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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>POLICY BRIEF THE IMPACT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON WORK, PRODUCTIVITY, AND INNOVATION IN FRANCE</strong> -
<div>
The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically affected workplaces, productivity, and innovation across France. As society continues to navigate this unprecedented crisis, understanding these impacts is paramount for policy formulation, aimed at fostering economic recovery and future resilience. This policy brief examines the implications of the pandemic on these areas, drawing from literature such as Abi Younes et al. (2020), Furman et al. (2020), OECD (2020), and Sanofi (2022).
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://thesiscommons.org/wdxuk/" target="_blank">POLICY BRIEF THE IMPACT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON WORK, PRODUCTIVITY, AND INNOVATION IN FRANCE</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Effectiveness of BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine third doses and previous infection in protecting against SARS-CoV-2 infections during the Delta and Omicron variant waves; the UK SIREN cohort study September 2021 to February 2022</strong> -
<div>
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Third doses of COVID-19 vaccines were widely deployed following primary vaccine course waning and emergence of the Omicron-variant. We investigated protection from third-dose vaccines and previous infection against SARS-CoV-2 infection during Delta-variant and Omicron-variant (BA.1 &amp; BA.2) waves in our frequently PCR-tested cohort of healthcare-workers. Relative effectiveness of BNT162b2 third doses and infection-acquired immunity was assessed by comparing the time to PCR-confirmed infection in boosted participants with those with waned dose-2 protection (≥254 days after dose-2). Follow-up time was divided by dominant circulating variant: Delta 07 September 2021 to 30 November 2021, Omicron 13 December 2021 to 28 February 2022. We used a Cox regression model with adjustment/stratification for demographic characteristics and staff-type. We explored protection associated with vaccination, infection and both. We included 19,614 participants, 29% previously infected. There were 278 primary infections (4 per 10,000 person-days of follow-up) and 85 reinfections (0.8/10,000 person-days) during the Delta period and 2467 primary infections (43/10,000 person-days) and 881 reinfections (33/10,000) during the Omicron period. Relative Vaccine Effectiveness (VE) 0-2 months post-3rd dose (V3) (3-doses BNT162b2) in the previously uninfected cohort against Delta infections was 63% (95% Confidence Interval (CI) 40%-77%) and was lower (35%) against Omicron infection (95% CI 21%-47%). For primary course ChAdOX1 recipients, BNT162b2 heterologous third doses were especially effective, with VE 0-2 months post-V3 over ≥68% higher for both variants. Third-dose protection waned rapidly against Omicron, with no significant difference between two and three BNT162b2 doses observed after 4-months. Previous infection continued to provide additional protection against Omicron (67% (CI 56%-75%) 3-6 months post-infection), but this waned to about 25% after 9-months, approximately three times lower than against Delta. Infection rates surged with Omicron emergence. Third doses of BNT162b2 vaccine provided short-term protection, with rapid waning against Omicron infections. Protection associated with infections incurred before Omicron was markedly diminished against the Omicron wave. Our findings demonstrate the complexity of an evolving pandemic with potential emergence of immune-escape variants and the importance of continued monitoring.
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.22.23290197v1" target="_blank">Effectiveness of BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine third doses and previous infection in protecting against SARS-CoV-2 infections during the Delta and Omicron variant waves; the UK SIREN cohort study September 2021 to February 2022</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Reflections on academia in the COVID-19 era: Implications for policy, ethics, and democracy</strong> -
<div>
This chapter reviews COVID-19 policy responses in academia, drawing from our research - on expert narratives on vaccine uptake and hesitancy, on the medicalization of dissent within the Canadian academy, on actual COVID policies in selected Canadian universities, and on postsecondary Canadian students’ experience of COVID policies - as well as our personal experience as long-standing and active members of academic communities. We also elaborate on the implications of these responses for policy, ethics, and the normative academic commitments to protect free intellectual inquiry, promote critical thinking among the young, and support democratic governance, in the hope of shedding light on better ways moving forward.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/hvxpc/" target="_blank">Reflections on academia in the COVID-19 era: Implications for policy, ethics, and democracy</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Large and unequal life expectancy declines associated with the COVID-19 pandemic in India in 2020</strong> -
<div>
The toll of the COVID-19 pandemic in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is uncertain. We are the first to use high-quality empirical data from India, which has a large population and where pandemic surveillance was particularly poor, to examine changes in life expectancy and estimate excess deaths during the pandemic. We analyze data from the households interviewed in 2021 in India’s fifth Demographic and Health Survey, a subsample representative of about one-quarter of India’s population. In this subsample, life expectancy at birth declined by 2.6 years between 2019 and 2020, a reduction that is larger than the loss in life expectancy observed in any high-income country (HIC) in the same period. Mortality was 17.0% higher in the pandemic months of 2020 compared to 2019. Applied nationally, this level of excess mortality implies 1.18 million excess deaths in 2020. Compared to HICs, mortality increases in younger ages in India contributed more to the decrease in life expectancy than older ages. Furthermore, the pandemic exacerbated gender and social inequalities. In contrast to global patterns, females in India experienced larger life expectancy losses than males. As compared to a life expectancy loss of 1.5 years for high caste Hindus, who are privileged in Indian society, Muslims lost 5.9 years, Scheduled Tribes lost 4.4 years, and Scheduled Castes lost 2.6 years. These findings uncover large and unequal mortality shocks during the pandemic in the world’s most populous country.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/8juds/" target="_blank">Large and unequal life expectancy declines associated with the COVID-19 pandemic in India in 2020</a>
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<li><strong>Nurses’ perceptions of videoconferencing telenursing: comparing frontal learning vs. online learning before and after the COVID-19 pandemic</strong> -
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Introduction: During the COVID-19 pandemic, a digital transformation led to an expansion in telenursing practices and a shift in training to online learning. The aim of this study was to explore the impact of behavioral-related factors, based on both TAM and TPB variables, on the intention to use telenursing through videoconferencing and to compare the effect of frontal (before COVID-19) vs. online (during and after COVID-19) training in post-basic nursing courses on nursing attitudes to telenursing. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted in December 2022 among nurses working mainly at hospitals in Israel who underwent post-basic education training between January 2017 and December 2022. A multivariate ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis was used to investigate determinants of intention to use telenursing through videoconferencing Results: Nurses have a positive attitude towards telenursing technology via videoconferencing for remote patient care, regardless of whether they learned about it through face-to-face or online training. The ease of use and the perception of the technology9s importance by colleagues and supervisors were found to have the most significant impact on the attitude of both research groups towards the use of telelearning. Discussion: Successful implementation of new technology in healthcare requires organizational and collegial support. Therefore, managers should encourage the use of telenursing by providing appropriate training for nurses and the necessary resources and support.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.22.23290291v1" target="_blank">Nurses’ perceptions of videoconferencing telenursing: comparing frontal learning vs. online learning before and after the COVID-19 pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Multiplex PCR amplicon sequencing revealed community transmission of SARS-CoV-2 lineages on the campus of Sichuan University during the outbreak of infection in Chinese Mainland at the end of 2022</strong> -
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During the pandemic of COVID-19, wastewater-based epidemiology has become a powerful epidemic surveillance tool widely used around the world. However, the development and application of this technology in Chinese Mainland are relatively lagging. Herein, we report the first case of community circulation of SARS-CoV-2 lineages monitored by WBE in Chinese Mainland during the infection outbreak at the end of 2022 after the comprehensive relaxation of epidemic prevention policies. During the peak period of infection, six precious sewage samples were collected from the manhole in the student dormitory area of Wangjiang Campus of Sichuan University. According to the results RT-qPCR, the six sewage samples were all positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA. Based on multiplex PCR amplicon sequencing, the local transmission of SARS-CoV-2 variants at that time was analyzed. The results show that the main virus lineages in sewage have clear evolutionary genetic correlations. Furthermore, the sampling time is very consistent with the timeline of concern for these virus lineages and consistent with the timeline for uploading the nucleic acid sequences of the corresponding lineages in Sichuan to the database. These results demonstrate the reliability of the sequencing results of SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid in wastewater. Multiplex PCR amplicon sequencing is by far the most powerful analytical tool of WBE, enabling quantitative monitoring of virus lineage prevalence at the community level.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.22.23290366v1" target="_blank">Multiplex PCR amplicon sequencing revealed community transmission of SARS-CoV-2 lineages on the campus of Sichuan University during the outbreak of infection in Chinese Mainland at the end of 2022</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>The Brazilian vaccine divide: how some municipalities are being left behind in the Covid-19 vaccine coverage</strong> -
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Objectives: This study aims to assess the progress of geographic, socioeconomic, and demographic disparities in Covid-19 vaccination coverage in Brazil over the first two years of the vaccination campaign. Methods: Data from the National Immunization Program Information System were used to estimate covid-19 vaccine coverage. Brazilian municipalities were divided into two groups based on their vaccine coverage for the booster dose. The first group comprised 20% of municipalities with the lowest coverage, while the second group (80% of municipalities) had higher coverage. The analysis was conducted separately for four age groups: 5-11, 12-17, 18-59, and 60+. Exploratory variables included socioeconomic and health services indicators. Crude and adjusted logistic regression models were used to estimate the probability of a municipality being among those with the worst vaccination coverage according to the categories of exploratory variables. Results: Between January/2021 and December/2022, Brazil administered 448.2 million doses of the covid-19 vaccine. The booster vaccination coverage varied from 24.8% among adolescents to 79.7% among the elderly. The difference between the group with the highest and lowest coverage increased during the national vaccination campaign. Municipalities with lower education levels, higher proportion of Black population, higher Gini index, and worse health service indicators had a greater likelihood of having lower vaccination coverage. Conclusions: High and increasing levels of inequality in Covid-19 vaccination were observed in Brazil across all age groups during the vaccination campaign in 2021-2022.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.23.23290401v1" target="_blank">The Brazilian vaccine divide: how some municipalities are being left behind in the Covid-19 vaccine coverage</a>
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<li><strong>Analysing the psychosocial and health impacts of Long COVID in Pakistan: A cross sectional study</strong> -
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Long COVID corresponds to the occurrence of symptoms beyond twelve weeks after the onset of acute COVID-19 illness. The study aimed to analyze impacts of long COVID on the general health and psychosocial well-being of the Pakistani population. This cross-sectional study aimed to analyse the impacts of long COVID on general health and psychosocial well-being. For this study, the participants were interviewed, and their responses were recorded on a questionnaire capturing information on demographics, COVID-19 status, duration of symptoms and long COVID symptoms. The psychological impacts of the pandemic were assessed using scales like Short Mood and feeling questionnaire (sMFQ), Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS), Generalized Anxiety Disorder Assessment (GAD-7) and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Regression analysis was conducted to analyse the predictors of long COVID. A total of 300 participants were interviewed, of which 155 (52%) had COVID-19 illness. Of these 54 (35%) had persistent symptoms for a period of more than 12 weeks classified as long COVID. Muscle problems and fatigue were the most frequent (14.7%) symptoms encountered, followed by breathing problems (12.6%) and cognitive issues (12.6%). Symptoms such as decrease in appetite and confusion or disorientation during the initial phase of the infection were associated with long COVID. Majority of the participants (83.3%) had moderate level of perceived stress while moderate to severe levels of stress was observed in 17.3% of the individuals. Moreover, a high level positive mental wellbeing was also observed.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.22.23290323v1" target="_blank">Analysing the psychosocial and health impacts of Long COVID in Pakistan: A cross sectional study</a>
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<li><strong>A patient-centered view of symptoms, functional impact, and priorities in post-COVID-19 syndrome: Cross-sectional results from the Quebec Action Post-COVID cohort</strong> -
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Background: Health services planning and mechanism-focused research would benefit from a clearer picture of symptoms, impact, and personal priorities in post-COVID-19 syndrome (PCS). This study aimed to provide estimates of the symptom, function, and quality of life (QOL) impact of PCS. Methods: People living in Quebec, aged 18 and over, were eligible for the Quebec Action for/pour le Post-COVID (QAPC) study if they had symptoms lasting more than 4 weeks post-acute SARS-CoV-2 infection, with or without a positive COVID-19 test. Recruitment was through conventional and social media between September 2022-January 2023. Standardized and individualized questionnaires, in French or English, were accessed through an online portal. We report cross-sectional results from the baseline visit of the first 414 participants in this ongoing longitudinal study. Results: Individuals spontaneously reported symptoms attributable to an average of 4.5 organ systems. Fatigue was most frequent. Effects on function and quality of life were moderate to severe, and had already persisted for a year or more in the majority. Personal intervention priorities included fatigue and post-exercise malaise, cognitive symptoms, shortness of breath, and impaired taste and smell. Women and men were similar on PCS impact, while older age was associated with lower impact. Interpretation: Symptom clusters defined a range of severity, with fatigue a pervasive symptom at all levels of severity. Participants in this study are likely to be representative of those seeking health care for post-COVID-19 symptoms in Canada and the results can inform next steps for clinical, research, and health services planning.
