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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>Social inequality and the risk of being in a nursing home during the COVID-19 pandemic</strong> -
<div>
BACKGROUND All available evidence suggests that the number of deaths linked to COVID-19 among those living in nursing homes is extremely high. Yet, it remains unknown to what extent there are socio-economic differences among nursing home residents, which can lead, in turn, to social inequality in mortality linked to COVID. OBJECTIVE We investigate whether there are educational differences in the likelihood of living in a nursing home across 13 European countries: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. METHODS We use SHARE data (waves 5-7). We compute logistic regression models for rare events. RESULTS We find that there are sizeable differences in the probability of being in a nursing home, with low-educated individuals more likely to live in this kind of arrangement. This general pattern holds in all the European countries considered. There is considerable uncertainty in our estimates due to small Ns problems and firm conclusions on how the effect of education varies across countries cannot be drawn. Still, there is some indication that the largest educational differences are found in the Scandinavian countries and the smaller ones, even close to zero, in Southern European Countries, with countries in Continental Europe and Eastern Europe laying in between. CONTRIBUTION To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that provides country specific evidence of educational differences in the probability of being in a nursing home in recent years. In this way, we also provide indirect evidence on social inequality in mortality linked to the COVID-19 pandemic.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/ksefy/" target="_blank">Social inequality and the risk of being in a nursing home during the COVID-19 pandemic</a>
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<li><strong>Protective efficacy of COVAXIN(R) against Delta and Omicron variants in hamster model</strong> -
<div>
The immunity acquired after natural infection or vaccinations against SARS-CoV-2 tend to wane with time. Vaccine effectiveness also varies with the variant of infection. Here, we compared the protective efficacy of COVAXIN following 2 and 3 dose immunizations against the Delta variant and also studied the efficacy of COVAXIN against Omicron variants in a Syrian hamster model. The antibody response, clinical observations, viral load reduction and lung disease severity after virus challenge were studied. Protective response in terms of the reduction in lung viral load and lung lesions were observed in both the 2 dose as well as 3 doses COVAXIN immunized group when compared to placebo group following the Delta variant challenge. In spite of the comparable neutralizing antibody response against the homologous vaccine strain in both the 2 dose and 3 dose immunized groups, considerable reduction in the lung disease severity was observed in the 3 dose immunized group post Delta variant challenge indicating the involvement of cell mediated immune response also in protection. In the vaccine efficacy study against the Omicron variants i.e., BA.1 and BA.2, lesser virus shedding, lung viral load and lung disease severity were observed in the immunized groups in comparison to the placebo groups. The present study shows that administration of COVAXIN booster dose will enhance the vaccine effectiveness against the Delta variant infection and give protection against the Omicron variants BA.1.1 and BA.2.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.14.496021v1" target="_blank">Protective efficacy of COVAXIN(R) against Delta and Omicron variants in hamster model</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Antigenic escape accelerated by the presence of immunocompromised hosts</strong> -
<div>
The repeated emergence of SARS-CoV-2 escape mutants from host immunity has obstructed the containment of the current pandemic and poses a serious threat to humanity. Prolonged infection in immunocompromised patients has received increasing attention as a driver of immune escape, and accumulating evidence suggests that viral genomic diversity and emergence of immune-escape mutants are promoted in immunocompromised patients. However, because immunocompromised patients comprise a small proportion of the host population, whether they have a significant impact on antigenic evolution at the population level is unknown. We used an evolutionary epidemiological model combining antigenic evolution and epidemiological dynamics in host populations with heterogeneity in immune competency to determine the impact of immunocompromised patients on the pathogen evolutionary dynamics of antigenic escape from host immunity. We derived analytical formulae of the speed of antigenic evolution in heterogeneous host populations and found that even a small number of immunocompromised hosts in the population significantly accelerates antigenic evolution. Our results demonstrate that immunocompromised hosts play a key role in viral adaptation at the population level and emphasize the importance of critical care and surveillance of immunocompromised hosts.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.13.495792v1" target="_blank">Antigenic escape accelerated by the presence of immunocompromised hosts</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Optimized intramuscular immunization with VSV-vectored spike protein triggers a superior protective humoral immune response to SARS-CoV-2</strong> -
<div>
Immunization with vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV)-vectored COVID-19 vaccine candidates expressing the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein in place of the VSV glycoprotein relies implicitly on expression of the ACE2 receptor at the muscular injection site. Here, we report that such a viral vector vaccine did not induce protective immunity following intramuscular immunization of K18-hACE2 transgenic mice. However, when the viral vector was trans-complemented with the VSV glycoprotein, intramuscular immunization resulted in high titers of spike-specific neutralizing antibodies. The vaccinated animals were fully protected following infection with a lethal dose of SARS-CoV-2-SD614G via the nasal route, and partially protected if challenged with the SARS-CoV-2Delta variant. While dissemination of the challenge virus to the brain was completely inhibited, replication in the lung with consequent lung pathology was not entirely controlled. Thus, intramuscular immunization was clearly enhanced by trans-complementation of the VSV-vectored vaccines by the VSV glycoprotein and led to protection from COVID-19, although not achieving sterilizing immunity.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.14.495413v1" target="_blank">Optimized intramuscular immunization with VSV-vectored spike protein triggers a superior protective humoral immune response to SARS-CoV-2</a>
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<li><strong>Baseline Peripheral Blood Counts and Outcomes in Patients Presenting with COVID-19</strong> -
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Background: SARS COV-2 pandemic has significant impact on hematopoietic system. Objective: To report the incidence and pattern of baseline hematological parameters in patients with COVID-19 and their association with severity of disease and outcome. Methods: Retrospective observational study. Results: A total of 440 patients were included in the study. The mean age of the study cohort was 47.5 years. Fifty percent of patients had at least 1 comorbidity. ICU stay was required in 125 (39.6%) patients. Overall mortality in the study cohort was 3.52%. The average age of patients who died was significantly higher than that of patients who were alive (65.1 years vs 46.5 years; p= 0.000). DM, HTN, CAD and CKD were all associated with higher incidence of ICU stay and mortality. Lymphopenia &lt; 1x109 was observed in 24.3% and eosinopenia was noted in 44.3% patients. Leukocytosis&gt;11x109 was seen in 8.2 % of patients. The median neutrophil lymphocyte ratio (NLR) of whole cohort was 2.63. NLR, Lymphopenia, eosinopenia, leucocytosis, D dimer, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), ferritin and IL6 levels all were associated with need for ICU transfer and mortality. Hemoglobin, red cell distribution width (RDW), PT and aPTT correlated with need for ICU transfer but not with mortality. Ferritin cutoff &gt;751 ng/ml and IL6 levels &gt;64pg/ml was able to identify all deaths. Ferritin (0.989) and IL-6 (0.985) had very high negative predictive value. Conclusions: Peripheral blood counts at time of hospitalization is a simple tool to predict outcomes in patients admitted with Covid-19.
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.10.22276256v1" target="_blank">Baseline Peripheral Blood Counts and Outcomes in Patients Presenting with COVID-19</a>
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<li><strong>The prevalence of mental ill-health in women during pregnancy and after childbirth during the Covid-19 pandemic: a Systematic review and Meta-analysis</strong> -
<div>
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Background Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARSCoV) is a respiratory disease causing coronavirus. SARSCoV has caused the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), SARSCoV in Hong King and SARSCoV2 (COVID19). COVID19, to date, have had the highest mortality and morbidity globally, thus reaching the pandemic status. In comparison to research conducted to explore the impact of pandemics on the general wellbeing, there appears to be a paucity on its association with womens mental health. Many pregnant women have reported that the pandemic negatively impacted their mental health. Aim This study aimed is to explore the prevalence of the impact of the COVID19, MERS and SARS pandemics on the mental health of pregnant women. Method A study protocol was developed and published in PROSPERO (CRD42021235356) to explore a number of key objectives. For the purpose of this study PubMed, Science direct, Ovid PsycINFO and EMBASE databases were searched from December 2000 to July 2021. The search results were screened, first by title, and then by abstract. A metaanalysis was conducted to report the findings. Results There were no studies reporting the mental health impact due to MERS and SARS. We systematically identified 316 studies that reported on the mental health of women that were pregnant and soon after birth. The metaanalysis indicated 24.9% (21.37% to 29.02%) of pregnant women reported symptoms of depression, 32.8% (29.05% to 37.21%) anxiety, 29.44% (18.21% to 47.61%) stress, 27.93% (9.05%to 86.15 %) PTSD, and 24.38% (11.89% to 49.96%) sleep disorders during the COVID19 pandemic. Furthermore, the I2 test showed a high heterogeneity value. Conclusion The importance of managing the mental health during pregnancy and after delivery improves the quality of life and wellbeing of mothers. Developing an evidence based mental health framework as part of pandemic preparedness to help pregnant women would improve the quality of care received during challenging times. Keywords: Covid19, Mental ill health, Depression, Anxiety, Stress, Pregnancy, Antenatal care, Postnatal care, Wellbeing
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.13.22276327v1" target="_blank">The prevalence of mental ill-health in women during pregnancy and after childbirth during the Covid-19 pandemic: a Systematic review and Meta-analysis</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Kidney patients remain at increased risk for succumbing to COVID-19</strong> -
<div>
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Abstract Immunocompromised patients have been at an increased risk of succumbing to COVID-19 already since the beginning of the pandemic. Here we analyzed data from patients with end stage renal disease, including those on dialysis and patients with a kidney transplant, and compared them to the general population. We found that kidney patients remain at increased risk of succumbing to COVID-19 despite all available countermeasures. The analyses underline the need for additional protection for this vulnerable population.
