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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>Prosocial motivation for vaccination</strong> -
<div>
Both private and public benefits result from vaccination for transmissible diseases, such as seasonal influenza, measles, and COVID-19. To help inform vaccination efforts for such diseases, we ask whether social preferences—concerns for the well-being of other people—influence one’s decision regarding vaccination. We measure these social preferences for 549 online subjects: We give each subject $4 to play a public-good game and make contributions to public welfare. To the extent that one gets vaccinated out of concern for the health of others, contribution in this game is analogous to an individual’s decision to obtain vaccination. We proxy vaccine demand with individuals’ delay to initially vaccinate for COVID-19. We collect COVID-19 vaccination history separately to avoid experimenter-demand effects. We find a strong result: Contribution in the public-good game is associated with greater demand to voluntarily receive a first dose, and thus also to vaccinate earlier. Compared to a subject who contributes nothing, one who contributes the maximum ($4) is 48% more likely to obtain a first dose voluntarily in the four-month period that we study (April through August 2021). People who are more pro-social are indeed more likely to take a voluntary COVID-19 vaccination. We thus recommend further research on the use of pro-social preferences to help motivate individuals to vaccinate for transmissible diseases, such as the flu and HPV.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/emj6v/" target="_blank">Prosocial motivation for vaccination</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Positive Biases and Psychological Functioning During the COVID-19 Pandemic</strong> -
<div>
Many individuals have experienced a multitude of chronic stressors and diminished psychological functioning during COVID-19. The current study examined whether cognitive biases towards positive social media or positive autobiographical memories was related to increases in psychological functioning during COVID-19. Participants were 1071 adults (Mage=46.31; 58% female) recruited from CloudResearch/Turk Prime in the spring and summer of 2020. Participants reported on their social media consumption and autobiographical recall, positive and negative affect, and dysphoria symptoms. Results indicated that positively biased social media consumption was related to higher levels of positive affect, and positively biased autobiographical recall was related to lower levels of negative affect and dysphoria symptoms. Relations between positively biased social media consumption and negative affect and dysphoria symptoms differed by racial group; positively biased social media consumption was related to higher levels of negative affect for Black/African American individuals and lower levels of negative affect for Asian American/Pacific Islanders, and to lower levels of dysphoria symptoms for White individuals and Asian American/Pacific Islander individuals. The findings point to potential psychological benefits of positive biases during chronic stressors with some variation across racial groups.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/fjnh8/" target="_blank">Positive Biases and Psychological Functioning During the COVID-19 Pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Spirituality is associated with Covid-19 vaccination scepticism</strong> -
<div>
Vaccine scepticism poses a significant global health risk, which has again become clear during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Previous research has identified spirituality as an important contributor to general vaccine scepticism. In the present manuscript, we assessed whether spirituality similarly contributes to scepticism towards Covid-19 vaccines, including hesitancy in deciding to be vaccinated and vaccine uptake. We conducted two studies online in the UK (N = 585) in late 2020/early 2021. As expected, individuals who strongly identified as spiritual were more sceptical about Covid-19 vaccines. This association was explained by low faith in science, but not by conspiracy beliefs. Importantly, among the vaccinated participants, those who were more spiritual hesitated more in deciding to get a Covid-19 vaccine. Using structural equation modelling (SEM), we further found that spirituality directly predicted lower likelihood of being vaccinated against Covid-19 (Study 3, N = 456). We also identified low science literacy as an additional predictor of Covid-19 scepticism, but not actual vaccine uptake. To conclude, spiritual beliefs are an important factor to consider when aiming to increase understanding of vaccine-related science scepticism and vaccination rejection.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/axjnr/" target="_blank">Spirituality is associated with Covid-19 vaccination scepticism</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Correlation of post-vaccination fever with specific antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 BNT162b2 booster and no significant influence of antipyretic medication</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background: A SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine booster elicits sufficient antibody responses that protect against COVID-19, whereas adverse reactions such as fever have been commonly reported. Associations between adverse reactions and antibody responses have not been fully characterized, nor has the influence of antipyretic use. Methods: This is a prospective observational cohort study in Japan, following our prior investigation of BNT162b2 two-dose primary series. Spike-specific IgG titers were measured for SARS-CoV-2-naive hospital healthcare workers who received a BNT162b2 booster. The severity of solicited adverse reactions, including the highest body temperature, and self-medicated antipyretics were reported daily for seven days following vaccination through a web-based self-reporting diary. Results: The data of 281 healthcare workers were available. Multivariate analysis extracted fever after the booster dose (beta=0.305, p&lt;0.001) as being significantly correlated with the specific IgG titers. The analysis of 164 participants with data from the primary series showed that fever after the second dose was associated with the emergence of fever after the booster dose (relative risk: 3.97 [95% confidence interval: 2.48-6.35]); however, the IgG titers after the booster dose were not affected by fever after the second dose. There were no significant differences in the IgG titers by the use, type, or dosage of antipyretic medication. Conclusions: These results suggest an independent correlation between mRNA vaccine-induced specific IgG levels and post-booster vaccination fever, without any significant influence of fever after the primary series. Antipyretic medications for adverse reactions would not interfere with the elevation of specific IgG titers.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.25.22277569v1" target="_blank">Correlation of post-vaccination fever with specific antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 BNT162b2 booster and no significant influence of antipyretic medication</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Risk of BA.5 infection in individuals exposed to prior SARS-CoV-2 variants</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The SARS-CoV-2 omicron BA.5 subvariant is progressively displacing earlier subvariants, BA.1 and BA.2, in many countries. One possible explanation is the ability of BA.5 to evade immune responses elicited by prior BA.1 and BA.2 infections. The impact of BA.1 infection on the risk of reinfection with BA.5 is a critical issue because adapted vaccines under current clinical development are based on BA.1. We used the national Portuguese COVID-19 registry to analyze the risk of BA.5 infection in individuals without a documented infection or previously infected during periods of distinct variants9 predominance (Wuhan-Hu-1, alpha, delta, BA.1/BA.2). National predominance periods were established according to the national SARS-CoV-2 genetic surveillance data (when one variant represented &gt;90% of the sample isolates). We found that prior SARS-CoV-2 infection reduced the risk for BA.5 infection. The protection effectiveness, related to the uninfected group, for a first infection with Wuhan-Hu-1 was 52.9% (95% CI, 51.9 - 53.9%), for Alpha 54.9% (51.2 - 58.3%), for Delta 62.3% (61.4 - 63.3%), and for BA.1/BA.2 80.0% (79.7 - 80.2%). The results ought to be interpreted in the context of breakthrough infections within a population with a very high vaccine coverage (&gt;98% of the study population completed the primary vaccination series). In conclusion, infection with BA.1/BA.2 reduces the risk for breakthrough infections with BA.5 in a highly vaccinated population. This finding is critical to appraise the current epidemiological situation and the development of adapted vaccines.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.27.22277602v1" target="_blank">Risk of BA.5 infection in individuals exposed to prior SARS-CoV-2 variants</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Taxonium: a web-based tool for exploring large phylogenetic trees</strong> -
<div>
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a step change in the scale of sequencing data, with more genomes of SARS-CoV-2 having been sequenced than any other organism on earth. Previous web-based tools for phylogenetic exploration were not able to directly scale to this size of tree. We have developed Taxonium, a new tool that uses WebGL to allow the exploration of trees with tens of millions of nodes. Taxonium allows visualisation of mutation-annotated trees, where the genotypes at each internal node are indicated, and also links each node to associated metadata. An optional server-side backend permits rapid loading for widely used datasets, while a client-only mode allows the exploration of niche or sensitive data. Taxonium is an open-source tool which can be applied to any large tree. We provide an application for exploring a public tree of more than five million SARS-CoV-2 sequences at http://cov2tree.org, the broader Taxonium tool at http://taxonium.org, and source code at https://github.com/theosanderson/taxonium.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.03.494608v2" target="_blank">Taxonium: a web-based tool for exploring large phylogenetic trees</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Correlates of protection for booster doses of the BNT162b2 vaccine</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Variants of concern (VOC) of SARS-CoV2 and waning immunity pose a serious global problem. Overall, vaccination and prior infection appear to provide significant protection to the majority of individuals, but some remain susceptible to infection and severe disease. Rigorously identifying a broad spectrum of correlates of protection (COP) is necessary to identify these susceptible populations. The extent to which additional booster doses provide protection is also poorly understood. To address this need, we conducted a multicenter prospective study assessing the association between serological profiles and the risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection, comparing those vaccinated with three to four doses of Pfizer BNT162b2 vaccine. Of 608 healthy adults, 365 received three doses and 243 received four doses. During the first 90 days of followup, 239 (39%) were infected, of whom 165/365 (45%) received 3 doses and 74/243 (30%) four doses. We found that the fourth dose elicited a significant rise in antibody binding and neutralizing titers against multiple variants, and reduced the risk of symptomatic infection by 37% [95% I, 15% - 54%]. We identified several parameters based on IgG and IgA binding that were COPs . The strongest association with infection risk was reduced IgG levels to RBD mutants and IgA levels to VOCs, which was a COP in the three-dose group (HR=6.34, p=0.008) and in the four-dose group (HR=8.14, p=0.018). A combination of two commercially available ELISA assays were also associated with protection in both groups (HR = 1.84, p = 0.002; HR = 2.01, p = 0.025, respectively). Most importantly, we identified a subset of individuals with low antibody levels after three doses of vaccine that responded with a significant boost in neutralizing antibody titers after a fourth dose, but were still at significantly increased susceptibility to infection when compared to those who had pre-existing high levels of neutralizing antibodies. Thus, we identify a highly susceptible population that remains susceptible despite apparent responsiveness to vaccines. Further, we develop several specific and sensitive COPs that show dramatic effect sizes and may be utilized to identify individuals most at risk from future exposures.