The Cauldron Has Cooled Down: A Systematic Literature Review on COVID-19, Ghost Games, and Home Advantage in Football from a Behavioral Science Perspective -
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+The phenomenon of home advantage (or home bias) is well-analyzed in the scientific literature and is traditionally an interdisciplinary topic. So far, the phenomenon has been difficult to study because, although there have always been single matches where the spectators were excluded, this never happened globally to all teams within a league or even across leagues. Thus, several studies examined the influence of supporters by comparing matches before the COVID-19 restrictions with so-called ghost games during the pandemic. To synthesize the existing knowledge after over a year of ghost games and to offer the scientific community and other stakeholders an overview regarding the numerous studies, we provide a systematic literature review that summarizes the main findings of 16 empirical studies and discusses the results accordingly. Our findings - based on 16 studies - indicate that ghost games have a considerable impact on the phenomenon of home advantage. No study found an increased home advantage in ghost games. Rather, our results show that 13 (from 16 included) analyzed studies conclude – based on their individually examined data – a more or less significant decrease of home advantage in ghost games. We conclude that our findings are highly relevant from a both socio-economic and behavioral perspective and highlight the indirect and direct influence of spectators and fans on football. Our results have – besides for the scientific community – a high importance for sports and team managers, media executives, fan representatives and other persons responsible.
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Who, What, Where: Tracking the development of COVID-19 related PsyArXiv preprints -
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+Given the need for a rapid and supposed critical response from behavioural sciences during times of crisis, this study aimed to track the development of COVID-19 psychology-related preprints. We tracked the first 211 COVID related preprints on the repository PsyArXiv. Specifically, we tracked who was submitting preprints, what the preprints were investigating, and whether the preprints lead to publications and their impact (measured by Google Scholar citations). We then followed up with the preprints about a year later to determine the number of preprints that lead to publication and the number of citations they received. The results showed that males from western countries submitted most preprints. Fifty-one per cent of preprints used a survey design, and the most common topic for covid-19 related preprints was mental health. Eighty-three per cent of preprints did not meet credible open science measures. 54% of the sampled preprints had been published in peer-reviewed journals, with a median time between preprint upload and publication of 105 days. Metascience preprints were more likely to be published, and preprints with reviews had lower citation rates. Overall, the results demonstrate that some of the structural problems in research are still in play despite global efforts to mobilise research efforts during the pandemic.
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Vitamin S: Why is Social Contact, Even with Strangers, so Important to Well-Being? -
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+Even before COVID-19, it was well-known in psychological science that our well-being is strongly served by the quality of our close relationships. But is our well-being also served by social contact with people we know less well? In this article, we discuss three propositions to support the conclusion that the benefits of social contact also derive from interactions with acquaintances and even strangers. The propositions state that most interaction situations with strangers are benign (Proposition 1), that most strangers are benign (Proposition 2), and that most interactions with strangers enhance well-being (Proposition 3). These propositions are supported, first, by recent research designed to illuminate the primary features of interaction situations, showing that situations with strangers often represent low conflict of interest. Second, in our interactions with strangers, most people exhibit high levels of low-cost cooperation (social mindfulness) and high-cost helping if help to strangers is urgent. We close by sharing research examples which show that even very subtle interactions with strangers yield short-term happiness. Broader implications for COVID-19 and urbanization are discussed.
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Psychological Trauma and Emotional Upheaval as Revealed in Academic Writing -
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+Trauma victims often respond to distress in systematic ways that are psychologically rich. People who face trauma or emotional upheavals, for example, try to make meaning of their experiences by putting in psychological effort to resolve their distress. The current paper used a preregistered set of language dimensions to indicate how scientists psychologically managed the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects. Study 1 used over 1.8 million preprints from arXiv.org to evaluate how papers about COVID-19 were written compared to non-COVID-19 papers. The data suggest COVID-19 papers were written with more affect (specifically, negative emotion), more cognitive processing terms to indicate writers working through a crisis, and less analytic thinking to indicate an inward focus relative to non-COVID-19 papers. Study 2 (N = 74,809 published PLoS One papers) observed consistent emotion results across COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 papers, but cognitive processing and analytic thinking patterns were reversed. Study 3 (N = 361,189 published papers) replicated the Study 2 results across a more diverse set of journals. Together, emotional upheavals are associated with psychological correlates that are reflected in the language of scientists at scale. Having time to work through and manage a crisis, however, may reduce their prevalence in published academic papers. Implications for psychology of language research and trauma are discussed.
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Roles of Family Stress, Maltreatment, and Affect Regulation Difficulties on Adolescent Mental Health During COVID-19 -
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+Purpose: This study examines the indirect effect of affect dysregulation and suppression on the associations between family stress from confinement, maltreatment, and adolescent mental health during COVID-19. We examined both adolescent and caregiver perspectives to yield a more well-rounded understanding of these associations. Methods: Using both adolescent (N = 809, Mage = 15.66) and caregiver (N = 578) samples, exposure to physical and psychological maltreatment, family stress from confinement, affect dysregulation, suppression, and youth externalizing and internalizing symptoms were measured in the summer of 2020, following three months of stay at home orders due to COVID-19. Results: We found that affect dysregulation partially accounted for the associations between family stress and psychological maltreatment on both internalizing and externalizing symptoms for youth and parent report. Suppression partially accounted for the associations between family stress and maltreatment on internalizing and externalizing symptoms in the youth sample, but only for internalizing symptoms in the caregiver sample. Conclusion: Understanding the family predictors of adolescents’ mental health concerns, and their underlying mechanisms, affect dysregulation and suppression, can help us target mental health interventions during and following the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Is the future of work experience online? An examination of stakeholder attitudes towards online internships. -
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+Purpose The world of work is becoming digital, a process accelerated by the recent COVID-19 pandemic and resultant remote working guidelines. Online internships have become more popular in this context, and yet there remains a lack of research investigating how these internships are perceived across stakeholders. The purpose of this paper was to begin to address this research gap by exploring academic, student and employer perceptions of online internships with a focus on employability. Design The research explored 156 stakeholders (53 students, 50 academics, 53 employer / professionals) perceptions via a mixed-methods online study encompassing quantitative responses to internship vignettes, alongside open-ended questions designed to explore stakeholder attitudes in more depth. Findings Stakeholder groups reported similar attitudes towards online internships. Overall, online internships were viewed as valid, flexible, work experience, linked to skill development and likely to enhance student employability. However, concerns were raised regarding communication protocols and development, intern isolation and a lack of organisational immersion. Implications Based on our research we make three recommendations to continue to enhance and develop the online internship experience; ensure multiple methods of regular communication between student and organisation, attempt virtual immersion in the organisation, and assign each intern additional support beyond their immediate supervisor. Originality Based on a holistic and novel analysis of key stakeholders’ viewpoints, this paper provides much needed insights and evidence on how to design and quality assure effective online internship practice.
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Amyloidogenic proteins in the SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 proteomes -
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+The phenomenon of protein aggregation is widespread and associated with a wide range of human diseases. Our knowledge on the aggregation behaviour of viral proteins, however, is still rather limited. Here, we investigated the distribution of aggregation-prone regions in the the SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 proteomes. An initial analysis using a panel of sequence-based predictors suggested the presence of multiple aggregation-prone regions in these proteomes, and revealed an enhanced aggregation propensity in some SARS-CoV-2 proteins. We then studied the in vitro aggregation of predicted aggregation-prone regions in the of SARS-CoV-2 proteome, including the signal sequence peptide and fusion peptide 1 of the spike protein, a peptide from the NSP6 protein (NSP6-p), the ORF10 protein, and the NSP11 protein. Our re-sults show that these peptides and proteins form aggregates via a nucleation-dependent mecha-nism. Moreover, we demonstrated that the aggregates of NSP11 are toxic to mammalian cell cultures. These findings provide evidence about the aggregation of proteins in the SARS-CoV-2 proteome.
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Broadening a SARS-CoV-1 neutralizing antibody for potent SARS-CoV-2 neutralization through directed evolution -
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+The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 underscores the need for strategies to rapidly develop neutralizing monoclonal antibodies that can function as prophylactic and therapeutic agents and to help guide vaccine design. Here, we demonstrate that engineering approaches can be used to refocus an existing neutralizing antibody to a related but resistant virus. Using a rapid affinity maturation strategy, we engineered CR3022, a SARS-CoV-1 neutralizing antibody, to bind SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain with >1000-fold improved affinity. The engineered CR3022 neutralized SARS-CoV-2 and provided prophylactic protection from viral challenge in a small animal model of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Deep sequencing throughout the engineering process paired with crystallographic analysis of an enhanced antibody elucidated the molecular mechanisms by which engineered CR3022 can accommodate sequence differences in the epitope between SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2. The workflow described provides a blueprint for rapid broadening of neutralization of an antibody from one virus to closely related but resistant viruses.
