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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>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-preprints">From Preprints</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Stratification in Parents’ Selection of Developmentally Appropriate Books for Children: Register-based Evidence from Danish Public Libraries</strong> -
<div>
This paper studies socioeconomic gradients in selecting developmentally appropriate children’s books from public libraries. I draw on research on developmental gradients in parental inputs to hypothesize that families with high socioeconomic status (SES) are more likely to select books that match children’s developmental stage in order to best improve children’s learning environments. In contrast to previous survey-based research, I use behavioral data on the actual books families have selected from libraries. Based on Danish registry data that cover all books borrowed from public libraries in 2020, I find that highly educated families are more likely to use libraries and borrow more books when they use libraries, but they do not select a larger share of developmentally appropriate books; in fact, they select a slightly lower share. In contrast, I find only a weak positive income gradient for the amount of books borrowed and the share of developmentally appropriate books. The supplementary analyses show that results are robust across families with children of different ages and to account for nonrandom selection into the sample of library users, socioeconomic differences in children’s reading skills, and the impact of library lockdowns due to Covid-19. I conclude that stratification in library book selection is more prominent concerning the voraciousness with which highly educated parents provide reading inputs (more books) than how discriminating they are in terms of selecting developmentally appropriate books.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/8pzv5/" target="_blank">Stratification in Parents’ Selection of Developmentally Appropriate Books for Children: Register-based Evidence from Danish Public Libraries</a>
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<li><strong>Schema Playground: A tool for authoring, extending, and using metadata schemas to improve FAIRness of biomedical data</strong> -
<div>
Background: Biomedical researchers are strongly encouraged to make their research outputs more Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR). While many biomedical research outputs are more readily accessible through open data efforts, finding relevant outputs remains a significant challenge. Schema.org is a metadata vocabulary standardization project that enables web content creators to make their content more FAIR. Leveraging schema.org could benefit biomedical research resource providers, but it can be challenging to apply schema.org standards to biomedical research outputs. We created an online browser-based tool that empowers researchers and repository developers to utilize schema.org or other biomedical schema projects. Results: Our browser-based tool includes features which can help address many of the barriers towards schema.org-compliance such as: The ability to easily browse for relevant schema.org classes, the ability to extend and customize a class to be more suitable for biomedical research outputs, the ability to create data validation to ensure adherence of a research output to a customized class, and the ability to register a custom class to our schema registry enabling others to search and re-use it. We demonstrate the use of our tool with the creation of the Outbreak.info schema–a large multi-class schema for harmonizing various COVID-19 related resources. Conclusions: We have created a browser-based tool to empower biomedical research resource providers to leverage schema.org classes to make their research outputs more FAIR.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.02.458726v2" target="_blank">Schema Playground: A tool for authoring, extending, and using metadata schemas to improve FAIRness of biomedical data</a>
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<li><strong>One Million and Counting: Estimates of Deaths in the United States from Ancestral SARS-CoV-2 and Variants</strong> -
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<b>Background:</b> Over one million COVID-19 deaths have been recorded in the United States. Sustained global SARS-CoV-2 transmission has led to the emergence of new variants with increased transmissibility, virulence, and/or immune evasion. The specific burden of mortality from each variant over the course of the U.S. COVID-19 epidemic remains unclear. <b>Methods:</b> We constructed an epidemiologic model using data reported by the CDC on COVID-19 mortality and circulating variant proportions to estimate the number of recorded COVID-19 deaths attributable to each SARS-CoV-2 variant in the U.S. We conducted sensitivity analysis to account for parameter uncertainty. <b>Findings:</b> Of the 1,003,419 COVID-19 deaths recorded as of May 12, 2022, we estimate that 460,124 (46%) were attributable to WHO-designated variants. By U.S. Census Region, the South recorded the most variant deaths per capita (median estimate 158 per 100,000), while the Northeast recorded the fewest (111 per 100,000). Over 40 percent of national COVID-19 deaths were estimated to be caused by the combination of Alpha (median estimate 39,548 deaths), Delta (273,801), and Omicron (117,560). <b>Interpretation:</b> SARS-CoV-2 variants that have emerged around the world have imposed a significant mortality burden in the U.S. In addition to national public health strategies, greater efforts are needed to lower the risk of new variants emerging, including through global COVID-19 vaccination, treatment, and outbreak mitigation.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.31.22275835v1" target="_blank">One Million and Counting: Estimates of Deaths in the United States from Ancestral SARS-CoV-2 and Variants</a>
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<li><strong>Iron status and the risk of sepsis and severe COVID-19: A two-sample Mendelian randomization study</strong> -
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Introduction: Observational studies have indicated an association between iron status and risk of sepsis and severe COVID-19. However, these findings may be affected by residual confounding, reverse causation. Methods: In a two-sample Mendelian randomization study using inverse variance weighted method, we estimated the effect of genetically-predicted iron biomarkers (serum iron, transferrin saturation (TSAT), total iron binding capacity (TIBC) and ferritin) on risk of sepsis and risk of being hospitalized with COVID-19. For the COVID-19 outcomes we additionally conducted sex-stratified analyses. Weighted median, Weighted mode and MR Egger were used as sensitivity analyses. Results: For risk of sepsis, one standard deviation increase in genetically-predicted serum iron was associated with odds ratio (OR) of 1.14 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.01 to 1.29, P=0.031). The findings were supported in the analyses for transferrin saturation and total iron binding capacity, while the estimate for ferritin was inconclusive. We found a tendency of higher risk of hospitalization with COVID-19 for serum iron; OR 1.29 (CI 0.97-1.72, P=0.08), where sex stratified analyses showed OR 1.63 (CI 0.94-2.86, P=0.09) for women and OR 1.21 (CI 0.92-1.62, P=0.17) for men. Sensitivity analyses supported the main findings and did not suggest bias due to pleiotropy. Conclusions: Our findings suggest a causal effect of genetically-predicted higher iron status and risk of hospitalization due to sepsis and indications of an increased risk of being hospitalized with COVID-19. These findings warrant further studies to assess iron status in relation to severe infections, including the potential of improved management.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.02.22275901v1" target="_blank">Iron status and the risk of sepsis and severe COVID-19: A two-sample Mendelian randomization study</a>
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<li><strong>OpenSAFELY NHS Service Restoration Observatory 2: changes in primary care activity across six clinical areas during the COVID-19 pandemic</strong> -
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Background The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted healthcare activity across a broad range of clinical services. The NHS stopped non-urgent work in March 2020, later recommending services be restored to near-normal levels before winter where possible. Aims Using routinely collected data, our aim was to describe changes in the volume and variation of coded clinical activity in general practice in: (i) cardiovascular disease, (ii) diabetes, (iii) mental health, (iv) female and reproductive health, (v) screening, and (vi) processes related to medication. Design and setting With the approval of NHS England, we conducted a cohort study of 23.8 million patient records in general practice, in-situ using OpenSAFELY. Methods We selected common primary care activity using CTV3 codes and keyword searches from January 2019 - December 2020, presenting median and deciles of code usage across practices per month. Results We identified substantial and widespread changes in clinical activity in primary care since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, with generally good recovery by December 2020. A few exceptions showed poor recovery and warrant further investigation, such as mental health, e.g. “Depression interim review” (median across practices in December 2020 -41.6% compared to December 2019). Conclusions Granular NHS GP data at population-scale can be used to monitor disruptions to healthcare services and guide the development of mitigation strategies. The authors are now developing real-time monitoring dashboards for key measures identified here as well as further studies, using primary care data to monitor and mitigate the indirect health impacts of Covid-19 on the NHS.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.01.22275674v1" target="_blank">OpenSAFELY NHS Service Restoration Observatory 2: changes in primary care activity across six clinical areas during the COVID-19 pandemic</a>
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<li><strong>Societal COVID-19 epidemic counter measures and activities associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection in an adult unvaccinated population – a case-control study in Denmark, June 2021</strong> -
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Measures to restrict physical inter-personal contact in the community have been widely implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. We studied determinants for infection with SARS-CoV-2 with the aim of testing the efficiency of such measures. We conducted a national matched case-control study among unvaccinated persons aged 18-49 years. Cases were selected among those testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 by RT-PCR over a five-day period in June 2021. Controls were selected from the national population register and were individually matched on age, sex and municipality of residence and had not previously tested positive. Cases and controls were interviewed via telephone about contact with other persons and exposures in the community. We included 500 cases and 529 controls and determined odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CIs) by conditional logistical regression with adjustment for household size and immigration status. We found having had contact with another individual with a known infection as the main determinant for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Reporting close contact with an infected person who either had or did not have symptoms resulted in ORs of 20 (95%CI:9.8-39) and 8.5 (95%CI 4.5-16) respectively. In contrast, community exposures were generally not associated with disease; several exposures were negatively associated. Exceptions were: attending fitness centers, OR=1.4 (95%CI:1.0-2.0) and consumption of alcohol in restaurants or cafés, OR=2.3 (95%CI:1.3–4.2). For reference, we provide a timeline of non-pharmaceutical interventions in place in Denmark from February 2020 to March 2022. Fitness centers and alcohol consumption were mildly associated with infection, in agreement with findings of our similar study conducted six month earlier (Epidemiology &amp; Infection 2021;150:e9.). Transmission of disease through involvement in community activities appeared to occur only rarely, suggesting that community restrictions in place were efficient. Instead, transmission appeared to primarily take place in a confined space via contact to known persons.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.31.22274922v1" target="_blank">Societal COVID-19 epidemic counter measures and activities associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection in an adult unvaccinated population – a case-control study in Denmark, June 2021</a>
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<li><strong>The spread of infectious diseases from a physics perspective</strong> -