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.16.22277626v2" target="_blank">Correlates of protection for booster doses of the BNT162b2 vaccine</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Reasons underlying the intention to vaccinate children aged 5-11 against COVID-19: A cross-sectional study of parents in Israel, November 2021</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background Vaccination is a key tool to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In Israel, COVID-19 vaccines became available to adults in December 2020 and to 5 to 11 year old children in November 2021. Ahead of the vaccine roll-out in children, we aimed to determine whether parents intended to vaccinate their children and describe reasons for their intentions. Methods We recruited parents on social media and collected information on parental socio-demographic characteristics, COVID-19 vaccine history, intention to vaccinate their children against COVID-19, and reasons for parental decisions, using an anonymous online survey. We identified associations between parental characteristics and intention to vaccinate children using a logistic regression model and described reasons for intentions to vaccinate or not using proportions together with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results 1837 parents participated. Parental non-vaccination and having experienced major vaccination side effects were strongly associated with non-intention to vaccinate their children (OR 0.09 and 0.18 respectively, p&lt;0.001). Compared with others, parents who were younger, lived in the socioeconomically deprived periphery, and belonged to the Arab population had lower intentions to vaccinate their children. Commonly stated reasons for non-intention to vaccinate included vaccine safety and efficacy (53%, 95%CI 50-56) and the belief that COVID-19 was a mild disease (73%, 95%CI 73-79). The most frequently mentioned motives for intending to vaccine children was returning to normal social and educational life (89%, 95%CI 87-91). Conclusion Parental socio-demographic background and their own vaccination experience was associated with intention to vaccinate their children aged 5 to 11. Intention to vaccinate was mainly for social and economic reasons rather than health, whereas non-intention to vaccinate mainly stemmed from health concerns. Understanding rationales for COVID-19 vaccine rejection or acceptance, as well as parental demographic data, can pave the way for intentional educational campaigns to encourage not only vaccination against COVID-19, but also regular childhood vaccine programming.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.03.22271793v3" target="_blank">Reasons underlying the intention to vaccinate children aged 5-11 against COVID-19: A cross-sectional study of parents in Israel, November 2021</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>A Mesoscale Agent Based Modeling Framework For Flow-mediated Infection Transmission In Indoor Occupied Spaces</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, and its associated public health and socioeconomic burden, has reaffirmed the necessity for a comprehensive understanding of flow-mediated infection transmission in occupied indoor spaces. This is an inherently multiscale problem, and suitable investigation approaches that can enable evidence-based decision-making for infection control strategies, interventions, and policies; will need to account for flow physics, and occupant behavior. Here, we present a mesoscale infection transmission model for human occupied indoor spaces, by integrating an agent-based human interaction model with a flow physics model for respiratory droplet dynamics and transport. We outline the mathematical and algorithmic details of the modeling framework, and demonstrate its validity using two simple simulation scenarios that verify each of the major sub-models. We then present a detailed case-study of infection transmission in a model indoor space with 60 human occupants; using a systematic set of simulations representing various flow scenarios. Data from the simulations illustrate the utility and efficacy of the devised mesoscale model in resolving flow-mediated infection transmission; and elucidate key trends in infection transmission dynamics amongst the human occupants.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.20.22275409v2" target="_blank">A Mesoscale Agent Based Modeling Framework For Flow-mediated Infection Transmission In Indoor Occupied Spaces</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Antibody Persistence and Safety through 6 Months after Heterologous Orally Aerosolised Ad5-nCoV in individuals primed with two-dose CoronaVac previously</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background: Heterologous orally administered adenovirus type-5 vector-based COVID-19 vaccine (Ad5-nCoV) in individuals who were primed with two-dose CoronaVac (an inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, by Sinovac) previously, has been reported to be safe and highly immunogenic within 28 days post-boosting. However, antibody persistence and safety up to 6 months of this regimen are not been reported yet. Methods: This is a randomized, open label, single-center trial on safety and immunogenicity of heterologous boost immunization with an orally administered aerosolised Ad5-nCoV vs. homologous boost immunization with CoronaVac after two-dose priming with CoronaVac in Chinese adults aged 18 years and older (NCT05043259). We followed the participants in this trial, including 140 in the low-dose aerosolised Ad5-nCoV group, 139 in the high-dose aerosolised Ad5-nCoV group, and 140 in the CoronaVac group for 6 months. Neutralising antibodies (NAbs) against live wild-type SARS-CoV-2 virus and omicron variant, and receptor-binding domain (RBD)-specific IgG antibodies were detected in serum samples collected at 28 days, 3 months, and 6 months after the booster dose. Serious adverse events (SAEs) were documented till month 6. Results: The low-dose and high-dose heterologous boost immunisation groups had NAb GMTs against live wild-type SARS-CoV-2 of 1937.3 [95% CI 1466.9, 2558.4] and 1350.8 [95% CI 952.6, 1915.3], which were 26.4 folds and 18.4 folds higher than that the CoronaVac group did (73.5 [95%CI 52.3, 103.3]) at 28 days. The low-dose and high-dose heterologous boost immunisation groups had NAb GMTs against live wild-type SARS-CoV-2 of 530.1 (95% CI 412.5, 681.1) and 457.6 (95%CI 349.4, 599.2), which were 26.0 folds and 22.4 folds higher than that the CoronaVac group did (20.4 [95%CI 14.3, 29.1]) at 3 months, respectively. At 6 months, the low-dose and high-dose heterologous booster groups had NAb GMTs against live wild-type SARS-CoV-2 of 312.9 (95%CI 237.7, 411.8) and 251.1 (95%CI 178.2, 354.0), which were 30.1 folds and 24.1 folds higher than the CoronaVac group did (10.4 [95%CI 7.8, 14.0]), respectively. Additionally, the low-dose and high-dose heterologous booster groups had NAb GMTs against live omicron variant of 52.0 (95%CI 37.2, 72.6) and 23.1 (95%CI 15.7, 33.9) at 28 days, 27.9 (95% CI 18.8, 41.3) and 23.3 (95%CI 16.2, 33.3) at 3 months, 16.0 (95%CI 10.9, 23.5) and 12.0 (95%CI 8.5, 16.8) at 6 months, respectively. However, nearly all participants had no detectable NAbs for omicron variant in the CoronaVac group at either 28 days, 3 months, or 6 months. No vaccine-related SAEs were observed. Conclusions: These data suggested that heterologous aerosolised Ad5-nCoV following two-dose CoronaVac priming was safe and persistently more immunogenic than three-dose CoronaVac, although immune responses waned over time.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.26.22278072v1" target="_blank">Antibody Persistence and Safety through 6 Months after Heterologous Orally Aerosolised Ad5-nCoV in individuals primed with two-dose CoronaVac previously</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Iterative computational design and crystallographic screening identifies potent inhibitors targeting the Nsp3 Macrodomain of SARS-CoV-2</strong> -
<div>
The nonstructural protein 3 (NSP3) of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) contains a conserved macrodomain enzyme (Mac1) that is critical for pathogenesis and lethality. While small molecule inhibitors of Mac1 have great therapeutic potential, at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic there were no well-validated inhibitors for this protein nor, indeed, the macrodomain enzyme family, making this target a pharmacological orphan. Here, we report the structure-based discovery and development of several different chemical scaffolds exhibiting low- to sub-micromolar affinity for Mac1 through iterations of computer-aided design, structural characterization by ultra-high resolution protein crystallography, and binding evaluation. Potent scaffolds were designed with in silico fragment linkage and by ultra-large library docking of over 450 million molecules. Both techniques leverage the computational exploration of tangible chemical space and are applicable to other pharmacological orphans. Overall, 160 ligands in 119 different scaffolds were discovered, and 152 Mac1-ligand complex crystal structures were determined, typically to 1 [A] resolution or better. Our analyses discovered selective and cell-permeable molecules, unexpected ligand-mediated protein dynamics within the active site, and key inhibitor motifs that will template future drug development against Mac1.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.27.497816v2" target="_blank">Iterative computational design and crystallographic screening identifies potent inhibitors targeting the Nsp3 Macrodomain of SARS-CoV-2</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Functional characterization of the RNA interference pathway in A. fumigatus reveals its potential for antifungal therapy</strong> -
<div>
RNA-based medicines are an emerging class of drugs that are changing the way we treat infectious diseases. The versatility of this class is clearly on display in the rapid design and adaptation of the mRNA vaccines to SARS-CoV-2. Despite the success of these approaches against viruses, research into RNA-based therapeutics to treat human fungal pathogens, a major source of human morbidity and mortality, is lacking. Here, we provide an improved mechanistic description of the RNA interference pathway in Aspergillus fumigatus and assess this pathway as a potential target for RNA-based medicines. We describe the genetic variation in RNA interference-associated genes in a large collection of environmental and clinical genomes, reveal the proteins regulated by the RNA interference system using advanced proteomics analysis, and define the components essential for hairpin-induced silencing. We then exploit this pathway using a heterologously expressed hairpin RNA construct to silence the pabA gene of A. fumigatus to inhibit growth. The data presented here provide a foundation for a mechanistic description of novel RNA regulatory pathways in A. fumigatus and reaffirm the importance of improved fungal RNA delivery mechanisms for the future design of RNA-based therapeutics against this important human fungal pathogen.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.28.501871v1" target="_blank">Functional characterization of the RNA interference pathway in A. fumigatus reveals its potential for antifungal therapy</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Effect of Delta and Omicron mutations on the RBD-SD1 do-main of the Spike protein in SARS-CoV-2 and the Omicron mutations on RBD-ACE2 interface complex</strong> -
<div>
The receptor-binding domain (RBD) is the essential part in the Spike-protein (S-protein) of SARS-CoV-2 virus that directly binds to the human ACE2 receptor, making it a key target for many vaccines and therapies. Therefore, any mutations at this domain could affect the efficacy of these treatments as well as the viral-cell entry mechanism. We introduce ab initio DFT-based computa-tional study that mainly focuses on two parts: (1) Mutations effects of both Delta and Omicron variants in the RBD-SD1 domain. (2) Impact of Omicron RBD mutations on the structure and properties of the RBD-ACE2 interface system. The in-depth analysis is based on the novel concept of amino acid-amino acid bond pair units (AABPU) that reveal the differences between the Delta and/or Omicron mutations and its corresponding wild-type strain in terms of the role played by non-local amino acid interactions, their 3D shapes and sizes, as well as contribution to hydrogen bonding and partial charge distributions. Our results also show that the interaction of Omicron RBD with ACE2 significantly increased its bonding between amino acids at the interface providing information on the implications of penetration of S-protein into ACE2, and thus offering a possible explanation for its high infectivity. Our findings enable us to present in more conspicuous atomic level detail the effect of specific mutations that may help in predicting and/or mitigating the next variant of concern.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.28.501901v1" target="_blank">Effect of Delta and Omicron mutations on the RBD-SD1 do-main of the Spike protein in SARS-CoV-2 and the Omicron mutations on RBD-ACE2 interface complex</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Molecular basis for antiviral activity of pediatric neutralizing antibodies targeting SARS-CoV-2 Spike receptor binding domain</strong> -
<div>
Neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) hold great promise for clinical interventions against SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs). Understanding NAb epitope-dependent antiviral mechanisms is crucial for developing vaccines and therapeutics against VOCs. Here we characterized two potent NAbs, EH3 and EH8, isolated from an unvaccinated pediatric patient with exceptional plasma neutralization activity. EH3 and EH8 cross-neutralize the early VOCs and mediate strong Fc-dependent effector activity in vitro. Structural analyses of EH3 and EH8 in complex with the receptor-binding domain (RBD) revealed the molecular determinants of the epitope-driven protection and VOC-evasion. While EH3 represents the prevalent IGHV3-53 NAb whose epitope substantially overlaps with the ACE2 binding site, EH8 recognizes a narrow epitope exposed in both RBD-up and RBD-down conformations. When tested in vivo, a single-dose prophylactic administration of EH3 fully protected stringent K18-hACE2 mice from lethal challenge with Delta VOC. Our study demonstrates that protective NAbs responses converge in pediatric and adult SARS-CoV-2 patients.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.27.501708v1" target="_blank">Molecular basis for antiviral activity of pediatric neutralizing antibodies targeting SARS-CoV-2 Spike receptor binding domain</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>P2G3 human monoclonal antibody neutralizes SARS-CoV-2 Omicron subvariants including BA.4 and BA.5 and Bebtelovimab escape mutants</strong> -