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.12.22276220v1" target="_blank">Kidney patients remain at increased risk for succumbing to COVID-19</a>
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<li><strong>Disentangling the common genetic architecture and causality of rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus with COVID-19 outcomes: genome-wide cross trait analysis and bi-directional Mendelian randomization study</strong> -
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COVID-19 may cause a dysregulation of the immune system and has complex relationships with multiple autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). However, little is known about their common genetic architecture. We analysed summary-level genetic data from the latest COVID‐19 host genetics consortium and consortia on RA and SLE to examine the shared genetic etiology and causal relationship between COVID-19 and RA/SLE. The cross-trait meta-analysis identified 46, 47, and 19 shared genetic loci for severe COVID-19, COVID-19 hospitalization, and SARS-CoV-2 infection with RA, and 19, 24, and 11 shared loci with SLE, respectively. Shared genes were significantly enriched in the spleen, lung, whole blood, and small intestine, and involved in immune function, inflammation and coagulation process. Co-localization analysis identified eight shared loci in TYK2, IKZF3, COL11A2, PSORS1C1, MANEAL and COG6 genes for COVID-19 with RA, and four in CRHR1, FUT2 and NXPE3 genes for COVID-19 with SLE. Bi-directional Mendelian randomization analysis suggested RA is associated with a higher risk of COVID-19 hospitalization, and COVID-19 is not related to RA or SLE. Our novel findings improved the understanding of the common genetic aetiology shared by COVID-19, RA and SLE, and suggested an increased risk of COVID-19 hospitalization in people with higher genetic liability to RA.
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.10.22276268v1" target="_blank">Disentangling the common genetic architecture and causality of rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus with COVID-19 outcomes: genome-wide cross trait analysis and bi-directional Mendelian randomization study</a>
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<li><strong>Neutralising antibodies predict protection from severe COVID-19</strong> -
<div>
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Background: Vaccine protection from COVID-19 has been shown to decline with time-since-vaccination and against SARS-CoV-2 variants. Protection against severe COVID-19 is higher than against symptomatic infection, and also appears relatively preserved over time and against variants. Although Protection protection from symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection has been shown to be strongly correlated with neutralising antibody titres, however, this relationship has been is less well described for severe COVID-19. Protection against severe COVID-19 is higher than against symptomatic infection, and also appears relatively preserved over time and against variants. Here we analyse whether neutralising antibody titre remains predictive of protection against severe COVID-19 in the face of waning neutralising antibody levels and emerging variants. Methods: We extracted data from 15 studies reporting on protection against a range of SARS-CoV-2 clinical endpoints (“any infection”, “symptomatic infection” and “severe COVID-19”). We then estimated the concurrent neutralising antibody titres using existing parameters on vaccine potency, neutralising antibody decay, and loss of recognition of variants and investigated the relationship between neutralising antibody titre and vaccine effectiveness against severe COVID-19. Findings: Predicted neutralising antibody titres are strongly correlated with vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic and severe COVID-19 (Spearman rho = .94 and 0.63 respectively, p&lt;.001 for both), consistent with previous estimates of the relationship between neutralisation and protection. Indeed 82% (137 of 167) of reported values of protection against severe COVID-19 across a range of vaccines and variants lie within the 95% confidence intervals of the published model. Interpretation: Neutralising antibody titres are predictive of vaccine effectiveness against severe COVID-19 including in realistic scenarios of waning immunity and viral variants. Funding: National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia), Medical Research Future Fund (Australia).
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.09.22275942v1" target="_blank">Neutralising antibodies predict protection from severe COVID-19</a>
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<li><strong>The evolving scenario of COVID-19 in hemodialysis patients</strong> -
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Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a rapidly changing disease. So, in this study, we evaluated the evolution of COVID-19 presentation and course in hemodialysis patients (HD). Methods: We retrospectively compared clinical data and outcomes of HD patients affected by COVID-19 during the first pandemic waves of 2020 (from March to December 2020- Group 1) with patients diagnosed with COVID-19 from September 2021 to February 2022 (Group 2), after the full completion of vaccination. Then, we distinguished among them patients responsive (antibody levels &gt; 13 BAU/ml) and unresponsive to the vaccine. We collected data on COVID-19 clinical presentation, laboratory examinations, and outcomes. Results: Group 1 was constituted of 44 patients (69.3±14.6 years) and Group 2 of 55 patients (67.4±15.3 years). Among Group 2, fifty-two patients (95%) were vaccinated, 43 of them (83%) with three doses. Patients of Group 2, compared with Group 1, were more often asymptomatic (38 vs 10%, p=0.002), and reported less frequent fever and pulmonary involvement. At diagnosis, the Group 2 showed a significantly higher number of lymphocytes (0.97±0.45 vs 0.69±0.35 cells x10 9 /L, p=0.008) and lower levels of circulating IL-6 (16±13.3 vs 41±39.4 pg/ml, p=0.002). Moreover, in Group 2, inflammatory parameters significantly improved after a few days from diagnosis. Patients of Group 2 presented a lower hospitalization rate (12.7 vs 38%, p=0.004), illness duration (18.8±7.7 vs 29.2±19.5 days, p=0.005), and mortality rate (5.4 vs 25%, p= 0.008). Finally, responders to the vaccination (80% of the vaccinated patients) compared with non-responders showed a reduction in infection duration and hospitalization (5 vs 40%, p=0.018). Conclusions: COVID-19 presentation and course in HD patients have improved over time after the implementation of vaccine campaigns. However, due to the evolving nature of the disease, active surveillance is necessary.
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.09.22276185v1" target="_blank">The evolving scenario of COVID-19 in hemodialysis patients</a>
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<li><strong>Clinical sensitivity and specificity of a high-throughput microfluidic nano-immunoassay combined with capillary blood microsampling for the identification of anti-SARS-CoV-2 Spike IgG serostatus</strong> -
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Background: We evaluate the diagnostic performance of dried blood microsampling combined with a high-throughput microfluidic nano-immunoassay (NIA) for the identification of anti-SARS-CoV-2 Spike IgG seropositivity. Methods: We conducted a serological study among 192 individuals with documented prior SARS-CoV- 2 infection and 44 SARS-CoV-2 negative individuals. Participants with prior SARS-CoV-2 infection had a long interval of 11 months since their qRT-PCR positive test. Serum was obtained after venipuncture and tested with an automated electrochemiluminescence anti-SARS-CoV-2 S total Ig reference assay, a commercial ELISA anti-S1 IgG assay, and the index test NIA. 109 participants from the positive co- hort and 44 participants from the negative cohort also participated in capillary blood collection using three microsampling devices: Mitra, repurposed glucose test strips, and HemaXis. Samples were dried, shipped by regular mail, extracted, and measured with NIA. Findings: Using serum samples, we achieve a clinical sensitivity of 98.33% and specificity of 97.62% on NIA, affirming the high performance of NIA in participants 11 months post infection. Combining microsampling with NIA, we obtain a clinical sensitivity of 95.05% using Mitra, 61.11% using glucose test strips, 83.16% using HemaXis, and 91.49% for HemaXis after automated extraction, without any drop in specificity. Interpretation: High sensitivity and specificity was demonstrated when testing micro-volume capillary dried blood samples using NIA, which is expected to facilitate its use in large-scale studies using home- based sampling or samples collected in the field. Funding: Swiss National Science Foundation NRP 78 Covid-19 grant 198412 and Private Foundation of the Geneva University Hospital.
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.09.22276142v1" target="_blank">Clinical sensitivity and specificity of a high-throughput microfluidic nano-immunoassay combined with capillary blood microsampling for the identification of anti-SARS-CoV-2 Spike IgG serostatus</a>
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<li><strong>Maternal depressive symptoms and early childhood temperament before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom</strong> -
<div>
The COVID-19 pandemic is an unexpected and major global event, with the potential to have many and varied impacts on child development. However, the implications of the pandemic for maternal depressive symptoms, early childhood temperament dimensions, and their associations, remain largely unknown. To investigate this, questionnaires were completed by mothers (N = 175) before and during the pandemic when their child was 10- and 16-months (Study 1), and by an extended group of mothers with young children (6 – 48 months; 66 additional mothers) during the first and second national lockdowns in the United Kingdom in 2020 (Study 2). Results indicated that whilst maternal pandemic-related stress decreased over the pandemic, the proportion of mothers feeling some level of pandemic-specific depression increased. Despite this, we did not observe an increase in the severity of global maternal depressive symptoms, or any negative impact of the pandemic on the development of temperament in infancy and early childhood.