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This paper presents a theoretical investigation of the spread of infectious diseases (including Covid-19) in a population network. The central idea is that a population can actually be considered as a network of interlinked nodes. The nodes represent the members of the population, the edges between the nodes the social contacts linking 2 population members. Infections spread throughout the population along these network edges. The actual spread of infections is described within the framework of the SIR compartmental model. Special emphasis is laid on understanding and on the interpretation of phenomena in terms of concepts borrowed from condensed-matter and statistical physics. To obtain a mathematical framework that deals with the influence of the network structure and topology, the original SIR model by Kermack and McKendrick was augmented, leading to a system of differential equations that is in principle exact, but the solution of which appears to be intractable. Therefore, combined algebraic/numerical solutions are presented for simplified (approximative) cases that nevertheless capture the essentials of the effect of the network details on the spread of an infection. Solutions of this kind were successfully tested against the results of direct statistical simulations based on Monte-Carlo methods, indicating the appropriateness of the model. Expressions for the (basic) reproduction numbers in terms of the model parameters are presented, and justify some mild criticisms on the widely spread interpretation of reproduction numbers as being the number of secondary infections due to a single active infection. Throughout the entire paper, special attention is paid to the concept of herd-immunity, its nature and its definition. The model allows for obtaining an exact (algebraic) criterion for the most relevant form of herd-immunity to occur in unvaccinated populations. Analysis of the effects of vaccination leads to an even more general version of this criterion in terms of not only the model parameters but also the effectiveness of the vaccine(s) and the vaccination rate(s). This general criterion is also exact within the context of the SIR model. Furthermore it is shown that the onset of herd-immunity can be considered as a 2nd-order phase transition of the kind that is known from thermodynamics and statistical physics, thus offering a fundamentally new viewpoint on the phenomenon. The role of percolation is highlighted and extensively investigated. It is shown that the herd-immunity transition is actually related to a percolation transition, and marks therewith the transition from a regime where the cumulative infections grow into a large macroscopic cluster that spans a major part of the population, towards a regime were the cumulative infections only occur in smaller secondary clusters of limited size. It appears that percolation phenomena become particularly important in the case of (strict) lock-downs. It is also demonstrated how a system of differential equations can be obtained that accounts for the presence of such percolation phenomena. The analyses presented in this paper also provide insight in how various measures to prevent an epidemic spread of an infection work, how they can be optimised and what potentially deceptive issues have to be considered when such measures are either implemented or scaled down. Herd-immunity appears to be a particularly tricky concept in this respect. Phenomena such as a saturation of the cumulative infection number or a fade-out of the number of active infections may easily be mistaken for a stable case of herd-immunity setting in, whereas in reality such phenomena may be no more than an artefact of protective or contact-reducing measures taken, without any meaning for the vulnerability of a population at large under normal (social) conditions. On the other hand, the paper also highlights and explains the theoretical possibility of “smothering” an epidemic via very restrictive measures that prevent it from developing out of a limited number of initial seed-infections.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.01.22275842v1" target="_blank">The spread of infectious diseases from a physics perspective</a>
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<li><strong>Development and Validation of Multivariable Prediction Models of Serological Response to SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination in Kidney Transplant Recipients</strong> -
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Background Repeated vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 increases serological response in kidney transplant recipients (KTR) with high interindividual variability. No decision support tool exists to predict SARS-CoV-2 vaccination response in KTR. Methods We developed, internally and externally validated five different multivariable prediction models of serological response after the third and fourth vaccine dose against SARS-CoV-2 in KTR. Using 27 candidate predictor variables, we applied statistical and machine learning approaches including logistic regression (LR), LASSO-regularized LR, random forest, and gradient boosted regression trees. For development and internal validation, data from 585 vaccinations were used. External validation was performed in four independent, international validation datasets comprising 191, 184, 254, and 323 vaccinations, respectively. Findings LASSO-regularized LR performed on the whole development dataset yielded a 23- and 11-variable model, respectively. External validation showed AUC-ROC of 0.855, 0.749, 0.828, and 0.787 for the sparser 11-variable model, yielding an overall performance 0.819. Interpretation An 11-variable LASSO-regularized LR model predicts vaccination response in KTR with good overall accuracy. Implemented as an online tool, it can guide decisions when choosing between different immunization strategies to improve protection against COVID-19 in KTR.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.02.22275894v1" target="_blank">Development and Validation of Multivariable Prediction Models of Serological Response to SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination in Kidney Transplant Recipients</a>
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<li><strong>Longitudinal profiles of plasma gelsolin, cytokines and antibody expression predict COVID-19 severity and hospitalization outcomes</strong> -
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Background: Prognostic markers for COVID-19 disease outcome are currently lacking. Plasma gelsolin (pGSN) is an actin-binding protein and an innate immune marker involved in disease pathogenesis and viral infections. Here, we demonstrate the utility of pGSN as a prognostic marker for COVID-19 disease outcome; a test performance that is significantly improved when combined with cytokines and antibodies compared to other conventional markers such as CRP and ferritin. Methods: Blood samples were longitudinally collected from hospitalized COVID-19 patients as well as COVID-19 negative controls and the levels of pGSN in ug/mL, cytokines and anti- SARS-CoV-2 spike protein antibodies assayed. Mean values were correlated with clinical parameters to develop a prognostic platform. Results: pGSN levels were significantly reduced in COVID-19 patients compared to healthy individuals. Additionally, pGSN levels combined with plasma IL-6, IP-10 and M-CSF significantly distinguished COVID-19 patients from healthy individuals. While pGSN and anti-spike IgG titers together strongly predict COVID-19 severity and death, the combination of pGSN and IL-6 was a significant predictor of milder disease and favorable outcomes. Conclusion: Taken together, these findings suggest that multi-parameter analysis of pGSN, cytokines and antibodies could predict COVID-19 hospitalization outcomes with greater certainty compared with conventional clinical laboratory markers such as CRP and ferritin. This research will inform and improve clinical management and health system interventions in response to SARS-CoV-2 infection.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.01.22275882v1" target="_blank">Longitudinal profiles of plasma gelsolin, cytokines and antibody expression predict COVID-19 severity and hospitalization outcomes</a>
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<li><strong>Income and race-ethnicity disparities for medical care utilization and expenditures in the United States, 2017-2019</strong> -
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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has focused attention on race and income disparities in SARS-CoV-2 mortality and morbidity. Much less attention has been paid to other socioeconomic factors including income. Objective: The goal of this study was to compare disparities in medical care utilization and related expenditures associated with income to those associated with race and ethnicity in the US for those aged 0 to 64 for four categories of medical services: hospital, emergency room, ambulatory care, and prescription medications. Methods: We used Medical Expenditure Panel Survey data for years 2017 through 2019. For each of the four medical services, there were three measures. First was the percentage of those aged 0-64 with or without utilization and expenditures. Due to statistical issues related to zero values for utilization and expenditures, the second and third measures were average utilization and expenditures only for those with both utilization and expenditures. Disparities by income and race-ethnicity were measured by calculating the percent difference between the group with the lowest utilization or expenditures and the group with the highest utilization or expenditures. Results: For 9 of the 12 separate differences the income differences exceed the corresponding race-ethnicity difference and the income differences are generally much greater in magnitude. Within the income comparisons, those on Medicaid had the greatest utilization in 7 of the 8 comparisons. The High Income group had greatest expenditures for 3 of the 4 medical services. Non-Hispanic Whites had the greatest utilization and expenditures for 9 of the 12 measures and Hispanics had the least utilization and expenditures for 9 of the 12 measures. Conclusions: These results indicate that income inequalities are more strongly associated with medical care utilization and expenditures than race-ethnicity among those aged 0-64. Although more research should focus on income related health disparities in the United States, it is time to recognize that sound health policy must include reducing socioeconomic inequalities, especially those related to income.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.31.22275747v1" target="_blank">Income and race-ethnicity disparities for medical care utilization and expenditures in the United States, 2017-2019</a>
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<li><strong>WAVES (Web-based tool for Analysis and Visualization of Environmental Samples) – a web application for visualization of wastewater pathogen sequencing results</strong> -
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Environmental monitoring of pathogens provides an accurate and timely source of information for public health authorities and policymakers. In the last two years, wastewater sequencing proved to be an effective way of detection and quantification of SARS-CoV-2 variants circulating in population. Wastewater sequencing produces substantial amounts of geographical and genomic data. Proper visualization of spatial and temporal patterns in this data is crucial for the assessment of the epidemiological situation and forecasting. Here, we present a web-based dashboard application for visualization and analysis of data obtained from sequencing of environmental samples. The dashboard provides multi-layered visualization of geographical and genomic data. It allows to display frequencies of detected pathogen variants as well as individual mutation frequencies. The features of WAVES for early tracking and detection of novel variants in the wastewater are demonstrated in an example of BA.1 variant and the signature Spike mutation S:E484A. WAVES dashboard is easily customized through the editable configuration file and can be used for different types of pathogens and environmental samples.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.31.22275831v1" target="_blank">WAVES (Web-based tool for Analysis and Visualization of Environmental Samples) – a web application for visualization of wastewater pathogen sequencing results</a>
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<li><strong>Validation of a Deep Learning Model to aid in COVID-19 Detection from Digital Chest Radiographs</strong> -
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Introduction: Using artificial intelligence in imaging practice helps ensure study list reprioritization, prompt attention to urgent studies, and reduces the reporting turn-around time. Purpose: We tested a deep learning-based artificial intelligence model that can detect COVID-19 pneumonia patterns from digital chest radiographs. Material and Methods: The deep learning model was built using the enhanced U-Net architecture with Spatial Attention Gate and Xception Encoder. The model was named DxCOVID and was tested on an external clinical dataset. The dataset included 2247 chest radiographs comprising CXRs from 1046 COVID-19 positive patients (positive on RT-PCR) and 1201 COVID-19 negative patients. Results: We compared the performance of the model with three different radiologists by adjusting the model9s sensitivity as per the individual radiologist. The area under the curve (AUC) on the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) of the model was 0.87 [95% CI: 0.85, 0.89]. Conclusion: When compared to the performance of three expert readers, DxCOVID matched the output of two of the three readers. Disease-specific deep learning models using current technology are mature enough to match radiologists9 performance and can be a suitable tool to be incorporated into imaging workflows.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.02.22275895v1" target="_blank">Validation of a Deep Learning Model to aid in COVID-19 Detection from Digital Chest Radiographs</a>
