>Misinformation about Covid-19 Vaccines on Social Media: Rapid Review</strong> -
<div>
The development of COVID-19 vaccines has been crucial in fighting the pandemic. Misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines on social media is a major challenge, as this is thought to contribute to vaccine hesitancy. Here, we review the research on misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines spread on social media platforms. The review is registered with the PROSPERO international register of systematic reviews (CRD42021277524). We performed a literature search on 9 September 2021 and searched PubMed, PsycINFO, ERIC, Embase, Cochrane Library, and the Cochrane COVID-19 Study Register. We included publications in peer-reviewed journals that fulfilled all following criteria: Original empirical studies, studies that assessed social media and misinformation, studies that dealt with vaccine hesitancy, and studies about the COVID-19 vaccine. Publications were excluded if data were gathered before Phase III in the first COVID-19 vaccine development (from July 27 2020 to November 13, 2020). The narrative qualitative synthesis was undertaken with the guidance of the PRISMA 2020 Statement and the Synthesis Without Meta-analysis reporting guideline. The risk of bias was assessed according to The Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Critical Appraisal tool. Ratings of the certainty of evidence were based on recommendations from the GRADE Working Group. The search amounted to 757 records, with 45 articles selected for the review. There are many types of misinformation that are spread on social media platforms. We identified three main areas of misinformation: Medical misinformation, vaccine development, and conspiracies. To prevent these misconceptions from taking hold, health authorities should openly address and discuss these false claims with both cultural and religious awareness in mind. Our review showed that there is a need to examine the effect of social media misinformation on vaccine hesitancy with a more robust experimental design. Furthermore, our review also demonstrated that more studies are needed from the Global South and on other social media platforms than the major platforms such as Twitter.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/tyevj/" target="_blank">Misinformation about Covid-19 Vaccines on Social Media: Rapid Review</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Effects of 12 weeks of Multi-nutrient supplementation on the Immune and Musculoskeletal systems of Older Adults in Aged-Care (The Pomerium Study): Protocol for a Randomised Controlled Trial</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Introduction: Immunosenescence leads to increased morbidity and mortality associated with viral infections and weaker vaccine responses. This has been well documented for seasonal influenza and the current pandemic with Sars-Cov2, which disproportionately impact older adults, particularly those in residential aged care facilities. Inadequate nutrient intake associated with impaired immunity, respiratory and muscle function are likely to augment the effects of immunosenescence. In this study, we test whether the effects of inadequate nutrition can be reversed by multi-nutrient supplementation, consequently enhancing vaccine responses, reducing the risk of viral infections, and improving respiratory and muscle function. Methods and analysis: The Pomerium Study is a 12-week, single-blinded, randomised, placebo-controlled trial testing the effects of two daily servings of an oral multi-nutrient supplement (330 kcal, 20g protein, 1.2g CaHMB, 449mg calcium, 520IU vitamin D3, and 25 vitamins and minerals) on the immune system and muscle and respiratory function of older adults in aged-care in Melbourne, Australia. 160 older adults (≥75 years old) will be recruited from aged-care facilities and randomised to treatment (multi-nutrient supplement) or control (usual care). Primary outcome is the change in T-cell subsets CD8+ and CD28null counts at 4 and 12 weeks post-intervention. Secondary outcomes measured at baseline and after 12 weeks post-intervention are multiple markers of immunosenescence, body composition (bioimpedance), handgrip strength (dynamometer), physical function (short physical performance battery), respiratory function (spirometry), and quality of life (EQ-5D-3L). Incidence and complications of COVID-19 and/or viral infections (i.e., hospitalisation, complications, or death) will be recorded throughout the trial. Discussion: If the Pomerium Study demonstrates efficacy and safety of a multi-nutrient supplement on immune, muscle and respiratory function, it may be suitable as a strategy to reduce the adverse outcomes from seasonal influenza and viral infections such as COVID-19 in older adults in aged-care.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.23.22269669v1" target="_blank">Effects of 12 weeks of Multi-nutrient supplementation on the Immune and Musculoskeletal systems of Older Adults in Aged-Care (The Pomerium Study): Protocol for a Randomised Controlled Trial</a>
</div></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Border closure and travel restrictions to control the spread of COVID-19: an update to a Cochrane review</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background: COVID-19 has proven to be more difficult to manage for many reasons including its high infectivity rate. One of the potential ways to limit its spread is by limiting free travel across borders, including via air travel. The objective of this systematic review is to identify, critically-appraise and summarize evidence on border closures and travel restrictions. Methods: This review is based on the Cochrane review: “International travel-related control measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic” and followed the same methodology. In brief, we searched for clinical and modelling studies in general health and COVID-19-specific bibliographic databases. The primary outcome categories were</p></div></li>
</ul>
<ol type="i">
<li>cases avoided, (ii) cases detected, and (iii) a shift in epidemic development. Secondary outcomes were other infectious disease transmission outcomes, healthcare utilisation, resource requirements and adverse effects if identified in studies assessing at least one primary outcome. Results: We included 55, mostly modelling, studies that met our inclusion criteria. Fourteen new studies were identified in the updated search, as well as updated companions (e.g., peer-reviewed publications that were previously only available as pre-prints). Most studies were of moderate to high quality. The added studies did not change the main conclusions of the Cochrane review nor the quality of the evidence (very low to low certainty). However, it did add to the evidence base for most outcomes. Conclusions: Weak evidence supports the use of border closures to limit the spread of COVID-19 from region to regions via air travel. Real-world studies are required to support these conclusions.
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></p>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.22.22269686v1" target="_blank">Border closure and travel restrictions to control the spread of COVID-19: an update to a Cochrane review</a>
</div></li>
</ol>
<ul>
<li><strong>The Epidemiology of Hundreds of Individuals Infected with Omicron BA.1 in Middle-Eastern Jordan</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
One month after its detection in Jordan, B.1.1.529 is constituting about 60% of all confirmed COVID-19 infections causing a rise in the daily cases in the country. Herein, we report on 500 omicron-infected cases to get a better understanding of this variant and its behavior in different geographies.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.23.22269442v1" target="_blank">The Epidemiology of Hundreds of Individuals Infected with Omicron BA.1 in Middle-Eastern Jordan</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>A qualitative process analysis of DCT as an alternative to self-isolation following close contact with a confirmed case of COVID-19</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background In July 2021, a randomised controlled trial was conducted to compare the effect on SARS-CoV-2 transmission of seven days of daily contact testing (DCT) using lateral flow devise (LFT) and 2 PCR tests as an alternative to 10 days of standard self-isolation with 1 PCR, following close contact with a confirmed case of COVID-19. DCT appeared equivalent to self-isolation in terms of transmission in the trial, however it was not clear how tests were viewed and used in practice. In this qualitative study, we used a nested process to aid interpretation of the trial and provide insight into factors influencing use of tests, understanding of test results, and how tests were used to inform behavioural decisions. Methods Interviews were conducted with 60 participants (42 randomised to DCT and 18 randomised to self-isolation) who had been in close contact with a confirmed positive case of COVID-19 and had consented to take part in the trial. Results Sub-themes emerging from the data were organised into three overarching themes: (1) assessing the risks and benefits of DCT; (2) use of testing during the study period and (3) future use of testing. Attitudes toward DCT as an alternative to self-isolation, and behaviour during the testing period appeared to be informed by an assessment of the associated risks and benefits. Participants reported how important it was for them to avoid isolation, how necessary self-isolation was considered to be, and the ability of LFTs to detect infection. Behaviour during the testing period was modified to reduce risks and harms as much as possible. Testing was considered a potential compromise, reducing both risk of transmission and the negative impact of self-isolation and was highly regarded as a way to 9return to new normal9. Conclusion Participants in this study viewed DCT as a sensible, feasible and welcome means of avoiding unnecessary self-isolation. Although negative LFTs provided reassurance, most people still restricted their activity as recommended. DCT was also highly valued by those in vulnerable households as a means of providing reassurance of the absence of infection, and as an important means of detecting infection and prompting self- isolation when necessary.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.14.21267257v1" target="_blank">A qualitative process analysis of DCT as an alternative to self-isolation following close contact with a confirmed case of COVID-19</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Learnings from the Australian First Few X Household Transmission Project for COVID-19</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background: First Few “X” (FFX) studies provide a platform to collect the required epidemiological, clinical and virological data to help address emerging information needs about the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: We adapted the WHO FFX protocol for COVID-19 to understand severity and household transmission dynamics in the early stages of the pandemic in Australia. Implementation strategies were developed for participating sites; all household members provided baseline epidemiological data and were followed for 14 days from case identification. Household contacts completed symptom diaries and had respiratory swabs taken at baseline, day 7 and day 14, and day 28 where applicable. We modelled the spread of COVID-19 within households using a susceptible-exposed-infectious-recovered-type model, and calculated the household secondary attack rate and key epidemiological parameters. Findings: 96 households with 101 cases and 286 household contacts were recruited into the study between April–October 2020. Forty household contacts tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in the study follow-up period. Our model estimated the household secondary attack rate to be 15% (95% CI 8–25%), which scaled up with increasing household size. Children were less infectious than their adult counterparts but were also more susceptible to infection. Interpretation: Our study provides important baseline data characterising the transmission of early SARS-CoV-2 strains from children and adults in Australia, against which properties of variants of concern can be benchmarked. We encountered many challenges with respect to logistics, ethics, governance and data management that may have led to biases in our study. Continued efforts to invest in preparedness research will help to test, refine and further develop Australian FFX study protocols in advance of future outbreaks.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.23.22269031v1" target="_blank">Learnings from the Australian First Few X Household Transmission Project for COVID-19</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Over- and under-estimation of vaccine effectiveness</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
SARS-CoV-2 vaccines provide not just high protection against infection to the vaccinated individual but also provide indirect protection to its surroundings by blocking further transmission. Divergent results have been reported on the effectiveness of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. Here, we argue that this divergence is due to the fact that the analyses did not take into account the indirect protection. Using a novel heterogeneous infection model and real-world data, we demonstrate that heterogeneous vaccination rates among families and communities, and the study design that is used, may significantly skew the vaccine effectiveness estimations. We show that estimations of a vaccine with 85% effectiveness will vary between marked underestimation of ∼70% and overestimation of ∼95% depending on the number of interactions between vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.24.22269737v1" target="_blank">Over- and under- estimation of vaccine effectiveness</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>T cell response to intact SARS-CoV-2 includes coronavirus cross-reactive and variant-specific components</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