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/quket/" target="_blank">Maternal depressive symptoms and early childhood temperament before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom</a>
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<li><strong>Combining predictive models with future change scenarios can produce credible forecasts of COVID-19 futures</strong> -
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The advent and distribution of vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 in late 2020 was thought to represent an effective means to control the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This optimistic expectation was dashed by the omicron waves that emerged over the winter of 2021/2020 even in countries that had managed to vaccinate a large fraction of their populations, raising questions about whether it is possible to use scientific knowledge along with predictive models to anticipate changes and design management measures for the pandemic. Here, we used an extended SEIR model for SARS-CoV-2 transmission sequentially calibrated to data on cases and interventions implemented in Florida until Sept. 24th 2021, and coupled to scenarios of plausible changes in key drivers of viral transmission, to evaluate the capacity of such a tool for exploring the future of the pandemic in the state. We show that while the introduction of vaccinations could have led to the permanent, albeit drawn-out, ending of the pandemic if immunity acts over the long-term, additional futures marked by complicated repeat waves of infection become possible if this immunity wanes over time. We demonstrate that the most recent omicron wave could have been predicted by this hybrid system, but only if timely information on the timing of variant emergence and its epidemiological features were made available. Simulations for the introduction of a new variant exhibiting higher transmissibility than omicron indicated that while this will result in repeat waves, forecasted peaks are unlikely to reach that observed for the omicron wave owing to levels of immunity established over time in the population. These results highlight that while limitations of models calibrated to past data for precisely forecasting the futures of epidemics must be recognized, insightful predictions of pandemic futures are still possible if uncertainties about changes in key drivers are captured appropriately through plausible scenarios.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.14.21267804v2" target="_blank">Combining predictive models with future change scenarios can produce credible forecasts of COVID-19 futures</a>
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<li><strong>Vaccine Effectiveness of Primary Series and Booster Doses against Omicron Variant COVID-19-Associated Hospitalization in the United States</strong> -
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Objectives: To compare the effectiveness of a primary COVID-19 vaccine series plus a booster dose with a primary series alone for the prevention of Omicron variant COVID-19 hospitalization. Design: Multicenter observational case-control study using the test-negative design to evaluate vaccine effectiveness (VE). Setting: Twenty-one hospitals in the United States (US). Participants: 3,181 adults hospitalized with an acute respiratory illness between December 26, 2021 and April 30, 2022, a period of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant (BA.1, BA.2) predominance. Participants included 1,572 (49%) case-patients with laboratory confirmed COVID-19 and 1,609 (51%) control patients who tested negative for SARS-CoV-2. Median age was 64 years, 48% were female, and 21% were immunocompromised; 798 (25%) were vaccinated with a primary series plus booster, 1,326 (42%) were vaccinated with a primary series alone, and 1,057 (33%) were unvaccinated. Main Outcome Measures: VE against COVID-19 hospitalization was calculated for a primary series plus a booster and a primary series alone by comparing the odds of being vaccinated with each of these regimens versus being unvaccinated among cases versus controls. VE analyses were stratified by immune status (immunocompetent; immunocompromised) because the recommended vaccine schedules are different for these groups. The primary analysis evaluated all COVID-19 vaccine types combined and secondary analyses evaluated specific vaccine products. Results: Among immunocompetent patients, VE against Omicron COVID-19 hospitalization for a primary series plus one booster of any vaccine product dose was 77% (95% CI: 71-82%), and for a primary series alone was 44% (95% CI: 31-54%) (p&lt;0.001). VE was higher for a boosted regimen than a primary series alone for both mRNA vaccines used in the US (BNT162b2: primary series plus booster VE 80% (95% CI: 73-85%), primary series alone VE 46% (95% CI: 30-58%) [p&lt;0.001]; mRNA-1273: primary series plus booster VE 77% (95% CI: 67-83%), primary series alone VE 47% (95% CI: 30-60%) [p&lt;0.001]). Among immunocompromised patients, VE for a primary series of any vaccine product against Omicron COVID-19 hospitalization was 60% (95% CI: 41-73%). Insufficient sample size has accumulated to calculate effectiveness of boosted regimens for immunocompromised patients. Conclusions: Among immunocompetent people, a booster dose of COVID-19 vaccine provided additional benefit beyond a primary vaccine series alone for preventing COVID-19 hospitalization due to the Omicron variant.
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.09.22276228v1" target="_blank">Vaccine Effectiveness of Primary Series and Booster Doses against Omicron Variant COVID-19-Associated Hospitalization in the United States</a>
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<li><strong>Pediatric ARDS phenotypes in critical COVID-19: implications for therapies and outcomes.</strong> -
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Purpose: to describe lung mechanics in Pediatric Acute Respiratory Disease Syndrome (PARDS) associated with COVID-19. We hypothesize two phenotypes according to respiratory system mechanics and clinical diagnosis. Methods: a concurrent multicenter observational study was performed, analyzing clinical variables and pulmonary mechanics of PARDS associated with COVID-19 in 4 Pediatric intensive care units (PICUs) of Peru. Subgroup analysis included PARDS associated with multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), MIS-PARDS, and PARDS with COVID-19 primary respiratory infection, C-PARDS. In addition, receiver operator curve analysis (ROC) for mortality was performed. Results: 30 patients were included. Age was 7.5(4-11) years, 60% male, and mortality 23%. 47% corresponded to MIS-PARDS and 53% to C-PARDS phenotypes. C-PARDS had positive RT-PCR in 67% and MIS-PARDS none (p&lt;0.001). C-PARDS group had more profound hypoxemia (P/Fratio&lt;100, 86%vs38%,p&lt;0.01) and higher driving-pressure (DP) [14(10-22)vs10(10-12)cmH2O], and lower compliance of the respiratory system (CRS)[0.5(0.3-0.6)vs 0.7(0.6-0.8)ml/kg/cmH2O] compared to MIS-PARDS (all p&lt;0.05). ROC-analysis for mortality showed that DP had the best performance [AUC 0.91(95%CI0.81-1.00), with the best cut-point of 15 cmH2O (100% sensitivity and 87% of specificity). Mortality in C-PARDS was 38% and 7% in MIS-PARDS(p=0.09). MV free-days were 12(0-23) in C-PARDS and 23(21-25) in MIS-PARDS(p=0.02) Conclusion: critical pediatric COVID-19 is heterogeneous in children. COVID-19 PARDS had two phenotypes with distinctive pulmonary mechanics features. Characteristics of C-PARDS are like a classic primary PARDS, while a decoupling between compliance and hypoxemia was more frequent in MIS-PARDS. In addition, C-PARDS had fewer MV free-days. DP ≥ 15 cmH2O had the best performance of the quasi-static calculations to discriminate for mortality. Standardized pulmonary mechanics measurements in PARDS might reveal essential information to tailor the ventilatory strategy in pediatric critical COVID-19.
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.08.22276125v1" target="_blank">Pediatric ARDS phenotypes in critical COVID-19: implications for therapies and outcomes.</a>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</h1>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Phase I Clinical Trial of GEN2-Recombinant COVID-19 Vaccine (CHO Cells) in Healthy People Aged 18 and Above</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Pneumonia<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Experimental Vaccine 1;   Biological: Experimental Vaccine 2;   Biological: Experimental Vaccine 3;   Biological: placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   National Vaccine and Serum Institute, China;   Lanzhou Institute of Biological Products Co., Ltd;   Beijing Institute of Biological Products Co Ltd.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>COVID-19 Algorithm Treatment at Home</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Recommended treatment schedule;   Drug: Usual care<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Eucalyptus Oil as Adjuvant Therapy for Coronavirus Disease 19 (COVID-19)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Eucalyptus Oil;   Drug: Standard COVID medication<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Hasanuddin University;   Ministry of Agriculture, Republic of Indonesia<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Study of Oral High/Low-dose Cepharanthine Compared With Placebo in Non Hospitalized Adults With COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Asymptomatic COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Cepharanthine;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine;   YUNNAN BAIYAO GROUP CO.,LTD<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Immunosuppression and COVID-19 Boosters</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: diphtheria and tetanus toxoids (adsorbed) vaccine;   Biological: COVID-19 vaccine<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Kirby Institute;   Seqirus Pty Ltd, Australia;   Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF)<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>Epidemiological Monitoring of COVID-19 Patients Hospitalized on Reunion Island</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: telephone interview 24 months after hospitalization for Covid-19<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de la Réunion<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>α-synuclein Seeding Activity in the Olfactory Mucosa in COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: Real-time Quaking-Induced Conversion (RT-QuIC)<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Medical University Innsbruck<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, Single-blinded, Multicenter Trial Comparing the Immune Response to a 2nd Booster Dose of COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech) or Sanofi /GSK B.1.351 Adjuvanted Vaccine in Adults</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Vaccines<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: 2nd booster with Comirnaty® (Pfizer-BioNTech);   Biological: CoV2 preS dTM adjuvanted vaccine (B.1.351), Sanofi/GSK<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris;   IREIVAC/COVIREIVAC Network<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>Immunogenicity and Safety of a Third Dose of COVID-19 Vaccine(Vero Cell), Inactivated in the Elderly</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: COVID-19 Vaccine (Vero cell), Inactivated<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Sinovac Life Sciences Co., Ltd.<br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Efficacy, Safety and Immunogenicity Study of the Recombinant Two-component COVID-19 Vaccine (CHO Cell)(Recov)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Recombinant two-component COVID-19 vaccine (CHO cell);   Biological: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Jiangsu Rec-Biotechnology Co., Ltd.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Immunogenicity and Safety Study of Booster Vaccine With the COVID-19 Vaccine (Vero Cell), Inactivated, Omicron Strain</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: COVID-19 Vaccine (Vero Cell), Inactivated, Omicron Strain<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Sinovac Biotech (Hong Kong) Limited<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>Plerixafor in Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Related to COVID-19 (Phase IIb)</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19 Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome;   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Plerixafor 20 MG/ML [Mozobil];   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   4Living Biotech<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>Calcitriol Supplementation in COVID-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   Vitamin D Deficiency<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: Calcitriol<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   RenJi 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>Effects of Telerehabilitative Aerobic and Relaxation Exercises Patients With Type 2 Diabetes With and Without COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: Aerobic and Relaxation Exercises<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Bozyaka Training and Research Hospital<br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake Trial</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Vaccination Refusal;   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Other: Short Message Service (SMS) + Website Link Strategy;   Other: Phone Call with Peer Strategy<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Washington University School of Medicine<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-pubmed">From PubMed</h1>