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<li><strong>Pregnancy during COVID-19: social contact patterns and vaccine coverage of pregnant women from CoMix in 19 European countries</strong> -
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Background Evidence and advice for pregnant women evolved during the COVID-19 pandemic. We studied social contact behaviour and vaccine uptake in pregnant women between March 2020 and September 2021 in 19 European countries. Methods In each country, repeated online survey data were collected from a panel of nationally-representative participants. We calculated the mean adjusted contacts reported with an individual-level generalized additive mixed model, modelled using the negative binomial distribution and a log link function. Mean proportion of people in isolation or quarantine, and vaccination coverage by pregnancy status and gender were calculated using a clustered bootstrap. Findings We recorded 4,129 observations from 1,041 pregnant women, and 115,359 observations from 29,860 non-pregnant individuals aged 18-49. Pregnant women made slightly fewer contacts (3.6, 95%CI=3.5-3.7) than non-pregnant women (4.0, 95%CI=3.9-4.0), driven by fewer work contacts but marginally more contacts in non-essential social settings. Approximately 15-20% pregnant and 5% of non-pregnant individuals reported to be in isolation and quarantine for large parts of the study period. COVID-19 vaccine coverage was higher in pregnant women than in non-pregnant women between January and April 2021. Since May 2021, vaccination in non-pregnant women began to increase and surpassed that in pregnant women. Interpretation Social contacts and vaccine uptake protect pregnant women and their newborn babies. Recognition of maternal social support need, and efforts to promote the safety and effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines during pregnancy are high priorities in this vulnerable group.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.01.22275775v1" target="_blank">Pregnancy during COVID-19: social contact patterns and vaccine coverage of pregnant women from CoMix in 19 European countries</a>
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<li><strong>Impact of the Pandemic: Screening for Social Risk Factors in the Intensive Care Unit</strong> -
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Due to limitations in data collected through electronic health records, the social risk factors (SRF) that predate severe illness and restrict access to critical care services are poorly understood. This study explored the feasibility and utility of directly eliciting SRF in the ICU by implementing a screening program. 566 critically ill patients at the medical ICU of Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital from July 1, 2019, to September 31, 2021, were screened for seven SRF. We compared characteristics between those with and without each SRF through Chi-squared tests and Wilcoxon Rank Sum tests. Overall, 39.58% of critically ill patients reported at least one SRF. Age, socioeconomic status, insurance type, and severity score differed significantly depending on the SRF. Most notably, the prevalence of SRF, overall and individually, changed after March 2020 which represented the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings indicate that SRF can induce low-risk severe illnesses and restrict access to critical care services.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.01.22275889v1" target="_blank">Impact of the Pandemic: Screening for Social Risk Factors in the Intensive Care Unit</a>
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<li><strong>OxoScan-MS: Oxonium ion scanning mass spectrometry facilitates plasma glycoproteomics in large scale</strong> -
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Protein glycosylation is a complex and heterogeneous post-translational modification. Specifically, the human plasma proteome is rich in glycoproteins, and as protein glycosylation is frequently dysregulated in disease, glycoproteomics is considered an underexplored resource for biomarker discovery. Here, we present OxoScan-MS, a data-independent mass spectrometric acquisition technology and data analysis software that facilitates sensitive, fast, and cost-effective glycoproteome profiling of plasma and serum samples in large cohort studies. OxoScan-MS quantifies glycosylated peptide features by exploiting a scanning quadrupole to assign precursors to oxonium ions, glycopeptide-specific fragments. OxoScan-MS reaches a high level of sensitivity and selectivity in untargeted glycopeptide profiling, such that it can be efficiently used with fast microflow chromatography without a need for experimental enrichment of glycopeptides from neat plasma. We apply OxoScan-MS to profile the plasma glycoproteomic in an inpatient cohort hospitalised due to severe COVID-19, and obtain precise quantities for 1,002 glycopeptide features. We reveal that severe COVID-19 induces differential glycosylation in disease-relevant plasma glycoproteins, including IgA, fibrinogen and alpha-1-antitrypsin. Thus, with OxoScan-MS we present a strategy for quantitatively mapping glycoproteomes that scales to hundreds and thousands of samples, and report glycoproteomic changes in severe COVID-19.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.01.494393v1" target="_blank">OxoScan-MS: Oxonium ion scanning mass spectrometry facilitates plasma glycoproteomics in large scale</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>A Safety and Efficacy Study of Hymecromone Tablets for the Treatment of Patients With COVID-19.</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Hymecromone tablets;   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Shanghai Zhongshan Hospital<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Study to Assess the Safety and Immunogenicity of a COVID-19 Vaccine Booster in Healthy Adults</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: Prime-2-CoV_Beta<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University Hospital Tuebingen;   FGK Clinical Research GmbH;   VisMederi srl;   Staburo GmbH;   Viedoc Technologies AB<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Eucalyptus Oil as Adjuvant Therapy for Coronavirus Disease 19 (COVID-19)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Eucalyptus Oil;   Drug: Standard COVID medication<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Hasanuddin University;   Ministry of Agriculture, Republic of Indonesia<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Study of Oral High/Low-dose Cepharanthine Compared With Placebo in Non Hospitalized Adults With COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Asymptomatic COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Cepharanthine;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine;   YUNNAN BAIYAO GROUP CO.,LTD<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Study to Learn About the Study Medicine (Called Nirmatrelvir/Ritonavir) in Pregnant Women With Mild or Moderate COVID-19.</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: nirmatrelvir;   Drug: ritonavir<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Pfizer<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Evaluation of COVID-19 Vaccines Given as a Booster in Healthy Adults in Indonesia (MIACoV Indonesia)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Pfizer-BioNTech Standard dose;   Biological: AstraZeneca Standard dose;   Biological: Pfizer-BioNTech Fractional dose;   Biological: AstraZeneca Fractional dose;   Biological: Moderna Standard dose;   Biological: Moderna Fractional dose<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Murdoch Childrens Research Institute;   Universitas Padjadjaran (UNPAD);   Universitas Indonesia (UI);   Health Development Policy Agency, Ministry of Health Republic of Indonesia;   Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations;   The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>α-synuclein Seeding Activity in the Olfactory Mucosa in COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: Real-time Quaking-Induced Conversion (RT-QuIC)<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Medical University Innsbruck<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Immunogenicity and Safety of a Third Dose of COVID-19 Vaccine(Vero Cell), Inactivated in the Elderly</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: COVID-19 Vaccine (Vero cell), Inactivated<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Sinovac Research and Development Co., Ltd.<br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Efficacy, Safety and Immunogenicity Study of the Recombinant Two-component COVID-19 Vaccine (CHO Cell)(Recov)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Recombinant two-component COVID-19 vaccine (CHO cell);   Biological: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Jiangsu Rec-Biotechnology Co., Ltd.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Phase 1a Trial to Evaluate the Safety and Immunogenicity of a SARS-CoV-2 mRNA Chimera Vaccine Against COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: RQ3013;   Biological: Comirnaty<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Walvax Biotechnology Co., Ltd.;   Shanghai RNACure Biopharma Co., Ltd.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Phase 1b Trial to Evaluate the Safety and Immunogenicity of a SARS-CoV-2 mRNA Chimera Vaccine Against COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: RQ3013;   Biological: Comirnaty<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Walvax Biotechnology Co., Ltd.;   Shanghai RNACure Biopharma Co., Ltd.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Paxlovid in the Treatment of COVID-19 Patients With Uremia</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   Uremia<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Paxlovid;   Drug: standard-of-care<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Ruijin Hospital<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Telemedically Assisted Sampling of COVID-19 Patients - Is the Sampling Quality Sufficient</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Telemedicine;   Pharynx;   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Diagnostic Test: telemedically guided oropharyngeal + nasal (OP+N) self-sampling (GSS) and nasopharyngeal (NP) or OP+N sampling performed by health care professionals (HCP)<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Teststation Praxis Dr. med Bielecki<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>Treatment of COVID-19 Post-acute Cognitive Impairment Sequelae With tDCS</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Cognitive Impairment;   Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 Infection;   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Procedure: Active tDCS and cognitive training;   Procedure: Sham tDCS and cognitive training<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of Sao Paulo;   Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo<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>Improving Pediatric COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake Using an mHealth Tool</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19 Vaccines;   Telemedicine;   Vaccine Hesitancy;   Pediatric ALL<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Behavioral: COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake App;   Other: General Health App<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of Arkansas;   National Institutes of Health (NIH);   University of Nebraska;   University of Montana<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>A comprehensive review about immune responses and exhaustion during coronavirus disease (COVID-19)</strong> - Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a viral infectious disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus. The infection was reported in Wuhan, China, in late December 2019 and has become a major global concern due to severe respiratory infections and high transmission rates. Evidence suggests that the strong interaction between SARS-CoV-2 and patients’ immune systems leads to various clinical symptoms of COVID-19. Although the adaptive immune responses are…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Cleavage of the selective autophagy receptor SQSTM1/p62 by the SARS-CoV-2 main protease NSP5 prevents the autophagic degradation of viral membrane proteins</strong> - Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) global pandemic. Omicron, a new variant of SARS-CoV-2, has the characteristics of strong transmission and pathogenicity, short incubation period, and rapid onset progression, and has spread rapidly around the world. The high replication rate and