“We’ve been in lockdown since he was born”: Experiences of families caring for children with intellectual disability during the Covid-19 pandemic -
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+Objectives: This study aimed to explore the experiences of parents caring for children with intellectual and developmental disability during the UK national lockdown in spring 2020, resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. Design: Participants were identified using opportunity sampling from the IMAGINE-ID national (UK) cohort, and completed an online survey followed by a semi-structured interview. Interviews were analysed using thematic analysis. Setting: Interviews were conducted over the telephone in July 2020 as the first UK lockdown was ending. Participants: 23 mothers of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities aged 5 to 15 were recruited. Results: Themes reported by parents included: managing pre-existing challenges during a time of extreme change, having mixed emotions about the benefits and difficulties that arose during the lockdown, and the need for appropriate, individualised support. Conclusions: Observations raised by parents suggested recommendations for policy in the event of future pandemic restrictions, namely: empowering parents as experts, providing tailored digital intervention, and supporting parents’ mental health to support children.
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COVID-19 and mRNA Vaccines: Latest Information After Phase 3 Clinical Trials -
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+There is a pressing demand for vaccines against novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) because of the existing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Among all the approaches, a messenger RNA (mRNA) based vaccine has become a quick and flexible platform to respond rapidly to this problem. This letter provides the latest information regarding the vaccine’s horse race and their clinical trial phase 3 data. It also briefs about the advantages of the mRNA vaccine over other traditional approaches.
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Impact of social distancing on the mental health of parents and children in Qatar -
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+This study investigated the effects of COVID-19-related social distancing practices on parents and children’s mental health and explored the roles parental activities with children and coping strategies among families in Qatar. The sample of 308 parents completed self-reported questionnaires regarding parents’ mental health, coping strategies, and activities with children, social distancing practices, and both parents’ and children’s mental health. The results showed a significant positive correlation between social distancing and parents’ activities with children and their coping strategies, as well as between parents’ mental health and parents’ activities with children, children’s mental health, and parents’ coping strategies. The path analysis showed that social distancing practices influence both parents’ and children’s mental health through parents’ activities with children and their coping strategies. Our findings revealed how living under stressful conditions such as COVID-19 could enhance the mental health of family members.
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Patient prioritisation methods to shorten waiting times for elective surgery: a systematic review of how to improve access to surgery -
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+ABSTRACT Background: Concern about long waiting times for elective surgeries is not a recent phenomenon, but it has been heightened by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated measures. One way to alleviate the problem might be to use prioritisation methods for patients on the waiting list and a wide range of research is available on such methods. However, significant variations and inconsistencies have been reported in prioritisation protocols from various specialties, institutions, and health systems. To bridge the evidence gap in existing literature, this comprehensive systematic review will synthesise global evidence on policy strategies with a unique insight to patient prioritisation methods to reduce waiting times for elective surgeries. This will provide evidence that might help with the tremendous burden of surgical disease that is now apparent in many countries because of operations that were delayed or cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and inform policy for sustainable healthcare management systems. Methods: We searched PubMed, EMBASE, SCOPUS, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library, with our most recent searches in January 2020. Articles published after 2013 on major elective surgery lists of adult patients were eligible, but cancer and cancer-related surgeries were excluded. Both randomised and non-randomised studies were eligible and the quality of studies was assessed with ROBINS-I and CASP tools. We registered the review in PROSPERO (CRD42019158455) and reported it in accordance with the PRISMA statement. Results: The electronic search in five bibliographic databases yielded 7543 records (PubMed, EMBASE, SCOPUS, Web of Science, and Cochrane) and 17 eligible articles were identified in the screening. There were four quasi-experimental studies, 11 observational studies and two systematic reviews. These demonstrated a moderate to low risk of bias in their research methods. Three studies tested generic approaches using common prioritisation systems for all elective surgeries in common. The other studies assessed specific prioritisation approaches for re-ordering the waiting list for a particular surgical specialty. Conclusions: Explicit prioritisation tools with a standardised scoring system based on clear evidence-based criteria are likely to reduce waiting times and improve equitable access to health care. Multiple attributes need to be considered in defining a fair prioritisation system to overcome limitations with local variations and discriminations. Collating evidence from a diverse body of research provides a single framework to improve the quality and efficiency of elective surgical care provision in a variety of health settings. Universal prioritisation tools with vertical and horizontal equity would help with re-ordering patients on waiting lists for elective surgery and reduce waiting times. Keywords: Patient prioritisation, elective surgery, waiting time, systematic review
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Inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 infection in human cardiomyocytes by targeting the Sigma-1 receptor disrupts cytoskeleton architecture and contractility -
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+Heart dysfunction, represented by conditions such as myocarditis and arrhythmia, has been reported in COVID-19 patients. Therapeutic strategies focused on the cardiovascular system, however, remain scarce. The Sigma-1 receptor (S1R) has been recently proposed as a therapeutic target because its inhibition reduces SARS-CoV-2 replication. To investigate the role of S1R in SARS-CoV-2 infection in the heart, we used human cardiomyocytes derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC-CM) as an experimental model. Here we show that the S1R antagonist NE-100 decreases SARS-CoV-2 infection and viral replication in hiPSC-CMs. Also, NE-100 reduces cytokine release and cell death associated with infection. Because S1R is involved in cardiac physiology, we investigated the effects of NE-100 in cardiomyocyte morphology and function. We show that NE-100 compromises cytoskeleton integrity and reduces beating frequency, causing contractile impairment. These results show that targeting S1R to challenge SARS-CoV-2 infection may be a useful therapeutic strategy but its detrimental effects in vivo on cardiac function should not be ignored.
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A cannabinoid receptor agonist shows anti-inflammatory and survival properties in human SARS-CoV-2-infected iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes -
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+Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which can infect several organs and lead to loss of vital organ function, especially impacting respiratory capacity. Among the extrapulmonary manifestations of COVID-19 is myocardial injury, caused both directly and indirectly by SARS-CoV-2, and which is associated with a high risk of mortality. One of the hallmarks of severe COVID-19 is the cytokine storm, at which point the immune system malfunctions, leading to possible organ failure and death. Cannabinoids are known to have anti-inflammatory properties by negatively modulating the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Herein, we investigated the effects of the cannabinoid agonist WIN 55,212-2 (WIN) on SARS-CoV-2-infected human iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs). Although WIN did not modulate angiotensin-converting enzyme II, nor reduced SARS-CoV-2 infection and replication in hiPSC-CMs at the conditions tested, it had anti-inflammatory and protective effects by reducing the levels of interleukins 6, 8,18 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity in these cells without causing hypertrophic cardiac damage. These findings suggest that cannabinoids should be further investigated as an alternative therapeutic tool for the treatment of COVID-19.