</p>
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.27.23290638v1" target="_blank">A patient-centered view of symptoms, functional impact, and priorities in post-COVID-19 syndrome: Cross-sectional results from the Quebec Action Post-COVID cohort</a>
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<li><strong>Long COVID and financial outcomes: Evidence from four longitudinal population surveys</strong> -
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Background: Long-term sequelae of COVID-19 (long COVID) include muscle weakness, fatigue, breathing difficulties and sleep disturbance over weeks or months. Using UK longitudinal data, we assessed the relationship between long COVID and financial disruption. Methods: We estimated associations between long COVID (derived using self-reported length of COVID-19 symptoms) and measures of financial disruption (subjective financial well-being, new benefit claims, changes in household income) by analysing data from four longitudinal population studies, gathered during the first year of the pandemic. We employed modified Poisson regression in a pooled analysis of the four cohorts adjusting for a range of potential confounders, including pre-pandemic (pre-long COVID) factors. Results: Among 20,112 observations across four population surveys, 13% reported having COVID-19 with symptoms that impeded their ability to function normally - 10.7% had such symptoms for &lt;4 weeks (acute COVID-19), 1.2% had such symptoms for 4-12 weeks (ongoing symptomatic COVID-19) and 0.6% had such symptoms for &gt;12 weeks (post-COVID-19 syndrome). We found that post-COVID-19 syndrome was associated with worse subjective financial well-being (adjusted relative risk ratios (aRRR)=1.57, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.25, 1.96) and new benefit claims (aRRR=1.79, CI=1.27, 2.53). Associations were broadly similar across sexes and education levels. These results were not meaningfully altered when scaled to represent the population by age. Conclusions: Long COVID was associated with financial disruption in the UK. If our findings reflect causal effects, extending employment protection and financial support to people with long COVID may be warranted.
</p>
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.23.23290354v1" target="_blank">Long COVID and financial outcomes: Evidence from four longitudinal population surveys</a>
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<li><strong>Missing data and missed infections: Investigating racial and ethnic disparities in SARS-CoV-2 testing and infection rates in Holyoke, Massachusetts</strong> -
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Routinely collected testing data has been a vital resource for public health response during the COVID-19 pandemic and has revealed the extent to which Black and Hispanic persons have borne a disproportionate burden of SARS-CoV-2 infections and hospitalizations in the United States. However, missing race and ethnicity data and missed infections due to testing disparities limit the interpretation of testing data and obscure the true toll of the pandemic. We investigated potential bias arising from these two types of missing data through a case study in Holyoke, Massachusetts during the pre-vaccination phase of the pandemic. First, we estimated SARS-CoV-2 testing and case rates by race/ethnicity, imputing missing data using a joint modelling approach. We then investigated disparities in SARS-CoV-2 reported case rates and missed infections by comparing case rate estimates to estimates derived from a COVID-19 seroprevalence survey. Compared to the non-Hispanic white population, we found that the Hispanic population had similar testing rates (476 vs. 480 tested per 1,000) but twice the case rate (8.1% vs. 3.7%). We found evidence of inequitable testing, with a higher rate of missed infections in the Hispanic population compared to the non-Hispanic white population (77 vs. 58 infections missed per 1,000).
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.24.23290470v1" target="_blank">Missing data and missed infections: Investigating racial and ethnic disparities in SARS-CoV-2 testing and infection rates in Holyoke, Massachusetts</a>
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<li><strong>Comparative analysis of symptom profile and risk of death associated with infection by SARS-CoV-2 and its variants in Hong Kong</strong> -
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Introduction: The recurrent multi-wave nature of COVID-19 necessitates updating its symptomatology. Before the omicron era, Hong Kong was relatively unscathed and had a low vaccine uptake rate among the old-old, giving us an opportunity to study the intrinsic severity of SARS-CoV-2 variants. A comparison of symptom patterns across variants and vaccination status in Hong Kong has yet to be undertaken. The intrinsic severity of variants and symptoms predictive of severe outcomes are also understudied as COVID-19 evolves. We therefore aim to characterize the effect of variants on symptom presentation, identify the symptoms predictive and protective of death, and quantify the effect of vaccination on symptom development. Methods: With the COVID-19 case series in Hong Kong from inception to 25 August 2022, an iterative multi-tier text-matching algorithm was developed to identify symptoms from free text. Cases were fully vaccinated if they completed two doses. Multivariate regression was used to measure associations between variants, symptom development, death and vaccination status. A least absolute shrinkage and selection operator technique was used to identify a parsimonious set of symptoms jointly associated with death. Results: Overall, 70.9% (54450/76762) of cases were symptomatic. We identified a wide spectrum of symptoms (n=102), with cough, fever, runny nose and sore throat being the most common (8.16-47.0%). Intrinsically, the wild-type and delta variant caused similar symptoms, with runny nose, sore throat, itchy throat and headache more frequent in the delta cohort; whereas symptoms were heterogeneous between the wild-type and omicron variant, with seven symptoms (fatigue, fever, chest pain, runny nose, sputum production, nausea/vomiting and sore throat) more frequent in the omicron cohort. With full vaccination, omicron was still more likely than delta to cause fever. Fever, blocked nose and shortness of breath were robustly jointly predictive of death as the virus evolved. Number of vaccine doses required for reduction in occurrence varied by symptoms. Discussion: This is the first large-scale study to evaluate the changing symptomatology by COVID-19 variants and vaccination status using free-text reporting by patients. We substantiate existing findings that omicron has a different clinical presentation compared to previous variants. Syndromic surveillance can be bettered with reduced reliance on symptom-based case identification, increased weighing on symptoms robustly predictive of mortality in outcome prediction, strengthened infection control in care homes through universal individual-based risk assessment to enable early risk stratification, adjusting the stockpile of medicine to tally with the changing symptom profiles across vaccine doses, and incorporating free-text symptom reporting by patients.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.25.23289996v1" target="_blank">Comparative analysis of symptom profile and risk of death associated with infection by SARS-CoV-2 and its variants in Hong Kong</a>
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<li><strong>Researching COVID to enhance recovery (RECOVER) adult study protocol: Rationale, objectives and design</strong> -
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Importance: SARS-CoV-2 infection can result in ongoing, relapsing, or new symptoms or other health effects after the acute phase of infection; termed post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC), or long COVID. The characteristics, prevalence, trajectory and mechanisms of PASC are ill-defined. The objectives of the Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) Multi-site Observational Study of PASC in Adults (RECOVER-Adult) are to: (1) characterize PASC prevalence; (2) characterize the symptoms, organ dysfunction, natural history, and distinct phenotypes of PASC; (3) identify demographic, social and clinical risk factors for PASC onset and recovery; and (4) define the biological mechanisms underlying PASC pathogenesis. Methods: RECOVER-Adult is a combined prospective/retrospective cohort currently planned to enroll 14,880 adults aged ≥18 years. Eligible participants either must meet WHO criteria for suspected, probable, or confirmed infection; or must have evidence of no prior infection. Recruitment occurs at 86 sites in 33 U.S. states, Washington, DC and Puerto Rico, via facility- and community-based outreach. Participants complete quarterly questionnaires about symptoms, social determinants, vaccination status, and interim SARS-CoV-2 infections. In addition, participants contribute biospecimens and undergo physical and laboratory examinations at approximately 0, 90 and 180 days from infection or negative test date, and yearly thereafter. Some participants undergo additional testing based on specific criteria or random sampling. Patient representatives provide input on all study processes. The primary study outcome is onset of PASC, measured by signs and symptoms. A paradigm for identifying PASC cases will be defined and updated using supervised and unsupervised learning approaches with cross-validation. Logistic regression and proportional hazards regression will be conducted to investigate associations between risk factors, onset, and resolution of PASC symptoms. Discussion: RECOVER-Adult is the first national, prospective, longitudinal cohort of PASC among US adults. Results of this study are intended to inform public health, spur clinical trials, and expand treatment options.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.26.23290475v1" target="_blank">Researching COVID to enhance recovery (RECOVER) adult study protocol: Rationale, objectives and design</a>
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<li><strong>Impact of COVID-19 on Hepatitis B Screening in Sierra Leone: Insights from a Community Pharmacy Model of Care</strong> -
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Background: There are limited studies evaluating the impact of COVID-19-related interruptions on hepatitis B virus (HBV) screening in endemic countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study of HBV testing in a community pharmacy in Freetown, Sierra Leone, from October 1, 2019, through September 30, 2022. We compared participant characteristics using Pearson9s chi-square test. We evaluated trends in HBV screening and diagnosis using one-way ANOVA with Tukey9s or Dunnett9s post-test. Results: Of 920 individuals screened, 161 had detectable HBsAg (seroprevalence 17.5% [95% CI 14.9-20.4]). There was a 100% decrease in HBV screening during January-June of 2020; however, screening increased by 27% and 23% in the first and second year after COVID-19, respectively. Mean quarterly tests showed a significant upward trend: 55 − 6 tests during January-March (baseline), 74 − 16 tests during April-June, 101 − 3 tests during July-September, and 107 − 17 tests during October-December (one-way ANOVA test for trend, F = 7.7, p = 0.0254) but not the mean quarterly number of people diagnosed with HBV (F = 0.34, p = 0.7992). Conclusion: Community-based HBV screening dramatically improved following temporary disruptions related to COVID-19. Seasonal variation in HBV screening, but not HBV diagnosis, may have implications for HBV elimination efforts in Sierra Leone and other West African countries.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.24.23290418v1" target="_blank">Impact of COVID-19 on Hepatitis B Screening in Sierra Leone: Insights from a Community Pharmacy Model of Care</a>
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<li><strong>The COVID-19 Pandemic and a Resurgence of Motherhood Wage Penalties in the United States</strong> -