intracellular accumulation of SARS-CoV-2 are remarkable, but the underlying molecular mechanisms remain unclear. Autophagy acts as a…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A dimeric proteomimetic prevents SARS-CoV-2 infection by dimerizing the spike protein</strong> - Protein tertiary structure mimetics are valuable tools to target large protein-protein interaction interfaces. Here, we demonstrate a strategy for designing dimeric helix-hairpin motifs from a previously reported three-helix-bundle miniprotein that targets the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). Through truncation of the third helix and optimization of the interhelical loop residues of the miniprotein, we developed a thermostable dimeric…</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>Metformin therapy in COVID-19: inhibition of NETosis</strong> - No abstract</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>What Is an Antibody Test? Characteristics of Antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 and Their Tests</strong> - Antibodies play a major role in immune responses against viruses, which inhibit infection by binding to target viral antigen. Antibodies are induced by viral entry to the body and vaccination that artificially induces immune responses; therefore, antibody tests are used in research for infection history and evaluation of vaccine efficacy. Currently, antibody tests against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) by immunochromatography, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay…</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>Suite of TMPRSS2 Assays for Screening Drug Repurposing Candidates as Potential Treatments of COVID-19</strong> - SARS-CoV-2 is the causative viral pathogen driving the COVID-19 pandemic that prompted an immediate global response to the development of vaccines and antiviral therapeutics. For antiviral therapeutics, drug repurposing allows for rapid movement of the existing clinical candidates and therapies into human clinical trials to be tested as COVID-19 therapies. One effective antiviral treatment strategy used early in symptom onset is to prevent viral entry. SARS-CoV-2 enters ACE2-expressing cells…</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>Synthetic Heparan Sulfate Mimetic Pixatimod (PG545) Potently Inhibits SARS-CoV-2 by Disrupting the Spike-ACE2 Interaction</strong> - Heparan sulfate (HS) is a cell surface polysaccharide recently identified as a coreceptor with the ACE2 protein for the S1 spike protein on SARS-CoV-2 virus, providing a tractable new therapeutic target. Clinically used heparins demonstrate an inhibitory activity but have an anticoagulant activity and are supply-limited, necessitating alternative solutions. Here, we show that synthetic HS mimetic pixatimod (PG545), a cancer drug candidate, binds and destabilizes the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein…</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>High-Resolution Magic-Angle Spinning NMR Spectroscopy for Evaluation of Cell Shielding by Virucidal Composites Based on Biogenic Silver Nanoparticles, Flexible Cellulose Nanofibers and Graphene Oxide</strong> - Antiviral and non-toxic effects of silver nanoparticles onto in vitro cells infected with coronavirus were evaluated in this study using High-Resolution Magic-Angle Spinning Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (HR-MAS NMR) spectroscopy. Silver nanoparticles were designed and synthesized using an orange flavonoid-hesperetin (HST)-for reduction of silver(I) and stabilization of as obtained nanoparticles. The bio-inspired process is a simple, clean, and sustainable way to synthesize biogenic silver…</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>Unravelling the Therapeutic Potential of Botanicals Against Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD): Molecular Insights and Future Perspectives</strong> - Background: COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) is a serious health problem worldwide. Present treatments are insufficient and have severe side effects. There is a critical shortage of possible alternative treatments. Medicinal herbs are the most traditional and widely used therapy for treating a wide range of human illnesses around the world. In several countries, different plants are used to treat COPD. Purpose: In this review, we have discussed several known cellular and molecular…</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>Binding of SARS-CoV-2 protein ORF9b to mitochondrial translocase TOM70 prevents its interaction with chaperone HSP90</strong> - The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), remains a great threat to global health. ORF9b, an important accessory protein of SARS-CoV-2, plays a critical role in the viral host interaction, targeting TOM70, a member of the mitochondrial translocase of the outer membrane complex. The assembly between ORF9b and TOM70 is implicated in disrupting mitochondrial antiviral signaling, leading to immune evasion. We describe the…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>High-throughput drug screening allowed identification of entry inhibitors specifically targeting different routes of SARS-CoV-2 Delta and Omicron/BA.1</strong> - The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has continuously evolved, resulting in the emergence of several variants of concern (VOCs). To study mechanisms of viral entry and potentially identify specific inhibitors, we pseudotyped lentiviral vectors with different SARS-CoV-2 VOC spike variants (D614G, Alpha, Beta, Delta, Omicron/BA.1), responsible for receptor binding and membrane fusion. These SARS-CoV-2 lentiviral pseudoviruses were applied to screen 774 FDA-approved…</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>Exploration of potential inhibitors for SARS-CoV-2 Mpro considering its mutants via structure-based drug design, molecular docking, MD simulations, MM/PBSA and DFT calculations</strong> - The main protease (Mpro) of SARS-COV-2 plays a vital role in the viral life cycle and pathogenicity. Due to its specific attributes, this 3-chymotrypsin like protease (3Cl-P) can be a reliable target for the drug design to combat COVID-19. Since the advent of COVID-19, Mpro has undergone many mutations. Here, the impact of 10 mutations based on their frequency and 5 more based on their proximity to the active site was investigated. For comparison purposes, the docking process was also performed…</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>Performance of nasopharyngeal swab and saliva in detecting Delta and Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variants</strong> - A prospective cohort study was conducted during the Delta and Omicron SARS-CoV-2 epidemic waves from paired nasopharyngeal swab (NPS) and saliva samples taken from 624 participants. The study aimed to assess if any differences among participants from both waves could be observed and if any difference in molecular diagnostic performance could be observed among the two sample types. Samples were transported immediately to the laboratory to ensure the highest possible sample quality without any…</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 therapies: do we see substantial progress?</strong> - The appearance of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) and its spread all over the world is the cause of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, which has recently resulted in almost 400 million confirmed cases and 6 million deaths, not to mention unknown long-term or persistent side effects in convalescent individuals. In this short review, we discuss approaches to treat COVID-19 that are based on current knowledge of the mechanisms of viral cell receptor…</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>Structural and biochemical mechanism for increased infectivity and immune evasion of Omicron BA.2 variant compared to BA.1 and their possible mouse origins</strong> - The Omicron BA.2 variant has become a dominant infective strain worldwide. Receptor binding studies show that the Omicron BA.2 spike trimer exhibits 11-fold and 2-fold higher potency in binding to human ACE2 than the spike trimer from the wildtype (WT) and Omicron BA.1 strains. The structure of the BA.2 spike trimer complexed with human ACE2 reveals that all three receptor-binding domains (RBDs) in the spike trimer are in open conformation, ready for ACE2 binding, thus providing a basis for the…</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Atrocity of American Gun Culture</strong> - After mass shootings like those in Uvalde and Buffalo, pro-gun officials say they don’t want to politicize tragedy. But the circumstances that allow for the mass murder of children are inherently political. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/06/06/the-atrocity-of-american-gun-culture">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Staff of Uvalde’s Local Paper Cover the Worst Day of Their Lives</strong> - The paper’s employees lost neighbors, acquaintances, and a daughter in a school shooting. Then they had to report the story. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-southwest/the-staff-of-uvaldes-local-paper-cover-the-worst-day-of-their-lives">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What the End of Roe v. Wade Will Mean for the Next Generation of Obstetricians</strong> - An aspiring ob-gyn’s views on abortion might determine what training she seeks out, which specialities she pursues, and where she chooses to live. In a post-Roe world, that self-sorting process would grow even more intense. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-education/what-the-end-of-roe-v-wade-will-mean-for-the-next-generation-of-obstetricians">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Why a Weakened N.R.A. Still Gets What It Wants</strong> - Lawsuits and years of infighting have dramatically weakened the group, but the Republican Party has taken up its agenda on guns with no external pressure. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/politics-and-more/why-a-weakened-nra-still-gets-what-it-wants">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>When Cars Kill</strong> - A boy’s death launches a movement to end pedestrian and cyclist fatalities in New York City and beyond. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-local-correspondents/when-cars-kill-pedestrians">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>One Good Thing: 107 minutes of Wall Street traders behaving badly</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A still from the film Margin Call, featuring Demi Moore and Simon Baker." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/BF3lHN4zmvKQQ1k8veO8LXSPxj8=/320x0:1280x720/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70939210/MV5BYzBmNmYxYTYtYzU3My00MDIyLWI5NmEtZmE3Zjg1MzhlZGEzXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyODg0OTM4NTc_._V1_FMjpg_UX1280_.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Demi Moore (middle) and Simon Baker (right) in one of <em>Margin Call</em>’s many tense fluorescent-lit meetings. | Frank DeMarco/Roadside Attractions
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Help, I can’t stop rewatching this 11-year-old corporate thriller nobody saw in theaters.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2g9RWV">
I think it was on my third or fourth viewing of <em>Margin Call</em>, the 2011 corporate thriller starring Zachary Quinto and Jeremy Irons, that I realized I finally understood Grateful Dead fans.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xx6P4e">
I was of course familiar with the Dead; I grew up across the river from Vermont. I thought they were just … fine. “Friend of the Devil” was a fun song. Cherry Garcia is an okay ice cream flavor. But why did a band so average-seeming, so unexceptional to me, inspire such a dedicated fanbase? Why would people follow them around, spending thousands of dollars producing and trading bootlegs of their favorite live sets?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fZNSaF">
I feel about <em>Margin Call</em> the way Deadheads feel about the Dead. Everyone thinks this movie is a fairly routine, not particularly notable drama. Most people don’t get the obsessive, fanatical love I have for it. This must be the Deadheads’ struggle: confusion and frustration that the whole world hasn’t fallen as rapturously in love with the art they love so much. Around the moment that Quinto takes out his headphones and realizes the bank where he works is in desperate, desperate trouble, it clicked for me.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VbvLQb">
Deadheads sometimes talk about the <a href="http://facpub.stjohns.edu/~ganterg/dead.htm">“X factor”</a>: the indescribable aspect of a performance that elevates it to a higher level. There are certainly aspects of my love for <em>Margin Call</em> that are similarly difficult to put into words. At some level, either you find Jeremy Irons telling Quinto to “speak as you might to a young child. Or a golden retriever. It wasn’t brains that brought me here,” to be funny, or you don’t.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fdOjOv">
But to a large degree, my love for <em>Margin Call</em> boils down to it being the one film that, more than any other, seems to understand the modern workplace (or at least the office workplace), and the moral compromises involved in living and thriving in that world.