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A multi-centre service evaluation of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on presentation of newly diagnosed cancers and type 1 diabetes in children in the UK -
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+Background: The COVID-19 pandemic led to changes in patterns of presentation to Emergency Departments (ED). Child health professionals were concerned that this could contribute to the delayed diagnosis of life-threatening conditions, including childhood cancer (CC) and type 1 diabetes (T1DM). Our multicentre, UK-based service evaluation assessed diagnostic intervals and disease severity for these conditions. Methods: We collected presentation route, timing and disease severity for children with newly diagnosed CC in three principal treatment centres, and T1DM in four centres between 1st January - 31st July 2020 and the corresponding period in 2019. We assessed the impact of lockdown on total diagnostic interval (TDI), patient interval (PI), system interval (SI) and disease severity. Findings: For CCs and T1DM, the route to diagnosis and severity of illness at presentation were unchanged across all time periods. Diagnostic intervals for CCs during lockdown were comparable to that in 2019 (TDI 4.6, PI 1.1 and SI 2.1 weeks), except for an increased PI in Jan-Mar 2020 (median 2.7 weeks). Diagnostic intervals for T1DM during lockdown were similar to that in 2019 (TDI 16 vs 15 and PI 14 vs 14 days), except for an increased PI in Jan-Mar 2020 (median 21 days). Interpretation: There is no evidence of diagnostic delay or increased illness severity for CC or T1DM, during the first phase of the pandemic across the participating centres. This provides reassuring data for children and families with these life-changing conditions.
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Emergence in late 2020 of multiple lineages of SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein variants affecting amino acid position 677 -
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+The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spike protein (S) plays critical roles in host cell entry. Non-synonymous substitutions affecting S are not uncommon and have become fixed in a number of SARS-CoV-2 lineages. A subset of such mutations enable escape from neutralizing antibodies or are thought to enhance transmission through mechanisms such as increased affinity for the cell entry receptor, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). Independent genomic surveillance programs based in New Mexico and Louisiana contemporaneously detected the rapid rise of numerous clade 20G (lineage B.1.2) infections carrying a Q677P substitution in S. The variant was first detected in the US on October 23, yet between 01 Dec 2020 and 19 Jan 2021 it rose to represent 27.8% and 11.3% of all SARS-CoV-2 genomes sequenced from Louisiana and New Mexico, respectively. Q677P cases have been detected predominantly in the south central and southwest United States; as of 03 Feb 2021, GISAID data show 499 viral sequences of this variant from the USA. Phylogenetic analyses revealed the independent evolution and spread of at least six distinct Q677H sub-lineages, with first collection dates ranging from mid-August to late November 2020. Four 677H clades from clade 20G (B.1.2), 20A (B.1.234), and 20B (B.1.1.220, and B.1.1.222) each contain roughly 100 or fewer sequenced cases, while a distinct pair of clade 20G clusters are represented by 754 and 298 cases, respectively. Although sampling bias and founder effects may have contributed to the rise of S:677 polymorphic variants, the proximity of this position to the polybasic cleavage site at the S1/S2 boundary are consistent with its potential functional relevance during cell entry, suggesting parallel evolution of a trait that may confer an advantage in spread or transmission. Taken together, our findings demonstrate simultaneous convergent evolution, thus providing an impetus to further evaluate S:677 polymorphisms for effects on proteolytic processing, cell tropism, and transmissibility.
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Application of Optimal Control to Long Term Dynamics of COVID-19 Disease in South Africa -
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+SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) belongs to the beta-coronavirus family, which include: the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). Since its outbreak in South Africa in March 2020, it has lead to high mortality and thousands of people contracting the virus. Mathematical analysis of a model without controls was done and the basic reproduction number (R0) of the COVID-19 for the South African pandemic determined. We introduced permissible controls and formulate an optimal control problem using the Pontraygain Maximum Principle. Our numerical findings suggest that joint implementation of effective mask usage, physical distancing and active screening and testing, are effective measures to curtail the spread of the disease in the human population. The results obtained in this paper are of public health importance in the control and management of the spread for the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, in South Africa.
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SARS-CoV-2 Variant of Concern 202012/01 has about twofold replicative advantage and acquires concerning mutations -
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+The novel SARS-CoV-2 Variant of Concern (VOC)-202012/01 (also known as B.1.1.7), first collected in United Kingdom on September 20, 2020, is a rapidly growing lineage that in January 2021 constituted 86% of all SARS-CoV-2 genomes sequenced in England. The VOC has been detected in 40 out of 46 countries that reported at least 50 genomes in January 2021. We have estimated that the replicative advantage of the VOC is in the range 1.83-2.18 [95% CI: 1.71-2.40] with respect to the 20A.EU1 variant that dominated in England in November 2020, and in range 1.65-1.72 [95% CI: 1.46-2.04] in Wales, Scotland, Denmark, and USA. As the VOC strain will likely spread globally towards fixation, it is important to monitor its molecular evolution. We have estimated growth rates of expanding mutations acquired by the VOC lineage to find that the L18F substitution in spike has initiated a substrain of high replicative advantage in relation to the remaining VOC substrains. The L18F substitution is of significance because it has been found to compromise binding of neutralizing antibodies. Of concern are immune escape mutations acquired by the VOC: E484K, F490S, S494P (in the receptor binding motif of spike) and Q677H, Q675H (in the proximity of the polybasic cleavage site at the S1/S2 boundary). These mutants may hinder efficiency of existing vaccines and expand in response to the increasing after-infection or vaccine-induced seroprevalence.
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Communication of Risk in Covid-19: An Urgent Need for Clarity -
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+The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in an unprecedented spotlight on health risks. This article discusses how such risks have been communicated to the public, arguing the approaches used may have inflated perceptions of risk amongst younger and disease-free individuals. This has led to undue anxiety and had a deleterious effect on other health behaviours, including sleep and exercise. We advise that more conventional public health messaging approaches would have been useful - deploying clear, non-jargon language, keeping advice consistent and presenting a combination of absolute health risks and comparisons with other everyday risks. This may have facilitated more accurate understanding of risk levels in different population segments. The evidence-base on effective ways to communicate to encourage health-seeking behaviour change – such as emphasizing the benefits of compliance to recommendations rather than the risks of non-compliance and highlighting the social impacts of Covid-19 preventative measures – must be more effectively leveraged in future to support risk mitigation efforts and implementation of vaccines during their forthcoming rollout.
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International risk of the new variant COVID-19 importations originating in the United Kingdom -
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+A fast-spreading SARS-CoV-2 variant identified in the United Kingdom in December 2020 has raised international alarm. We estimate that, in 16 out of 19 countries analyzed, there is at least a 50% chance the variant was imported by travelers from the United Kingdom by December 7th.
