navan
/
Daily-Dose
mirror of https://github.com/navanchauhan/Daily-Dose.git
1
0
Fork 0
Code Issues Projects Releases Wiki Activity

Added daily report

This commit is contained in:
Navan Chauhan 2023-08-29 12:44:47 +00:00
parent 4d690cb36f
commit 95f6648ccb
3 changed files with 829 additions and 2 deletions
Show Stats Download Patch File Download Diff File Expand all files Collapse all files

192
archive-covid-19/29 August, 2023.html Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,192 @@
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="" xml:lang="" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head>
<meta charset="utf-8"/>
<meta content="pandoc" name="generator"/>
<meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes" name="viewport"/>
<title>29 August, 2023</title>
<style>
code{white-space: pre-wrap;}
span.smallcaps{font-variant: small-caps;}
span.underline{text-decoration: underline;}
div.column{display: inline-block; vertical-align: top; width: 50%;}
div.hanging-indent{margin-left: 1.5em; text-indent: -1.5em;}
ul.task-list{list-style: none;}
</style>
<title>Covid-19 Sentry</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
<body>
<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="covid-19-sentry">Covid-19 Sentry</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-preprints">From Preprints</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-pubmed">From PubMed</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-patent-search">From Patent Search</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-preprints">From Preprints</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Family Separation and COVID-19: The Impact of International Border Restrictions on Refugees in Australia</strong> -
<div>
COVID-19 resulted in global restrictions on migration, with pronounced consequences in Australia, where the resettlement of refugees was significantly curtailed from March 2020. This research, comprising a third phase in an ongoing study, seeks to understand the broader implications of these restrictions on family separation and reunion among resettled refugees in Australia. Employing a mixed-method approach of surveys and family interviews conducted in late 2021, we explore various themes the pandemic’s effects on family reunion, concerns about family still `at home’, maintaining social connections, post-migration difficulties and financial hardships. The findings reveal a negative impact of COVID-19 on refugees’ ability to reunite with families, with evidence pointing differences between gender, visa category, and language group/ethnicity. The research underscores the need for innovative approaches in resettlement to address the negative impacts of family separation and for governments to expedite family reunion pathways to alleviate isolation and uncertainty among resettled refugees.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/vuz75/" target="_blank">Family Separation and COVID-19: The Impact of International Border Restrictions on Refugees in Australia</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>In Vivo Antiviral Efficacy of LCTG-002, a Pooled, Purified Human Milk Secretory IgA product, Against SARS-CoV-2 in a Murine Model of COVID-19</strong> -
<div>
Immunoglobulin A (IgA) is the most abundant antibody (Ab) in human mucosal compartments including the respiratory tract, with the secretory form of IgA (sIgA) being dominant and uniquely stable in these environments. sIgA is naturally found in human milk, which could be considered a global resource for this biologic, justifying the development of human milk sIgA as a dedicated airway therapeutic for respiratory infections such as SARS-CoV-2. In the present study, methods were therefore developed to efficiently extract human milk sIgA from donors who were either immunologically naive to SARS-CoV-2 (pooled as a control IgA) or had recovered from a PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection that elicited high-titer anti-SARS-CoV-2 Spike sIgA Abs in their milk (pooled together to make LCTG-002). Mass spectrometry determined that proteins with a relative abundance of 1.0% or greater were all associated with sIgA. None of the proteins exhibited statistically significant differences between batches. Western blot demonstrated all batches consisted predominantly of sIgA. Compared to control IgA, LCTG-002 demonstrated significantly higher binding to Spike, and was also capable of blocking the Spike - ACE2 interaction in vitro with 6.3x greater potency compared to control IgA (58% inhibition at ~240ug/mL). LCTG-002 was then tested in vivo for its capacity to reduce viral burden in the lungs of K18+hACE2 transgenic mice inoculated with SARS-CoV-2. LCTG-002 was demonstrated to significantly reduce SARS-CoV-2 titers in the lungs compared to control IgA when administered at either 250ug/day or 1 mg/day, as measured by TCID50, plaque forming units (PFU), and qRT-PCR, with a maximum reduction of 4.9 logs. This innovative study demonstrates that LCTG-002 is highly pure, efficacious, and well tolerated in vivo, supporting further development of milk-derived, polyclonal sIgA therapeutics against SARS-CoV-2 and other mucosal infections.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.25.554813v1" target="_blank">In Vivo Antiviral Efficacy of LCTG-002, a Pooled, Purified Human Milk Secretory IgA product, Against SARS-CoV-2 in a Murine Model of COVID-19</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Participatory Approaches in Community Health in light of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scoping Review Protocol</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background Participatory approaches are considered essential to ensure community health in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Previous reviews on community participation have explored different aspects of participation in specific contexts, such as public health emergencies, but none has examined participatory approaches both in depth and in breadth across diverse activities during the COVID-19 pandemic and considering diverse communities in all country contexts. This scoping review seeks to: (a) provide an overview of participatory approaches in terms of the features and depth of participation, the breadth of the communities and stakeholders involved, and for what types of activities and interventions in light of the COVID-19 pandemic across all country contexts; (b) explore the challenges and facilitators of participation processes; and (c) analyse to what extent participation impacts community health, including health equity, in the context of a public health emergency. Methods We developed this protocol following the latest JBI guidance on scoping reviews. A comprehensive search strategy combining the concepts of participation, community health, and COVID-19 was used to search the databases of Medline/Ovid, Embase.com, Cochrane CENTRAL, Web of Science, APA PsycInfo/Ovid, Global Health/Ovid, ERIC/OvidSP, CINAHL/EBSCOhost, ClinTrials.gov, and the grey literature through Google Scholar. At least two reviewers will perform screening of titles/abstracts and full text using the inclusion and exclusion criteria defined in this protocol. Article characteristics and data on participatory approaches and community health will be charted to provide an overview of the literature, map the variations in participatory approaches and community health, and explore patterns in the links between participation, community health, and the type of activities to address the challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Discussion We anticipate that review findings will contribute to advance innovative thinking about community participation and facilitating better application and integration of participatory approaches to ensure community health in a future public health emergency or in building back better fairer in the new normal.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.24.23294551v2" target="_blank">Participatory Approaches in Community Health in light of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scoping Review Protocol</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Improvement of immune dysregulation and health-related quality of life in individuals with long COVID at 24-months following SARS-CoV-2 infection</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
This study investigated the humoral and cellular immune responses in individuals with long COVID (LC) compared to age and gender matched recovered COVID-19 controls (MC) over 24-months. LC participants showed elevated spike and nucleocapsid IgG levels, higher neutralizing capacity, and increased spike- and nucleocapsid-specific CD4+ T cells, PD-1, and TIM-3 expression on CD4+ and CD8+ T cells at 3- and 8-months, but these differences did not persist at 24-months. Some LC participants had detectable IFN-β and IFN-γ that was attributed to reinfection and antigen re-exposure. Single-cell RNA sequencing at 24-month timepoint revealed similar immune cell proportions and reconstitution of naive T and B cell subsets in LC. No significant differences in exhaustion scores or antigen-specific T cell clones were observed. These findings suggest resolution of immune activation in LC and return to comparable immune responses between LC and MC over time. Improvement in self-reported health-related quality of life at 24-months was also evident in the majority of LC (62%). PTX3, CRP levels and platelet count were associated with improvements in health-related quality of life.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.27.23294704v1" target="_blank">Improvement of immune dysregulation and health-related quality of life in individuals with long COVID at 24-months following SARS-CoV-2 infection</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Deep metric learning for few-shot X-ray image classification</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Deep learning models have proven the potential to aid professionals with medical image analysis, including many image classification tasks. However, the scarcity of data in medical imaging poses a significant challenge, as the limited availability of diverse and comprehensive datasets hinders the development and evaluation of accurate and robust imaging algorithms and models. Few-shot learning approaches have emerged as a potential solution to address this issue. In this research, we propose to deploy the Generalized Metric Learning Model for Few-Shot X-ray Image Classification. The model comprises a feature extractor to embed images into a lower-dimensional space and a distance-based classifier for label assignment based on the relative distance of these embeddings. We extensively evaluate the model using various pre-trained convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and vision transformers (ViTs) as feature extractors. We also assess the performance of the commonly used distance-based classifiers in several few-shot settings. Finally, we analyze the potential to adapt the feature encoders to the medical domain with both supervised and self-supervised frameworks. Our model achieves 0.689 AUROC in 2-way 5-shot COVID-19 recognition task when combined with REMEDIS (Robust and Efficient Medical Imaging with Self-supervision) domain-adapted model as feature extractor, and 0.802 AUROC in 2-way 5-shot tuberculosis recognition task with domain-adapted DenseNet-121 model. Moreover, the simplicity and flexibility of our approach allows for easy improvement in the feature, either by incorporating other few-shot methods or new, powerful architectures into the pipeline.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.27.23294690v1" target="_blank">Deep metric learning for few-shot X-ray image classification</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Topological data analysis identifies emerging adaptive mutations in SARS-CoV-2</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The COVID-19 pandemic has initiated an unprecedented worldwide effort to characterize its evolution through the mapping of mutations of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. The early identification of mutations that could confer adaptive advantages to the virus, such as higher infectivity or immune evasion, is of paramount importance. However, the large number of currently available genomes precludes the efficient use of phylogeny-based methods. Here we present CoVtRec, a fast and scalable Topological Data Analysis approach for the surveillance of emerging adaptive mutations in large genomic datasets. Our method overcomes limitations of state-of-the-art phylogeny-based approaches by quantifying the potential adaptiveness of mutations merely by their topological footprint in the genome alignment, without resorting to the reconstruction of a single optimal phylogenetic tree. Analyzing millions of SARS-CoV-2 genomes from GISAID, we find a correlation between topological signals and adaptation to the human host. By leveraging the stratification by time in sequence data, our method enables the high-resolution longitudinal analysis of topological signals of adaptation. We characterize the convergent evolution of the coronavirus throughout the whole pandemic to date, report on emerging potentially adaptive mutations, and pinpoint mutations in Variants of Concern that are likely associated with positive selection. Our approach can improve the surveillance of mutations of concern and guide experimental studies.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.10.21258550v3" target="_blank">Topological data analysis identifies emerging adaptive mutations in SARS-CoV-2</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Neuropsychiatric Disturbances in Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Scientometric Analysis</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) have been extensively studied in dementia than its prodromal stage, known as mild cognitive impairment (MCI). A scientometric study on BPSD in MCI would be valuable in synthesizing the existing body of research and provide insights into the trends, networks, and influencers within this area. We searched for related literature in the Web of Science database and extracted complete text and citation records of each publication. The primary objective was to map the research evolution of BPSD in MCI and highlight dominant research themes. The secondary objective was to identify research network characteristics (authors, journals, countries, and institutions) and abundances. A total of 12,369 studies published between 1980 to 2022 were included in the analysis. We found 51 distinct clusters from the co-cited reference network that were highly credible with significant modularity (Q = 0.856) and silhouette scores (S = 0.932). Five major research domains were identified: symptoms, diagnosis, brain substrates, biochemical pathways, and interventions. Within recent years, the research focus in this area is on gut microbiota, e-health, COVID-19, cognition, and delirium. Collectively, findings from this scientometric analysis can help clarify the scope and direction of future research and clinical practices.