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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>Vitamin D and Covid-19 Susceptibility and Severity: a Mendelian Randomization Study</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
<b>INTRODUCTION:</b> Increased vitamin D levels, as reflected by 25OHD measurements, has been proposed to protect against Covid-19 disease based on in-vitro, observational, and ecological studies. However, vitamin D levels are associated with many confounding variables and thus associations described to date may not be causal. Vitamin D MR studies have provided results that are concordant with large-scale vitamin D randomized trials. Here, we used two-sample MR to assess the effect of circulating 25OHD levels on Covid-19 susceptibility. <b>METHODS AND FINDINGS:</b> Genetic variants strongly associated with 25OHD levels in a 443,734-participant genome-wide association study (GWAS) were used as instrumental variables. GWASs of Covid-19 susceptibility and severity from the Covid-19 Host Genetics Initiative were used as outcomes. Cohorts from the Covid-19 Host Genetics Initiative GWAS included up to 14,134 individuals with Covid-19, and 1,284,876 with Covid-19, from 11 countries. Analyses were restricted to individuals of European descent when possible. Using inverse-weighted MR, genetically increased 25OHD levels by one standard deviation on the logarithmic scale had no clear association with Covid-19 susceptibility (OR = 0.97; 95% CI: 0.95, 1.10; P=0.613), hospitalization (OR = 1.11; 95% CI: 0.91, 1.35; P=0.299), and severe disease (OR = 0.93; 95% CI: 0.73, 1.17; P=0.531). We used an additional 6 meta-analytic methods, as well as sensitivity analysis after removal of variants at risk of horizontal pleiotropy, and obtained similar results. These results may be limited by weak instrument bias in some analyses. Further, our results do not apply to individuals with vitamin D deficiency. <b>CONCLUSION:</b> Our results do not support that patients be advised to take vitamin D supplementation to protect against Covid-19 outcomes. Further, other therapeutic or preventative avenues should be given higher priority for Covid-19 randomized controlled trials.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.08.20190975v3" target="_blank">Vitamin D and Covid-19 Susceptibility and Severity: a Mendelian Randomization Study</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>The Ramifications of the Treasury Single Account, the Ifmis Platform, and Government Cash Management in Developing Economies in the Wake of the Covid-19 Pandemic: Ghanas Empirical Example</strong> -
<div>
In recent years, the combined effects of inflation, recession, high-interest rates, new investment media and technological advances in information processing have made “Cash Management” an increasingly important and complex subject (IMF, 2001; Ter-Minassian and Parente, 1995). At times, the desire and effort to squeeze out the most from every dollar and to minimise idle cash balances has become an obsession with many organisations and countries. Therefore, effective and efficient Cash Management has become a “sine qua non” for the success of any business organisation (Horcher, 2006a; White, 2006). And Countries, “as Corporate Entities”, are no exceptions to this basic fundamental business principle (Wood &amp; Sangster, 2012). The Theoretical Framework of this study was underpinned by the Stakeholder Theory (Freeman, 1984), the Financial Management Theory (Hayes and Nolan, 1974; Kingston, 1973), and the Modern Money Theory (Friedman, 1964; Keynes, 1930; Mitchell-Innes, 1914). We conducted a cross-sectional research through non-probability and purposive sampling with 200 respondents. Our face-to-face interviews, structured closed-ended and open-ended Questionnaires which were administered online through email application via Google Forms (as a result of the novel, dreaded, and disruptive Covid-19 pandemic), coupled with PETS (Khan and Pessoa, 2010; Reinikka and Svennson, 2006) resulted in startling revelations. Our major finding was that a government lacking an efficient and effective control over its cash resources will definitely pay for its institutional deficiencies in multiple ways (Ahmed, 2016).
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/j9dcx/" target="_blank">The Ramifications of the Treasury Single Account, the Ifmis Platform, and Government Cash Management in Developing Economies in the Wake of the Covid-19 Pandemic: Ghanas Empirical Example</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>X-linked agammaglobulinemia and COVID-19: Two case reports and review of literature</strong> -
<div>
COVID-19 has caused a global crisis, infecting millions, and mainly manifesting with mild to moderate symptoms. The severity of disease occurred in a minority of those with comorbidities, who had an enhanced rate of disease progression and death. We present two case reports of adolescents with XLA from the state of Kerala in South India who were infected by SARS-CoV-2 and recovered without the need for artificial ventilation or convalescent plasma. In both the patients, the diagnosis of XLA had been confirmed with whole-exome sequencing. Rapid antigen tests for SARS-C0V-2 remained positive for more than two weeks in both cases. However, no post-COVID illness or re-infection has been reported in either patient. We have also reviewed all the cases with XLA infected by SARS-CoV-2 to date.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/epb9x/" target="_blank">X-linked agammaglobulinemia and COVID-19: Two case reports and review of literature</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Social perception of wearing masks: An exploratory study</strong> -
<div>
Covid-19 changed our daily lifestyle in different ways, may it be in the form of social distancing, lockdowns, or wearing masks. Masks will be included in long run as a daily essential accessory even when the situation becomes normal. Thus, impression formation, perception, schema and related phenomenon of stereotyping are sure to be effected. This study is an attempt to explore the probable facial features and type of masks that provides the perceiver a cue to make a rough idea of occupation to which the person wearing the mask is associated with. The qualitative analysis of the data provides us a clear understanding that there lies a pattern or basic idea of which mask type is most likely to be used by which professional. Also, there is an underlying pattern in which particular facial features are associated with a job type. This study clearly directs for future studies on similar grounds.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/dtvap/" target="_blank">Social perception of wearing masks: An exploratory study</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Mutation Landscape of SARS COV2 in Africa</strong> -
<div>
COVID-19 disease has had a relatively less severe impact in Africa. To understand the role of SARS CoV2 mutations on COVID-19 disease in Africa, we analysed 282 complete nucleotide sequences from African isolates deposited in the NCBI Virus Database. Sequences were aligned against the prototype Wuhan sequence (GenBank accession: NC_045512.2) in BWA v. 0.7.17. SAM and BAM files were created, sorted and indexed in SAMtools v. 1.10 and marked for duplicates using Picard v. 2.23.4. Variants were called with mpileup in BCFtools v. 1.11. Phylograms were created using Mr. Bayes v 3.2.6. A total of 2,349 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) profiles across 294 sites were identified. Clades associated with severe disease in the United States, France, Italy, and Brazil had low frequencies in Africa (L84S=2.5%, L3606F=1.4%, L3606F/V378I/=0.35, G251V=2%). Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) accounted for only 3% of P323L and 4% of Q57H mutations in Africa. Comparatively low infections in SSA were attributed to the low frequency of the D614G clade in earlier samples (25% vs 67% global). Higher disease burden occurred in countries with higher D614G frequencies (Egypt=98%, Morocco=90%, Tunisia=52%, South Africa) with D614G as the first confirmed case. V367F, D364Y, V483A and G476S mutations associated with efficient ACE2 receptor binding and severe disease were not observed in Africa. 95% of all RdRp mutations were deaminations leading to CpG depletion and possible attenuation of virulence. More genomic and experimental studies are needed to increase our understanding of the temporal evolution of the virus in Africa, clarify our findings, and reveal hot spots that may undermine successful therapeutic and vaccine interventions.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.20.423630v1" target="_blank">Mutation Landscape of SARS COV2 in Africa</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Changes in SARS-CoV-2 before the peak in each country, producing unique variants.</strong> -
<div>
The second and third waves of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have caused problems worldwide. Those are often thought to have resulted from people's carelessness or people not following restrictions, but in reality, the cause remains unclear. Here, using an objective analytical method, we present the changes in the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus causing COVID-19 over time. The virus has mutated in three major directions, with three groups remaining to date. The basic structure of the groups was completed by April and shared across all continents. However, the virus continued to mutate independently in each country after the borders were closed. In particular, the virus mutated before the occurrence of a second or third peak. It seems that the mutations conferred higher infectivity to the virus, because of which the virus overcame previously effective protections. Currently, each country may possess such a unique stronger variant, which may cause another peak in other countries. These viruses could also serve as sources of mutations by exchanging parts of the genome. Such mutations could create a variant with superior infectivity.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.18.413344v1" target="_blank">Changes in SARS-CoV-2 before the peak in each country, producing unique variants.</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Cetylpyridinium chloride-containing mouthwashes reduce in vitro SARS-CoV-2 infectivity</strong> -
<div>
Oral mouthwashes decrease the infectivity of several respiratory viruses including SARS-CoV-2. However, the precise agents with antiviral activity present in these oral rinses and their exact mechanism of action remain unknown. Here we show that Cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC), a quaternary ammonium compound present in many oral mouthwashes, reduces SARS-CoV-2 infectivity by inhibiting viral fusion with target cells. We also found that CPC and CPC-containing mouth rinses decreased a thousand times the infectivity of SARS-CoV-2 in vitro, while the corresponding vehicles had no effect. CPC-containing mouth rinses could represent a cost-effective measure to reduce SARS-CoV-2 infectivity in saliva, aiding to reduce viral transmission from infected individuals.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.21.423779v1" target="_blank">Cetylpyridinium chloride-containing mouthwashes reduce in vitro SARS-CoV-2 infectivity</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>pH and Receptor Induced Confirmational Changes- Implications Towards S1 Dissociation of SARS-CoV2 Spike Glycoprotein</strong> -
<div>
Viruses, being obligate intracellular parasites, must first attach themselves and gain entry into host cells. Viral fusion machinery is the central player in the viral attachment process in almost every viral disease. Viruses have incorporated an array of efficient fusion proteins on their surfaces to bind efficiently to host cell receptors. They make use of the host proteolytic enzymes to rearrange their surface protein(s) into the form which facilitates their binding to host-cell membrane proteins and subsequently, fusion. This stage of viral entry is very critical and has many therapeutic implications. The current global pandemic of COVID-19 has sparked severe health crisis and economic shutdowns. SARS-CoV2, the etiological agent of the disease has led to millions of deaths and brought the scientific community together in an attempt to understand the mechanisms of SARS-CoV2 pathogenesis and mortality. Like other viral fusion machinery, CoV2 spike (S) glycoprotein- 'The Demogorgon' poses the same questions about viral-host cell fusion. The intermediate stages of S protein-mediated viral fusion are unclear owing to the lack of structural insights and concrete biochemical evidence. The mechanism of conformational transition is still unclear. S protein binding and fusion with host cell receptors, Eg., angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE2) is accompanied by cleavage of S1/S2 subunits. To track the key events of viral-host cell fusion, we have identified (in silico) that low pH-induced conformational change and ACE-2 binding events promote S1 dissociation. Deciphering key mechanistic insights of SARS-CoV2 fusion will further our understanding of other class- I fusion proteins.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.21.410357v1" target="_blank">pH and Receptor Induced Confirmational Changes- Implications Towards S1 Dissociation of SARS-CoV2 Spike Glycoprotein</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>The SARS-CoV-2 spike protein disrupts the cooperative function of human cardiac pericytes - endothelial cells through CD147 receptor-mediated signalling: a potential non-infective mechanism of COVID-19 microvascular disease</strong> -
<div>
Background: Severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) manifests as a life-threatening microvascular syndrome. The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) uses primarily the capsid spike (S) protein to engage with its receptors and infect host cells. To date, it is still not known if the S protein alone, without the other viral elements, is able to trigger vascular cell signalling and provoke cell dysfunction. Methods: We investigated the effects of the recombinant, stabilised S protein on primary human cardiac pericytes (PCs) signalling and function. Endpoints included cell viability, proliferation, migration, cooperation with endothelial cells (ECs) in angiogenesis assays, and release of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Adopting a blocking strategy against the S protein receptors ACE2 and CD147, we explored which receptor mediates the S protein signalling in PCs. Findings: We show, for the first time, that the recombinant S protein alone elicits functional alterations in cardiac PCs. This was documented as: (1) increased migration, (2) reduced ability to support EC network formation on Matrigel, (3) secretion of pro-inflammatory molecules typically involved in the cytokine storm; and (4) production of pro-apoptotic factors responsible for EC death. Furthermore, the S protein stimulates the phosphorylation/activation of the extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) through the CD147 receptor, but not ACE2, in cardiac PCs. Accordingly, the neutralization of CD147, using a blocking antibody, prevented the activation of ERK1/2 and partially rescued the PC function in the presence of the S protein. Interpretation: Our findings suggest the new, intriguing hypothesis that the S protein may elicit vascular cell dysfunction, potentially amplifying, or perpetuating, the damage caused by the whole coronavirus. This mechanism may have clinical and therapeutic implication.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.21.423721v1" target="_blank">The SARS-CoV-2 spike protein disrupts the cooperative function of human cardiac pericytes - endothelial cells through CD147 receptor-mediated signalling: a potential non-infective mechanism of COVID-19 microvascular disease</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>In vitro characterization of engineered red blood cells as potent viral traps against HIV-1 and SARS-CoV-2</strong> -