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Background The total motherhood wage gap among U.S. college-educated women closed over the past two decades and was eliminated by the early 2010s. It is not clear, however, whether the COVID-19 pandemic reversed these trends. Methods Drawing on nationally representative data from the 2000–2022 Current Population Surveys, this study uses linear regression models to estimate trends in the total motherhood wage gap among college-educated and non-college-educated women who work full-time. Results In the decade leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, college-educated women with children did not pay a substantial motherhood wage penalty, but their wages began to decline at the onset of the pandemic, and the decline accelerated over the following years. By the end of 2022, college-educated women paid a 6% wage penalty for motherhood. In contrast to college-educated women, women without a college degree did not experience a substantial change in the motherhood wage penalty during the pandemic. Contribution Our study provides new evidence indicating that by 2022, three years into the pandemic, college-educated mothers experienced the highest motherhood wage penalty since the turn of the 20th century, reversing two decades of progress for this group of women. This study reveals the longer-term career-related ramifications of the pandemic for college-educated mothers and highlights the precarity of mothers’ economic progress related to external shocks, especially those that disrupt childcare and educational systems.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/py8bj/" target="_blank">The COVID-19 Pandemic and a Resurgence of Motherhood Wage Penalties in the United States</a>
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<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>Investigation of the Effect on Cognitive Skills of COVID-19 Survivors</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: green walking and intelligence gam<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Bayburt University;   Karadeniz Technical University<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>The Effect of Special Discharge Training in the COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Pneumonia<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: COVID-19 Discharge Education<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Kilis 7 Aralik University<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>Conducting Clinical Trials of the Medicine “Rutan Tablets 0.1g” No. 10 in the Complex Therapy of COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Patients With COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: The drug “Rutan 0.1”.;   Other: Basic treatment<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Research Institute of Virology, Ministry of Health of the Republic of Uzbekistan<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>Evaluation of Safety, Tolerability, Reactogenicity, Immunogenicity of Baiya SARS-CoV-2 Vax 2 as a Booster for COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19 Vaccine;   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: 50 μg Baiya SARS-CoV-2 Vax 2;   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Baiya Phytopharm 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>Physiotherapy in Mutated COVID-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Pandemic<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: Physiotherapy<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Giresun University<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>Studying the Efficiency of the Natural Preparation Rutan in Children in the Treatment of COVID-19, ARVI</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Respiratory Infection<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Rutan 25 mg;   Other: Control group<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Research Institute of Virology, Ministry of Health of the Republic of Uzbekistan<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>Phase 3 Study of Novavax Vaccine(s) as Booster Dose After mRNA Vaccines</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: NVX-CoV2373;   Biological: SARS-CoV-2 rS antigen/Matrix-M Adjuvant<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Novavax<br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>To Explore the Regulatory Effect of Combined Capsule FMT on the Levels of Inflammatory Factors in Peripheral Blood of Patients With COVID-19 During Treatment.</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Fecal Microbiota Transplantation;   COVID-19 Infection<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Procedure: Fecal microbiota transplantation<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Shanghai 10th People’s 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>Telerehabilitation Program and Detraining in Patients With Post-COVID-19 Sequelae</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: Telerehabilitation program<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Campus docent Sant Joan de Déu-Universitat de Barcelona<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>REVERSE-Long COVID-19 With Baricitinib Pilot Study</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: Baricitinib 4 MG<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Vanderbilt University Medical Center;   Emory University;   University of California, San Francisco;   University of Minnesota;   Vanderbilt University;   Yale University<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Dose Exploration Intramuscular/Intravenous Prophylaxis Pharmacokinetic Exposure Response Study</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: AZD3152;   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   AstraZeneca<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>COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake Amongst Underserved Populations in East London</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   Influenza;   Vaccination Refusal<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Device: Patient Engagement tool<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Queen Mary University of London;   Social Action for Health<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>Use of a Hypochlorous Acid Spray Solution in the Treatment of COVID-19 Patients : COVICONTROL Study .</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   SARS CoV 2 Infection<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Other: Spray with Hypochlorous Acid Group;   Other: Spray with Placebo Group<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   University of Monastir<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 Assess Safety, Reactogenicity and Immunogenicity of the repRNA(QTP104) Vaccine Against SARS-CoV-2(COVID-19)</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   SARS-CoV-2<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: QTP104 1ug;   Biological: QTP104 5ug;   Biological: QTP104 25ug<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Quratis Inc.<br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Monoclonal Antibodies for Long COVID (COVID-19)</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Long COVID;   Post-Acute Sequela of COVID-19;   Post-Acute COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: AER002;   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Michael Peluso, MD;   Aerium Therapeutics<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-pubmed">From PubMed</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SARS-CoV-2 ORF3a sensitizes cells to ferroptosis via Keap1-NRF2 axis</strong> - Viral infection-induced cell death has long been considered as a double-edged sword in the inhibition or exacerbation of viral infections. Patients with severe Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) are characterized by multiple organ dysfunction syndrome and cytokine storm, which may result from SARS-CoV-2-induced cell death. Previous studies have observed enhanced ROS level and signs of ferroptosis in SARS-CoV-2 infected cells or specimens of patients with COVID-19, but the exact mechanism is not…</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>Utilization of Marine Seaweeds as a Promising Defense Against COVID-19: a Mini-review</strong> - COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) which mainly affects the respiratory system. It has been declared as a “pandemic” in March 2020 by the World Health Organization due to the high spreading rate. SARS-CoV-2 binds with the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptors on the cell surface which leads to the downregulation of ACE2 and upregulation of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) receptors. The elevated level 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>Identification of Host Proteins Interacting with IBV S1 Based on Tracheal Organ Culture</strong> - Infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) belongs to the gamma-coronavirus genus of Coronaviridae and causes serious infectious diseases in the poultry industry. However, only a few IBV strains can infect avian passage cell lines, seriously hindering the progress of basic research on IBV pathogenesis. Whereas IBV field strains can replicate in tracheal ring organ culture (TOC) without any previous adaptation in chicken embryos or primary cells. In this study, to investigate the potential use of TOC as…</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>Transcription Factor Driven Gene Regulation in COVID-19 Patients</strong> - SARS-CoV-2 and its many variants have caused a worldwide emergency. Host cells colonised by SARS-CoV-2 present a significantly different gene expression landscape. As expected, this is particularly true for genes that directly interact with virus proteins. Thus, understanding the role that transcription factors can play in driving differential regulation in patients affected by COVID-19 is a focal point to unveil virus infection. In this regard, we have identified 19 transcription factors which…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Genes Involved in miRNA Biogenesis Are Not Downregulated in SARS-CoV-2 Infection</strong> - miRNAs, small non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression, are involved in various pathological processes, including viral infections. Virus infections may interfere with the miRNA pathway through the inhibition of genes involved in miRNA biogenesis. A reduction in the number and the levels of miRNAs expressed in nasopharyngeal swabs of patients with severe COVID-19 was lately observed by us, pointing towards the potential of miRNAs as possible diagnostic or prognostic biomarkers 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>In Silico and In Vitro Evaluation of Some Amidine Derivatives as Hit Compounds towards Development of Inhibitors against Coronavirus Diseases</strong> - Coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and influenza A virus, require the host proteases to mediate viral entry into cells. Rather than targeting the continuously mutating viral proteins, targeting the conserved host-based entry mechanism could offer advantages. Nafamostat and camostat were discovered as covalent inhibitors of TMPRSS2 protease involved in viral entry. To circumvent their limitations, a reversible inhibitor might be required. Considering nafamostat structure and…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Dimeric Peptide (KKYRYHLKPF)<sub>2</sub>K Shows Broad-Spectrum Antiviral Activity by Inhibiting Different Steps of Chikungunya and Zika Virus Infection</strong> - Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) and Zika virus (ZIKV) are important disease-causing agents worldwide. Currently, there are no antiviral drugs or vaccines approved to treat these viruses. However, peptides have shown great potential for new drug development. A recent study described (p-BthTX-I)(2)K [(KKYRYHLKPF)(2)K], a peptide derived from the Bothropstoxin-I toxin in the venom of the Bothrops jararacussu snake, showed antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2. In this study, we assessed the activity 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>GRP78 Inhibitor YUM70 Suppresses SARS-CoV-2 Viral Entry, Spike Protein Production and Ameliorates Lung Damage</strong> - The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of the COVID-19 pandemic, has given rise to many new variants with increased transmissibility and the ability to evade vaccine protection. The 78-kDa glucose-regulated protein (GRP78) is a major endoplasmic reticulum (ER) chaperone that has been recently implicated as an essential host factor for SARS-CoV-2 entry and infection. In this study, we investigated the efficacy of YUM70, a small molecule inhibitor 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>IgG4 