<div>
The rapid evolution of SARS-CoV-2 has led to a severe attrition of the pool of monoclonal antibodies still available for COVID-19 prophylaxis or treatment. Omicron subvariants notably escape most antibodies developed so far, with Bebtelovimab last amongst clinically approved therapeutic antibodies to display still good activity against all of them including the currently dominant BA.4/BA.5. We recently described P2G3, a broadly active SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibody, which targets a region of Spike partly overlapping with the site recognized by Bebtelovimab. Here, we reveal that P2G3 efficiently neutralizes SARS-CoV-2 omicron subvariants including BA.4/BA.5. We further demonstrate that P2G3 neutralizes Omicron BA.2 and BA.4 mutants escaping Bebtelovimab blockade, whereas the converse is not true.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.28.501852v1" target="_blank">P2G3 human monoclonal antibody neutralizes SARS-CoV-2 Omicron subvariants including BA.4 and BA.5 and Bebtelovimab escape mutants</a>
</div></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Puerto Rico COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake Study</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: Educational intervention<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of Puerto Rico;   National Institutes of Health (NIH);   National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Study to Learn About a New COVID-19 RNA Vaccine Candidate as a Booster Dose in COVID-19 Vaccine-Experienced Healthy Adults</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   SARS-CoV-2 Infection;   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: BNT162b5 Bivalent (WT/OMI BA.2);   Biological: BNT162b2 Bivalent (WT/OMI BA.1)<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   BioNTech SE;   Pfizer<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>Monitoring the Efficacy of a Probiotic Dietary Supplement SmartProbio C in Patients With Severe COVID-19 Infection</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Dietary Supplement: SmartProbio C;   Dietary Supplement: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Medi Pharma Vision;   Veterinary Research Institute;   Brno University Hospital<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Beta-glucans for Hospitalised Patients With COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: MC 3x3;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Concentra Educacion e Investigación Biomédica;   Wohlstand Pharmaceutical<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Randomised, Multi-centre, Double-blind, Phase 3 Study to Observe the Effectiveness, Safety and Tolerability of Molnupiravir Compared to Placebo Administered Orally to High-risk Adult Outpatients With Mild COVID-19 Receiving Local Standard of Care in South Africa</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: Molnupiravir 200 mg<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of Witwatersrand, South Africa;   Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>An Observer-blind, Cohort Randomized, Exploratory Phase 3 Study to Evaluate the Safety and Immunogenicity of Recombinant Covid-19 Vaccine, mRNA Covid-19 Vaccine and Recombinant SARS-CoV-2 Trimeric S-protein Subunit Vaccine as 4th Dose in Individuals Primed/ Boosted With Various Regimens</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: AstraZeneca/Fiocruz;   Biological: Pfizer/Wyeth;   Biological: Clover SCB-2019<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   D’Or Institute for Research and Education;   Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation;   University of Oxford<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>Safety and Immunogenicity of Recombinant COVID-19 Vaccine (Sf9 Cell) as a Booster</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   SARS-CoV-2 Infection<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Recombinant COVID-19 Vaccine (Sf9 Cell);   Biological: COVID-19 Vaccine (Vero Cell), Inactivated<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   WestVac Biopharma Co., Ltd.<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Safety and Immunogenicity of Recombinant COVID-19 Variant Vaccine (Sf9 Cell) as a Booster</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   SARS-CoV-2 Infection<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Recombinant COVID-19 variant Vaccine (Sf9 Cell);   Biological: COVID-19 Vaccine (Vero Cell), Inactivated;   Biological: mRNA COVID-19 vaccine (Moderna);   Biological: Viral Vector COVID-19 vaccine (AstraZeneca)<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   WestVac Biopharma 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>Effect of Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program on Post Hospitalization Severe COVID- 19 Patients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Post COVID-19 Condition<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Combination Product: respiratory exercises - incentive spirometer - walking<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Fayoum University Hospital<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Physiotherapy in Post COVID-19 Syndrome Patients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Post-COVID-19 Syndrome<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Other: Cognitive behavioral principles-based treatment program;   Other: Control intervention<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Universidad de Granada<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>Rehabilitation for People With Post COVID-19 Syndrome</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Post-COVID-19 Syndrome<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Other: Multidimensional intervention;   Other: Control intervention<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Universidad de Granada<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>Xanthohumol as an Adjuvant Therapy in Critically Ill COVID-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Respiratory Infection<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: Xanthohumol - prenylated chalcone extracted from female inflorescences of hop cones (Humulus lupus). Hop-RXn™, BioActive-Tech Ltd, Lublin, Poland; http://xanthohumol.com.pl/<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Medical University of Lublin<br/><b>Suspended</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Clinical Trial of Immuno-bridging Between Different Manufacture Scales of Recombinant COVID-19 Vaccine (Sf9 Cell)</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   SARS-CoV-2 Pneumonia<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: Recombinant COVID-19 vaccine (Sf9 cell)<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   WestVac Biopharma 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>A CHW Intervention to Identify and Decrease Barriers to COVID 19 Testing &amp; Vaccination</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Vaccine Hesitancy;   COVID-19 Testing;   Community Health Workers<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: Community Health Worker led curriculum<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science;   Los Angeles County Department of Public Health;   National Library of Medicine (NLM)<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>Study to Evaluate Safety and Immunogenicity of COVID-19 Vaccine in Children 6 Months to &lt; 12 Years</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Biological/Vaccine: SARS-CoV-2 rS/Matrix-M1 Adjuvant (Initial Vaccination Period);   Biological: SARS-CoV-2 rS/Matrix-M1 Adjuvant (Open Label Crossover Vaccination period);   Biological: SARS-CoV-2 rS/Matrix-M1 Adjuvant (Booster Vaccination);   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Novavax<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-pubmed">From PubMed</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Secondary Immunodeficiency in Rheumatology</strong> - Secondary Immunodeficiency in Rheumatology Abstract. For the treatment of autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases an immunosuppressive therapy with conventional, small molecule or biological disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDS) plays a key role. This may lead to secondary immunodeficiency with an increased risk for infections, which we discuss in the present article. The risk for reactivation of chronic hepatitis B increases particularly with glucocorticoid dosages of ≥ 20mg/d for…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>COVID-19 Pandemic and SMEs Performance Decline: The Mediating Role of Management Innovation and Organizational Resilience</strong> - It is a major practical problem to find out a pathway for firms to quickly recover from the performance decline in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and other sudden major crisis in the current academic circles. Based on event system theory and structural adjustment to regain fit model, this paper empirically explores the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on SMEs performance decline and discusses the management innovation response and organizational resilience mechanism of firms by virtue of…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>An Efficient Modern Strategy to Screen Drug Candidates Targeting RdRp of SARS-CoV-2 With Potentially High Selectivity and Specificity</strong> - Desired drug candidates should have both a high potential binding chance and high specificity. Recently, many drug screening strategies have been developed to screen compounds with high possible binding chances or high binding affinity. However, there is still no good solution to detect whether those selected compounds possess high specificity. Here, we developed a reverse DFCNN (Dense Fully Connected Neural Network) and a reverse docking protocol to check a given compound’s ability to bind…</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>Addition of Camellia sinensis extract to water to disinfect respiratory viruses accumulated over different surfaces</strong> - New precautions have become part of our daily life since COVID-19 pandemic such as wearing masks, maintaining distance and disinfecting products bought from markets before using them which is exhausting. We aimed to test the inhibitory effect of Camellia sinensis (black tea) water extracts on respiratory viruses and the inhibition of viruses accumulated over different surface types after being soaked in water supplemented with the extracts. Two water extraction methods (extract A: maceration at…</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>Robust antiviral activity of commonly prescribed antidepressants against emerging coronaviruses: in vitro and in silico drug repurposing studies</strong> - During the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, symptoms of depression are commonly documented among both symptomatic and asymptomatic quarantined COVID-19 patients. Despite that many of the FDA-approved drugs have been showed anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity in vitro and remarkable efficacy against COVID-19 in clinical trials, no pharmaceutical products have yet been declared to be fully effective for treating COVID-19. Antidepressants comprise five major drug classes for the treatment…</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>Optimization and evaluation of a live virus SARS-CoV-2 neutralization assay</strong> - Virus neutralization assays provide a means to quantitate functional antibody responses that block virus infection. These assays are instrumental in defining vaccine and therapeutic antibody potency, immune evasion by viral variants, and post-infection immunity. Here we describe the development, optimization and evaluation of a live virus microneutralization assay specific for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In this assay, SARS-CoV-2 clinical isolates are…</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>Urtica dioica Agglutinin: A plant protein candidate for inhibition of SARS-COV-2 receptor-binding domain for control of Covid19 Infection</strong> - Despite using effective drugs and vaccines for Covid 19, due to some limitations of current strategies and the high rate of coronavirus mutation, the development of medicines with effective inhibitory activity against this infection is essential. The SARS-CoV-2 enters the cell by attaching its receptor-binding domain (RBD) of Spike to angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE2). According to previous studies, the natural peptide Urtica dioica agglutinin (UDA) exhibited an antiviral effect on…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>DMV biogenesis during β-coronavirus infection requires autophagy proteins VMP1 and TMEM41B</strong> - Upon entering host cells, β-coronaviruses specifically induce generation of replication organelles (ROs) from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) through their nonstructural protein 3 (nsp3) and nsp4 for viral genome transcription and replication. The most predominant ROs are double-membrane vesicles (DMVs). The ER-resident proteins VMP1 and TMEM41B, which form a complex to regulate autophagosome and lipid droplet (LD) formation, were recently shown to be essential for β-coronavirus infection. Here…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>An Update on Promising Agents against COVID-19: Secondary Metabolites and Mechanistic Aspects</strong> - CONCLUSION: Prospective treatments targeted at the life cycle stages of the virus may eventuate from research endeavors, and it must not be discounted that therapy originally derived from plant secondary metabolite sources may potentially have a part to play.