<div>
Engineered red blood cells (RBCs) expressing viral receptors could be used therapeutically as viral traps as RBCs lack nuclei and other organelles required for viral replication. Here we show that the combination of a powerful erythroid-specific expression system and transgene codon optimization yields high expression levels of the HIV-1 receptors CD4 and CCR5, as well as a CD4-glycophorin A (CD4-GpA) fusion protein on enucleated RBCs. Engineered RBCs expressing CD4 and CCR5 were efficiently infected by HIV-1, but CD4 or CD4-GpA expression in the absence of CCR5 was sufficient to potently neutralize HIV-1 in vitro. To facilitate continuous large-scale production of engineered RBCs, we generated erythroblast cell lines stably expressing CD4-GpA or ACE2-GpA fusion proteins, which produced potent RBC viral traps against HIV-1 and SARS-CoV-2. Our results suggest that this approach warrants further investigation as a potential treatment against viral infections.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.20.423607v1" target="_blank">In vitro characterization of engineered red blood cells as potent viral traps against HIV-1 and SARS-CoV-2</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Binding strength and hydrogen bond numbers between Covid-19 RBD and HVR of antibody</strong> -
<div>
The global battle against the Covid-19 pandemic relies strongly on the human defence of antibody, which is assumed to bind the Receptor Binding Domain of the antigen with its Hypervariable Region. Due to the similarity to other viruses such as SARS, however, our understanding of the antibody-virus interaction has been limited to the genomic sequencing, which poses serious challenges to the containment, vaccine exploration and rapid serum testing. Based on the physical/chemical nature of the interaction, infrared spectroscopy was employed to reveal the binding disparity, when unusual temperature dependence was discovered from the 1550cm 1 absorption band, attributed to the hydrogen bonds by carboxyl/amino groups, binding the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and closely resembled SARS-CoV-2 or SARS-CoV-1 antibodies. The infrared absorption intensity, associated with the number of hydrogen bonds, was found to increase sharply between 27C and 31C, with the relative absorbance matches at 37C the hydrogen bonding numbers of the two antibody types (19 vs 12). As a result, the specificity of the SARS-CoV-2 antibody will be more conclusive beyond 31C, instead of at the usual room temperature of 20C - 25C, when the vaccine research and antibody diagnosis would likely be undermined.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.21.423787v1" target="_blank">Binding strength and hydrogen bond numbers between Covid-19 RBD and HVR of antibody</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Prevalent, protective, and convergent IgG recognition of SARS-CoV-2 non-RBD spike epitopes in COVID-19 convalescent plasma</strong> -
<div>
Although humoral immunity is essential for control of SARS-CoV-2, the molecular composition, binding epitopes and effector functions of the immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies that circulate in blood plasma following infection are unknown. Proteomic deconvolution of the circulating IgG repertoire (Ig-Seq) to the spike ectodomain (S-ECD) in four convalescent study subjects revealed that the plasma response is oligoclonal and directed predominantly (&gt;80%) to S-ECD epitopes that lie outside the receptor binding domain (RBD). When comparing antibodies directed to either the RBD, the N-terminal domain (NTD) or the S2 subunit (S2) in one subject, just four IgG lineages (1 anti-S2, 2 anti-NTD and 1 anti-RBD) accounted for 93.5% of the repertoire. Although the anti-RBD and one of the anti-NTD antibodies were equally potently neutralizing in vitro, we nonetheless found that the anti-NTD antibody was sufficient for protection to lethal viral challenge, either alone or in combination as a cocktail where it dominated the effect of the other plasma antibodies. We identified in vivo protective plasma anti-NTD antibodies in 3/4 subjects analyzed and discovered a shared class of antibodies targeting the NTD that utilize unmutated or near-germline IGHV1-24, the most electronegative IGHV gene in the human genome. Structural analysis revealed that binding to NTD is dominated by interactions with the heavy chain, accounting for 89% of the entire interfacial area, with germline residues uniquely encoded by IGHV1-24 contributing 20% (149 [A]2). Together with recent reports of germline IGHV1-24 antibodies isolated by B-cell cloning our data reveal a class of shared IgG antibodies that are readily observed in convalescent plasma and underscore the role of NTD-directed antibodies in protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.20.423708v1" target="_blank">Prevalent, protective, and convergent IgG recognition of SARS-CoV-2 non-RBD spike epitopes in COVID-19 convalescent plasma</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Fatty Acid Synthase inhibition prevents palmitoylation of SARS-CoV2 SpikeProtein and improves survival of mice infected with murine hepatitis virus.</strong> -
<div>
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) is the causative agent of COVID19 that has infected &gt;76M people and caused &gt;1.68M deaths. The SARS-CoV2 Spike glycoprotein is responsible for the attachment and infection of target cells. The viral Spike protein serves the basis for many putative therapeutic countermeasures including vaccines, blocking and neutralizing antibodies, and decoy receptors. Here we investigated the cytosolic domain of Spike and its interaction with the protein palmitoyltransferase ZDHHC5. The Spike protein is palmitoylated on multiple juxtamembrane cysteine residues conserved among coronavirus. Increased abundance of ZDHHC5 resulted in hyper-palmitoylation, while silencing of ZDHHC5 reduced the ability of the human CoV 229E to form viral plaques in cell monolayers. Inhibition of fatty acid synthase using the pharmacological inhibitor TVB-3166 eliminated palmitoylation of SARS-CoV2 Spike. Additionally, TVB-3166 attenuated plaque formation and promoted the survival of mice from a lethal murine CoV infection. Thus, inhibition of the Spike protein palmitoylation has the potential to treat SARS-CoV-2 and other CoV infections.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.20.423603v1" target="_blank">Fatty Acid Synthase inhibition prevents palmitoylation of SARS-CoV2 SpikeProtein and improves survival of mice infected with murine hepatitis virus.</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>From infection to immunity: understanding the response to SARS-CoV2 through in-silico modeling</strong> -
<div>
Background: Immune system conditions of the patient is a key factor in COVID-19 infection survival. A growing number of studies have focused on immunological determinants to develop better biomarkers for therapies. Aim: The dynamics of the insurgence of immunity is at the core of the both SARS-CoV-2 vaccine development and therapies. This paper addresses a fundamental question in the management of the infection: can we describe the insurgence (and the span) of immunity in COVID-19? The in-silico model developed here answers this question at individual (personalized) and population levels. We simulate the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 and analyze the impact of infecting viral load, affinity to the ACE2 receptor and age in the artificially infected population on the course of the disease. Methods: We use a stochastic agent-based immune simulation platform to construct a virtual cohort of infected individuals with age-dependent varying degree of immune competence. We use a parameter setting to reproduce known inter-patient variability and general epidemiological statistics. Results: We reproduce in-silico a number of clinical observations and we identify critical factors in the statistical evolution of the infection. In particular we evidence the importance of the humoral response over the cytotoxic response and find that the antibody titers measured after day 25 from the infection is a prognostic factor for determining the clinical outcome of the infection. Our modeling framework uses COVID-19 infection to demonstrate the actionable effectiveness of simulating the immune response at individual and population levels. The model developed is able to explain and interpret observed patterns of infection and makes verifiable temporal predictions. Within the limitations imposed by the simulated environment, this work proposes in a quantitative way that the great variability observed in the patient outcomes in real life can be the mere result of subtle variability in the infecting viral load and immune competence in the population. In this work we i) show the power of model predictions, ii) identify the clinical end points that could be more suitable for computational modeling of COVID-19 immune response, iii) define the resolution and amount of data required to empower this class of models for translational medicine purposes and, iv) we exemplify how computational modeling of immune response provides an important light to discuss hypothesis and design new experiments.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.20.423670v1" target="_blank">From infection to immunity: understanding the response to SARS-CoV2 through in-silico modeling</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Evidence of a dysregulated Vitamin D pathway in SARS-CoV-2 infected patient's lung cells</strong> -
<div>
Although a defective vitamin D pathway has been widely suspected to be associated in SARS-CoV-2 pathobiology, the status of the vitamin D pathway and vitamin D-modulated genes in lung cells of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 remains unknown. To understand the significance of the vitamin D pathway in SARS-CoV-2 pathobiology, computational approaches were applied to transcriptomic datasets from bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) cells of such patients or healthy individuals. Levels of vitamin D receptor, retinoid X receptor, and CYP27A1 in BALF cells of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 were found to be reduced. Additionally, 107 differentially expressed, predominantly downregulated genes modulated by vitamin D were identified in transcriptomic datasets from patient's cells. Further analysis of differentially expressed genes provided eight novel genes with a conserved motif with vitamin D-responsive elements, implying the role of both direct and indirect mechanisms of gene expression by the dysregulated vitamin D pathway in SARS-CoV-2-infected cells. Network analysis of differentially expressed vitamin D-modulated genes identified pathways in the immune system, NF-KB;cytokine signaling, and cell cycle regulation as top predicted pathways that might be affected in the cells of such patients. In brief, the results provided computational evidence to implicate a dysregulated vitamin D pathway in the pathobiology of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.21.423733v1" target="_blank">Evidence of a dysregulated Vitamin D pathway in SARS-CoV-2 infected patient's lung cells</a>
</div></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Evaluating Safety, Pharmacokinetics and Clinical Benefit of Silmitasertib (CX-4945) in Subjects With Moderate COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Silmitasertib;   Drug: SOC<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Chris Recknor, MD<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Evaluation of the Efficacy of High Doses of Methylprednisolone in SARS-CoV2 ( COVID-19) Pneumonia Patients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: Methylprednisolone, Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Azienda Unità Sanitaria Locale Reggio Emilia<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 BCG Vaccine as a Preventive Measure for COVID-19 in Health Care Workers</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID 19 Vaccine<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: BCG vaccine<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro;   Ministry of Science and Technology, Brazil<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>Changes in Viral Load in COVID-19 After Probiotics</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Dietary Supplement: Dietary supplementation in patients with covid disease admitted to hospital<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Hospital de Sagunto;   Biopolis S.L.;   Laboratorios Heel España<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>Efficacy and Safety of Ivermectin for Treatment and Prophylaxis of COVID-19 Pandemic</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Ivermectin;   Drug: Hydroxychloroquine;   Behavioral: personal protective Measures<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Benha 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>Effect of Dalcetrapib in Patients With Confirmed Mild to Moderate COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Dalcetrapib;   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   DalCor Pharmaceuticals;   The Montreal Health Innovations Coordinating Center (MHICC);   Covance<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>Phase 3 Inhaled Novaferon Study in Hospitalized Patients With Moderate to Severe COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Novaferon;   Biological: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Genova Inc.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Efficacy and Safety of High-dose Vitamin C Combined With Chinese Medicine Against Coronavirus Pneumonia (COVID-19)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Alpha-interferon alpha, abidol, ribavirin, Buzhong Yiqi plus and minus formula, Huhuang Detoxicity Paste, Baimu Qingre Jiedu Paste, fumigation/inhalation of vitamin C;   Drug: Alpha-interferon, abidol, ribavirin, Buzhong Yiqi plus and minus formula, Huhuang Detoxicity Paste, Baimu Qingre Jiedu Paste and 5% glucose;   Drug: Alpha-interferon, abidol, ribavirin, Buzhong Yiqi plus and minus formula, Huhuang Detoxicity Paste, Baimu Qingre Jiedu Paste and high-dose vitamin C treatment<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Xi'an International Medical Center Hospital<br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Study on Safety and Clinical Efficacy of AZVUDINE in COVID-19 Patients (SARS-CoV-2 Infected)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: AZVUDINE;   Drug: AZVUDINE placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   HRH Holdngs Limited;   GALZU INSTITUTE OF RESEARCH, TEACHING, SCIENCE AND APPLIED TECHNOLOGY, Brazil;   SANTA CASA DE MISERICORDIA DE CAMPOS HOSPITAL (SCMCH), Brazil;   UNIVERSIDADE ESTADUAL DO NORTE FLUMINENSE (UENF), Brazil<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Efficacy and Safety of Remdesivir and Tociluzumab for the Management of Severe COVID-19: A Randomized Controlled Trial</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Covid19;   Covid-19 ARDS<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Remdesivir;   Drug: Tocilizumab<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   M Abdur Rahim Medical College and Hospital;   First affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaoting University<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Clinical Safety Study on AT-100 in Treating Adults With Severe COVID-19 Infection</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: AT-100<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Airway Therapeutics, Inc.