Antibodies Induced by Repeated Vaccination May Generate Immune Tolerance to the SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein</strong> - Less than a year after the global emergence of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, a novel vaccine platform based on mRNA technology was introduced to the market. Globally, around 13.38 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses of diverse platforms have been administered. To date, 72.3% of the total population has been injected at least once with a COVID-19 vaccine. As the immunity provided by these vaccines rapidly wanes, their ability to prevent hospitalization and severe disease in individuals with…</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>Long COVID and Hybrid Immunity among Children and Adolescents Post-Delta Variant Infection in Thailand</strong> - This study aimed to assess long COVID, and describe immunogenicity against Omicron variants following BNT162b2 vaccination. A prospective cohort study was conducted among children (aged 5-11) and adolescents (aged 12-17) who had SARS-CoV-2 infection from July to December 2021 (Delta predominant period). Long COVID symptoms were assessed by questionnaires at 3 months after infection. Immunogenicity was evaluated by using a surrogate virus-neutralizing antibody test (sVNT) against the Omicron…</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>Natural Product-Based Screening for Lead Compounds Targeting SARS CoV-2 M<sup>pro</sup></strong> - Drugs that cure COVID-19 have been marketed; however, this disease continues to ravage the world without becoming extinct, and thus, drug discoveries are still relevant. Since M^(pro) has known advantages as a drug target, such as the conserved nature of the active site and the absence of homologous proteins in the body, it receives the attention of many researchers. Meanwhile, the role of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in the control of epidemics in China has also led to a focus on natural…</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>Hydroxypropyl-β-Cyclodextrin Depletes Membrane Cholesterol and Inhibits SARS-CoV-2 Entry into HEK293T-ACE<sup>hi</sup> Cells</strong> - Vaccination has drastically decreased mortality due to coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19), but not the rate of acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. Alternative strategies such as inhibition of virus entry by interference with angiotensin-I-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptors could be warranted. Cyclodextrins (CDs) are cyclic oligosaccharides that are able to deplete cholesterol from membrane lipid rafts, causing ACE2 receptors to relocate to areas devoid of lipid…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Discovery of Chalcone-Based Hybrid Structures as High Affinity and Site-Specific Inhibitors against SARS-CoV-2: A Comprehensive Structural Analysis Based on Various Host-Based and Viral Targets</strong> - Previous studies indicated that natural-based chalcones have significant inhibitory effects on the coronavirus enzymes 3CLpro and PLpro as well as modulation of some host-based antiviral targets (HBATs). In this study, a comprehensive computational and structural study was performed to investigate the affinity of our compound library consisting of 757 chalcone-based structures (CHA-1 to CHA-757) for inhibiting the 3CLpro and PLpro enzymes and against twelve selected host-based targets. Our…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Drug Potency Prediction of SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease Inhibitors Based on a Graph Generative Model</strong> - The prediction of a ligand potency to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 main protease (M-pro) would be a highly helpful addition to a virtual screening process. The most potent compounds might then be the focus of further efforts to experimentally validate their potency and improve them. A computational method to predict drug potency, which is based on three main steps, is defined: (1) defining the drug and protein in only one 3D structure; (2) applying graph autoencoder techniques with the aim of generating 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>Novel Polymyxin-Inspired Peptidomimetics Targeting the SARS-CoV-2 Spike:hACE2 Interface</strong> - Though the bulk of the COVID-19 pandemic is behind, the search for effective and safe anti-SARS-CoV-2 drugs continues to be relevant. A highly pursued approach for antiviral drug development involves targeting the viral spike (S) protein of SARS-CoV-2 to prevent its attachment to the cellular receptor ACE2. Here, we exploited the core structure of polymyxin B, a naturally occurring antibiotic, to design and synthesize unprecedented peptidomimetics (PMs), intended to target contemporarily two…</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>What Can Ron DeSantis Do Now?</strong> - It isn’t that the Florida governor is charmless—or it’s not only that. It’s that his career has been spent on a charmlessness offensive. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/06/05/what-can-ron-desantis-do-now">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>E. Jean Carroll Discusses Trump’s Comeuppance</strong> - Since losing a civil case to the journalist, who accused him of sexual abuse and defamation, Trump has doubled down on his attacks. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/e-jean-carroll-discusses-trumps-comeuppance">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What Is a Weed?</strong> - The names we call plants say more about us than they do about the greenery that surrounds us. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-local-correspondents/what-is-a-weed">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>E. Jean Carroll on Defamatory Trump, and Rob Marshall on “The Little Mermaid”</strong> - Carroll and her lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, on their next move against Donald Trump’s campaign of defamation. Plus, the director of Disney’s new film on bringing the mermaid to life. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-new-yorker-radio-hour/e-jean-carroll-on-defamatory-trump-and-rob-marshall-on-the-little-mermaid">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How Andy Warhol Turned the Supreme Court Justices Into Art Critics</strong> - Justice Elena Kagan’s dissent reads as strenuously as a vintage piece by, say, Clement Greenberg, slamming Harold Rosenberg. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/how-warhol-turned-the-supreme-court-justices-into-art-critics">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Reality, starring Sydney Sweeney, is unsettling, vital viewing</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A close-up of the face of a young white woman who looks frightened." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/DwKjCPEjpS2vaM6P1dIIPI6LU4c=/360x0:1403x782/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72321751/realitycover.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Sydney Sweeney as whistleblower Reality Winner in <em>Reality</em>. | HBO
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The HBO film adapts the FBI transcript from Reality Winner’s interrogation into a stunning thriller.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Pefg4t">
When the play that would one day become the extraordinary drama <em>Reality</em> premiered off-Broadway, its whistleblower protagonist was still in a federal prison.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GvCI6g">
Back then, in February 2019, the show was called <a href="https://www.vulture.com/2021/10/theater-review-is-this-a-room-on-broadway.html"><em>Is This a Room</em></a>, an enigmatic quote from the show itself. An FBI agent looks into the place — it’s definitely a room — where two of his colleagues are interrogating the diminutive 25-year-old woman who lives there, and he makes the inquiry. He seems to be asking if the space needs to be searched. But it’s a strange, off-kilter query, one nobody would really know how to answer. Of course this is a room; what else would it be? It’s like asking where “here” is. Or whether reality exists.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="j0xcwk">
There’s an ironic vigor to <em>Reality</em>’s narrative, a practically allegorical sense that it was constructed by a lightly ham-fisted author with something to prove. It’s a story about truth and twisted facts, about shadows and subterfuge, and the woman at its center is literally named Reality.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1qMxQC">
What makes it so strange, and so chilling, is that nobody wrote it at all.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RWV9yp">
The text of <em>Reality</em>, like the play it’s based on, is a verbatim replica, including redactions, of the FBI’s transcript of its interrogation of Air Force veteran and NSA translator Reality Winner on June 3, 2017. Playwright and director Tina Satter pulled the transcript onto the stage, and now she and co-screenwriter James Paul Dallas have moved it — to incredible effect — onto the screen, starring Sydney Sweeney as Winner and Josh Hamilton and Marchánt Davis as the agents interrogating her.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Two FBI agents and a young woman stand in an almost-empty room." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/2HzLfzSYkqILhue4VxS01gjT8WA=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24675629/reality2.jpg"/> <cite>HBO</cite>
<figcaption>
Sydney Sweeney, Josh Hamilton, and Marchánt Davis in <em>Reality.</em>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="48XXXT">
<em>Reality</em> is, quite literally, the kind of movie where people just talk the whole time. But that’s precisely why it works. The dialogue (unaltered, with a key exception, from the stage production and thus the FBI’s transcript) has that greatest of theatrical qualities: Nobody is ever saying quite what they mean, and you are riveted, trying to figure out what they’re thinking, the balance of power shifting back and forth. That it works so well on screen is a tremendous testimony to both Satter’s directorial chops and the actors’ performances.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="T6d8EL">
The real Reality Winner, you may recall <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/14/us/politics/reality-winner-is-released.html">from the headlines</a>, was accused and convicted of leaking an intelligence report regarding attempted Russian hacking of voter rolls during the 2016 election. “I wasn’t trying to be a Snowden or anything,” she told the agents. Later, she told the media that she felt the government was intentionally misleading its citizens about Russia’s attempts to upend the election, and so she printed out a file and mailed it to <a href="https://theintercept.com/">the Intercept</a>, which promised its sources anonymity.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9kZ4FU">
The government found out and arrived on her doorstep even before the Intercept published the reports. For the crime of “removing classified material from a government facility and mailing it to a news outlet,” she was sentenced to five years and three months in federal prison — the longest ever imposed for this crime. And, incredibly, she was repeatedly denied bail, ultimately remaining there for just shy of four years, even as Congress and other government officials spoke about what she’d revealed publicly. Though she was transferred to a transitional facility on June 2, 2021, Winner never saw the show about her when it opened on Broadway that October — because she was still under house arrest.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Vz8raj">
Translating play to screen results in subtle changes. When the show was still on stage, redactions in the transcripts were staged visually, the audience briefly plunged into blackness, a switch flipped that left you disoriented in the audience. As a medium, film has a little more to play with visually, so instead we see Sweeney’s image fuzz out and disappear, then reappear every time the redaction ends.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MkoqTD">