</p>
<h3 id="x7VNrR">
Some introductory <em>Margin</em> notes
</h3>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A still of Zachary Quinto and Seth Bregman wearing shirts and ties in Margin Call." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/f6yTbZ10G-DP1wPWyMwzLnApMDY=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23599215/MV5BMjIyMjM3ODI5OV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMDkwMzQyNg__._V1_.jpg"/> <cite>Frank DeMarco/Roadhouse Attractions</cite>
<figcaption>
Peter Sullivan (Zachary Quinto), an associate in the Risk Assessment and Management Office, and junior analyst Seth Bregman (Penn Badgley), really didn’t know what they were getting into.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="32eW80">
In case you aren’t already a diehard Marginalist: <em>Margin Call</em> chronicles a day in the life of an investment bank at the outset of the financial crisis of 2008. Conditions are rough from the start; the film begins with Eric Dale (Stanley Tucci), the head of risk management at the firm, getting booted in the latest round of layoffs. Before leaving the building, Dale tosses a flash drive to his protégé, the erstwhile rocket scientist Peter Sullivan (Zachary Quinto). His last words, as the elevator closes, are “be careful.” It doesn’t take long for Sullivan to dive into Dale’s spreadsheet and realize that if the firm’s mortgage-backed investments fall in value by even a modest amount, it could bankrupt the company.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HGqG1x">
Sullivan freaks out and tells his boss, Will Emerson (a wonderfully sardonic Paul Bettany), who freaks out and tells <em>his</em> boss, Sam Rogers (Kevin Spacey), who grudgingly tells his much-younger boss Jared Cohen (Simon Baker), who finally calls in the firm’s CEO John Tuld for a 4 am meeting. Portrayed with remarkable charisma and menace by Jeremy Irons, Tuld decides how to deal with the toxic assets, which he describes as “the biggest bag of odorous excrement ever assembled in the history of capitalism.” His decision is astonishing, and his colleagues immediately realize what it means. The rest of the film chronicles their attempt to come to terms with it all.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="C8aJpU">
This does not sound like the most riveting of material. And as I have learned the hard way, after forcing various friends and loved ones to watch it with me, <em>Margin Call</em> is not for everyone. It belongs to the micro-genre that the writer Max Read memorably labeled <a href="https://letterboxd.com/max_read/list/halogencore/">“halogencore”</a>: It and peers like <em>Michael Clayton</em>, <em>The Assistant</em>, <em>Shattered Glass</em>, and <em>Moneyball</em> are thrillers set in offices, where the drama is fueled by white-collar misconduct or incompetence, and where the characters grow by learning something new about the bureaucracy to which they’ve given a portion of their lives.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YmZAbe">
Movies like that, much like all <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/26/entertainment/mid-budget-movie-decline-cec/index.html">mid-budget dramas</a><a href="https://www.flavorwire.com/492985/how-the-death-of-mid-budget-cinema-left-a-generation-of-iconic-filmmakers-mia"> meant for adults</a> and <a href="https://www.gq.com/story/the-day-the-movies-died-mark-harris">not featuring superheroes</a>, are <a href="https://stephenfollows.com/disappearing-mid-budget-drama-movies/">hard to get made</a> these days. But they scratch a very particular itch. They thrive on specificity, on the norms and jargon of a particular institution. <em>Margin Call</em>’s dialogue (“the standard VAR model,” “go block by block,” “we’re fill or kill at 65”) approaches the spy cant of John Le Carré in its density. But writer-director J.C. Chandor assumes the viewer is smart and a quick learner, and can grasp what they need to grasp. Like the Grateful Dead, he’s here for the superfans first and foremost.
</p>
<h3 id="rUB6VJ">
The banality of greed
</h3>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Jeremy Irons in a still from Margin Call." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/hDmTEbyOHXZFZ8JiFRzQ_a2XcHo=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23599220/MV5BMmE1OGY5OTAtZTQ0YS00YWQxLWE3NDMtMTAwNTI5MGMxMzZiXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyODg0OTM4NTc_._V1_FMjpg_UX960_.jpg"/> <cite>Frank DeMarco/Roadhouse Attractions</cite>
<figcaption>
“So you think [because] we might have put a few people out of business today that it’s all for naught? You’ve been doing that every day for almost 40 years, Sam,” John Tuld (Jeremy Irons) lectures a subordinate.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4bcISY">
Chandor’s script is obsessed with the moral implications of white-collar work, and specifically how workers cope with and adapt to those implications. Some become self-loathing, even self-pitying, like the Spacey and Tucci characters; the latter waxes nostalgic about his prior career as a structural engineer, building bridges that helped actual people, rather than shuffling numbers around. Some come up with grandiose self-rationalizations for why what they’re doing either doesn’t matter (“It’s just <em>money</em>,” Irons’s character says, “it’s <em>made up</em>”) or is somehow helping the middle class (“If people want to live like this, in their cars and the big fucking houses they can’t even pay for, then you’re necessary,” Bettany admonishes a younger colleague).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7LI1aO">
This, to me, is the main attraction of <em>Margin Call</em>. It’s a movie that takes work — office work, people sitting at desks typing stuff into laptops — seriously, as an activity with moral significance. And what sets it apart from other films, even some other halogencore films, is that the moral questions it asks are about the work itself, not some extreme violation outside that work’s code of ethics. <em>Shattered Glass </em>is about a reporter making up stories out of whole cloth; <em>Michael Clayton</em> is about a corporation hiring hitmen to murder potential whistleblowers as part of a coverup.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6K8esg">
The choice that CEO John Tuld (Irons) makes in the middle of <em>Margin Call</em>, by contrast, is not a crime. When someone raises the prospects of “the feds” stopping the move, executive Ramesh Shah (Aasif Mandvi), implied to be a lawyer, pushes back: “They can slow you down. They can’t stop you.” This is a choice they can make in the course of doing business. It’s just part of being a banker. And it will hurt many, many people.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="V48NXs">
<em>Margin Call</em> is suffused with small moments showing how this ethos corrupts the people who embrace it. At one point, Peter Sullivan (Quinto) and his younger colleague Seth Bregman (Penn Badgley) are at a strip club, looking for Eric Dale (Tucci). Bregman immediately starts speculating about how much the dancers make in a night. Will Emerson (Bettany) tells Sullivan and Bregman that he made $2.5 million in a year, but it wasn’t that great, because “you learn to spend what’s in your pocket.” Sam Rogers (Spacey) clearly thinks of himself as the man in the room with a real conscience, but it never occurs to him that the firm’s actions might destroy the career of his son at another bank. The firm comes before his own child.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="udmw3d">
These men (and apart from an underutilized Demi Moore, they’re all men) have seen themselves warped, in ways large and small, by their work, by work for which they are paid obscene amounts and which they have no intention of ever stopping.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8I63pn">
Toward the end of the film, Rogers is giving a pep talk to a room of traders, “People are going to say some very nasty things about what we do here today, and about what you’ve dedicated a portion of your lives to,” he tells them. “But have faith that in the bigger picture, our skills have not been wasted. We have accomplished much, and our talents have been used for the greater good.” This is a man doing something he knows is wrong, and not just that but wielding his power to make dozens of other people do something he knows is wrong. The brilliance of the movie is its illustration of why he, and so many like him, make that choice, again and again and again.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kc8hJn">
Margin Call <em>is available to stream on </em><a href="https://www.netflix.com/watch/70167125"><em>Netflix</em></a><em> and </em><a href="https://www.hulu.com/movie/margin-call-04c175b9-ba1a-48cc-9a8b-32e6f5ee15d0"><em>Hulu</em></a><em>. For more recommendations from the world of culture, check out the </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/one-good-thing"><em>One Good Thing</em></a><em> archives.</em>
</p></li>
<li><strong>Fire Island is a sharp look at queer desire, tucked into a sweet rom-com</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/OT0-LtW07C0i2zMBfFIrIm1kT1Y=/667x0:6000x4000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70939221/00EXCL_006_FI_08753.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
The cast of Fire Island going to tea. | Jeong Park
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Joel Kim Booster and Bowen Yang star in this sun-splashed love letter to queer spaces, gay male friendship, and the Meat Rack.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8DU6b3">
If you ask a gay man from New York City about Fire Island, chances are he will have at least two stories. One will be about the best night of their lives. The other one will be about the worst. There’s also a very strong possibility that both those nights are one and the same. Those memories probably involve friends, handsome strangers, the beach, a sunrise, a hot tub, being sassed by the high school girls working at the Pines Pantry grocery store on their summer break, squealing laughter, and maybe some parts that they don’t totally remember.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cdNFXj">
That’s the magic of Fire Island and places like it (Provincetown, Rehoboth Beach, Palm Springs, etc.) For decades, these queer enclaves in the United Stares have allowed LGBTQ people to let their guard down, and live their most enjoyable lives — sex, love, friendship, and everything in between — without worrying about acceptability.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NSLkhy">
Yet it’s rare that these stories, with decades and decades of history, actually become the inspiration for mainstream movies and get the financial backing that comes with it. Mainstream Hollywood has a history of reluctance when it comes to featuring stories from minorities, let alone queer men’s sexual and romantic fantasies. This isn’t to say that romances centering gay men haven’t been made, but they’re usually <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4975722/">indie</a> <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1714210/">flicks</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HNdyfu">