<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>Mushroom-based Product for COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: FoTv<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Gordon Saxe;   University of California, Los Angeles;   University of California, Irvine<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 Outpatient Pragmatic Platform Study (COPPS) - Master Protocol</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Acebilustat;   Drug: Camostat<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Stanford 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>COVID-19 Outpatient Pragmatic Platform Study (COPPS) - Camostat Sub-Protocol</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Camostat;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Stanford 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>COVID-19 Outpatient Pragmatic Platform Study (COPPS) - Acebilustat Sub-Protocol</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Acebilustat;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Stanford University<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>Action of dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors on SARS-CoV-2 main protease</strong> - In a recent publication in this journal Eleftheriou et al. proposed inhibitors of dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) to be functional inhibitors of the main protease (M pro ) of SARS-CoV-2. Their predictions prompted the authors to suggest linagliptin, a DPP-4 inhibitor and approved anti-diabetes drug, as a repurposed drug candidate against the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. We used an enzymatic assay measuring inhibition of M pro catalytic activity in the presence of four different commercially...</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>"Silent hypoxaemia in COVID-19 patients"</strong> - The clinical presentation of COVID-19 due to infection with SARS-CoV-2 is highly variable with the majority of patients having mild symptoms while others develop severe respiratory failure. The reason for this variability is unclear but is in critical need of investigation. Some COVID-19 patients have been labeled with 'happy hypoxia,' in which patient complaints of dyspnoea and observable signs of respiratory distress are reported to be absent. Based on ongoing debate, we highlight key...</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>Recognition of Plausible Therapeutic Agents to Combat COVID-19: An Omics Data Based Combined Approach</strong> - Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), has become an immense threat to global public health. In this study, more than 67,000 reference sequences including a complete genome sequence of SARS-CoV-2 isolate performed by us and several in silico techniques were merged to propose prospective therapeutics. Through meticulous analysis, several conserved and therapeutically suitable regions of SARS-CoV-2 such as RNA-dependent RNA...</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>Understanding the immunopathogenesis of COVID-19: Its implication for therapeutic strategy</strong> - Although 80% of individuals infected with the severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) recover without antiviral treatments, the other 20% progress to severe forms of pulmonary disease, suggesting that the host's immune response to the virus could influence the outcome of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). SARS-CoV-2 infects alveolar epithelial type 2 cells expressing angiotensin-converting enzyme 2, and these infected epithelial cells recruit dendritic cells, neutrophils...</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>Microfluidic immunoassay for detection of serological antibodies: A potential tool for rapid evaluation of immunity against SARS-CoV-2</strong> - In December 2019, coronavirus disease 2019 became a pandemic affecting more than 200 countries and territories. Millions of lives are still affected because of mandatory quarantines, which hamstring economies and induce panic. Immunology plays a major role in the modern field of medicine, especially against virulent infectious diseases. In this field, neutralizing antibodies are heavily studied because they reflect the level of infection and individuals' immune status, which are essential when...</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>Diverse chemical space of indoleamine-2,3-dioxygenase 1 (Ido1) inhibitors</strong> - Indoleamine-2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO1) catalyses the first and rate limiting step of kynurenine pathway accounting for the major contributor of L-Tryptophan degradation. The Kynurenine metabolites are identified as essential cofactors, antagonists, neurotoxins, immunomodulators, antioxidants as well as carcinogens. The catalytic active site of IDO1 enzyme consists of hydrophobic Pocket-A positioned in the distal heme site and remains connected to a second hydrophobic Pocket-B towards the entrance...</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 broad spectrum host-directed agent ivermectin as an antiviral for SARS-CoV-2 ?</strong> - FDA approved for parasitic indications, the small molecule ivermectin has been the focus of growing attention in the last 8 years due to its potential as an antiviral. We first identified ivermectin in a high throughput compound library screen as an agent potently able to inhibit recognition of the nuclear localizing Human Immunodeficiency Virus-1 (HIV-1) integrase protein by the host importin (IMP) α/β1 heterodimer, and recently demonstrated its ability to bind directly to IMPα to cause...</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>Methylene blue in covid-19</strong> - SARS-CoV-2 infection generally begins in the respiratory tract where it can cause bilateral pneumonia. The disease can evolve into acute respiratory distress syndrome and multi-organ failure, due to viral spread in the blood and an excessive inflammatory reaction including cytokine storm. Antiviral and anti-cytokine drugs have proven to be poorly or in-effective in stopping disease progression, and mortality or serious chronic damage is common in severely ill cases. The low efficacy of antiviral...</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>Bioactivity Potential of Marine Natural Products from Scleractinia-Associated Microbes and In Silico Anti-SARS-COV-2 Evaluation</strong> - Marine organisms and their associated microbes are rich in diverse chemical leads. With the development of marine biotechnology, a considerable number of research activities are focused on marine bacteria and fungi-derived bioactive compounds. Marine bacteria and fungi are ranked on the top of the hierarchy of all organisms, as they are responsible for producing a wide range of bioactive secondary metabolites with possible pharmaceutical applications. Thus, they have the potential to provide...</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>Lymphocyte Changes in Severe COVID-19: Delayed Over-Activation of STING?</strong> - Upon recognition of microbial DNA or self-DNA, the cyclic-GMP-AMP synthase (cGAS) of the host catalyzes the production of the cyclic dinucleotide cGAMP. cGAMP is the main activator of STING, stimulator of interferon genes, leading to interferon synthesis through the STING-TBK1-IRF3 pathway. STING is also a hub for activation of NF-κB and autophagy. The present review details the striking similarities between T and B cell responses in severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and both animal or...</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SARS-CoV-2 and Viral Sepsis: Immune Dysfunction and Implications in Kidney Failure</strong> - Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causal agent of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), first emerged in Wuhan, China. The clinical manifestations of patients infected with COVID-19 include fever, cough, and dyspnea, up to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and acute cardiac injury. Thus, a lot of severe patients had to be admitted to intensive care units (ICU). The pathogenic mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2 infection are mediated by the binding of SARS-CoV-2...</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>Clinically Approved Antiviral Drug in an Orally Administrable Nanoparticle for COVID-19</strong> - There is urgent therapeutic need for COVID-19, a disease for which there are currently no widely effective approved treatments and the emergency use authorized drugs do not result in significant and widespread patient improvement. The food and drug administration-approved drug ivermectin has long been shown to be both antihelmintic agent and a potent inhibitor of viruses such as Yellow Fever Virus. In this study, we highlight the potential of ivermectin packaged in an orally administrable...</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>Statins and PCSK9 inhibitors: What is their role in coronavirus disease 2019?</strong> - Statins and proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) inhibitors interfere with several pathophysiological pathways of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Statins may have a direct antiviral effect on severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) by inhibiting its main protease. Statin-induced up-regulation of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) may also be beneficial, whereas cholesterol reduction might significantly suppress SARS-CoV-2 by either blocking its...</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>Thalidomide Combined with Short-term Low-Dose Glucocorticoid Therapy for the Treatment of Severe COVID-19: A Case-Series Study</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: Thalidomide plus short-term glucocorticoid therapy is an effective and safe regimen for the treatment of severely ill COVID-19 patients. The mechanism of action is most likely inhibition of inflammatory cytokine production.</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>Genetic Screens Identify Host Factors for SARS-CoV-2 and Common Cold Coronaviruses</strong> - The Coronaviridae are a family of viruses that cause disease in humans ranging from mild respiratory infection to potentially lethal acute respiratory distress syndrome. Finding host factors common to multiple coronaviruses could facilitate the development of therapies to combat current and future coronavirus pandemics. Here, we conducted genome-wide CRISPR screens in cells infected by SARS-CoV-2 as well as two seasonally circulating common cold coronaviruses, OC43 and 229E. This approach...</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</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>Covid 19 - Chewing Gum</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>A traditional Chinese medicine composition for COVID-19 and/or influenza and preparation method thereof</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>STOCHASTIC MODEL METHOD TO DETERMINE THE PROBABILITY OF TRANSMISSION OF NOVEL COVID-19</strong> - The present invention is directed to a stochastic model method to assess the risk of spreading the disease and determine the probability of transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).</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 use of human serum albumin (HSA) and Cannabigerol (CBG) as active ingredients in a composition for use in the treatment of Coronavirus (Covid-19) and its symptoms</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>The use of human serum albumin (HSA) and Cannabigerol (CBG) as active ingredients in a composition for use in the treatment of Coronavirus (Covid-19) and its symptoms</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>"AYURVEDIC PROPRIETARY MEDICINE FOR TREATMENT OF SEVERWE ACUTE RESPIRATORY SYNDROME CORONAVIRUS 2 (SARS-COV-2."</strong> - AbstractAyurvedic Proprietary Medicine for treatment of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV-2)In one of the aspect of the present invention it is provided that Polyherbal combinations called Coufex (syrup) is prepared as Ayurvedic Proprietary Medicine , Aqueous Extracts Mixing with Sugar Syrup form the following herbal aqueous extract coriandrum sativum was used for the formulation of protek.Further another Polyherbal combination protek as syrup is prepared by the combining an aqueous extract of the medicinal herbs including Emblica officinalis, Terminalia chebula, Terminalia belerica, Aegle marmelos, Zingiber officinale, Ocimum sanctum, Adatoda zeylanica, Piper lingum, Andrographis panivulata, Coriandrum sativum, Tinospora cordiofolia, cuminum cyminum,piper nigrum was used for the formulation of Coufex.</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>제2형 중증급성호흡기증후군 코로나바이러스 감염 질환의 예방 또는 치료용 조성물</strong> - 본 발명은 화학식 1로 표시되는 화합물, 또는 이의 약학적으로 허용가능한 염; 및 글루카곤 수용체 작용제(glucagon receptor agonist), 위 억제 펩타이드(gastric inhibitory peptide, GIP), 글루카곤-유사 펩타이드 1(glucagon-like peptide 1, GLP-1) 및 글루카곤 수용체/위 억제 펩타이드/글루카곤-유사 펩타이드 1(Glucagon/GIP/GLP-1) 삼중 완전 작용제(glucagon receptors, gastric inhibitory peptide and glucagon-like peptide 1 (Glucagon/GIP/GLP-1) triple full agonist)로 이루어진 군으로부터 선택된 1종 이상;을 포함하는 제2형 중증급성호흡기증후군 코로나바이러스 감염 질환 예방 또는 치료용 약학적 조성물을 제공한다.</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>Haptens, hapten conjugates, compositions thereof and method for their preparation and use</strong> - A method for performing a multiplexed diagnostic assay, such as for two or more different targets in a sample, is described. One embodiment comprised contacting the sample with two or more specific binding moieties that bind specifically to two or more different targets. The two or more specific binding moieties are conjugated to different haptens, and at least one of the haptens is an oxazole, a pyrazole, a thiazole, a nitroaryl compound other than dinitrophenyl, a benzofurazan, a triterpene, a urea, a thiourea, a rotenoid, a coumarin, a cyclolignan, a heterobiaryl, an azo aryl, or a benzodiazepine. The sample is contacted with two or more different anti-hapten antibodies that can be detected separately. The two or more different anti-hapten antibodies may be conjugated to different detectable labels.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SARS-CoV-2 RBD共轭纳米颗粒疫苗</strong> - 本发明涉及免疫医学领域具体而言涉及一种SARSCoV2 RBD共轭纳米颗粒疫苗。该疫苗包含免疫原性复合物所述免疫原性复合物包含a与SpyCatcher融合表达的载体蛋白自组装得到的纳米颗粒载体b与SpyTag融合表达的SARSCoV2病毒的RBD抗原所述载体蛋白选自Ferritin、mi3和I5350所述载体蛋白与所述抗原之间通过SpyCatcherSpyTag共价连接。</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>Устройство электронного контроля и дистанционного управления аппарата искусственной вентиляции легких</strong> - Полезная модель относится к медицинской технике, а именно к устройствам для воздействия на дыхательную систему пациента смесью различных газов, в частности, к устройствам для проведения искусственной вентиляции легких (ИВЛ). Технический результат предлагаемой полезной модели заключается в решении технической проблемы, состоящей в необходимости расширения арсенала технических средств, предназначенных для электронного контроля и управления ИВЛ, путем реализации возможности дистанционного управления аппаратами ИВЛ в медицинских учреждениях, не оборудованных кабельными вычислительными сетями. Указанный технический результат достигается благодаря тому, что в известное устройство электронного контроля и дистанционного управления аппарата ИВЛ, содержащее центральный микроконтроллер, а также программно-аппаратные средства управления функциями доставки воздушной смеси пациенту и многоуровневой тревожной сигнализации об отклонениях от нормативных условий и технических неполадках в аппарате ИВЛ, введены связанные друг с другом микроконтроллер связи и дистанционного управления и радиомодем, выполненный с возможностью связи с точками доступа радиканальной сети, при этом центральный микроконтроллер устройства выполнен с дополнительными входом/выходом, которые связаны с управляющими выходом/входом микроконтроллера связи и дистанционного управления, а, в зависимости от типа применяемой в медицинском учреждении радиоканальной сети связи и передачи данных, радиомодем может быть выполнен в виде интерфейсного аудиомодуля Bluetooth 4.0 BLE, приемопередающего модуля Wi-Fi либо устройства "малого радиуса действия", работающего по технологии LoRa на нелицензируемых частотах мегагерцового диапазона, например, в диапазоне 868 МГц. 3 з.п. ф-лы, 1 ил.</p></li>