SARS-CoV-2 provokes a brisk T cell response. Peptide-based studies exclude antigen processing and presentation biology and may influence T cell detection studies. To focus on responses to whole virus and complex antigens, we used intact SARS-CoV-2 and full-length proteins with DC to activate CD8 and CD4 T cells from convalescent persons. T cell receptor (TCR) sequencing showed partial repertoire preservation after expansion. Resultant CD8 T cells recognize SARS- CoV-2-infected respiratory cells, and CD4 T cells detect inactivated whole viral antigen. Specificity scans with proteome-covering protein/peptide arrays show that CD8 T cells are oligospecific per subject and that CD4 T cell breadth is higher. Some CD4 T cell lines enriched using SARS-CoV-2 cross-recognize whole seasonal coronavirus (sCoV) antigens, with protein, peptide, and HLA restriction validation. Conversely, recognition of some epitopes is eliminated for SARS- CoV-2 variants, including spike (S) epitopes in the alpha, beta, gamma, and delta variant lineages.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.23.22269497v1" target="_blank">T cell response to intact SARS- CoV-2 includes coronavirus cross-reactive and variant-specific components</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>BASELINE METABOLIC PROFILING AND RISK OF DEATH FROM COVID-19</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Objective: To derive a predicted probability of death (PDeathLabs) based upon complete value sets for 11 clinical measurements (CM) obtained on patients prior to their diagnosis of COVID-19. PDeathLabs is intended for use as a summary metric for baseline metabolic status in multivariate models for COVID-19 death. Methods: Cases were identified through the COVID-19 Shared Data Resource (CSDR) of the Department of Veterans Affairs. The diagnosis required at least one positive nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT). The primary outcome was death within 60 days of the first positive test. We retrieved all values for systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), O2 saturation (O2SAT), body mass index (BMI), estimated glomerular filtration rate (EGFR), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), serum albumin (ALB), hematocrit (HCT), LDL cholesterol (LDL) hemoglobin A1c (A1C), and HDL cholesterol (HDL) if they were done at least 14 days prior to the NAAT. Clinicians evaluate several attributes of CM that are of critical importance: metabolic control, disease burden, chronicity, refractoriness, tendency to relapse, temporal trends, and lability. We derived 1-3 parameters for each of these attributes: the most recent value (metabolic control); time-weighted average and abnormal area under a severity versus time curve (disease burden); time and number of readings above or below goal (chronicity); longest abnormal cluster and time/number of consecutive readings above goal if the last value was abnormal (refractoriness); number of abnormal clusters (tendency to relapse); long- and short-term changes (temporal trends); and coefficient of variation and mean deviation between consecutive readings (lability). We created computer programs to derive cumulative values for these 13 parameters for all 11 CM as each new value is added. A fitted logistic model was developed for each CM to determine which of the 13 parameters contributed to the risk of death. A main logistic model was developed to determine which of the 13 * 11 = 143 metabolic parameters were independently predictive of death. The resulting model was used to derive PDeathLabs for each patient and the area under its receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve calculated. Single variable logistic models were also derived for age at diagnosis, the Charlson 2-year (Charl2Yr) and lifetime (CharlEver) scores, and the Elixhauser 2-year (Elix2Yrs) and lifetime (ElixEver) scores. Stata was used to compare the ROCs for PDeathDx and each of the other metrics. Results: On September 30, 2021 there were 347,220 COVID-19 patients in the CSDR. 329,491 (94.9%) patients had CM performed at least 14 days prior to the COVID-19 diagnosis and form the basis for this report. 17,934 (5.44%) died within 60 days of the diagnosis. On the subset regressions, the number of significant parameters ranged from all 13 for SBP to 7 for HDL. 239,393 patients had complete sets of data for developing the main model. Of 143 candidate predictors, 49 parameters were identified as statistically significant, independent predictors of death. The most influential domains were the most recent value, disease burden, temporal trends, and tendency to relapse. The ROC area for PDeathLabs was 0.785 +/- 0.002. No difference was found in the ROC areas of PDeathLabs and age at diagnosis (0.783 +/- 0.002; P = NS). However, the ROC area for PDeathLabs was significantly greater than that of Charl2Yrs (0.704 +/- 0.002; P &lt; 0.001), CharlEver (0.729 +/- 0.002; P &lt; 0.001), Elix2Yrs (0.675 +/- 0.002; P &lt; 0.001), and ElixEver (0.707 +/- 0.002; P &lt; 0.001). A poor prognosis was found for chronic systolic hypertension. On the other hand, a higher BMI was protective once SBP, DBP, HDL, LDL and A1C were considered. Conclusions: Our study confirms that parameters derived for 11 CM are significant determinants of COVID-19 death. The most recent value should not be selected over other parameters for multivariate modeling unless there is a physiologic basis for doing so. PDeathLabs has the same discriminating power as age at diagnosis and outperforms comorbidity indices as a summary metric for pre-existing conditions. If validated by others, this approach provides a robust approach to handling CM in multivariate models.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.22.22269691v1" target="_blank">BASELINE METABOLIC PROFILING AND RISK OF DEATH FROM COVID-19</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Nasally-delivered interferon-{lambda} protects mice against upper and lower respiratory tract infection of SARS- CoV-2 variants including Omicron</strong> -
<div>
Although vaccines and monoclonal antibody countermeasures have reduced the morbidity and mortality associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection, variants with constellations of mutations in the spike gene threaten their efficacy. Accordingly, antiviral interventions that are resistant to further virus evolution are needed. The host-derived cytokine IFN-{lambda} has been proposed as a possible treatment based on correlative studies in human COVID-19 patients. Here, we show IFN-{lambda} protects against SARS-CoV-2 B.1.351 (Beta) and B.1.1.529 (Omicron) variants in three strains of conventional and human ACE2 transgenic mice. Prophylaxis or therapy with nasally-delivered IFN-{lambda}2 limited infection of historical or variant (B.1.351 and B.1.1.529) SARS-CoV-2 strains in the upper and lower respiratory tracts without causing excessive inflammation. In the lung, IFN-{lambda} was produced preferentially in epithelial cells and acted on radio-resistant cells to protect against of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Thus, inhaled IFN-{lambda} may have promise as a treatment for evolving SARS-CoV-2 variants that develop resistance to antibody-based countermeasures.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.21.477296v1" target="_blank">Nasally-delivered interferon-{lambda} protects mice against upper and lower respiratory tract infection of SARS-CoV-2 variants including Omicron</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>The N764K and N856K mutations in SARS-CoV-2 Omicron S protein generate potential cleavage sites for SKI-1/S1P protease</strong> -
<div>
Spike (S) protein is a key protein in coronaviruses life cycle. SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant of concern (VoC) presents an exceptionally high number of 30 substitutions, 6 deletions and 3 insertions in the S protein. Recent works revealed major changes in the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron biological properties compared to earlier variants of concern (VoCs). Here, these major changes could be explained, at least in part, by the mutations N764K and/or N856K in S2 subunit. These mutations were not previously detected in other VoCs. N764K and N856K generate two potential cleavage sites for SKI-1/S1P serine protease, known to cleave viral envelope glycoproteins. The new sites where SKI-1/S1P could cleave S protein might impede the exposition of the internal fusion peptide for membrane fusion and syncytia formation. Based on the human protein atlas, SKI-1/S1P protease is not found in lung tissues (alveolar cells type I/II and endothelial cells), but present in bronchus and nasopharynx. This may explain why Omicron has change of tissue tropism. Viruses have evolved to use several host proteases for cleavage/activation of envelope glycoproteins. Mutations that allow viruses to change of protease may have a strong impact in host range, cell and tissue tropism, and pathogenesis.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.21.477298v1" target="_blank">The N764K and N856K mutations in SARS-CoV-2 Omicron S protein generate potential cleavage sites for SKI-1/S1P protease</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant virus isolates are highly sensitive to interferon treatment</strong> -
<div>
Recently, we have shown that SARS-CoV-2 Omicron virus isolates are less effective at inhibiting the host cell interferon response than Delta viruses. Here, we present further evidence that reduced interferon-antagonising activity explains at least in part why Omicron variant infections are inherently less severe than infections with other SARS- CoV-2 variants. Most importantly, we here also show that Omicron variant viruses display enhanced sensitivity to interferon treatment, which makes interferons promising therapy candidates for Omicron patients, in particular in combination with other antiviral agents.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.20.477067v1" target="_blank">SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant virus isolates are highly sensitive to interferon treatment</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Bacteriophage-derived dsRNA exerts anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity in vitro and in Golden Syrian hamsters in vivo</strong> -
<div>
Purpose: Bacteriophage-derived dsRNA, also known as Larifan, is nationally well-known broad-spectrum antiviral medication. The goal of this study was to ascertain the antiviral activity of Larifan against the novel SARS-CoV-2. Methods: The antiviral activity of Larifan against SARS-CoV-2 in vitro was measured in human lung adenocarcinoma (Calu3) and primary human small airway epithelial cells (HSAEC) using cytopathic effect assay, viral RNA copy number detection by digital droplet PCR (ddPCR) and infectious virus titration in cells supernatants in Vero E6 cells by end-point titration method. The antiviral effect of Larifan in vivo was detected in SARS-CoV-2 infection model in Golden Syrian hamsters. Larifan (5 mg/kg) was administered either subcutaneously or intranasally twice before and after virus infection with a 24-hour interval between doses. The viral RNA copies and infectious virus titre were detected in animal lungs at day three and five post-infection using ddPCR and end-point titration in Vero E6 cells, respectively. Histopathology of lungs was analysed as well. Results: Larifan inhibited SARS-CoV-2 replication in Calu3 cells both after the drug addition pre- and pot-infection with a substantial drop in the supernatant viral RNA copy numbers from eight (p = 0.0013) to twenty (p = 0.0042) times, respectively. Similarly, infectious virus titre in Vero E6 cells dropped by 3.6log10 and 2.8log10 after the drug addition pre- and pot-infection, respectively. In HSAEC, Larifan inhibited SARS-CoV-2 replication at the similar level. Larifan also markedly reduced virus numbers in the lungs of infected hamsters (p = 0.0032) both at day three and five post-infection with a more pronounced effect after intranasal administration reaching a drop by 2.7log10 at day three and 2.0log10 at day five. The administration of Larifan also reduced the amount of infections virus titer in lungs (p = 0.0039) by 4.3log10 and 2.8log10 at day three and five post-infection, respectively. Improvements in the infection-induced pathological lesion severity in the lungs of animals treated with Larifan were also demonstrated by histological analyses. Conclusions: The inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 replication in vitro and the reduction of the viral load in the lungs of infected hamsters treated with Larifan alongside the improved lung histopathology, suggests a potential use of Larifan in controlling the COVID-19 disease in humans.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.22.477073v1" target="_blank">Bacteriophage-derived dsRNA exerts anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity in vitro and in Golden Syrian hamsters in vivo</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Lack of Ronapreve (REGN-CoV; casirivimab and imdevimab) virological efficacy against the SARS-CoV 2 Omicron variant (B.1.1.529) in K18-hACE2 mice</strong> -
<div>
The Omicron variant (B.1.1.529) of SARS-CoV-2 has placed enormous strain on global healthcare systems since it was first identified by South African researchers in late 2021. Omicron has &gt;50 mutations which mainly occur in the surface spike protein and this has led to rapid assessment of monoclonal antibodies to assess the impact on virus neutralisation. Ronapreve has shown potential application in post-exposure prophylaxis, mild/moderate disease and in seronegative patients with severe COVID19, but several early reports of loss of in vitro neutralisation activity have been documented. Here, the virological efficacy of Ronapreve was assessed in K18-hACE2 mice to provide an in vivo outcome. Ronapreve reduced sub-genomic RNA in lung and nasal turbinate for the Delta variant but not the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 at doses 2-fold higher than those shown to be active against previous variants of the virus. These data add to the growing evidence that the effectiveness of Ronapreve is compromised for the Omicron variant.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.23.477397v1" target="_blank">Lack of Ronapreve (REGN-CoV; casirivimab and imdevimab) virological efficacy against the SARS-CoV 2 Omicron variant (B.1.1.529) in K18-hACE2 mice</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Host Chitinase 3-like-1 is a Universal Therapeutic Target for the Delta, Omicron and Other SARS-CoV-2 Viral Variants in COVID 19</strong> -
<div>
COVID 19 is the disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2; SC2) which has caused a world-wide pandemic with striking morbidity and mortality. Evaluation of early SC2 strains suggested limited viral genetic diversity. However, genetic and epidemiologic investigations in the interim have revealed impressive genetic variability. Many of these viral variants are now defined as variants of concern (VOC) based on genetic alterations in their spike (S) and other proteins that cause enhanced transmissibility, decreased susceptibility to antibody neutralization or therapeutics and or their ability to induce severe disease. The delta {delta} and omicron (o) variants are particularly problematic based on their impressive and unprecedented transmissibility and ability to cause break through infections. The delta variant also accumulates at high concentrations in host tissues and has caused waves of lethal disease. SC2 infection is mediated by S protein binding to cellular ACE2 receptors and subsequent S protein protease processing. Because studies from our laboratory have demonstrated that chitinase 3-like-1 (CHI3L1) stimulates ACE2 and S priming proteases, studies were undertaken to determine if interventions that target CHI3L1 are effective inhibitors of SC2 viral variant infection. Here we demonstrate that CHI3L1 augments epithelial cell infection by pseudoviruses that express the alpha, beta, gamma, delta or omicron S proteins and that the CHI3L1 inhibitors anti- CHI3L1 and kasugamycin inhibit epithelial cell infection by these VOC pseudovirus moieties. Thus, CHI3L1 is a universal, VOC-independent therapeutic target in COVID 19.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.21.477274v1" target="_blank">Host Chitinase 3-like-1 is a Universal Therapeutic Target for the Delta, Omicron and Other SARS-CoV-2 Viral Variants in COVID 19</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>Quantifying Viral Load in Respiratory Particles That Are Generated by Children and Adults With COVID-19 Infection</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Device: COVID-19 Aerosol Collection<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:  <br/>