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Corowa-kun: Impact of a COVID-19 vaccine information chatbot on vaccine hesitancy, Japan 2021 -
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+Background: Few studies have assessed how mobile messenger apps affect COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. We created a COVID-19 vaccine information chatbot in a popular messenger app in Japan to answer commonly asked questions. Methods: LINE is the most popular messenger app in Japan. Corowa-kun, a free chatbot, was created in LINE on February 6, 2021. Corowa-kun provides instant, automated answers to frequently asked COVID-19 vaccine questions. In addition, a cross-sectional survey assessing COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy was conducted via Corowa-kun during April 5 to 12, 2021. Results: A total of 59,676 persons used Corowa-kun during February to April 2021. Of them, 10,192 users (17%) participated in the survey. Median age was 55 years (range 16 to 97), and most were female (74%). Intention to receive a COVID-19 vaccine increased from 59% to 80% after using Corowa-kun (p < 0.01). Overall, 20% remained hesitant: 16% (1,675) were unsure, and 4% (364) did not intend to be vaccinated. Factors associated with vaccine hesitancy were: age 16 to 34 (odds ratio [OR] = 3.7, 95% confidential interval [CI]: 3.0-4.6, compared to age ≥ 65), female sex (OR = 2.4, Cl: 2.1-2.8), and history of another vaccine side-effect (OR = 2.5, Cl: 2.2-2.9). Being a physician (OR = 0.2, Cl: 0.1-0.4) and having received a flu vaccine the prior season (OR = 0.4, Cl: 0.3-0.4) were protective. Conclusions: Corowa-kun reduced vaccine hesitancy by providing COVID-19 vaccine information in a messenger app. Mobile messenger apps could be leveraged to increase COVID-19 vaccine acceptance.
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Out-of-Pocket Spending for COVID-19 Hospitalizations in 2020 -
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+IMPORTANCE: Many insurers waived cost-sharing for COVID-19 hospitalizations during 2020. Nonetheless, patients may have been billed if their plans did not implement waivers or if waivers did not capture all hospitalization-related care, including clinician services. Assessing out-of-pocket spending for COVID-19 hospitalizations in 2020 could demonstrate the financial burden patients may face if insurers allow waivers to expire, as many chose to do during early 2021. OBJECTIVE: To estimate out-of-pocket spending for COVID-19 hospitalizations in 2020 DESIGN: Cross-sectional analysis SETTING: IQVIA PharMetrics Plus for Academics Database, a national claims database PARTICIPANTS: COVID-19 hospitalizations for privately insured and Medicare Advantage patients during March-September 2020 MAIN OUTCOMES/MEASURES: Mean total out-of-pocket spending, defined as the sum of out-of-pocket spending for facility services billed by hospitals (e.g., accommodation charges) and for professional/ancillary services billed by clinicians and ancillary providers (e.g., clinician inpatient evaluation and management, ambulance transport) RESULTS: Analyses included 4,075 hospitalizations. Of the 1,377 hospitalizations for privately insured patients and the 2,698 hospitalizations for Medicare Advantage patients, 981 (71.2%) and 1,324 (49.1%) had out-of-pocket spending for facility services, professional/ancillary services, or both. Among these hospitalizations, mean (SD) total out-of-pocket spending was $788 (1,411) and $277 (363). In contrast, 63 (4.6%) and 36 (1.3%) hospitalizations had out-of-pocket spending for facility services. Among these hospitalizations, mean total out-of-pocket spending was $3,840 (3,186) and $1,536 (1,402). Total out-of-pocket spending exceeded $4,000 for 2.5% of privately insured hospitalizations, compared with 0.2% of Medicare Advantage hospitalizations. CONCLUSIONS: Few COVID-19 hospitalizations in this study had out-of-pocket spending for facility services, suggesting most were covered by insurers with cost-sharing waivers. However, many hospitalizations had out-of-pocket spending for professional/ancillary services. Overall, 7 in 10 privately insured hospitalizations and half of Medicare Advantage hospitalizations had any out-of-pocket spending. Findings suggest insurer cost-sharing waivers may not cover all hospitalization-related care. Moreover, high cost-sharing for some hospitalizations suggests out-of-pocket burden could be substantial if waivers expire, particularly for privately insured patients. Rather than rely on voluntary insurer actions to mitigate this burden, federal policymakers should consider mandating insurers to waive cost-sharing for all COVID-19 hospitalization-related care throughout the pandemic.
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Use of medicinal plants for COVID-19 prevention and respiratory symptom treatment during the pandemic in Cusco, Peru: A cross-sectional survey -
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+Background: The burden of the COVID-19 pandemic in Peru has led to people seeking alternative treatments as preventives and treatment options such as medicinal plants. This study aimed to assess factors associated with the use of medicinal plants as preventive or treatment of respiratory symptom related to COVID-19 during the pandemic in Cusco, Peru. Method: A web-based cross-sectional study was conducted on general public (20- to 70-year-old) from August 31 to September 20, 2020. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire via Google Forms, it consisted of an 11-item questionnaire that was developed and validated by expert judgment using Aiken9s V (Aiken9s V > 0.9). Both descriptive statistics and bivariate followed by multivariable logistic regression analyses were conducted to assess factors associated with the use of medicinal plants for COVID-19 prevention and respiratory symptom treatment during the pandemic. Prevalence ratios (PR) with 95% Confidence Interval (CI), and a P-value of 0.05 was used to determine statistical significance. Results: A total of 1,747 respondents participated in the study, 80.2% reported that they used medicinal plants as preventives, while 71% reported that they used them to treat respiratory symptoms. At least, 24% of respondents used medicinal plants when presenting with two or more respiratory symptoms, while at least 11% used plants for malaise. For treatment or prevention, the multivariate analysis showed that most respondents used eucalyptus (p < 0.001 for both), ginger (p < 0.022 for both), spiked pepper (p < 0.003 for both), garlic (p = 0.023 for prevention), and chamomile (p = 0.011 for treatment). The respondents with COVID-19 (p < 0.001), at older ages (p = 0.046), and with a family member or friend who had COVID-19 (p < 0.001) used more plants for prevention. However, the respondents with technical or higher education used less plants for treatment (p < 0.001). Conclusion: There was a significant use of medicinal plants for both prevention and treatment, which was associated with several population characteristics and whether respondents had COVID-19.
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MALDI-ToF Protein Profiling as Potential Rapid Diagnostic Platform for COVID-19 -
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+More than a year after the COVID-19 pandemic has been declared, the need still exists for accurate, rapid, inexpensive and non-invasive diagnostic methods that yield high specificity towards the current and newly emerging SARS-CoV-2 strains. Several studies have since established saliva as a more amenable specimen type in early detection and viral load quantitation as compared to the nasopharyngeal swabs. Considering the limitations and high demand for COVID-19 testing, we have employed MALDI-ToF mass spectrometry for the analysis of 60 gargle samples from human donors and compared the spectra with their respective RT-PCR results. Several standards including isolated human serum immunoglobulins and controls such as pre-COVID-19 saliva and heat inactivated SARS-CoV-2 virus were simultaneously analyzed to provide a relative view of the saliva and viral proteome as they would appear in this works methodology. Five potential biomarker peaks were established that demonstrated high consistency with PCR positive samples. Overall, the agreement of these results with RT-PCR testing was no less than 90% for the studied cohort, which consisted of young and largely asymptomatic student athletes. Further investigation of the potential biomarker peaks is necessary, however, from a clinical standpoint, these results are promising for a rapid and inexpensive COVID-19 assay.