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.26.23294661v1" target="_blank">Neuropsychiatric Disturbances in Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Scientometric Analysis</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Immune and behavioral correlates of protection against symptomatic post-vaccination SARS-CoV-2 infection</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background: We sought to determine immune and behavioral pre-infection correlates of protection against SARS-CoV-2 post-vaccine infections in a joint analysis of epidemiological and immunological cohort data. Methods: Serum and saliva samples from 176 BNT162b2-vaccinated adults in the Prospective Assessment of SARS-CoV-2 Seroconversion study were collected between October and December 2021 and assessed for serum and saliva levels of Wuhan-1 wild-type (WT) SARS-CoV-2 Spike (S)-specific IgG and IgA binding antibodies (bAb) using a multiplex microsphere-based immunoassay (MMIA). Serum samples were also assessed for WT receptor binding domain (RBD)-specific bAb by two commercial assays, BA.1 S-specific IgG bAb by MMIA, and neutralization activity against D614G, Delta (B.1.617.2), and Omicron BA.1 and BA.1.1 variants using a lentiviral pseudovirus neutralization assay. After the Fall 2021 visit, participants reported all positive PCR and/or antigen tests for SARS-CoV-2. Duration, severity, and type of symptoms, as well as risk exposures and adherence to precautionary measures, were assessed by questionnaires during the Spring 2022 visit. Results: Thirty-two participants (18.2%) developed symptomatic post-vaccination SARS-CoV-2 infections (PVI) between December 7, 2021 and April 1, 2022. Pre-infection WT (geometric mean (GM) of 3,863 vs 2,736 binding antibody unit [BAU]/ml, uninfected vs PVI, p=0.0098) and BA.1 (GM of 276.9 vs 179.9 arbitrary bAb unit [AU]/ml, uninfected vs PVI, p=0.04) anti-S IgG bAb levels measured by MMIA and neutralizing titers (NT) against BA.1 (GM titer [GMT] of 493.6 vs 286.2, uninfected vs PVI, p=0.0313) and BA.1.1 (GMT of 552.0 vs 302.5, uninfected vs PVI, p=0.021) were significantly higher in individuals that did not develop PVIs. WT anti-S bAb levels greater than 5,000 BAU/ml were associated with &gt; 90% protection against symptomatic PVI. In individuals that developed PVI, WT anti-S IgG bAb levels correlated with lower disease severity scores (ρ= -0.3859, p=0.032) and shorter duration of clinical disease (ρ= -0.5273, p=0.0023). WT anti-RBD bAb levels measured by commercial assays correlated strongly with bAb levels measured by MMIA (ρ=0.8239, p&lt;0.0001 and ρ=0.6929, p&lt;0.0001, Roche and Siemens assays, respectively), but did not reach statistical significance for correlation with protection against PVI. Home risk score, but neither work nor home precautionary measures, correlated strongly with risk of PVI (mean score of 20.77 vs 47.33, uninfected vs PVI respectively, p&lt;0.0001). Conclusions: Anti-S IgG bAb levels (directed against either WT or Omicron BA.1 subvariant) and NTs served as correlates of protection against symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection. Anti-S (WT) IgG bAb levels remained a significant correlate of protection against PVIs when adjusting for demography and risk behavior. Results of this study also suggest that commercial assays for anti-S bAb may need to be reformatted to enable detection of higher maximum values for use as predictors of increased susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.25.23294626v1" target="_blank">Immune and behavioral correlates of protection against symptomatic post-vaccination SARS-CoV-2 infection</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Prevalence and pattern of Post Covid-19 symptoms in recovered patients of Delhi: A Population-Based study</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background: Post-coronavirus disease (COVID) is widely reported but the data of Post COVID-19 after infection with the Omicron variant is limited. This prospective study was conducted to determine the prevalence, pattern, and duration of symptoms related to Covid-19 recovered patients. Methods: Adults (&gt;18 years old) in 11 districts of Delhi who had recovered from Covid-19 were followed up at 3 months and 6 months post-recovery. Results: The study found that the participants had a mean age of 42.07 years, with a standard deviation of 14.89. Additionally, a significant proportion of the participants (79.7%) experienced post-Covid symptoms. The participants elicited a history of Joint Pain (36%), Persistent dry cough (35.7%), anxiousness (28.4%) and shortness of breath (27.1%). The other symptoms reported were persistent fatigue (21.6%), persistent headache (20%), forgetfulness (19.7%) and weakness in limbs (18.6%). The longest duration of symptom was observed in participants reporting anxiousness (138.75 +54.14) followed by fatigue (137.57+48.33), shortness of breath (131.89+60.21) and joint pain/swelling (131.59+58.76). During the first follow-up, 2.2% of participants had an abnormal ECG reading, while no abnormalities were reported during the second follow-up. Additionally, 4.06% of participants had abnormal chest X-ray findings during the first follow-up, with this number decreasing to 2.16% during the second follow-up. Conclusion: Our study concluded that the clinical symptoms persist in participants until 6 months and a multi-system involvement is seen in the post-COVID period. Thus, the findings necessitate long-term, regular follow-ups.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.25.23294654v1" target="_blank">Prevalence and pattern of Post Covid-19 symptoms in recovered patients of Delhi: A Population-Based study</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Kinetics and durability of humoral responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
We analyzed the kinetics and durability of the humoral responses to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and vaccination using &gt;8,000 longitudinal samples collected over a three-year period (April 2020 to April 2023) in the New York City metropolitan area. Upon primary immunization, participants with pre-existing immunity mounted higher antibody responses faster and achieved higher steady-state levels compared to naive individuals. Antibody durability was characterized by two phases: an initial rapid decay, followed by a phase of stabilization with very slow decay resulting in an individual spike binding antibody steady state. Booster vaccination equalized the differences in antibody levels between participants with and without hybrid immunity, but the antibody titers reached decreased with each successive antigen exposure. Break-through infections increased antibody titers to similar levels as an additional vaccine dose in naive individuals. Our study provides strong evidence for the fact that SARS-CoV-2 antibody responses are long lasting, with an initial waning phase followed by a stabilization phase.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.26.23294679v1" target="_blank">Kinetics and durability of humoral responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Potent and broadly neutralizing antibodies against sarbecoviruses induced by sequential COVID-19 vaccination</strong> -
<div>
The current SARS-CoV-2 variants strikingly evade all authorized monoclonal antibodies and threaten the efficacy of serum-neutralizing activity elicited by vaccination or prior infection, urging the need to develop antivirals against SARS-CoV-2 and related sarbecoviruses. Here, we identified both potent and broadly neutralizing antibodies from a five-dose vaccinated donor who exhibited cross-reactive serum neutralizing activity against diverse coronaviruses. Through single B cell sorting and sequencing followed by a tailor-made computational pipeline, we successfully selected 86 antibodies with potential cross-neutralizing ability from 684 antibody sequences. Among them, one potently neutralized all SARS-CoV-2 variants that arose prior to Omicron BA.5, and the other three could broadly neutralize all current SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern, SARS-CoV and their related sarbecoviruses (Pangolin-GD, RaTG13, WIV-1, and SHC014). Cryo-EM analysis demonstrates that these antibodies have diverse neutralization mechanisms, such as disassembling spike trimers, or binding to RBM or SD1 to affect ACE2 binding. In addition, prophylactic administration of these antibodies significantly protects nasal turbinate and lung infections against BA.1, XBB.1 and SARS-CoV viral challenge in golden Syrian hamsters, respectively. This study reveals the potential utility of computational process to assist screening cross-reactive antibodies, as well as the potency of vaccine-induced broadly neutralizing antibodies against current SARS-CoV-2 variants and related sarbecoviruses, offering promising avenues for the development of broad therapeutic antibody drugs.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.22.554373v2" target="_blank">Potent and broadly neutralizing antibodies against sarbecoviruses induced by sequential COVID-19 vaccination</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>No Substitute for the Real Thing? Physical and Digital Cultural Participation in Denmark during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Research Note</strong> -
<div>
In this research note, we analyze the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cultural participation. We use rich survey data from Denmark to construct pooled time-series cross-sectional data for each month of the years 2019-2021 and report three findings. First, participation in physical cultural activities (e.g., attending a concert or a museum) plummeted during two lockdowns and did not return to its pre-pandemic level by the end of 2021. Second, participation in digital activities (e.g., reading a digital book or following a museum on social media) did not change much during the pandemic. Overall, we find little evidence of substitution from physical to digital cultural participation during the COVID-19 lockdown in Denmark. Third, socioeconomic gradients in cultural participation decreased during the pandemic for physical cultural participation, but did not change for digital cultural participation. We end by discussing what we can learn from our results about how social disruptions affect patterns of cultural participation and inequality.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/ksy9w/" target="_blank">No Substitute for the Real Thing? Physical and Digital Cultural Participation in Denmark during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Research Note</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Environmental surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 for outbreak detection in hospital: A single centre prospective study</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Identifying COVID-19 outbreaks in hospitals at an early stage requires active surveillance. Our objective was to assess whether floor swabs correlated with COVID-19 outbreak status in hospital. ​We swabbed the floors of an inpatient ward at Mount Sinai Hospital for 32 weeks, from October 31, 2022 to June 15, 2023 and RT-qPCR analysis provided a quantification cycle of detection for each positive swab. 182 swabs were processed for SARS CoV-2, of which 98.4% were positive. Two COVID-19 outbreaks were declared during the study period. The median viral copy number was 210 (IQR, 49 to 1018) during non-outbreak periods and 653 (IQR, 300 to 1754) during outbreak periods. Analyzing the number of viral copies of SARS-CoV-2, instead of percentage positivity, gave a clearer view of changes in outbreak status over time, thereby illustrating the benefits of this approach to monitor pathogen load in hospital settings.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.28.23294549v1" target="_blank">Environmental surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 for outbreak detection in hospital: A single centre prospective study</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Self-assembly vascularized human cardiac organoids model cardiac diseases in petri dishes and in mice</strong> -
<div>
In this study, we generated self-assembly cardiac organoids (COs) from human pluripotent stem cells by dual-phase modulation of Wnt/{beta}-catenin pathway, utilizing CHIR99021 and IWR-1-endo. The resulting COs exhibited a diverse array of cardiac-specific cell lineages, cardiac cavity-like structures and demonstrated the capacity of spontaneous beating and vascularization in vitro. We further employed these complex and functional COs to replicate conditions akin to human myocardial infarction and SARS-CoV-2 induced fibrosis. These models accurately captured the pathological characteristics of these diseases, in both in vitro and in vivo settings. In addition, we transplanted the COs into NOD SCID mice and observed that they survived and exhibited ongoing expansion in vivo. Impressively, over a span of 75-day transplantation, these COs not only established blood vessel-like structures but also integrated with the host mice's vascular system. It is noteworthy that these COs developed to a size of approximately 8 mm in diameter, slightly surpassing the dimensions of the mouse heart. This innovative research highlighted the potential of our COs as a promising avenue for cardiovascular research and therapeutic exploration.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.26.554935v1" target="_blank">Self-assembly vascularized human cardiac organoids model cardiac diseases in petri dishes and in mice</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Household Hardships during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Examining Household Vulnerability and Responses to Pandemic Related Shocks in Eastern Ethiopia</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
COVID-19 is associated with one of the largest disturbances to life around the world. To quell disease spread, governments implemented lockdowns that likely created hardships for households. To improve knowledge of consequences, we examine how the pandemic period was associated with household hardships and assess factors associated with these hardships. We conducted a cross-sectional study using quasi-Poisson regression to examine factors associated with household hardships. Data were collected between August and September of 2021 from a random sample of 880 households living in a Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) located in the Harari Region and the District of Kersa, both in Ethiopia. Having a head of household with no education, residing in a rural area, larger household size, lower income and/or wealth, and community responses to COVID-19 including lockdowns and travel restrictions were independently associated with experiencing household hardships. Our results identify characteristics of groups at-risk for food insecurity during the pandemic; households that were already struggling prior to the onset of the pandemic were at greatest risk of adverse consequences during the pandemic period. These findings may inform future efforts to mitigate the consequences of COVID-19 and future disease outbreaks.