Massachusetts General Hospital<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Evaluation of Safety &amp; Efficacy of MIR 19 ® Inhalation Solution in Patients With Moderate COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: MIR 19 ®;   Combination Product: Standard COVID-19 therapy<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   National Research Center - Institute of Immunology Federal Medical-Biological Agency of Russia;   St. Petersburg Research Institute of Vaccines and Sera<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>A Study to Evaluate the Safety and Immunogenicity of Booster With AZD1222, mRNA-1273, or MVC-COV1901 Against COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Vaccine<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Half dose of MVC-COV1901;   Biological: Full dose of MVC-COV1901;   Biological: AZD1222;   Biological: Half dose of mRNA-1273<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp.;   Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Efficacy of Breathox Device Inhalation Therapy in the Treatment of Acute Symptoms Associated With COVID-19 and in the Prevention of the Use of Health Resources</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: BREATHOX 5 sessions;   Drug: BREATHOX 10 sessions<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   UPECLIN HC FM Botucatu Unesp;   Liita Holdings LTD<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>Randomized Multicenter Study on the Efficacy and Safety of Favipiravir for Parenteral Administration Compared to Standard of Care in Hospitalized Patients With COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Favipiravir;   Drug: Remdesivir<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Promomed, LLC;   Solyur Pharmaceuticals Group<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>Immunogenicity of an Inactivated COVID-19 Vaccine</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: Inactivated COVID-19 Vaccine<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Sinovac Research and Development Co., Ltd.<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>Inhaled Heparin for Hospitalised Patients With Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: unfractionated Heparin<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:  <br/>
Australian National University;   The George Institute;   St George Hospital, Australia;   St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne;   John Hunter Hospital;   Royal North Shore Hospital<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Prospective, Phase II Study to Evaluate Safety of 101-PGC-005 (’005) for Moderate to Severe COVID-19 Disease Along With Standard of Care</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: 101-PGC-005 (’005) + SOC;   Drug: Placebo + SOC<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   101 Therapeutics<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>Intranasal Heparin Treatment to Reduce Transmission Among Household Contacts of COVID 19 Positive Adults and Children</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: unfractionated heparin;   Drug: 0.9%sodium chloride<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Murdoch Childrens Research Institute;   University of Melbourne;   Northern Hospital, Australia;   Monash University;   The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity;   St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Immunogenicity and Safety Study of a SCB-2019 Vaccine Booster Dose to Adults Who Previously Received Primary Series of Selected COVID-19 Vaccines</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: Candidate vaccine, SCB-2019<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Clover Biopharmaceuticals AUS Pty Ltd<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Increasing COVID-19 Testing in Chicago’s African American Testing Desserts</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Pandemic<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: COVID-19 Testing<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Rush University Medical Center<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>Heterologous Boost Immunization With an Aerosolised Ad5-nCoV After Two-dose Priming With an Inactivated SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Aerosolized Ad5-nCoV;   Biological: Inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Jiangsu Province Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<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>IMPACT OF THERAPEUTIC PLASMA EXCHANGE ON ACQUIRED VACCINAL ANTI-SARS-CoV-2 ANTIBODIES.</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Diagnostic Test: Evolution of antibodies titre<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc- Université Catholique de Louvain<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>Respiratory Physiotherapy and Neurorehabilitation in Patients With Post-covid19 Sequelae.</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Pandemic<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: respiratory treatment<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Universidad Católica de Ávila<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>The Effect of Telemonitoring on Anxiety and Quality of Life in Patients in COVID 19 Quarantine</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Pandemic<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: tele-monitoring<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:  <br/>
Yuksek Ihtisas University<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-pubmed">From PubMed</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Anti-inflammatory and anti-COVID-19 effect of a novel polyherbal formulation (Imusil) via modulating oxidative stress, inflammatory mediators and cytokine storm</strong> - In the current scenario, most countries are affected by COVID-19, a pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that has a massive impact on human health. Previous studies showed that some traditionally used medicinal herbs and their combinations showed synergistic anti-viral and anti-inflammatory activity against SARS-CoV-2 type infections. Therefore, the goal of this study is to demonstrate the anti-viral and anti- inflammatory effects of a novel…</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>Dynamical demeanour of SARS-CoV-2 virus undergoing immune response mechanism in COVID-19 pandemic</strong> - COVID-19 is caused by the increase of SARS-CoV-2 viral load in the respiratory system. Epithelial cells in the human lower respiratory tract are the major target area of the SARS-CoV-2 viruses. To fight against the SARS-CoV-2 viral infection, innate and thereafter adaptive immune responses be activated which are stimulated by the infected epithelial cells. Strong immune response against the COVID-19 infection can lead to longer recovery time and less severe secondary complications. We proposed a…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Vaccine booster efficiently inhibits entry of SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant</strong> - No abstract</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The structure of a novel antibody against the spike protein inhibits Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus infections</strong> - Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is a zoonotic virus, responsible for outbreaks of a severe respiratory illness in humans with a fatality rate of 30%. Currently, there are no vaccines or United States food and drug administration (FDA)-approved therapeutics for humans. The spike protein displayed on the surface of MERS-CoV functions in the attachment and fusion of virions to host cellular membranes and is the target of the host antibody response. Here, we provide a…</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 NSP5 and N protein counteract the RIG-I signaling pathway by suppressing the formation of stress granules</strong> - As a highly pathogenic human coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 has to counteract an intricate network of antiviral host responses to establish infection and spread. The nucleic acid-induced stress response is an essential component of antiviral defense and is closely related to antiviral innate immunity. However, whether SARS-CoV-2 regulates the stress response pathway to achieve immune evasion remains elusive. In this study, SARS-CoV-2 NSP5 and N protein were found to attenuate antiviral stress granule…</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>Virtual Screening and Molecular Docking to Study the Mechanism of Chinese Medicines in the Treatment of Coronavirus Infection</strong> - BACKGROUND Heat-clearing and detoxifying herbs (HDHs) play an important role in the prevention and treatment of coronavirus infection. However, their mechanism of action needs further study. This study aimed to explore the anti- coronavirus basis and mechanism of HDHs. MATERIAL AND METHODS Database mining was performed on 7 HDHs. Core ingredients and targets were screened according to ADME rules combined with Neighborhood, Co-occurrence, Co-expression, and other algorithms. GO enrichment and KEGG…</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>Thiol-based chemical probes exhibit antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2 via allosteric disulfide disruption in the spike glycoprotein</strong> - The development of small-molecules targeting different components of SARS-CoV-2 is a key strategy to complement antibody-based treatments and vaccination campaigns in managing the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, we show that two thiol- based chemical probes that act as reducing agents, P2119 and P2165, inhibit infection by human coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, and decrease the binding of spike glycoprotein to its receptor, the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). Proteomics and reactive cysteine…</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 updated overview of recent advances, challenges, and clinical considerations of IL-6 signaling blockade in severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)</strong> - Since 2019, COVID-19 has become the most important health dilemma around the world. The dysregulated immune response which results in ARDS and cytokine storm has an outstanding role in the progression of pulmonary damage in COVID-19. IL-6, through induction of pro-inflammatory chemokines and cytokines, is the pioneer of the hyperinflammatory condition and cytokine storm in severe COVID-19. Therefore, IL-6 pathway blockade is considered an emerging approach with high efficacy to reduce lung…</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>Immunoediting in SARS-CoV-2: Mutual relationship between the virus and the host</strong> - Immunoediting is a well-known concept that occurs in cancer through three steps of elimination, equilibrium, and escape (3Es), where the immune system first suppresses the growth of tumor cells and then promotes them towards the malignancy. This phenomenon has been conceptualized in some chronic viral infections such as HTLV-1 and HIV by obtaining the resistance to elimination and making a persistent form of infected cells especially in untreated patients. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19),…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Identification of broad anti-coronavirus chemical agents for repurposing against SARS-CoV-2 and variants of concern</strong> - Endemic human coronaviruses (hCoVs) 229E and OC43 cause respiratory disease with recurrent infections, while severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-CoV-2 spreads across the world with impact on health and societies. Here, we report an image-based multicycle infection procedure with α-coronavirus hCoV-229E-eGFP in an arrayed chemical library screen of 5440 clinical and preclinical compounds. Toxicity counter selection and challenge with the β-coronaviruses OC43 and SARS-CoV-2 in tissue culture…</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 Inhibitory Activities of the Adenosine Analogue Cordycepin on SARS-CoV-2 Replication</strong> - Nucleoside analogues are among the most successful bioactive classes of druglike compounds in pharmaceutical chemistry as they are well-known for their numerous effective bioactivities in humans, especially as antiviral and anticancer agents. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is still untreatable, with its causing virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), continuing to wreak havoc on the ground everywhere. This complicated international situation urged all…</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>RNAi-mediated siRNA sequences to combat the COVID-19 pandemic with the inhibition of SARS-CoV2</strong> - The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has cost five million lives to date, and was caused by a positive-sense RNA virus named SARS-CoV2. The lack of drugs specific to SARS-CoV2, leads us to search for an effective and specific therapeutic approach. Small interfering RNA (siRNA) is able to activate the RNA interference (RNAi) pathway to silence the specific targeted gene and inhibit the viral replication, and it has not yet attracted enough attention as a SARS-CoV2 antiviral agent. It could be a…</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>Online learning in nursing students: Satisfaction and barriers</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: The study data indicated that maximum students were extremely satisfied the with online learning and among barriers which effect online learning is low voice and language clarity, reliability and connectivity problem, physical health barriers such as eye strain.