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Clinical Evaluation of In House Produced 3D Printed Nasopharyngeal Swabs for COVID-19 Testing -
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+3D printed alternatives to standard flocked swabs were rapidly developed to provide a response to the unprecedented and sudden need for an exponentially growing amounts of diagnostic tools to fight the pandemics of COVID-19. In light of the anticipated shortage, an hospital-based 3D printing platform was implemented in our institution for the production of swabs for nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal sampling based on the freely available open-sourced design made available to the community by University of South Florida9s Health Radiology and Northwell Health System teams as replacement for locally used commercial swabs. Validation of our 3D printed swabs was performed by a head-to-head diagnostic accuracy study of the 3D printed Northwell model with the cobas PCR Media swabs sample kit. We observed an excellent concordance (total agreement 96.8%, Kappa 0.936) in results obtained with the 3D printed and flocked swabs indicating that the in-house 3D printed swab can be used reliably in a context of shortage of flocked swabs. To our knowledge, this is the first study to report on autonomous hospital-based production and clinical validation of 3D printed swabs.
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A rapid and simple protocol for concentration of SARS-CoV-2 from sewage -
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+The aim of this study was to set up a simple protocol to concentrate SARS-CoV-2 from sewage, which can be implemented in laboratories with minimal equipment resources. The method avoids the need for extensive purification steps and reduces the concentration of potential inhibitors of RT-qPCR contained in sewage. The concentration method consists of a single step, in which a small volume of sewage sample is incubated with polyaluminum chloride (PAC). Virus particles adsorbed to the precipitate are collected by low-speed centrifugation, after which the recovered pellet is resuspended with a saline buffer. The PAC concentration method produced an average shift of 4.4-units in Cq values compared to non-concentrated samples, indicating a 25-fold increase in detection sensitivity. The lower detection limit corresponded approximately to 100 copies per ml. Kappa index indicated substantial agreement between PAC and PEG precipitation protocols (k=0.688, CI 0.457-0.919). PAC concentrated samples can be processed immediately for RNA purification and qPCR or sent refrigerated to a diagnosis center, where SARS-CoV-2 detection should be performed in the same way as for clinical samples. This low cost protocol could be useful to aid in the monitoring of community circulation of SARS-CoV-2, especially in low- and middle-income countries, which do not have massive access to support from specialized labs for sewage surveillance.
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The rapid reemergence of seasonal respiratory viruses in Houston, Texas, after relaxing COVID-19 restrictions -
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+Implementation of measures to limit the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a rapid decrease in all other respiratory pathogens. As COVID-19 containment measures were relaxed, the first non-COVID respiratory viruses to return to prepandemic levels were members of the rhinovirus/enterovirus, followed by the rapid return of seasonal coronaviruses, parainfluenza, and respiratory syncytial virus after the complete removal of COVID-19 precautions at the state level, including an end to mask mandates. Inasmuch as COVID-19 has dominated the landscape of respiratory infections since early 2020, it is important for clinicians to recognize the return of non-COVID respiratory pathogens may be rapid and significant when COVID-19 containment measures are removed.
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Study to Evaluate the Effects of RO7496998 (AT-527) in Non-Hospitalized Adult and Adolescent Participants With Mild or Moderate COVID-19 - Condition: COVID-19 Interventions: Drug: RO7496998; Drug: Placebo Sponsors: Atea Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Hoffmann-La Roche Recruiting
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Low-Dose Radiation Therapy to Lungs in Moderate COVID-19 Pneumonitis: A Case-Control Pilot Study - Condition: COVID-19 Pneumonia Intervention: Radiation: Low dose radiotherapy Sponsor: Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences Not yet recruiting
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Mix and Match of the Second COVID-19 Vaccine Dose for Safety and Immunogenicity - Condition: COVID-19 Interventions: Biological: mRNA-1273 SARS-CoV-2 vaccine; Biological: BNT162b2; Biological: ChAdOx1-S [recombinant]; Other: 0, 28 day schedule; Other: 0, 112 day schedule Sponsors: Canadian Immunization Research Network; Canadian Center for Vaccinology; BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute; Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba; CHU de Quebec-Universite Laval; Ottawa Hospital Research Institute; Northern Alberta Clinical Trials + Research Centre; Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion; University of Toronto; Massachusetts General Hospital Not yet recruiting
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Leronlimab in Moderatelly Ill Patients With COVID-19 Pneumonia - Condition: COVID-19 Pneumonia Interventions: Drug: Leronlimab; Drug: Placebo Sponsors: Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein; CytoDyn, Inc. Not yet recruiting
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Leronlimab in Critically Ill Patients With Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) With Need for Mechanical Ventilation or Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation - Condition: COVID-19 Pneumonia Interventions: Drug: Leronlimab; Drug: Placebo Sponsors: Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein; CytoDyn, Inc. Not yet recruiting
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A Proof of Concept Study for the DNA Repair Driven by the Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Critical COVID-19 Patients - Condition: COVID-19 Pneumonia Intervention: Biological: Mesenchymal Stem Cells Transplantation Sponsors: SBÜ Dr. Sadi Konuk Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi; Istinye University; Liv Hospital (Ulus) Completed
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A Study of Bemcentinib for the Treatment of COVID-19 in Hospitalised Patients - Condition: COVID-19 Interventions: Drug: Bemcentinib; Other: SoC Sponsor: BerGenBio ASA Active, not recruiting
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The Proof of Concept Phase 2 Study to Evaluate the Safety and Efficacy of Clevudine in Patients With Mild and Moderate COVID-19 - Condition: COVID-19 Interventions: Drug: Clevudine; Drug: Placebo Sponsor: Bukwang Pharmaceutical Recruiting
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COVID-19: A Study to Test Whether BI 767551 Can Prevent COVID-19 in People Who Have Been Exposed to SARS-CoV-2 - Condition: COVID-19 Interventions: Drug: BI 767551 intravenous; Drug: BI 767551 inhalation; Drug: Placebo intravenous; Drug: Placebo inhalation Sponsor: Boehringer Ingelheim Not yet recruiting
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A Global Phase III Clinical Trial of Recombinant COVID- 19 Vaccine (Sf9 Cells) - Condition: COVID-19 Interventions: Biological: Recombinant COVID-19 vaccine (Sf9 cells); Other: Placebo control Sponsors: WestVac Biopharma Co., Ltd.; West China Hospital Not yet recruiting
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Allogeneic Natural Killer (NK) Cell Therapy in Subjects Hospitalized for COVID-19 - Condition: COVID-19 Pneumonia Intervention: Biological: DVX201 Sponsors: Deverra Therapeutics, Inc.; Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Not yet recruiting
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Lot-to-lot Consistency of an Inactivated SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine for Prevention of COVID-19 in Healthy Adults - Condition: COVID-19 Intervention: Biological: Inactivated SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine (Vero cell） Sponsor: Sinovac Research and Development Co., Ltd. Not yet recruiting
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Study of Allogeneic Adipose-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells for Treatment of COVID-19 Acute Respiratory Distress - Condition: Covid19 Interventions: Biological: COVI-MSC; Drug: Placebo Sponsor: Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc. Not yet recruiting
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Study to Evaluate a Single Intranasal Dose of STI-2099 (COVI-DROPS™) in Outpatient Adults With COVID-19 (US) - Condition: Covid19 Interventions: Biological: COVI-DROPS; Drug: Placebo Sponsor: Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc. Not yet recruiting
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Study to Evaluate a Single Intranasal Dose of STI-2099 (COVI-DROPS™) in Outpatient Adults With COVID-19 (UK) - Condition: Covid19 Interventions: Biological: COVI-DROPS; Drug: Placebo Sponsor: Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc. Not yet recruiting
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From PubMed
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Alpha-defensins: risk factor for thrombosis in COVID-19 infection - The inflammatory response to SARS/CoV-2 (COVID-19) infection may contribute to the risk of thromboembolic complications. α-Defensins, antimicrobial peptides released from activated neutrophils, are anti-fibrinolytic and prothrombotic in vitro and in mouse models. In this prospective study of 176 patients with COVID-19 infection, we found that plasma levels of α-defensins were elevated, tracked with disease progression/mortality or resolution and with plasma levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and…
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The application of in silico experimental model in the assessment of ciprofloxacin and levofloxacin interaction with main SARS-CoV-2 targets: S-, E- and TMPRSS2 proteins, RNA-dependent RNA polymerase and papain-like protease (PLpro)-preliminary molecular docking analysis - CONCLUSIONS: The revealed data indicate that ciprofloxacin and levofloxacin could interact and potentially inhibit crucial SARS-CoV-2 proteins.