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Exhaled SARS-CoV-2 quantified by face-mask sampling in hospitalised patients with covid-19 -
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+Background Human to human transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is driven by the respiratory route but little is known about the pattern and quantity of virus output from exhaled breath. We have previously shown that face-mask sampling (FMS) can detect exhaled tubercle bacilli and have adapted its use to quantify exhaled SARS-CoV-2 RNA in patients admitted to hospital with covid-19. Methods Between May and December 2020, we took two concomitant FMS and nasopharyngeal samples (NPS) over two days, starting within 24 hours of a routine virus positive NPS in patients hospitalised with covid-19, at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, UK. Participants were asked to wear a modified duckbilled facemask for 30 minutes, followed by a nasopharyngeal swab. Demographic, clinical, and radiological data, as well as International Severe Acute Respiratory and emerging Infections Consortium (ISARIC) mortality and deterioration scores were obtained. Exposed masks were processed by removal, dissolution and analysis of sampling matrix strips fixed within the mask by RT-qPCR. Viral genome copy numbers were determined and results classified as Negative; Low: less than or equal to 999 copies; Medium: 1,000-99,999 copies and High 100,000 or more copies per strip for FMS or per 100microlitres for NPS. Results 102 FMS and NPS were collected from 66 routinely positive patients; median age: 61 (IQR 49 - 77), of which FMS was positive in 37% of individuals and concomitant NPS was positive in 50%. Positive FMS viral loads varied over five orders of magnitude (<10-3.3 x 106 genome copies/strip); 21 (32%) patients were asymptomatic at the time of sampling. High FMS viral load was associated with respiratory symptoms at time of sampling and shorter interval between sampling and symptom onset (FMS High: median (IQR) 2 days (2-3) vs FMS Negative: 7 days (7-10), p=0.002). On multivariable linear regression analysis, higher FMS viral loads were associated with higher ISARIC mortality (Medium FMS vs Negative FMS gave an adjusted coefficient of 15.7, 95% CI 3.7-27.7, p=0.01) and deterioration scores (High FMS vs Negative FMS gave an adjusted coefficient of 37.6, 95% CI 14.0 to 61.3, p=0.002), while NPS viral loads showed no significant association. Conclusion We demonstrate a simple and effective method for detecting and quantifying exhaled SARS-CoV-2 in hospitalised patients with covid-19. Higher FMS viral loads were more likely to be associated with developing severe disease compared to NPS viral loads. Similar to NPS, FMS viral load was highest in early disease and in those with active respiratory symptoms, highlighting the potential role of FMS in understanding infectivity.
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Evaluation of sampling frequency and normalization of SARS-CoV-2 wastewater concentrations for capturing COVID-19 burdens in the community -
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+Wastewater surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 provides an approach for assessing the infection burden across a city. For these data to be useful for public health, measurement variability and the relationship to case data need to be established. We measured SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations in the influent of twelve wastewater treatment plants from August 2020 to January 2021. Replicate samples demonstrated that N1 gene target concentrations varied by 21% RSD between technical replicate filters and by 14% RSD between duplicate assays. COVID-19 cases were correlated significantly (rho≥0.70) to wastewater SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations for seven plants, including large and small cities. SARS-CoV-2 data normalized to flow improved correlations to reported COVID-19 cases for some plants but normalizing to a spiked recovery control (BCoV) or a fecal marker (PMMoV or HF183) generally reduced correlations. High frequency sampling demonstrated that a minimum of two samples collected per week was needed to maintain accuracy in trend analysis. We found a significantly different ratio of COVID-19 cases to SARS-CoV-2 loads in one of three large communities, suggesting a higher rate of undiagnosed cases. These data demonstrate that SARS-CoV-2 wastewater surveillance can provide a useful community-wide metric to assess the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Vaccination strategies for minimizing loss of life in Covid-19 in a Europe lacking vaccines -
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+Aim and Background: We aimed at identifying vaccination strategies that minimize loss of life in the Covid-19 pandemic. Covid-19 mainly kills the elderly, but the pandemic is driven by social contacts that are more frequent in the young. Vaccines elicit stronger immune responses per dose in younger persons. As vaccine production is a bottleneck, many countries have adopted a strategy of first vaccinating the elderly and vulnerable, while postponing vaccination of the young. Methods: Based on published age-stratified immunogenicity data of the Moderna mRNA-1273 vaccine, we compared the established ′one dose fits all′ approach with tailored strategies: The known differential immunogenicity of vaccine doses in different age groups is exploited to vaccinate the elderly at full dose, while the young receive a reduced dose, amplifying the number of individuals receiving the vaccine early. A modeling approach at European Union scale with population structure, Covid-19 case and death rates similar to Europe in late January 2021 is used. Results: When the elderly were vaccinated preferentially, the pandemic initially continued essentially unchecked, as it was dominantly driven by social contacts in other age groups. Tailored strategies, including regular dosing in the elderly but reduced dose vaccination in the young, multiplied early vaccination counts, and even with some loss in protection degree for the individual person, the protective effect towards stopping the pandemic and protecting lives was enhanced, even for the elderly. In the European Union, pandemic duration (threshold >100′000 cases/day) was shortened from 53 to 18-24 days; cumulative death count over 100 days was reduced by >30′000. Conclusion: Protecting the vulnerable, minimizing overall deaths and stopping the pandemic is best achieved by an adaptive vaccination strategy using an age-tailored vaccine dose, in this model parameterized to European demographics, coronavirus transmission observations and vaccine characteristics.