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.01.23285322v4" target="_blank">Household Hardships during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Examining Household Vulnerability and Responses to Pandemic Related Shocks in Eastern Ethiopia</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>THE EFFECT OF ARGININE AND GLUTAMINE ON COVID-19 PATIENTS OUTCOME: A RANDOMIZED CLINICAL TRIAL</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Dietary Supplement: Neomune<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Universitas Sriwijaya;   M. Djamil General Hospital<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Study of Obeldesivir in Children and Adolescents With COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: Obeldesivir<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Gilead Sciences<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>KAND567 Versus Placebo in Subjects Hospitalized With COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: KAND567;   Drug: Microcrystalline cellulose<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Kancera AB<br/><b>Terminated</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>Aerobic Training for Rehabilitation of Patients With Post Covid-19 Syndrome</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Post-COVID-19 Syndrome;   Long-COVID-19 Syndrome<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: Aerobic Exercise Training<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of Witten/Herdecke;   Verein und Institut für Rehabilitationsforschung Norderney<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>Immunogenicity and Safety of AdCLD-CoV19-1 OMI as a Booster: A COVID-19 Preventive Vaccine in Healthy Volunteers</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   Vaccines<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: AdCLD-CoV19-1 OMI;   Biological: Comirnaty Bivalent 0.1mg/mL (tozinameran and riltozinameran)<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Cellid 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 Pilot Clinical Evaluation of Astepro® Nasal Spray for Management of Early SARS-CoV-2 Infection</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Experimental: Primary Cohort;   Other: Placebo Comparator: Primary Cohort - Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   University of Chicago<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>Using Text Messages to Boost COVID-19 Vaccine Booking Rate</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Vaccination Hesitancy;   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Behavioral: Behavioural science-informed text messages;   Behavioral: Control<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   The Behavioural Insights Team;   Public Health England;   Department of Health and Social Care;   NHS England and NHS Improvement<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>Digital Health Literacy on COVID-19 for All: Co-creation and Evaluation of Interventions for Ethnic Minorities and Chinese People With Chronic Illnesses in Hong Kong</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Digital Health Literacy;   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: Digital health literacy intervention<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   The Hong Kong Polytechnic University<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ivermectin to Prevent SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) Hospitalisation in Subjects Over 50</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   SARS-CoV-2<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Ivermectin;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Insud Pharma<br/><b>Terminated</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>COVID-19 Vaccination Hesitancy in Adults With Sickle Cell Disease</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Sickle Cell Disease;   COVID-19 Vaccine;   Vaccine Hesitancy<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: SCD-specific COVID-19 vaccination information (SCVI) video<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Duke University;   American Society of Hematology<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>Leveraging Community Health Workers to Combat COVID-19 and Mental Health Misinformation in Haiti, Malawi, and Rwanda</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Mental Health;   COVID-19;   Misinformation<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Behavioral: Card-Sorting Activity (Pre-intervention design);   Behavioral: SMS Crafting (Pre-intervention design);   Behavioral: SMS Messaging<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Harvard Medical School (HMS and HSDM);   Partners in Health<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>Effect of Pulmonary Rehabilitation Among Post-COVID-19 Patients in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Bangladesh</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Pulmonary Pathology<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: Pulmonary Rehabilitation<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka, Bangladesh<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>A Study to Learn About New COVD-19 RNA Vaccine Candidates for New Varients in Healthy Individuals</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   SARS-CoV-2 Infection;   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: BNT162b2 (Omi XBB.1.5)<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   BioNTech SE;   Pfizer<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Pulmonary Artery Pressure in COVID-19 Survivors</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Pulmonary Hypertension Secondary<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Diagnostic Test: right heart catheterization (RHC).<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Mansoura University Hospital;   Ahmed Abdel-Gawad Mohamed Radi;   Magdy Mahmoud emara;   Tamer Ali Elhadidy;   Mohammed Ahmed ibrahim<br/><b>Enrolling by invitation</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>Randomized, Double-blind, Placebo-controlled Trial of the Efficacy and Safety of Tianeptine in the Treatment of Covid Fog Symptoms in Patients After COVID-19.</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Nervous System Diseases<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Tianeptine;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Military Institute od Medicine National Research Institute;   ABM Industries<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-pubmed">From PubMed</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The hope and hype of ellagic acid and urolithins as ligands of SARS-CoV-2 Nsp5 and inhibitors of viral replication</strong> - Non-structural protein 5 (Nsp5) is a cysteine protease that plays a key role in SARS-CoV-2 replication, suppressing host protein synthesis and promoting immune evasion. The investigation of natural products as a potential strategy for Nsp5 inhibition is gaining attention as a means of developing antiviral agents. In this work, we have investigated the physicochemical properties and structure-activity relationships of ellagic acid and its gut metabolites, urolithins A-D, as ligands of Nsp5….</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>Customizably designed multibodies neutralize SARS-CoV-2 in a variant-insensitive manner</strong> - The COVID-19 pandemic evolves constantly, requiring adaptable solutions to combat emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants. To address this, we created a pentameric scaffold based on a mammalian protein, which can be customized with up to 10 protein binding modules. This molecular scaffold spans roughly 20 nm and can simultaneously neutralize SARS-CoV-2 Spike proteins from one or multiple viral particles. Using only two different modules targeting the Spike’s RBD domain, this construct outcompetes human…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Drug-induced phospholipidosis is not correlated with the inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 - inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 is cell line-specific</strong> - Recently, Tummino et al. reported that 34 compounds, including Chloroquine and Fluoxetine, inhibit SARS-CoV-2 replication by inducing phospholipidosis, although Chloroquine failed to suppress viral replication in Calu-3 cells and patients. In contrast, Fluoxetine represses viral replication in human precision-cut lung slices (PCLS) and Calu-3 cells. Thus, it is unlikely that these compounds have similar mechanisms of action. Here, we analysed a subset of these compounds in the viral replication…</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>Investigation of the Host Kinome Response to Coronavirus Infection Reveals PI3K/mTOR Inhibitors as Betacoronavirus Antivirals</strong> - Host kinases play essential roles in the host cell cycle, innate immune signaling, the stress response to viral infection, and inflammation. Previous work has demonstrated that coronaviruses specifically target kinase cascades to subvert host cell responses to infection and rely upon host kinase activity to phosphorylate viral proteins to enhance replication. Given the number of kinase inhibitors that are already FDA approved to treat cancers, fibrosis, and other human disease, they represent an…</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>Azvudine and mortality in patients with coronavirus disease 2019: A retrospective cohort study</strong> - CONCLUSION: Our results reveal that in patients with COVID-19, FNC administration was associated with a significantly reduced 28-day mortality.</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>Hexamethylene Amiloride Binds the SARS-CoV-2 Envelope Protein at the Protein-Lipid Interface</strong> - The SARS-CoV-2 envelope (E) protein forms a five-helix bundle in lipid bilayers whose cation-conducting activity is associated with the inflammatory response and respiratory distress symptoms of COVID-19. E channel activity is inhibited by the drug 5-(N,N-hexamethylene) amiloride (HMA). However, the binding site of HMA in E has not been determined. Here we use solid-state NMR to measure distances between HMA and the E transmembrane domain (ETM) in lipid bilayers. ^(13) C, ^(15) N-labeled HMA is…</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>Effectiveness of Bivalent Omicron-Containing Booster Vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant among Individuals with and without Prior SARS-CoV-2 Infection</strong> - In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of the bivalent mRNA COVID-19 vaccines against the Omicron variant in individuals with or without prior SARS-CoV-2 infection history. We assessed the SARS-CoV-2-specific neutralizing antibody in serum samples by surrogate virus neutralizing assay (sVNT) and determined the serum’s neutralizing capacity against the Omicron BA.5 by a plaque reduction neutralizing test (PRNT50). The results of the sVNT assay demonstrate a higher percentage of inhibition…</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 Nafamostat as Chemoprophylaxis for SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Hamsters</strong> - The successful development of a chemoprophylaxis against SARS-CoV-2 could provide a tool for infection prevention that is implementable alongside vaccination programmes. Nafamostat is a serine protease inhibitor that inhibits SARS-CoV-2 entry in vitro, but it has not been characterised for chemoprophylaxis in animal models. Clinically, nafamostat is limited to intravenous delivery and has an extremely short plasma half-life. This study sought to determine whether intranasal dosing of nafamostat…</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>Interchangeability of the Assays Used to Assess the Activity of Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Monoclonal Antibodies</strong> - The recent global COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 lasted for over three years. A key measure in combatting this pandemic involved the measurement of the monoclonal antibody (mAb)-mediated inhibition of binding between the spike receptor-binding domain (RBD) and hACE2 receptor. Potency assessments of therapeutic anti-SARS-CoV-2 mAbs typically include binding or cell-based neutralization assays. We assessed the inhibitory activity of five anti-SARS-CoV-2 mAbs using ELISA, surface plasmon…</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>Phenothiazines Inhibit SARS-CoV-2 Entry through Targeting Spike Protein</strong> - Novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a respiratory disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has brought an unprecedented public health crisis and continues to threaten humanity due to the persistent emergence of new variants. Therefore, developing more effective and broad-spectrum therapeutic and prophylactic drugs against infection by SARS-CoV-2 and its variants, as well as future emerging CoVs, is urgently needed. In this study, we screened several…</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>Clinical Utility of SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Titer Multiplied by Binding Avidity of Receptor-Binding Domain (RBD) in Monitoring Protective Immunity and Clinical Severity</strong> - Conventional serum antibody titer, which expresses antibody level, does not provide antigen binding avidity of the variable region of the antibody, which is essential for the defense response to infection. Here, we quantified anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody binding avidity to the receptor-binding domain (RBD) by competitive binding-inhibition activity (IC50) between SARS-CoV-2 S1 antigen immobilized on the DCP microarray and various RBD doses added to serum and expressed as 1/IC50 nM. The binding…</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>Airway Epithelial-Derived Immune Mediators in COVID-19</strong> - The airway epithelium, which lines the conducting airways, is central to the defense of the lungs against inhaled particulate matter and pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Recognition of pathogens results in the activation of an innate and intermediate immune response which involves the release of cytokines and chemokines by the airway epithelium. This response can inhibit further viral invasion and influence adaptive immunity. However, severe COVID-19 is characterized…</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><em>Lavandula austroapennina</em>: Assessment of the Antiviral Activity of Lipophilic Extracts from Its Organs</strong> - In a framework aimed at the recovery and enhancement of medicinal plants endemic to the territory of the Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park, Lavandula austroapennina N.G. Passal., Tundis and Upson has aroused interest. An insight into the chemical composition of the corolla, calyx, leaf, stem, and root organs was carried out following ultrasound-assisted maceration in n-hexane. The obtained lipophilic extracts were explored using ultra-high-performance chromatography coupled to…</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>Antiviral Effect of Candies Containing Persimmon-Derived Tannin against SARS-CoV-2 Delta Strain</strong> - Inactivation of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in the mouth has the potential to reduce the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), due to the virus being readily transmitted by dispersed saliva. Persimmon-derived tannin has strong antioxidant and antimicrobial activity owing to its strong adhesion to proteins, and it also exhibited antiviral effects against non-variant and Alpha-variant SARS-CoV-2 in our previous study. In this study, we first demonstrated…</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 of Mix-and-Match CoronaVac/BNT162b2 Regimen versus Homologous CoronaVac/CoronaVac Vaccination: A Single-Blinded, Randomized, Parallel Group Superiority Trial</strong> - (1) Background: This study aimed to compare the immunogenicity of the mix-and-match CoronaVac/BNT162b2 vaccination to the homologous CoronaVac/CoronaVac regimen. (2) Methods: We conducted a simple-blinded randomized superiority trial to measure SARS-CoV-2 neutralization antibodies and anti-spike receptor binding domain (RBD) IgG concentrations in blood samples of participants who had received the first dose of CoronaVac vaccine followed by a dose of BNT162b2 or CoronaVac vaccine. The primary…</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
<script>AOS.init();</script></body></html>

635
archive-daily-dose/29 August, 2023.html Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,635 @@
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="" xml:lang="" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head>
<meta charset="utf-8"/>