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Bardoxolone and bardoxolone methyl, two Nrf2 activators in clinical trials, inhibit SARS-CoV-2 replication and its 3C-like protease - No abstract
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Remdesivir for the treatment of Covid-19: the value of biochemical studies - The nucleotide analogue prodrug remdesivir remains the only FDA-approved antiviral small molecule for the treatment of infection with SARS-CoV-2. Biochemical studies revealed that the active form of the drug targets the viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase and causes delayed chain-termination. Delayed chain-termination is incomplete, but the continuation of RNA synthesis enables a partial escape from viral proofreading. Remdesivir becomes embedded in the copy of the RNA genome that later serves as…
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Azelastine inhibits viropexis of SARS-CoV-2 spike pseudovirus by binding to SARS-CoV-2 entry receptor ACE2 - A recent study have reported that pre-use of azelastine is associated with a decrease in COVID-19 positive test results among susceptible elderly people. Besides, it has been reported that antihistamine drugs could prevent viruses from entering cells. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether azelastine have antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2 in vitro and the possible mechanism. Here, we discovered antihistamine azelastine has an affinity to ACE2 by cell membrane chromatography…
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A traditional medicine, respiratory detox shot (RDS), inhibits the infection of SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2, and the influenza A virus in vitro - CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that RDS may broadly inhibit the infection of respiratory viruses.
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Theobroma cacao L. compounds: Theoretical study and molecular modeling as inhibitors of main SARS-CoV-2 protease - Cocoa beans contain antioxidant molecules with the potential to inhibit type 2 coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), which causes a severe acute respiratory syndrome (COVID-19). In particular, protease. Therefore, using in silico tests, 30 molecules obtained from cocoa were evaluated. Using molecular docking and quantum mechanics calculations, the chemical properties and binding efficiency of each ligand was evaluated, which allowed the selection of 5 compounds of this series. The ability of amentoflavone,…
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Association between FIASMAs and Reduced Risk of Intubation or Death in Individuals Hospitalized for Severe COVID-19: an observational multicenter study - Several medications commonly used for a number of medical conditions share a property of functional inhibition of acid sphingomyelinase (ASM), or FIASMA. Preclinical and clinical evidence suggest that the (ASM)/ceramide system may be central to SARS-CoV-2 infection. We examined the potential usefulness of FIASMA use among patients hospitalized for severe COVID-19 in an observational multicenter study conducted at Greater Paris University hospitals. Of 2,846 adult patients hospitalized for severe…
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Immunogenicity of a first dose of mRNA- or vector-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in dialysis patients: a multicenter prospective observational pilot study - CONCLUSIONS: Two weeks after their first mRNA- or vector-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccination, hemodialysis patients demonstrated lower antibody-related response than peritoneal dialysis patients and healthy staff or unvaccinated hemodialysis patients following prior COVID-19 infection.
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Role of OATP4C1 in Renal Handling of Remdesivir and its Nucleoside Analog GS-441524: The First Approved Drug for Patients with COVID-19 - CONCLUSIONS: We have provided novel information about renal handling of remdesivir. Furthermore, we evaluated the potential drug interaction via OATP4C1 by calculating the Ki value of remdesivir. OATP4C1 may play a pivotal role in remdesivir therapy for COVID-19, particularly in patients with kidney injury.
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Avian antibodies (IgY) targeting spike glycoprotein of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) inhibit receptor binding and viral replication - CONCLUSIONS: In this proof-of-concept study we showed that avian immunoglobulins (IgY) raised against a key virulence factor of the SARS-CoV-2 virus successfully inhibited the critical initial adhesion of viral spike glycoproteins to human ACE2 protein receptors and inhibited viral replication in vitro, in a short period using only two laying hens. We conclude that production of large amounts of IgY inhibiting viral binding and replication of SARS-CoV-2 is feasible, and that incorporation of…
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NPC1-regulated dynamic of clathrin-coated pits is essential for viral entry - Viruses utilize cellular lipids and manipulate host lipid metabolism to ensure their replication and spread. Therefore, the identification of lipids and metabolic pathways that are suitable targets for antiviral development is crucial. Using a library of compounds targeting host lipid metabolic factors and testing them for their ability to block pseudorabies virus (PRV) and vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) infection, we found that U18666A, a specific inhibitor of Niemann-Pick C1 (NPC1), is…
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Retention of the Aboriginal Health, Ageing, and Disability Workforce: Protocol for a Mixed Methods Study - CONCLUSIONS: This study uses a mixed methods design. The survey and interview questions and model were developed in partnership with Aboriginal health, ageing, and disability service workers rather than relying only on research publications on the workforce, government policies, and human resources strategies. This design places a strong emphasis on generalizable findings together with an inductive approach that explores employers and workers’ lived experience of the Aboriginal health workforce…
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Identification of LASSBio-1945 as an inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2 main protease (M(PRO)) through in silico screening supported by molecular docking and a fragment-based pharmacophore model - In December 2019, an infectious disease was detected in Wuhan, China, caused by a new pathogenic coronavirus, named SARS-CoV-2. It spread very rapidly, and on March 11th of 2020, the outbreak was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. Currently, effective treatment options remain limited. SARS-CoV-2 enzyme main protease (M^(PRO)) plays a pivotal role in the viral life cycle, making it a putative drug target. In order to identify suitable hits to develop inhibitors with adequate…
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In vivo and in vitro Evaluation of Cytokine Expression Profiles During Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) Infection - CONCLUSION: MERS-CoV can decrease IFN levels to interfere with the IFN pathway and enhance the production of regulatory cytokines. Inhibition of the increases in IL-27 and IL-35 may contribute to halting MERS-CoV in the early stage of infection.
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From Patent Search
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COST EFFECTIVE PORTABLE OXYGEN CONCENTRATOR FOR COVID-19 - - link
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METHOD OF IDENTIFYING SEVERE ACUTE RESPIRATORY SYNDROME CORONA VIRUS 2 (SARS-COV-2) RIBONUCLEIC ACID (RNA) - - link
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IMPROVEMENTS RELATED TO PARTICLE, INCLUDING SARS-CoV-2, DETECTION AND METHODS THEREFOR - - link
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DEEP LEARNING BASED SYSTEM FOR DETECTION OF COVID-19 DISEASE OF PATIENT AT INFECTION RISK - The present invention relates to Deep learning based system for detection of covid-19 disease of patient at infection risk. The objective of the present invention is to solve the problems in the prior art related to technologies of detection of covid-19 disease using CT scan image processing. - link
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A COMPREHENSIVE DISINFECTION SYSTEM DURING PANDEMIC FOR PERSONAL ITEMS AND PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT (PPE) TO SAFEGUARD PEOPLE - The current Covid-19 pandemic has led to an enormous demand for gadgets / objects for personal protection. To prevent the spread of virus, it is important to disinfect commonly touched objects. One of the ways suggested is to use a personal UV-C disinfecting box that is “efficient and effective in deactivating the COVID-19 virus. The present model has implemented the use of a UV transparent material (fused silica quartz glass tubes) as the medium of support for the objects to be disinfected to increase the effectiveness of disinfection without compromising the load bearing capacity. Aluminum foil, a UV reflecting material, was used as the inner lining of the box for effective utilization of the UVC light emitted by the UVC lamps. Care has been taken to prevent leakage of UVC radiation out of the system. COVID-19 virus can be inactivated in 5 minutes by UVC irradiation in this disinfection box - link
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UBIQUITOUS COMPUTING SYSTEM FOR MENTAL HEALTH MONITORING OF PERSON DURING THE PANDEMIC OF COVID-19 - - link
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INDICATING SYSTEM - A visual indicating system for use with a hospital bed, the hospital bed comprising a bed frame extending between a head end and a foot end of the bed frame, the visual indicating system comprising: an indicating member adapted to be coupled with the bed frame wherein the indicating member comprises an indicia for indicating one of a plurality of pre-determined health conditions.