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Protecting Native Families From COVID-19 - Condition: COVID-19 Interventions: Behavioral: Motivational Interviewing; Behavioral: COVID-19 Symptom Monitoring System; Behavioral: Motivational Interviewing and COVID-19 Symptom Monitoring System; Other: Supportive Services Sponsor: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Not yet recruiting
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Efficacy and Safety of Tofacitinib in Patients With COVID-19 Pneumonia - Condition: COVID-19 Intervention: Drug: Tofacitinib Sponsor: I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University Completed
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Improvement of the Nutritional Status Regarding Nicotinamide (Vitamin B3) and the Disease Course of COVID-19 - Condition: COVID-19 Interventions: Dietary Supplement: Nicotinamide; Dietary Supplement: Placebo Sponsor: University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein Recruiting
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A Study to Assess the Safety and Immunogenicity of the Coronavac Vaccine Against COVID-19 - Condition: COVID-19 Intervention: Biological: Adsorbed COVID-19 (inactivated) Vaccine Sponsors: D’Or Institute for Research and Education; Butantan Institute Not yet recruiting
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COVID-19 Treatment Cascade Optimization Study - Condition: COVID-19 Testing Interventions: Behavioral: Navigation Services; Behavioral: Critical Dialogue; Behavioral: Brief Counseling; Behavioral: Referral and Digital Brochure Sponsors: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; North Jersey Community Research Initiative; National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD); University of Michigan Recruiting
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Study to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of Remdesivir in Participants With Severely Reduced Kidney Function Who Are Hospitalized for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) - Condition: COVID-19 Interventions: Drug: Remdesivir; Drug: RDV Placebo; Drug: Standard of Care Sponsor: Gilead Sciences Not yet recruiting
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COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma Therapy - Conditions: SARS-CoV-2 Infection; COVID-19 Infection Intervention: Biological: Convalescent plasma Sponsors: Angelica Samudio; Consejo Nacional de Ciencias y Tecnología, Paraguay; Ministerio de Salud Pública y Bienestar Social, Paraguay; Centro de información y recursos para el desarrollo, Paraguay Completed
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COVID Antithrombotic Rivaroxaban Evaluation - Condition: COVID-19 Intervention: Drug: Rivaroxaban 10 mg Sponsors: Hospital Alemão Oswaldo Cruz; Bayer; Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein; Hospital do Coracao; Hospital Sirio-Libanes; Hospital Moinhos de Vento; Brazilian Research In Intensive Care Network; Brazilian Clinical Research Institute Recruiting
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A Study to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of Prothione™ Capsules for Mild to Moderate Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) - Condition: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Interventions: Drug: Placebo; Drug: Prothione™ (6g) Sponsor: Prothione, LLC Not yet recruiting
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Adoptive SARS-CoV-2 Specific T Cell Transfer in Patients at Risk for Severe COVID-19 - Condition: Moderate COVID-19-infection Interventions: Drug: IMP 1,000 plus SoC; Drug: IMP 5,000 plus SoC; Drug: IMP RP2D plus SoC; Drug: SoC Sponsors: Universitätsklinikum Köln; ZKS Köln; MMH Institute for Transfusion Medicine; Miltenyi Biomedicine GmbH Not yet recruiting
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A Safety and Immunogenicity Study of Inactivated SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine (Vero Cells) in Healthy Population Aged 18 Years and Above(COVID-19) - Condition: COVID-19 Interventions: Biological: medium dosage inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine; Biological: high dosage inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine; Biological: Placebo Sponsors: Beijing Minhai Biotechnology Co., Ltd; Shenzhen Kangtai Biological Products Co., LTD; Jiangsu Province Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Active, not recruiting
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A Study to Evaluate Safety and Immunogenicity of Inactivated SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine (Vero Cells) in Healthy Population Aged 18 Years and Above(COVID-19) - Condition: COVID-19 Interventions: Biological: medium dosage inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine; Biological: high dosage inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine; Biological: Placebo Sponsors: Beijing Minhai Biotechnology Co., Ltd; Shenzhen Kangtai Biological Products Co., LTD; Jiangsu Province Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Active, not recruiting
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An Effectiveness Study of the Sinovac’s Adsorbed COVID-19 (Inactivated) Vaccine - Condition: Covid19 Intervention: Biological: Adsorbed COVID-19 (Inactivated) Vaccine Sponsor: Butantan Institute Enrolling by invitation
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Effect of Prone Position onV/Q Matching in Non-intubated Patients With COVID-19 - Condition: Covid19 Intervention: Other: prone position Sponsor: Southeast University, China Not yet recruiting
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Study of the Kinetics of COVID-19 Antibodies for 24 Months in Patients With Confirmed SARS-CoV-2 Infection - Conditions: Covid19; SARS-CoV 2 Intervention: Other: Sampling by venipuncture Sponsor: Centre Hospitalier Régional d’Orléans Recruiting
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From PubMed
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DNA Nanostructures in the Fight Against Infectious Diseases - Throughout history, humanity has been threatened by countless epidemic and pandemic outbreaks of infectious diseases, from the Justinianic Plague to the Spanish flu to COVID-19. While numerous antimicrobial and antiviral drugs have been developed over the last 200 years to face these threats, the globalized and highly connected world of the 21st century demands for an ever-increasing efficiency in the detection and treatment of infectious diseases. Consequently, the rapidly evolving field of…
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Antibacterial and Antiviral Functional Materials: Chemistry and Biological Activity toward Tackling COVID-19-like Pandemics - The ongoing worldwide pandemic due to COVID-19 has created awareness toward ensuring best practices to avoid the spread of microorganisms. In this regard, the research on creating a surface which destroys or inhibits the adherence of microbial/viral entities has gained renewed interest. Although many research reports are available on the antibacterial materials or coatings, there is a relatively small amount of data available on the use of antiviral materials. However, with more research geared…
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Nanotechnology: an emerging approach to combat COVID-19 - The recent outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has challenged the survival of human existence in the last 1 year. Frontline healthcare professionals were struggling in combating the pandemic situation and were continuously supported with literature, skill set, research activities, and technologies developed by various scientists/researchers all over the world. To handle the continuously mutating severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) requires amalgamation of…
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Stapled ACE2 peptidomimetics designed to target the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein do not prevent virus internalization - COVID-19 is caused by a novel coronavirus called severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Virus cell entry is mediated through a protein-protein interaction (PPI) between the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). A series of stapled peptide ACE2 peptidomimetics based on the ACE2 interaction motif were designed to bind the coronavirus S-protein RBD and inhibit binding to the human ACE2 receptor. The peptidomimetics were assessed for antiviral…
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The Perspectives of Biomarkers based Electrochemical Immunosensors, Artificial intelligence and the Internet of Medical Things towards COVID-19 Diagnosis and Management - The WHO has declared the COVID-19 an international health emergency due to the severity of infection progression which become more severe due to its continuous spread globally and the unavailability of appropriate therapy and diagnostics systems. Thus, there is a need for efficient devices to detect SARS-CoV-2 infection at an early stage. Nowadays, the RT-PCR technique is being applied for detecting this virus around the globe; however, factors such as stringent expertise, long diagnostic times,…
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Corrigendum to “mTOR inhibition and p53 activation, microRNAs: The possible therapy against pandemic COVID-19” [Gene Rep. 20 (2020) 100765] - [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.genrep.2020.100765.].