</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The New COVID-19 Relief Package Is Flawed but Essential</strong> - If Congress had done nothing, the U.S. would soon face a humanitarian disaster as well as an economic one. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-new-covid-19-relief-package-is-flawed-but-essential">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What the Era of Trump and the Coronavirus May Teach Americas Children</strong> - The myths of national nobility do not exist for todays first graders. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/what-the-era-of-trump-and-the-coronavirus-may-teach-americas-children">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How Ammon Bundy Helped Foment an Anti-Masker Rebellion in Idaho</strong> - The COVID-19 pandemic has pitted establishment Republicans, who defer to public-health officials expertise, against hard-right libertarians. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/us-journal/how-ammon-bundy-helped-foment-an-anti-masker-rebellion-in-idaho">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Immense Relief of Health-Care Workers Receiving the COVID-19 Vaccine</strong> - Amid a surge, doctors and nurses on the front lines have begun getting “the jab.” A surgeon said, “You just had a sense that, actually, here was the light at the end of the tunnel.” - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-uk/the-immense-relief-of-health-care-workers-receiving-the-vaccine">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>An Advent Lament in the Pandemic</strong> - COVID-19 has held a mirror to Christianity, just as the epidemics of the past did. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/an-advent-lament-in-the-pandemic">link</a></p></li>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>2020 had some significant silver linings. Here are 7 of them.</strong> -
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<img alt="An illustration of people in breathing masks facing a shining sun." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/lHkjNdP3PNJYmUPoiroqSw__iCA=/494x0:2507x1510/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/68565169/GettyImages_1222621961.0.jpg"/>
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2020 has had good news that will stand out as astonishing triumphs of human achievement. | Getty Images
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Many of this years breakthroughs and lessons have the potential to make our future much brighter.
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2020 has been a lousy year. Time magazines cover story declared it the <a href="https://time.com/5917394/2020-in-review/">“worst year ever”</a> (or at least “in living memory for most Americans”). And it is finishing on a miserable note, with coronavirus deaths <a href="https://www.vox.com/coronavirus-covid19/2020/12/3/22150299/us-covid-19-deaths-yesterday-record-9-11">reaching horrifying new heights</a> — worse than a 9/11 every single day — while public health experts beg us to celebrate the winter holidays alone.
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But 2020 wasnt all bad news. In fact, Ill go further than that: 2020 had good news that would stand out as astonishing triumphs of human achievement in any<strong> </strong>other year. In areas ranging from public health to medicine, from poverty alleviation to food technology, there were some tremendous leaps. To highlight them — as Id like to do here — isnt to deny the misery and grief that were visited upon so many around the world in 2020. Rather, its to remind us that theres so much to fight for, and to honor the work of the many people who, under adverse conditions in an extraordinarily difficult time, still made tremendous<strong> </strong>progress on key problems.
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The world<strong> </strong>will start 2021 having lost many things we shouldnt have lost. More than 1.5 million preventable deaths have occurred so far. Hundreds of millions have been pushed into a spiral of poverty.<strong> </strong>In the US, the transition of power to President-elect Joe Biden promises to be ugly as Trump and his allies refuse to acknowledge the legitimacy of any election that their opponent won.
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But beneath all that, there is still real work going on in the world, work that transforms our lives, helps people, treats disease, and makes the future brighter. That work deserves a spotlight. Here are seven things that give me optimism about the future.
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">The record speed of the vaccine rollout wont just end this pandemic soon. Its also a reminder that humanity is still capable of astonishing leaps.
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The first vaccines for the coronavirus have begun, 11 months after the existence of the virus started to become widely known. Impressive results have been published from <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/11/18/21571475/pfizer-covid-19-vaccine-eua-fda-biontech-update-moderna-emergency-use">Pfizer/BioNTech</a> and <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/11/30/21726327/moderna-covid-19-vaccine-results">Moderna</a>, with other vaccines publishing results in the upcoming weeks as well. Overall, things look very good. The vaccines are safe, with a very low rate of adverse effects, and several of the vaccines are more than 90 percent effective at preventing serious coronavirus symptoms. When they are widely distributed, they should cut deaths dramatically.
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Public health experts have cautioned that people should continue to wear masks until everyones vaccinated. And it remains to be seen how much the vaccines will <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588&amp;xs=1&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fd41586-020-03441-8&amp;referrer=vox.com&amp;sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Ffuture-perfect%2F22165564%2F2020-vaccines-biotech-research-preparedness-silver-linings" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">prevent transmission of the virus</a> (if at all).<strong> </strong>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RdEFnX">
But likely by mid-year, high-risk people and essential workers will be vaccinated. The worst horrors of the pandemic will soon<strong> </strong>be under control: Health care workers will have a vaccine and their lives will be less in danger while they work long hours to protect us. Hospitals will be less overwhelmed as enough at-risk people have vaccines to keep ICU beds open. And by late 2021,<strong> </strong>a vaccine will likely be available to everyone who wants one, and it will be safe to return to the activities weve put on hold during the pandemic.
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This crisis has dragged on long enough that it seems endless. It isnt. The vaccines —produced and distributed with astonishing speed —<strong> </strong>change everything. In a time when it seemed like so much around us broke down, the vaccine success story is a reminder that humanity is still capable of groundbreaking achievements.
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">The coronavirus vaccine is also a good sign for new vaccine technologies
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QV1uW6">
In the past, vaccines have taken years or even decades to develop. Its striking to learn that some of the ones now hitting the market were developed in the space of <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/12/moderna-covid-19-vaccine-design.html">days or weeks</a> (the time since then has been for safety testing).
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="o9ph8l">
That sped-up process took a long time to develop. For the past several years, researchers have been working on new ways to develop vaccines. The success of the coronavirus vaccines is a major vindication of that work and a really good sign of how well it could work for other diseases.
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One<strong> </strong>breakthrough here is something called “mRNA vaccines.” The Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus shots are examples of this kind of vaccine. Unlike most vaccines, mRNA vaccines dont use a dead or inactivated version of the virus. Instead, the vaccine uses mRNA: a single-strand RNA molecule that the ribosomes inside your cells use as a template or instruction set to learn what proteins they should build next. The vaccine injects the mRNA into your body, telling it to produce a “spike protein” present on the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 virus; your <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines/mrna.html">cells will follow the instructions,</a> producing the unfamiliar protein and spurring the body to make antibodies.
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Researchers have hoped for years that mRNA vaccines will make it possible to vaccinate against diseases we otherwise struggle to vaccinate for and to do so on a much faster timeline than usual. “mRNA vaccines represent a promising alternative to conventional vaccine approaches because of their high potency, capacity for rapid development and potential for low-cost manufacture and safe administration,” a 2018 <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588&amp;xs=1&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fnrd.2017.243&amp;referrer=vox.com&amp;sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Ffuture-perfect%2F22165564%2F2020-vaccines-biotech-research-preparedness-silver-linings" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">paper in <em>Nature Reviews Drug Discovery</em></a> by University of Pennsylvania medical researchers argued.
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Even before the pandemic hit, there was already a lot of exciting work going on<strong> </strong>to make mRNA vaccines possible. But 2020 put that work to the test as vaccine researchers the world over tried to rapidly retool to fight Covid-19. Now, with the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, the technology has been tested and it has succeeded. That success is likely to drive development of tons more mRNA vaccines targeting other diseases.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tffJPg">
Meanwhile, the Oxford research institute that produced the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine is also moving into late-stage clinical trials with another major achievement: a vaccine for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/05/team-behind-oxford-covid-jab-start-final-stage-of-malaria-vaccine-trials">malaria</a>, which has stubbornly resisted research<strong> </strong>efforts over the past century. If the malaria vaccine works, it could put one of the worlds biggest killers to rest for good. And even if its only moderately effective, it can save a lot of lives.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yWxLQl">
Other good news to look forward to on the vaccine front: Moderna is <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/custom-media/influenza-outlook/accelerating-flu-protection/">reportedly working on a flu vaccine that lasts for life</a> instead of requiring a yearly update. And mRNA vaccines might<strong> </strong>also be used to train the body to — one day — <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588&amp;xs=1&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fd41586-019-03072-8&amp;referrer=vox.com&amp;sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Ffuture-perfect%2F22165564%2F2020-vaccines-biotech-research-preparedness-silver-linings" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">fight cancer</a>.
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<h3 id="KXnCPf">
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">America is likelier to be ready for the next pandemic
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lJSryt">
Scientists and policy experts<strong> </strong>have been <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2018/10/15/17948062/pandemic-flu-ebola-h1n1-outbreak-infectious-disease">warning for years</a> that the United States was unready for the next pandemic. No one could have predicted that it would happen this year, of course, but we knew it would happen someday — and the US wasnt ready.
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In February and March, the Centers for<strong> </strong>Disease<strong> </strong>Control and Prevention (CDC) <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/03/05/905484/why-the-cdc-botched-its-coronavirus-testing/">made mistakes with testing</a> that hampered the USs ability to stop the spread of the coronavirus into the country. Confusing <a href="https://www.slowboring.com/p/the-masks-and-the-experts">public messaging around masks</a> resulted in low adoption, a problem that persists today. There were personal protective equipment (PPE) shortages despite stockpiles intended to solve that exact problem. Many institutional weaknesses were suddenly and humiliatingly laid bare.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ih4ph8">
But theres a silver lining. The coronavirus pandemic has been awful, but its nowhere near as bad as it could have been. “The coronavirus appears not to be deadly enough to kill tens of millions of people, as was initially feared,” <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/2/6/21121303/coronavirus-wuhan-panic-pandemic-outbreak">I wrote</a> on February 6, “but this is more or less a matter of luck. The virus could easily have been deadlier, and the world would currently be in the grip of a horrifying mass casualty event.” Perhaps 2020s single biggest stroke of luck — one that, as a parent of young kids, I appreciate every single day — is that the disease largely isnt deadly to children.