<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>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How Kyiv’s L.G.B.T.Q. Community Found Shelter from the Russian Invasion</strong> - An advocacy group in Ukraine’s capital retools itself as a service organization. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/how-kyivs-lgbtq-community-found-shelter-from-the-russian-invasion">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The G.O.P. Heckles the January 6th Show</strong> - Last week’s televised hearing showed that there is a great deal that remains unknown to the public—and that Republicans could fill in many of the blank spaces in the record. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/06/20/the-gop-heckles-the-january-6th-show">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How Did Guns Get So Powerful?</strong> - Decade by decade, firearms have become deadlier—and tightened their grip on our collective imagination. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/how-did-guns-get-so-powerful">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Saeed Jones Reads Deborah Digges</strong> - The poet joins Kevin Young to read and discuss “The Wind Blows Through the Doors of My Heart,” by Deborah Digges, and his own poem “A Spell to Banish Grief.” - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/poetry/saeed-jones-reads-deborah-digges">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Nevada Primary Map: Live Election Results</strong> - The latest results from the Nevada primary ahead of the 2022 midterms. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/election-2022/live-midterm-results-nevada">link</a></p></li>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
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<li><strong>How Catholicism became a meme</strong> -
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<img alt="A display of Catholic memes, including one of Cher reading “Do you believe in life... ...after love?”" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/6S08ybMYfMbLnU9YoeqOlMGzjuU=/96x0:1645x1162/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70978541/Screen_Shot_2022_06_14_at_1.31.54_PM.0.png"/>
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Do you, though? | <a class="ql-link" href="https://www.instagram.com/ineedgodineverymomentofmylife/" target="_blank"><span class="citation" data-cites="ineedgodineverymomentofmylife">@ineedgodineverymomentofmylife</span></a>/Instagram
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One of the world’s most powerful religions is now an alt status symbol
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3QO2bg">
When was the first time you realized Catholicism was … different? For me it was during my friend’s confirmation at a Lutheran church, filled with tall, stoic Scandinavians in a handsome but mostly featureless room. Protestants, it seemed, were allergic to the type of excess and drama that defined Christianity until Martin Luther wrote his 95 Theses, their services far more grounded in humility. This particular church had a female reverend, and it championed the liberal ideologies that were espoused in much of suburban Vermont: gay people and women deserve rights, divorce is fine, help thy neighbor. Their communion was actual <em>bread</em> rather than the flavorless circular wafers I was given at Mass. It was, from what I could gather as a Catholic teenager who did not spend very much time thinking about God, a cool church.
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Belonging to a “cool church,” however, is no longer the status symbol it might have been a few years ago. A-listers like Justin Bieber, Chris Pratt, and the Kardashians have touted their affiliations with <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/2/6/18205355/church-chris-pratt-justin-bieber-zoe-hillsong">Protestant megachurches like Hillsong, Zoe, and Churchome</a> that preach an Instagram-ready approach to traditional evangelism. Within the last year, Hillsong, the most influential of the bunch, has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/29/us/hillsong-church-scandals.html">suffered a series of scandals</a> stemming from its founder’s inappropriate actions toward women, as well as a Discovery+ documentary aimed at exposing its toxicity.
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It is impossible to argue that the Catholic Church is any less sinister than anything Hillsong or its ilk have done. It is in fact very sinister, but it is the <em>kind</em> of sinister that Catholicism represents that makes it easy to argue that, at least aesthetically and culturally, Catholicism pairs well with this precise moment.
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cd38QaqP-jR/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">A post shared by Kourtney Kardashian Barker ❤️‍ (<span class="citation" data-cites="kourtneykardash">@kourtneykardash</span>)</a>
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A year or two ago, I started seeing a <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@altarboy33ad/video/6935600565208616198?is_copy_url=1&amp;is_from_webapp=v1&amp;q=catholicvsprotestant&amp;t=1654706064259">bizarre</a> <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@yuhasmine/video/6896506117803855110?is_copy_url=1&amp;is_from_webapp=v1&amp;lang=en">trend</a> <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@angelena.joli/video/7041233045642300677?is_copy_url=1&amp;is_from_webapp=v1&amp;q=catholicism&amp;t=1654705310792">on TikTok</a> in which people argued the superiority of Catholicism with videos that juxtaposed Evangelical preachers and modernist churches with old, gilded Latin Masses. Around the same time came a <a href="https://prayingg.com/">buzzy fashion brand</a> whose signature piece is a bikini top with the words “Father” and “Son” on each of the boobs and “Holy Spirit” on the bottom. This was also during the unfortunate resurgence of <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/5/25/22356338/satanic-panic-america-sarah-marshall">the Satanic Panic</a> and the fortunate rise of <a href="https://www.vox.com/22356438/lil-nas-x-satan-shoes-nike-montero-video-gay-agenda-christian-controversy">Lil Nas X grinding on the devil</a>, and the TikTok generation’s embrace of Old World fixtures like <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/26/nyregion/bemelmans-rainbow-room-revival.html">piano bars</a> and red sauce joints. All this coincided with a larger aesthetic shift, a pendulum swing toward <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/21506030/maximalism-minimalism-home-design-jungalow">magpie “grandmillennial” home decor</a> after a decade of <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/12/27/18156431/recession-fashion-design-minimalism">post-2008 minimalism</a>. Then last month, Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker — both <a href="https://www.distractify.com/p/celebrity-hillsong-members">former (?) members of Hillsong</a> — held one of their three nuptials in what the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/23/style/kourtney-kardashian-travis-barker-wedding.html">New York Times called</a> “a Gothic altar that looked as if it came from the set of Baz Luhrmann’s<em> Romeo + Juliet</em>” at a castle on the Italian coast.
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Kyle Hide, a 31-year-old in Brooklyn, thinks about all of these things, all the time. They’re a co-founder of the popular Instagram account <a href="https://www.instagram.com/ineedgodineverymomentofmylife/"><span class="citation" data-cites="ineedgodineverymomentofmylife">@ineedgodineverymomentofmylife</span></a>, which documents surreal, absurdist memes about God, often with a Catholic bent. (Recent posts: a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cegh5FYOgUP/">Dall-E AI-created image</a> of Patrick Star being crucified, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CeW7m0Vuoci/">a plea for</a> “an American Girl doll who saw Joan of Arc burned at the stake.”) Along with three friends they met on Twitter in the mid-2010s, Hide compiles bizarre imagery mixing internet culture with the divine, the sincerity of which their followers can never quite agree on.
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CeW7m0Vuoci/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">A post shared by I NEED GOD (<span class="citation" data-cites="ineedgodineverymomentofmylife">@ineedgodineverymomentofmylife</span>)</a>
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The truth is somewhere in between irony and earnestness, but leans toward the latter. Hide was raised Catholic, even serving as a cantor in the choir. They now practice astrology and identify as a cultural Catholic, but in terms of spiritual belief, describe themselves as “more of a nothing in particular.” “I was trying to separate what I didn’t like about Catholicism from what is fun about it,” they tell me over coffee. “What motivates me is an awareness of God, or a provocation to make people think about their beliefs and a higher power.”
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Before the pandemic, Hide says, the account only had a few thousand followers, made up mostly of the founders’ extended social networks. Now at 63,000, Hide attributes the growth in part to quarantine. “Being home alone without your routine makes you confront your faith, or other deeper things that society isn’t dealing with,” they say. Today, the <span class="citation" data-cites="ineedgodineverymomentofmylife">@ineedgodineverymomentofmylife</span> account receives daily orders from its merch store, making enough money for Hide to cover their rent.
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<span class="citation" data-cites="ineedgodineverymomentofmylife">@ineedgodineverymomentofmylife</span> has found devotees of all types, from extremely online millennials and zoomers to, as Hide describes, “Christian dads with, like, Ezekiel 35 in their bios,” to religious academics. One of the latter group is Chris Stedman, a writer and professor of religion at Augsburg University, who’s also noticed a renewed interest in Catholic aesthetics among young folks, both in the “edgy, grungy” expressions of meme accounts or the “trad cath” (Latin masses, veils, etc.) aesthetics of <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2020/8/3/21349640/cottagecore-taylor-swift-folklore-lesbian-clothes-animal-crossing">fairy tales</a>, <a href="https://www.nylon.com/fashion/angelcore-aesthetic-fashion">angels</a>, and <a href="https://www.nylon.com/fashion/royalcore-princesscore-internet-aesthetic-fashion">royalty</a>. “For people whose exposure to Christianity was a certain kind of Protestantism — bare bones, Kool-Aid for communion — you encounter the ‘smells and bells’ of a Catholic church and you might gravitate toward it,” he says. “It’s over-the-top, it’s colorful, it’s excessive, it’s campy.”