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Virus-Free and Live-Cell Visualizing SARS-CoV-2 Cell Entry for Studies of Neutralizing Antibodies and Compound Inhibitors - The ongoing corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection, has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths. Cellular entry of SARS-CoV-2, which is mediated by the viral spike protein and ACE2 receptor, is an essential target for the development of vaccines, therapeutic antibodies, and drugs. Using a mammalian cell expression system, a genetically engineered sensor of fluorescent protein (Gamillus)-fused SARS-CoV-2 spike trimer (STG) to probe the viral entry…
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Social mobilization and polarization can create volatility in COVID-19 pandemic control - During the COVID-19 pandemic, political polarization has emerged as a significant threat that inhibits coordinated action of central and local institutions reducing the efficacy of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs). Yet, it is not well-understood to what extent polarization can affect grass-roots, voluntary social mobilization targeted at mitigating the pandemic spread. Here, we propose a polarized mobilization model amidst the pandemic for demonstrating the differential responses to…
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In silico Exploration of Inhibitors for SARS-CoV-2’s Papain-Like Protease - Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an ongoing global pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), with very limited treatments so far. Demonstrated with good druggability, two major proteases of SARS-CoV-2, namely main protease (Mpro) and papain-like protease (PLpro) that are essential for viral maturation, have become the targets for many newly designed inhibitors. Unlike Mpro that has been heavily investigated, PLpro is not well-studied so far. Here, we…
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In Silico Study of Coumarins and Quinolines Derivatives as Potent Inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease - The pandemic that started in Wuhan (China) in 2019 has caused a large number of deaths, and infected people around the world due to the absence of effective therapy against coronavirus 2 of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV-2). Viral maturation requires the activity of the main viral protease (M^(pro)), so its inhibition stops the progress of the disease. To evaluate possible inhibitors, a computational model of the SARS-CoV-2 enzyme M^(pro) was constructed in complex with 26…
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Landscape Profiling Analysis of DPP4 in Malignancies: Therapeutic Implication for Tumor Patients With Coronavirus Disease 2019 - Severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is characterized by pneumonia, lymphopenia, and cytokine storms. Patients with underlying conditions, and especially cancer patients with impaired immunity, are particularly vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2 infection and complications. Although angiotensin converting enzyme II (ACE2) has been identified as a cellular binding receptor for SARS-CoV-2, immunopathological changes in severe…
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Corilagin inhibits SARS-CoV-2 replication by targeting viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase - Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has become one major threat to human population health. The RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) presents an ideal target of antivirals, whereas nucleoside analogs inhibitor is hindered by the proofreading activity of coronavirus. Herein, we report that corilagin (RAI-S-37) as a non-nucleoside inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2 RdRp, binds directly to RdRp, effectively inhibits the polymerase activity in both cell-free and cell-based assays, fully…
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Tuning intrinsic disorder predictors for virus proteins - Many virus-encoded proteins have intrinsically disordered regions that lack a stable, folded three-dimensional structure. These disordered proteins often play important functional roles in virus replication, such as down-regulating host defense mechanisms. With the widespread availability of next-generation sequencing, the number of new virus genomes with predicted open reading frames is rapidly outpacing our capacity for directly characterizing protein structures through crystallography. Hence,…
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Properties of the Novel Chinese Herbal Medicine Formula Qu Du Qiang Fei I Hao Fang Warrant Further Research to Determine Its Clinical Efficacy in COVID-19 Treatment - Introduction: COVID-19, the infectious disease induced by the virus severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus-2, has caused increasing global health concerns, and novel strategies to prevent or ameliorate the condition are needed. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) herbal formulas have been used in the treatment of epidemics in China for over 2000 years. This study investigated the therapeutic effects of Qu Du Qiang Fei I Hao Fang (QDQF1) "Eliminating Virus and Strengthening…
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Case Report: Adequate T and B Cell Responses in a SARS-CoV-2 Infected Patient After Immune Checkpoint Inhibition - After the COVID-19 outbreak, non-evidence based guidelines were published to advise clinicians on the adjustment of oncological treatment during this pandemic. As immune checkpoint inhibitors directly affect the immune system, concerns have arisen about the safety of immunotherapy during this pandemic. However, data on the immune response in oncology patients treated with immunotherapy are still lacking. Here, we present the adaptive immune response in a SARS-CoV-2 infected patient who was…
Compositions and methods for detecting SARS-CoV-2 spike protein - - link
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SELF-CLEANING AND GERM-KILLING REVOLVING PUBLIC TOILET FOR COVID 19 - - link
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Deep Learning Based System for the Detection of COVID-19 Infections - - link
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新冠病毒疫苗表达抗原蛋白的电化学发光免疫检测试剂盒 - 本发明提供一种新冠病毒疫苗表达抗原蛋白的电化学发光免疫检测试剂盒，所述试剂盒至少包含：包被有链霉亲和素的孔板、生物素标记的抗新冠棘突蛋白抗体1、SULFO标记的抗新冠棘突蛋白抗体2、洗涤液、读数液、新冠病毒S蛋白标准品和新冠病毒RBD蛋白标准品。本发明以生物素标记的抗新冠棘突蛋白的抗体1与链霉亲和素板进行连接作为固定相，以新冠S蛋白、RBD蛋白作为参照品，可被SULFO标记的抗体2识别，从而检测新冠抗原的表达情况。该试剂盒能准确灵敏地定量检测不同基质中的新冠S蛋白、RBD蛋白，样品的前处理过程简单，耗时少，可同时检测大量样品。本发明对于大批量样品的新冠病毒疫苗表达抗原的检测具有重要意义。 - link
+
陶瓷复合涂料、杀毒陶瓷复合涂料及其制备方法和涂层 - 本发明是关于一种陶瓷复合涂料、杀毒陶瓷复合涂料及其制备方法和涂层。该涂料包括3099.9%无机树脂、0.170%氮化硅、010%功能助剂、018%无机颜料和02%其他功能助剂；无机树脂由有机烷氧基硅烷、有机溶剂和硅溶胶混合、反应，抽醇，添加去离子水获得；有机烷氧基硅烷、有机溶剂和硅溶胶的质量比为11.6：0.5~0.8：1。所要解决的技术问题是如何制备一种贮存稳定性好、可常温固化且膜层的物理化学性能优异的涂料；该涂料VOC含量低，具有良好的安全生产性，且涂料成膜过程中的VOC排放很低，利于环保；该膜层的硬度高、柔韧性好，不易开裂，且可以接触性杀灭病毒和细菌；该涂料既可常温固化，也可加热固化，无需现场两个剂型调配，施工方便，成本节约，从而更加适于实用。 - link
利用BLI技术检测新型冠状病毒中和性抗体的方法 - 本发明提供一种利用BLI技术检测新型冠状病毒中和性抗体的方法，先将同一浓度的人ACE2蛋白捕获到生物传感器表面上，再将新型冠状病毒棘突蛋白RBD分别与不同浓度的待测中和性抗体预混，再将各混合液分别与捕获到生物传感器表面上的人ACE2蛋白接触，根据基于BLI技术的分子互作仪器检测到的干涉光谱的相对位移强度变化计算抑制率，绘制抑制曲线，计算IC50。本发明操作简单，快速高效，检测全过程无需包被和反复加样、洗板，15min内即可得到实验结果。检测反应在黑色孔板中进行，可实现大批量样品的新冠中和抗体的检测，与传统定性检测不同，通过计算IC50值，可以快速比较不同新冠中和性抗体的抑制能力。 - link
能够抑制冠状病毒Spike蛋白与ACE2相互作用的化合物的用途 - 本发明公开了能够抑制冠状病毒Spike蛋白与ACE2相互作用的化合物的用途。结构如下，该类化合物在制备治疗和/或预防SARS‑CoV‑2新型冠状病毒感染的药物中的用途。同时，化合物不仅能够抑制冠状病毒Spike蛋白与ACE2蛋白的相互作用，IC50<1μM，同时能够促使Spike‑ACE2复合物的解离。在细胞水平上可以有效的抑制新型冠状病毒SARS‑CoV‑2假病毒入侵，IC50<2μM。所述化合物能特异性的结合在Spike蛋白的RBD区域，KD<6μM，表明该类化合物对于制备治疗和/或预防冠状病毒感染药物具有非常积极的作用。 - link
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+ 22 February, 2021
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+Daily-Dose
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Atul Gawande on COVID-Vaccine Distribution and When Normalcy Might Return - The New Yorker staff writer assesses the vaccination campaign so far, new mutations, and when it might be possible to enter public spaces safely without a mask. - link
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After Dark, Citizens and Myanmar’s Junta Face Off Across Ghostly Front Lines - Innovative grassroots resistance grows despite mounting regime intimidation. - link
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How Rush Limbaugh Invented Donald Trump - By subsuming his conservatism into the cult of one man, Limbaugh finished his career less as a leader of the Republican Party than as simply another Trump follower. - link
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Why Impeachment Doesn’t Work - Long before Donald Trump arrived, there was reason to be skeptical of impeachment’s power. - link
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The Rural Alaskan Towns Leading the Country in Vaccine Distribution - In Native communities where tribal health organizations are in charge of distributing the vaccine, herd immunity is on the horizon. - link
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+
From Vox
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The US is about to surpass half a million Covid-19 deaths -
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+Dr. Christine Choi, a resident at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, one of four public hospitals in Los Angeles County, tends to Covid-19 patients in a specially constructed isolation area. | Al Seib/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
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+Dr. Anthony Fauci said the massive loss of life is “almost unbelievable.”