</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 Causes Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Mitophagy Impairment</strong> - Mitochondria, which is essential for adequate innate immune response, energy metabolism and mitochondria reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, might be in the cross fire of Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) and host cell defense. However, little is known about interactions between mitochondria and SARS-CoV-2. We performed fluorescent microscopy and found an enrichment of SARS-CoV-2 replication products double stranded RNA (dsRNA) within mitochondria. The entry…</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>Possibility as role of ginseng and ginsenosides on inhibiting the heart disease of COVID-19: A systematic review</strong> - Coronavirus has been spreading rapidly around the world since it broke out in China in 2019. Respiratory diseases caused by coronavirus infection cause various diseases ranging from asymptomatic subclinical infections to severe pneumonia and cardiovascular complications, leading to death. In this regard, natural products are being studied to prevent various diseases caused by COVID-19. In current review, we would like to present mechanisms related to the inhibition of heart disease in ginseng…</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Putin, Ukraine, and the Preservation of Power</strong> - Once more, the Russian President is poised to invade the nation. His weapons include military hardware, malware, and propaganda. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/01/31/putin-ukraine-and-the-preservation-of-power">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Is the Plunge in the Nasdaq and Bitcoin the End of a “Superbubble”?</strong> - “Perma-bear” Jeremy Grantham has long warned of a much bigger and far more damaging crash that could include stocks, bonds, and real estate. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/is-the-plunge-in-the-nasdaq-and-bitcoin-the-end-of-a-%20superbubble">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What Is Eric Adams’s Plan for the Rikers Island Crisis?</strong> - The horrors in the city’s jail system have been several administrations in the making. Adams has given a few early signs of how he’ll try to manage them. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-local-correspondents/whats-eric-adamss-plan-for-the-rikers-island-crisis">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A New Translation Brings “Arabian Nights” Home</strong> - In their annotated edition, Yasmine Seale and Paulo Lemos Horta rescue the virtues obscured by centuries of adaptation. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/a-new-translation-brings-arabian-nights-home">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Olympic Games Return to China, in a Changed World</strong> - With COVID-19 restrictions in place and a diplomatic boycott planned by many nations, who will watch the 2022 Beijing Games? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/politics-and-more/the-olympic-games-return-to-china-in-a-changed-world">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Biden is defending key Trump immigration policies in court</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/i_zaqG4bkp7CtLJ4j-gy3R5FKUY=/101x0:2768x2000/1310x983/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70428964/GettyImages_973124260.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Central American asylum seekers wait as US Border Patrol agents take groups of them into custody on June 12, 2018, near McAllen, Texas. The families were then sent to a US Customs and Border Protection processing center for possible separation. | John Moore/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The Justice Department is fighting to maintain Trump’s border restrictions and against compensation for separated families.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9IIdDN">
President Joe Biden’s administration is defending two of his predecessor’s more inhumane immigration policies in court: pandemic-related border restrictions and family separations.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HnbVnt">
The Department of Justice is actively fighting in federal court for border restrictions that have barred most asylum seekers from entering the US. In separate federal cases, it has argued that the policy of separating migrant families under former President Donald Trump was lawful, and has fought against payouts for those families.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fV7CkM">
For the Biden administration, defending some of the Trump administration’s most controversial immigration policies could be an attempt to preserve tools to manage the border, said Stephen Yale-Loehr, a professor of immigration law at Cornell Law School. Or, he said, they could mark an internal disagreement on righting the wrongs of the Trump era.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0HeQDG">
“Every administration wants to have as much flexibility and discretion as it can on immigration because you never know what conditions will arise in the future,” he said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wRE46O">
Still, it’s a legal strategy that comes as Republicans prepare to make Biden’s immigration record a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/14/politics/immigration-midterm-election/index.html">key line of attack</a> in the upcoming midterms, and amid complaints from immigrants’ rights advocates and progressive Democrats that the president’s not<strong> </strong>doing enough to dismantle his predecessor’s legacy.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cpH2X5">
There has been a steady stream of resignations among immigration officials in his administration, most recently those of two former advocates, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/bidens-immigration-goals-fade-after-setbacks-us-mexico-
border-2022-01-20/">Tyler Moran and Esther Olavarria</a>. Meanwhile, Republicans regularly ridicule Biden’s policies, falsely claiming that he is an “open borders” Democrat. They hope that characterization will stick in the midterms, despite the fact that he has maintained Trump’s border restrictions, policies Republicans continue to praise.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nyiaFE">
On Wednesday, the Justice Department <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/immigration-title-42-biden-trump-
migrant-expulsions/">told</a> a federal appeals court that the border restrictions known as the Title 42 policy, allowing the federal government to bar noncitizens entry into the US for health reasons, were necessary to protect public health. In just one year, the Biden administration has used the policy to carry out more than 1 million expulsions of migrants arriving on the southern border, either sending them back to potential danger in overwhelmed border cities in Mexico or to their home countries. Public health experts, however, have repeatedly argued that there is no scientific rationale for the policy and that it’s possible to safely process people at the border with the right precautions.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hjjsSU">
Earlier this month, the DOJ also urged two federal courts in <a href="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23182086/California_motion_to_dismiss.pdf">California</a> and <a href="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23182088/Pennsylvania_motion_to_dismiss.pdf">Pennsylvania</a> to dismiss cases brought by migrant families who had been separated by the Trump administration and are seeking compensation. Though Biden has previously said that those families <a href="https://apnews.com/article/immigration-joe-
biden-lifestyle-mexico-2bdb31fdb7e2f661db482e8c081a0d69">deserved some form of compensation</a>, settlement talks have since fallen apart. DOJ lawyers are now claiming that the Trump administration was within its legal right to separate families, meaning that those affected aren’t eligible for compensation.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H8RPfy">
The White House referred Vox to the Department of Justice, which declined to comment on the Title 42 and family separations cases.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oNemLy">
The Biden administration’s defense of Title 42 and the legality of family separations in court may allow the president to truthfully say that he isn’t as “soft” on immigration as Republicans claim. But it also makes it hard to take Biden’s stated commitment to immigration reform seriously, and comes at an enormous cost: depriving hundreds of thousands of people of their legal right to seek asylum and magnifying the suffering of thousands of families broken by US policy.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/Lt8FyRbEFoDWtHVTK9BIC2-lBIA=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23191742/GettyImages_1309312474.jpg"/> <cite>John Moore/Getty Images</cite></p>
<figcaption>
A migrant mother from Honduras cradles her exhausted 8-year-old daughter after they and fellow asylum seekers crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico into the US on March 26, 2021, in Penitas, Texas. They were subsequently taken into custody by US Border Patrol agents.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mNGbRt">
Biden may have taken <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/immigration-biden-first-year-title-42-ice-texas/">hundreds of administrative actions</a> to undo Trump’s immigration policies during his first year in office. But his administration’s refusal to renounce Title 42 and fairly compensate separated families for their pain has cast a cloud over those accomplishments.
</p>
<h3 id="wiQ2iP">
The Biden administration continues to invoke public health to keep out asylum seekers
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vgHYBJ">
Title 42 creates an easy way to reduce the number of people crossing the southern border; there’s no need to increase funding for processing, to ramp up immigration courts, or to invent policy that might reduce migration. Instead, the federal government can just expel people. And the Biden administration has continued to lean on this fact to manage the southern border, despite evidence that it has endangered asylum seekers in the name of what public health experts say is a dubious scientific rationale.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fBGqTY">
In March 2020, at the outset of the pandemic, Trump began using the special legal authority created by Title 42, a section of the Public Health Service Act<strong> </strong>that allows the US government to temporarily block noncitizens from entering the US in the interest of public health. Though Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) scientists initially opposed the policy, arguing that there was no legitimate public health rationale behind it, then-Vice President Mike Pence <a href="https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-pandemics-public-health-new-york-
health-4ef0c6c5263815a26f8aa17f6ea490ae">ordered</a> them to implement it anyway.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Abu2cD">
Biden’s government has maintained that order. In <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wVohptijg4">court on Wednesday</a>, DOJ lawyer Sharon Swingle said that Title 42 relies on “scientific expertise” and that lifting the policy would allow the coronavirus to spread in Border Patrol facilities among people detained there, staff, and the public. Those facilities are not designed to quarantine or isolate immigrants who test positive for Covid-19, and the emergence of the delta and omicron variants have led the CDC to conclude that Title 42 remains justified, she said. In August 2021, the CDC did indeed issue a <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/downloads/CDC-Order-Suspending-Right-to-Introduce-
_Final_8-2-21.pdf">memo</a> renewing the policy.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tJ0YjY">
“The government’s goal is to get back to a state of orderly immigration processing for everyone, but currently, in CDC’s view, the public health realities don’t permit that,” Swingle said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1vDsXz">
Other <a href="https://www.publichealth.columbia.edu/node/76271">public health experts</a> say that migrants can be safely processed at the border and that the policy represents an attempt to “unethically and illegally exploit the Covid-19 pandemic to expel, block, and return to danger asylum seekers and individuals seeking protection.” Anthony Fauci, the United States’ top federal infectious disease expert and Biden’s chief medical adviser, has <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2021/10/03/fauci-says-immigrants-are-
absolutely-not-driving-covid-19-surge-lets-face-reality-here/?sh=6e81420173d1">said</a> that “expelling [migrants] … is not the solution to an outbreak.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WbCfu0">
Expelling migrants has put them in danger unrelated to Covid-19, however. Under Biden, there have been 8,705 attacks, including kidnappings and sexual assaults, against migrants trapped in Mexico due to the policy and other US border restrictions, according to a recent <a href="https://www.humanrightsfirst.org/resource/shameful-record-biden-administration-s-use-trump-policies-endangers-
people-seeking-asylum">report</a> by Human Rights First. That’s nearly one violent incident for each hour of Biden’s presidency.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="elZs0i">
Ultimately, the Biden administration’s attempts to justify Title 42 as a public health tool obscure what it really is: a means of avoiding the politically damaging perception of a border crisis at the expense of migrants’ safety.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YebvMB">
“It is shameful that an administration that ran on a belief in science and welcoming people with dignity continues to manipulate an obscure public health rule to violate the basic human rights of asylum seekers,” Karla Marisol Vargas, senior attorney at the Texas Civil Rights Project, said in a statement. “Scapegoating Black, indigenous, and other migrants of color as vectors of disease just serves as an example of the ongoing racism entrenched in our immigration system.”
</p>
<h3 id="3n6TKS">
The Biden administration is arguing that family separation was legal
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="myqehe">
On the campaign trail, Biden <a href="https://joebiden.com/immigration/">vigorously condemned</a> Trump’s use of family separations as a means of drawing a moral distinction between himself and his predecessor’s cruelty toward immigrants. While he has rejected the continued use of family separations and is working to ensure it never happens again, his DOJ has left families affected by it in the lurch, by abandoning settlement negotiations with them and dismissing their requests for compensation.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/fPbzS4Hfr_vOqUCvmNT6gq4JmTY=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23191731/AP21065835722276.jpg"/> <cite>Damian Dovarganes/AP</cite></p></figure></li>
</ul>
<figcaption>
Protesters participate in the “Reunite Our Families Now” rally against continued deportations, demanding family reunifications in Los Angeles in March 2021.