</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>Propofol directly binds to and inhibits TLR7</strong> - Sedatives/anesthetics are important medical tools to facilitate medical care and increase patients’ comfort. Increasingly, there is recognition that sedatives/anesthetics can modulate immune functions. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are major pattern recognition receptors involved in the recognition of microbial components. TLR7 recognizes single-strand RNA virus such as influenza and SARS-CoV2 viruses and initiates interferon (IFN) responses. IFN production triggered by TLR7 stimulation is a…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Equine Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Serum (ECIG) Binds to Mutated RBDs and N Proteins of Variants of Concern and Inhibits the Binding of RBDs to ACE-2 Receptor</strong> - The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the severe acute syndrome virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been around since November 2019. As of early June 2022, more than 527 million cases were diagnosed, with more than 6.0 million deaths due to this disease. Coronaviruses accumulate mutations and generate greater diversity through recombination when variants with different mutations infect the same host. Consequently, this virus is predisposed to constant and diverse mutations. The SARS-CoV-2 variants of…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Potent and Selective Covalent Inhibition of the Papain-like Protease from SARS-CoV-2</strong> - Direct-acting antivirals are needed to combat coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). The papain-like protease (PLpro) domain of Nsp3 from SARS-CoV-2 is essential for viral replication. In addition, PLpro dysregulates the host immune response by cleaving ubiquitin and interferon-stimulated gene 15 protein (ISG15) from host proteins. As a result, PLpro is a promising target for inhibition by small-molecule therapeutics….</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>Cellular and Molecular Mechanism of Pulmonary Fibrosis Post-COVID-19: Focus on Galectin-1, -3, -8, -9</strong> - Pulmonary fibrosis is a consequence of the pathological accumulation of extracellular matrix (ECM), which finally leads to lung scarring. Although the pulmonary fibrogenesis is almost known, the last two years of the COVID-19 pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and its post effects added new particularities which need to be explored. Many questions remain about how pulmonary fibrotic changes occur within the lungs of COVID-19 patients, and whether the…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>An anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic proprietary Chinese medicine nasal spray designated as Allergic Rhinitis Nose Drops (ARND) with potential to prevent SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infection by targeting RBD (Delta)- angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) binding</strong> - CONCLUSION: ARND could be considered as a safe anti-SARS-CoV-2 agent with potential to prevent SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infection.</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>Protein Scaffold-Based Multimerization of Soluble ACE2 Efficiently Blocks SARS-CoV-2 Infection In Vitro and In Vivo</strong> - Soluble ACE2 (sACE2) decoys are promising agents to inhibit SARS-CoV-2, as their efficiency is unlikely to be affected by escape mutations. However, their success is limited by their relatively poor potency. To address this challenge, multimeric sACE2 consisting of SunTag or MoonTag systems is developed. These systems are extremely effective in neutralizing SARS-CoV-2 in pseudoviral systems and in clinical isolates, perform better than the dimeric or trimeric sACE2, and exhibit greater than…</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Congressional-Staffer Rebellion</strong> - With climate legislation in peril and time running out, a group of young aides broke from a tradition of deference and staged a sit-in at Chuck Schumer’s office, demanding action. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-political-scene/climate-change-sit-in-congressional-staffers-schumer-office">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Aging Student Debtors of America</strong> - In an era of declining wages and rising debt, Americans are not aging out of their student loans—they are aging into them. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/us-journal/the-aging-student-debtors-of-america">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Will “Dereliction of Duty” Be What Finally Gets Donald Trump Indicted?</strong> - So far, the evidence of what Trump didn’t do on January 6th holds the strongest potential for making a successful criminal case against him. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/will-dereliction-of-duty-finally-be-what-gets-donald-trump-indicted">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Trump vs. Biden, and Biden vs. Trump: Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off</strong> - Was this week a preview of our next two years of duelling Presidents? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/trump-vs-biden-and-biden-vs-trump-lets-call-the-whole-thing-off">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Joe Manchin’s Latest Reversal Could Be a Game Changer</strong> - Finally, some positive news for President Biden and the Democrats despite the new G.D.P. report. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/joe-manchins-latest-reversal-could-be-a-game-changer">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>This summer’s movies are all about love</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A triptych with three images: an older woman looking into the distance, a virtual reality avatar of a girl with pink hair, and an animated shell sitting on a remote control." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/MyVGrYHbPnE3w3mqoQoeVHqjz9w=/200x0:3400x2400/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71186705/headshots_1658941756856.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
From left: Dale Dickey in <em>A Love Song</em>, Jenny in <em>We Met in Virtual Reality</em>, and Marcel in <em>Marcel the Shell with Shoes On.</em> | Bleecker Street/HBO Films/A24
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Loneliness, longing, and love in the third pandemic summer.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QuwyFV">
I look back on the rom-coms of my youth with fondness now, but it’s hard to deny their everlasting samey-sameness. I do mean the plots, sort of; the romantic comedy takes a well-worn path, and that’s part of its charm. But mostly what I mean is the faces. They’re all pretty career women who are secretly quirky, or a mess, or need to be taken down a peg, and slightly roguish or maybe awkward men. Not only are they always conventionally attractive, but they’re often the same exact <em>people</em>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="28HINn">
Which worked well enough for the time. But different times demand different measures. And in this summer’s crop of movies about love — <em>not</em> romantic comedies, to be sure, but often something better — new kinds of<strong> </strong>stories are breaking through.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oTlHdf">
The summer movie season started (early) with a bang: <em>Everything Everywhere All At Once</em>, a <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/23025832/everything-everywhere-all-at-once-parental-apology-fantasy-turning-red">maximalist multiverse comedy</a> about a woman named Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh) who desperately wants to reconnect with her daughter (Stephanie Hsu). It’s not only about parents and children — Evelyn’s marriage is disintegrating, and her adventures across universes extend to her hapless but sweet husband (Ke Huy Quan). Yet, while coverage of the film’s charm to audiences also focused on <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/23024945/everything-everywhere-all-at-once-multiverse-explained-quantum-physicist">the multiverse aspect</a> (likely thanks to the film’s executive producers, MCU darlings Joe and Anthony Russo), the real appeal had little to do with the situation in which the characters found themselves. It was the story — losing and finding love in one’s own family, in this case a distinctly Asian one — that left audiences weeping and <a href="https://deadline.com/2022/06/everything-everywhere-all-at-once-a24-box-office-record-2-1235042399/">coming back for more</a>.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Evelyn stands in between her daughter, Joy, and forces who would like to kill her, as her husband Waymond also looks on." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/4VQw4sng9MAzlgZvRqB1swpGDEg=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23409580/eeaao.jpg"/> <cite>A24</cite>
<figcaption>
<em>Everything Everywhere All At Once</em> is about the bonds between family that extend across universes.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LuUDG1">
But thankfully, <em>Everything Everywhere All At Once </em>has been far from the end of the summer of (movies about) love. Looking at the list, it becomes clear that almost all of them have a few things in common. They’re not just movies about romance or even familial love. They’re about loneliness. And they feature the kind of characters who never had a shot in the rom-com age.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5qRFFz">
Take <em>Marcel the Shell With Shoes On</em>, for instance. Based on the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF9-sEbqDvU&amp;ab_channel=DeanFleischer-Camp">viral YouTube shorts</a> of a decade ago, the feature is about an inch-high shell named Marcel (voiced by Jenny Slate) who lives a lonely life with his grandmother, Nana Connie (Isabella Rossellini) in a largely vacant Airbnb. A filmmaker named Dean — mostly unglimpsed, but based on and played by writer-director Dean Fleischer-Camp — moves into the house after separating from his wife and meets Marcel, who’s the perfect subject for a documentary. So they start filming together.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ska7KR">
Marcel has lost his family, and is resigned to never finding them again. By the time we finally meet them, we realize Marcel has extended his definition of “family” far past biology. To Marcel, “family” means community, which means Dean is part of it too. That Fleischer-Camp and Slate re-teamed to tell Marcel’s story, which they <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/film/article-most-exes-cant-be-in-the-same-room-but-jenny-slate-and-dean-fleischer/">first told when romantically involved</a>, but broke up years ago, adds levels of poignancy to the film. Love is love even when it evolves into something nobody anticipated.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Two little shells in a garden." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/GjDSz_EGxmaEgpLNeUdGdtIU_zM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23904624/marcel1.jpeg"/> <cite>A24</cite>
<figcaption>
Marcel and Nana Connie in <em>Marcel the Shell With Shoes On.</em>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0lm1K9">
Other movies have homed in on loneliness as they tell their love stories. There was <em>Brian and Charles </em>(June 17), a kind of warmly comedic take on <em>Frankenstein</em> in which an eccentric inventor in a tiny English village accidentally invents a robot that becomes his best friend and, eventually, his family. And <em>Girl Picture</em> (August 12) explores the experience of young, lonely teenage girls who have only one another as they try to navigate lives with unreliable parents and a confusing world.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pJKNFi">
On the other end of the spectrum, there’s <em>Crimes of the Future </em>(June 3), David Cronenberg’s deeply weird but oddly stirring look at the ways people connect in an imagined, post-human, dystopic future, one in which our fascination with the inside of one another’s bodies fuels something deeper. Even <em>Flux Gourmet </em>(June 24), an intensely weird movie about an art retreat for “culinary performance artists,” dips into the strange ways we connect and find one another when we’re overcoming our loneliness.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dbKhUS">
Two of the summer’s best offerings, <em>Good Luck to You</em>, <em>Leo Grande</em> (June 17) and <em>A Love Song</em> (July 29) look at love through the lens of loneliness and aging, in a way that feels starkly different from the rom-coms of yore. In the former, actress Emma Thompson plays a widow who hires a young, hot sex worker (Daryl McCormack) to … well, to be honest, she’s not sure what she wants him to do, but she knows she can’t go on feeling the way she does. Thompson, who is 63, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/15/movies/emma-thompson-good-luck-to-you-leo-grande.html">has talked openly</a> about how playing the part meant coming to terms with her own aging body, with looking at it and letting it be seen on screen. It’s a still-unusual and wonderfully refreshing role from a brilliant actress.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A middle aged-man and woman sit on the ground, a trailer visible in the background." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/eg2kCVEu-286qhKGGjtLLvMroE4=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23904627/lovesong2.jpg"/> <cite>Bleecker Street</cite>
<figcaption>
Wes Studi and Dale Dickey in <em>A Love Song</em>.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0FvKgt">