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+Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease expert, said Sunday that the death toll is “almost unbelievable.”
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+“But it’s true,” Fauci told NBC’s Chuck Todd on Meet the Press Sunday. “This is a devastating pandemic. And it’s historic. People will be talking about this decades and decades and decades from now.”
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+Today’s front page of the New York Times: Each dot represents one death from COVID-19 in the United States. pic.twitter.com/cmay3bFokb
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+The grim milestone comes after a bleak winter. For much of January, the US reported well over 3,000 Covid-19 deaths each day. Overall case numbers also exploded: Since early December, 14 million more people have tested positive for the virus, doubling the total number of US cases.
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+As of Saturday, the US is still reporting a seven-day rolling average of more than 1,900 deaths per day, though cases have fallen sharply to levels last seen in October 2020.
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+— The COVID Tracking Project (@COVID19Tracking) February 21, 2021
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+More than in any other country, the virus has been allowed to rage out of control in the US. According to the Johns Hopkins Covid-19 dashboard, the US has almost twice as many Covid-19 deaths as Brazil, which is second in deaths, and over 17 million more total confirmed cases than India, which is second in cases. Of the more than 2.46 million deaths from Covid-19 worldwide, the US has recorded slightly more than one-fifth.
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+In late March last year, Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, the former White House coronavirus task force coordinator, predicted that 240,000 deaths would be on the high end of the possible US death toll; the country hit that mark in mid-November, according to CNN’s Ryan Struyk, and the death toll has more than doubled since then.
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+As the New York Times pointed out on Sunday, half a million US deaths also exceeds the US death toll “on the battlefields of World War I, World War II and the Vietnam War combined.”
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+There are reasons to be hopeful as the US picks up the pace with vaccinations
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+As March approaches, however, an accelerating vaccination campaign and falling cases offer hope that things could improve soon — and maybe even return to something resembling normal by the summer.
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+Currently, according to CNN, the US is administering about 1.5 million doses of vaccine per day, but public health officials believe that number could pick up soon. On Sunday, Fauci told CNN’s Dana Bash that “of course you’d like to see” over 2 million doses per day being administered by the end of April.
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+Vaccine availability should also begin to open up in the late spring or summer, Fauci said earlier this week, and by July, the country would “likely have all 600 million doses that we contracted for to vaccinate 300 million people.”
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+As of Sunday, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracker, the US had administered more than 63 million vaccine doses. Because both of the vaccines authorized by the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use thus far require two shots to be fully effective, that’s not the same as the number of people actually vaccinated. But 17 million people have still received both doses of the vaccine, and many more have had their first of two shots.
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+Research suggests that even one dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which was the first vaccine candidate to be approved in the US, can provide “robust immunity” from symptomatic cases of the disease. Additionally, Pfizer data first reported on Sunday indicates that the vaccine is almost 90 percent effective at preventing virus transmission outside a clinical setting, a hopeful finding for vaccines’ ability to keep infection levels low.
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+The data about virus transmission — which comes from an Israeli study — has yet to be peer-reviewed, but it’s still a promising early sign. According to Bloomberg, Pfizer and BioNTech “are working on a real-world analysis of data from Israel, which will be shared as soon as it’s complete.”
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+As vaccinations pick up, case numbers in the US are also falling dramatically. As the Atlantic’s James Hamblin points out, that could bode well for the summer.
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+If vaccination rates continue to rise and case numbers continue to fall, “it would mean that many aspects of pre-pandemic life will return even before summer is upon us,” Hamblin wrote Friday. “Because case numbers guide local policies, much of the country could soon have reason to lift many or even most restrictions on distancing, gathering, and masking. Pre-pandemic norms could return to schools, churches, and restaurants. Sports, theater, and cultural events could resume. People could travel and dance indoors and hug grandparents, their own or others’.”
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+Still, top public health officials are preaching caution as things begin to look up in the US, particularly as Covid-19 variants continue to spread in the country.
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+Last Sunday, CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky warned that a more infectious — and possibly more deadly — coronavirus variant first seen in the UK could become “the dominant strain by the end of March.”
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+“Now more than ever, with continued spread of variants that stand to threaten the progress we are making, we must recommit to doing our part to protect one another,” Walensky said at a press conference Friday. “Wear a well-fitting mask, social distance, avoid travel and crowds, practice good hand hygiene, and get vaccinated when the vaccine is available to you.”
+
+
+And mask wearing will likely be necessary for some time yet. Fauci told CNN on Sunday that Americans may still need to wear masks in 2022, and noted on Fox News Sunday that it could take until next year for children, particularly young children, to be vaccinated.
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+
Florida Republicans want to impose new voting restrictions. They’re not the only ones. -
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+Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a press conference about the opening of a Covid-19 vaccination site on January 6. | Joe Raedle/Getty Images
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+Gov. Ron DeSantis’s plan to make it harder to vote by mail, briefly explained.
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+At a news conference in Palm Beach on Friday, DeSantis, a Republican, announced a proposed slate of new voting restrictions that would make it more difficult for voters to receive and return mail-in ballots in future Florida elections.
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+
+In doing so, he joined a wave of state and local officials who have worked in the months since the 2020 general election to introduce new voting restrictions, arguing these policies will make voting more secure.
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+Specifically, DeSantis called on the Florida legislature to address “ballot harvesting” (when mail-in ballots are collected for delivery at a drop-off location) and ballot drop boxes, to ban mailing out ballots to voters who haven’t requested one, and to tighten the rules around requesting a ballot so that requests must be made every election year.