USE OF IMINOSUGAR COMPOUND IN PREPARATION OF ANTI-SARS-COV-2 VIRUS DRUG - - link
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一种高灵敏SARS-CoV-2中和抗体的检测方法、检测试剂盒 - 本发明公开了一种高灵敏SARS‑CoV‑2中和抗体的检测方法、检测试剂盒，属于生物医学检测技术领域，本发明试剂盒包括层析试纸、卡壳和样本稀释液，所述层析试纸包括底板、样品垫、结合垫、NC膜和吸水垫，所述NC膜上依次设置有捕获线、检测线和质控线，所述捕获线包被有ACE2蛋白，所述检测线包被有RBD蛋白，所述结合垫设置有RBD蛋白标记物；本发明采用阻断法加夹心法原理提高检测中和抗体的灵敏度，通过添加捕获线的方式，将靶向RBD的非中和抗体提前捕获，保证后续通过夹心法检测中和抗体的特异性。 - link
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Atemschutzmaske -
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Partikelfiltrierende Halbmaske (10), insbesondere Atemschutzmaske für Menschen, mit einer an ein Gesicht eines Trägers anlegbaren und dabei Mund und Nase bedeckenden Schale (12), die eine vom Mund des Trägers beabstandete Auswölbung (14) mit einem Rahmen (16) zur dichtenden Aufnahme eines von der Schale (12) trennbaren und/oder auswechselbaren Filtereinsatzes (48) sowie mindestens eine innerhalb der Schale (12) angeordnete Strahlungsquelle (40) zur Emission ultravioletten Lichtes aufweist, welche mindestens eine Strahlungsquelle (40) eine Abstrahlrichtung zu einer dem Träger zugewandten inneren Oberfläche des Filtereinsatzes (48) aufweist.
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+ 31 May, 2021
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+Daily-Dose
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The Sudden Rise of the Coronavirus Lab-Leak Theory - Scientists and political commentators are no longer dismissing the possibility that COVID-19 emerged from a Chinese laboratory. What changed? - link
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American Democracy Isn’t Dead Yet, but It’s Getting There - A country that cannot even agree to investigate an assault on its Capitol is in big trouble, indeed. - link
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California’s Novel Attempt at Land Reparations - Property seized from a Black family a century ago is being returned to their descendants. - link
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La lucha por mejorar las tasas de vacunación entre los latinos en Nueva York - Enormes disparidades persisten en los niveles de inmunización entre las comunidades de la ciudad. - link
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The Republican Party, Racial Hypocrisy, and the 1619 Project - As the G.O.P. seeks to deny Americans knowledge of their own history, Nikole Hannah-Jones is denied tenure. - link
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From Vox
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The unstoppable, villainous glamour of Cruella de Vil -
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+Cruella de Vil wears her signature “absolutely simple white mink cloak” in Disney’s 1961 One Hundred and One Dalmatians. | Walt Disney Productions
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+Cruella de Vil has been a style icon since she first set foot on the page.
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+Is there a children’s villain out there with more style or panache than Cruella de Vil? Her fabulous car, her cigarette holder, her long red gloves — as a child, I longed to have a rotary phone to dial with the cigarette holder, just like Cruella does in Disney’s 1961 animated film One Hundred and One Dalmatians. She is pure wicked glamour with skunk-streak hair.
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+In honor of Disney’s new Cruella movie, I went back to the books that started it all. Disney’s OneHundred and One Dalmatians is based on a 1956 children’s novel by Dodie Smith, whose most celebrated work, 1948’s cult favorite I Capture the Castle, includes extended musing on clothes and furs and why both matter so much. Smith knew style was important — and she wrote Cruella’s style in The Hundred and One Dalmatians with so much villainous glee, our dear Mrs. de Vil fairly takes over the whole book. She doesn’t have that many scenes, but those she does have are unforgettable.
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+Smith’s Cruella is, by the way, married. Her husband is a nonentity who barely speaks, which is perhaps why he doesn’t appear in any of the Disney adaptations. Such is Cruella’s commitment to her vibe that she made him take her name instead of the other way around. (Cruella Smith simply wouldn’t have had the same ring to it.)
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+Mr. de Vil “didn’t seem to be anything but a furrier,” Smith writes cattily, and Cruella married him for access to furs. Furs are essential to her lifestyle because she is always cold, and Smith strongly implies that nothing short of hellfire will ever be quite hot enough for her. (The Hundred and One Dalmatians is a very Anglican book, and I will warn you now that, similar to many other English children’s books of its era, the novel’s anti-Semitism is only barely coded.)
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+In her pursuit of warmth, Cruella travels everywhere in what Smith describes every time as “an absolutely simple white mink cloak,” and at one point appears wearing a brown mink coat underneath her existing cloak, along with a fur hat, fur gloves, and fur boots. Every night she sleeps between ermine sheets. Moreover, she flavors all her food — including ice cream — with nothing but pepper, and when the Dalmatians bite her, they discover that she too tastes of pepper.
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+Cruella’s style doesn’t extend only to ingenious ways to beat the cold, though. She drives a car painted in black and white stripes to match her hair. (Her hair was black and white even when she was a small child, we learn, and she wore it in one black plait and one white plait.) In her home, a green marble hall leads into a red marble drawing room (Christmasy!), and her dining room has black marble halls and a white marble table.
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+And then, of course, there are her clothes.
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+Here’s how Smith describes Cruella in her first appearance: “She was wearing a tight-fitting emerald satin dress, several ropes of rubies, and an absolutely simple white mink cloak, which reached to the high heels of her ruby-red shoes. … Her hair was parted severely down the middle and one half of it was black and the other white—rather unusual.”
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+Served with this utter look, our ostensible hero Mr. Dearly, whose dogs Cruella will shortly steal, peers down his nose and says, “Isn’t she a bit showy?” and truly, I don’t see how Smith could have expected anyone to root for him after that.
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+Regardless, by the end of The Hundred and One Dalmatians, the Dearlys and their dogs do defeat Cruella, leading her to flee England in disgrace. But Cruella makes a triumphant return in the sequel, 1967’s The Starlight Barking.
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+TheStarlight Barking is not really about Cruella, who appears in only a single scene for a glorified cameo. (What the book is actually about is bonkers, by the way, and I don’t think I could spoil it if I tried.) Still, she makes every moment of it count.
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+The Cruella who returns in The Starlight Barking is now an entrepreneur in her own right. She runs a company called Cruella de Vil & Co.: Makers of Kloes that Klank, which the Dalmatians, who are also bad spellers, are able to decode as “Clothes that Clank.”
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+Cruella’s clothes now clank because, having abandoned fur after losing to the Dalmatians in the previous book, Cruella has since embraced tin. With characteristic commitment, she now sleeps on tin sheets. She is manufacturing and selling tin raincoats, which come “in bright colors, scarlet, emerald, sapphire, flame” and have sharp cutting edges. Perhaps relevant to Cruella’s interests after the Dalmatians ripped all her old furs into pieces, they are also unbreakable.
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+Cruella is a fashion visionary, and I am willing to accept that she knew something the rest of us didn’t. If the new Cruella movie becomes a hit and inspires a Cruella-centric take on The Starlight Barking, will 2021 mark the moment the rest of us finally start dressing in tin?
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The best $130 I ever spent: A Major League Baseball TV pass -
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+Dana Rodriguez for Vox
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+It turned out that after the past year and change, I needed a new type of narrative.
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+There are a million things worse than watching a movie on a Monday night. But at the end of this past March, I couldn’t think of any. Suddenly, I didn’t ever want to watch a movie, ever again.
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+This is not a great position to find yourself in if what you do for a living is write about movies. I could read a book, of course, or watch television, but during this awful year, those have been my choices every night: watch something on my TV or read a book. Rinse and repeat.
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+“I cannot,” I announced to my husband one night, after dinner, in a spasm of desperation — “I simply cannot watch anything else.”
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+I knew some of it was simply the weight of my world crashing down on my head. I’d been writing and teaching all year, trying to act like my work life was normal. I was sad and worried about friendships strained by distance. And like everyone, I felt uneasy about the unknown future.
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+But it took a while for me to realize what was really going on. What I really needed was baseball.
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+In early April, my Twitter feed was suddenly alight with friends celebrating yet another holiday we missed last year: Major League Baseball’s cheerful springtime opening day. The 2020 season had been truncated, axed to half-length by the same damn pandemic that cut everything short. This year it was back for the full season, April 1 to October 3, 30 teams, 162 games.
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+I meant to watch the shortened season last summer, but when it launched I realized it made me too sad to watch players in empty stadiums (clever solutions notwithstanding). Everything made me sad then. I didn’t need one more thing added to the pile.
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+But now they were back in full force, and I felt a familiar pull. I hadn’t watched baseball consistently since college. It takes commitment to follow the season, with games almost every day, each three or four hours long, time I normally don’t have. And as a cradle Red Sox fan who’s lived in Brooklyn for 15 years, it’s hard to go see my team at the stadium.