<meta content="pandoc" name="generator"/>
<meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes" name="viewport"/>
<title>29 August, 2023</title>
<style>
code{white-space: pre-wrap;}
span.smallcaps{font-variant: small-caps;}
span.underline{text-decoration: underline;}
div.column{display: inline-block; vertical-align: top; width: 50%;}
div.hanging-indent{margin-left: 1.5em; text-indent: -1.5em;}
ul.task-list{list-style: none;}
</style>
<title>Daily-Dose</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><style>*{overflow-x:hidden;}</style><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
<body>
<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>How a Man in Prison Stole Millions from Billionaires</strong> - With smuggled cell phones and a handful of accomplices, Arthur Lee Cofield, Jr., took money from large bank accounts and bought houses, cars, clothes, and gold. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-south/how-a-man-in-prison-stole-millions-from-billionaires">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What a Heat Wave Does to Your Body</strong> - The human body is a remarkably effective cooling machine—but it has a limit. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-a-warming-planet/what-a-heat-wave-does-to-your-body">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Trump’s Mug Shot Is His True Presidential Portrait</strong> - He might be angry in the mug shot; he might even be scared. But he damn sure doesn’t look surprised. Nobody is. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-appearances/trumps-mug-shot-is-his-true-presidential-portrait">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Case for Negotiating with Russia</strong> - Samuel Charap is asking Ukraine and its allies to consider how much worse the war could get. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/essay/the-case-for-negotiating-with-russia">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Trump’s 2020 Trial Is Set to Dominate the 2024 Primary Season</strong> - Jury selection could begin a day before Super Tuesday. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/trumps-2020-trial-is-set-to-dominate-the-2024-primary-season">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Governments have put $1 billion toward making better meat alternatives. A lot more is needed.</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Pcrcrl2dUPdfLdCX1ayHXFgr0N4=/211x0:3350x2354/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72588894/1575004132.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
A piece of Good Meat’s cultivated chicken is lifted off a plate at the Eat Just office on July 27, 2023, in Alameda, California. | Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
We can grow no-kill meat at scale — it’s just a matter of funding.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YjVE52">
From <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23801730/cell-cultivated-lab-grown-meat-jose-andres-upside-eat-just">“no-kill” chicken grown in bioreactors</a> to <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23065941/vegan-vegetarian-plant-based-food-tech-bad-products">juicy plant-based burgers</a>,<strong> </strong>alternative protein options are cropping up (in extremely limited quantities) in the grocery aisle, at restaurants, and on your plate. The big question of the last few months, however, is whether alternative proteins could realistically scale to challenge conventional meat protein dominance.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8Gfwlw">
During the pandemic, <a href="https://www.healthline.com/health-news/more-people-eating-plant-based-protein">alternative proteins saw a rise</a> in consumer spending as people became more conscious of their health and the environmental impacts of traditional meat, and as meat shortages affected households. This year, though, <a href="https://www.fooddive.com/news/plant-based-meat-alternatives-continue-decline-sales/689470/">sales dropped</a>, and <a href="https://sentientmedia.org/plant-based-backlash-explained/">skepticism of alternative meat’s staying power</a> grew.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zTHJoF">
However, according to a recent report by the Good Food Institute, governments around the world are investing in public partnerships to the tune of <a href="https://gfi.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/State-of-Global-Policy-Report_2022.pdf">$1 billion</a> globally, indicating that alternative proteins could be an important component of <a href="https://www.edb.gov.sg/en/business-insights/insights/how-singapore-is-using-alternative-proteins-to-boost-food-security.html">national approaches to food security</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="d3hCkE">
The upshot: Governments around the world are more ready to fund alternative proteins in the wake of <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/01/07/1147660525/global-food-prices-2022-record-high">unstable food prices in 2022</a>, a year that shed light on the effect of <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2023/7/19/23798701/black-sea-grain-deal-ukraine-russia-odesa-strikes">geopolitical tensions</a> on food security. By developing an alternative protein sector, countries such as <a href="https://www.sfa.gov.sg/food-for-thought/article/detail/a-sustainable-food-system-for-singapore-and-beyond#:~:text=Singapore%27s%2030%20by%2030%20goal,our%20nutritional%20needs%20by%202030.">Singapore</a> and <a href="https://vegconomist.com/politics-law/israels-food-tech-national-priority-eu-must-follow/">Israel</a> aim to be more self-sufficient while transforming their agriculture sector to be resistant in the face of wars, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6409995/">climate change</a>, and <a href="https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2023/07/26/what-will-be-the-impact-of-indias-rice-export-ban#:~:text=On%20July%2020th%20the%20government,grains%2C%20which%20are%20sold%20cheaply.">export bans</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7RsULi">
Not only could investing more in alternative meats buoy countries’ food sovereignty aspirations, it could help their economies. If governments continue to invest in cellular agriculture — the process behind no-kill, lab-grown meat, different from <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-of-meat">plant-based meat</a> substitutes like Beyond or Impossible meat — then the report estimates that there could be $1.1 trillion in global economic activity by 2050 and 9.8 million jobs in the sector. For reference, the meat industry value globally was <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/502286/global-meat-and-seafood-market-value/">$897.5 billion in 2021</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="a1theY">
Though the $1 billion benchmark bodes well for the staying power of alternative protein, and it’s certainly enough to get some projects off the ground, the GFI report estimates that much more will be needed to truly scale alternative proteins — about $10.1 billion total.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="N5KuSo">
That’s because, while veggie burgers have been around for a long time, making plant-based meat that is as affordable and tasty as conventional meat is still in the early stages — which means it’s expensive. That’s even more the case for cellular agriculture, which needs a whole set of infrastructure to produce real meat at scale. Both plant-based and cultured meat need government funding to get from lab to table in meaningful quantities.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Nl2Gqx">
In the case of cellular agriculture, success depends most on advancements in the research and development phase, where technical hurdles, such as <a href="https://thecounter.org/lab-grown-cultivated-meat-cost-at-scale/">how to build sufficiently large bioreactor facilities</a>, remain. Success will also depend on the commercialization phase, where <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/usda-approves-first-lab-grown-chicken-in-the-united-states-180982417/">regulators approve the sale</a> of these new food products and production scales up to make cultivated meat affordable, but there are already positive signs in that direction: Regulators in the US have <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23768224/eat-just-good-meat-upside-cell-cultivated-chicken-lab-grown">cleared two companies</a>, Upside Foods and Good Meat, to sell cultivated chicken in restaurants.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GcM3Fu">
Ultimately, though, in order to make cellular agriculture widely available, more than regulatory approval is needed. Governments must boldly provide funding to universities and public-private initiatives, through grants and investment. We know what global instability can do to a nation’s food security. It’s time to get a headstart on creating lower-emissions alternative proteins.
</p>
<h3 id="dAIydM">
<strong>The technological and supply hurdles </strong>
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6dzHHZ">
Unlike other alternative protein options, such as the soy protein often used in vegan nuggets, creating cell-cultivated meat is a lot more involved.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="w1BkzL">
The <a href="https://sentientmedia.org/lab-grown-meat/">cellular agriculture process </a>starts with the extraction of cells from a live animal, from a <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/06/21/1183484892/no-kill-meat-grown-from-animal-cells-is-now-approved-for-sale-in-the-u-s">needle biopsy</a>. Those animal cells are placed in a growth medium, <a href="https://medium.com/new-harvest/how-we-can-realistically-decrease-the-cost-of-culture-medium-for-cellular-agriculture-83850e3212ff#:~:text=A%20culture%20medium%20is%20a,cell%20line%20will%20%E2%80%9Cproliferate%E2%80%9D.">which feeds the cells</a> nutrients so that they grow and proliferate. After that, the cells are placed in a bioreactor, where they have a clean environment in which to replicate. Finally, the cells are placed onto a <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8787436/">scaffolding</a>, which can be made of synthetic collagen and gelatin or <a href="https://news.nus.edu.sg/plant-based-scaffold-for-cultured-meat/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CScaffolds%20made%20from%20plant%20proteins,up%20the%20growth%20of%20meat.">plant-based proteins</a>, that helps the cells mimic the texture of a cut of meat.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Z3hzhb">
The final product of the cellular-agriculture process <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23768224/eat-just-good-meat-upside-cell-cultivated-chicken-lab-grown">tastes like meat</a> because it is meat — just without the<a href="https://ffacoalition.org/facts/number-of-animals-killed/"> animal slaughter</a>, horrible <a href="https://ffacoalition.org/articles/dangerous-conditions-factory-farms/#:~:text=Workers%20are%20routinely%20exposed%20to,to%20suffer%20from%20mental%20illness.">work conditions</a> for humans, and <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23778399/media-ignores-climate-change-beef-meat-dairy#:~:text=The%20tens%20of%20billions%20of,corn%20and%20soy%20they%20eat.">environmental consequences</a>, like producing 15 to 19 percent of global greenhouse emissions. <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/23378912/meat-animals-beef-cultivated-in-vitro-food-plant-based-animal-welfare-impossible-burger">As Vox’s Kenny Torrella has reported</a>, cellular agriculture could also “create an escape hatch from the meat paradox, allowing consumers to enjoy food they seemingly can’t get enough of, without the ethical and environmental side effects.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="l2HMh6">
But getting cell agriculture to take off is often talked about as a “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/24/opinion/climate-change-meatless-meat.html">moonshot</a>.” It will be tough to make the production process efficient and affordable enough to meet consumer demand for meat, and then there’s the hurdle of people accepting it as their go-to protein. It’ll require funding and collaboration across industrial, academic, and government stakeholders.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KiFAFR">
A large-scale production facility could cost <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666154322000916">$60 million</a>, according to a cost analysis published in the <em>Journal of Agriculture and Food Research </em>late last year<em>.</em> The largest contributors to cost are the growth medium, bioreactors, and labor. Good Meat’s Singapore production facility — which has the largest bioreactor in the cultivated meat space — was <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/douglasyu/2023/01/18/eat-just-to-scale-up-cultured-meat-production-on-gaining-new-regulatory-approval-in-singapore/?sh=545ae20a49d7#:~:text=The%20facility%2C%20supported%20by%20an,bioreactor%20technology%20company%20ABEC%2C%20Inc.">supported by a $100 million investment</a>. With <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1379536/number-of-cultured-meat-companies/#:~:text=There%20were%20156%20cultured%20meat%20companies%20globally%20in%202022.">156 cultivated meat companies</a> as of 2022 around the world, building a cellular agriculture industry will require resources and money — they’ll all need pricey bioreactors, growth medium, cells, and scaffolding.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hlrWeC">
There are steps stakeholders could take to accelerate progress in the field, however. Compatibility across different parts of the supply chain can be made more efficient by making crucial information, such as <a href="https://gfi.org/science/the-science-of-cultivated-meat/deep-dive-cultivated-meat-cell-lines/">cell lines</a>, widely available. Collaboration could make it easier for university labs and startups developing cells to know if their cells are compatible with an animal-free growth medium, for example. <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/henrychesbrough/2011/03/21/everything-you-need-to-know-about-open-innovation/?sh=6ee88fbf75f4">Such open innovation</a> has a track record of success; it’s previously been used to <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/topcoder-community-refines-medical-kits-for-future-nasa-space-missions-99343569.html">develop software</a>, <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-50991-0_3">crop genetics</a>, and in the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160791X22000963">energy sector</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3OOJUp">
The good news is that we’ve funded open innovation before to ensure success in fields where advancement is otherwise difficult. In 2012, the Obama administration launched <a href="https://www.manufacturingusa.com">Manufacturing USA</a>, a program with 16 institutes that use open innovation to advance everything from biomanufacturing to electronics. With the government absorbing some of the risk of investing in new, ambitious technologies, the component institutes worked to revitalize industry. The <a href="https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/ams/NIST.AMS.600-11.pdf">institutes have done everything</a> from making extreme weather textiles to reducing the cost of gene therapy to developing a chip that can detect viruses including coronavirus. Public funding can jumpstart the kind of infrastructure needed for different stakeholders, from academic labs to startups, to feel more comfortable about collaborating, creating jobs, and advancing technology.