</figcaption>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6DLvU4">
Some 5,600 families were intentionally separated in immigration detention under President Trump in 2017 and 2018 after they tried to cross the southern US border without authorization, and hundreds have yet to be reunited. Children taken from their parents were placed in foster care, the homes of relatives in the US, and federal detention centers, while their parents were detained separately.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="323AZj">
The Biden administration has created a <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/family-
reunification-task-force">task force to reunite families</a> that remain separated, successfully <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/21_1129_s1_interim-progress-report-family-reunification-task-
force.pdf">reuniting 61 children</a> with their families as of November, and issued a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/09/politics/dhs-public-input-family-separation/index.html">callout to the public</a> asking for recommendations on how to ensure that family separations never happen again. It’s also currently offering affected families counseling and permission to live and work in the US for three years.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QnW3qE">
But the administration <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/justice-department-calls-off-settlement-talks-with-separated-
families-lawyers-say-11639678783">withdrew</a> from monthslong settlement talks with separated families in December after Biden <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22763438/family-separation-settlement-biden-
trump">dismissed</a> the idea of delivering payouts as high as $450,000, an amount that the DOJ was <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-administration-in-talks-to-pay-hundreds-of-millions-to-immigrant-families-
separated-at-border-11635447591?mod=article_inline">reportedly considering</a> at the time.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MYkgh3">
For those families, that $450,000 figure reflected the price of dealing with what could be lifelong psychological and health consequences of the trauma of separation and, in some cases of separated children, physical and sexual abuse they experienced while in <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/08/16/immigrant-children-separated-
border-abused-foster-care-claims/2027970001/">foster care</a> and in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/27/us/immigrant-children-sexual-abuse.html">US custody</a>. Republicans nevertheless seized on the issue, seeking to weaponize it against Biden and <a href="https://www.cornyn.senate.gov/content/news/cornyn-opposes-biden-efforts-settle-lawsuits-illegal-immigrants-
millions-taxpayer-0">arguing</a> that a settlement “would financially reward aliens who broke our laws” and “encourage more lawlessness” at the southern border.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Hn6bCs">
The DOJ has since made a clear reversal. It has argued in court that, despite the fact that the US has condemned the policy, the separations were lawful. In further arguments, the DOJ said affected families aren’t entitled to payouts from the government under the Federal Tort Claims Act, which allows people who have suffered due to negligence or wrongdoing by the federal government to sue for financial damages.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mrUi3w">
“At issue in this case is whether adults who entered the country without authorization can challenge the federal government’s enforcement of federal immigration laws,” the Justice Department said in a January 7 brief in the Pennsylvania lawsuit. “They cannot.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qoNn6R">
The DOJ is now on track to take the cases to trial, prolonging any possible resolution and potentially leaving families empty-handed.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Z2qzrX">
“It’s very frustrating. This is going to take a really long time,” said Conchita Cruz, co-executive director of the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, which has brought two cases seeking compensation for separated families and will likely file more. “Had the government not represented that it intended to settle these cases initially, I think a lot of families would have been much farther along [in the court process], some might even have already won in court, and they would be in a different situation. Now, some families are in a worse position for having waited a year later with nothing to show for it.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9jpTXO">
The administration has also requested to transfer the cases from California and Pennsylvania to courts in border states such as Texas, where Trump filled every existing federal judicial vacancy with <a href="https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2020/09/10/trump-has-stacked-federal-courts-in-texas-and-beyond-with-
conservative-judges-but-gop-cornyn-want-more/">conservative judges</a>. That creates more hurdles for families who don’t live in those states to continue to pursue their cases, though Cruz says it probably won’t stop them.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xVfzr3">
“You’re basically putting people in a situation where, in order to fight this case, you’re going to have to take a week off work and go to another state in the middle of a pandemic for a trial,” Cruz said. “You’re going to have to fly to the place where your trauma began and have to recount the worst moments of your life and likely have to be separated from your family to do it. It’s going to be a major disruption in your life.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="U9YBpq">
Though Biden has promised to make amends for these families’ suffering, his administration continues to contribute to it.
</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>American democracy is under threat. But what is that threat, exactly?</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/4_kTRSJ9ouhiluOF4XZulhfmQnY=/585x0:5257x3504/1310x983/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70428909/GettyImages_1302675688.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
A temporary security fence topped with razor wire surrounds the US Capitol on February 17, 2021, in Washington, DC. The fence was erected around the Capitol-area buildings following the deadly January 6, 2021, insurrection. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Is it election theft, minority rule, voter suppression, or all of the above?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JQgiU0">
Leading <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/14/us/politics/democracy-in-
peril.html">Democrats</a>, <a href="https://www.newamerica.org/political-reform/statements/statement-in-support-of-the-
freedom-to-vote-act/">many academics</a>, liberal commentators, and left-leaning activists agree: American democracy is in grave peril. It’s besieged on all sides, the threats culminating so far in Donald Trump’s attempt to steal the 2020 presidential election from Joe Biden. More tumult likely lies ahead.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yBPTBP">
But there’s a surprising amount of murkiness about what, exactly, this peril entails — and what can and should be done about it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XAS5mq">
Several dark scenarios for the future have been posed, but each is quite different. One is the threat of a stolen election — Republicans could outright steal elections Democrats won, as Trump tried to do, perhaps enhanced by mob violence. Another is the minority rule threat, in which Republicans could consistently win according to the rules but <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/25/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-ari-berman.html">without getting a majority of votes</a> nationwide, due to advantages in the Senate, Electoral College, and redistricting.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="377UBr">
There has also been much discussion of the threat of <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/issues/ensure-every-american-can-
vote/vote-suppression">voter suppression</a>, in which Democrats worry that GOP policy changes making it more difficult to vote could thwart a majority’s will.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GA1VZN">
Another fear is less about the way Republicans win power, but is more about what they’ll do with it. Let’s call this the irresponsible party threat. For the people with this point of view, any Republican win — even one with sweeping voter majorities — is dangerous, since a faction that does not respect democracy is influential and arguably dominant in the party.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="b5ziyA">
There’s a great deal of debate on just how plausible, and how worrying, each of these scenarios is. Some argue they’re all unfolding at once and are all immensely serious — and that’s part of why this problem is so difficult to solve. There’s also disagreement about root causes here, most notably, on how much of the problem comes from Donald Trump personally, and how much comes from broader forces in American society or institutions.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HsckxH">
Too often, though, all this tends to be conflated and treated as similarly urgent in what has become a <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/01/january-6-insurrection-trump-
coup-2024-election/620843/">thinkpiece-industrial</a> <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/587943-juan-
williams-american-democracy-is-in-peril">complex about</a> <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/01/imagine-death-american-democracy-trump-
insurrection/620841/">democracy’s</a> <a href="https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-11-17/democracy-threats-
crisis-donald-trump">peril</a>, and by a liberal establishment mostly concerned with offering reasons to vote for Democrats rather than Republicans. These threats may well have a common root, but they are distinct problems that would have separate solutions.
</p>
<h3 id="kpxSqH">
The threat of election theft
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KbYaER">
Many believe that the worst, most dangerous threat to American democracy by far was Trump’s conduct after the 2020 election, leading up to his supporters storming the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
</p>
<div class="c-wide-block">
<figure class="e-image"></figure></div></li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/pw9OalrvbsDOwcpPzF3DI4s0idU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23161664/AP21273793558241.jpg"/> <cite>John Minchillo/AP</cite></p>
<figcaption>
The face of President Donald Trump appears on large screens as supporters participate in a rally in front of the White House prior to marching to the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
</figcaption>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WRz7P4">
In this line of thinking, the many other issues liberals care about — voter suppression laws, gerrymandering, the Senate’s rural skew, Trump’s election in the first place — pale in importance when compared to the attempted theft of 2020. Institutional biases or voter suppression might affect election outcomes on the margin. But election theft is about throwing out the results entirely. That arguably should make it the most dangerous scenario for democracy, at least in the short term, as <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22876361/freedom-to-vote-act-senate-filibuster-what-
next">my colleague Zack Beauchamp writes</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wSwXIa">
Though the mob at the Capitol rightfully got much attention, many experts don’t think the mob itself is the main problem. “The looming danger is not that the mob will return; it’s that mainstream Republicans will ‘legally’ overturn an election,” Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/07/democracy-could-die-2024/619390/">wrote at the Atlantic last year</a>. That means stealing an election, but through institutions like election officials, legislatures, or Congress, not through brute force.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="p5uuZh">
Trump tried to pressure officials at all these levels to try and throw out Biden’s wins, but his efforts failed. The question is whether he, or someone else, could succeed next time. His supporters <a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-united-states-elections-electoral-college-
election-2020-809215812f4bc6e5907573ba98247c0c">are trying to replace</a> various GOP officials who upheld the results with hardcore believers in his narrative of election fraud, or cynics more willing to pander to such beliefs.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6OEYsB">
If you believe this threat looms above all, then addressing vulnerabilities in the system is paramount. So Democrats should jump at Republicans’ offer to discuss reforming the Electoral Count Act, the antiquated law Trump tried to use to get Congress and Vice President Pence to throw out results. The specific details of said reforms will matter a great deal, but <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/01/democrats-mitch-mcconnell-election-reform-
deal.html">as Rick Hasen writes at Slate</a>, it’s worth getting talks rolling, rather than scoffing at them, as some Democratic leaders <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/schumer-slams-suggested-bipartisan-reform-electoral-count-act-
calling-it-mcconnell-plan-1666599">have so far</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EtI8w6">
But the greater threat of a stolen election might come in the states — either from partisan state officials who refuse to certify rightful results, or state legislators who block the winner’s electors. If either happens, it’s not clear the courts will intervene to set things right, since many conservatives argue states have ultimate authority over their own elections.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1EVN25">
If possible (it may not be), it would be worth trying to include protections against state election theft in Electoral Count Act reforms. But there’s no foolproof solution. The system will only work if enough people in power agree to let it work. So one key test will be in whether Republicans who stood up to Trump, like Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, can survive primary challenges. Retaining a core of elites in the Republican Party who respect democratic norms is crucially important. Much could also hinge on whether Trump himself runs again and wins the GOP nomination.
</p>
<div class="c-wide-block">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/gUF0RAYBPAGNPqs0s-NB-WGX3A8=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23161967/GettyImages_1178631090.jpg"/> <cite>Tasos Katopodis/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
President Donald Trump and then-Sen. David Perdue at Nationals Park in Washington, DC, on October 27, 2019. Trump has endorsed Perdue in his campaign for governor of Georgia over incumbent Republican Gov.  Brian Kemp after bitterness over Joe Biden’s 2020 win in Georgia.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<h3 id="6GmPNY">
The threat of minority rule
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xQASY8">
Yet many Democrats, activists, and academics aren’t just worried about elections being outright stolen. They’re also concerned that Republicans could consistently win elections while lacking a majority of overall votes nationwide. This, they argue, is an affront to the core democratic principle that a majority should prevail, and to the idea that some people’s votes shouldn’t be worth more than others.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="j5sJm9">
Lately, many United States’s electoral institutions have given the GOP an advantage. “The GOP has dropped any pretense of trying to appeal to a majority of Americans,” <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/01/the-
insurrection-was-put-down-the-gop-plan-for-minority-rule-marches-on/">writes Ari Berman of Mother Jones</a>. “Instead, recognizing that the structure of America’s political institutions diminishes the influence of urban areas, young Americans, and voters of color, it caters to a conservative white minority that is drastically overrepresented in the Electoral College, the Senate, and gerrymandered legislative districts.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5BcmVN">
In 2020, Biden won the popular vote by more than 4 percentage points, but only barely eked out a win in the tipping point Electoral College state. The median states were even a bit more tilted toward the GOP, suggesting the party has a 4- to 6-point advantage in competition for the Senate. Gerrymandering will likely continue to give the GOP a narrow advantage in the House of Representatives and far greater advantages in some swing state legislatures. And we shouldn’t forget the conservative- dominated Supreme Court, which has three justices appointed by a president who never won a majority of the nationwide vote.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vBy5Td">
This is a frustrating state of affairs for Democrats, but is it a fundamental threat to democracy comparable to that of stolen elections? The US has never had a system where the popular vote dictated these outcomes. Republicans (including those who criticized Trump’s attempt to steal the 2020 election) argue that they have been playing by the long-established rules of the game, and that Democrats are simply upset that they are losing. Democrats argue back that the rules are unfair because they disadvantage nonwhite voters.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SlimcT">
Whatever the arguments, there are few plausible solutions. The party’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/1/19/22881837/senate-
filibuster-vote-voting-rights-joe-manchin-kyrsten-sinema">filibustered election bill</a> would have reformed House gerrymandering, but it left these other institutions untouched. Other proposals preferred by some on the left, such as adding new states to the Senate and packing the Supreme Court, didn’t even make the cut. The most popular idea for reforming the Electoral College — a “<a href="https://www.nationalpopularvote.com/written-explanation">compact</a>” among states to give their electors to the popular vote winner — isn’t going anywhere unless Democrats seize power in many more swing states.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tBSMa9">
There are some arguments that these problems are surmountable without big reforms. The current round of redistricting probably <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/12/democrats-are-
doing-weirdly-well-in-redistricting.html">won’t be as bad for Democrats</a> as many expected in the House (some state legislatures are another story, though). And the Electoral College bias is hardly set in stone — Democrats had a slight advantage in it compared to the popular vote in 2004, 2008, and 2012. Democrats’ woes there, as in the Senate, are in large part a Trump-era problem brought on by a sharp increase in the polarization of the electorate by education.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="klk9Me">
Yet reversing that trend would likely require a change in the party’s political coalition. They’d have to get significantly better at appealing to the non-college-educated voters, particularly white voters, whose power is amplified by these institutions, as Democratic data guru <a href="https://twitter.com/davidshor/status/1483882676859846656">David Shor has argued</a>. For the foreseeable future, the conversation about reforming the Electoral College or the Senate is a dead end — no constitutional convention is coming to save us. Democrats’ only option is to try to win despite their disadvantages.