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+Currently, a request for a vote-by-mail ballot is valid for two general election cycles, according to the Florida ACLU; DeSantis’s proposed change would mean that voters have to do so more frequently, potentially raising the logistical barriers to voting by mail.
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+
+DeSantis also lauded Florida’s voting system in his speech, arguing the state had the most “transparent and efficient election anywhere in the country,” and pointing out that Florida — which went for former President Donald Trump in November — counted ballots far more quickly than some states. But he claimed the new measures are necessary in order to ensure election integrity.
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+“We need to make sure that we continue to stay ahead of the curve,” DeSantis said Friday. “We need to make sure that our citizens have confidence in the elections.”
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+It’s unclear, however, whether his proposed changes, if passed into law, would do much to aid those goals.
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+Many of the policies DeSantis proposed are essentially already in place in his state: Florida does not currently permit the mass mailing of unrequested vote-by-mail ballots, and the state also has substantial restrictions on “ballot harvesting” already in place, something which DeSantis admitted in his speech.
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+“We’re not a big ballot-harvesting state as it is,” he said. “But any type of loopholes, or any type of room where that could be abused, we want to make sure that we address it.”
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+Trump has previously attacked ballot harvesting as “rampant with fraud,” which it isn’t, and the practice is a frequent Republican hobbyhorse. According to NPR, however, Trump himself had his Florida vote-by-mail ballot submitted by a third party in 2020.
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+DeSantis also suggested Friday that Florida might need to find ways to tighten its existing signature match law, which requires the signature on an absentee or vote-by-mail ballot to match the voter signature already on file.
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+“If there needs to be ways to bolster the signature verification,” DeSantis said, “then we need to do that as well.”
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+Signature verification laws, however, can be problematic: Signature mismatches can be highly subjective, as the Atlantic’s David Graham reported last year, and voters of color, among other demographics, often have their ballots rejected at a far higher rate than white voters.
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+“Fraud is exceedingly rare,” Graham points out. “The much greater danger is that legitimate ballots will be thrown out.”
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+Overall, Florida’s 2020 election — like the elections held by all other states — proceeded without any unusual irregularities or sweeping fraud; it is unclear how DeSantis’s proposals would improve on the current system.
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+
+It is clear, however, that they fit squarely with a national trend in the aftermath of the 2020 election cycle: After losing control of not just the presidency, but the Senate, Republicans across the country are moving to make voting more difficult.
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+
+The Republican solution to losing an election is to make it harder to vote
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+
+In the months since the presidential election, Republicans state legislatures have leaned into Trump’s baseless election fraud rhetoric and moved quickly to impose new voting restriction.
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+
+Specifically, according to a February report from the Brennan Center for Justice, “Thirty-three states have introduced, prefiled, or carried over 165 restrictive bills this year (as compared to 35 such bills in fifteen states on February 3, 2020).”
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+
+Some of those bills, such as a measure in Georgia that would end early voting on Sundays, unabashedly target Black voters, who played a major role in Democrats claiming control of the Senate. As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution explained Friday, the change “would be a blow to Black churches that host ‘Souls to the Polls’ get-out-the-vote events” on Sunday, in which parishioners are transported by church leaders to polling places after services.
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+
+Others, such as a Republican-backed bill in Arizona that would require all vote-by-mail ballots to be notarized, would make it harder for anyone to cast an absentee ballot.
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+Many of the states where Republicans are pushing new voter restrictions, including Arizona and Georgia, will be sites of competitive Senate races in 2022.
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+
+Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly will be seeking a full six-year term in 2022 after winning a special election in 2020, as will Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock, who won his seat in a special election runoff in January this year.
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+And Republicans will be defending seats in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Iowa — all three states where Republicans have moved to implement new voter restrictions — as well as Florida, where Sen. Marco Rubio will be up for reelection.
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+Despite the flurry of new bills, however, it’s not a sure thing that Republicans will succeed in passing new voter restrictions into law. In some states, such as Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, Democratic governors could veto any such changes.
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+
+And even in Georgia, where Republicans control the governor’s mansion as well as the legislature, one anonymous Republican strategist told the Washington Post that such measures could backfire. “There’s still an appetite from a lot of Republicans to do stuff like this, but it’s not bright,” he said. “It just gives Democrats a baseball bat with which to beat us.”
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+At the national level, Democrats also have their own plan to expand voting rights and protect voters: the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which is named for the late civil rights activist who represented a Georgia district in the House until his death last year.
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+According to Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), the bill would restore major swaths of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 — portions of which were struck down by the Supreme Court in 2013 — in order to “protect all Americans’ right to vote.”
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+There’s also the For The People Act, which was reintroduced on the first day of the new Congress in 2021. If passed, the bill would expand early and mail-in voting, make it easier to register to vote, and put an end to partisan gerrymandering, among other changes.
+
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+“You know that our work is far from finished,” Lewis said in 2019. “It makes me sad. It makes me feel like crying when people are denied the right to vote. We all know that this is not a Democratic or Republican issue: It’s an American one.”
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+
SNL tackles #FreeBritney, the Ted Cruz Cancun saga, and Andrew Cuomo’s scandals in its new cold open -
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+Will Heath/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images
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+
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+Aidy Bryant plays a cornrowed, drink-toting Ted Cruz in a “Cancun Family Vacation 2021” T-shirt.
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+This week, Saturday Night Live’s cold open took aim at Texas Sen. Ted Cruz for his trip to Cancun, Mexico while millions of Cruz’s constituents were without power or water in freezing conditions after a winter storm struck Texas.
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+A shamefaced Cruz, played by Aidy Bryant, joined Chloe Fineman’s Britney Spears on a talk show called Oops, You Did It Again to apologize for the trip, which spiraled into a full-fledged scandal after the senator was photographed at the airport on Wednesday.
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+“I’m not tan,” a cornrowed, drink-toting Bryant tells Fineman as he takes a seat on stage with a suitcase in tow. “I just cried myself red over my fellow Texans. And that’s why I drink in their honor.”
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+
+The show also spoofed Cruz’s attempt to explain the trip Thursday by releasing a statement blaming his daughters, who he said “asked to take a trip with friends.” (Texts from Cruz’s wife, Heidi, obtained by the New York Times, cast some doubt on that story.)
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+
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+“Let me ask you this,” Bryant says in the skit. “Would a coward have the cojones to blame his actions on his young daughters?”
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+Fineman’s Spears, understandably, doesn’t take that explanation well: “As someone who was often blamed for other people’s problems at a young age, maybe leave your daughters out of it because it could really mess with their heads,” Fineman says.
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+
+Spears has been in the spotlight this month after the release of the Framing Britney Spears documentary, which examines Spears’s personal struggles, her conservatorship, and the #FreeBritney movement.
+
+
+Those struggles are referenced throughout the skit: The fictional talk show is sponsored by the Notes app, a reference to the apology posted by Spears’s former partner Justin Timberlake earlier this month, and at another point, Fineman stares intently at the screen while a #FreeBritney hashtag flashes on screen for a single frame.