More recently, family-friendly mainstream rom-coms like 2018’s <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/love_simon"><em>Love Simon</em></a> and 2021’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14315756/"><em>Single All the Way</em></a> have been released, but <em>Fire Island</em> is the first of two high-profile comedies out in the next few months (Billy Eichner’s <em>Bros</em> will be released at the end of September) that promise not to shy away from gay men’s sex lives.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Yko97Y">
That’s why director Andrew Ahn’s <em>Fire Island </em>stands out. It’s premiering on Hulu on Friday, stars two Asian American queer men as its leads, and doesn’t include any tragedy or harangued coming out (usually the kind of gay stories Hollywood leans on).<em> </em>Written by and starring comedian Joel Kim Booster, the joyful rom-com captures the silliness, sweetness, sex, raunch, and love that one week with friends spent at the eponymous New York islet can bring.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/fFfMjNoO1T_WCy2f6qXhqD9eBLA=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23603270/FI_06002.jpg"/> <cite>Jeong Park</cite>
<figcaption>
Yes, there’s a musical number in Fire Island. No, I am not spoiling it for you.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vTjGfA">
It hits all the required notes for the genre, and even sneaks in some thoughtful commentary on gay male desire, and platonic friendships between gay men — there’s a pesky trope in movies and television to pair off the gay male characters romantically.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Wwc1ON">
The film’s golden, sun-splashed cinematography will also likely induce FOMO if you haven’t already booked a vacation this summer. As a longtime practicing homosexual, I was a little worried about Fire Island’s debauchery — the Meat Rack (which, despite its name, does not involve an artisanal butcher), the underwear party at the Ice Palace, the back room at the underwear party (which is exactly how it sounds) — being buffed down in an effort to avoid offending the mainstream masses. After all, gay stories are exponentially easier to sell when gay men aren’t having enjoyable, hot sex in them.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BYlqmX">
But Ahn and Booster relieve those fears throughout the film, opening with Noah (Booster) irreverently quoting Jane Austen while sorting through the chaos of a one-night stand (Noah is not, for the record, in want of a wife). Later in the movie, there’s Ahn lighting and staging the aforementioned underwear party to look even sexier than it is in reality.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ar43Kw">
Booster himself <a href="https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/movies-tv/joel-kim-booster-doesnt-mind-if-straight-people-dont-get-every-joke-on-fire-island">has said</a> that he doesn’t mind if straight audiences don’t get his jokes and references — anyone still curious about the Meat Rack after seeing the movie will have to visit in person.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ao2jTZ">
Noah and his friends are mostly on a mission to find Mr. Right Now, but Booster’s script delves deeper. While the thematic intent of exploring sexual desire is typically tackled in a straightforward, easygoing way, Booster grapples with ideas of beauty and power, and recognizes why, for gay men especially, it’s such a fragile yearning.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SLhjTj">
For what’s billed as a fantastical romantic comedy about how magical Fire Island can be, Booster treads into some ambitious and uncomfortable emotional territory as he tells a story about how gay male culture privileges the looks and net worth of a specific type of man, and simultaneously how it tends to diminish men who don’t fit that mold. It’s vulnerable and honest, and the movie is wiser for it. Booster and Ahn understand that the world their characters live in isn’t always generous or kind. Their wistful film also shows that despite gay life’s cruelties, it doesn’t ever mean it’s lacking in love.
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="7zJ3xu"/>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bCgSfV">
The biggest marketing move in selling <em>Fire Island</em> has been that it’s meant to be a <a href="https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a39916635/how-to-watch-stream-fire-island-pride-and-prejudice-adaptation/">subversive interpretation</a> of Jane Austen’s <em>Pride and Prejudice</em>, not unlike the way 1995’s <em>Clueless</em> retells <em>Emma</em> with popular, rich Beverly Hills kids. Usually, stacking any movie against Amy Heckerling’s witty, self-aware classic would be unfair, but <em>Fire Island</em> holds its own.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QUiGrV">
Noah, a nurse with an enviable shoulder-to-hip ratio, is the movie’s Lizzie Bennett, but much more cynical. He’s not looking for a husband, and he’s very much aware of the currency that his abs afford him. He’s making the mad dash — an expensive Uber and a ferry — to Fire Island with his “sisters” Howie (Bowen Yang), Luke (Matt Rogers), Keegan (Tomas Matos), and Max (Torian Miller). Noah’s chosen family are the Bennetts of Fire Island. They’re not exactly wealthy and they’re lodging with a lesbian named Erin (Margaret Cho), who has been exiled from Cherry Grove, the lesbian section of the isle. Due to Erin’s financial instability, it’s going to be their last Fire Island week together.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OtFUI6">
Noah and Howie, who is loosely Fire Island’s Jane Bennett, are best friends. They’re also both Asian American gay men, and with that they share many of the same experiences growing up. The stereotypes, the ideas of masculinity, the casual bigotry ingrained in gay male culture, may all be hard to fully feel if you haven’t grown up queer and Asian. That being said, Ahn and Booster translate this unspoken understanding with thoughtfulness, ensuring that you don’t have to fully comprehend their dynamic to easily empathize with it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qFxttj">
Noah wants Howie to get laid, promising he won’t sleep with anyone until his best friend does. On the surface, it seems like a good intention. Noah just wants everyone to see Howie the way Noah sees him. But Noah’s need to make Howie feel wanted reflects his own insecurities, and his own implicit admission that Howie may not be considered traditionally attractive when it comes to very unforgiving gay male beauty standards.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WdFu7O">
Those insecurities take human form in Howie’s love interest, earnest pediatrician Charlie (James Scully), Noah’s Mr. Darcy-esque Will (Conrad Ricamora), and their friend group of muscled, white affluent gay men.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bagX25">
The clique has a beautiful house, but makes others feel uninvited. They’re unfriendly, but they’ll only talk behind your back. And though they say they’re coming over for dinner and how <em>fun</em> that will be, they’ll never show up and can’t be bothered to give an explanation why. Charlie’s friends don’t think Howie is good enough — a calculus of being handsome and successful — to be with Charlie.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BVaoXH">
There’s some pleasure in watching an acerbic writer like Booster flay the terminal shallowness of these mean Ken doll clones with names like “Braden” and their designer speedos. Being white, rich, and having fantastic pecs puts you at the apex of the gay social status hierarchy. Howie and Noah and the Fire Island Bennetts don’t measure highly on that scale, and it gnaws away at them.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ySuwpJ">
The turmoil created by this white gay crew and the many like it raises the question of why people go to what appears to be Mean Girl Island in the first place. Why bother? Is the promise of a one-night stand really worth it?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eUHLco">
Howie begins to question why Charlie would even be interested in him. Noah doesn’t see long-term potential in Charlie, either, even though Charlie and Will seem purer and kinder than the company they keep. The film spends a good amount of time showing us that Noah and Howie are both too smart and too kind to be sucked into this superficial world, but that isn’t the way desire works.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/9B54l1oBi0JwiDlc2JV8I583EXw=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23603273/zFI_01455.jpg"/> <cite>Jeong Park</cite>
<figcaption>
Joel Kim Booster in <em>Fire Island</em>. On Fire Island, men are constantly shirtless.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UZ8iaT">
There are no rules, no reason, no logic, when it comes to wanting to be seen as beautiful by someone you think is beautiful too. Both Howie and Noah wrestle with that want, whether it’s putting up emotional walls and never letting anyone get close, or doing enough sit-ups in hopes that you bypass the crueler parts of the system. Altogether, it’s a vulnerable, honest perspective from Booster about the irrationality of gay male desire. It’s a perspective that mainstream Hollywood hasn’t always made room for, which is why <em>Fire Island </em>is being described as “<a href="https://ew.com/movies/billy-eichner-joel-kim-booster-bros-fire-island-pride-2022-cover/">groundbreaking</a>.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AhR7Km">
At the heart of <em>Fire Island</em> is the idea that queer friendship is its own kind of love. Being gay or queer is often tied to sexuality, but it’s also about living a life that doesn’t necessarily look like the ones prescribed to us. Friendship in queer life takes many forms, and each one is special in its own way. For LGBTQ people, friendship can be redemptive, nourishing, familial, brave, and loving in ways that are just as valuable as the kind of romantic love that Austen wrote about.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="msq2dl">
<em>Fire Island</em> itself is as much a love letter to our best friends, those soulmates who bring joy to our lives, as it is a reminder that these friendships can be fleeting and should be cherished. The love between friends in <em>Fire Island</em>, particularly Howie and Noah, is much more convincing and more compelling than the romantic love between the movie’s leads that we’re supposed to root for. Yang and Booster crackle when they’re together.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GVKqmf">
I think it’s because those types of friends see the beauty in us and want the best for us. Sometimes, they even want better for us than they want for themselves. They’re generous and kind when the world isn’t. And they allow us to be our truest selves. That’s a type of love too, one that I’d gladly see more movies about.