And it’s echoed in <em>A Love Song</em>, tonally a very different film but not all that different when it’s boiled down to its essence. The incredible (and incredibly underused) actress Dale Dickey plays Faye, a loner, who’s a traveler living in a neat trailer. She hangs out in a campground, quietly mourning her late husband and awaiting the possible arrival of her old flame Lito (Wes Studi), who may or may not come to see her. Max Walker-Silverman wrote and directed the film, which plays like a fable or a folk song. It’s glorious to see Dickey and Studi — both of whom are among their generation’s finest, and have the kind of faces you’d never see in lead romantic roles in a Nancy Meyers film — get to bring the story to life. Love is hard, and confusing, and ever-changing. And telling the stories of late-in-life love gives us different ways to think about it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="L2aAcT">
Just to show there’s a wealth of stories to tell across the spectrum, two of the year’s best documentaries show love from the past and what feels like the future. The latter is <em>We Met in Virtual Reality</em> (July 27), a vérité documentary shot entirely inside the virtual reality platform VRChat. Director Joe Hunting interviews and follows (again, inside the platform) several groups of people, many of whom felt profoundly disconnected and isolated (especially in the early months of the pandemic) before finding community on the platform. In addition to classes and communities that have formed, he talks with friends and romantically involved couples who met on the platform and found that connections made in virtual space can translate far beyond pixels.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Two virtual reality avatars stand next to one another, their arms around one another affectionately." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ls4D-PUE_krL6CLMefm-WiS8A0w=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23904632/vr3.jpg"/> <cite>HBO Films</cite>
<figcaption>
Space Bunny and Toaster, two participants in <em>We Met in Virtual Reality</em>, talk about their relationship.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Mf0A8K">
On the flip side is <em>Fire of Love</em> (July 6), <a href="https://www.vox.com/23206005/fire-love-review-interview-volcano-krafft">which uses archival footage from the 1960s and 1970s</a> to tell the story of Katia and Maurice Krafft, married volcanologists — a pair of loners — who died in a volcanic eruption in 1991. Knowing this brings a sweet sadness to the film, which director Sara Dosa crafts into a tale of love. It’s not just about their relationship, though; it’s about how deeply they loved volcanoes, and how that love slowly grew into a love for humanity.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SUGhbY">
Is it any wonder that these sorts of movies are emerging in the third summer after an isolating pandemic? It’s been long enough now that pretty much any new movie you might see was shot, and maybe written, under pandemic conditions. Love, desire, wistfulness, isolation, yearning — they’re all emotions that people experienced under new circumstances and in new ways over the past several years. Artists often find themselves tasked with capturing the zeitgeist (the vibes, if you will) of the culture around them.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oskd2U">
Most of these movies are pretty funny, but you couldn’t classify them as romantic comedies; those films usually focused on a narrow slice of love, the bit with the butterflies and the meet-cutes and the misunderstandings and the final kiss that says everything will be all right for these two pretty people. But deeper, broader stories bring a bigger context to love, in a world where hanging onto one another sometimes feels like all we have. It’s okay to be carried away by the fantasy of love, of course. But the movies that ground us in what it is to be a part of a community, to find ourselves inside others’ hearts, to learn from love how to turn outward — those are the ones that I hope last long beyond this moment.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="k1iyfE">
Everything Everywhere All At Once <em>is available to rent and own on digital platforms. </em>Marcel the Shell With Shoes On <em>is playing in theaters. </em>Brian and Charles <em>is available to purchase on digital platforms. </em>Girl Picture <em>will open in theaters on August 12. </em>Crimes of the Future<em> is available to own on digital platforms.</em> Flux Gourmet <em>is available to rent and own on digital platforms. </em>Good Luck to You, Leo Grande <em>is </em><a href="https://www.hulu.com/movie/good-luck-to-you-leo-grande-b0243a6c-8add-4d53-a234-05a255c8989f"><em>streaming on Hulu</em></a><em>.</em> A Love Song <em>is playing in theaters. </em>We Met in Virtual Reality <em>is </em><a href="https://www.hbo.com/movies/we-met-in-virtual-reality"><em>streaming on HBO Max</em></a><em>. </em>Fire of Love <em>is playing in theaters.</em>
</p></li>
<li><strong>What we mean when we say Beyoncé is “saving” house music</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Beyoncé sitting astride a horse that appears to be made of light." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Zju_mAr5Yze6SiaOR39ZsuiAml4=/0x0:1010x758/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71186597/Screen_Shot_2022_07_27_at_5.47.34_AM.0.png"/>
<figcaption>
The album art for Beyoncé’s <em>Renaissance</em>. | Beyoncé
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Disco and house music are as American as hip-hop and rock ’n’ roll. But Americans have never fully embraced that idea.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0JDH5T">
One of the most successful scams ever perpetrated on Americans is the idea that dance music sucks. We have been convinced that it has neither merit nor substance, and that it cannot be serious. The conspiracy has gone so far that people somehow believe dance music isn’t American. In the odd case that dance music is so good that one can’t help but love it, it can be easily brushed off as ironic appreciation.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wDlWYi">
I get why this fraud has been so successful.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wqh54R">
Americans are, at a very young age, taught to be suspicious of joy. Anything that makes you happy has to have a drawback. If that’s the case, then music that’s designed to be joyful and make you dance can’t be good, right?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W81sg5">
Enter: Beyoncé, arguably the biggest superstar and greatest performer in music today.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NeUQbv">
Beyoncé is on the verge of releasing <em>Renaissance</em>, an album that’s dance-centric and <a href="https://www.vogue.co.uk/fashion/article/beyonce-vogue-cover-new-music">reportedly</a> will borrow heavily from disco and house. She released the first single, “Break My Soul” in June, which used a sample of Robin S.’s “Show Me Love” and incorporated <a href="https://www.vulture.com/2022/06/beyonc-break-my-soul-and-bringing-house-music-back.html">house music elements</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WGdsbs">
It’s a moment, according to the press coverage surrounding its release, that may change the industry and shift the way we think about dance music, house music specifically. Her album comes on the heels of Drake’s dance-heavy album <em>Honestly Nevermind</em>, another signal that dance music is ready for its moment.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3a70I8">
As a fan of Beyoncé and dancing (I make no claim to do it well), this is fantastic news.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DuzkUy">
But the narrative that dance music needs changing or revitalization goes back to that pesky, ever-prevailing idea that dance music is not good to begin with. But dance music is as American as rock ’n’ roll, hip-hop, country, or R&amp;B and is just as serious and important a genre.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nJfSAF">
“Everyone knows about Bruce Springsteen, and everyone knows that jazz started in the United States,” Shawn Reynaldo, a music journalist specializing in house and dance music, told me. “So why isn’t it common knowledge that disco, house music, techno and electro, and all these other genres also came from Black American communities?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2qz6vr">
Reynaldo writes <a href="https://firstfloor.substack.com/">First Floor</a>, a newsletter laser-focused on dance music, and argues the fact that most Americans don’t know or aren’t proud that the United States is the birthplace of house is a failure.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Uy1AQQ">
Given his expertise, I thought Reynaldo would be the perfect person to explain most Americans’ tenuous if not superficial relationship to dance music, why that exists, and what Beyoncé’s new album does and doesn’t mean for a genre that Americans seem so enthusiastically ready to declare is on life support. Our conversation, edited for length and clarity, is below.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0IjiRn">
<strong>One of the things you wrote that fascinated me is that there seems to be an overarching and </strong><a href="https://firstfloor.substack.com/p/first-floor-133-house-music-isnt"><strong>faulty narrative</strong></a><strong> that Beyoncé and Drake are saving or revitalizing house music.</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gkxaOU">
<strong>If you look at the media that’s covering Bey’s album, there are a lot of articles framing this as a resurrection. But you point out that this take is a little uninformed.</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SSrOVA">
I think that a lot of this is a very specifically American problem. I shouldn’t say “problem” — it stems from a specifically American perspective. And it’s ironic because house music was literally created in the United States, in predominantly Black and brown queer communities. It just didn’t catch on in America in the same way that it did in Europe, particularly in the UK, and the rest of the world.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EtitXs">
In the US, we didn’t invest in dance music. We never said, “This is ours.” Nor do we talk about dance music in the way we do hip-hop or rock ’n’ roll. Hip-hop is something that’s always felt very American in origin. The American music industry has put a lot of time and effort into it and has a lot of pride in it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H6cP2I">
Dance music, for whatever reason, was sort of seen as “silly” music that was sort of the antithesis of “serious” music. I would argue it’s kind of a hangover from disco, where <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disco-demolition-night/id1380008439?i=1000487011024">disco was perceived</a> as this music for people of color and queer people and rock ’n’ roll was the predominant music at the time.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FTvGgv">
<strong>I’ve been rediscovering disco. I think one of the things that struck me is, looking back, a lot of the backlash disco faced was actually a reaction to the people who enjoyed disco — you mentioned Black and brown people of color and LGBTQ people. That backlash stuck around for so long, maybe even to this day. And it’s kind of funny now because there’s a lot of music out there that might not formally be called “disco” but certainly has influences from it.</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YR79s4">
House music, in a lot of ways, was a continuation of disco. Of course, it’s not that simple or linear. But certainly the thought of people dancing in clubs and the music being presented by DJs. And then the music just kind of evolved.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="spx9yq">
The first really big push of dance music in the US was “electronica,” which was during the late ’90s. There were groups like <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theprodigyofficial/?hl=en">The Prodigy</a>, and the <a href="https://www.thechemicalbrothers.com/">Chemical Brothers</a>, Fatboy Slim, and Daft Punk. These were big groups and that stuff got into pop music and hit the charts to some degree. But by that time, it was sold to American audiences as this foreign product, like, “Hey, this is music from Europe — these artists are from France, they’re from England. And this is this European sound.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="APqn34">
What’s really ironic is that all those artists were taking cues from pioneering American house and techno artists who are from cities like Detroit, Chicago, and New York.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="J6AuDD">
<strong>I remember that, and being obsessed with “British” music, which I would procure at the Virgin Megastore (RIP). </strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lQlK5A">
It created the idea that house music or dance music in general was this foreign entity, and that idea kind of just lodged itself into the American psyche. It continued with EDM. If you think about when EDM happened, it was just sold and seen as, “Here’s this huge music from Europe with these big festivals and we’re bringing it to America.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8KDfUu">
Yes, people will point out that Skrillex is American. People know who Skrillex is. People know who Daft Punk is. They’re big artists.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GfQMw1">
But at the same time, no one (relatively) knows <a href="https://ra.co/features/875">who Larry Heard is</a>. He’s one of the original Chicago house guys who’s still around today and making music. There’s a whole slew of originators that just never really got the credit they deserved.