</p>
<h3 id="yGO0FD">
The threat of voter suppression
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eQM3vW">
Another threat that’s gotten enormous attention from Democrats, advocates, and experts this year is voter suppression. They argue that Republicans have a longtime practice of trying to effectively trying to distort the electorate, making it harder for certain voters (especially young, poor, nonwhite, and immigrant voters) to actually cast their ballots, so the GOP can have a better shot at winning.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jOBxK4">
This effort accelerated in 2021 with a set of new laws in GOP-controlled states. Some toughened voter ID requirements, some are reduced the time in which mail ballots can be requested, some limited drop boxes, some made it easier to “purge” voter rolls. Republicans claim they’re simply rolling back pandemic expansions or trying to combat possible fraud, but occasionally a Republican <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/06/14/gops-increasingly-blunt-argument-
it-needs-voting-restrictions-win/">admits</a> these measures are aimed at helping their party win.
</p>
<div class="c-wide-block">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/uS25ByPYDdLwWgQN2GkYkTzs9S0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23161773/GettyImages_1234918060.jpg"/> <cite>Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Protesters rally in Washington, DC, on August 28, 2021, to demand protection for voting rights on the 58th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gOlpBJ">
Biden and others <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/01/21/biden-bull-
connor/">have compared</a> these laws to the old Jim Crow laws of the South. “We feel if they can do these voting rights laws and other voting rights laws, we will never have a majority,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/democrats-voting-rights-sinema-manchin/2022/01/20/7a167b3e-7935-11ec-
bf97-6eac6f77fba2_story.html">recently told the Washington Post</a>. And the provisions of certain new laws that could enable partisan election subversion — election theft — <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-
politics/22368044/georgia-sb202-voter-suppression-democracy-big-lie">could be quite dangerous</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="y2Rgk6">
But whatever Republicans’ malign intentions or Democrats’ fears, the real-world effects of voter suppression provisions on election outcomes seem likely to be considerably less dramatic. “There is very little that politicians can do to alter election administration in such a way that it would have a permanent, obvious effect on turnout or the composition of the electorate,” MIT political scientist Charles Stewart <a href="https://www.vox.com/22307937/voting-
rights-georgia-arizona-voting-by-mail-republican-absentee-donald-trump">told my colleague Ian Millhiser last year</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AtLy3E">
There <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/03/upshot/georgia-election-law-
turnout.html">simply haven’t been</a> big variations in state election outcomes based on how much early or mail voting states have — it just doesn’t seem to matter much, because people largely adapt to the new rules. <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/2/21/18230009/voter-id-laws-fraud-turnout-study-research">Study</a> <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/11/2/13481816/voter-id-suppression-turnout">after</a> <a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/3/15/14909764/study-voter-id-racism">study</a> has found that voter ID laws have little effect on outcomes. And it isn’t the case anymore, if it ever was, that high-turnout elections are self- evidently bad for Republicans, given the parties’ changing coalitions and recent voting patterns.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WGOGg1">
Some political scientists are still worried. <a href="https://www.democracydocket.com/news/democrats-must-
reform-the-electoral-count-act-and-pass-comprehensive-voting-rights-legislation/">Charlotte Hill, Jake Grumbach, Hakeem Jefferson, and Adam Bonica write that</a> it’s “not at all clear” that voter suppression policies have little impact. They posit that perhaps outcomes don’t change “because grassroots groups have invested ever-greater resources” to overcome barriers to voting, and such investment might not be sustainable.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tAwItO">
Furthermore, expanding and standardizing voting accessibility can be a worthwhile and important thing to do regardless of its partisan effects or impact on outcomes. Provisions of these laws, <a href="https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/mar/29/josh-
holmes/facts-about-georgias-ban-food-water-giveaways-vote/">like the Georgia one</a> that bans giving away food and water to people waiting in line at a polling place, can be cruel and arbitrary. And if an election is close enough, even policies with very small effects could theoretically tip the outcome. But major transformations of the electorate in these states from policies of this kind seem unlikely.
</p>
<h3 id="blhU9u">
The threat of the irresponsible party
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lwS39P">
Finally, some liberals would define the threat to democracy in even more worrying terms. It wouldn’t just be a stolen election, or a Republican win without a majority of votes — <em>any Republican victory at all</em> is a threat, because of what the GOP might use its powers to do next time around.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bSSlLK">
“There’s something deep to confront about the aberrant nature of this particular faction and political formation that is the primary problem that all others flow from,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/11/podcasts/transcript-ezra-klein-interviews-chris-
hayes.html">MSNBC’s Chris Hayes recently argued</a> on <em>The Ezra Klein Show</em>.
</p>
<div class="c-wide-block">
<figure class="e-image">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/d1H7zOUCxtpwOjZoVlheWOOFcAA=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23162149/GettyImages_1234294747.jpg"/> <cite>Drew Angerer/Getty Images</cite></p>
<figcaption>
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, center, and other members of the House Republican Conference arrive for a news conference outside the US Capitol on July 29, 2021.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fYHrC6">
Trump’s actions, and the willingness of so much of the GOP to excuse or accommodate them, indeed go a long way toward making the case that the GOP may well not respect future election results if it’s in power. The more difficult question is what can be even done about this. “What do you do in a two-party system if one coalition is not fully committed to democracy?” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/11/podcasts/transcript-ezra-klein-interviews-
chris-hayes.html">Hayes continued</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NQy5UQ">
The solution Democrats would prefer, of course, is that everyone should just vote for Democrats. But as recent <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/republican-glenn-
youngkin-wins-election-for-governor-in-virginia">election results</a> and <a href="https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/congress-generic-ballot-polls/">polling numbers suggest</a>, that likely won’t work. The Republican Party is going to stick around and remain competitive in the future, at the state level and nationally. The grand, final defeat of Trump or the GOP, either electorally or legislatively, is a pipe dream.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rPbcnD">
Some have mused about electoral reforms like a <a href="https://twitter.com/awprokop/status/1450991825267957761">top 5 ranked-choice</a> system, which perhaps could give GOP moderates a path to the general election. But the forces pushing the GOP in extreme directions, such as identity- based polarization and media dynamics, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Why-Were-Polarized-Ezra-Klein/dp/147670032X">are broad</a> and unlikely to be solved by policy tweaks.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wKTxR2">
So for those who believe the Democratic Party and the forces of democracy are permanently locked in combat with an extremist GOP, there’s not a comforting prescription. Whether this will change depends on the GOP itself.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lTr5X1">
But at least when it comes to election theft, there’s a counterargument that the party isn’t yet lost. In particular, key Republicans with positions of authority to affect the results <a href="https://www.vox.com/22230929/trump-coup-why-failed-capitol-storming">largely didn’t use</a> their formal powers to help Trump steal the election. Swing state governors, state officials, state legislative leaders, GOP-appointed judges, Senate leaders, and Justice Department leaders let Biden’s win through. Many in the party postured irresponsibly, some sought to use <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/22/us/politics/jeffrey-
clark-trump-justice-department-election.html">their</a> <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/11/23/21591273/trump-
certification-michigan-pennsylvania-sidney-powell">power</a> corruptly, but it’s not the case that the GOP is a well- oiled election-stealing machine: at least not yet.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5CRLJS">
If Trump is deposed or retires, and is replaced by a less conspiracy-addled, norm-breaking, boundary-pushing party leader, that could help. If the party accepts that they’re making gains among nonwhite and other low-propensity voters and stops trying to suppress their turnout, that would be nice. If high-ranking members of the party who oppose election theft and respect democratic norms manage to hold on to their positions, rather than being purged, that would be encouraging.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JlbTlN">
Trump’s coup last time around was stopped, in large part, <a href="https://www.vox.com/22230929/trump-coup-why-failed-capitol-
storming">because Republican elected officials stopped it</a>. Whether they will do so again is not really something Democrats or liberals can control. They can only hope for the best — and fear for the worst.
</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>The animal that’s everywhere and nowhere</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A pair of hands reaching into a tank where a frilled salamander is swimming." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/kO7eFnji9MJhEEzNRvlNdt_yoWE=/312x0:3596x2463/1310x983/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70428898/LuisARojas_Xochimilco_2.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
A veterinarian holds a salamander called an axolotl inside a fish tank at the ecological restoration laboratory at Mexico City’s Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in April 2021. While scientists estimate there are roughly 1 million axolotls in captivity, they’re almost extinct in the wild. | Luis Antonio Rojas for Vox
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Axolotls are among the most widespread amphibians on Earth. In the wild, they’re almost extinct.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iYlMVs">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="r8LnYo">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3TGFaP">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yC1WhN">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qAgwfN">
</p>
<p class="p--has-dropcap" data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QQ2bnM">
The small salamander known as the axolotl, whose cartoonish face resembles a smiling emoji, is among the most widespread amphibians on Earth. You can buy them as pets online, <a href="https://www.pcgamer.com/how-to-minecraft-axolotl-breed-
tame-spawn-colors/">collect them</a> in the game Minecraft, and watch them perform on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/tv/CX34ndUqm2z/?utm_medium=copy_link">Instagram</a> and <a href="https://vm.tiktok.com/TTPdrnUdh3/">TikTok</a>. Often pink in color with feathery external gills, axolotls are also popular in laboratories: Scientists love studying them because they can <a href="https://elifesciences.org/articles/13998">regrow</a> limbs, spinal cords, and even portions of their brains. Roughly 1 million are under human care worldwide, according to some experts.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XyEyX2">
Yet in their home country of Mexico, where they’re celebrated as cultural icons, axolotls are critically endangered and on the verge of extinction. The only place you can find them in the wild is in a watery borough of Mexico City, the second-largest city in the Western Hemisphere. There are fewer than three dozen per square kilometer here, down from 6,000 in the 1990s.
</p></li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OBqmnc">
This paradox — that axolotls seem to be everywhere and nowhere at the same time — raises a vexing question. If an animal is thriving in labs and aquariums, should we worry that it’s dying in its native waters? Or, asked another way: How important is the “wild” in wildlife?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WFgTRD">
Most searches for wild axolotls now end in failure, Luis Zambrano, a leading axolotl researcher at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), told me last year. They’re simply too rare. Yet in November, I set out for Xochimilco (pronounced so-chee-MEEL-ko) in the south of Mexico City. I wanted to learn the lessons of axolotls in their natural habitat, and I had a hunch I might get lucky.
</p>
<p class="p--has-dropcap" data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8DK3sL">
Some endangered animals live deep in the rainforest, far from civilization. Not the axolotl. The salamander resides in narrow canals that surround farms called chinampas<em>,</em> or “floating gardens,” and provide water for the crops and a way to travel. With its skinny streets and wooden boats ferrying people around, Xochimilco feels a bit like Venice, but with the added smell of freshly cooked tamales and the crow of roosters.