There’s also context-setting by way of news clips; at the start, we see Winner in her cubicle, Fox News coverage of FBI Director James Comey’s testimony before Congress blaring from a TV on the wall. (Later, she’ll tell the agents that she repeatedly asked for the TVs to be switched to anything other than Fox News — Al Jazeera, or just pictures of people’s pets — and it greatly upset her.) Sometimes events and dates about which the characters are speaking are cut together with the real Reality’s images or Instagram posts; once in a while we see a waveform of the tapes, or hear some static, or see the transcript being typed, a way to remind us that what we are watching is not fiction.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Jnhujb">
Or not exactly, anyhow.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A young white woman in a white button-down looks worried." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/WwUAkXtDGwz7s_U0XvLSuCbBnVk=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24684589/reality1.jpg"/> <cite>HBO</cite>
<figcaption>
Sydney Sweeney in <em>Reality.</em>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CATynr">
Most significantly, some of the redactions in the play have become un-redacted in the meantime. Many of them concerned the news outlet to which Winner leaked the document; the film eventually starts saying “the Intercept” out loud, and it’s a bit shocking at first. The reasoning seems clear. In November 2021, just after the Broadway show closed, Winner <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/reality-winner-interview-prison-nsa-1261844/">blasted</a> the Intercept for its handling of the documents, the handling of which <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/06/intercept-nsa-leaker-reality-winner.html">may have been responsible</a> for her identification by the FBI (and which became a huge problem <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-intercept-failed-to-shield-its-confidential-source-now-its-making-amends/2017/07/11/9d41284a-65d8-11e7-8eb5-cbccc2e7bfbf_story.html">for the publication</a>). Visually, <em>Reality</em> makes the case that the Intercept screwed up. Small wonder.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UOG58J">
The question at the center of <em>Reality</em> is complex. When it was a play, it was an inquiry into Winner’s motives. Why would a young woman who wants, as she repeatedly tells the agents, to be deployed — to get out of her dead-end position as a Farsi translator and actually use her extensive language skills — do something she knows is illegal? What “pushed her over the edge,” as one of the agents asks?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6M34jC">
But as a movie, with the attendant close-ups on faces the medium provides, the question grows. Emotional complexity, the manifold feelings her character is experiencing, and her well-trained attempts to stay cool, flash across Sweeney’s face. We start to really see what she’s thinking, and that leads to a bigger, more unnerving demonstration of the abject failure of the systems meant to protect us to do anything like that. Winner’s military record can’t save her. The fact that she speaks three languages spoken in the Middle East is called “impressive” many times by the agents, but each time the repetition is more loaded — it’s going to be used against her, we realize, to suggest her sympathies lie elsewhere (and so it was). The FBI isn’t on her side; they don’t even bother to read her Miranda rights. Well-worn gender dynamics suddenly become a factor, with Winner seemingly forced into joking about her cat being obese to pacify the men, sickeningly recognizable to women who’ve ever felt the need to play along for self-protection.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HndA2o">
After her arrest, media reports — stitched into the film, lest the journalistic outlets conveniently forget — include people saying that, for instance, Winner is “a person who had taken a key interest in the Middle East, with suspicious motives,” that she “claimed to hate America,” that she was a “quintessential example of an inside threat.” Even the news outlet that was supposed to protect her, that provided such careful instructions for leakers who wish to remain anonymous, screwed it all up, and <em>she</em> paid the price.
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<aside id="KIh0mw">
<q><em>Reality </em>pulls out a sledgehammer</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9NXZm1">
Watching <em>Reality</em> marks the third time I’ve seen Satter’s adaptation of Winner’s interrogation. Each time, I’m left angry and unsettled. Like many Americans, especially white middle-class women, I was raised to believe that my government messes up sometimes but is essentially on my side. That we are the good guys, a government by the people, for the people, and that we don’t imprison people here just to make sure nobody ever dares to do something like making sure we’re told the truth about our own elections. We lionize the brave person who speaks out. When we get older, and wiser, and maybe more skeptical, that bedrock belief remains: that the truth will protect us.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AItlZq">
To that, <em>Reality </em>pulls out a sledgehammer, and a host of institutions failing to fulfill their own lofty promises. Is anyone doing what they’re supposed to do? If the US government is willing to impose a harsh sentence on someone like Reality Winner, what are we supposed to think? What else is false? Is reality real?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jbaYRw">
Is this a room?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Bkq9hz">
Reality <em>premieres on HBO on May 29 at 10 pm ET and will stream on Max.</em>
</p></li>
<li><strong>In defense of flies. Yes, really.</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="An extreme close-up of a house fly." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/U_IWOoa9mEFZSJnwypN_LwVtdKU=/76x0:1883x1355/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72321688/GettyImages_535501923.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
From “fluffy flying narwhals” to maggots that snorkel in trash, welcome to the wonderfully bizarre world of flies.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="di5gSA">
Flies are annoying, especially on warm weekends spent outdoors. They land on us and our food, they buzz in our ears, and some of them bite. Mosquitos are a kind of fly and they transmit some of the world’s deadliest pathogens.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uj0ncU">
But consider for a minute that you may not really know flies. Or rather, the flies you likely do know — the house flies, the mosquitos, the gnats — are just a tiny, tiny fraction of an enormous group of insects that is, on the whole, quite wonderful. It also supports our very existence.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Orozul">
No, a fly didn’t write this. Flies do, however, have advocates among humans, and recently, one got to me.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OvMgaH">
Last fall, I met Emily Hartop, a scientist who studies flies at a natural history museum in Berlin. A lifelong bug lover, Hartop told me the world is home to hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of fly species. And they fill pretty much every ecological role imaginable. Flies are superb pollinators, shrewd parasites, and exceptional janitors — they literally clean up our shit.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5LxpKp">
Flies are also anatomical marvels, Hartop said. In addition to a pair of wings, they have special balancing organs called halteres that function like gyroscopes, allowing flies to turn sharp corners, hover, and land upside down. “They’re called flies for a reason,” Hartop said. “They are amazing aerial acrobats.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0xOjmQ">
Some flies are bioluminescent and glow in their larval form. Others can get “pregnant,” hatching larvae in their bodies that feed on a milk-like substance, according to Erica McAlister, a fly expert at London’s Natural History Museum. (Nearly all insects lay eggs instead.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wbtQ1X">
None of these facts make the flies we encounter in our homes and at our barbecues any less obnoxious. But this insect group — which is still largely unknown — comprises far more than just pests. Flies help us, and they can even inspire wonder.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PLserd">
Let’s meet some of them.
</p>
<h3 id="Euuxac">
The flies that decapitate ants
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OAyRcJ">
The world’s coolest group of insects, Hartop argues, is the family of flies she studies, known as Phoridae. (She acknowledges her bias.) Phoridae contains tens of thousands of species that exhibit every behavior imaginable, making it perhaps the most ecologically diverse group of organisms in the world.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TaHgmZ">
Many species, for example, are parasites — they live at the expense of other creatures.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qfdoip">
A parasitic fly in the genus Pseudacteon is particularly savage. It lays its eggs inside an ant, and when they hatch, the larvae migrate into the ant’s head. There, the larvae release hormones that kill the ant and cause its head to fall off. The larvae then pupate in the ant’s detached head (as you can see in image F below).
</p>
<div class="c-wide-block">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/9eBC183--cWzXCEDz5Wpx2t9P2s=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24684408/insects_11_00107_g001__1_.jpg"/> <cite><a class="ql-link" href="https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4450/11/2/107" target="_blank">Li Chen and Sanford D. Porter/<em>Insects</em></a></cite>
<figcaption>
Flies in the genus Pseudacteon, which are parasites of ants. In image D, a fly prepares to lay an egg in a fire ant worker. Image F shows a fly emerging from a decapitated ant head.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Zm0G0D">
Female flies in a different genus, meanwhile, will hunt down injured ants and then, using specialized mouth parts, manually saw off their heads, into which they’ll lay their eggs, Hartop said. You can see this in the video below, showing a small fly (on the left) removing an ant’s head.
</p>
<div>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/sL195gBhk55y1Gdl1357vbemBhw=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24684419/giphy__9_.gif"/>
</figure>
</div>
<h3 id="iWZ4r5">
The flies that don’t look like flies
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="R7shBF">
Then there are flies that look more like spiders, bees, and other insects, in some cases to avoid being eaten. (Predators are more likely to avoid insects with painful stingers.)
</p>
<div>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/X48A5YnygEsfvBN43UHHMGiWV8Y=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24684387/Large_Bee_Fly___The_Trustees_of_the_Natural_History_Museum__London.jpg"/> <cite>The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London</cite>
<figcaption>
A bee fly.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="o1kkWN">
A parasitic fly called the bee fly, for example, looks like a bumblebee, an insect that is not at all a fly. McAlister calls them “fluffy flying narwhals.” I prefer “wanna-bees.” The pointy structure sticking out of its head isn’t a stinger, it’s a proboscis, a straw-like mouth part that flies use to feed.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fAWwpo">
Female bee flies spray their eggs “like a machine gun” around the nests of ground-dwelling bees, McAlister said. The larvae then hatch, worm their way into the nest, and eat the bee larvae.
</p>
<div>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Rh-05RFQA8K_kMJpVs3YF1zVAV8=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24685007/GettyImages_1348286468.jpg"/> <cite>Valter Jacinto/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
A hover fly called Sphaerophoria scripta, or the long hoverfly, observed in Portugal.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XlGCDL">
A large number of other flies mimic the appearance of bees, likely so they look threatening to birds and other predators. These include hoverflies, which people often call sweat bees. They really do <a href="https://extension.illinois.edu/blogs/extensions-greatest-hits/2014-09-26-hover-flies-may-look-bees-are-beneficial-flies#:~:text=You%20may%20know%20hover%20flies,to%20them%20as%20syrphid%20flies.">drink sweat</a>, but they don’t bite or sting.