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Fashion has always found ample inspiration in this aspect of Catholicism, which has influenced such a wealth of garments that the Met devoted its 2018 gala to the subject of <a href="https://www.vogue.com/slideshow/met-gala-red-carpet-live-celebrity-fashion"><em>Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination</em></a>, which became the museum’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/10/12/17965642/heavenly-bodies-metropolitan-museum-of-art-fashion-exhibit">most popular exhibit ever</a>. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS6TEbQWisM">Popes</a> have <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/style/photos/2013/03/pope-francis-jorge-mario-bergoglio-papal-fashion">long been icons of fashion</a>, unintentionally or otherwise, so too have <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wn7yWxoVY7Y">Catholic schoolgirls</a> and medieval paintings of saints.
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CdjiKAgOvP1/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">A post shared by I NEED GOD (<span class="citation" data-cites="ineedgodineverymomentofmylife">@ineedgodineverymomentofmylife</span>)</a>
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In a <a href="https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/g5b4d9/catholicism-alt-fashion-trend-think-piece">piece for i-D magazine</a>, Biz Sherbert argues that the most recent wave of Catholic aesthetic reclamation comes after the last several years of public reckonings over cultural appropriation. More white people now understand that to wear a feathered headdress or a bindi will cause negative social consequences. Therefore, Sherbert writes, “alt white kids have had to adapt and look for new ways to differentiate themselves from the sea of normies and basics. Trendsetters began to avoid ripping off styles from people of color … their pursuit of Otherness now took place within the strict limits of familiar, quaint horizons.”
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What better way, really, to denote oneself as an “other” than to embrace the undeniably beautiful, but also sort of malevolent motifs of the Catholic church? Chicano youths in ’30s and ’40s Los Angeles <a href="https://www.racked.com/2017/4/26/15305022/rosary-beads-fashion-history">wore rosary beads</a> as rebellious fashion statements, as did goths and punks in the ’70s, who also looked to motifs like Celtic crosses and Day of the Dead altars. Today we have brands like <a href="https://prayingg.com/">Praying</a>, which sells the aforementioned Holy Trinity bikini, along with baby tees that read “God’s favorite” and “Want not.” “It’s a way of using nihilism to move past nihilism,” one of Praying’s co-founders <a href="https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/praying-brand-interview/">told High Snobiety</a>. “What we’re trying to do is say things and show images that have two meanings. A lot of the time, these meanings are competitive. They can be ironic or completely sincere.” So far, Praying has been spotted on Olivia Rodrigo, Charli XCX, Megan Thee Stallion, Rosalia, and Jennifer Coolidge; it’s also been <a href="https://www.fashionnova.com/products/favorite-angel-top-black?variant=39252741062780&amp;flow_enabled=false&amp;gclid=CjwKCAjw46CVBhB1EiwAgy6M4n74QtUxoVR4ZyPKFAeJb8lhfxompzU3ixRdldfMnf8Xfy3D7qaJMBoCA-0QAvD_BwE">knocked off</a> by Fashion Nova.
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CSuvbesh_if/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">A post shared by Praying (<span class="citation" data-cites="praying">@praying</span>)</a>
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Catholicism “coming back” sounds a little bit like fill-in-the-blank trend reporting; you take one thing that’s literally thousands of years old and decide that, suddenly, young people are discovering it. Even <em>that</em> justification barely tracks — only <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/religious-landscape-study/religious-tradition/catholic/">17 percent</a> of Catholics are between the ages of 18 to 29, and <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2021/11/10/cara-survey-young-american-catholics-241803">one-third</a> of young Catholics say they expect to attend Mass less often post-pandemic. One curious statistic, however, is that the percentage of self-identified Protestants in America is down 10 points in the last 10 years, while the Catholic share has stayed basically the same. It’s highly doubtful this has anything to do with memes or changing tastes in fashion — more likely it could be a reflection of many <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/10/evangelical-trump-christians-politics/620469/">Evangelical Christian churches’ fervent embrace of Trumpism</a> or a symptom of <a href="https://www.vox.com/first-person/2019/6/4/18644764/church-religion-atheism-secularism">declining religious affiliation</a> in general.
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Yet it could also be because Catholicism connotes a specific culture as much as it does a belief system, a uniting identity for many American immigrant communities — Latinos, Italians, the Irish. Protestantism, meanwhile, is the foundation on which the country was built; along with whiteness, patriarchy, and capitalism, Protestant ideology cements itself into nearly every aspect of American life. However much power the Catholic church currently wields (a lot) and has wielded throughout history (a <em>lot</em>), in America, it will always be, to some degree, alternative.
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While Protestant places of worship have often strived to seem welcoming and familiar, like a business conference or a sports stadium, walking into a Catholic church means leaving behind everything about the secular, hyper-commercialized urban life that I and many other Americans lead. Though I often spent Sunday Masses as a kid zoning out or trying not to laugh at our notoriously terrible organist’s singing abilities, I remained fascinated by the pageantry of it, the robes, the incense, the insistence on displaying the most realistic and therefore horrifying crucifixes possible. I loved that in CCD classes we didn’t have to memorize the Bible and instead learned about the saints and martyrs and how evil sex was (which, of course, made it sexier). In my freshman year of college at a Jesuit university, I loved reading Thomas Aquinas, who to this day makes one of the most convincing cases for the existence of God.
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<img alt="A Baroque style fresco painting, very Catholic, with dense imagery of people and the sky." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/8HHxx_i_xFAyTi4DJt0KmMsXeSo=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23627377/GettyImages_841848176.jpg"/> <cite>Getty Images</cite>
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Pretty, right?
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“Catholicism is nice because it involves a whole body of work outside of the Bible — it’s a very aesthetic, literary religion,” the <em>Red Scare</em> podcaster and provocateur Dasha Nekrasova, a practicing Catholic, <a href="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/dasha-nekrasova-softness-of-bodies-amazon">told Interview magazine</a>. “What’s so great about faith is that it doesn’t have to be grounded in rational thought. We are seeing a lot of people return to religion because everything feels so senseless and pointless, so why not be a Catholic?” Some have viewed Nekrasova and her particular crowd as, <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2022/05/new-yorks-hipster-wars">the New Statesman described</a>, “a scene that practices transgression for its own sake … flirtation with reactionary concepts such as the abandonment of ideals of social progress, Catholicism, and an admiration for the aristocratic past.” Essentially, it’s the argument that this particular brand of social conservatism is a reaction to annoying “wokeists” and little else.
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Neither Stedman nor Hide see it that way, though. “I think a lot of us are experiencing the benefits and the power of being able to leave or reject institutions that aren’t serving us and go our own way,” says Stedman. “Anytime there’s some significant technological advancement, there is gain, but there is also loss. It’s really natural to say, ‘I’m going to try and reclaim this older way of doing things.’”
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Or perhaps it’s just about the pretty cathedrals, and maybe that isn’t so terrible, either. “The church I grew up in was so elaborate and beautiful, and there’s something spiritual about that, too — decoration, ornamentation,” says Hide. “The purpose of it is to supersede all things, and there’s something comforting about that.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VFfpOX">
<em>This column was first published in The Goods newsletter. </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/pages/newsletters"><em>Sign up here</em></a><em> so you don’t miss the next one, plus get newsletter exclusives.</em>
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<ul>
<li><strong>Why we need rituals, not routines</strong> -
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/2y_-O3mYw4RGcefjHPn7e0YYAxs=/375x0:2626x1688/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70978342/rituals.0.jpeg"/>
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Shanée Benjamin for Vox
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How rituals can help you approach basic tasks more mindfully.
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Mason Currey’s interest in rituals grew out of his inability to write without distraction. Currey, a Los Angeles-based writer, became fascinated with the working habits of famous writers, whose days were seemingly subsumed by creative work. How were they so devoted and consistent with their craft? What magical brain powers did they possess that he didn’t?
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It turns out, even great writers like Franz Kafka and Virginia Woolf found writing to be an arduous task. What made the work a little bit easier, he discovered, was their commitment to a daily ritual.
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In 2013, Currey published <a href="https://bookshop.org/books/daily-rituals-how-artists-work/9780307273604"><em>Daily Rituals: How Artists Work</em></a>, a compendium of mini-biographies that documented the idiosyncratic habits and lives of artists. For the artists that Currey researched, repetition was crucial to sustaining ritual. This practice, however, is not exclusive to the creative class, nor does — or should — it only operate in the realm of work. With life returning to a <a href="https://www.vox.com/coronavirus-covid19/23035464/covid-19-us-paxlovid-antiviral-vaccine-availability">new post-pandemic normal</a>, rituals, whether personal or communal, can help enrich people’s lives.
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Anyone can devise a simple ritual and integrate it into their day, week, or even month. In Zen monasteries, even ordinary activities, like bathing and eating, are ritualized and given the complete attention of practitioners. This encourages a mindful approach to basic tasks, imbuing them with a transformational ethos. It can be as simple as taking a walk at a certain time of day, baking bread, or cleaning your space. You might not feel moved or changed by a ritual the first time you attempt one; you might be self-conscious or distracted. This is where repetition or experimentation could help.