</p>
<div id="FBnpYx">
<div style="width: 100%; height: 0; padding-bottom: 56.25%;">
</div>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XbwWx1">
<strong>As someone from the US who loves to dance and loves dance and disco music, that’s frustrating. I kinda feel like I was lied to. </strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ummGpm">
It’s kind of a failing on the part of the American music industry to now have educated audiences properly. This has been going on, you know, now for almost 40 years? Longer if you count disco.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MXnBjX">
One thing I found, just as someone who interviews a lot of artists, is when I’ve spoken to younger Black American artists — let’s say under 30 — a lot of them tell me:
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9vQnLT">
“When I was a kid, I had no idea where this music came from. I thought this was white people music. I heard electronic music for the first time when I watched <em>The Matrix</em> or I heard it when I was watching Adult Swim on Cartoon Network, and I would hear the weird beats.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Fz5ZTj">
But then once they dug into it and figured out that there were a bunch of Black artists and this was a part of a Black cultural heritage that they never knew about, a lot of them are really upset about it, because they’re like, “Why wasn’t I taught this?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7fuWi8">
<strong>I want to ask you, personally, what is it about dance music that makes us so reluctant to claim it? Why doesn’t it feel American to Americans the way other music genres do? Why don’t we embrace it?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZSm8Sx">
Some of it is the disco hangover. You can still find so many people that say “disco sucks,” and it’s been 50 years. There’s also dancing and anything that involves dancing. You know, a lot of cis straight men, especially, are very uptight about the idea of being in a club and dancing.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4wLmU5">
Dance music, in general, is also more experiential in terms of appreciating it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1SO2O7">
<strong>I think I understand what you mean, but could you spell it out for me?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hzhVHa">
You can put on a house track at home, but they’re not really designed to be pop songs. It varies, but a lot of house tracks will be like seven minutes long. And they start with a minute and a half of really minimal drums at the beginning and really minimal drums at the end, because they’re designed with function in mind.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MCzLw8">
That function is so DJs can blend one track into the next. So these tracks aren’t necessarily the kind of thing that lends itself to being played on the radio or being on a Spotify playlist. A lot of house music is specifically designed to be played in a club, on a loud sound system, on a packed dance floor where you’re surrounded by other people that are also dancing to this music.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/oUcELDF5XS9dX79WZRECH8Ar8LU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23903864/Screen_Shot_2022_07_27_at_5.50.43_AM.png"/> <cite>Beyoncé</cite>
<figcaption>
The track art for Beyoncé’s single “Break My Soul.”
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="x9RFCB">
When house and techno first started, the DJ wouldn’t even be the focal point of the party. No one was looking at them. Even if you were going because you knew your favorite DJ was playing, the idea wasn’t to go and see them, it was to go hear them. That just doesn’t sync with how Americans consume pop music or rock music or hip hop or R&amp;B or any of the kinds of music that have been dominant in the pop sphere over the last several decades.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5WiJF9">
<strong>Recently I was at Pride here in New York City, and Galantis was playing and SG Lewis had a DJ set right after. And yeah, there was this pocket of time where you just had to take in the moment and experience. But also there was a funny point where someone leaned over and asked why SG Lewis wasn’t playing </strong><em><strong>his</strong></em><strong> music.</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zbQeX6">
A lot of people don’t understand that DJs aren’t playing music that they made, they’re playing music that other people made. There’s an art to curating a DJ set and picking which records go in what place.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="N5O5Ej">
The records themselves are made by producers, who might not even be DJs at all and they might not be performers. On the other side of that, there’s a lot of artists that do both. And because of the economics in the music industry, a lot of producers now have to DJ because, oddly enough, there’s a lot more money in DJing than there is in making the music.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mvKckP">
In America, dance music is still basically a foreign language for the vast majority of people. To be fair, it doesn’t help that a lot of “hardcore” or dedicated electronic music fans, like any subculture (the same thing happened with punk rock), are protective of their community.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nPovK9">
<strong>I get that. It’s the reality of pop culture that, thanks to the internet, anything can go from niche to overexposed seemingly overnight.</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sjdaVQ">
It’s like, “Hey, we’ve been doing this for decades, and mainstream and pop music hasn’t paid any attention to us. And now they want to show up. And Beyoncé wants to do a house record.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KyIDWf">
<strong>Have you noticed that protectiveness happening? I talked to a friend who, in passing, told me that Beyoncé’s record was actually </strong><em><strong>bad</strong></em><strong> house music. I am not revealing who this friend is because those are incendiary comments and the Beyhive is powerful. But I was like, “Are you actually mad that it’s actually bad house music or are you mad that it’s Beyoncé?”</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AwX2oL">
I will say that neither the Beyoncé single or the Drake album are house music in the traditional sense. They are not what the average house music DJ would consider a house record. These are pop records that have elements of house music. And maybe that’s making a very fine distinction. But in dance music, where there are dozens, if not hundreds, of different subgenres within it, people are very particular about which styles they like.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9Amgtr">
You know, there is sort of a protectiveness about what constitutes house music and what doesn’t. This is changing a bit, and genres are constantly becoming more fluid. But I would say most dedicated house music fans wouldn’t say that the Beyoncé record or the Drake album are really house music. And whether they’re good or not, it’s very much in the eye of the beholder.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="otujgo">
<strong>That’s very diplomatic of you!</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nQMoLW">
I’m personally not a big fan of Drake or Beyoncé, but I’m also just one person. I’m also not really a big pop music guy and never have been, so it would be really presumptuous of me to be like, “Oh, this is bad.” I’m a lot more like, “It’s not for me,” as opposed to, “It’s bad.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QKbQPp">
What I do think is bad is the fact that music journalists are running with this narrative that Drake and Beyoncé are revitalizing house music, because the subtext of that is that house music was dead or dormant and had disappeared.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VkyAPl">
<strong>Right. The implication and framing of Beyoncé and Drake as saviors implies that house music needed to be saved. I suppose that means from dying? Maybe saved from being bad? </strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XgslFv">
It’s just factually wrong. And it shows a real sort of laziness. It also just reflects how out of touch even professional American music journalists are with electronic music and dance music in the US because, you would think a professional, someone who literally writes about music for a living, would at least have a passing knowledge of this or, if not, would research it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nJQeak">
It’s always easier to pitch something as a paradigm shift, as opposed to telling a nuanced story online.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rWpMp4">
<strong>Do you think that instead of using words like “revitalization” or “resurgence” or “resurrection” — and correct me if I’m wrong — this may be Beyoncé partaking in a trend? If we think of house music as a worldwide phenomenon and dance- and disco-inspired music as a growing feature in pop music, it could sort of make sense that Beyoncé is capitalizing on our growing appreciation for dance music? </strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="F6QO7H">
I mean, I’m reluctant to ascribe motive to anyone’s creative choices, right? And I would like to think that they’re not that cynical.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="29J8Tl">
I will say this: Both Drake and Beyoncé have experimented with a lot of different genres of music in a way that they still sound like themselves.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bz0HjX">
Drake has done previous stuff with Afrobeats, which is something that came out of <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-nigeria-to-the-world-afrobeats-is-having-a-global-moment-179910">Nigeria</a> and <a href="https://www.masterclass.com/articles/afrobeat-music-guide">Ghana</a>. It’s also big in the UK, where there’s a big diaspora population. So I think these artists and their teams — the producers they work with— are just open to experimenting with new sounds.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Jdjvy5">
The Drake album, for instance, experiments with this genre called amapiano. It’s sort of a house music variant that’s gotten really popular in South Africa in the last two to three years. It’s arguably like the biggest thing in South Africa right now and it’s crossed over into the pop charts.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yxCCgt">
These artists are surrounded by smart people who are plugged into what’s going on. And it makes sense, especially when they’re both on their — they’re probably both on at least album number six or more. They’re going to try new things. If you think about someone like Diplo — Diplo has made a career out of doing this.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aAYMDb">
<strong>Did you happen to see the terrible [now-deleted] tweet that claimed that Beyoncé ripped off Diplo? Twitter is a hellscape.</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="r7tBlR">
Okay, but Diplo has literally been doing this forever. He’s taken stuff from dancehall, he’s taken stuff from <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/brazilian-star-anitta-wants-baile-funk-go-global-reggaeton-n1258373">baile funk</a>, which is this Brazilian dance style. He’s taken stuff from different kinds of hip-hop, house, techno, electro, and you know, he just kind of melds it all into this sort of mutant form of pop music.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EOIDjV">
I think in his mind, if it’s fresh and the beat bumps, why wouldn’t I use it? That’s my guess is that’s what’s happening here.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7bEnp7">
<strong>If this album is a hit, will Americans finally have to get over our aversion to dance music? Will we claim it? Do you see that happening?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DCSyLH">
I do think it’s already happening.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fHgwSt">
When young people think about new music, I think they imagine electronic music. Maybe they don’t imagine a nine-minute deep house song. But if it has a house speed, a good pop hook, and it fits into their streaming playlist, or it backs their TikTok video in a fun way, I think they’re very open to it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7YQ9w3">