</p>
<div>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/HxPlnW5Y1LKz-1gI63Dcya-8EmE=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24684426/Mystacinobia_zelandica_Holotype_NZAC04019196_dorsal_View.jpg"/> <cite><a class="ql-link" href="https://scd.landcareresearch.co.nz/Specimen/NZAC04019196?collection=NZAC&amp;searchCollection=NZAC&amp;query=mystacinobia&amp;currentDisplayTab=list&amp;pageNumber=0&amp;sortField=relevance" target="_blank">New Zealand Arthropod Collection</a></cite>
<figcaption>
A type of bat fly called Mystacinobia zelandica.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/7j1guSQzGtLZI1jyCLa3yMxEnUo=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24684435/Nycteribiidae__parasite_fly_living_on_bats___5021769088_.jpg"/> <cite><a class="ql-link" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sanmartin/" target="_blank">Gilles San Martin</a></cite>
<figcaption>
A bat fly in the family Nycteribiidae that was found on a brown long-eared bat in Switzerland.
</figcaption>
</figure></div></li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eJ83sV">
Many bat flies, on the other hand, <a href="https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/wildlife-photographer-of-the-year-curious-case-of-parasitic-bat-flies.html">look like spiders</a>, such as those in the images above. They spend most of their lives nestled in the fur of bats, subsisting on their blood. Some of these flies <a href="https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/wildlife-photographer-of-the-year-curious-case-of-parasitic-bat-flies.html">have evolved to be wingless</a>, whereas others ditch their wings and have bats fly for them. (These are the flies that don’t lay eggs like other insects but rather give birth to a single live larva.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZlE3mc">
Another impressive spider-lookalike is a rare fly in Kenya known as the terrible hairy fly, shown below. Their larvae are known to live in and eat bat poop.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/XsgV2LhI-Ru6DtoiWEn_k3JKW-w=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24687441/f09_363.jpeg"/> <cite>R. Copeland/International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology</cite>
<figcaption>
Terrible hairy flies, known by the scientific name, Mormotomyia hirsuta.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="i5j2hD">
One more: Females in a genus of Phorids called Vestigipoda mimic ant larvae. Their disguise is <a href="https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2010/09/24/adult-fly-mimics-ant-larva/vestigipodalongiseta/">so convincing</a> that ants feed the flies as if they were their own young. “They look like things that you would never recognize as flies,” Hartop said.
</p>
<h3 id="w9qVn9">
The flies with weird appendages and body parts
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YgPEsB">
Other flies just look totally bizarre.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/sdOcEafHP02QvPwry-DxDlnNqCE=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24684389/Stalk_eyed_fly____The_Trustees_of_the_Natural_History_Museum__London_2.jpg"/> <cite>The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London</cite>
<figcaption>
A stalk-eyed fly native to New Guinea.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fZIS2S">
My favorite? The stalk-eyed fly. In males, the eyes are on the ends of thin stalks that can be longer than their bodies. These eyes function a bit like moose antlers or sheep horns; the flies likely use them to assert dominance, <a href="https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/compelling-case-why-flies-are-fabulous.html">according to</a> the Natural History Museum, London.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="g4lKCQ">
Flies in the family Pipunculidae also have remarkable eyes. They’re enormous. Their whole head is basically just eyes. Unlike humans and other mammals, flies have <a href="https://news.fiu.edu/2022/flies-evade-your-swatting-thanks-to-sophisticated-vision-and-neural-shortcuts">compound eyes</a> made of multiple light-detecting parts; those eyes see in low resolution but are exceptionally good at detecting sudden movements.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/KjuHwNxhfLTiKY_9GUIu1_-C3qM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24686009/GettyImages_1270377504.jpg"/> <cite>Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
A “big-headed” fly in the family Pipunculidae.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LoZlM0">
Another fly, called Moegistorhynchus longirostris, also has an impressive body part: a proboscis that can be <a href="https://bioone.org/journals/african-invertebrates/volume-51/issue-2/afin.051.0208/The-South-African-Keystone-Pollinator-Moegistorhynchus-longirostris-Wiedemann-1819-Diptera/10.5733/afin.051.0208.full">longer than 8 centimeters</a>, or about 3 inches. The fly itself, meanwhile, is only about 1 centimeter long. The flies use these appendages to reach the nectar in tube flowers.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/SwqZvzgks2x2eA7Aun-Un2_pXe4=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24685010/f01_397.jpeg"/> <cite><a class="ql-link" href="https://bioone.org/journals/african-invertebrates/volume-51/issue-2/afin.051.0208/The-South-African-Keystone-Pollinator-Moegistorhynchus-longirostris-Wiedemann-1819-Diptera/10.5733/afin.051.0208.full" target="_blank">David Barraclough and Rob Slotow<em>/</em>African Invertebrates</a> (Image by C. Patterson-Jones)</cite>
<figcaption>
A fly called Moegistorhynchus longirostris that has an incredibly long proboscis.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vw8V6G">
Perhaps even more wonderful (and ingenious) are a handful of cave-dwelling gnat species in the genus Arachnocampa. As larvae, they glow to make their own bug traps. Their luminescence draws in moths and other insects, which then get ensnared by sticky threads that the gnats produce, McAlister said. The larvae then eat them.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/sz1Cv_mmhVBbUVay3P5r8fxPBHw=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24685196/GettyImages_927938980.jpg"/> <cite>Moritz Wolf/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Gooey threads created by larvae of the fungus gnat, Arachnocampa luminosa, in a cave in New Zealand.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h3 id="9ECCEO">
Flies pollinate our plants and clean up our shit
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="p5HKP2">
Flies are cool, yes. But are they important? Also, yes.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WEbxjg">
It’s true that some flies are extremely harmful to humans, including female mosquitos in the genus Anopheles. They transmit malaria, which kills several hundred thousand people each year. Other varieties, like tsetse flies, also carry parasites that can be painful and sometimes deadly. These are very serious concerns.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/VSUgrGYJaMCUbkQZdvoy5ATOzKs=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24685210/GettyImages_90066837.jpg"/> <cite>Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
A female tsetse fly.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dQBv2x">
Yet only a tiny fraction of the world’s flies harm us. We depend on many of the rest.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MdWJUd">
For example, flies are fundamental to the production of many of our favorite foods, such as chocolate, McAlister said. While roughly two dozen insects are known to pollinate cacao plants — the seeds of which are used to make chocolate — nearly all of them are flies, she said. So no flies, no chocolate.
</p>
<div id="WRsDeo">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
Did you know? We wouldn’t have <em>Chocolate</em> if it weren’t for insects? The Chocolate Midge <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/fly?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#fly</a> (Theobroma cacao) is the main pollinator of the cacao plant. No chocolate if it weren’t for this little fly! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SaveInsects?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SaveInsects</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NatureEducation?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NatureEducation</a> <a href="https://t.co/mII0agD3id">pic.twitter.com/mII0agD3id</a>
</p>
— Dr. Akito Kawahara (<span class="citation" data-cites="Dr_Akito">@Dr_Akito</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/Dr_Akito/status/1388158641644126211?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 30, 2021</a>
</blockquote>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IjHFe6">
Altogether, <a href="https://ucanr.edu/sites/PollenNation/Meet_The_Pollinators/Flies/">more than 100</a> cultivated crops are largely dependent on flies for pollination, including mangos, cashews, and avocados.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SyTseZ">
Some flies can also help farmers and home gardeners deal with pests. The larvae of some hoverflies, for example, have a voracious appetite for aphids, small insects that infest crops. (If you buy organic produce, chances are you’ve encountered, or accidentally eaten, aphids.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="F28Q9H">
“We massively underestimate the impact these tiny little creatures are having,” McAlister said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vqhI1x">
Gross as they look, fly larvae also help clean the world of waste — they eat our garbage, our roadkill, and our feces. None is perhaps more impressive than rat-tailed maggots, the larvae of certain kinds of hoverflies. On one end of their body, they have an extendable “breathing siphon” that functions like a snorkel, allowing the maggot to feed in a pile of waste even if it’s deprived of oxygen. “These things scuba dive,” McAlister said.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ylPYxoTkSVytVEkCAaBla_H2bL8=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24684391/Eristalis_tenax__drone_fly_larvae_2.jpg"/> <cite>The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London</cite>
<figcaption>
A rat-tailed maggot, the larva of a certain kind of hover fly. The thin strand that looks like pulled cheese is a snorkel-like tube it can use to breathe.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h3 id="66Dtns">
Yet we know very little about them
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1SVRYH">
Considering flies are fascinating, important, ubiquitous, and in some cases cute, you might think everyone would be jumping at the opportunity to study them.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cMfRie">
They are not.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="I3o50t">
Aside from pathogen-carrying mosquitos, flies are a massively under-studied group of organisms, in part because science tends to focus more on conventionally charming insects, Hartop said, like bees and butterflies.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GHrx3f">
“So much attention is dedicated to charismatic groups like pollinators and pretty things,” she said. “Flies take a bit more time to get to know and love.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gTuRT0">
That’s one reason why fly science still has enormous gaps. In the genus Hartop studies within the family Phoridae, known as Megaselia, it’s unclear, for example, if there are 20,000 species, 100,000, or closer to 1 million. In other words, large sections of the fly family tree have yet to be filled in.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8NgX5G">
This is a problem, Hartop said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3fHUBo">
Because flies occupy so many different habitats and roles within those habitats, the status of their populations is a useful indicator of how the environment is doing — i.e., whether it’s healthy or not. Even baseline numbers are missing. That makes it challenging to understand how ecosystems and the services they provide are changing due to threats like <a href="https://www.vox.com/climate">climate change</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="x4Zm3o">
“I’ve been to so many talks on things like bees and butterflies where they’re described as a proxy for how an environment is doing as a whole,” Hartop said. “I think that’s a really broken way to look at things.” Studying bees is useful for understanding how pollinators are doing, she said, but not the broader environment.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9Nrvis">
Scientists like Hartop are helping fill these gaps, such as by surveying different landscapes and streamlining the time-intensive process of sequencing fly DNA to describe new species. She has come across hundreds of new species, about 60 of which she’s formally described.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ixAUsXt71HRf1HEKFsn1tX5GO64=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24685106/oo_31039.jpeg"/> <cite>Emily Hartop and Brian Brown/<a class="ql-link" href="https://bdj.pensoft.net/article/4093/list/2/" target="_blank"><em>Biodiversity Data Journal</em></a> (Image by Kelsey Bailey)</cite>
<figcaption>
A fly in the genus Megaselia that Emily Hartop discovered. She named it Megaselia shadeae, after her niece Shade.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="62MwVQ">
That’s what’s so exciting about studying flies, she said: There’s so much opportunity for discovery. You don’t have to travel to the deep sea to find a new species; there could be undiscovered species of flies in your backyard, perhaps even in a place like New York City, Hartop said. Each discovery is a chance to understand an influential member of the ecosystem.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="55pTmC">
“We really need to shift our thinking and we need to look at some of these groups that we’re not paying attention to,” Hartop said. “I don’t expect people to relate to very small flies in the way that they relate to a butterfly. But understanding the role that they play, understanding their importance, I think that is critical.”