</p>
<h3 id="9YojfQ">
<strong>Why countries are investing heavily in cellular agriculture</strong>
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fD6mZn">
As the <a href="https://gfi.org/resource/alternative-proteins-state-of-global-policy/">Good Food Institute report</a> explains, several governments have begun to fund cellular agriculture in creative ways, ranging from grants to universities to using national investment funds to support initiatives.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HFsahF">
One motivating factor for some countries is to decrease their dependence on imports for livestock and boost food security. For instance, Singapore imports about 90 percent of its food. That degree of reliance on external sources means that any disruption can lead to high prices and food insecurity, as seen last year when neighboring <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-politics-global-trade-malaysia-4188e124f886aeea8549f3bb363b3d3b">Malaysia stopped exporting live chickens to Singapore</a>. Currently, Singapore has an <a href="https://www.ourfoodfuture.gov.sg/30by30/">ambitious target </a>of producing 30 percent of its food domestically by 2030. The country’s small size — an island nation, it has little room for livestock — will make that a difficult goal to achieve, but cell agriculture could help facilitate it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vs4jNG">
To reach that target, <a href="https://www.temasek.com.sg/en/index">Temasek</a>, Singapore’s state-owned innovation investment fund, became one of the top global investors in alternative proteins. Singapore has also partnered with universities in other countries, such as the <a href="https://www.bath.ac.uk/announcements/bath-signs-mou-with-a-star-in-singapore-for-a-partnership-in-sustainable-food-technologies/">University of Bath in the UK</a> (which has a <a href="https://stories.bath.ac.uk/culturing-meat-for-sustainable-nutrition/index.html">cellular agriculture research hub</a>). Additionally, Singapore is ahead of the pack when it comes to regulation. Their equivalent of the FDA, the Singapore Food Agency, was the <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/12/2/22125518/lab-grown-chicken-meat-singapore-bioreactor-approve#:~:text=Two%20weeks%20ago%2C%20lab%2Dgrown,to%20issue%20such%20an%20approval.">first in the world to approve the sale of Good Meat’s cultivated chicken</a> in 2020.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="r8ObXs">
Singapore isn’t the only small nation with food security concerns; Israel is also trying to develop a robust alternative proteins sector, including via cell agriculture. In 2020, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu became the <a href="https://gfi.org/blog/cultivated-meat-tasting-israel/">first head of state to try cultivated meat</a> when he tasted <a href="https://aleph-farms.com">Aleph Farms</a> cultivated steak, and the country is also responsible for 24 percent of global investment in alternative proteins (about $637 million). Israel’s <a href="https://www.cultivated-meat.art">Cultivated Meat Consortium</a> is the largest government-backed consortium to date and was funded by $18 million from the <a href="https://innovationisrael.org.il/en/">Israel Innovation Authority</a> in 2022.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="b5LiOK">
Israel’s consortium is made up of 10 academic labs and 14 companies, including the largest food manufacturer in Israel, <a href="https://tnuvausa.com">TNUVA</a>. Israel has supported open-access facilities domestically as well as internationally, even adding alternative protein development to their <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UHNBaFuUnYYtuJ9pqPjKA8ef4I0XGVbG/view">diplomatic toolkit</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eN4Aqk">
In Europe, the Netherlands, too, faced anxieties around food security, spanning back to a deadly famine during World War II. After more than <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/31/science/dutch-famine-genes.html">20,000 Dutch died</a>, the government heavily invested in agriculture through subsidies, infrastructure investment in rural areas, and industrialization. The scar of starvation also motivated the country two decades ago to pledge to grow <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2022/netherlands-agriculture-technology/">twice as much food</a>, with half as many resources. Now, it produces 6 percent of Europe’s food, with only 1 percent of the continent’s farmland, <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/23627509/netherlands-dairy-cow-protests-seeds-farming-agriculture-climate">reported Vox’s Kenny Torrella</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6aqCbN">
That drive for efficiency also spurred technological development in meat alternatives. In 2013, Dutch pharmacologist <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/14/science/engineering-the-325000-in-vitro-burger.html">Mark Post in 2013</a> invented the first cell-cultivated burger. Post engineered tissue for medical uses and <a href="https://www.labiotech.eu/interview/interview-mark-post-cultured-meat/">saw the potential benefits</a> the technology could have when applied to food production. Cell-cultivated meats, as well as plant-based alternatives, could help the small country to meet its wider goals — and would later make it a leader in the food tech space.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iJy8yx">
A decade and $66.2 million later, the Dutch funded a cellular agriculture ecosystem with <a href="https://en.cellulaireagricultuur.nl">Cellulaire Agricultuur Nederland</a>, which not only supports crucial research, development, and commercialization efforts but also funds workforce transition programs by expanding educational routes to prepare students to work in cellular agriculture.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QTt88J">
Developments in the Netherlands and elsewhere are meaningful, but for alternative proteins to have a significant positive global impact, China and the US — the world’s largest economies by an order of magnitude — both need to put more into developing the sector. China’s funding for alternative proteins is largely undisclosed, but <a href="https://www.greenqueen.com.hk/president-xi-supports-china-alt-protein-sector/">President Xi Jinping mentioned it</a> as a priority in 2022, in a speech to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. “It is necessary to expand from traditional crops and livestock and poultry resources to more abundant biological resources, develop biotechnology and bio-industry, and seek energy and protein from plants, animals, and micro-organisms,” Xi said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="L8IeV8">
Cultivated meat is included in <a href="https://www.nycfoodpolicy.org/food-policy-snapshot-china-five-year-agricultural-plan-cultivated-meat/#:~:text=Overview%3A%20China%20has%20released%20its,alternatives%20for%20the%20first%20time.&amp;text=Program%20goals%3A%20To%20use%20technology,ensuring%20a%20sustainable%20food%20supply.">China’s agricultural five-year plan</a>, as well as in the <a href="https://digichina.stanford.edu/work/translation-14th-five-year-plan-for-national-informatization-dec-2021/#:~:text=The%20%E2%80%9C14th%20Five%2DYear%20Plan%E2%80%9D%20period%20is%20an%20important,of%20industry%20chains%2C%20promote%20the">National Development and Reform Commission’s five-year plan</a>. China has since held events like the <a href="https://www.greenqueen.com.hk/china-cultivated-meat-forum/">China Cellular Agriculture Forum</a> and a panel on cellular agriculture at the China International Food Safety and Quality Conference hosted by the China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment (CFSA).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fFuCmr">
Notably, the US has been outpaced when it comes to cultivated meat development, though Biden has expressed public support for it in <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2022/09/12/executive-order-on-advancing-biotechnology-and-biomanufacturing-innovation-for-a-sustainable-safe-and-secure-american-bioeconomy/">an executive order</a>. Congress, however, has only provided $6 million to the USDA’s Agricultural Resource Service, which is tasked with conducting research on alternative proteins. The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) has thus far provided the most public money to a cellular agriculture project in the US, giving <a href="https://now.tufts.edu/2021/10/15/tufts-receives-10-million-grant-help-develop-cultivated-meat">$10 million in 2021 to Tufts University’s</a> Center for Cellular Agriculture, which is the first US lab to focus on cellular agriculture. By comparison, Israel gave $18 million for a cultivated meat consortium in 2022 and its <a href="https://georank.org/economy/israel/united-states">GDP is ranked 34th in the world</a> whereas the US is ranked first.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Wi08SP">
Relative to the size of the US food industry, however, that’s not all that much money. By comparison, small countries are punching above their weight when it comes to public funding for cell agriculture — and for the $10.1 billion estimate in the GFI report to be in reach, the US will have to step up.