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Currey’s morning ritual for writing, for example, starts with him waking up at 5:30 am. He goes to the kitchen, pours himself a cup of coffee brewed the night before, and sits down to write at his desk with the hood of his sweatshirt pulled up. Some days, the process feels more like a slog than others, but the early morning habit instills a sense of calm. The repetition ensures an easy transition to his desired writerly mindset.
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Currey describes a ritual as an activity that eases a person into a focused mindset, a liminal state that is conducive for thinking, creating, or just being. “Rituals create and mark a transition towards a different kind of mental or emotional state,” he said. This can look different for every person, but it’s helpful to approach rituals as a soothing, meditative activity that allows the participant to be physically and mentally present. Here’s how to think about finding and maintaining one yourself.
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<h3 id="5kDLhz">
What’s the difference between a ritual and a routine?
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In cases like Currey’s, a ritual might resemble a common routine. (Currey confessed that his book’s original title was <em>Daily Routines</em>, but an editor proposed to change it to <em>Daily Rituals</em> at the last minute.) The difference, according to ritualists, is distinguished by one’s intent.
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The word “routine” carries a connotation distinct from that of ritual. It implies a rigid sense of structure, with time management and productivity prioritized. A person might rely on routine for the sake of accomplishment — an ideal tied to capitalist ideals of labor and production — rather than personal enjoyment or spiritual fulfillment. Society is fascinated by the inner lives of highly successful people and their <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/column/like-a-boss">adherence</a> to <a href="https://nymag.com/tags/how-i-get-it-done/">unyielding habits</a>. Self-help books and articles encourage readers to emulate the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/successful-people-share-morning-routines-2015-4">ambitious morning routines</a> of entrepreneurs, often attributing their financial success to this regimented mindset. Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22538703/tiktok-productivity-hacks-gen-z">productivity tools</a> and apps are marketed to consumers as a shortcut to <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22727109/enlightenment-technology-neurofeedback-brain-stimulation-psychedelics">optimize the self</a> to work more efficiently.
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In her seminal writing on rituals, religion scholar Catherine Bell advised against establishing a firm definition for what constitutes a ritual. While there might be differences between what’s perceived as an “authentic ritual” and a “ritual-like activity,” Bell encouraged people to focus on the specifics of the process, instead of unnecessarily limiting themselves to a defined ideal. In other words, many activities can become rituals. It depends on how a person approaches them.
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Rituals shouldn’t be reduced to just mechanistic habits. The scholar Dale Wright, in<a href="https://terebess.hu/zen/mesterek/Wright-Intro-ZenRitual.pdf"> his research</a> on Zen Buddhist rituals, believed the process can facilitate the “disciplined transformation of the practitioner” in a way that mindless routine can’t. One can think of rituals, then, as a spiritual predecessor to routine.
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Rituals can be an artistic process, a meditation, a communal celebration, or a simple act of observation, according to Kate Southworth, a London-based artist whose works are rooted in ritual. “Rituals often have an intention,” Southworth said. “I think the framing of that intention to be as important as its enactment.” It’s a form of resistance, she added, “to let go of the rational mind of habit and routine.”
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I became fascinated with devising my own daily rituals after reading <em>The Disappearance of Rituals</em>, by German philosopher Byung Chul Han. Rituals stabilize life, <a href="https://www.noemamag.com/all-that-is-solid-melts-into-information/">Han argued</a>. They are “temporal technologies for housing oneself,” and provide a mental refuge from the ceaselessness of social media and our fast-paced world. For me, this refuge came in the form of an early morning yoga practice. It is one of the first things I do after waking, in order to ground myself in my body. I don’t play music or perform a specific flow, although I follow a series of familiar stretches and movements.
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Han writes extensively about the decline of collective ritual in secular societies, but he doesn’t propose a return to the old ways of ritualizing. Instead, he encourages readers to form new rites that are resistant to becoming commodified.
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Southworth stresses that you don’t have to buy anything or pay money to partake in a ritual (unlike, say, a skin care regimen). In fact, she encourages people to get creative with objects they already possess or existing habits. She points to her practice of collecting rainwater as an example that requires little doing from day to day. Once Southworth accumulates enough rainwater, she mixes it with some nut milk and waters her plants. “It’s the small, very purposeful acts that draw my attention to what’s going on in the outside world,” she said. “Rituals deal with the unconscious, with making these connections to others or nature through art or an activity.”
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<h3 id="EvUVJD">
Your ritual might seem silly or odd to others, but that shouldn’t discourage you
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When a ritual is written out or explained, the activity can seem overly simplistic or fruitless to outsiders. The best way to understand a ritual, according to practitioners, is to engage with it, even if that participation is limited to empathy. “From an outsider’s perspective, the rites performed by others will always seem hollow and devoid of meaning just by virtue of one’s distance from them,” wrote Wright, the Zen Buddhist scholar.
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This could be because rituals historically carried religious or spiritual undertones, and were often performed in community with others. In line with Han’s argument that collective rituals are disappearing (at least in a Western context), Currey acknowledged that his approach to rituals places an onus on individuals to come up with what works for them. Some artists are even hesitant to describe their process as ritual, even though their described behaviors follow the same patterns. “There’s not much ritualizing that we inherit, so we have to make it up for ourselves,” he said.
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As a result, these practices are highly personalized and might not apply or even make sense to others. The writer Ingrid Rojas Contreras always <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/26/magazine/productivity-self-mesmerism.html?utm_source=pocket_mylist">wears</a> a garment in a distinct “muted blue ultramarine” shade when working, as picturing the color helps her to concentrate and enter “a somnambulistic trance.” The director David Lynch meditates twice a day in 20-minute sessions, a practice he has maintained daily since 1973. And the novelist Toni Morrison would wake at 5 am, make coffee, and watch the sun rise. Witnessing the early sunrise enabled her to write, she told the <a href="https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/1888/the-art-of-fiction-no-134-toni-morrison">Paris Review</a>: “This ritual comprises my preparation to enter a space that I can only call non-secular.”
</p>
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For these artists, rituals are inseparable from their creative output — which, in turn, are tied to their livelihoods. Yet rituals can be wholly separate from any form of labor that can be monetized. Making <a href="https://www.aliciakennedy.news/p/on-routine">a bowl of oats</a> can be a morning ritual. So can activities like journaling or reading a poem.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KvpZCR">
Not all rituals have to be daily endeavors. Rituals can also be enacted around certain astrological or calendar-based events, like the full moon or summer solstice. (Some of our modern holidays, like <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-ancient-origins-of-the-easter-bunny-180979915/">Easter</a> and Halloween, borrow from pagan celebrations, which had elements of ritual.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="S316Q4">
Southworth follows a ritual calendar that is informed by ancient Celtic festivals and pagan solstices, and likes to perform rituals to mark the transition from one season to the next. Her winter solstice ritual last year took place over the course of three days: Southworth created a charcoal sketching on the first day, rubbed some of it out on the second, and sat with her drawing at dusk to welcome the darkness of the solstice. “Enjoy the deepness, stillness and quietness of the darkness,” she wrote <a href="https://www.katesouthworth.art/winter-solstice-ritual-2021">on an instructional blog</a>. “When you are ready, light a candle to welcome the return of light.”
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<h3 id="Z2BowP">
Experiment and have fun with it. People change, and rituals can, too.
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2nqxYZ">
Whether it’s a daily or celebratory ritual, Southworth encourages people to experiment. “Trust your gut instinct if a ritual works right for you, and change things so that it feels good,” she said. Make sure to have some context for the ritual or an idea of why you’re performing it. Intent — and in some cases, repetition — is key. While Southworth has published her own ritualistic guides, she doesn’t think that rigid rules are necessary. Rather, what’s important is the mindset that the participant brings to the practice.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NAsoHU">
A ritual might not always produce the participant’s sought-after effect, especially with their first few attempts. For Zen Buddhists, the repetitive nature of ritual action conditions the body so that the desired mental state will follow. Southworth offers a more fluid, beginner-friendly approach for casual ritualists. “Think of it as a way of letting go of the everyday,” she said. “A ritual is like a poem. There’s no wrong or right way.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="f1SLeg">
<a href="http://www.vox.com/even-better"><em>Even Better</em></a><em> is here to offer deeply sourced, actionable advice for helping you live a better life. Do you have a question on money and work; friends, family, and community; or personal growth and health? Send us your question by filling out this </em><a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfiStGSlsWDBmglim7Dh1Y9Hy386rkeKGpfwF6BCjmgnZdqfQ/viewform"><em>form</em></a><em>. We might turn it into a story.</em>
</p></li>
<li><strong>Why investors suddenly care about saving the environment</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/zULvs2bhyrFz_pf-OvqvigWXlng=/167x0:2834x2000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70978246/risk.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Amanda Northrop/Vox
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</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Biodiversity loss could flatten corporate profits. Investors are scrambling to figure out which firms hold the most risk.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Qtgjd5">
Here’s a big number: $44 trillion.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wQiqSl">
That’s how much of the world’s <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD">total economic output</a> is dependent on animals and ecosystems, <a href="https://www.weforum.org/press/2020/01/half-of-world-s-gdp-moderately-or-highly-dependent-on-nature-says-new-report/">according to</a> the World Economic Forum. Insects pollinate commercial crops, coral reefs <a href="https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth/23046997/coral-reefs-climate-change-hurricanes">protect coastal buildings</a>, wetlands purify water, and all of those services — and more — help fuel economic growth.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mCNx68">
If the economy is embedded in nature, then the global <a href="https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth">decline of wildlife and ecosystems</a> is a risk for companies and investors alike. If insects vanish from farmland, say, farmers might have to pay to import pollinators or produce less, which hurts their bottom lines. That’s one reason why WEF ranks “biodiversity loss” as the <a href="https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_Global_Risks_Report_2022.pdf">third most severe risk</a> to the economy over the next decade, after failure to act on climate change and extreme weather.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7m3sJ3">
“The risk of continued biodiversity loss is profound,” <a href="https://am.jpmorgan.com/us/en/asset-management/adv/bios/sarah-kapnick/">Sarah Kapnick</a>, a scientist and strategist at the banking giant JP Morgan, <a href="https://am.jpmorgan.com/us/en/asset-management/adv/insights/portfolio-insights/sustainable-investing/the-economic-importance-of-biodiversity/">wrote</a> in May, “not just for nature but for financial stability.”