</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Succession ends exactly how it needed to</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Jeremy Strong as Kendall Roy in the series finale of HBO’s Succession." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/VyR6d9bH4pb72e0WMcD54Ozr8Sg=/332x0:1520x891/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72321483/jeremy_strong.0.jpeg"/>
<figcaption>
Jeremy Strong as Kendall Roy in the series finale of HBO’s <em>Succession</em>. | HBO
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Everything you need to know about that stunner of a finale.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="46qnGS">
<em><strong>Note: This article contains spoilers for several </strong></em><strong>Succession</strong><em><strong> episodes, particularly season four, episode 10, “With Open Eyes.” </strong></em>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HIGSvT">
In a way, we knew how <em>Succession</em> would end. We’ve been <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ugx6CKP8Cw">pre-grieving</a> the show’s wrap-up for months now — and many of us perhaps knew from the pilot on that the Roy family was bound for a deeply tragic denouement.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dl1IMp">
“With Open Eyes,” the series finale of <em>Succession</em>, which aired Sunday, certainly delivered. The finale showed the Roy family in their truest form: destroying one another better than any outsider could. Like Saturn devouring his son after hearing a prophecy that one of his children would overthrow him, Logan Roy has consumed his children for good.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9L4nEg">
None of the siblings took the crown in the end, though they tore each other down till the bitter end. As the board votes to either approve or block the sale of Waystar to streaming service GoJo, Shiv (Sarah Snook) lives up to her namesake, inserting the knife into her brother’s back by voting yes on the sale. Kendall Roy (Jeremy Strong) will not run Waystar-Royco, and her estranged husband, Tom Wambsgans, a nobody from Minnesota, will instead become the American CEO of the newly merged company.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EyCI0L">
It was a classic <em>Succession</em> surprise. (Well, maybe not a surprise to all: A fan theory from <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/29/sports/baseball/tom-bill-wambsganss-succession.html">a viral Tiktok video</a> surmised that Tom would emerge victorious because he sort of shared a last name with a famed baseball player, Bill Wambsganss, who made an unassisted triple play in the 1920 World Series, taking out three players at once. In the end, Tom did the same with the Roy siblings.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Wc98DY">
This episode saw the siblings viciously duking it out over who should be CEO at their mother’s house in an idyllic seaside location (later revealed to be Barbados), never realizing GoJo CEO Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård) is secretly plotting to betray Shiv and crown Tom instead. Roman (Kieran Culkin) — who has been missing for some undetermined amount of time — is at Caroline’s, and Shiv and Ken have rushed over not out of concern of their brother’s well-being, but to secure his vote to block the sale of Waystar to GoJo. The day of the board vote comes, and after painstakingly gaining the loyalty of other shareholders, Kendall faces a defector he hadn’t foreseen but probably should have: his one and only sister, Shiv.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tI22qS">
Showrunner Jesse Armstrong announced early this year that the <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/the-end-of-succession-is-near">fourth season would be the last</a>, ending the show before it lost even a bit of its luster or overstayed its welcome. Now that we’ve reached the end, it’s fair to ask, what did <em>Succession</em> set out to do? On the most surface level, it wanted to turn the corporate boardroom fight into an <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/22691830/succession-season-3-hbo-review-roy-logan-kendall-shiv-roman">intimate, intense family drama about the cycle of abuse</a>. It meticulously <a href="https://www.vox.com/tv/23737708/end-of-succession-season-4-logan-roy-murdoch">captured the ambience of privilege</a>, employing a host of wealth consultants to ensure every detail rang true. It cleverly toyed with the headlines and anecdotes about real-life business deals and billionaires, creating a decoupage of references that grounded the show’s at-times-unbelievable drama in reality. So much of its crass, biting dialogue was irresistibly quotable, and viewers even grew fond of these terrible, petty characters. And oh, yeah, <em>Succession</em> wanted to crown Logan’s successor, eventually. But it also set out to show how brutish and humiliating the ascendency would be — and how hollow the victory.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0ktqiT">
“It’s saying human beings are basically ludicrous,” Brian Cox, the actor who played Logan Roy, told <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/how-hbos-succession-became-perfect-show-trump-age-1227997/">the Hollywood Reporter</a> in 2019. “They’re ludicrous in their desires, they’re ludicrous in what they get and don’t get and, in the end, they never even know what they want.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vIiPjm">
The Roys only knew what they didn’t want: They didn’t want to be beaten, sidelined, or have someone else’s foot on their neck. In the end, the three Roy siblings, having permanently shunted eldest son Connor to the side, destroyed one another. They gave in to their desire for revenge for a lifetime of slights at each one another’s hands; keeping their father’s legacy in the family mattered far less.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jfgmg0">
After feeling run over by her brothers all season, even as they promised to include her in all the major decisions as interim CEOs — in the election episode, she called them Pontius Pilate — Shiv finally got her revenge. But it’s a bittersweet revenge; she has enough power to ruin someone else, but not enough to ever become the one who holds the reins. She makes a calculated play to ensure that none of her siblings would become CEO, only once it became clear that she would never get the title.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yRtzxp">
The pleasure of stepping on someone else’s neck outweighed the pleasure of helping someone else take power, even if it means they all fall. “I love you,” Logan said the last time the whole gang was assembled. “But you are not serious people.” The patriarch was proven right: His children were hapless, incompetent little creatures who all caught themselves in the bear trap of their thirst for power.
</p>
<h3 id="eZFhpF">
The final fate of Kendall Roy
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NvIKGm">
Kendall has been a bulldozer throughout this last leg of the season; he convinces his brother and sister that there is no other logical choice for CEO. When Roman, who is in a fragile state of mind since the death of his father, eyes the wounds he suffered in a recent scuffle with protesters self-consciously and expresses anguish at never being a serious contender for the heir, Ken’s basest instinct is to crush him in an intentionally painful hug that reopens the wound on Roman’s face, making it bleed anew. Later, Kendall tries to browbeat Shiv into backing away from the edge of her betrayal, but it’s no use.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gbywNk">
In clumsily trying to rewrite his own history, he claims he didn’t actually kill a cater-waiter in season one and that he was always the unequivocal successor to their father’s seat. Kendall, spouting his delusions and lies about the hideous things he did on the way to ascend the throne, only manages to push his siblings further away. Instead, Shiv throws her lot in with Tom.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZYaJiV">
The last scene in <em>Succession</em>’s finale features Kendall, for a long time the presumptive heir of the Waystar-Royco empire, staring dead-eyed at the gently rolling waves of the Hudson River. Water has been a constant symbol dogging Kendall since the beginning of the series, often portending danger and darkness, but occasionally proving invigorating, as it did in the season four episode “Living+<em>.”</em> After the board vote is over, Kendall stares at the unfathomable waters, at once tranquil and treacherous. He’s truly “twin track,” as he told his old friend Stewy earlier this season: both dead and alive.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YMGMKE">
In the pilot episode, which aired in 2018, Kendall was introduced to viewers in the back seat of his car, listening to his emotional support hip-hop as he prepares to close an important acquisition. Throughout the show, Kendall used rap music to boost his confidence before an important moment; the artists have a swagger Kendall wishes he could muster. He’s a trembling ball of anxiety, lighting up a cigarette just to take <a href="https://youtu.be/iKuoXw2h3Xc?t=47">one nervous, unsexy puff</a>. This scene told viewers almost everything they needed to know about him: Kendall wants to be the Man, like his father, Logan, but it doesn’t come naturally and never will for him. In his eulogy for his father, three seasons later, Kendall recalls that Logan was comfortable in this world. What he doesn’t say is that others never were. Only Logan could waltz around in these cutthroat settings and thrive.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="u3BQPl">
After a harrowing few years of peaks and plunges, Kendall went into the series finale poised to become CEO of Waystar-Royco — but only after Logan has died, and only after Kendall has come close to death, too. Throughout the show, Kendall showed a magnificent talent for fumbling the ball at the one-yard line. The finale only affirmed this pattern. It began with Kendall confident and bombastic, trying to bully shareholders into coming over to his side but with a put-uponness that’s never quite convincing. Stewy, his long-time frenemy, is still on the fence.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QzziiS">
Among the four Roy children, Kendall was most like Logan; at times he displayed a good instinct for business, and there was a hard kernel of ruthlessness in him. Logan once told his son that he wasn’t a killer, but that’s not true. Kendall has killed, and by the series finale, he had transformed himself into a butcher. In the process, it has stamped out his nerve endings, the soft, human uncertainties that spilled out of him especially in his lowest moments. He was the only one of his siblings who wondered, from time to time, whether he was doing The Right Thing — whether he was a good father or a good person. He has consciously and methodically consumed that crucial part of himself, swallowed it up so that he might be his father’s son.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ptRA85">
Strong, in last week’s <em>Succession</em> podcast episode, noted that Logan’s funeral was also Kendall’s coronation. Sitting on the throne, however, is a lonely place to be. His wife and children are now distant figures — even his seemingly steadfast assistant Jess (Juliana Canfield) is gone. After his complicity in the election, and having no one left by his side, Kendall is gritting his teeth and going all-in. There’s no road back from what he’s done and who he’s become.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0prfKH">
Toward the end, begging Shiv not to renege on their agreement to tank the deal and ensure that he’s the lone CEO, Kendall sums up who he is. He admits in the finale that Logan promised the successorship to him at the tender age of 7; he was raised all his life to take the mantle. Kendall doesn’t know what he would be for otherwise. He admits that if he’s not CEO, he might die. The water that’s been threatening him all his life might finally swallow him up. “I am like a cog built to fit only one machine,” he says. “I mean, it’s the one thing I know how to do.”