</p></li>
<li><strong>China’s economy is slowing down. What gives?</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="SOUTH AFRICA-JOHANNESBURG-XI JINPING-BRICS-AFRICA OUTREACH AND BRICS PLUS DIALOGUE" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/OR7qh8haYQl9Oax7WonzKIvavxE=/0x0:2890x2168/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72588839/1622674566.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a speech titled “Hand in Hand Toward a Community of Shared Development” at the BRICS-Africa Outreach and BRICS Plus Dialogue in Johannesburg, South Africa, Aug. 24, 2023. | Photo by Li Xueren/Xinhua via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
An expert helps explain China’s economic woes.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3ePDo0">
By now you’ve probably heard, <a href="https://www.economist.com/leaders/2023/08/24/why-chinas-economy-wont-be-fixed">China’s economy is not doing so well</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AWqxrS">
The country’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/21/business/china-economy-real-estate-crisis.html">once-booming real estate sector</a> is stalled. China has slipped into <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/24/chinas-deflation-could-spill-over-into-a-global-concern-economists-say.html">deflation</a>. <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-08-07/china-foreign-investment-gauge-at-25-year-low-amid-high-tensions">Foreign direct investment is down</a>. So are <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-66436582">exports</a>. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/15/business/china-youth-unemployment.html">Youth unemployment</a> reached a record high of more than 20 percent in June. And this is just what we know. After all, China has slowly <a href="https://twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1691341030925193216?s=20">stopped releasing lots of public economic data</a>, making it hard to get a complete picture.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0cD7NO">
What we do know is that the story of China’s unimpeded economic rise is turning out to be a bit more complicated — and it may have been a long time coming, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/17/business/china-gdp-q1-2023.html">with or without China’s very strict Covid-19 pandemic policies</a>. All of this could have profound economic, political, and social fallout for Beijing, and the rest of the world.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VvEEWl">
Before getting there, it’s worth trying to figure out the basics on why China’s economy is struggling right now. To do that, Vox called up Stephen Morgan, a professor emeritus of Chinese Economic History at the University of Nottingham, who wrote a <a href="https://www.agendapub.com/page/detail/the-chinese-economy/?k=9781788210805">book on the Chinese economy</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BJCFnD">
Basically, China’s economy is out of balance and has been for some time. Investments dominate the country’s economy, far more than consumption — that is, what households are spending. It didn’t matter so much when investment juiced China’s GDP in good times, and indeed, kept China’s economy afloat during the Covid-19 pandemic.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WcmsCj">
But that investment playbook has been losing its potency. A chunk of <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/china/china-economy-debt-slowdown-recession-622a3be4">investments are unproductive</a> — for example, a shiny new airport is great, but if it sits empty and no one travels through it, that’s not a great return on investment. But whether the airport is busy or a ghost town, it required bonds and loans to build. That produced growth, but it also increased China’s debt, so much so that right now, <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Markets/China-debt-crunch/China-s-debt-ratio-hits-record-high-at-3-times-GDP">it’s triple — yep, around 300 percent — of China’s economic output</a>. “That doesn’t really matter until the debt has to be settled. More stimulus simply increases debt and delays the reckoning,” Morgan said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rAPlpU">
What that reckoning might look like is hard to answer because the Chinese government and its leader, President Xi Jinping, are not exactly known for transparency. As Morgan sees it, China is dealing with a “slow fizzle.” But how Xi and his government manage that fizzle is far from an easy question for anyone to answer.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4nrMUL">
Our conversation below has been edited for length and clarity.
</p>
<h4 id="oU85at">
Jen Kirby
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SaprVR">
There’s all this talk about <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/17/business/china-economy-slowdown-global-growth.html">China’s economic slowdown</a>. But I wanted to ask first, broadly, what is, or has been, the “China model”?
</p>
<h4 id="v6HU4t">
Stephen Morgan
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VbVZfb">
The best way to think about what the Chinese model of economic development is is to think of it as an investment-led model. When China began to reengage with the world economy, over 40 years ago now, it suffered from chronic underinvestment: housing, infrastructure, education, services, etc., were very poor.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wGL3g8">
By about the middle of the 2000s — around 2005, or so — China had actually filled up a fair bit of that. It was about that time that Premier <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Wen-Jiabao">Wen Jiabao</a> urged a shift away from investment to consumption.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="r4pYly">
As soon as we start to talk about investment and consumption, I think we need to also make clear what we mean in terms of that, and of GDP [gross domestic product]. People tend to think of GDP in terms of output of goods and services. The other way economists think of GDP is: What are the inputs to creating those outputs? The most important inputs to creating growth are, firstly, investment. Secondly, household consumption. Plus government services, and a little bit in terms of net inputs. But it’s investment and household consumption that really matters.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dJBd2X">
From the 1980s right through until the early 2000s, household consumption [in China] was roughly <a href="https://www.piie.com/blogs/realtime-economics/can-china-revive-growth-through-private-consumption">around 48 percent,</a> and so the rest went on investment and government services. But beginning around 2000, just after China joined the World Trade Organization, there was another huge burst of economic growth. <a href="https://www.piie.com/blogs/realtime-economics/can-china-revive-growth-through-private-consumption">Household consumption massively collapsed</a> to reach about only 34 percent in 2010. Investment was nearly 50 percent of GDP. Now, how does that compare to the world average? Well, roughly, the world average for household <a href="https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/rankings/household_consumption/#:~:text=Household%20consumption%20as%20percent%20of,available%20from%201960%20to%202022.">consumption is about 60 percent</a>. If you’re looking at the United States, <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/DPCERE1Q156NBEA">it’s around 70 percent</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="55AxZR">
China is at the other extreme. It got down to 34 percent. <a href="https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicator/china/private-consumption--of-nominal-gdp">At present, it’s still 38 percent.</a> So you’ve got a problem. There’s been an excessive amount of investment, particularly in real estate and infrastructure for the last 15 years. What that has done is massively increased China’s debt level. But it also means the Chinese household just really doesn’t have the share of income to actually spend. So when the Chinese government talks about increasing consumption, in truth, the only way it can increase consumption is to try to transfer assets and cash from companies and the government to the households. That’s the bind that China is in at present.
</p>
<h4 id="yn7FIf">
Jen Kirby
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fIA3o8">
Can you talk a little bit more about this investment?
</p>
<h4 id="uMny8w">
Stephen Morgan
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="89N4St">
Investment is largely going into, as I said, infrastructure, real estate. At present, probably about 40 percent of that is unproductive. One way to think of that is “bridges to nowhere.” The thing about investment is it doesn’t matter whether the bridge goes to nowhere or it actually serves a purpose. It produces GDP growth.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Pe3MI3">
When I was living in China, between 2013 and 2020, <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ningbo,+Zhejiang,+China/@30.1054619,121.0711877,9.08z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x344d6354630858f7:0x948723f846ccf173!8m2!3d29.868336!4d121.54399!16zL20vMDFsMzNs?entry=ttu">in Ningbo,</a> I used to take the bus to work every day. The bus stops between my apartment and the university were rebuilt three times — three times in about six years. The first time they needed rebuilding. The second time, there were some nice improvements, like electronic boards that told you when the bus was going to come. The third time they rebuilt all the bus stops with so much steel you would need a tank to knock them down. Other than that, there was very little welfare benefit. That’s wasted investment.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KcTRmZ">
This increase in investment means that local government has to get the money from somewhere. Basically, it gets that through loans and bonds and so on. Debt levels have gone up. They don’t really matter, unless they have to be settled. And that’s the problem. They haven’t been settled. They just keep on being pushed out.
</p>
<h4 id="HE0nuu">
Jen Kirby
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jO4vO9">
The problem now seems to be that China can’t keep relying on that investment playbook. You have all these bills due, you have so much debt, so if you invest more, you make the problem worse, not better. Is that the best way to look at it?
</p>
<h4 id="uPWYtv">
Stephen Morgan
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ScXRJ0">
I think you hit it on the head, Jen. The Chinese investment-led model ran out of steam quite a few years ago but it’s been kept going because there’s been a reluctance to try to shift from investment to consumption.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zLiEKF">
The reason for that is what it will mean. You’ve got to transfer assets and cash from the corporate sector and the government sector to the household. That means that corporations, like big property developments, local governments, and so on, are not going to have the resources they previously had. These big companies, many of them are state-run, and local government, which is state-run, there are lots of vested interests. They don’t want to see that happen.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RKV1M9">
Could China do it? Well, yes.
</p>
<h4 id="VNee89">
Jen Kirby
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="suf8Y8">
So is China trying to shift this balance toward consumption and just can’t? Is that the fundamental issue here?
</p>
<h4 id="oUfEKv">
Stephen Morgan
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4IinZt">
If we think about what’s been happening over the last couple of months, the Chinese economy seems to be — or is — faltering. Growth has been slowing. The hoped-for post-Covid resurgence has not occurred. How has the Chinese government responded? With only rather small and piecemeal policy measures. Lots of people have become, let’s say, disappointed with these lackluster initiatives.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9GNZKu">
In particular, they have wondered to themselves: “Why hasn’t the Chinese government gone for the usual playbook — stimulus?” That’s what kept the Chinese economy going from the global financial crisis of 2007 through 2009 to the present. They ramped up investment primarily during that period, and basically, they haven’t been able to take it back.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mADvMJ">
All of these piecemeal changes seem to be aimed at trying to keep everything together, to let the big corporation slowly unwind, in a sense, to what I call to fizzle.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cbzncO">
But there’s no evidence that Xi and the party are listening and engaging in imaginative policies to shift resources from corporations and the government sector to the household sector.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="788Kcq">
That would include, for example, increasing pensions, increasing health insurance, or the gap in health insurance, so that people know if they got sick, they would be able to get treated much more extensively before they would have to start to pay. If you increase health insurance, then people won’t need to save so much, so they’ll spend. If you increase pensions, which are really tiny, then retired people — and remember, women in urban China have to retire at 55, and most males in urban China have to retire at 60 — will have more money to spend.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dmasND">
The other thing would be policies, like what some of the provincial governments did around 2020 to try to keep their regional economies alive during Covid, which was to give coupons to residents that gave them a discount if they spent more than a certain amount of money in restaurants or on food each month. There’s a report that I saw quoted recently <a href="https://bfi.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/China-coupon-experiment-full-version-V4.pdf">that this had a huge multiplier effect</a>. People went out and spent money in restaurants, and that kept more people employed, who in turn spent money, and so on.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HduGtj">
But there’s no evidence that the Chinese government will engage in any imaginative change to policy, either direct cash handouts, increased pensions, or increased health benefits. If you get the gist from what Xi says, Xi is very much against it, he reckons people should put up with hardship, it makes them strong.
</p>
<h4 id="eWQ4gG">
Jen Kirby
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ahMntD">
If the current trajectory is unsustainable, though, why is there resistance from corporations and local governments?
</p>
<h4 id="kByl1p">
Stephen Morgan
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KdhMe5">
For corporates, it is going to reduce their profits. For local government, what it primarily means is they will not be able to grow the local economy in ways that will [show up] in GDP data. If the local officials cannot meet targets for local economic growth, those local officials are not going to get promoted.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8SAKCm">
China’s <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/05/china-sets-gdp-target-of-around-5percent-for-2023.html">forecast GDP for 2023 is 5 percent</a>. When the Chinese government announced that, the local governments knew they had to do something that would generate economic activity in the local area that would get that 5 percent level. The Chinese central government would help to make funds available, either through state banks, through the various credit controls. In turn, those local governments go out and, let’s say, release more land to corporate real estate developers, who then build more houses that aren’t really needed, but still grow the economy and grow the debt level.
</p>
<h4 id="j6i6fa">
Jen Kirby
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="B3qE6Y">
I’m no economist here, but I’m thinking of what the US did during the pandemic: just <a href="https://www.vox.com/22348364/united-states-stimulus-covid-coronavirus">give people cash</a>. Why can’t China do the same — say here’s some money, go out and spend it — to help boost consumption, if that’s what it needs to do?
</p>
<h4 id="nl2roT">
Stephen Morgan
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0MS8Xx">
Going back to what I said before, it’s about the imagination of the Chinese government and the party. In a sense, it’s about the psyche of Xi. Xi is of the view that the problem is young people and others don’t want to work hard enough. It’s very much like a strong right-wing aversion, that we find in Western economies, to giving handouts to the poor: If they worked harder they wouldn’t be that in that situation. That’s the sort of view that informs Xi.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gV23KP">
Then Xi also has the sort of leftist view of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/07/24/what-s-next-as-china-s-tech-crackdown-winds-down/2c180fc2-29f8-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html">not trusting entrepreneurs and innovators</a>. Both of these tensions are coming together to strangle the capabilities of the Chinese economy to grow.