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Other pandemic diseases might be different. It is possible for a disease to spread like Covid-19 while being deadlier to younger people, and particularly deadly to young children as influenzas <a href="https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2018/02/study-shows-youngest-kids-most-risk-flu-death">typically are</a>. One thing the country can take a small measure of comfort in is that<strong> </strong>its unreadiness was exposed and its lessons were<strong> </strong>learned now, with this virus, instead of something much, much worse. Countries that faced SARS in the mid-2000s<strong> </strong>handled Covid-19 better, and hopefully having faced Covid-19 will help the US be ready for the next pandemic.
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<strong></strong>I think weve learned an enormous amount in the course of this year,” Steve Morrison, who studies pandemic preparedness at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told me. “Health security prior to this was a kind of niche domain. It was one prone to these cycles of crisis and complacency. It was underfinanced, underprioritized.” That came back to bite the US — but hopefully, having learned its lesson, it can do better.
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Post-pandemic accountability will make a big difference in determining how much America lets its mistakes this time around make it stronger for the next time. Morrison, for his part, believes the country will have a better response next time around because of what it went through in 2020. Its the thinnest of silver linings, but Ill take it.
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<h3 id="BzgfNT">
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Our digital infrastructure for remote work was tested — and passed
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gM15kv">
As rough as 2020 was, it would have been much worse without remote communications tech. After a decade of asking, “What is tech even getting us?” we saw an answer: the ability for <a href="https://news.stanford.edu/2020/06/29/snapshot-new-working-home-economy/#:~:text=We%20see%20an%20incredible%2042,working%20from%20home%20full%2Dtime.">fully 40 percent of the labor force</a> to stay home during a pandemic. Zoom and similar tools, for all we complain about them, enabled companies to switch to remote meetings more or less overnight. The amount of traffic online jumped dramatically, and the internet mostly handled it without visible strain.
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Thats easy to take for granted, since we mostly experience it as an absence — websites that load when we expect them to, devices that work. But its really pretty remarkable, and it points at one of our modern worlds greatest strengths, a strength that has survived the pandemic.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uYTgGu">
“Internet traffic carried by AT&amp;T, one of the nations largest internet providers, rose almost immediately by 20 percent starting in mid-March,” Charles Fishman pointed out in an <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/miracle-internet-not-breaking/611212/">Atlantic article</a>:
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By the end of April, network traffic during the workweek was up 25 percent from typical Monday-to-Friday periods in January and February, and showed no signs of fading. That may not sound like much, but imagine suddenly needing to add 20 percent more long-haul trucks to U.S. highways instantly, or 20 percent more freight trains, or 20 percent more flights every day out of every airport in the country. In fact, none of those infrastructure systems could have provided 20 percent more capacity instantly — or sustained it day after day for months.
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AT&amp;T <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/miracle-internet-not-breaking/611212/">also told the Atlantic</a> it experienced even more dramatic spikes in time spent on the phone and in text messages sent. As the pandemic made it unsafe to connect with one another in person, we connected digitally.
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If wed suffered a pandemic like this only a few decades ago, the way we responded would have been basically impossible. The infrastructure simply didnt exist to allow most white-collar workers to safely work from home. In 2020, it did — and where it didnt, we built it. “At one point in March, for instance,” Fishman writes, “traffic was rising so fast in Chicago and Atlanta that dozens of technicians and engineers in those cities worked all night, adding fresh fiber connections and routers.”
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<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/rXN2DfXueVTHWZgOA_Pow0Sg0ak=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22180752/1228663366.jpg"/> <cite>Phil Barker/Future Publishing via Getty Images</cite>
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Detail of a home office setup on a kitchen worktop, including a laptop computer with Zoom videoconferencing software, taken on September 9, 2020.
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There are, of course, still galling inequities in access to the internet. In some parts of the country, kids were switched to “remote school” despite not having reliable internet access at home. The CARES Act contained money for expanding broadband access in poorly served communities, though there have been <a href="https://apnews.com/article/legislature-vermont-virus-outbreak-technology-broadband-internet-9ea34f05996ea4c6d1c6267954f61aed">challenges in ensuring the money is spent usefully by the end-of-year deadline</a>. And most people dont have the luxury of doing their jobs from home, and they didnt reap this benefit as much as knowledge economy workers.
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That said, the resilience of the home internet infrastructure was an undeniably good thing. And it might only get better:<strong> </strong>Over the course of the year, innovative engineers worked to make online meeting tools better and more reliable, and to mimic many of the missing bits of regular life. In the past few months, Ive attended online parties where people get louder or quieter as you walk toward them, to imitate how normal parties work; Ive tested out special technology to enable group singing, which usually doesnt work over video calls because of lag.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="skYXat">
The tech industry has lots of problems. But it can<strong> </strong>also be innovative, flexible, and fast-moving, and in 2020 it lived up to its promise as a source not just of shiny distractions but of critical tools. The engineers who made working and connecting from home possible saved lives, and it should be an opportunity to reflect on how much technology can do when its directed at important problems.
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<h3 id="jJWQ7U">
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Biotech is making huge leaps in other sectors
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="37VBrH">
If youve ever seen a three-dimensional model of a protein, you might have noticed that the way the atoms twist and fold up into a shape looks kind of random. For a long time, scientists have tried to identify principles that explain what shape <a href="https://deepmind.com/blog/article/AlphaFold-Using-AI-for-scientific-discovery">proteins will take when they fold</a>. Theyve had only moderate success. There are more than a <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/googol">googol</a> possibilities for any given protein, and which form a protein will take depends on incredibly complex interactions among its thousands of amino acids.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yqEAHE">
Researchers have kept at it, though, because the “protein-folding problem” is one of the most critical ones in biology. Successfully predicting how proteins fold will make it possible to design new drugs with a particular desired structure. It opens the door to breakthroughs in everything from new cancer treatments to new antidepressants.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QJEWxa">
2020 saw a big leap in these efforts, <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22045713/ai-artificial-intelligence-deepmind-protein-folding">thanks to AI</a>.<strong> </strong>Every two years at an annual competition called the Critical Assessment of Structure Prediction (CASP), biologists compete to design systems that predict how unfamiliar proteins will fold. Their predictors are judged by how far their best guess at a proteins structure is from the experimentally determined structure — the one the protein has when it is built out of amino acids and measured how it folds.
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Last CASP, in 2018, the leader of the pack was Alphabets DeepMind, an AI research organization. At this years CASP, DeepMind didnt just win again — it<strong> </strong>improved on its<strong> </strong>previous performance by an enormous margin, producing results almost as good as those you would get if you laboriously built and laboratory-imaged all of the proteins.
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“This is a big deal,” CASP co-founder John Moult <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588&amp;xs=1&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fd41586-020-03348-4%3Futm_medium%3Daffiliate%26utm_source%3Dcommission_junction%26utm_campaign%3D3_nsn6445_deeplink_PID100045715%26utm_content%3Ddeeplink&amp;referrer=vox.com&amp;sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Ffuture-perfect%2F22165564%2F2020-vaccines-biotech-research-preparedness-silver-linings" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">told <em>Nature</em></a>. “In some sense the problem is solved.”
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<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/KXPlGXdeHDzl2KcxBBcsQidpKjo=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22159695/casp.jpg"/> <cite>Source: DeepMind, published in Nature</cite>
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DeepMinds<strong> </strong>results are good enough that researchers should be able to use them for all kinds of biomedical research, custom-designing drugs that have desired receptors. It would also let researchers quickly scan every existing drug to learn which ones will work against some novel disease. And theres no reason to think that the progress will stop here.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="r2A09E">
“Its a breakthrough of the first order, certainly one of the most significant scientific results of my lifetime,” Columbia computational biologist Mohammed AlQuraishi told <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588&amp;xs=1&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fd41586-020-03348-4&amp;referrer=vox.com&amp;sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Ffuture-perfect%2F22165564%2F2020-vaccines-biotech-research-preparedness-silver-linings" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em>Nature</em></a><em>. </em><em><strong> </strong></em>Skeptics have <a href="https://foldingathome.org/2020/12/08/protein-folding-and-related-problems-remain-unsolved-despite-alphafolds-advance/">protested</a> that while DeepMind has made progress, they havent “solved” protein folding, and there are many other steps before this work will produce new drugs. But theres no arguing that this has been a major goal in biology and in pharmaceutical research for a long time.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qeNhvx">
DeepMind made its name in the AI field with its work beating top players at Go, chess, and <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/1/24/18196177/ai-artificial-intelligence-google-deepmind-starcraft-game">Starcraft</a>. Those triumphs involved impressive technical achievements, but they were easy for some to dismiss as being novelties — an AI that can play video games better than a human wont change the world. This achievement makes it clear that AI breakthroughs are also coming to scientific fields and are poised to be hugely consequential.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0Mx16M">
While many of the implications of highly advanced AI systems <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2018/12/21/18126576/ai-artificial-intelligence-machine-learning-safety-alignment">give me pause</a>, theres lots of cause for optimism here. If we get AI right, we can use it to tackle many of the thorniest problems we face.
</p>
<h3 id="jqCB8a">
<ol start="6" style="list-style-type: decimal">
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Weve learned more about what works to fight poverty
</li></ol></h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tK0rvi">
This year is ending with a <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/21582005/joe-biden-poverty-covid">poverty crisis</a>. But during April, May, and June — as the economy ground to a halt because of the pandemic<strong> </strong>— poverty in the US actually fell.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eEEfMQ">
Why?<strong> </strong>The CARES Act, the <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/7/7/21308450/extra-600-unemployment-stimulus-expiring-cares-act">landmark $2 trillion pandemic relief bill</a> that Congress passed last March, briefly left many Americans better off.<strong> </strong>Transferring $1,200 to most taxpayers and padding out unemployment benefits with an extra $600 a week caused poverty rates to fall in April and May, at the depth of the crisis, as you can see on the chart below (the March decline is due to tax refunds). Poverty doesnt usually fall in the middle of an economic crisis. But the US had never tried anything on the scale of CARES before.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/m0gLePqGkan8tm6hWirwjbqW7VI=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22159520/Screen_Shot_2020_12_10_at_12.51.58_AM.png"/> <cite>Christina Aminushaun/Vox</cite>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3crphx">
The CARES Acts provisions for unemployment insurance eventually expired, the act wasnt renewed, and now poverty is spiking to record levels.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kjJcCx">
Thats awful news. But it also provides some useful perspective for policymakers. For a long time, there have<strong> </strong>been claims that America <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/2014_vol_40/vol_40_no_3_poverty/end_poverty_america/">doesnt really know how to tackle poverty</a>, or that it requires solving <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/opinion/sunday/why-cant-we-end-poverty-in-america.html">lots of complex problems</a> all at once. The CARES Act made it pretty clear that the country does know. A bill doesnt have to be perfectly targeted, ideally designed, or incredibly clever to reduce poverty. It just has to send money to people who are struggling.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rC9jk7">
This lesson has been reflected in the ways macroeconomists think about policy, economist and finance commentator Noah Smith <a href="https://noahpinion.substack.com/p/the-new-macro-give-people-money">argues</a>. “At least as far as policy debates go, arguments about optimal fiscal policy based in formal macroeconomic models seem to be out, replaced by a consensus that giving people money is necessary and good (at least, for the foreseeable future),” Smith wrote recently. Since the new consensus seems to reflect the empirical evidence a lot better than the old one — and presents policymakers with a lot more options to fight poverty — thats great news.