</p></li>
<li><strong>How to prevent gun deaths without gun control</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A student holds a protest sign that reads “End gun violence.”" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/0drMa77N8zlsFRq04teVOsuFmes=/214x0:3627x2560/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70938941/1241021517.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Students participate in a school walkout and protest to condemn gun violence. | Ringo Chiu/AFP via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Can summer jobs and mental health care save lives?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="D45BNz">
Americans are once again looking for answers after the deaths of at least 19 children and two adults in last week’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/5/24/23140552/robb-elementary-school-shooting-uvalde-texas">mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas</a>. Beyond questions around the police response and whether the massacre will lead to meaningful gun control, a big, fundamental concern looms: Why are guns such a problem in the United States, and what needs to happen for the situation to change?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fJCZge">
Mass shootings are a distinctly American horror. What’s perhaps even more horrific is that, while each one is devastating, mass shootings cause only a small fraction of the gun deaths in America. The US has an <a href="https://www.thetrace.org/2021/10/why-more-shootings-in-america-gun-violence-data-research/">unusually high</a> rate of gun homicides among developed countries — for <a href="https://www.vox.com/23141259/uvalde-texas-school-shooting-child-family-social-policy">children 14 and under</a>, almost eight times the rate of the next country in the ranking — and total gun deaths have <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/02/03/what-the-data-says-about-gun-deaths-in-the-u-s/">only been increasing</a> over recent years.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pTlwXN">
Legal restrictions on gun ownership, including <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ej/article-abstract/128/616/3117/5251684?redirectedFrom=fulltext&amp;login=false">mandatory waiting periods</a> on handgun purchases and <a href="https://docs.iza.org/dp9830.pdf">laws against children and youth carrying guns</a>, could result in fewer deaths. But passing such legislation is a heavy political lift. In the absence of federal action, can anything move the needle on firearm deaths?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="b2UdpI">
There is growing evidence that non-gun-control measures — including interventions to support at-risk youth and programs to improve access to mental health care — can and have been very effective, says Jennifer Doleac, associate professor of economics at Texas A&amp;M University and the director of the <a href="http://justicetechlab.org/">Justice Tech Lab</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4DIOaC">
In a 2018 article in <a href="https://www.theregreview.org/2018/11/09/gun-regulation-costly-not-only-option/">the Regulatory Review</a>, Doleac described a number of these potential alternative solutions, such as summer job programs for at-risk teens, criminal justice reform, or changes to Medicaid. With meaningful and sweeping congressional action hardly a sure thing, should policymakers turn to these alternative ideas?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sX17CU">
I spoke with Doleac on Zoom last week about her work, new evidence from the past few years, and what she sees as the best policy interventions to reduce gun fatalities in the US. A transcript of our conversation, edited for length and clarity, follows.
</p>
<h4 id="ijaIIn">
<strong>Miranda Dixon-Luinenburg</strong>
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mWAXFy">
After the Texas shooting, I think we all want to know what the US can do to prevent future shootings. Gun control regulations are one of the first things that come to mind. But you’ve talked about how this is already such a politicized issue, with huge amounts of money and attention and resources being spent on both sides, and it can be unclear which regulations just reduce gun ownership or actually reduce shooting fatalities. Where do you see things now?
</p>
<h4 id="Z1XttG">
<strong>Jennifer Doleac</strong>
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="m7AFBm">
So the best <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1921965117">research</a> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/27/what-research-shows-effectiveness-gun-control-laws/">evidence</a> we have suggests that gun control — restricting people’s ability to carry concealed weapons, requiring background checks — does reduce suicides and homicides at least some amount.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AXgjqO">
But economists or social scientists like myself look for natural experiments to try to understand what the effect of a policy is on some outcome. And gun laws are not great natural experiments. It’s hard to argue that they’re random, right? They’re the focus of so much political pressure and so much attention from the public that they’re not going to sneak through a legislature or community unnoticed.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bkZT6d">
So it’s very likely that changes in gun laws are correlated with changes in other things, like preferences, sentiment, or other local priorities that themselves could lead to changes in gun violence. Combined with how difficult meaningful gun reform is to pass, I think our attention and time and energy could be better spent on alternatives that could bring us the same goal but perhaps be easier to achieve.
</p>
<h4 id="cuIIKb">
<strong>Miranda Dixon-Luinenburg</strong>
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sNJkIM">
Let’s move on to the other programs and policy interventions you’ve talked about. I’d like to hear whether your thoughts have evolved over the last four years.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DvFmGB">
You’d mentioned the summer job programs for teens, and there being some data that this reduces mortality from gun homicide and suicide, especially for young men. And also the <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23141405/violence-crime-cbt-therapy-cash-shootings">cognitive behavioral therapy</a> for at-risk young men seems like it falls into a similar category. I’d like to hear a bit about those.
</p>
<h4 id="23XAH5">
<strong>Jennifer Doleac</strong>
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Z57ecR">
When policymakers and practitioners ask me what they can do, what’s a reliable way to reduce crime in general and violent crime in particular, summer jobs are always the first thing I bring up.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OMtIiw">
There’s so much evidence from several studies now, and it really is the gold standard. We always love to see the randomized controlled trials, which are hard to run in a lot of these contexts, but we have them with <a href="https://academic.oup.com/qje/article-abstract/131/1/423/2461127?redirectedFrom=fulltext&amp;login=false">summer</a> <a href="https://urbanlabs.uchicago.edu/projects/one-summer-chicago-plus-nothing-stops-a-bullet-like-a-job">jobs</a>, and so we just have really great evidence that we should be pouring money into these programs and fully funding them in the cities where they’re not yet fully funded.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5F5kKl">
With cognitive behavioral therapy, I think our understanding of it has evolved, and it’s clear it’s not necessarily super easy to scale. As programs get bigger, you might have to hire people who are slightly less motivated [to do the work], and so figuring out how to scale some of these really effective programs, as is common in a lot of settings, is a challenge.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FuGwUi">
There’s a <a href="https://news.uchicago.edu/story/innovative-readi-chicago-initiative-brings-hope-amid-heartbreak-gun-violence">recent study</a> that just came out from researchers at the <a href="https://urbanlabs.uchicago.edu/labs/crime">University of Chicago Crime Lab</a> looking at the effects of a program focused on youth at very high risk of violent crime. They’ve been doing this incredible randomized controlled trial that I believe combines cognitive behavioral therapy with jobs, I think, and just general outreach and <a href="https://www.vera.org/community-violence-intervention-programs-explained">violence interruption</a>. They just released <a href="https://www.heartlandalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/READI-Chicago-Working-Together-Toward-Safer-Communities-small.pdf">preliminary results</a> on that, and it seems like things are moving in the right direction, but not quite statistically significant. It signals just what a hard problem this is.
</p>
<h4 id="tDrsnp">
<strong>Miranda Dixon-Luinenburg</strong>
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WkGcs2">
There’s also the juvenile curfew study by Patrick Kline at UC Berkeley, where Washington, DC, instituted an evening curfew for youth under 17 with the goal of reducing violent crime, and <a href="https://academic.oup.com/aler/article-abstract/14/1/44/161417">voluntarily reported crime measures</a> made it look like it was working. And then you published a study that featured a new way of <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-geography-incidence-and-underreporting-of-gun-violence-new-evidence-using-shotspotter-data/">more objectively recording gunfire</a> using audio sensors [and] found the opposite effect — that 911 calls and reported crime went down but recorded gunfire went up.
</p>
<h4 id="I2hMSe">
<strong>Jennifer Doleac</strong>
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2rWZED">
We use data from Washington, DC, where the juvenile curfew changes time a couple of times a year, so we’re able to use that as a natural experiment. The basic intuition here is you’re encouraging a lot of kids to go home instead of hanging out on the streets with their friends, and you are giving the police a reason to go and check in with whatever kids are still out and maybe keep them from getting into trouble.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hCC7Th">
On the flip side, you’re removing lots of young people from the streets who might be very well-behaved but could be potential witnesses, and we know just having lots of people around deters crime. It also switches what the police are doing, where now they’re focused on enforcing this curfew rather than whatever they were doing instead, which might have been more useful.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nifrye">
And so you’ve got all this stuff happening and it’s unclear what the net effect would be, and it is a kind of policy that’s really tough to study the effects of because when you have fewer people around, crime is less likely to be noticed. In that paper, we had data from <a href="https://www.shotspotter.com/">ShotSpotter</a>, which measured gunshots. That allowed us a more objective measure of what crime was going on, and so we’re able to say that when the curfew was in effect, we actually saw gunfire go up rather than down, which is in line with it being counterproductive.
</p>
<h4 id="0BU6aJ">
<strong>Miranda Dixon-Luinenburg</strong>
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RcXgSK">
You also mentioned Medicaid coverage in early childhood, and Medicaid being <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hec.1816">required to cover mental health benefits</a>, both being things where there’s data to show that access to Medicaid-covered mental health care reduces deaths.
</p>
<h4 id="VUjQGi">
<strong>Jennifer Doleac</strong>
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uqmlvU">
The evidence on health care has definitely been booming — this has been a really hot research area. Expanding access to health care, including through Medicaid, reduces crime, particularly violent crime. The mechanisms are likely access to mental health care and substance abuse treatment. Since a lot of these programs do both, it’s hard to disentangle which one is really the driver, but they’re obviously related.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0I74s7">
There’s an <a href="https://elisajacome.github.io/Jacome/Jacome_JMP.pdf">amazing paper by Elisa Jácome</a> from a couple of years ago where she looks at what happens to kids when they’re <a href="https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/8057.pdf">kicked off of Medicaid at age 19</a>, and she finds that with the kids that get kicked off, you can see it in the graph — suddenly they’re much more likely to be arrested and go to prison. The effect is entirely driven by kids that were getting mental health care and medication for various mental illnesses through Medicaid. So really simple changes, like increasing access for kids that were getting this kind of treatment, could be extremely effective.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GxjXWD">
There’s a <a href="https://leo.nd.edu/news/lessons-learned-brief-jail-mental-health-screen/">neat study by researchers at Notre Dame</a>, looking at a program that was a really light-touch intervention. Anyone whose screening when they came into jail scored high enough for history of mental illness had outreach workers call them after they were released and try to connect them with a local health care service, basically just make an appointment for them. Just with that, they saw recidivism drop substantially.