+
+
+“Are you looking to post a lame apology 20 years late?” Fineman asks in the ad. “Go through the motions with the Notes app.”
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+
+Joining Bryant, the next guest on a talk show apology tour is Pete Davidson’s scandal-plagued New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
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+After another question by Fineman, Davidson’s Cuomo then quickly launches into an attack on New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has called for a Justice Department investigation into Cuomo’s pandemic response.
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+“What did that bird bitch say about me?” Davidson rages. “I will bury him in the tallest grave this city has ever seen. I will hire a hobo to Rick Moranis him so hard he’ll think he’s back in universal pre-K.” (Moranis was punched by someone walking past him on the sidewalk in New York last year.)
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+
+Bryant also attempts to sympathize with Davidson, only to be shot down.
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+“Do not associate yourself with me,” Davidson tells Bryant. “We are not the same. I am a man, you are a clown. And if you mess with me, I will send you to a clown hospital. And when you die, I will not count your body.”
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+“Nor should you, thank you,” Bryant responds.
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+The show’s last guest is an indignant Cecily Strong as former The Mandalorian actor Gina Carano, who prompts Fineman to “explain what I did wrong.”
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+
+Carano was fired from the show earlier this month for transphobic and anti-Semitic social media posts, including one which compared the experience of “being conservative at this moment in time to being a Jewish person during the Holocaust,” writes Vox’s Emily VanDerWerff.
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+“Look, I never would have made that Nazi comparison if I had known everyone was going to be such a Nazi about it,” Strong says.
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+After one last attempt by Bryant’s Cruz to find someone to sympathize with — Strong shoots her down as “a pile of soup … if you compare yourself with me, I will blast you to the farthest deserts of Tatooine” — Fineman offers a prayer to close the talk show.
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+“I pray that all of you be sane and well,” she says, “and to be with people who make you feel loved. … And live from New York, it’s Saturday night!”
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+
From The Hindu: Sports
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1st T20 | Devon Conway’s unbeaten 99 sets up huge win for New Zealand against Australia - Australia was all out for 131 in reply to New Zealand’s 184-5
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Boxing | Vijender Singh set for return to ring next month, opponent to be announced soon - This will be Vijender’s fifth fight in India, following successes in New Delhi, Mumbai and Jaipur
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Looking at bigger picture, rotation policy has merit: James Anderson - ‘We’ve got 17 Test matches this year and the best way of getting your best players firing for as many of those as possible is to take little rest every now and then,’ says the England fast bowler
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Man City earns 18th straight win, Spurs lose again in EPL - City has 13 straight wins in the premier league and looks unstoppable with 13 games left in its campaign.
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Vote for Sportstar Aces Awards 2021 - The Sportstar Aces Awards 2021 celebrate consistency in performance and impact of sports stars in the decade between 2011 & 2020.The second set of
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From The Hindu: National News
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Maritime India Summit will be organised from March 2 to 4, says VPT Chairman - ‘Special session on investment opportunities in Andhra Pradesh is scheduled at 12.30 p.m, on March 3’
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India committed to goal of non-discriminatory, verifiable nuclear disarmament, says Shringla - “We need to rise above our differences, and demonstrate political will,” the Foreign Secretary said at the Conference on Disarmament.
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Green energy to power houseboats now - ALAPPUZHA: Houseboat cruise is one of the mainstays of Kerala Tourism. But the slow-chugging vessels are also blamed for damaging the Vembanad Lake ec
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‘Toolkit’ case: Delhi court sends 22-year-old climate activist Disha Ravi to one-day police custody - Ms. Ravi was produced before the court on expiry of her three-day judicial custody.
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BJP’s Girish Goutam unanimously elected Speaker of Madhya Pradesh Assembly - BJP MLA Girish Gautam filed his nomination for the post on Feb. 21
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From BBC: Europe
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Coronavirus: High Covid rates delay France and Germany easing - France and Germany struggle to get schools back to normal as infection rates remain high.
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Italian ambassador to DR Congo killed in UN convoy attack - Luca Attanasio and two other people die after his UN convoy is attacked near Goma.
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France row as Lyon mayor keeps meat off school menus - The French government said the move by Lyon’s mayor was an “insult” to farmers.
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Edvard Munch wrote ‘madman’ graffiti on Scream painting, scans show - The words “Can only have been painted by a madman” are written in the corner of the famous painting.
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Covid-19: Boris Johnson to unveil ‘cautious’ plan to lift England’s lockdown - All schools are expected to reopen on 8 March, with some outdoor socialising allowed from 29 March.
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From Ars Technica
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A curious observer’s guide to quantum mechanics, pt 7: The quantum century - Manipulating quantum devices has been like getting an intoxicating new superpower for society. - link
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The AI research paper was real. The “co-author” wasn’t - An MIT professor found his name on two papers with which he had no connection. - link
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New malware found on 30,000 Macs has security pros stumped - With no payload, analysts are struggling to learn what this mature malware does. - link
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As coronavirus variants spread, the US struggles to keep up - Without federal strategy or enough funding, US sequencing superpowers don’t work. - link
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What’s new in the first Android 12 Developer Preview - Lots of hidden features, and hints that the leak from the other day is true. - link
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From Jokes Subreddit
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A man scores a hot date -
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+Not wanting to disappoint his date in the bedroom, he goes to the doctor to get his penis enlarged. The doctor says, “we happen to have a new experimental procedure that uses muscle cells from an elephant trunk that should do the trick.” To which the man accepts.
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+Later on, the man and his date are having dinner. The man is in love with her, but is experiencing an increasingly uncomfortable pressure in his trousers. In an attempt to relieve the pain, he slowly undoes his fly.
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+Immediately, his penis lunges out onto the table, grabs a bread roll and vanishes back under the table.
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+His date, unsurprisingly shocked, slowly smiles and says, “could you do that again?”
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+The man, his eyes watering slightly, replies “probably, but I don’t think I can fit another roll in my arse.”
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A man goes into his doctors after being assaulted by an elephant in the jungle. -
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+As the man explains what happened in the jungle the doctor is confused. “Well, I can’t see any injuries on you, so what happened?”
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+The man responds “Well you see Doc, the elephant knocked me down and…. Had his way with me.. I know it’s bad but can you have a look for me?”
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+The doctor is flabbergasted and says “ok of course, pull your trousers down and I’ll have a look”
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+As soon as the man’s trousers drop the Doctor recoils and exclaims “Oh god! Pull your trousers up! That’s awful!”
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+“You’re right, the elephant has done a number on you, but I do have a question. My brother works in a zoo, and I’ve seen an elephants penis, and its like this”
+
+
+The doctor holds his hands to the width of a side plate
+
+
+“And your arsehole looks like…” He holds his hands to the width of a dinner plate “What happened?!”
+
+
+The man responds, “I know. The bastard fingered me first”
+
+
+
+