</p>
<h3 id="jpUpd8">
<ol start="7" style="list-style-type: decimal">
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">The meat of the future is closer to the present
</li></ol></h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JcWbKL">
Currently, farms around the world produce chicken for sale by raising fast-growing chicken breeds in batches of tens of thousands, tightly packed in warehouses that are a <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/10/21/21363990/factory-farms-next-swine-influenza-pandemic">public health hazard</a>, a <a href="https://www.ksn.com/news/local/tens-of-thousands-of-chickens-die-in-cal-maine-plant-fire/#:~:text=CHASE%2C%20Kan.,hold%20up%20to%2080%2C000%20birds.">fire hazard</a>, a <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/21502225/chicken-meatpacking-plant-future-perfect-podcast">worker safety hazard</a>, and a hazard to the well-being of the chickens themselves.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="So3Ca9">
What if, instead, we could grow the meat without the chickens?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9PnuJc">
Researchers all over the world have been chasing that dream, of “lab-grown” or “cultured” meat, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/5/28/18626859/meatless-meat-explained-vegan-impossible-burger">for years</a>. This year, lab-grown meat took one step closer to reality as the Singapore Food Agency approved the sale of cultured chicken meat grown in bioreactors, becoming the first agency in the world to issue such an approval. Its<strong> </strong>sign-off means that chicken bites from the US company Eat Just will be available to consumers in Singapore. (There are a few other places in the world where you can try lab-grown meat, such as an <a href="https://supermeat.com/">experimental restaurant in Israel</a>.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="O0BTxG">
While the US isnt close to commercial approval, the government is interested in figuring out how to foster lab-grown meat work stateside, as well: <a href="https://www.gfi.org/blog-nsf-cultivated-meat-grant">The US government gave out its first university research grant for lab-grown meat</a> this winter.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GAA6kz">
While meat consumption is still rising, these steps have the potential to grow into much more than a novelty. If scale and cost concerns can be resolved, this can be a path to ending our reliance on barbaric factory farming practices, and building a food system that meets the world demand for meat ethically.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JR2zNI">
<a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect-newsletter"><em><strong>Sign up for the Future Perfect newsletter.</strong></em></a><em> Twice a week, youll get a roundup of ideas and solutions for tackling our biggest challenges: improving public health, decreasing human and animal suffering, easing catastrophic risks, and — to put it simply — getting better at doing good.</em>
</p>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Congress has officially passed a $900 billion Covid-19 relief package</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/_Af2fvAFAHleSqh4BUVLixnzmwY=/558x0:5021x3347/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/68564069/1292320929.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at a press conference on Capitol Hill on December 20 . | Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure></li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
It includes another round of stimulus checks — and more unemployment relief.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WpcrsP">
Days before the holidays, Congress has passed a $900 billion bill to extend unemployment insurance, pay out additional stimulus checks to Americans and provide more loans for small businesses.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9MZxXg">
The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives passed the relief bill Monday night on a vote of <a href="https://twitter.com/frankthorp/status/1341204810964590592">359-53</a>, just hours after the <a href="https://rules.house.gov/sites/democrats.rules.house.gov/files/BILLS-116HR133SA-RCP-116-68.pdf">final legislative text</a> was released to members. A few hours later, the Republican-controlled US Senate did the same with a vote of 92-6.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PE8PSf">
“It is a good bipartisan bill,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on the House floor Monday morning, mentioning provisions Democrats secured like additional food assistance and a temporary extension of an eviction moratorium. Pelosi also nodded to the $600 direct payments that will be going out to Americans. “I would have liked them to have been bigger, but they are significant and they will be going out soon,” she said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="N7fy2H">
The bill is designed to be a short-term bridge to get financial relief to Americans as the country enters a particularly difficult stretch of the coronavirus pandemic, with about <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html">200,000 new confirmed cases per day</a>. At the same time, an end may be<strong> </strong>in sight, with the first vaccines going out to health care workers and more on the way.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Uq8pWf">
“We can finally report what our nation has needed to hear for a long time: More help is on the way,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Sunday night. Pelosi and McConnell themselves received a first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine last week, and President-elect Joe Biden also received his on Monday.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OldQWh">
There are still a number of big things that didnt make it into the final relief bill, including broad aid to state and local governments that Democrats wanted, and liability protections for companies that were a top priority for Republicans. Addressing the Senate Sunday night, Schumer admitted while states and cities would receive some funding specifically for education, Covid-19 testing, and public transit, “the agreement we reached is far from perfect.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2yqSdA">
Democratic leaders and President-elect Joe Biden have said they want Congress to pass additional stimulus when Biden takes office.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4C40R2">
“Immediately, starting in the new year, Congress will need to get to work on support for our COVID-19 plan, for support to struggling families, and investments in jobs and economic recovery,” Biden said in a statement Sunday. “There will be no time to waste.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cKzlWr">
But additional federal stimulus may well hinge on a <a href="https://www.vox.com/21755028/democrats-ossoff-warnock-georgia-runoffs-explained">pair of undecided Senate races in Georgia</a> that will decide which party controls the Senate. Passing another deal may not be easy.
</p>
<h3 id="adjw82">
What the stimulus deal contains
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4FAiVh">
While theres a lot that the stimulus agreement omits, it is expected to offer much-needed aid on a few fronts. Heres what we know so far on the details.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mqaU8B">
<strong>Stimulus checks: </strong>There is a second round of stimulus checks, though they are smaller than those distributed earlier this year. These direct payments include $600 for individuals who made $75,000 a year or less in adjusted gross income in 2019, and $1,200 for couples who made $150,000 or less. Individuals and couples with children who qualify for the stimulus checks would also receive an additional $600 per child. Payments will be incrementally reduced for people who make more in annual income, much like they were in the spring.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0kmBzs">
<strong>Unemployment insurance (UI): </strong>The plan includes an additional $300 in weekly federal UI payments through March 14, 2021. This supplemental payment is set to bolster the weekly payment that recipients would get from their state unemployment programs, much like a prior provision did in the CARES Act. The bill would also extend the pandemic unemployment insurance programs that are expiring at the end of December. These pandemic-specific programs currently provide roughly 12 million Americans with UI benefits.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bB3HeC">
<strong>Small-business support: </strong>$325 billion is dedicated to small-business aid including repurposed funding for <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/6/17/21292019/paycheck-protection-program-flexibility-act-new-rules"><strong>the Paycheck Protection Program</strong></a>, a forgivable loan program that business owners can apply for to cover payroll and operational costs. These loans are aimed at businesses that have seen revenue declines this year. For many, however, this aid comes too late — <a href="https://fortune.com/2020/09/28/covid-buisnesses-shut-down-closed/"><strong>according to a Fortune report</strong></a>, almost 100,000 small businesses have already closed permanently during the pandemic.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="18b0pN">
<strong>Rental assistance and eviction moratorium: </strong>$25 billion in rental assistance is included as well as the establishment of a federal eviction moratorium. <a href="https://www.vox.com/21569601/eviction-moratorium-cdc-covid-19-congress-rental-assistance-rent-crisis"><strong>As Voxs Jerusalem Demsas</strong></a> previously reported, tenant advocates have argued that at least $100 billion in rental aid is needed to cover current shortfalls. Additional action would be required to ensure that millions of Americans would not be evicted at the end of January.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Y7f0lg">
<strong>Food aid: </strong>$13 billion for food aid to help fund a monthly 15 percent increase in individual SNAP benefits, aid for children who received food support at school, and money for other programs including Meals on Wheels and WIC (the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children). Demand for such aid has spiked dramatically during the pandemic, with <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/5/11/21233063/food-banks-snap-coronavirus"><strong>food banks across the country</strong></a> facing overwhelming need in recent months.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ryzjs1">
<strong>Paid sick leave: </strong>There are tax credits for businesses that voluntarily provide paid leave, which continues a policy established in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, but companies are not mandated to offer such benefits. Previously, workers who had coronavirus or those caring for children dealing with school closures were guaranteed paid leave if their workplaces were covered by FFCRA.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WBmYEC">
<strong>The legislation contains a number of other provisions:</strong> The bill includes $82 billion to help schools reopen; $45 billion for public transit systems; $27 billion to help states ramp up Covid-19 testing; and $15 billion in small business loans specifically targeted to theaters and small venues that have been hit particularly hard by the pandemic. The bill also includes $15 billion in aid for airlines — which would be required to bring furloughed employees back — <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-transportation/us-lawmakers-expected-to-back-15-billion-in-airlines-payroll-assistance-idUSKBN28U0PL"><strong>according to Reuters</strong></a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ymbnwt">
It also includes language to ban <a href="https://www.vox.com/22193319/surprise-medical-bills-legislation-second-stimulus-package">surprise medical bills</a> for emergency care, the product of months of bipartisan negotiations to end the practice that contributes to some patients getting steep medical bills from out-of-network providers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="D8l0Xc">
Finally, the bill also has new guidelines for the Federal Reserve after Republicans — led by Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) — demanded recent emergency lending programs at the Fed be canceled in any final version of the bill.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nBBlNC">
As <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/12/19/22191140/stimulus-bill-federal-reserve-pat-toomey"><strong>Voxs Emily Stewart</strong></a> has explained, the Fed will be forced to eliminate several emergency lending programs created with CARES Act funding in the spring, and will be barred from restarting them without congressional approval. It will also return the unused portion of the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/why-untapped-billions-in-pandemic-aid-funds-are-in-limbo/2020/12/10/e49f68d0-3b10-11eb-aad9-8959227280c4_story.html"><strong>$454 billion</strong></a> Congress allotted it under the CARES Act to the Treasury Department, something the <a href="https://money.yahoo.com/powell-agrees-return-unused-relief-231030826.html"><strong>Fed had agreed to do</strong></a> in November.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="beIRuV">
The bill doesnt provide direct aid for state and local governments, a Democratic priority, or the liability protections that shield businesses from coronavirus-related lawsuits Republicans had advocated for. Additional deferment of federal student loan payments is also not included in the agreement, <a href="https://twitter.com/mstratford/status/1340838947841331200"><strong>Politicos Michael Stratford reports</strong></a>.
</p>
<h3 id="NTs5kb">
How long it will take people to receive help
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Hyccr0">
Speaking <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/21/stimulus-checks-will-arrive-as-soon-as-next-week-mnuchin-says.html">on CNBC Monday morning</a>, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin laid out an optimistic timeline for when Americans will see relief in the form of stimulus checks.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DnivgO">
“The good news is this is a very, very fast way of getting money into the economy,” Mnuchin said. “Let me emphasize: People are going to see this money at the beginning of next week.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="u6XfW3">
But based on the timing of aid from the CARES Act, it could be a few weeks before people see direct relief from the legislation.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DCQbON">
Earlier this year, the first round of direct payments was deposited in peoples bank accounts around mid-April: “Within two weeks of the CARES Act going into effect in March, <a href="https://www.gao.gov/reports/GAO-20-625/"><strong>more than 81 million payments</strong></a> were disbursed, totaling more than $147 billion, all through electronic transfers to recipients bank accounts, according to the Government Accountability Office,” <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/19/second-stimulus-check-when-will-i-get-a-covid-relief-cash-payment-and-how.html"><strong>CNBC recently reported</strong></a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xgxA8R">
People who do not have bank accounts, or whose information is not on file with the IRS, will likely see a more delayed distribution of the payments. For more information on what to expect with stimulus payments in the coming weeks, you can read Voxs explainer <a href="https://www.vox.com/22193651/second-stimulus-check-2020-update-when-how-much">here</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="clyJUw">
The timing of the implementation of enhanced unemployment insurance payments will also depend on the state. States began distributing $600 in supplemental UI roughly two weeks after the CARES Act was approved this past spring, which means the weekly $300 addition could begin in early January.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xgPmGa">
And when it comes to the Paycheck Protection Program, banks and other financial institutions began taking applications about a week after the funds were approved by Congress in March. That could set up applications for a new round of loans to kick off at the end of December or early January.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="83vtEm">
This lag time could be costly for those waiting on assistance; by the time much of this money gets to those who need it, the programs they are meant to extend <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22178537/covid-stimulus-deal-bill-unemployment-insurance">will have been expired for weeks</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7m156i">
Nevertheless, such aid comes at a crucial time: According to the latest Labor Department report, 19 million people are currently receiving unemployment insurance. In November, job growth slowed significantly compared to the prior month, suggesting that the unemployed are facing limited opportunities for new work. And this winter, coronavirus cases are projected to soar — forcing thousands of businesses to shutter or slow their operations to prevent the spread of the illness.