</p>
<div class="p-fullbleed-block">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/vMNDeBut7w2CyWhJ0zh8lgFlz98=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23165078/LuisARojas_Xochimilco_13.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
A farmer moves his wooden boat through a canal in Xochimilco, a borough of Mexico City, in November 2021.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="O4hMg6">
The Indigenous Mexica were among the peoples who built the chinampas hundreds of years ago, when they ruled what Europeans dubbed the Aztec Empire. At a time when the city was home to five large lakes, axolotls thrived in the canals and the Mexicas used them as a source of <a href="https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/65/12/1134/223981">food</a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20191110-mexico-citys-walking-fish">medicine</a>. They also revered the salamanders as spiritual beings and living representations of the god Xolotl — the dog-headed twin of Quetzalcoatl, one of their most important deities. (One <a href="https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/65/12/1134/223981">creation myth</a> suggests Xolotl transformed himself into different plants and animals to avoid being sacrificed, and his final form before he was found and killed was an axolotl.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="63C79m">
The Spanish invasion and centuries of colonization eroded traditional farming and changed the city’s unique ecosystem. As Mexico City grew, the lakes started drying up, sewage and agricultural chemicals fouled the waters, and two kinds of introduced fish multiplied in the canals. Today, the majority of farmers use fertilizers and pesticides, and most water in Xochimilco can’t support many native species. The animals that survive have to compete with invasive fish, which also eat axolotls.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7UiP7E">
Wandering the narrow streets of Xochimilco one afternoon, I asked locals where to find the salamanders. I eventually got a lead: I might find them near the intersection of two major waterways to the north. I crossed a few canals filled with dark, fetid water before the directions led me to a dimly lit room. It housed a small owl, turtles, and several tanks of the iconic salamanders. So much for wild axolotls.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5LNmSa">
As a swarm of tourists gathered around, I thought about the gulf between ecosystems and the human idea of nature. Here we were in the axolotl’s native land, gawking at their features as though they were somehow exotic. It’s easy to forget that these creatures were ever wild and part of a large community when they now live behind glass. It’s easy to forget that Earth’s rarest species share the same web of life as humans.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="95XVwk">
I had more luck in my search when I visited a farm owned by Felipe Barrera Aguirre, a farmer and veterinarian who wears his thick, black hair in a bun. He told me that he was restoring a population of axolotls in a canal on his land. On a chilly morning, I climbed into a wooden boat bound for Barrera Aguirre’s farm with photographer Luis Antonio Rojas.
</p>
<div class="p-fullbleed-block">
<div class="c-image-grid">
<div class="c-image-grid__item">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/S2GwrcG7EfU642hJo8NN1vwp5a4=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23165108/LuisARojas_Xochimilco_15.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Farmers travel through the early morning mist on a canal in Xochimilco in November 2021.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<div class="c-image- grid__item">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/UYSZoBbEj1EKoAPVR0ExKaaKP5k=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23165111/LuisARojas_Xochimilco_17.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
A white heron rests by the edge of a canal in Xochimilco.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="68kEi8">
Mist blanketed the canal as our boat cut through the water and the sun rose through the haze. A large egret resting on the bank took flight as we cruised by.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="k8WMcV">
Half an hour later we arrived at his farm, which was small but exquisite. He led us past tall sunflowers, bright-red cherry tomatoes, and dew-covered spider webs to a small canal filled with aquatic plants. Stay silent and watch, Barrera Aguirre told me.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yyLtRr">
Axolotls are unusual even when compared to their amphibian brethren. While many salamanders morph into terrestrial creatures when they reach adulthood — losing their gills, fins, and other aquatic features in exchange for a body better suited to land — axolotls usually<strong> </strong>don’t. Most live their whole lives underwater, as if they never grow up. Fortunately for<strong> </strong>admirers on land, they still often come up for air.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Qu2OVe">
Waiting for rare wildlife to show up is a test of patience. But in the stillness, I noticed life all around me, from an iridescent beetle scaling a blade of grass to shrimp-like animals zipping through the water. This, I thought, is what biodiversity looks like — countless plants, animals, and microbes all doing their own thing in a complex network.
</p>
<div class="c-wide-block">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/0W5arZh8GT18i7YSqbFxiVoN_U4=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23166114/LuisARojas_Xochimilco_45.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Felipe Barrera Aguirre, with his camera at the ready, waits for an axolotl to appear in a canal in his chinampa one early morning in November 2021.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<div id="TuO1ae">
<div class="volume-video" id="volume-placement-231">
</div>
<div class="caption">
A wild axolotl swims to the surface of a canal in Barrera Aguirre’s chinampa.
</div>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8wNRID">
An hour or so in, just as I was giving up hope, a brown axolotl broke the surface. It drew a quick breath into its open mouth before retreating into the darkness. Then another appeared, about the size of a banana. For a split second, I stared at one of the rarest wild animals on Earth.
</p>
<p class="p--has-dropcap" data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Llb1Z3">
If axolotls are so rare in the wild, how did they become common everywhere else? The story begins in the 1860s, when a French expedition, tasked with exploring Mexico’s resources, brought 34 axolotls from Mexico City to a zoo in Paris, according to a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jez.b.22617">history of axolotl research</a>. Scientists and naturalists went on to breed those salamanders and distribute them around Europe, and by the 1870s they were found in all European countries — and eventually the US.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mOMYBp">
Remarkably, most axolotls under human care descended from that single group of fewer than three dozen (although over the years, scientists have bred a few wild axolotls and even tiger salamanders into the captive population). Wild axolotls are typically dark brown, whereas lab and pet animals are often white or pink. There are also genetic differences between the two groups, according to Randal Voss, an axolotl researcher at the University of Kentucky.
</p>
<div class="c-wide-block">
<figure class="e-image">
<pre><code> &lt;img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/jptQ-</code></pre>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">SCMIH2N7tcrrWPoIOtP2VI=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox- cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23165136/Axolotl_Reflection.jpg" /&gt; <cite>Courtesy of Hani Singer</cite></p>
<figcaption>
An axolotl rests inside a piece of PVC pipe in a tank at Jessica Whited’s lab at Harvard University.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="shJei2">
Not long after the French expedition, scientists made axolotls a staple of medical research. In fact, “axolotls were already mundane participants in laboratory life” when a scientist named Thomas Hunt Morgan first started studying the iconic fruit fly in the 1910s, according to the historical account. Early on, researchers used these salamanders to study the development of embryos and the hormone thyroxine. Now, they’re common in regeneration research.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yJOXMR">
More recently, axolotls found fame in Western popular culture. They’re <a href="https://allaboutcats.com/in-demand-pets/">sought-after pets</a> with a massive social media following: the hashtag #axolotl has 1.8 billion views on TikTok. (I highly recommend <a href="https://vm.tiktok.com/TTPdMCeGPK/">this video</a>, in which a drawing of a chef’s hat turns an axolotl into a tiny chef.) Axolotls also star in an ever-growing list of websites and games, including the <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-silicon-valley/money-in-the-metaverse">hugely popular</a><strong> </strong>game<strong> </strong>Axie Infinity, in which users collect, breed, and battle cartoon axolotls. Some players have <a href="https://restofworld.org/2021/axie-infinity/">earned more</a> in the game than in their traditional jobs.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SrvMWU">
Axolotls are no less iconic in Mexico, where they’re depicted in murals throughout Mexico City. The salamander is even the city’s <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-01/summing-up-mexico-city-using-
only-emojis">official emoji</a> and appears on the country’s new 50-peso note.
</p>
<div class="p-fullbleed-block">
<div class="c-image-grid">
<div class="c-image-grid__item">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/cpmAXswZ5RuBT4tz277I1rezG_4=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23165145/LuisARojas_Xochimilco_19.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
A mural of an axolotl in the Nativitas neighborhood of Xochimilco.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<div class="c-image-grid__item">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/_w2FD78wXh1m1D7S0t8-nFt36sM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23165156/LuisARojas_Xochimilco_20.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
A man walks past a mural of an axolotl in the Caltongo neighborhood of Xochimilco.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2n8wXb">
But fame has done little to save them. The animal that most people know and love isn’t wild, but a captive creature, which doesn’t help them in Xochimilco. “Everybody says we have to save the axolotl, but they don’t care much about the ecosystems in which they live,” Zambrano said.
</p>
<p class="p--has-dropcap" data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="k9a5sC">
For 15 years now, Mexican scientists like Zambrano have been teaming up with farmers like Barrera Aguirre to rebuild populations of axolotls in their native waters. They aim to restore canals and revive traditional farming practices; for example, by planting a wider range of crops and spraying fewer chemicals. The ultimate goal is to release axolotls back into the wild where they can survive and breed.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kUPmPC">
On a hot November afternoon, I met Crescencio Hernández at his farm in a neighborhood of Xochimilco called San Gregorio. Not long ago, Hernández used chemical fertilizers and pesticides to grow his crops, which polluted the canals surrounding his farm. Then he started working with Carlos Uriel Sumano Arias, one of Zambrano’s colleagues. Sumano Arias helped Hernández use fewer chemicals, adopt natural fertilizers, and build a rudimentary filter that cleans the canal and prevents the unwanted fish from entering.
</p>
<div class="c-wide-block">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/E_dfNyAsQBhg_gkz5e8cs5Frfj4=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23165405/LuisARojas_Xochimilco_38.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Carlos Uriel Sumano Arias checks the clarity of the water from a canal in Xochimilco in November 2021. He helps farmers in the area clean up their canals and build refuges for axolotls.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="elKcer">
I made sure not to step on young stems of broccoli and kale as I walked along the canal. A green frog croaked and jumped into the water and, on the far bank, I saw a small water snake — hardly thicker than a string of yarn — slip into the grass.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VMN6ht">
Sumano Arias, a man in his 30s wearing a Panama hat, pulled up a few aquatic plants with roots that looked like glass noodles. “They smell good,” he said, lifting them to his nose and then passing them to me. That means the water is clean, he added. Sumano Arias plans to follow in Barrera Aguirre’s footsteps and introduce axolotls here in April.
</p>
<div class="c-wide-block">
<div class="c-image-grid">
<div class="c-image-grid__item">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/DMFDayuuRuMF_Sw9C0vyegE7j9Q=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23177923/LuisARojas_Xochimilco_42.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Seedlings growing in a chinampa in Xochimilco.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<div class="c-image-grid__item">
<figure class="e-image">
<pre><code> &lt;img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-</code></pre>
cdn.com/thumbor/UReDWFYZTCbtGXPYYMAmnv1scQM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox- cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23165974/LuisARojas_Xochimilco_34.jpg" /&gt;
<figcaption>
A butterfly rests on a marigold in a chinampa in Xochimilco.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<div class="c-image-grid__item">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/lzsTd00C3rl0mS7V2Hf9EwS7IK8=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23165973/LuisARojas_Xochimilco_28.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Sumano Arias checks the roots of aquatic plants from a canal bordering a chinampa.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<div class="c-image- grid__item">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/6mPhHyux9fDtxtTCk5O5ul_9DoE=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23177931/LuisARojas_Xochimilco_26.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
A rudimentary filter keeps pollution, sediment, and unwanted fish out of a canal.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Akod93">
Axolotls don’t directly benefit farmers or ecosystems in some grand or obvious way. Rather, they’re an indicator species, almost like a canary in a coal mine. No axolotls probably means dirty water. And like other native animals, they’re part of a complex system. Their absence is like a broken cog in a finely tuned machine.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TkX8zp">
What’s bad for these salamanders is also bad for people, Zambrano added. Farmers in Xochimilco have a hard time selling produce because “the public believes these products are polluted,” he wrote in a recent paper. That’s pushed many of them to use <em>more</em> agrochemicals and prioritize quantity over quality, or to abandon their farms altogether. Those who take over the abandoned plots often dump sewage into the canals, he wrote, which makes the water even dirtier and feeds a vicious cycle of habitat loss.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Y1gsWq">
The flip side is that restoring the ecosystems here — fixing many faulty cogs at once — also benefits farmers and those who buy their crops. An ecosystem that sustains axolotls can produce clean water for healthier, better-tasting produce, said Esperanza Hernández Flores, Crescencio’s sister, who also works on the farm.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7xTEV9">
“Water availability and quality are as important to axolotls as they are to local people who grow crops within Xochimilco,” Zambrano wrote in 2015.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="t69Wow">
Returning axolotls to the land is also a kind of cultural revival, Agustin Galacio Gonzalez, another farmer who participates in the UNAM program, told me. “It’s an important species for the heritage of the area.”