</p>
<h4 id="4VHEXr">
<strong>Miranda Dixon-Luinenburg</strong>
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HHBctr">
Are there any other programs or approaches to reducing gun deaths that have come up more recently that you think are promising?
</p>
<h4 id="Jux91r">
<strong>Jennifer Doleac</strong>
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aPavzf">
There’s more and more evidence that air pollution increases violent crime in particular — not just changing your brain development when you’re a child, which is what we think of with lead exposure, but just day-to-day changes in pollution. There have been <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w21787">studies</a> where you’ve got neighborhoods on either side of a highway, and if the wind is blowing the car exhaust fumes from the highway over into this neighborhood, then violent crime goes up over here. And the next day, if it blows the other way, the violent crime goes up over there.
</p>
<h4 id="jfROd2">
<strong>Miranda Dixon-Luinenburg</strong>
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RYiL9w">
So one possible concern is that some of these proposals might also be politically or financially costly. Health care is a pretty fraught and partisan issue right now. Which proposals do you think would get the most broad support and are realistic to implement soon?
</p>
<h4 id="s386Hm">
<strong>Jennifer Doleac</strong>
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DO9wxQ">
For the health care question in particular, I think expanding Medicaid has become a big political issue, and is linked to Obamacare in unhelpful, political ways. But it feels like there’s an opportunity to talk about expanding health care in other ways, like the low-touch intervention that connected people with local health care services.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WQ6h5q">
And even in the gun control conversation, a lot of times it’s the right that brings up that mental illness is the problem, right? So I feel like there must be some common ground there, if we take away the labels of what the programs are called.
</p>
<h4 id="KroxeX">
<strong>Miranda Dixon-Luinenburg</strong>
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4t2tHv">
Coming back to the Texas mass shooting. These major public incidents are the tip of the iceberg<strong> </strong>for total gun-related deaths, right? There are also huge numbers of other gun homicides associated with violent crime, and gun suicides, all of which are rising. How do you think about that in terms of policy interventions and which measures would be effective? Because for measuring effectiveness, mass shootings have a very small sample size.
</p>
<h4 id="Beiv3y">
<strong>Jennifer Doleac</strong>
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="64oky4">
That’s a great question. The bottom line is we don’t really know. There are far more mass shootings than we want there to be, obviously, but not enough to have good empirical evidence on what changes the number or severity or deaths of those sorts of shootings. And I think the official definition for various government agencies is <a href="https://crim.sas.upenn.edu/fact-check/what-mass-shooting-what-can-be-done">any incident that had at least four victims</a> in it, which it turns out is much more likely to be just normal “street crime.” I think we just don’t know yet if the kinds of interventions we’ve been talking about would be effective for these big, seemingly random public incidents.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="p9kLos">
I’ve become really interested in the extent to which crime experts and terrorism experts should be talking more. It feels like there’s enough overlap with what we would think of as terrorist incidents, even if they don’t think it fully fits in that bucket — and perhaps enough overlap with what makes a normal crime, even though we don’t think it quite fits in that bucket, either — that we should both be at the table. Clearly neither group has all the answers, and maybe it requires a bit more creative thinking and pulling from both sets of expertise.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3xy5Xd">
We don’t have solutions yet. So it’s time to start thinking outside the box.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xJx5MZ">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AedEaN">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OIT2xa">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ls5f6w">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tlWJ21">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="om4uJ2">
</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Anjum Moudgil bags rifle 3-position silver</strong> - Indian men’s rifle 3-position team also takes silver</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>Eng vs NZ first Test | Potts strikes again in New Zealand second innings</strong> - England were eventually dismissed for 141 in reply to New Zealand’s 132</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>Nations League | Portugal, Spain share spoils, Haaland scores against Serbia</strong> - A goal by Portugal’s Ricardo Horta cancelled out the opener by Spain’s Alvaro Morata in a 1-1 draw in the Nations League</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>Malinga to be Sri Lanka's bowling strategy coach against Australia</strong> - Former Sri Lankan pacer Lasith Malinga held the same role of bowling strategy coach when the national team toured Australia in February</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>Gundappa Vishwanath’s Wrist Assured review: Square-cutting to fame and glory</strong> - The stylish Gundappa Vishwanath reminisces on his long innings in Indian cricket</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>Ensure govt. announcements are implemented: CM</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>Recreation during vacation: children hurl stones on running trains</strong> - RPF undertakes awareness programme called ‘Operation Dosti’</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>Take steps to stop targeted killings in J&amp;K, Cong. tells Centre</strong> - Bhupesh Baghel says BJP-RSS leaders had time to watch Kashmir Files, but are silent now</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>Stalin providing good governance, says Alagiri</strong> - ‘He is following in Karunanidhi’s footsteps’</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Andhra Pradesh: land resurvey going on at a brisk pace in Srikakulam district</strong> - It will be completed in 158 out of 1,400 villages in a few weeks, says District Collector</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine war: Zelensky says Russia controls a fifth of Ukrainian territory</strong> - Russian forces are intensifying attacks on the city of Severodonetsk in the eastern Donbas region.</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 Russian soldiers refusing to fight in Ukraine</strong> - Because of their experiences on the front line, some troops are seeking legal advice to avoid being redeployed.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine war: Russia achieving success in Donbas, says Ministry of Defence</strong> - On the war’s 100th day, UK Defence Intelligence says Russia has the initiative in the country’s east.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine war: Kyiv’s emergence from the shadow of war</strong> - As the threat of Russia’s invasion loomed, Kyiv refused to cower. But then it was forced to adapt.</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>Real Madrid ask for answers into ‘unfortunate events’ at Champions League final</strong> - Real Madrid have asked for answers into the “series of unfortunate events” at the Champions League final against Liverpool in Paris.</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>What the simple mathematical abilities of animals can tell us about ourselves</strong> - Ars chats with UCL’s Brian Butterworth about his new book <em>Can Fish Count?</em>. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1857091">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Rocket Report: India wants its own SpaceX, Firefly targets July for Alpha launch</strong> - “We will have our own SpaceX in the next two years.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1856980">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Sony’s latest State of Play: Street Fighter 6, Final Fantasy XVI, new PC ports</strong> - More big teases of PlayStation VR2, though the headset doesn’t have a release date. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1857953">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>June 21 is expected start date of COVID vaccination for kids under 5</strong> - FDA will review the vaccines June 15, but then the CDC needs to sign off. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1857975">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>HP releases its $1,099 Linux laptop for developers</strong> - HP Dev One is the first non-System76 computer offered with Pop!_OS. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1857816">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>What did the Pokemon say after a night of rough sex?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Vulvasore
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
​
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
​
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
<sup>(I am so, so sorry</sup>)
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/DrFridayTK"> /u/DrFridayTK </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/v3fa92/what_did_the_pokemon_say_after_a_night_of_rough/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/v3fa92/what_did_the_pokemon_say_after_a_night_of_rough/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>An army grunt is telling a story about finding a scorpion in his tent…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A marine, an army grunt, and an airman are having a beer and the army grunt is telling this story about how one time he found a scorpion in his tent. Marine asks “what’d you do?”, and the grunt says he crushed it with his boot and flung it out the flap. The marine laughs and says “what a sissy”. The grunt askes “well what would you do then?” Marine replies “when a scorpion gets in my tent I usually cut off it’s tail while it’s still alive, keep it as a pet for a few days, might prank my senior officer with it, then eventually I cook it and eat it”. The grunt feels a little embarrassed, then shifts focus to the airman and asks “what would you do?” The airman says “I’d call the front desk and ask them why there’s a tent in my room”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/reduxde"> /u/reduxde </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/v3scxk/an_army_grunt_is_telling_a_story_about_finding_a/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/v3scxk/an_army_grunt_is_telling_a_story_about_finding_a/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>The cleaning lady at my office invited me to go smoke weed after work, but I told her no</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
I made a commitment to myself to avoid high maintenance women
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/MEforgotUSERNAME"> /u/MEforgotUSERNAME </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/v3lrxf/the_cleaning_lady_at_my_office_invited_me_to_go/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/v3lrxf/the_cleaning_lady_at_my_office_invited_me_to_go/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>I completely misunderstood Pride month…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Anyway, who wants to buy 12 lions?
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/MrDagon007"> /u/MrDagon007 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/v3o0x1/i_completely_misunderstood_pride_month/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/v3o0x1/i_completely_misunderstood_pride_month/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>A man lays sprawled across three entire seats at a posh theatre. Before the show has even started, an usher walks by and notices the man.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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“Sir, you’re only allowed one seat, can you please sit up?” The man groans, but stays where he is. The usher becoming impatient with the man says “Sir, if you don’t get up, I will need to get my manager involved” Again the man just groans, which infuriates the usher as he marches off to get the manager. In a few moments he returns with the manager and they both repeatedly attempt to move him, but with no success. It was at this point that the manager calls the police. Moments later, a police officer arrives and approaches the man, “alright buddy, what’s your name?” “Sam” the man moans. “And where ya from Sam?” With pain in his voice Sam replied “the balcony”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Wanan1"> /u/Wanan1 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/v3sikr/a_man_lays_sprawled_across_three_entire_seats_at/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/v3sikr/a_man_lays_sprawled_across_three_entire_seats_at/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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