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+On April 5, though, as a kind of experiment, I flicked on an evening game. It was the Red Sox’s fourth game of the season, against the Tampa Bay Rays, at Fenway Park. They’d lost their previous three games, and thus had an inauspicious 0-3 record, but anything is possible. They were playing baseball. There were people scattered in the stands. And it was on TV.
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+The game started just after 7 pm, and to my delight, the Sox won easily, with a final score of 11-2. The next night I turned it on again and the game went to 12 innings. There were wild pitches and fielding errors, and when the Sox won it was — at least for us fans — like the end of a great movie, where you hope they’re going to win but you don’t know if they can pull it off.
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+I was elated. I was hooked. I needed this.
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+Within a couple of days, I’d decided what I had to do: I plunked down $130 on MLB.TV’s virtual table and asked, politely, if they could please give me all of the baseball.
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+And so they did. That sum gets me a stream of most out-of-market games (that is, games that aren’t being broadcast on my local stations) for every team in the league, except when they’re playing in my town — and it turns out one of the best things about being a fan of an out-of-town team is that I can see almost all the games.
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+Nearly every day, there’s something for me to watch — or semi-watch. Keeping an eye on baseball isn’t a full-concentration sort of deal, the way some sports are. (I love hockey, but it demands your eyeballs.) I can turn it on while I am grading, or writing, or doing chores. I know when to look up at the screen and when it’s safe to look away.
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+That’s part of why it feels so different to watch a baseball game than to watch a movie or read a book, both activities that should require my full attention. The bigger reason has to do with something else: storytelling.
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+There’s a narrative arc to a baseball season. Becoming a fan of a team means catching up, however cursorily, on that team’s story. The Red Sox, for instance, were one of the eight charter franchises in the American League. They’ve been playing in Fenway Park since 1912. In the early days, they won a whopping four world championships, but in 1918, they sold star slugger Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees, and thus set off the “Curse of the Bambino,” an 86-year championship dry spell that was only broken when they finally won the World Series in 2004. (A victory that was even sweeter because they got to the series by beating their archrivals, the Yankees, in the American League championships.)
+
+
+I remember that 2004 season vividly. It ended during my senior year in college, among the most stressful times in my life. In addition to commuting from my parents’ home half an hour away from campus, working two jobs, and taking a full load of senior-level computer science courses, I was also in the job hunt. I had to travel 100 miles south to New York City for second-round interviews several times during the semester. There was some mess in my personal life, too, and sadness about my friend group getting ready to move on. I felt a huge amount of anxiety about the unknown future.
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+Nearly every night, till I got in my car in the wee hours of the morning to go home and sleep a little, I sat at a table in the student union and worked on homework. I’d done that for four years. Keyed up and tired, I found my mind wandered away from my work and into the unknown.
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+But by some mercy, I found the solution: baseball. My boyfriend and I had gotten into watching games over the summer; his family would sometimes buy tickets to games at Fenway and then drive the three hours out and back in one night. It was fun in the stadium, a crowd of people enjoying themselves watching guys like Manny Ramirez and Johnny Damon and Big Papi do their thing down on the field. Everyone was loudmouthed and boastful — it’s Boston, after all — but also visibly nervous about whether Babe Ruth’s ghost would show up and wreck what seemed like a beautiful team.
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+By the fall, it was harder (though not impossible) to both get to Boston and to get tickets. And this was 2004; my computer was not yet able to stream baseball games, and I had no way of watching them at school. (You could watch the game in the campus pub, but they were very strict about IDs, and I didn’t turn 21 till after the series.)
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+Still, I was in luck. MLB had released a software platform called GameDay that showed a little graphical representation of the field, and updated it as plays happened on the field. It was like watching a lo-fi cartoon of the game. If I parked myself at a table near the entrance to the campus pub, I could hear people shout together when someone homered or caught a fly ball. I felt connected to them, to the game, to the wins. The night the Sox beat the Yankees and captured the American League pennant, my heart was racing, but not, for once, because of my own anxieties. Just because of happiness.
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+Coming back to watching it this season feels like reinserting myself into a glorious story. I needed a reminder of where I’ve come from, and who I am, and how far I’ve gone.
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+A lightbulb went on at that April 6 game, the one that went 12 innings. It ended well past midnight; by the time it got into extras, I had set aside my other distractions and was pinned to the game. The Sox would be behind by one at the top of the inning, and then, in the bottom of the inning, with three outs and two strikes, a player would hit a home run or bat a runner in, tying the game and sending them into another inning. When they finally won, it was because at the absolute bottom of the 12th, when it looked like they’d probably lost, J.D. Martinez hit a two-run homer and won the game.
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+“What a twist!” I found myself thinking. And then remembered that there are no writers’ rooms in baseball, no guarantees. This was real life. You couldn’t plan how it would go.
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+That’s so different from a movie, where someone has carefully written, shot, and edited a story with the goal of giving the viewer a particular experience. Or even a reality show, where the material of life is crafted and edited into a narrative. Nobody was guiding me through this experience, though, curiously, the rails on which it ran were even more evident than in most narrative art: innings, outs, strikes, balls, runs, singing “Sweet Caroline” in the seventh-inning stretch. But the final outcome was undetermined by me, the league, or anyone who might be watching. We were waiting to see what would unfold.
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+Right now, that’s where I’m living. Post-vaccination, there’s still plenty of uncertainty, but I have some small idea of what the structure of my year will look like. I know, in other words, the “rules.”
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+But I am still waiting on the outcome, wondering what twists are going to come and where the story will lead. I am living in several different waiting rooms simultaneously, having no idea, in some respects, what I’m even waiting for. I am still sad and nervous and worried.
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+Watching baseball, right now, I’m reminded of two things. This part of my life is part of a bigger story I’ve been living for a long time. And as much as I love narrative media and great stories, life is a lot more like an open-ended game where the end isn’t written yet. That’s frightening, but it’s also invigorating. A win is just as likely as a loss, and nobody loses forever.
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+Maybe one more thing, too. Any curse can be broken eventually. And when it is, there is celebration on the other side.
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+Alissa Wilkinson is a critic and senior culture reporter at Vox and an associate professor at The King’s College in New York City.
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Biden’s $6 trillion budget proposal would rebuild America’s social safety net -
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+President Joe Biden leaves the White House on May 28. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images
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+Biden’s first budget aims to herald a new era of big government
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+President Joe Biden’s fiscal year 2022 budget, released on Friday, lays out an ambitious plan for the country. It calls for just over $6 trillion in total spending in the coming fiscal year and reimagines how — and for whom — the American economy works.
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+As proposed, the budget would reinvest in infrastructure and education, raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations, and meet many — but not all — of Biden’s campaign promises. It also represents the most substantial expansion of the federal government’s spending powers since World War II and a direct rebuttal of the small-government principles of his Republican, and even many Democratic, predecessors.
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+The budget is also notable for what it does not include: a renewal of the Hyde Amendment, which bars federal funding for abortions. That rule, in place for more than four decades, has been criticized for contributing to economic and racial inequality — and its absence is one of several ways that this budget aims to affirmatively target root causes of inequality.
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+“It is a budget that reflects the fact that trickle-down economics has never worked, and that the best way to grow our economy is not from the top down, but from the bottom up and the middle out,” Biden wrote in his budget message to Congress. “If we make that understanding our foundation, everything we build upon it will be strong.”
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+Today, I released my budget for the upcoming fiscal year. It builds on the progress we’ve made over the last few months and makes historic investments that will help our nation build back better for decades to come. Read more here: https://t.co/6dKv8wa4yI
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+When the Biden administration unveiled a partial budget request framing its discretionary spending proposals in early April, Vox’s German Lopez wrote that the plan was “grounded in a clear vision: The government can — and should — do much more to solve the many problems facing the country.”
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+Biden’s full budget continues to reflect that philosophy while fleshing out Biden’s broader presidential agenda, including legislative proposals like the American Jobs and American Families plans.
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+However, nothing in Biden’s budget is binding, nor is the ambitious plan likely to be enacted in full. The president’s budget is a regular feature of the broader budget process, but it’s by no means the final word. That’s up to Congress, which will eventually pass its own budget resolution and a series of appropriations bills to actually fund the government into the next fiscal year.
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+As Vox’s Dylan Matthews explained during the Trump years, the president’s budget is instead best viewed as a messaging document: a sketch of the administration’s spending priorities and a way to set the tone for Congress as lawmakers hash out the particulars of the budget. It’s also a statement about which of Biden’s campaign promises he wants to focus on — and which are no longer a priority of his White House.