So yeah, I do think it’s happening. In terms of whether that’s a good thing or not, I don’t know because it’s like once something enters that pop realm, it kind of ceases to be what it was before. And that’s not good or bad.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7blOhM">
That doesn’t mean it can’t grow and change. But when it gets sort of crammed into this neat pop music box where it needs to be three minutes, it needs to have someone singing on it, and it needs to have a catchy hook or it needs to have a guest rapper delivering a special verse, then it ceases to be house music — at least house music as I’ve known.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2zgCnu">
That’s just how culture works.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9K3u8G">
<strong>But also, I kinda feel like we’re jumping the gun. We don’t even know what Bey’s album is going to sound like, aside from “Break My Soul.” It’s a little presumptuous not only to say she’s gonna save or revitalize dance and house music when we haven’t heard the entire thing.</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BbQS7y">
It’s funny that “Break My Soul” generated so much talk about house music because it sampled “Show Me Love” — a song that people’s grandmas know. That song is a crossover big hit that’s been ubiquitous for decades. It’s not like she was digging deep into house music to find it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ue9E4G">
<strong>I think Charlie XCX sampled “Show Me Love” in “Used to Know Me.”</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2s7b8V">
Yeah, it’s one of the most sampled and referenced songs of the past 30 years. And the funny part too is that the other sample on the track is Big Freedia, who is this <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/20-essential-new-orleans-bounce-songs-705706/">New Orleans bounce</a> artist — bounce is sort like a hip-hop variant out of New Orleans, and Big Freedia is also a queer artist. And when “Break My Soul” came out and all of the press was like, “Beyoncé is revitalizing house music,” but bounce music is arguably just as big a part of that song and I didn’t see anything about how Beyoncé was changing bounce music.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3XL607">
It’s too soon to tell if this is going to be like some huge shift. But things have been trending in this direction as music gets more electronic. It’s still so early it’s hard to know if this house music conversation is gonna last one more week, or three months or a year.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9SlZGY">
But I also think as queer and female artists continue to have a larger voice and set the pop culture agenda, they’re more amenable to making dance music. It doesn’t mean that dance music isn’t serious or that these artists aren’t serious. But “serious” doesn’t have to mean what it did 20 years ago. Serious doesn’t have to mean an angry guy with a guitar anymore.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wZTmoJ">
<strong>Joy and importance don’t have to be mutually exclusive.</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6GSWK5">
I think attitudes about that have really shifted a lot in the last 10 to 15 years. So if that means that there’ll be more people dancing, that’s possible, but at the same time, is it going to shift how people consume music? People are still going to be listening to Spotify and playlists, and they’re going to want the songs to be over in three and a half minutes, and they’re gonna want hummable hooks that stick in their head.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pUZrYk">
That dynamic is not changing, but what constitutes pop music, and what constitutes “important” music — that is what seems to be changing.
</p></li>
<li><strong>Living with roommates doesn’t have to suck</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A cartoon of three people enjoying cooking a meal at home." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/AGODX3bCL1sRONkCxyr-Q_NgCBM=/417x0:7084x5000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71186529/GettyImages_1366905467.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Denis Novikov/Vox
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Here’s how to survive — and thrive — while sharing a home with others.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xSaWS7">
Rents are rising. Even outside of the costliest American urban centers like New York and San Francisco, it can be difficult to find an affordable deal on an apartment. Unfortunately, there aren’t many signs to suggest things are going to get much easier anytime soon — in May, the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/06/09/1103919413/rents-across-u-s-rise-above-2-000-a-month-for-the-first-time-ever">median monthly rent</a> in the US was $2,002, up by nearly 15 percent from the same time last year. This is also the first time the median rent has crossed $2,000 nationwide — a milestone <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/19/homes/us-rents-april/index.html">some experts</a> didn’t anticipate until August of this year.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ctwZay">
For many, living with other people — whether that’s their parents or a group of strangers they found on a Facebook group for local renters — has become one of the only viable options to find affordable housing. <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/01/31/more-adults-now-share-their-living-space-driven-in-part-by-parents-living-with-their-adult-children/">Now more than ever</a>, people are living in “doubled-up” households, meaning they’re sharing a home with someone they aren’t in a romantic relationship with. While doubling up is by far most common among 20-somethings, the percentage of older adults doing so has risen steadily <a href="https://www.zillow.com/research/rising-rents-more-roommates-17618/">for all age groups</a> since 2005, though this data also includes adults living with family.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="th2RDn">
Despite its prevalence, living with roommates gets a bad rap. You’ve probably heard about the roommate from hell: somebody who blasts loud music late at night or turns every minor conflict into a dramatic confrontation. It’s a stale trope that media frequently inundates us with, from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/mar/03/worst-roommate-ever-this-might-officially-be-the-worst-true-show-ever">television series</a> to <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/ravenishak/roommates-from-hell">BuzzFeed articles</a>. Even when it’s not the roommate from hell, living with roommates is often portrayed as a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/01/magazine/new-york-roommates.html">last resort</a> — a sacrifice to save money or gain a bit of independence from our family.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZiqtKQ">
When I was growing up, my father often regaled me and my family with stories from when he lived alone in an apartment during the 1980s. As I neared financial independence from my parents, these anecdotes of urban life seemed like lore from a bygone era. My dad’s stories were surely tinged with nostalgia, but they still felt fairly detached from my reality — it seemed extremely unlikely that I’d ever afford the kind of solo living my dad did in his mid-20s.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="e30miz">
So far, that prediction’s proven correct. But it hasn’t been nearly as bad as all those roommate-from-hell stories make it seem. In fact, it’s been really nice. Having somebody else around the apartment to gossip or do chores with has made the place feel livelier and more homey, particularly when I moved to a <a href="https://www.vox.com/even-better/23171085/moving-single-dating-make-new-friends-volunteer">completely new city</a> for the first time.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LUVZoy">
Humans are social animals. While living with strangers might not be ideal, it’s arguably a more natural arrangement than living alone in a tiny studio. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0924977X21008889#!">Research suggests</a> that during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, people who lived with others fared better than those who lived alone, mental health-wise. Sharing a home has strong potential to mitigate the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/5/11/21245087/america-loneliness-epidemic-coronavirus-pandemic-together">rising levels of loneliness</a> and combat the atomization of modern life. If you’re as skeptical of the roommate relationship as I once was, try to have an open mind: It’s probably better than you’re expecting.
</p>
<h3 id="HOZkvl">
Finding the right person (or people!)
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="urp1E9">
For many people, their first time living with roommates is when they enter college. The summer before college, I picked up a copy of advice columnist Harlan Cohen’s <a href="https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781492645962"><em>The Naked Roommate: And 107 Other Issues You Might Run Into in College</em></a><em> </em>to prepare myself for dorm living. Six years after first reading his book, I spoke with Cohen over Zoom to learn about navigating life with roommates, post-college.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WhDn2q">
While colleges often have <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2019/08/colleges-dont-want-freshmen-choosing-their-roommates/596803/">methodical roommate-matchmaking practices</a> to take the weight of finding a roommate off students’ shoulders, life after college isn’t so easy. You may feel inclined to live with a close friend to simplify the search process, but Cohen’s a bit leery of this.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QT3ihK">
Getting along with somebody in your social circle doesn’t necessarily mean that the dynamic will be the same while living together. Cohen adds that friends may take advantage of their preexisting relationship, putting in less effort to get along with each other as roommates.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qnjj21">
“Friendship’s a bonus — it’d be great to be friends and we may like to be friends, but it’s okay if we’re not,” he says.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eRFeSP">
It may be better to find somebody you don’t know that well — a friend of a friend or even a stranger. Obviously, you’ll want to vet any roommates-to-be to ensure they’re a good match. Asking prospective roommates the right questions is a key preventive measure for common conflicts like a messy common area or clashing sleep schedules. Someone’s answers to questions like “What time do you usually go to bed?” and “What are some problems you’ve had with past roommates?” can shed light on your compatibility.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0YX0uy">
Online roommate-matching services like <a href="https://www.roommates.com/">Roommates</a> or <a href="https://www.roomiematch.com/">RoomieMatch</a> can filter out some of the basics, but you should find out more information about your roommate through an honest and forthright conversation with them before you agree to move in together. Identify what’s critical to you in your living space; knowing a potential roommate’s perspectives on cleanliness, quiet time, and other boundaries is key to an understanding roommate relationship.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="voL7sL">
Most importantly, go into the roommate search with a positive attitude. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7967625/">Researchers have found</a> that people with negative attitudes about living with others may experience increased dysfunction when living with roommates, while those with a positive attitude going in may experience improved mental health.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9Oj4nA">
“I find that the people who are most concerned about living with a roommate from hell are often the most difficult people to live with,” Cohen says. “They’re so worried and have so much fear and anxiety coming into their relationship that it creates challenges when living together.”