</p>
<h3 id="4bTuBv">
How it started vs. how it ended for the rest of the Roys
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WVSxeB">
The Roys, who were full of absurd hubris, believed that they were smart and capable and the rightful heirs to the company that their father had built from scrap. But at every move that inched them closer to holding the reins of ultimate power, they were sabotaged by a vindictive meagerness — the thing that was their true inheritance from their father — which, in the end, turns their high-handed ambitions into mere dust. And they never quite recognize what their failings and fatal flaws were. Each season’s last episode takes its title from the John Berryman poem <em>Dream Song 29</em>. “With open eyes, he attends, blind,” the poem reads. So blinded were they by their internecine struggle that they didn’t even see the interloper Tom as a threat to the line of succession.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1RFwy1">
In this episode, Shiv is still under the illusion that once Matsson gets the deal, she’ll be announced as the new American CEO. The trouble is that Shiv has never been respected among her siblings, despite being roughly equally incompetent. Instead, she’s constantly overlooked and undermined.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gDP44f">
Matsson has dinner with her husband Tom, with whom Shiv has been on the rocks for the entire season. Tom thinks he’ll have to prove that he should stay on as ATN head or get the ax; it turns out Matsson is actually feeling him out to run everything once the acquisition goes through. Part of Matsson’s motivation for counting out Shiv is that he sees her as an object of sexual desire; he wants to fuck her, he tells Tom, so he metaphorically fucks her desire to be named CEO. It would be too messy otherwise. Tom eagerly agrees with the plan, even as he’s disturbed by the thought of being cuckolded by the mercurial Swedish tech founder and even though he knows it’s an incredible betrayal of his wife, who all but created the role for herself.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pWNF6c">
When we first met Shiv, she wasn’t even attempting to follow in her father’s footsteps. She has her own career as a political strategist, and anyway, she’s never been taken seriously in the family business. Kendall knows his father has high expectations of him, and he’s a nervous wreck about it, while Shiv is painfully aware that her father expects almost nothing from her. Logan, as Shiv said in her eulogy, simply couldn’t fit a whole woman in his head. Turns out, no one could — not her brothers, not Matsson, not even Tom.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZWdeU5">
By the finale, we see Shiv launching a full-court press to become CEO. Her brothers, and perhaps the Waystar executives as well, were never going to take her seriously as a contender. Shiv would have to claw her way in and steal what she wants — even if it means promising to neglect her soon-to-be-born child. In the final episode, she talks with Tom about where they stand. They’ve been through the wringer, saying the ugliest things to one another just a few episodes ago, Shiv called Tom “striving and parochial,” but now she seems to sense a subtle shift in power between them. She’s reluctant to divorce. Tom quips that she’s finally fallen in love with her husband, but the fact is, Shiv has always been in love with power, and by the end of the series, Tom is the one who sits on the throne. He’s the man that Shiv has chosen to anoint, and that’s more power than any of her brothers ever gave her.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="msnuqa">
For all their marriage, Shiv has enjoyed the fact that Tom is “fathoms” beneath her, as Logan once put it, and so would never dare betray her. Now, after Tom has indeed betrayed her and told her choice harsh truths about the nature of their unequal relationship, she demurely takes his hand after he’s appointed CEO, like the trophy wife of a powerful politician.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4jmSMv">
Then there’s Roman — or, as Logan called him, Romulus, the boy raised by wolves: He’s always been directionless and fueled mainly by masochism, which is why he seems to regularly blurt out the most disgusting things imaginable. It’s as though he wants people to recoil and call him a dog. Roman isn’t really motivated by the same force and vitality of his father the way Kendall is. He’s in awe of it like everyone else, sure, but what Roman craves most in life is for someone to take control — to tell him what to do and how to be. In the fourth season, he has somehow failed up into being co-CEO with Kendall, and the sincerity of his desire to screw over GoJo CEO Lukas Matsson is palpable. But he’s still not driven by a desire to be an impressive media mogul — he’s spurred by a need to defend his dead father’s honor, which Matsson spat all over early this season. It’s unclear where he’ll be left when the revenge is finished.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xOe7ZN">
Connor (Alan Ruck) is the oldest Roy sibling, the always-forgotten half-brother who’s odd, awkward, and corny. As the eldest, he has more memories with their father than the other kids, but also has terrible trauma around his mother, whom Logan forcibly committed to a psychiatric hospital.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="48JKlI">
Connor boasted declaratively in the <a href="https://www.vox.com/tv/23664902/succession-season-four-ep-two-recap-connor-roy-rehearsal">karaoke scene</a> earlier this season that he didn’t need love. But by the end of the series, is he happy? He married Willa (Justine Lupe) the day Logan died — after acknowledging that their relationship is somewhat transactional. But the admission of the fact that Willa is, in part, with him for his money has brought about a level of mutual support and respect. Connor knows that Willa doesn’t love him the way he loves her, and he’s made his peace with it for now. They’re making plans to move to Slovenia for the ambassadorship that Jeryd Mencken (Justin Kirk) promised Connor just as ATN declared him the winner of the election a few episodes ago. But is a fraction of love enough to sustain someone forever? If <em>Succession</em> has shown us anything, it’s that human nature yearns for one morsel, and then one more, and then eventually wants the whole world.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1wYMgM">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W21kF4">
</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>Wrestlers yet to meet after release from police detention, will soon contemplate next move</strong> - Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia, Sangeeta Phogat, Sakshi Malik and several others were detained by Delhi police on Sunday when they attempted to move towards the new Parliament building</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>This league will be an inspiration for organisers all over the world, says Humpy</strong> - HYDERABAD</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>Handball impasse ends, Digvijay Chautala elected President of HAI</strong> - HAI requested affiliation with the Indian Sports’ apex body and appreciated the IOA for its part in helping to resolve the problem</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>Ponting’s views on pay disparity in Test cricket was a discussion point but not taken forward: ICC</strong> - To ensure that cricketers from less developed nations get paid well to play the five-day game</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 Shubman Gill loves Spider-Man: The IPL 2023 star on his favourite superhero</strong> - The 23-year-old fast-rising cricketer talks about voicing the Indian Spider-Man in the upcoming animated film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse</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>K. Narayanasamy appointed V-C of Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University</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>Case of moral policing in Karnataka, youth questioned for dropping off classmate</strong> - A group of persons questioned a paramedical student for dropping off his classmate who belongs to another religion</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 power utilities to discuss fixation of pay scales with employees’ JAC on May 30</strong> - It will be the third such meeting in over a month aimed at reaching an amicable settlement on the Revised Pay Scales, which are supposed to come into effect on April 1, 2022</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>CMDRF: Kerala HC adjourns hearing on plea against Lok Ayukta order</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>Minister Dharmendra Pradhan meets Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong; discusses deepening cooperation in skill development</strong> - Dharmendra Pradhan, who is on a three-day visit to Singapore, also deliberated on ways to strengthen bilateral engagements in the field of skill development with Lawrence Wong</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>Turkish election victory for Erdogan leaves nation divided</strong> - Turkey’s president wins five more years, but his rival condemns “the most unfair election in years”.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Turkey elections: What to expect from newly emboldened Erdogan</strong> - Voters in the strategic Nato country opted for a seasoned autocrat - rather than an untested democrat.</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 war: Fresh attacks on Kyiv after intense drone barrage</strong> - Ukraine’s capital has been attacked 16 times this month - the latest, unusually, came in daytime.</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>French Open 2023: Grand Slam using AI to protect players from online abuse</strong> - As the French Open introduces a new technology to help players filter out social media abuse, BBC Sport looks at the issues tennis players encounter online.</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>Tourist boat sinks on Lake Maggiore killing four - reports</strong> - Italy’s fire service says the boat capsized when a storm developed over the lake.</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>Is cybersecurity an unsolvable problem?</strong> - Ars chats with law philosopher Scott Shapiro about his new book, <em>Fancy Bear Goes Phishing</em>. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1937362">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The lessons of a wildfire that destroyed a town and burned for 15 months</strong> - Until it hit, the local firefighters couldn’t conceive of something that ferocious. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1942536">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Inner workings revealed for “Predator,” the Android malware that exploited 5 0-days</strong> - Spyware is sold to countries including Egypt, Indonesia, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Serbia. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1942660">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>No A/C? No problem, if buildings copy networked tunnels of termite mounds</strong> - “For the first time, it may be possible to design a true living, breathing building.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1942139">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>HP printers should have EPEAT ecolabels revoked, trade group demands</strong> - Complaint to EPEAT organizers spells out why Dynamic Security, HP+ suck. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1941600">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>If girls with big boobs work at Hooters, where does girls with one leg work?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
IHOP.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Wannabe__geek"> /u/Wannabe__geek </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13uiq5t/if_girls_with_big_boobs_work_at_hooters_where/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13uiq5t/if_girls_with_big_boobs_work_at_hooters_where/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>My friend caught me sniffing his sister’s panties</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
He was so mad, maybe because she was still wearing them.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
It made the rest of the funeral pretty uncomfortable.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/El_Pepsi"> /u/El_Pepsi </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13uno0k/my_friend_caught_me_sniffing_his_sisters_panties/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13uno0k/my_friend_caught_me_sniffing_his_sisters_panties/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>I am sad. My friend said Cheer up, things could be worse. You could be stuck in a hole in the ground underwater…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
I knew he meant well.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/GhostIsItsownGenre"> /u/GhostIsItsownGenre </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13ungz8/i_am_sad_my_friend_said_cheer_up_things_could_be/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13ungz8/i_am_sad_my_friend_said_cheer_up_things_could_be/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Boss: “I can clearly smell alcohol on somebody’s breath!” - One of the staff: “Um, boss, this is a Zoom meeting.”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
</p><ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">One of the staff: “Um, boss, this is a Zoom meeting.”
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></p>
</li></ul></div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Historical_Mind_2590"> /u/Historical_Mind_2590 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13uovf0/boss_i_can_clearly_smell_alcohol_on_somebodys/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13uovf0/boss_i_can_clearly_smell_alcohol_on_somebodys/">[comments]</a></span></li>
</ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What do you call a cow that’s stopped producing milk?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
An udder failure.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/invisus64"> /u/invisus64 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13uf72a/what_do_you_call_a_cow_thats_stopped_producing/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13uf72a/what_do_you_call_a_cow_thats_stopped_producing/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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