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+Democrats are mostly happy with Biden’s budget. Republicans are not.
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+Biden’s budget has been greeted gladly by Democrats in Congress. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) heralded it as “an unequivocal declaration of the value that Democrats place on America’s workers and middle class families” in a statement Friday, and the House Progressive Caucus highlighted Biden’s “strong commitment to making our tax system fair for working people.”
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+A federal budget should be a statement of our national values. @POTUS Biden’s budget is an unequivocal declaration of the value that Democrats place on America’s workers and middle class families, who are the foundation of our nation’s strength and the key to #BuildBackBetter.
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+The GOP, meanwhile, struck a more apocalyptic note in response to the Biden budget. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) described the plan as “the most reckless and irresponsible budget proposal in my lifetime” and warned of “dire fiscal and economic consequences” in a Friday statement, while Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) dismissed it in a tweet as “dead on arrival.”
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+And both parties pushed back on one aspect of the budget: military spending. Progressives argued in a statement that the budget spends too much on national defense, further expanding an “already-bloated $740 billion Pentagon budget.”
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+“At a time when America’s military budget is larger than those of the next ten countries combined,” the Congressional Progressive Caucus wrote, “we believe it is essential to identify and cut military waste, fraud, and abuse in the budgetary process.”
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+Republicans argued the opposite, saying the proposed budget underspends on military operations and defense. While the Pentagon’s budget would increase by 1.6 percent under Biden’s proposal — representing a record military expenditure — it’s still the smallest increase of any federal agency.
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+House and Senate Republicans released a statement arguing that the proposed military budget “is wholly inadequate” and represents a spending cut in the face of inflation.
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+JUST IN: Ranking Republicans of the Senate & House Armed Services committees reject @POTUS FY 2022 defense budget as “wholly inadequate”
+“A budget like this sends China and our other potential adversaries a bad signal — that we’re not willing to do what it takes to defend ourselves and our allies and partners,” the statement reads.
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+The era of big government is back
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+As Lopez and many others have pointed out, the first months of Biden’s presidency can be seen as a repudiation of former President Bill Clinton’s famous line that “the era of big government is over.”
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+Biden’s fiscal year 2022 budget fits squarely into that pattern. It includes two substantial, signature proposals: a $2 trillion American Jobs Plan — which would embrace an expansive definition of infrastructure, not only to modernize America’s road and bridges, but to invest in broadband and elder care — and a $1.8 trillion American Families Plan, which would establish free higher education and expand child care, health care, and tax benefits for needy families.
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+As a whole, the budget calls for a sweeping rejuvenation of the social safety net and for expanded investment in programs like universal pre-K, affordable child care, and paid leave. It also puts the climate crisis front and center, with proposals dedicated to reducing US emissions, creating jobs in the clean energy sector, and funding climate research.
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+And it reinvests in aspects of daily life, from public transit to the arts, that were slashed under the Trump administration. The idea, as Biden outlined it in his budget message Friday, is “not simply to emerge from the immediate crises we inherited, but to build back better.”
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+ Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
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+President Joe Biden returns to the White House after visiting Michigan to deliver remarks on infrastructure, May 18.
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+Among other details, the Biden budget specifically requests funding for two free years of community college; expanded Pell Grants and other programs to make college more affordable for low- and middle-income students; an extension to the expanded child tax credit included in the already-passed American Rescue Plan, which experts have said could cut child poverty in half; and universal paid family and medical leave programs “that would bring the American system in line with competitor nations that offer paid leave programs.”
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+And if enacted, Biden’s budget would invest tens of billions in advancing racial equity and addressing systemic racism in the US, according to a tally of equity-focused budget items “big and small” by the New York Times.
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+Additionally, according to Roll Call, 17 out of 22 sections in the proposal “explicitly mention new or expanded programs focused on racial disparities, inequality or civil rights. By comparison, President Donald Trump’s 150-page fiscal year 2020 budget request did not once mention the words ‘race,’ ‘racial’ or ‘civil rights.’”
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+In particular, Biden’s budget calls for increased funding for historically Black, tribal, and minority-serving colleges and universities; investment in environmental justice initiatives; and programs designed to reduce racial disparities in health care.
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+On the campaign trail, Biden made his racial equity plan one of the pillars of what he called the “Build Back Better Agenda” — branding that he has carried through into the White House — and he pledged to boost minority-owned businesses, address racial disparities in home ownership, and end pay discrimination, among other issues.
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+Philosophically, Biden’s first budget as president is also a marked departure from the last time he was in the White House, then in the No. 2 job. As Lopez wrote in April, Biden avoids the occasional concessions to austerity politics that cropped up under former President Barack Obama and offers “a largely tacit and sometimes explicit criticism of the past few decades of public disinvestment in public services — arguing that failures to put more money toward pandemic preparedness, clean energy technologies, and programs to help the poor and disadvantaged have helped lead the US to its current crises.”
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+Some progressive economic experts, like Bob Greenstein, the founder of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and a current visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, have praised the document for its potential to redress causes of inequality and financial hardship.
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+“Having followed Presidents’ budgets for >40 years, I think it’s fair to say that while I might modify some things in the new Biden budget, it would, if enacted, do more to reduce poverty and inequality than any other budget in modern US history,” he said in a Friday tweet.
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+Having followed Presidents’ budgets for >40 years, I think it’s fair to say that while I might modify some things in the new Biden budget, it would, if enacted, do more to reduce poverty and inequality than any other budget in modern US history
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+— Bob Greenstein (@BobGreensteinDC) May 28, 2021
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+On health care and student debt forgiveness, Biden holds back
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+As sweeping as Biden’s budget is, however, there are also some conspicuous absences compared to his campaign platform. Specifically, proposals on health care don’t go as far as some advocates would like — and student debt forgiveness doesn’t make an appearance at all.
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+As a candidate, Biden distinguished himself from more progressive presidential hopefuls like Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT), both of whom endorsed Medicare for All, by promising to keep the existing American health care system mostly intact — but he also pledged to build on the existing Affordable Care Act and expand health care access in the US.
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+The centerpiece of that plan was to be a public option: As Vox’s Dylan Scott has explained, a “Medicare-like government insurance plan would be sold on Obamacare’s marketplaces, where roughly 12 million Americans buy their own insurance. It would add more competition to areas where only one or two other insurance plans are available. The public option would also cover low-income Americans who are currently denied insurance because of their state’s opposition to Obamacare.”
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+Biden’s fiscal year 2022 budget doesn’t abandon that plan. In fact, it emphasizes that health care “is a right, not a privilege” and says specifically that he “supports providing Americans with additional, lower-cost coverage choices by creating a public option that would be available through the ACA marketplaces.”
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+However, the budget also doesn’t do anything concrete to advance a public option, and funding for one isn’t included in the $6 trillion in overall spending requested in the budget.
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+According to the Washington Post’s Jeff Stein and Tyler Pager, the public option was a casualty of last-minute caution by the administration. They reported last week that “the White House jettisoned months of planning from agency staff as their initial plan could fuel criticisms that the administration is pushing new spending programs too aggressively.”
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+The same appears to be true of student debt forgiveness, according to the Post. Just as he did with a public health insurance option, Biden promised on the campaign trail and as president-elect to “immediately” forgive up to $10,000 in student debt for all borrowers. But that promise gets short shrift in the budget, with only one brief mention in regard to “changes … that ease the burden of student debt,” and, again, no funding dedicated to that project.
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+ Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
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+President Biden participates in a CNN town hall in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on February 16.
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+Still, while student debt forgiveness didn’t make it into Biden’s budget, it isn’t off the table.Congressional Democrats could push to include it in a congressional budget resolution, if they choose, and Biden directed Education Secretary Miguel Cardona earlier this year to create a memo outlining Biden’s options for forgiving up to $50,000 in student debt. That’s the amount that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and others have supported.
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+More than 43 million Americans are crushed under more than $1.5 trillion in federal student loan debt.
+Biden’s budget proposal could hinge on Joe Manchin
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+As the Post reported, one reason a public health care option and student debt forgiveness didn’t get more space in Biden’s fiscal year 2022 budget is that the administration already has an ambitious slate of legislative priorities before Congress. With negotiations still in flux, the dollar amounts laid out in the budget could change dramatically — and the final decisions over that spending will likely be subject to the same partisan back-and-forth as any other spending package that reaches Congress.