</p>
<h4 id="6EGuzY">
Jen Kirby
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W455WF">
So how does China unravel this, especially if it seems somewhat linked to Xi himself?
</p>
<h4 id="FhVn18">
Stephen Morgan
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FqJ16o">
One of the things that the [Chinese Community] Party and government needs to try to do is to effect some sort of change in shifting from an investment-led model to a consumption model, without blowing up the economy and blowing up the party.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="m0c1Zx">
The political dynamic here is about enabling households to obtain a bigger share of the overall economic pie while also permitting corporations not to collapse, and also ensure that local government does not collapse. Because either of those would generate social unrest.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Qpy5bq">
If local government starts to fall apart, then local services will fall apart. If all these real estate companies start collapsing — and particularly people who have paid for their apartment but have not yet received it — they are going to be very unhappy. If the real estate companies go into a fire sale, property prices will fall even further. Lots of people who own property aren’t going to be very happy. That’s a huge risk for the party and the state at all levels from local government, through provincial government, to the central government. Managing that is extremely difficult, and I really have no sense, to put it bluntly, what might actually transpire.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bpnwCO">
We might think because they’ve got a lot of security services that they are very solid. But one of the things about authoritarian regimes — even ones that have huge security structures, such as China — is that these end up being quite fragile, and you very quickly get stuff unraveling.
</p>
<h4 id="iUquhQ">
Jen Kirby
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JyVgRW">
All of this makes it seem like fixing this could have unpredictable consequences, but so could just letting things stay as they are.
</p>
<h4 id="1a2r8H">
Stephen Morgan
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="setchU">
The thing for us is that the Chinese economy now is really big. It’s the second largest in the world. If it completely unravels, it’s going to have huge consequences, not just for China, but for the rest of the world. There are many, many big corporations in the US, Western Europe, and elsewhere, that are heavily committed and tied to China. Chinese consumers and Chinese companies will stop buying services and products. You’re going to have this global contraction that will occur.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3NNk5j">
On top of that is the potential for disturbances. A China that becomes chaotic internally could end up being a much more dangerous China for the rest of the world than one that’s just fizzling along like it is now.
</p>
<h4 id="86QuYb">
Jen Kirby
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pN7OX9">
Well, I guess that’s the question then: Will it stay on a fizzle? How do you see the path the Chinese economy is on right now?
</p>
<h4 id="7uoblk">
Stephen Morgan
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0blimL">
My view for almost a decade has been that there’s no way the Chinese economy will overtake the US. I think that’s become much more clear now.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IXGiID">
It’s a big economy. It’s used up all its potential to simply keep on doing what it had been doing previously, and growing. It’s going to be an economy that will be growing much, much more slowly, assuming that the Chinese state and party are able to stop a major crisis emerging in terms of a big recession, or financial crisis, with indebted property developers, indebted local government collapsing. I think at the end of the day, Xi and the party will do their utmost to try to stop that.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SlsAGz">
Nevertheless, economic growth will slow to around 2 to 3 percent, at best. In the context of <a href="https://www.vox.com/23815490/joe-biden-economy-bidenomics-jobs-inflation-2024-election">how the American economy most recently has been doing</a>, this is pretty amazing. The gap between China and America is actually widening at present, rather than contracting. What we’re going to see is China going along a path where it does succeed with its investments in education, in some productive areas of technology, in innovating, and continuing to grow, but nowhere near the speed it has previously grown, and nowhere near the speed that will be necessary for it to massively close the gap between China and the US.
</p>
<h4 id="DuSR47">
Jen Kirby
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ph8hzr">
This is a bit of an oversimplification, but there seemed to be a pact between the Chinese government and the people that, as long the economy was growing, people’s lives were improving and comfortable, then they would accept some of China’s less than democratic policies, like surveillance and censorship, for example. Will China’s slow fizzle alter this and have some political and social consequences?
</p>
<h4 id="lx3Lg5">
Stephen Morgan
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UT5BZn">
The short answer is yes. Exactly what would it look like will depend on how that slowdown occurs.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VnrGvc">
Since about 1989, and the Tiananmen Square protests, there has been a basic social contract between the citizens of China and the party. The party will try to ensure good management of the economy and your and your family’s ability to share in the growth that occurs, as long as you stay off the streets and don’t engage in politics. We will protect you. We will ensure you have your wealth and you can continue to produce wealth.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ROCbb7">
Xi has changed that. The most clear example of that was the way <a href="https://www.economist.com/business/2023/01/19/chinas-tech-crackdown-starts-to-ease">he turned on tech entrepreneurs in 2020</a>. Sure, there was a lot of excess, there was a lot of monopoly and anti-competitive behavior. But these big private-sector firms had been very innovative and major drivers of economic growth.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gMF3lx">
Similarly, during Covid, we see increasingly tighter controls and zero-Covid measures, where even a single illness in your neighborhood led to complete shutdown — that hit everyone. That hit your livelihood, that hit your family. We had <a href="https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/statistics-11082022135208.html">reports </a>of men and women not able to stand the isolation, jumping off their apartment buildings. That undermined that social contract, and I think that was very much behind <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2022/12/1/23486439/china-covid-zero-protests">the sort of protests that we saw last October and November</a>, which then finally led to the lifting of controls.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uQ7v2m">
There will need to be some sort of refashioning of that social contract. I’m not sure that Xi is the leader who can or is willing to do that because that would involve relinquishing authority. It would involve reopening Chinese society to greater dialogue and diversity of views instead of simply toeing the line.
</p>
<h4 id="a6wI5k">
Jen Kirby
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NU8xmS">
There’s a pretty sturdy bipartisan consensus in Washington that China is a threat, and the <a href="https://www.vox.com/joe-biden">Biden administration</a> has pursued <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/08/20/derisking-decoupling-us-china-biden-economy-trade-technology-semiconductors-chips-supply-chains-ai-geopolitics-escalation/">“decoupling”</a> — reducing dependence on Chinese technology, for example, and also trying to cut China off from key tech, <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/2022/10/27/biden-s-unprecedented-semiconductor-bet-pub-88270">like semiconductors</a>. The US is getting our <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-07-24/how-us-and-allies-are-trying-to-rein-in-china-tech-quicktake">allies to go along with it</a>. But if China’s economy implodes, it seems like it would be bad for everyone, so I wonder: how do you think the US and its partners should approach China right now?
</p>
<h4 id="afkNKf">
Stephen Morgan
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Qecasn">
It’s a bit like asking, “How long is a piece of string?” I would reply, “How long do you want it?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0fjzh0">
But seriously, I think I’d begin by saying that I personally think decoupling is neither feasible nor desirable. That does not mean we should not engage in development of policies and measures that protect economies — and our way of life, for that matter — from some of the potentially adverse outcomes from China. That’s very much about de-risking, about how do you continue to collaborate with China, but yet do it in a way that ensures you don’t endanger your own national security, you don’t endanger your own economy.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LtFFz9">
The difficulty is, not only is China a much bigger economy now, but in many areas, China now has capabilities that are actually beneficial or useful for America, for the West. In some technologies, or aspects of technologies, it might even be more advanced.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="haFrZ7">
The manufacturing process technology of China is better than just about anywhere else in the world. It’s not like that because China invented it, but because China learned how to do it so well, through all the investment that came with post-WTO introduction of Western supply chains into China.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FLzl1X">
We in the West — whether the US, UK, Europe, Australia, whatever — we need to engage with China still, so that we can share in that. But also we need to be able to protect ourselves from the Chinese capturing, let’s say, trade secrets or innovations that could be turned back. That’s going to be difficult.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ymxQGt">
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter whether the US is collaborating with the UK or Australia. There’s going to be a tension and there’s going to be a risk that one company in one country is going to discover what another has and run off with it. That’s the way the business has always gone. Let’s face it, the United States of America wouldn’t have had its Industrial Revolution if it hadn’t been so successful in stealing lots of British technology and railways and textiles in the 1880s, which it did very successfully.
</p>
<h4 id="io7W51">
Jen Kirby
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tSbxyY">
If you’ll indulge me one more: Who do you think gives first, Xi or the Chinese economy?
</p>
<h4 id="lEsU4E">
Stephen Morgan
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7blMli">
I’ve got no idea.
</p></li>
<li><strong>The “I would simply …” candidate</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Vivek Ramaswamy turning and smiling in a crowd." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/gkLUZxZGszvUcKplEbPGZg2S_V8=/218x0:5462x3933/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72588786/GettyImages_1619656311.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Vivek Ramaswamy in the spin room following the Republican primary presidential debate hosted by Fox News in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on August 23, 2023. | Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Vivek Ramaswamy says he would simply just solve America’s tough problems.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9xG4sU">
At last week’s Republican <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/4/27/23700848/donald-trump-joe-biden-presidential-debates-2024-election">presidential debate</a>, the moderators asked whether Vice President <a href="https://www.vox.com/mike-pence">Mike Pence</a> did the right thing in refusing <a href="https://www.vox.com/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a>’s demands that he try to overturn <a href="https://www.vox.com/joe-biden">Joe Biden</a>’s victory when <a href="https://www.vox.com/congress">Congress</a> counted the electoral votes on January 6, 2021. Six of the eight candidates present said Pence did the right thing. A seventh candidate was Pence himself. <a href="https://www.vox.com/2024-elections/23720391/vivek-ramaswamy-affirmative-action-woke-capitalism-ideas">Vivek Ramaswamy</a>, the remaining candidate onstage, was not directly asked.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vH3w7H">
It was a potentially difficult question for Ramaswamy, who has recently <a href="https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-primary-r/2024/national/">risen to third place</a> in national polls but has studiously avoided breaking from Trump in any high-profile way. So on Sunday, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/vivek-ramaswamy-says-ve-certified-2020-election-results-rcna102010">NBC’s Chuck Todd asked him directly</a>: Did Pence do the right thing?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7YPeqG">
Ramaswamy offered a response of blithe bullshittery that epitomizes why he’s gained in <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/2/23/23611828/2024-republican-presidential-candidates-trump-hurd">GOP primary</a> polls lately, why so many of his fellow GOP candidates can’t stand him, and why Democrats view his rise as a sign of the worrying authoritarian drift of the GOP. In other words, his answer had something for everyone.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="d45uET">
While not endorsing Trump’s specific claim that the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020-presidential-election">2020 election</a> was stolen — a claim that Ramaswamy, before launching his campaign, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/26/us/politics/vivek-ramaswamy-2024-campaign-fact-check.html">wrote</a> was “weak” and not “grounded in fact” — he nevertheless said that Pence should have somehow forced Democrats to agree to a sweeping national overhaul of election rules as a prerequisite for letting Biden’s win go forward.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zw4zye">
On the website formerly known as <a href="https://www.vox.com/twitter">Twitter</a>, there’s long been a running joke where the tweeter claims “I would simply” do something that is actually extremely difficult. (“If i ever fell in some quicksand i would simply thrash around until i was out. it’s that simple,” <a href="https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/i-would-simply">was the first version</a>.) Vivek Ramaswamy is the “I would simply …” candidate in the 2024 race. Our nation’s most challenging issues? Well, he’d simply solve them, unlike those other louts.