</p>
<div class="c-wide-block">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/ZyVI1DAgG6oReMRkky5v3u3J5ZQ=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23177277/LuisARojas_Xochimilco_11.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Luis Zambrano, an ecologist at UNAM who leads a project to create refuges for axolotls in Xochimilco, at his office in Mexico City in November 2021.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="L5OVBu">
Zambrano aims to get at least 200 farmers to join the project, but that may be a challenge: Farmers told me that the market for natural products in Mexico is small and hard to access, and that eco-friendly methods tend to produce fewer crops. There are also other kinds of waste, such as sewage and pollution from new buildings, that dirty the canals, Zambrano acknowledged.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2zbVRF">
Nonetheless, Zambrano and his team have hope for Xochimilco’s axolotls. Just 15 years ago, relatively few people knew about these salamanders, he said, and now they’re showing up in the news and popular culture. That’s put Xochimilco on the map, he said. The urbanites of Mexico City are starting to realize that important species live in their own backyard, not just in distant protected areas, Zambrano added.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7CMqM2">
When helping animals also helps humans, these kinds of projects can work, he told me. When efforts to save species pit environmentalists against local communities, <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/22798384/vaquita-extinction-fishing-conservation-mexico">they fail</a>. “You have to work with the people inside,” Zambrano said. “They have to own the project.”
</p>
<div class="c-wide- block">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/2CMCaTw3jJhtVJPV19FJMJV9Bn0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23178114/LuisARojas_Xochimilco_8.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Two axolotls that morphed into land-based salamanders in a fish tank at UNAM’s ecological restoration laboratory in November 2021.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SwSuX6">
Zambrano has an axolotl aquarium at his lab at UNAM. When I visited, I noticed two salamanders that were out of the water and seemed to be missing their external gills. Sometimes axolotls follow their amphibian cousins and transform into land-based creatures. It’s a response to stresses like changes in water quality, Voss, of the University of Kentucky, said. While salamanders may look fragile, <a href="https://www.vox.com/22533604/california-drought-heatwave-wildfires-climate-change-salamanders">they’re actually pretty resilient</a>. Maybe they do stand a fighting chance.
</p>
<p class="p--has-dropcap" data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="N8kr4Y">
Jessica Whited, a professor of regenerative biology at Harvard, has a thing for axolotls. Her office in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is decorated with axolotl paintings, and a cloth cape embroidered with an axolotl hangs in the corner. On a coffee table near the door, there’s a small jar filled with axolotl feet next to a glass container of Tootsie Pops.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LfGkMe">
Whited leads one of the largest axolotl labs in the country. She met me on a cold and rainy fall morning, talking rapidly about salamander science and often erupting into laughter. There were thousands of axolotls a few floors below us, she told me, in a room she calls “the baby factory.”
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/OWMRZ0-yGvhT5OH-WHSgiHuL0p4=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23165952/Jessica___Axolotl_4.jpg"/> <cite>Courtesy of Hani Singer</cite></p>
<figcaption>
Researcher Jessica Whited in the lab she leads at Harvard, where she studies limb regeneration in axolotls.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XUhMIz">
Whited is chasing what she calls a “holy grail”: the regeneration of human limbs. “People losing limbs in the United States due to disease is an ever-increasing problem,” she said. “There’s simply nothing that would be as perfect as coaxing the human limb to regenerate.” Her own grandfather underwent several amputations linked to peripheral artery disease before he passed away in his early 60s.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iqQuIk">
This work is possible because the anatomy of an axolotl is surprisingly similar to our own, Whited said, holding the jar of salamander feet to the light. “We are discovering how these animals actually regenerate limbs,” she said. “Then we can take this information and say which parts of this process are <em>not</em> happening in humans.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jIrn74">
Whited has no doubt that humans will eventually be able to regenerate their own limbs. “The question is just when,” she said. Now, her team is trying to identify what part of the axolotl genome — which, curiously, is about <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/29/science/axolotl-dna-genome-sequence.html">10 times</a> the size of the human genome — controls regeneration.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6SV1Mj">
“The biggest discoveries are yet to come,” she said.
</p>
<div class="c-wide-block">
<div class="c-image-grid">
<div class="c-image-grid__item">
<figure class="e-image">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/UQwNotbrS2vqpyb6VnLcwkq2Y3A=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23166026/5_days_regenerated.jpg"/> <cite>Courtesy of Hani Singer</cite></p>
<figcaption>
An axolotl limb five days into regeneration.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<div class="c-image- grid__item">
<figure class="e-image">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/jzyu_TgPzfLy_z9KacHj4eB25_A=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23166032/35_days_regenerated.jpg"/> <cite>Courtesy of Hani Singer</cite></p>
<figcaption>
An axolotl limb 35 days into regeneration.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2wFLbJ">
In Whited’s brightly lit lab, thousands of axolotls live in hundreds of containers on shelves. The young ones, which were around 2 inches long and wriggled in small plastic tubs, had partially transparent skin — I could see right through to their intestines, which looked like brains.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IpxUJ0">
We were far from the wild axolotls that still live in the canals of Xochimilco. But I knew that these two worlds were deeply connected. Whited’s research — and so much of what we know about human and animal biology — wouldn’t have been possible without the wild animals that Mexican scientists and farmers are racing to save. What other secrets does the vast, wild world hold?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6QUKKY">
Cutting-edge medical research may one day give people a healthier life. But if Zambrano and Barrera Aguirre are right, so will reviving some of the traditional farming methods in Xochimilco. We need both the old and the new — the chinampas and the Harvard labs.
</p>
<div class="p-fullbleed-block">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ccxWiyI0Ua3WRWshPymMUqO8FVY=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23177435/LuisARojas_Xochimilco_44.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Felipe Barrera Aguirre takes an early morning walk through his chinampa in Xochimilco.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="C6YewZ">
On Barrera Aguirre’s farm, every plant and animal served a purpose. Bees from his hives pollinate the crops, fennel attracts wasps that scare away insect pests, and axolotls keep the aquatic food chain in balance by feasting on smaller organisms, he told me.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="l8Ehqn">
Biodiversity wasn’t a concept for him — it was a way of life. “It’s very easy to understand the importance of biodiversity,” Barrera Aguirre said while stacking fresh-picked cherry tomatoes. “Each tomato is like a piece in a tower. When it becomes unstable, it falls.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ryuxog">
<em>Luis Antonio Rojas contributed reporting to this article.</em>
</p>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Here’s what Apple might announce at a spring event this March</strong> - An iPhone SE, new iPads, and more ARM Macs? All possible. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1827876">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Dark Souls servers taken down following discovery of critical vulnerability</strong> - No interaction required. “I didn’t even know that shit was possible,” pwned player says. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1828071">link</a></p></li>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>An Englishman, a Frenchman, a ravishing blonde and an old lady are sharing a train car on a train as it winds its way through the Alps.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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Every now and then the train passes through a tunnel, during which time the compartment is plunged into complete darkness.
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On one such occasion, a ringing slap is heard and as the train passes back into daylight, the Frenchman is rubbing his sore, red cheek.
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The old lady thought, “I bet that dirty Frenchman fondled the blonde and she struck the pervert.”
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The blonde thought, “I bet that filthy Frenchman was looking to grope me in the dark, mistook the old lady for me and she slapped him.”
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The Frenchman thought, “I bet that perfidious Englishman touched up the blonde in the dark and she slapped me by mistake.”
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The Englishman thought, “I can’t wait for another tunnel so I can slap that French twat again.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Babushka942"> /u/Babushka942 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/sc0dkq/an_englishman_a_frenchman_a_ravishing_blonde_and/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/sc0dkq/an_englishman_a_frenchman_a_ravishing_blonde_and/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>Upon Arriving Home, A Husband Was Met At The Door By His Sobbing Wife Tearfully she explained, “It’s the pharmacist. He insulted me terribly this morning on the phone.”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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Immediately the husband drove downtown to confront the pharmacist and demand an apology. Before he could say more than a few words, the druggist told him,
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“Now, just a minute, please listen to my side of it… This morning the alarm failed to go off, so I was late getting up. I went without breakfast and hurried out to the car, just to realize that I locked the house with both house and car keys inside. I had to break a window to get my keys. Then, driving a little too fast, I got a speeding ticket. Later, about three blocks from the store, I had a flat tire. When I got to the store there was a bunch of people waiting for me to open up. I opened and started waiting on these people, and all the time the darn phone was ringing off the hook.”
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He continued, "Then I had to break a roll of nickels against the cash register drawer to make change, and they spilled all over the floor. I got down on my hands and knees to pick up the nickels; the phone was still ringing. When I came up I cracked my head on the open cash drawer, which made me stagger back against a showcase with bunch of perfume bottles on it…all of them hit the floor and broke. Meanwhile, the phone is still ringing with no let up, and I finally got to answer it.
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It was your wife. She wanted to know how to use a rectal thermometer…and, honest mister, all I did was tell her!
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/YZXFILE"> /u/YZXFILE </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/sbvzyl/upon_arriving_home_a_husband_was_met_at_the_door/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/sbvzyl/upon_arriving_home_a_husband_was_met_at_the_door/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>A sergeant major is inspecting his troops one morning when he sees a new soldier he doesn’t recognize</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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“Hey, you! Soldier! Get over here! What’s your name?”
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“John.”
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“John?! What the hell kind of army do you think this is? John! I never call my soldiers by their first names. It breeds familiarity and leads to a breakdown in discipline. I only ever call my soldiers by their last names: Smith, Jones, Jenkins, and so on. And you will refer to me as sergeant major. Do I make myself clear?”
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“Yes, sergeant major.”
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“Good. Now that we’ve got that settled, what is your name, soldier?”
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The soldier breathes a heavy sigh and answers “Darling. My name is John Darling, sergeant major.”
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“Okay John, here’s what I need you to do…”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/JoeWinchester99"> /u/JoeWinchester99 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/sc19vs/a_sergeant_major_is_inspecting_his_troops_one/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/sc19vs/a_sergeant_major_is_inspecting_his_troops_one/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>Xi Jinping was on his balcony during the early morning, admiring all that Bejing has become</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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He inhaled a sweet breath of fresh Bejing air and looked East to see the sun smiling down.
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“Hello, Sun”, said Xi Jinping.
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The sun replied “Hello Glorious Leader, the architect of a grand Communist Utopia. Best wishes leading your already prosperous nation.”
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Xi Jinping, despite his delight, remembered he had an upcoming meeting to attend. He thanked the Sun and left.
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As the day approached an end, an exhausted Xi Jinping returned to his office and reflected on the day. He strolled back onto his balcony and looked West towards a beautiful sunset. Hoping to fish more praise he said: “good evening, Sun.”
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The Sun candidly responded: "Fuck you, I’m in the West now.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/whoarewetointerfere"> /u/whoarewetointerfere </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/sbqwvf/xi_jinping_was_on_his_balcony_during_the_early/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/sbqwvf/xi_jinping_was_on_his_balcony_during_the_early/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>In honor of my 7th cake day, I present to you, my Dad’s favorite joke.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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It’s a really hot day and this penguin is having car trouble, so he takes it into a garage. The penguin asks, “How long will it be?” The mechanic says, “Just a few minutes.” So the penguin decides to go get an ice cream at the grocery store across the street. When the penguin gets there he climbs inside the big freezer door and starts to eat ice cream. Three hours go by before the penguin looks at his watch and jumps out of the freezer and races back to the garage. With ice cream all over his face and his stomach he says, “So, how’s my car?” The mechanic comes walking out wiping his hands on a rag and says, “Looks like you blew a seal.” The penguin says, “No, no, no, I was just eating ice cream.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Jessichenko"> /u/Jessichenko </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/sc386v/in_honor_of_my_7th_cake_day_i_present_to_you_my/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/sc386v/in_honor_of_my_7th_cake_day_i_present_to_you_my/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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