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+In short, if the White House wants to pass spending bills through regular order — without resorting to the budget reconciliation process — Democrats will always need at least 10 Republican votes to clear the filibuster.
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+Biden has already fought for, and won, one costly package: the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, known as his Covid-19 stimulus package. In his budget proposal, he is now also pushing for $1.8 trillion to expand on child care and health care benefits established in that plan, and $2 trillion for infrastructure, elder care, and broadband.
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+First up before Congress is the $2 trillion infrastructure and jobs plan, which has already been the subject of a series of offers and counteroffers between the White House and Senate Republicans. So any bipartisan agreement would likely set the total price tag far lower than Biden’s budget currently requests.
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+ T.J. Kirkpatrick/Getty Images
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+Biden makes a statement to the press as Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) listens during a meeting with a group of Republican senators to discuss the administration’s infrastructure plan in the Oval Office on May 13.
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+Under reconciliation, though, Democrats could potentially get a much larger package — one that more closely resembles the one initially proposed by Biden and present in his budget — passed through Congress without any Republican support.
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+Previously, Democrats passed their coronavirus relief package via reconciliation, and they could do so again. However, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), defender of the filibuster and the critical (and conservative) 50th vote in the Democrats’ slim Senate majority, has remained publicly optimistic that negotiators can reach a bipartisan deal, telling reporters that “I don’t know why you need reconciliation.”
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+“We have to find something reasonable and I’m always looking for that moderate, reasonable, middle if you can,” Manchin said Tuesday, according to Politico. “It might not be as big as they want and then you have people on the right that don’t want to do that much or do nothing at all. I probably wouldn’t be there either.”
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+As Paul Waldman and Greg Sargent wrote in the Washington Post earlier this month, it’s possible the White House is aware that the current talks with GOP senators won’t yield much and are simply letting negotiations play out for Manchin’s sake before pivoting to reconciliation.
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+But whatever the case, progressives are growing impatient, and are wary of what concessions might be extracted by the Senate GOP on the path to a bipartisan deal.
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+“Just like we did with the American Rescue Plan, we believe we must go big, bold, and act with urgency,” the House Progressive Caucus said in a statement Friday following the release of Biden’s budget proposal. “We simply cannot afford to limit our ambitions for Republicans or continue to wait for an offer that will never materialize.”
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From The Hindu: Sports
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Asian World Cup qualifiers to be moved from China due to COVID-19 travel restrictions - Matches scheduled for the eastern city of Suzhou this week will likely be relocated to the United Arab Emirates
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Australian cricket board yet to finalise players’ participation in IPL’s U.A.E leg - Decision can wait as players were just reunited with their families after completing a two-week hotel quarantine, says Nick Hockley.
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Quarantine completed, Australia’s IPL contingent reunites with family - The 38-member contingent landed in the country two weeks ago after a stopover in Maldives due to travel ban from COVID-ravaged India.
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England-born Nick Hockley confirmed as Cricket Australia CEO - Hockley had been serving in the interim position since the departure of his predecessor Kevin Roberts in June 2020.
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Copa America without a host after Argentina drops out due to COVID - The announcement casts doubt on a tournament which has faced major hurdles since the start of the pandemic in March of last year.
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From The Hindu: National News
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Help comes to aged couple - Members of NGO, Help For Needy, helped shift a poor couple to hospital after they had been abandoned on the suspicion that they were COVID-19 patients
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Punjab launches drive to curb tobacco use - Health Minister says all 22 districts have been declared as tobacco-free
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Can’t perform outside without approval, Visva-Bharati tells music teachers - Faculty members resent the order terming it “caging of their freedom”
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Adopt legal measures to save Lakshadweep: Ram - Bid to destruct democracy, Constitution: Brittas
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Yatnal hits out at CM again - He says Yediyurappa will be forced to resign
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From BBC: Europe
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NSA spying row: Denmark accused of helping US spy on European officials - Denmark’s secret service is accused of helping the US target politicians such as Germany’s Angela Merkel.
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France fugitive caught after shoot-out with Dordogne police - An armed ex-soldier is shot and wounded after a 24-hour manhunt in south-west France.
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Ryanair: Dublin flight diverted due to security threat - A plane from Dublin to Krakow was diverted to Berlin on Sunday after the crew received a warning.
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Barcelona: Homophobic attacks spark outcry - One man required surgery after he and his friends were beaten up by a group of men on a beach.
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Poots: European Union treating NI as a political plaything - The new DUP leader Edwin Poots has accused the European Union of damaging the NI peace process.
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From Ars Technica
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Can we keep human inconsistency from confusing expert advice? - Human variability is great—except when it gets in the way of consistent guidance. - link
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Genetic tricks of the longest-lived animals - By studying long-living animals, researchers hope to pinpoint factors affecting human longevity. - link
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Building a better edible - Scientists are scouring existing studies and research to learn how edibles interact with the body. - link
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Movie written by algorithm turns out to be hilarious and intense - From the archives: Ars talks to the filmmakers who collaborated with an AI for Sunspring. - link
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The SolarWinds hackers aren’t back—they never went away - A new phishing campaign is less an escalation than a regression to the mean. - link
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+
From Jokes Subreddit
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“Feeling strange, Mr. Bond? That’s because I’ve laced your martini with a measles vaccine. The autism should be setting in any second now.” -
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+“Joke’s on you, I already disassembled your doomsday device and rearranged all the parts in order of size.”
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+Jesus was relaxing in Heaven when he noticed a familiar looking old man. Wondering if the old man was His father Joseph, Jesus asked him, “Did you, by any chance, ever have a son?”
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+“Yes,” said the old man, “but he wasn’t my biological son. He was born by a miracle, by the intervention of a magical being from the heavens.”
+
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+“Very interesting,” said Jesus. “Did this boy ever have to fight temptation?”
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+“Oh, yes, many times,” answered the old man. “But he eventually won. Unfortunately, he heroically died at one point, but he came back to life shortly afterwards.”
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+Jesus couldn’t believe it. Could this actually be His father?
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+“One last question,” He said. “Were you a carpenter?”
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+
+“Why yes,” replied the old man. “Yes I was.”
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+Jesus rubbed His eyes and said, “Dad?”
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+
+The old man rubbed his eyes and said, “Pinocchio?”
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+A couple made a deal that whoever died first would come back and inform the other if there was sex after death. Their biggest fear was that there was no after-life at all.
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+After a long life together, the husband was the first to die. True to his word, he made the first contact. “Judy, Judy.”
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+
+“Is that you, George?”
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+
+“Yes, I’ve come back like we agreed.”
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+
+“That’s wonderful!? What’s it like?”
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+“Well, I get up in the morning, I have sex. I have breakfast and then it’s off to the golf course. I have sex again, bathe in the warm sun and then have sex a couple of more times. Then I have lunch, you’d be proud, lots of greens. Another romp around the golf course, then pretty much have sex the rest of the afternoon. After supper, it’s back to golf course again. Then it’s more sex until late at night. I catch some much-needed sleep and then the next day it starts all over again.”
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+A man boarded an airplane and took his seat. As he settled in, he glanced up and saw the most beautiful woman boarding the plane. He soon realized she was heading straight towards his seat. As fate would have it, she took the seat right beside his.
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+Eager to strike up a conversation he blurted out “Business trip or pleasure?” She turned, smiled and said, "" Business. I’m going to the Annual Nympho- maniacs of America Convention in Boston ."
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+He swallowed hard. Here was the most gorgeous woman he had ever seen sitting next to him, and she was going to a meeting of nymphomaniacs. Struggling to maintain his composure, he calmly asked, “What’s your business role at this convention?”
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+“Lecturer,” she responded. " I use information that I have learned from my personal experiences to debunk some of the popular myths about sexuality." “Really?” he said. “And what kind of myths are there?”
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+“Well,” she explained, " One popular myth is that African-American men are the most well-endowed of all men, when in fact it is the Native American Indian who is most likely to possess that trait. Another popular myth is that Frenchmen are the best lovers, when actually it is men of Jewish descent who are the best. I have also discovered that the lover with absolutely the best stamina is the Southern Redneck."
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+Suddenly the woman became a little uncomfortable and blushed. “I’m sorry,” she said," I shouldn’t really be discussing all of this with you. I don’t even know your name…"
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+“Tonto,” the man said, “Tonto Goldstein, but my friends call me Bubba.”
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Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
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Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
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T.J. Kirkpatrick/Getty Images
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