</p>
<h3 id="ihtuLm">
What Vice President Vivek Ramaswamy supposedly would have done on January 6
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="G1s27z">
Ramaswamy began his response to the question of what Pence should have done by stating, “I think that there was a historic opportunity that he missed to unite the country.” Specifically, he went on, Pence should have demanded a new federal law that states require “single-day voting on Election Day,” mandatory paper ballots, and voter ID.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nNOtEO">
How should Pence have made that happen? Simple — he would have led! “In my capacity as president of the Senate, I would have led through that level of reform, then on that condition certified the election results, served it up to the president — President Trump — then to sign that into law,” Ramaswamy said. Who could object?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0adw3O">
Of course, many red states across the country have lengthy mail and early voting periods because Republicans are well aware that they have not resulted in significant fraud. Also of course, the vice president’s role in ordinary Senate business is essentially limited to casting tie-breaking votes, and on January 6, the Constitution tells him only to “open all the certificates” of electoral votes.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W3IzMk">
But if we take Ramaswamy seriously (a questionable choice, but let’s go with it), he’s claiming he would have tried to strong-arm Congress into submitting and passing his preferred election proposal, saying he’d reject Biden’s victory unless they complied. The idea that such a move would have “united” the country rather than throwing it into a deeper crisis seems obviously false.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="N3GCDx">
Throughout his campaign, Ramaswamy has made proposals of dubious legality and practicality. For instance, he’s said he’ll simply fire “<a href="https://www.vox.com/2024-elections/23720391/vivek-ramaswamy-affirmative-action-woke-capitalism-ideas">at least half</a>” of federal employees in violation of the law and that he’ll just make broad claims of presidential power and hope the <a href="https://www.vox.com/scotus">Supreme Court</a> declines to stop him. On foreign policy, he’s said he would simply <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/vivek-ramaswamy-gop-debate-foreign-policy-ukraine-russia-china-taiwan-9714aa99">turn Russia against China</a> (despite the two nations’ claims of a “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/china/moscow-beijing-partnership-has-no-limits-2022-02-04/">no limits” partnership</a>). To deal with Chinese designs on Taiwan, he’s said he’ll guarantee a US military response only until America is no longer reliant on Taiwan to manufacture semiconductors — which he says he’ll accomplish by 2028. Simple!
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cJQPwA">
In response, experts pull their hair out, established politicians (like his debate stage rivals) complain it’s not so simple, and journalists write tut-tutting fact-checks. But so long as all this sounds enough like “common sense” to GOP primary voters, Ramaswamy won’t be hurt in the polls and may even be helped, since many of those voters wouldn’t trust experts or journalists anyway.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JUzOE2">
All of that surely sounds familiar, since Trump has long followed a similar playbook of promising big with little regard to what was plausible or made sense. But where Trump’s talk often came off <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/09/trump-makes-his-case-in-pittsburgh/501335/">as half-serious showman bluster</a>, Ramaswamy is more the high-achieving millennial who’s crammed for the test and come up with a superficially smart-sounding but ultimately vapid answer. Both have the same goal: to try to get one over on you.
</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>Snowfall and Mount Sinai catch the eye</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>Shamrock, Neziah, A Star Is Born, Irish Coffee and Supreme Dance shine</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>Daily Quiz | On World Athletics Championships 2023</strong> - Here’s a quiz on the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest that saw India’s javelin icon Neeraj Chopra being crowned champion</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>Disney gambles on free cricket to turn the tables in streaming war</strong> - Strategy shift comes amid growing rivalry with Jio; Hotstar has lost millions of users, but remains confident</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>Chess cheating controversy | Carlsen, Niemann settle dispute outside court</strong> - Chess.com said that Hans Niemann’s account has been reinstated and he is welcome to play at future events.</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>Here are the big stories from Karnataka today</strong> - Welcome to the Karnataka Today newsletter, your guide from The Hindu on the major news stories to follow today. Curated by Nalme Nachiyar.</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>Union Cabinet adopts resolution hailing soft-landing of Chandrayaan-3</strong> - The Cabinet said it believes that India’s advancements in the space sector are more than just monumental scientific achievements.</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>President Murmu accepts credentials from envoys of four nations</strong> - Those who presented their credentials were Marje Luup, Ambassador of the Republic of Estonia; Oleksandr Polishchuk, Ambassador of Ukraine; Desire Boniface Some, Ambassador of Burkina Faso; and May-Elin Stener, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Norway</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>Chidambaram nominated to parliamentary panel on home affairs looking into criminal laws</strong> - The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs is of the Rajya Sabha and has members from both Houses of Parliament</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>Administration has derailed in first 100 days of Congress rule in Karnataka: BJP</strong> - The Karnataka BJP brought out a book listing the ‘failures’ of the Congress Government</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>Paul Whelan: US ex-marine seen in Russian labour camp video</strong> - It is the first time that ex-US Marine Paul Whelan is seen on video since his conviction in Russia.</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>‘Dying by the dozens every day’ - Ukraine losses climb</strong> - Ukraine will not disclose its death count, but the BBC’s Quentin Sommerville witnesses the mounting toll.</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>G20: Putin tells India PM Modi he will not attend Delhi summit</strong> - Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will attend instead, Mr Putin told Mr Modi in a phone call.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Spanish football leaders demand Rubiales resignation</strong> - Spanish Football Federation regional leaders call on president Luis Rubiales to immediately resign, while Spanish prosecutors open a preliminary investigation.</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>US Open 2023: Maria Sakkari could smell ‘weed’ during shock first-round loss</strong> - World number eight Maria Sakkari says she could smell “weed” during her surprise loss against Rebeka Masarova at the US Open.</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>Virgin Galactic’s president explains how VSS Unity is now flying frequently</strong> - “I don’t think I’ll run out of people who are willing to fly the spaceship any time soon.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1963698">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>US spy satellite agency isn’t so silent about new “Silent Barker” mission</strong> - This will be the first launch for ULA’s Atlas V rocket in nearly 10 months. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1963906">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Woman’s mystery illness turns out to be 3-inch snake parasite in her brain</strong> - It’s the first time the snake parasite has been seen in a human, let alone a brain. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1963908">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The new spreadsheet? OpenAI introduces ChatGPT Enterprise for businesses</strong> - Unlimited GPT-4, encryption, 32K context, and more. Will it become an essential tool? - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1963799">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Apple plans biggest iPad Pro update since 2018</strong> - The device is slated for an early to mid-2024 launch. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1963802">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A WW2 joke I heard recently</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
So, it’s 1941 and a young German boy is listening to the radio. On the radio Hitler announces that Germany is declaring war on the United States.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The boy asks, “Father, where is the United States?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Here, let me show you,” His father responds and points at a map of North America.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The boy then asks, “We are at war with Russia too, right? Where’s that?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The father then points at a map of the Soviet Union.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“I think we’re also at war with the British,” the boy says. “Where on the map are they?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The father then points at the British isles and the numerous British colonies, dominions, and protectorates.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“And where are we, father?” The boy questions.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The father, starting to become annoyed by his son’s constant questioning, finds Central Europe and points out Germany.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The young boy processes what he has just been told for a moment.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Father.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“What now?” The father responds.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“I have one more question.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“What is it?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Has Hitler seen this map?”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/ihni2000"> /u/ihni2000 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1646o4w/a_ww2_joke_i_heard_recently/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1646o4w/a_ww2_joke_i_heard_recently/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A local bar was so sure that its bartender was the strongest man around,</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
that they offered a standing $1,000 bet.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The bartender would squeeze a lemon until all the juice ran into a glass, and hand the lemon to a patron.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Anyone who could squeeze one more drop of juice out would win the money.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Many people had tried over time (weightlifters, longshoremen, etc.) but nobody could do it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
One day a scrawny little man came in, wearing thick glasses and a cheap suit, and said in a tiny, squeaky voice, “I’d like to try the bet.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
After the laughter had died down, the bartender said okay, grabbed a lemon, and squeezed away.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Then he handed the wrinkled remains of the rind to the little man.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
But the crowd’s laughter turned to total silence as the man clenched his fist around the lemon and six drops fell into the glass.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
As the crowd cheered, the bartender paid the $1,000, and asked the little man, “What do you do for a living? Are you a lumberjack, a weightlifter, or what?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The man replied, “I work for the IRS.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/gills_of_war"> /u/gills_of_war </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1640vx3/a_local_bar_was_so_sure_that_its_bartender_was/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1640vx3/a_local_bar_was_so_sure_that_its_bartender_was/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>his door-to-door entrepreneur became rather bored with his job of selling Bibles, so he decided to become a boss, hiring three people to sell Bibles for him.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
He interviewed three people. The first came in and said, “I want to sell Bibles for you.” “OK, you’re hired. Here’s your kit; go sell!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The second came in and said, “I want to sell Bibles for you.” “OK, you’re hired! Here’s your kit; go sell!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The third came in and said, “I- i - I wa - wa- wa-want t-t-t-to s-s-s-ell, Bi - bi - Bibles, f-f-fo-for y-y-y-y you!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“No,” shouted the man, “this will never work! You can’t sell Bibles for me!” The applicant replied, “B-b-but I r-r-r-eall, but I really, really, n-n-n-n-need th-th-th-this, need tthis job!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
As there were no other applicants, he man said, “OK, I’ll give you one shot at this, but I expect you to PRODUCE!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The first applicant comes back and reports, “I sold 8 Bibles today.” The second reports: “I sold 11 Bibles today. The third worker reports,”To-t-t-today, I-i-I so- so, I so-, I so-, I sold 28 Bi- bi- b- bibles!" “Great,” says the man. “However, I want you to sell lots more Bibles than that, so get out there tomorrow and MAKE ME SOME MONEY!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
At the end of the second day, the first worker comes in and reports, “Today, I sold 32 Bibles.” The second worker reports, “I sold 44 Bibles today” The third worker reports, “To-to-to t-today, I-i-I so- so, I so-, I sold 79 Bi-bi-bi-Bibles.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Fantastic,” said the man, "since you’re doing so well, so much better than these other two bums, why don’t you tell them what your sales technique is.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“I-i-I j-j-ju-ju-ju-just wa, wa, walk, up to up to them and ask, them… and ask, them and ask if th-th-th-if they want t-t-o-o- -b-b-b- buy a Bi-bi-bible, or d-d-d-d-do th-th-they do they w-w-w-ant me to rrr read it to ’em?”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/orgasmic2021"> /u/orgasmic2021 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/164bk87/his_doortodoor_entrepreneur_became_rather_bored/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/164bk87/his_doortodoor_entrepreneur_became_rather_bored/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Today a friend said to me: “Marco, aren’t you sad to see your friends getting married and you being single at 43?”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
I replied:
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Yes, I am, but I don’t know how to help them.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/MarcoDanielRebelo"> /u/MarcoDanielRebelo </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/164ddef/today_a_friend_said_to_me_marco_arent_you_sad_to/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/164ddef/today_a_friend_said_to_me_marco_arent_you_sad_to/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How many bureaucrats does it take to screw in a lightbulb?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Six.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
One supervises;<br/> One arranges for the electricity to be shut off;<br/> One checks safety and quality standards;<br/> One monitors compliance with government regulations;<br/> One fills out paperwork;<br/> And one who screws the lightbulb into the water faucet.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Major_Independence82"> /u/Major_Independence82 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1645t2v/how_many_bureaucrats_does_it_take_to_screw_in_a/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1645t2v/how_many_bureaucrats_does_it_take_to_screw_in_a/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
<script>AOS.init();</script></body></html>

4
index.html
View File

File diff suppressed because one or more lines are too long