</p>
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In the last few years, the financial industry has been wising up to these risks. Along with banks and insurers, large investors have started pushing companies to disclose risks linked to the natural environment — known as <a href="https://www.cdp.net/en/articles/investor/the-financial-sector-needs-to-report-on-nature-risks-and-heres-why">nature-related risks</a> — that might make their investments lose value over time. And in March, a group called the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures <a href="https://tnfd.global/news/tnfd-releases-first-beta-framework/">released a draft</a> of a framework it hopes will be the gold standard for reporting and managing environmental risks. (There’s already<strong> </strong>a <a href="https://www.fsb-tcfd.org/">similar standard</a> for reporting on risks tied to climate change.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="i89JIx">
This movement around risk disclosure may sound obscure, but it has big potential to transform the global economy. Disclosing nature-related risks could redirect large flows of money from companies that rely on — and often harm — nature to those with a much smaller footprint, said Lucian Peppelenbos, a climate strategist at the investment firm Robeco. That’s the theory, anyway.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Z2Hmjf">
But today, efforts to quantify what companies have to lose as the environment deteriorates are a mess. There are dozens of metrics, tools, and frameworks, each with their own forgettable acronym. Tools to measure how companies impact nature are confusing, too — as are the variety of different standards for disclosing risk, even to experts in sustainable finance.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lxkAnB">
That’s not to say that this frontier of sustainable investing won’t be groundbreaking, or at least better than what’s already out there. But there’s a lot of work to be done, both around unifying reporting standards and measuring risk. It starts with answering a seemingly basic question: How do ecosystems work?
</p>
<h3 id="6uUdG0">
The many economic<strong> </strong>risks tied to the natural world, and its decline
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lL14VT">
Factoring environmental risk into investment decisions sounds smart, but actually doing it is a bit of a doozy — not least because there are several different kinds of risk and each one is tough to measure.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bqLzFu">
First, consider something called physical risk. It describes how dependent a given company and its investors are on services provided by nature, such as clean water and pollinators. A company that sells chocolate, for example, would almost certainly rely on wild insects for pollination in its supply chain (cacao plants are wholly dependent on them). It would also depend on fresh water and tools to manage pests — those are all physical risks, when you consider that ecosystems are faltering.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="F9334V">
This isn’t just a hypothetical scenario. <a href="https://www.unep-wcmc.org/en/news/supply-chains-at-risk-as-wild-pollinators-decline--finds-new-cambridge-report">Three-quarters</a> of the world’s food crops (and a third of global crop production) depend to some extent on pollination from birds, bees, and many other insects and small animals. And some insect populations have fallen by<strong> </strong><a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2023989118">more than 70 percent</a> in just a few decades. In fact, there are farmers in California who already <a href="https://andthewest.stanford.edu/2018/bees-for-hire-california-almonds-become-migratory-colonies-biggest-task/">pay to import bees</a> because there aren’t enough local pollinators. That could eat into investor returns.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/5wE1n_UPbtd1vYvtA79lLtZYHzg=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23624458/global_living_planet_index.png"/> <cite><a class="ql-link" href="https://ourworldindata.org/living-planet-index" target="_blank">Our World in Data</a>/World Wildlife Fund/Zoological Society of London</cite>
<figcaption>
Populations of birds, mammals, fish, reptiles, and amphibians have declined by an average of 68 percent between 1970 and 2016.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DLRREu">
There are also risks rooted in the impacts that companies have on nature — essentially, the opposite of what we’ve been talking about. Most obviously, harming the environment can damage a corporation’s reputation, which is closely tied to its share price. Investors and banks may be less likely to back a company that sells palm oil from clearcut land, for example, for fear the public might find out and send the company’s stock tumbling.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OQXs1S">
There’s also a related concern called transition risk — the potential hit a company and its investors might take due to a future change in policy or consumer behavior. Consider a business that mines lithium in a region <a href="https://www.vox.com/22965660/electric-vehicles-lithium-ion-batteries-flamingos">with endangered flamingos</a>. If, in a few months time, the government decides to protect that particular area, the company might be forced to move its operations elsewhere and it would likely lose money as a result.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SdmWkj">
These risks are all hard to calculate. That’s partly because cultural and political sentiments are constantly in flux, and because scientists still don’t understand precisely how ecosystems work, or how to predict when they’ll change.
</p>
<h3 id="QYsrCq">
Tools to measure and report risks abound. Do they work?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="j4g2gT">
Financial institutions that earnestly want to calculate biodiversity risks have a smorgasbord of acronym-laden options to choose from. There are tools, for example, that measure physical risks, such as <a href="https://encore.naturalcapital.finance/en">ENCORE</a> (Exploring Natural Capital Opportunities, Risks, and Exposure), or that assess<strong> </strong>a<strong> </strong>company’s impact on nature, including <a href="https://www.icebergdatalab.com/documents/CBF_client_methodological_guide_April_22.pdf">CBF</a> (Corporate Biodiversity Footprint) and <a href="https://www.government.nl/binaries/government/documenten/reports/2021/07/29/biodiversity-footprint-for-financial-institutions/Biodiversity+Footprint+for+Financial+Institutions+-+exploring+biodiversity+assessment.pdf">BFFI</a> (Biodiversity Footprint for Financial Institutions). Others provide companies with a framework — and vocabulary — for reporting on risks and impacts, such as <a href="https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/media/1011/gri-304-biodiversity-2016.pdf">GRI</a> (Global Reporting Initiative), <a href="https://sciencebasedtargets.org/">SBT</a> (Science Based Targets), and the recently launched TNFD (Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosure).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3kinid">
It can be hard to tell one from another, but in general these tools are designed to measure nature-related risks or provide a way to disclose them. They fall under the loosely defined category of <a href="https://legal.thomsonreuters.com/en/insights/articles/risk-management-of-esg-factors">ESG</a>, a set of criteria to screen investments for risks related to the <em>environment</em>, <em>social</em> issues, or corporate <em>governance (</em>hence the acronym ESG), but they focus more narrowly on nature. And while ESG is relevant to retail investors, such as employees selecting funds for a retirement account, these risk tools are more for corporations, institutional investors, and other financial-industry heavyweights. (<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2021-what-is-esg-investing-msci-ratings-focus-on-corporate-bottom-line/?utm_source=pocket_mylist">Unlike many ESG funds</a>, they also factor in how companies are impacting the environment, not just how the environment impacts companies.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="82N7OT">
If you can’t remember all the acronyms, at least remember this: These tools are far from perfect, largely for the simple reason that ecosystems are complicated, said Partha Dasgupta, an economist at Cambridge University, who wrote a well-known <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/final-report-the-economics-of-biodiversity-the-dasgupta-review">report</a> in 2021 on the economics of biodiversity. We still don’t understand, for example, why exactly insect pollinators are declining or how different species contribute to ecosystem services that companies use.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="imb3bh">
Think about how the interworkings of an ecosystem compare to the technology of a car, Dasgupta said. Car manufacturers want engineers who understand how to turn raw materials into an automobile: “They’ll be able to tell you all the steps you need to take and the risks involved,” he said, from shaping metal sheets to painting the exterior. “They keep spare parts because if something breaks down they can immediately replace it. They understand the technology. The thing is, we don’t understand the technology of nature.”
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/a2b4whmUIO04jPmUP_wrZ8-aPq8=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23624430/GettyImages_474933373.jpg"/> <cite>Bay Ismoyo/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Trees cleared in a peatland on the island of Borneo in Indonesia, for a palm oil plantation, in February 2014.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Zk8ZWs">
Measuring a company’s impact on nature, and the related financial risks, isn’t much easier. It’s not like climate change, where you can stack up companies by their annual carbon emissions. “Within climate change, there’s a set accounting methodology for coming up with your greenhouse gas emissions,” said Julie Nash, the senior program director for foods and forests at the nonprofit Ceres. “It’s much harder with biodiversity to have that one single metric.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UVunu8">
Indeed, biodiversity is a broad term that includes all ecosystems, on land and at sea, from boreal forests to coral reefs. Each has its own assemblage of organisms. And each organism has a different function. So, when you measure biodiversity — as a means to understand financial risk — what exactly do you measure, and how? The number of species in a given area? What specific roles they play in their environment? Scientists have debated these questions for years.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/mjPiJS4jT0EBAj8M-d4naN02CRo=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23624485/GettyImages_1239961941.jpg"/> <cite>Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
A sparkling violetear hummingbird drinks nectar from a red hot poker flower in Arequipa, Peru.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZnmMF6">
Even more foundational questions lack answers, such as how many species there are on Earth. Without that information, we don’t know exactly what there is to lose.