</p>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Netflixs new Regency drama Bridgerton is as shallow as the aristocrats it skewers</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A couple in Regency-era dress take hands to dance." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/izHOtfUeGzlr2mP61HvQ6seueXY=/140x0:3347x2405/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/68563596/bridg2.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Bridgerton stars Phoebe Dynevor and Regé-Jean Page. | Liam Daniel/Netflix
</figcaption>
</figure></li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Bridgerton tries to put a fresh perspective on historical romance, but it forgets to be interesting.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dqbfDC">
As a huge fan of historical romance, I once longed for Netflix to make a lush, extravagant, twisty series in the vein of the books I loved. But now that its actually gone ahead and made one, Ive found that I have to eat my words.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dstiiB">
<em>Bridgerton</em>, Shonda Rimess first collaboration with Netflix, promises a story of upper-crust debutantes with secrets and their fight to marry well in Regency London. But instead of filling that opulent, 19th-century setting with true passion and heart, the show comes off like many of the aristocrats its skewering: soulless and vapid.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2dzIXi">
Thats not to say that I didnt inhale the entire first season anyway. Written by Shondaland veteran <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2547449/">Chris Van Dusen</a> (<em>Scandal, Greys Anatomy</em>), <em>Bridgerton</em>s eight episodes fly by, and its Regency-era setting is easy to get lost in. It even utilizes two of the most irresistible plots in romance history: fake dating and a marriage of convenience.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HOBw2A">
But <em>Bridgerton</em>s story of two neighboring London families and the blossoming romance between a debutante and a mysterious duke ultimately contains more window dressing than substance. It pivots around deeply shallow characters, conniving matchmakers, and turgid sex scenes — and even includes a distressing onscreen rape thats never really addressed. It all makes for a compulsively snackable marathon, but its not easy to digest in the end.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<pre><code> &lt;img alt="Spoilers below!" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/NRVFKBJOWkX6yayj9JEVuLDSUh4=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/8635113/spoilers_below.png" /&gt;</code></pre>
</figure>
<h3 id="0B7iTy">
<em>Bridgerton</em> is a typical Regency romance, with a few bulletproof tropes working in its favor
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="U1d4Az">
<em>Bridgerton</em> is based on romance veteran Julia Quinns epic <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/series/40393-bridgertons">eight-part romance novel series</a> of the same name. (That might sound daunting, but for the romance genre, a series of that size is fairly common.) The series, like most historical romances, sets itself within a loose version of the Regency period — that particular moment of pre-industrial 19th-century Britain when London aristocracy was rich and bored enough to revolve around an annual “season” of nightly parties and events. (The era was named after George IV, who at the time was prince acting as the Regent — or proxy ruler — for his father, George III, who had succumbed to his famous “<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-22122407">madness</a>.” “Prinny” was mainly known for caring more about high society, or the <a href="https://www.regencyhistory.net/2014/12/what-is-haut-ton.html">haut ton</a><em>,</em> than boring government concerns, and the Regency period likewise borrowed his character traits of frivolous vanity.) London social functions had a complex etiquette and were usually held with the tacit purpose of matchmaking eligible men and women. This ritual, as the show explains to us early on, was known as the marriage mart, and as ridiculous as it might seem now, the stakes were very high.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7X196H">
So many romance novels have been set in this period that “regencies” form their own subgenre. Usually, however, the mainstream media only bothers with the Regency when its adapting a Jane Austen novel — puzzling since she only wrote six of them, and annoying since they were all set far from London, where all the action of the era was centered. Indeed, Regency London is the sort of heady, scandal-ripe setting that pairs perfectly with the soapiness of Shondaland storytelling.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0v3fCJ">
The moment the title card for the first episode, “<a href="https://candicehern.com/regency-world/glossary/diamond-of-the-first-water/">A Diamond of the First Water</a>,” appeared, I felt the thrill of recognition known to anyone whos grown up with shelves full of regencies filled with such <a href="http://www.susannedietze.com/regency-cant.html">idiomatic references</a>. The phrase conjured up the insular, coded vernacular of the regency novel: lords in <a href="https://janeaustensworld.wordpress.com/2013/06/21/regency-fashion-mens-breeches-pantaloons-and-trousers/">deerskin trousers and Hessian boots</a> that judged the ton through <a href="https://janeausten.co.uk/blogs/uncategorized/quizzing-glasses-a-history-by-candice-hern-2">quizzing glasses</a> and wielded intricate put-downs at the famous gentlemens club <a href="https://guestofaguest.com/london/nyc-society/a-mans-world-inside-londons-most-exclusive-gentelmens-club">Whites,</a> where the layers in a mans cravat and the elegance with which he drove his <a href="https://www.regencyhistory.net/2019/07/curricles-gigs-and-phaetons-in-regency.html">curricle</a> determined where he fell along <a href="https://shannondonnelly.com/2011/08/18/regency-corinthians-dandies-rakes-and-young-blades/">the narrow spectrum of fashionable gentility</a> — whether he was a true Corinthian or a mere fop. Women in empire-waisted <a href="https://janeaustensworld.wordpress.com/2011/09/08/muslin-muslin-versatile-cloth-for-regency-fashion/">sprigged muslin dresses</a> would exchange delicious innuendo-filled barbs with reformed rakes over lemonade at the famous assembly rooms at <a href="https://www.geriwalton.com/almacks-assembly-rooms/">Almacks</a>, and Prinny himself would occasionally appear to create havoc like a deranged Muppet. Reader, I could not wait.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6xNNwO">
<em>Bridgerton</em> delivers on some of these luxury items, but it also applies a few prominent twists to this old formula. The Prince Regent is nowhere in sight; instead, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0742929/">Golda Rosheuvel</a> as Queen Charlotte, wife of George III, presides over London society, in a casting choice that leans into <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/05/15/meghan-markle-queen-charlotte-and-the-wedding-of-britains-first-mixed-race-royal/">recent arguments by historians</a> that the queen may have been Black. The aristocracy itself is likewise peppered with men and women of color elevated to their positions by the benevolent king, whose madness<strong> </strong>renders their social status precarious.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YdTy7I">
Chief among these gentry of color is dashing rake Simon, the newly titled Duke of Hastings (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2074546/?ref_=tt_cl_t20">R</a><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2074546/">egé-Jean Page</a>, exuding so much ripped-shirt romance hero energy, even fully clad). Despite his eligibility, for reasons of his own, Simon has vowed never to marry.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YkWeAr">
But Simon isnt prepared for the gorgeous debutante Daphne Bridgerton (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3697443/">Phoebe Dynevor</a>), the fourth child of a powerful aristocratic family. Among Daphnes siblings are the reckless elder son, Anthony (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0047332/">Jonathan Bailey</a>), and her ballroom-hating younger sister Eloise (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5104710/?ref_=tt_cl_t15">Claudia Jessie</a>), both of whom loathe the marriage mart for very different reasons. Daphne, however, immediately becomes the prize of society: She draws praise from the queen herself and the attention of so many suitors that Anthony begins fending them off in droves, suddenly possessed with a nigh-sociopathic certainty that none of the men are good enough for his sister.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kaCNNb">
Across the street from the elegant Bridgertons are the hapless Featheringtons. With a degenerate father and a tasteless mother, the three Featherington daughters are unfortunately dowdy marriage mart goods — and that was before their gorgeous cousin Marina (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8659047/">Ruby Barker</a>) abruptly came to stay with them. Marina trails gossip and scandal in her wake, thrusting all of the Featheringtons uncomfortably into the spotlight, overshadowing Daphne. This development unfolds much to the glee of a pseudonymous scandal sheet writer known only as Lady Whistledown (voiced by Julie Andrews), who turns the aristocracy on its ear by naming names. Daphne, the scandalmonger declares, is out — Marina, in.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="D4l6h4">
As her prospects for a suitable marriage wane thanks to the double whammy of her brothers interference and Whistledowns disapproval, Daphne takes her fate in her own hands and negotiates a fake courtship with Simon, having judged correctly that her star will rise once more if shes seen with a duke. Simon has no plans to marry because of his aforementioned vow, so their arrangement allows him to avoid seriously participating in the marriage mart — but of course, in between bickering and pretending to be in love, the two fake lovebirds soon develop a very real romance.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="32wZzy">
Because of all those inescapable Jane Austen adaptations, you might think that a show like this would focus on creating then resolving tensions en route for the couple to marry, ending with a wedding. <em>Bridgerton </em>isnt done pulling romance tropes out of its pockets, however. Through an unlucky turn of events involving epic misunderstandings, fights, and secret love trysts — the usual — the storyline scoots Daphne and Simon into a hastily arranged marriage. This leads to lots and lots of sex scenes, but also creates a whole new set of problems arising from the secret that underpins Simons original vow never to marry.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nwmUh1">
This subplot contributes to <em>Bridgerton</em>s most interesting thematic idea: the relationship between scandal, secrets, and informed consent. The show highlights the way scandalous withheld secrets can be tools of power or forms of entrapment, particularly for members of society who had little control over their circumstances to begin with. But this idea also leads to the shows wildest and most alarming moment — a moment of non-consent that arguably undermines all the work done to explore its unwieldy power dynamics.
</p>
<h3 id="nXEmw1">
<em>Bridgerton</em> is a historical <em>Gossip Girl</em>, with even less depth — as well as a deeply disturbing rape scene
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DwMaVN">
Throughout <em>Bridgerton</em>, characters use secrets to exert control over their social positions. Thats nothing new for such romances or for the Shondaland oeuvre. But whats interesting is how frequently the show frames these scenarios through the perspective of the non-consenting party whos been duped due to a kept secret. Simons secret threatens his entire relationship with Daphne. The Featheringtons as a household are at the mercy of their fathers secret gambling addiction. And Marina tries in desperation to find someone who will marry her before a scandal around her own secrets breaks and destroys her reputation — and his along with her.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Jd8rOP">
Yet despite its attempts at raising issues of consent and control and how they operate in society, <em>Bridgerton</em> rarely moves below the surface. The show fails to consider its potent class differences beyond perfunctory nods, and for all its attention to diversifying its cast, it doesnt actually diversify its focus on characters or explore what interesting perspectives and conflicts its diverse cast might bring to the story. Half-hearted attempts to inject queer characters into the mix come off as nearly homophobic rather than tantalizing. Simons best friend, a boxer, is essentially just a device — at times a literal punching bag — to remind Simon of his working-class roots within the Black community and for other characters to react to. A working-class opera singer and would-be courtesan gets some rote speeches about her lot in life — as does one servant whose only real role is to deliver a hilarious monologue about how none of the Bridgertons servants have any time to moonlight as Lady Whistledown because theyre too busy being, uh, servants.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1ih2Gy">
Marinas storyline offers the show its best chance for delving into these areas — but instead its Marinas arc that epitomizes how shallow <em>Bridgerton</em> ultimately feels. Instead of fueling an interesting exploration of how the aristocracy might react to a poor, clever woman of color like her, she gets turned into a device for drama between the Bridgertons and Featheringtons. Shes used to center the Featheringtons own issues with class, money, and race; then shes used to raise questions of informed consent surrounding her attempts to marry well. But after being turned into a convenient social justice megaphone, shes eventually handwaved into the sunset with little to no development or greater lasting impact on the plot or the other characters.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NjL34f">
The shows sidelining of its characters of color and its other marginalized characters is an uncomfortable position for the show to leave us with. Its especially frustrating in Marinas case because her story arc puts her in an overtly predatory position which the show does little to ameliorate; shes one of two main characters of color holding a huge secret over the heads of their (white) love interest while manipulating them.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BKxHjB">
In Simons case, as the other main character of color, his duplicity is a bit more unwitting — but its still a major plot point, and it contributes to the shows most galling moment, in which a character rapes another character in a way thats fast, fleeting, and seemingly brushed-over. In the <em>Bridgerton</em> novel <em>The Duke and I</em>, author Julia Quinn clearly wrote the corresponding scene as non-consensual, and the creative team changed some details to make it less rapey — but that just makes it unclear to me whether the creative team realized that the scene they left in the storyline was still non-consensual.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="a0oShE">
This deeply disturbing scene alone undermines the shows work at exploring consent issues — and lacking even that thematic complexity to ground it, <em>Bridgerton</em> falters badly in the home stretch. Its most interesting ideas — like Simons precarious place in society as a duke of color or his mysterious time abroad — get almost no attention. Most of its characters are unlikeable, flat, barely developed, or all of the above. The other eight books in Quinns series focus on each of the other Bridgerton siblings, but it seems improbable that the current cast, particularly Bailey as Anthony, the next sibling in line to be married off, can carry such a frivolous story for many more rounds. Even the eventual reveal of Lady Whistledowns identity seems more like an afterthought than a grace note on careful character development.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wO7Yjm">
I hate to conclude as much because <em>Bridgerton</em> has so many flourishes of Regency romance that are delightful to see brought to life on the screen. The production values are sumptuous; there are fanciful strolls in Hyde Park and gorgeous lantern shows at Vauxhall.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kV2oMO">
It certainly looks like a true Regency — but if theres anything the genre has taught us, its never to judge a romance by its cover.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Yk1EfQ">
</p>
<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>FIFA files criminal complaint against Blatter over museum</strong> - Sepp Blatter risks investigation at local level.</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>Raina regrets “unintentional”, “unfortunate” incident in Mumbai</strong> - A statement said he was not aware of the local timings and protocols.</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>Official costs of Tokyo Olympics up by 22 % to 15.4 billion</strong> - The added USD 2.8 billion is the cost of the one-year delay. Added expenses come from renegotiating contracts and measures to combat the COVID-19 pandemic</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>Smith not the only contender for captaincy, CA says Australia have other options</strong> - Batting mainstay Steve Smith's reappointment as Australia's Test captain is far from certain as the sport's governing body in the country feels ther</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>Pakistan wins third T20 for morale boost before tests</strong> - Pakistan made three changes in the hope of improving their performance.</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>CM begins Kerala tour with Kollam session</strong> - NSS stays away from programme organised for formulating LDFs poll strategy</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>Government plans to set up a development finance institution in 3-4 months: DFS Secretary</strong> - Even deepening the bond market with regard to infrastructure financing is a matter which is receiving attention of the government and there is a need to do something more in order to have a robust bond market for infrastructure financing, Debasish Panda said.</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>Its Gods intervention, says Abhaya's brother</strong> - My child got justice: key witness</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>1.7 million deaths in India were attributable to air pollution in 2019, says study</strong> - This was 18% of the total deaths in the country; it led to economic loss of 1.4% of the GDP or ₹260,000 crore</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>Delhi riots | Ishrat Jahan alleges in court beating, harassment by jail inmates</strong> - Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat directed the jail authorities to take immediate steps to ensure Jahans security and ensure that she was not harassed further for bringing her complaints before the court.</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>Coronavirus: EU tries to agree response to new UK strain</strong> - Dozens of countries, alarmed by a new coronavirus variant, have suspended travel links with the UK.</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: Vatican says coronavirus vaccines 'morally acceptable'</strong> - The Catholic Church says vaccines developed using cell lines derived from aborted foetuses can be used.</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: 1,500 lorries stuck in Kent as UK and France aim to restart freight</strong> - Politicians are in talks to resume freight, after France closed the border because of the new variant.</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>Coronavirus, Brexit, Christmas: How a dramatic week in the UK unfolded</strong> - An escalating pandemic and a looming Brexit deadline has made for a somewhat chaotic end to 2020.</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>Russian agent 'tricked into detailing Navalny assassination bid'</strong> - A new recording purports to reveal how Russian state agents poisoned Putin critic Alexei Navalny.</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>Yukon gold miner unearths a mummified Ice Age wolf pup</strong> - Look upon the face of an Ice Age predator, and say "Aww." - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1731262">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Apple is allegedly working on a passenger car, breakthrough battery tech</strong> - Reuters cites several anonymous sources in this update to Project Titan - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1731295">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Pornhub squarely targeted in bipartisan bill to regulate sex work online</strong> - The bill would cause more harms to sex workers than it would fix, critics argue. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1731155">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Zero-click iMessage zero-day used to hack the iPhones of 36 journalists</strong> - Malicious messages installed spyware that recorded audio and pics and stole passwords. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1731271">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What we know about the new SARS strain thats shutting down the UK</strong> - Policy is to treat it like a potential threat, but the emphasis is on "potential." - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1731229">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>In 50 years: "You know, kids, back in my day, we had to wear masks everywhere we went at one point."</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