</p>
<h3 id="taRQC3">
Finding the right space
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="b0tHvu">
As the old saying goes, “a house does not a home make.” It turns out that any old two-bedroom apartment doesn’t necessarily, either.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cSlO4m">
Finding the right place is difficult, but it’s an important part of making sure you and your roommates feel comfortable together. After all, you don’t want resentment to build up because you and your roommate rushed to sign a lease on a unit that hardly has any closet space.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Jw95PQ">
Moreover, some roommates may require specific accessibility accommodations that you’ll have to take into account during the housing search. Your <a href="https://www.vox.com/23069449/emotional-spending-personal-finance">individual budgets</a> will also inevitably factor into the search, and you’ll want to split the rent fairly according to factors like monthly income and the relative size of your private spaces (i.e., bedrooms and bathrooms).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7UFrGk">
It’s helpful to come up with a list of priorities — things like location, size, specific amenities, etc. — that you and your roommates can rank together in order of importance. Not only will this give you a starting point in what to look for as you search for housing, but this will also be a useful exercise in the art of compromise.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9IcSu3">
If you’re open to sacrificing a little privacy and living with a slightly larger group of people, co-living spaces may be worth considering. As Scott Corfe <a href="https://www.smf.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Co-Living.pdf">defines them</a>, co-living spaces like <a href="https://www.thecollective.com/">The Collective</a> or the now-defunct <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/13/nyregion/welive-nyc-wework.html">WeLive</a> are “a system of housing in which individuals have access to a range of shared, communal facilities,” such as gyms, co-working spaces, and even movie lounges.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YQ7jqz">
Corfe, the research director at the Social Market Foundation, tells me that co-living developments could be a creative solution to the affordable housing crisis, in spite of their flaws. By uniting a community under one (fairly affordable) roof, he says these spaces intuitively have the potential to reduce loneliness among their inhabitants.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rxGJFS">
“This is clearly not the silver bullet solution with all the issues in the housing market,” he says, adding that it’s a much-needed innovation.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="E2yQba">
Corfe admits that co-living isn’t for everyone, but you can still create community in an apartment setting. Living with a roommate or two is an interesting way to gain a deeper understanding of how other people navigate the world. While you don’t necessarily have to be best friends, putting in extra effort to be friendly and spend time together will help you feel at home.
</p>
<h3 id="tC9J9u">
Finding the right rules
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ALjTXj">
While gearing up to live in a three-person dorm room for my freshman year of college, I was a bit nervous. I’d heard so many bad stories that the roommate from hell seemed inevitable.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gythoS">
Of course, there were some kinks the three of us had to work out — like our clashing sleep schedules, for instance — but all in all, it was a fairly pleasant experience.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xA2Esh">
Part of what made living together so easy was the fact that our hall’s resident adviser mediated a brief rule-setting conversation at the beginning of our first quarter. Setting boundaries early on is crucial, Cohen says, even if you don’t have an RA to nag you into setting these rules like I did.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tSENE0">
In a <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@helpmeharlan/video/7110625054769220910">TikTok</a> he posted a few weeks before our meeting, Cohen proposed a rule that he calls the “Uncomfortable Rule” — a sort of golden rule that aims to nip inter-roommate conflicts in the bud. “The Uncomfortable Rule says that if either of us is uncomfortable with something that is happening, we need to share it within 24 to 48 hours, or we won’t share it,” Cohen tells me. “You can’t hold someone responsible for something you aren’t sharing.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pMvX2f">
In addition to Cohen’s Uncomfortable Rule, try discussing responsibilities like household chores and what’s acceptable when it comes to alcohol consumption or overnight guests. When conflicts do arise — and they likely will — you and your roommates can come back to this conversation to discuss the best course of action.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ea1VxK">
Devising these rules will allow you and your roommates to, once again, practice negotiation and compromise — chances are, you won’t agree on everything, and that’s perfectly fine. By working to find a middle ground, you’re honing skills that will benefit you in other interpersonal relationships, like cohabitating with a romantic partner.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H1WA4T">
These rules create a framework for a fairly unique relationship that could blossom into friendship, something that’s particularly valuable in a society where people often begin losing friends after <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/7/12/12148938/friendship-adult-challenges-solutions">their third decade of life</a>. From gaining opportunities to <a href="https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/acuho/journal_vol41no2/index.php#/p/104">learning more about another culture</a> to trying new food, Cohen says the perks of living with a roommate are innumerable.
</p>
<p class="c-end-para" data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="22aL4Q">
“With a roommate, you have someone who you can spend time with — if it’s someone who enjoys spending time with you, you can gain a friend,” Cohen says. “And if it’s someone you don’t enjoy spending time with, you can benefit from figuring out how to get comfortable with an uncomfortable situation.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UVIcPn">
<em>Andrew Warner is a New York City-based reporter covering education and culture.</em>
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="vrWQ8g"/>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tYX6W1">
<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>
</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>WAGatha Christie | Coleen Rooney victorious over Rebekah Vardy in football spouses’ court battle</strong> - In a legal dispute between two football spouses that captivated Britain, Judge Karen Steyn cleared Coleen Rooney of libeling Rebekah Vardy when she alleged that Vardy had leaked her private social media posts to the tabloid press</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>VFI gets FIVB recognition</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>Commonwealth Games 2022 | Mirabai Chanu leads Indian challenge in weightlifting</strong> - Along with Mirabai, Sanket Sargar and Gururaja will be keen to contribute to country’s medals tally.</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>Haaland and Nunez, Man City and Liverpool set for Community Shield showdown</strong> - Manchester City striker Erling Haaland will go head to head with Liverpool forward Darwin Nunez as the Premier League title rivals unveil their expensive new recruits in the Community Shield</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>England and Germany set for historic Euro 2022 final</strong> - When host nation England takes on Germany in the European Championship final on Sunday, Wembley stadium is expected to have a tournament-record crowd of nearly 90,000</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>Andhra Pradesh: Naidu alleges illegal granite mining on Dravidian University land</strong> - In letter to Governor, he says the activity has also led to death of several birds, particularly peacock</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>Andhra Pradesh: Over ₹32,000 crore spent on Kapu welfare, says Jagan</strong> - ₹508 crore deposited into the accounts of women under YSR Kapu Nestham</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>Revenue crunch, staff shortage hit Mysuru KSRTC’s expansion plans</strong> - The urban and rural divisions of the State Transport Corporation were merged post-pandemic but revenue is yet to reach pre-COVID-19 level despite lifting of all curbs</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>Why Karnataka CM, Ministers visit families of only BJP workers affected by violence, what about other victims: Siddaramaiah</strong> - Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah questions Karnataka Chief Minister’s failure to visit the houses of murder victims belonging to Muslim community.</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>₹36.47 lakh in hawala money seized</strong> -</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>Ukraine war: Russia says 40 Ukrainian prisoners killed in blast</strong> - The Ukrainian and Russian militaries accuse each other of shelling a prison camp in Donetsk.</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>Hopes for first grain ship to leave Ukraine after Russia deal</strong> - The ship could go on Friday if “crucial” details are agreed, says the UN aid chief.</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>Ukraine’s shadow army resisting Russian occupation</strong> - Sarah Rainsford meets the underground partisans resisting Russian occupation in southern Ukraine.</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>Spanish beach body campaign used my image without asking - model</strong> - British model Nyome says she had “no idea” a Spanish body positivity campaign had used her photo.</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>Why Dutch farmers are protesting over emissions cuts</strong> - Farmers say proposals to cut livestock and reduce intensive farming unfairly target their industry.</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>NASA revises Mars’ sample return plan to use helicopters</strong> - The experience with the Ingenuity helicopter has changed the equation. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1870178">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Gulf Coast tests confirm deadly tropical soil bacterium now endemic to US</strong> - The bacterium causes melioidosis, which is hard to diagnose and resistant to some drugs. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1870109">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Apple reports only slight growth in Q3 2022 earnings report</strong> - Services and iPhone grew a bit, but the Mac and others lost ground. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1870155">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Pixel 6a gift card deal effectively takes $50 off Google’s new phone</strong> - Typically $449, phone releases today; gift card deal available at multiple retailers. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1870044">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What’s inside the US’s first big climate bill?</strong> - Tax credits, grants, and more to boost renewable and clean technology. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1870124">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Tea is an evil substance. It is much more dangerous than beer.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
I discovered this last night. I drank 15 beers up until 3 am in the pub while my wife was just at home drinking tea.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
You should have seen how mad and violent she was when I got home. She threw the chair at me and kept screaming at the top of her lungs. On the other hand, I was quiet and peaceful and silently made my way to bed. But she kept cursing and shouting through the night and well into the next morning.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Please friends, if you can’t handle your tea, you should not be drinking it. Please avoid drinking tea.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/proychow1"> /u/proychow1 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/watlab/tea_is_an_evil_substance_it_is_much_more/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/watlab/tea_is_an_evil_substance_it_is_much_more/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>A penguin grows tired of the cold winters in Alaska…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
So he buys a used Corvette and heads south for warmer weather. About five hundred miles into the trip the Corvette starts to overheat.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
He stops in a small town and finds a mechanic to get the issue fixed. The mechanic says he is not going to be able to look at the car for an hour, so the Penguin asks him if there is any place to eat while he waits. The mechanic says there is a great fish and chips right around the corner.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
So, the penguin leaves and gets a nice lunch. An hour has passed and he heads back to the repair shop. The mechanic has the car on a lift, so the penguin asks the mechanic if he found the issue.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The mechanic says “It looks like you blew a seal.” The penguin wipes the side of his mouth and says “No, that’s just tartar sauce.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/slibetah"> /u/slibetah </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/wacxne/a_penguin_grows_tired_of_the_cold_winters_in/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/wacxne/a_penguin_grows_tired_of_the_cold_winters_in/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>“We’re looking for a drug dealer,” said the police officer, “and you fit the description we’ve been given.”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
I said, “That was easy then. What can I get you fellas?”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/incredibleinkpen"> /u/incredibleinkpen </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/wamnwv/were_looking_for_a_drug_dealer_said_the_police/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/wamnwv/were_looking_for_a_drug_dealer_said_the_police/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>I walked into a bar</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
And ordered 10 shots of vodka at the bar and started doing shot after shot until I got 6 in and the bartender said ‘Jeez buddy, are you having problems?’ to which I replied “You wouldn’t want what I got.”. He asked what I had and I said
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“About 35 cents”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
He kicked me out promptly afterwards
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
So I was walking down the sidewalk kinda buzzed and stumbled into two priests. They apologized and I replied “I’mje -hiccup- Jesus Christ”. They looked at each other and said “no no son you just seem a little drunk” to which I replied “N-no I’m Jeeesus Christ. I can prooove it! Follow -hiccup- meee” (while holding onto one of their shoulders for support). They obliged and started to follow me. So I walked back into the bar and bartender said:
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“<strong><em>Jesus Christ, not you again!</em></strong>”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Scamperillium"> /u/Scamperillium </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/warrs9/i_walked_into_a_bar/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/warrs9/i_walked_into_a_bar/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>Not enough people mentions Jesus’ biggest miracle…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Having 12 close friends after 30!
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/JonnyRottensTeeth"> /u/JonnyRottensTeeth </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/was68u/not_enough_people_mentions_jesus_biggest_miracle/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/was68u/not_enough_people_mentions_jesus_biggest_miracle/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
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