</p>
<h3 id="rPm4l6">
All this work will be tedious. But it could help make a greener economy
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FKKLWe">
So, where does that leave us? Financial institutions have a lot of work on their plates — they need to come up with better metrics and consolidate the myriad reporting tools already out there. But experts are optimistic.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6avOK0">
“I think it’s going to be a mess for a while,” Aled Jones, a professor of sustainable finance at Anglia Ruskin University, told Vox. “But we will make progress on disclosure.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QsNjWm">
It’s worth remembering that just 10 years back, hardly anyone was comparing companies by their greenhouse gas footprints, but now that information is readily available.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iJaatH">
“Let’s not forget that 10 to 15 years ago no one in business was talking about scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions,” said Tony Goldner, the executive director of TNFD, referring to three ways to categorize climate emissions from companies (writer David Roberts does a good job at explaining scope emissions <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2020/7/30/21336777/microsoft-climate-change-goals-negative-emissions-technologies">here</a>). “There’s a whole process the market has gone through to get off the curb on climate, which we’re now going to need to do on nature.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lk9p3u">
To that end, Dasgupta and others see a rising demand for the types of thinkers who can help solve risk assessment problems. “Treasuries and ministries and companies have to hire ecologists,” Dasgupta said, adding that they’d be unwise not to. “It’d be like a car manufacturer who doesn’t have any engineers. It’s absurd.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kqGXRP">
While all this risk calculation seems very tedious — and to some it may seem ludicrous to put ecosystems and wildlife in financial terms at all — it’s important to come back to the main goal: “Ultimately, we aim to shift the flow of capital,” Goldner said, to companies that are less harmful to the environment.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="j7jMyv">
And it’s fun to think about what that might actually look like. Imagine that the US government requires that all public companies disclose their environmental risks. So, our hypothetical chocolate company would have to indicate how, for example, changes to wild insect populations would affect its products, and how its products would, in turn, impact insects.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="L7gJrj">
Investors and lenders might then expect a larger return, in line with the added risk they’re taking on. As the company faces higher costs of capital, they may respond in ways that <em>reduce</em> nature-related risks to attract investment, such as switching to less harmful pesticides. If drought is also a problem for the company, perhaps it’ll lobby for climate action to protect its own assets.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="K1e54A">
Okay, so maybe there’s a bit of wishful thinking in this scenario — it’s not easy to reform the economy, and just disclosing risks doesn’t mean companies or investors will do anything differently. But efforts like TNFD’s are a good place to start. And if nothing else, they’ll help us learn more about the world we live in, and how seemingly distant ecosystems and animals are holding up a large chunk of the world’s economy. For now.
</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>ICC rankings | Ishan Kishan enters top-10, jumps 68 spots to be placed seventh</strong> - Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Yuzvendra Chahal also made gains</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>Former Indian captain Shantha Rangaswamy lauds Jay Shah after BCCI increases pension of former players</strong> - Shantha Rangaswamy lauded Jay Shah for increasing the pension of former Test and first-class players along with retired umpires</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>Daily Quiz | On young chess champions</strong> - The 44th Chess Olympiad will take place next month in Tamil Nadu. How well do you know your chess champions?</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>It would be a bit foolish to change our batting approach after just one loss: Bavuma</strong> - The Proteas had dominated the spinners in the first two matches but the duo of Yuzvendra Chahal (3/20) and Axar Patel (1/28) produced a scintillating show</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>Maxwell leads Australia to victory over Sri Lanka in 1st ODI</strong> - Australia needed 12 runs off the last two overs in a revised target and Maxwell ensured his team secured the win with nine balls to spare</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>ASI help sought to ascertain antiquity of seized idol: ASP</strong> -</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>Third edition of Loka Kerala Sabha begins on Thursday</strong> - Sessions on Friday and Saturday at Kerala Legislative Assembly</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>75 transformed urban spaces to be models for accessibility</strong> - National Institute of Urban Affairs’ compendium provides examples of fully implemented guidelines</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>Plea in SC to ascertain feasibility of enacting stringent population control law</strong> - The plea said there is a need to control the population explosion to secure the basic rights of the citizens</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>Prayagraj police issue posters of 59 people allegedly involved in June 10 violence</strong> - The violence broke out in Prayagraj after the Friday prayers against controversial remarks against Prophet Mohammad by now-removed BJP functionaries</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>EU takes new legal action against UK over post-Brexit deal changes</strong> - Brussels says altering the Northern Ireland Protocol breaks international law, but the UK disputes this.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Dutch idea to give jobs to French youths backfires</strong> - Karien van Gennip tried to address shortages in the Dutch labour market but she quickly backtracked.</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>Hot coal walk leaves 25 injured in Switzerland</strong> - The group suffered burns after walking over a bed of coals as part of a team building exercise.</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>Heineken says Father’s Day beer contest is a scam</strong> - A message circulating on WhatsApp offering the chance to win beer is a phishing scam, Heineken says.</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>Swiss airspace open again after computer crash</strong> - Flights in and out of Switzerland were halted because of an IT fault at air traffic control.</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Botched and silent patches from Microsoft put customers at risk, critics say</strong> - Case in point: It took five months and three patches to fix a critical Azure threat. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1860900">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>X-ray imaging reveals why this 17th century painted yellow rose lost its luster</strong> - Researchers combined chemical, optical imaging to determine how degradation occurred. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1859787">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Driving McLaren’s new plug-in hybrid supercar, the 2023 Artura</strong> - It has a decent electric mode and a better interior than any McLaren to date. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1860783">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Monkeypox outbreak spurs WHO to consider declaring international emergency</strong> - WHO will also rename the disease, because the current name is discriminatory. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1860819">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Bad news for cable: A major sports league will stream exclusively on Apple TV</strong> - Streaming services continue to dig a grave for traditional cable. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1860770">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
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<li><strong>A girl asks her boyfriend to come over Friday night and have dinner with her parents.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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Since this is such a big event, the girl announces to her boyfriend that after dinner, she would like to go out and make love for the first time.
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The boy is ecstatic, but he has never had sex before, so he takes a trip to the pharmacist to get some condoms. The pharmacist helps the boy for about an hour. He tells the boy everything there is to know about condoms and sex.
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That night, the boy shows up at the girl’s parents house and meets his girlfriend at the door. “Oh, I’m so excited for you to meet my parents, come on in!”
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The boy goes inside and is taken to the dinner table where the girl’s parents are seated. The boy quickly offers to say grace and bows his head.
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A minute passes, and the boy is still deep in prayer, with his head down.
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10 minutes pass, and still no movement from the boy.
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Finally, after 20 minutes with his head down, the girlfriend leans over and whispers to the boyfriend, “I had no idea you were this religious.”
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The boy turns, and whispers back, “I had no idea your father was a pharmacist.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Remarkable-Youth-504"> /u/Remarkable-Youth-504 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/vcjje2/a_girl_asks_her_boyfriend_to_come_over_friday/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/vcjje2/a_girl_asks_her_boyfriend_to_come_over_friday/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>The Oklahoma D.O.T found over 200 dead crows on highways recently.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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There was concern that they may have died from Avian Flu. A Pathologist examined the remains of all the crows, and, to everyone’s relief, confirmed the problem was NOT Avian Flu.
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The cause of death appeared to be from vehicular impacts. However, during analysis it was noted that varying colours of paints appeared on the bird’s beaks and claws. By analysing these paint residues it was found that 98% of the crows had been killed by impact with motorbikes, while only 2% were killed by cars.
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The Agency then hired an Ornithological Behaviourist to determine if there was a cause for the disproportionate percentages of motorbike kills versus car kills.
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The Ornithological Behaviourist quickly concluded that when crows eat road kill, they always have a look-out crow to warn of danger.
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They discovered that while all the lookout crows could shout “Cah”, not a single one could shout “bike”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Swiggy1957"> /u/Swiggy1957 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/vcl8yl/the_oklahoma_dot_found_over_200_dead_crows_on/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/vcl8yl/the_oklahoma_dot_found_over_200_dead_crows_on/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>How do you get 100 Canadians out of a swimming pool in a hurry?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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Say: “Would everyone please get out of the swimming pool.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/epiphanius"> /u/epiphanius </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/vccmlf/how_do_you_get_100_canadians_out_of_a_swimming/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/vccmlf/how_do_you_get_100_canadians_out_of_a_swimming/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>How do you offend an American?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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Don’t worry, they’ll find something to be offended about.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/LowmanL"> /u/LowmanL </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/vc4xux/how_do_you_offend_an_american/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/vc4xux/how_do_you_offend_an_american/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>I’m American, and I’m sick of hearing that America is the stupidest country in the world.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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Personally, I think Europe is the stupidest country in the world…
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/watwat-656"> /u/watwat-656 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/vc93wl/im_american_and_im_sick_of_hearing_that_america/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/vc93wl/im_american_and_im_sick_of_hearing_that_america/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
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