We didn't have those fancy hazmat suits you all wear today
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Bengay007"> /u/Bengay007 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/kht19j/in_50_years_you_know_kids_back_in_my_day_we_had/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/kht19j/in_50_years_you_know_kids_back_in_my_day_we_had/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>Air Force One crashed on a farm in Nebraska</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Panic stricken, the local sheriff mobilized and descended on the farm in force. When they got there, the disaster was clear. The aircraft was totally destroyed with only a burned hull left smoldering in a tree line that bordered a farm.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The sheriff and his men entered the smoking mess but did not find the remains of anyone, including the President. They spotted a lone farmer ploughing a field not too far away as if nothing at all happened. They hurried over to the man's tractor.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
"Hank," the sheriff yelled, panting and out of breath. "Did you see this terrible accident happen?"
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
"Yup. Sure did," the farmer said, cutting off his motor.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
"Do you realize that is the airplane of the President of the United States?"
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
"Yup."
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
"Were there any survivors?"
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
"Nope. They's all kilt straight out. I done buried them all myself. Took me most of the morning."
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
"Oh my god. President Trump is dead?"
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
"Well," the farmer grumbled, restarting his tractor. "He kept a-saying he wasn't... but you know what a liar he is!"
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/TitaniumDragon"> /u/TitaniumDragon </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/khs304/air_force_one_crashed_on_a_farm_in_nebraska/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/khs304/air_force_one_crashed_on_a_farm_in_nebraska/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>My penis is like Joe Biden.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Slightly left-leaning, and nobody's first choice.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/WeaponizedFeline"> /u/WeaponizedFeline </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/khgv1o/my_penis_is_like_joe_biden/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/khgv1o/my_penis_is_like_joe_biden/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>How do you break up a fight between 2 blind men?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Yell out: 'My money is on the one with a knife...'
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Altar-83"> /u/Altar-83 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ki0cjs/how_do_you_break_up_a_fight_between_2_blind_men/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ki0cjs/how_do_you_break_up_a_fight_between_2_blind_men/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>What's the difference between Trump and Hitler?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Hitler had the decency to kill himself after he lost.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/ProfoundMadman_T"> /u/ProfoundMadman_T </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/khy18z/whats_the_difference_between_trump_and_hitler/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/khy18z/whats_the_difference_between_trump_and_hitler/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
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@ -13,9 +13,9 @@ Archive | Daily Reports
<li> <a href="#covid-19">Covid-19</a> <li> <a href="#covid-19">Covid-19</a>
</li></li></ul> </li></li></ul>
<h2 id="daily-dose">Daily Dose</h2> <h2 id="daily-dose">Daily Dose</h2>
<ul id="daily-dose-list"><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/21 December, 2020.html">21 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/20 December, 2020.html">20 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/19 December, 2020.html">19 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/18 December, 2020.html">18 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/17 December, 2020.html">17 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/16 December, 2020.html">16 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/15 December, 2020.html">15 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/14 December, 2020.html">14 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/13 December, 2020.html">13 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/12 December, 2020.html">12 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/11 December, 2020.html">11 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/10 December, 2020.html">10 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/09 December, 2020.html">09 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/08 December, 2020.html">08 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/07 December, 2020.html">07 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/06 December, 2020.html">06 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/05 December, 2020.html">05 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/04 December, 2020.html">04 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/03 December, 2020.html">03 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/02 December, 2020.html">02 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/01 December, 2020.html">01 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/30 November, 2020.html">30 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/29 November, 2020.html">29 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/28 November, 2020.html">28 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/27 November, 2020.html">27 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/26 November, 2020.html">26 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/25 November, 2020.html">25 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/24 November, 2020.html">24 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/23 November, 2020.html">23 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/22 November, 2020.html">22 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/21 November, 2020.html">21 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/20 November, 2020.html">20 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/19 November, 2020.html">19 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/18 November, 2020.html">18 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/17 November, 2020.html">17 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/16 November, 2020.html">16 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/15 November, 2020.html">15 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/14 November, 2020.html">14 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/13 November, 2020.html">13 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/12 November, 2020.html">12 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/11 November, 2020.html">11 November, 2020</a></li> <ul id="daily-dose-list"><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/22 December, 2020.html">22 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/21 December, 2020.html">21 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/20 December, 2020.html">20 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/19 December, 2020.html">19 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/18 December, 2020.html">18 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/17 December, 2020.html">17 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/16 December, 2020.html">16 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/15 December, 2020.html">15 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/14 December, 2020.html">14 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/13 December, 2020.html">13 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/12 December, 2020.html">12 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/11 December, 2020.html">11 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/10 December, 2020.html">10 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/09 December, 2020.html">09 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/08 December, 2020.html">08 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/07 December, 2020.html">07 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/06 December, 2020.html">06 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/05 December, 2020.html">05 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/04 December, 2020.html">04 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/03 December, 2020.html">03 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/02 December, 2020.html">02 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/01 December, 2020.html">01 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/30 November, 2020.html">30 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/29 November, 2020.html">29 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/28 November, 2020.html">28 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/27 November, 2020.html">27 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/26 November, 2020.html">26 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/25 November, 2020.html">25 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/24 November, 2020.html">24 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/23 November, 2020.html">23 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/22 November, 2020.html">22 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/21 November, 2020.html">21 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/20 November, 2020.html">20 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/19 November, 2020.html">19 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/18 November, 2020.html">18 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/17 November, 2020.html">17 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/16 November, 2020.html">16 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/15 November, 2020.html">15 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/14 November, 2020.html">14 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/13 November, 2020.html">13 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/12 November, 2020.html">12 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/11 November, 2020.html">11 November, 2020</a></li>
</ul> </ul>
<h2 id="covid-19">Covid-19</h2> <h2 id="covid-19">Covid-19</h2>
<ul id="covid-19-list"><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/21 December, 2020.html">21 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/20 December, 2020.html">20 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/19 December, 2020.html">19 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/18 December, 2020.html">18 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/17 December, 2020.html">17 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/16 December, 2020.html">16 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/15 December, 2020.html">15 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/14 December, 2020.html">14 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/13 December, 2020.html">13 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/12 December, 2020.html">12 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/11 December, 2020.html">11 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/10 December, 2020.html">10 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/09 December, 2020.html">09 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/08 December, 2020.html">08 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/07 December, 2020.html">07 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/06 December, 2020.html">06 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/05 December, 2020.html">05 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/04 December, 2020.html">04 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/03 December, 2020.html">03 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/02 December, 2020.html">02 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/01 December, 2020.html">01 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/30 November, 2020.html">30 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/29 November, 2020.html">29 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/28 November, 2020.html">28 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/27 November, 2020.html">27 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/26 November, 2020.html">26 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/25 November, 2020.html">25 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/24 November, 2020.html">24 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/23 November, 2020.html">23 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/22 November, 2020.html">22 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/21 November, 2020.html">21 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/20 November, 2020.html">20 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/19 November, 2020.html">19 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/18 November, 2020.html">18 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/17 November, 2020.html">17 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/16 November, 2020.html">16 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/15 November, 2020.html">15 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/14 November, 2020.html">14 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/13 November, 2020.html">13 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/12 November, 2020.html">12 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/11 November, 2020.html">11 November, 2020</a></li> <ul id="covid-19-list"><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/22 December, 2020.html">22 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/21 December, 2020.html">21 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/20 December, 2020.html">20 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/19 December, 2020.html">19 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/18 December, 2020.html">18 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/17 December, 2020.html">17 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/16 December, 2020.html">16 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/15 December, 2020.html">15 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/14 December, 2020.html">14 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/13 December, 2020.html">13 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/12 December, 2020.html">12 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/11 December, 2020.html">11 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/10 December, 2020.html">10 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/09 December, 2020.html">09 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/08 December, 2020.html">08 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/07 December, 2020.html">07 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/06 December, 2020.html">06 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/05 December, 2020.html">05 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/04 December, 2020.html">04 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/03 December, 2020.html">03 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/02 December, 2020.html">02 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/01 December, 2020.html">01 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/30 November, 2020.html">30 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/29 November, 2020.html">29 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/28 November, 2020.html">28 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/27 November, 2020.html">27 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/26 November, 2020.html">26 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/25 November, 2020.html">25 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/24 November, 2020.html">24 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/23 November, 2020.html">23 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/22 November, 2020.html">22 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/21 November, 2020.html">21 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/20 November, 2020.html">20 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/19 November, 2020.html">19 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/18 November, 2020.html">18 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/17 November, 2020.html">17 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/16 November, 2020.html">16 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/15 November, 2020.html">15 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/14 November, 2020.html">14 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/13 November, 2020.html">13 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/12 November, 2020.html">12 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/11 November, 2020.html">11 November, 2020</a></li>
</ul> </ul>
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