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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="covid-19-sentry">Covid-19 Sentry</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-preprints">From Preprints</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-pubmed">From PubMed</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-patent-search">From Patent Search</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-preprints">From Preprints</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Knowledge graphs and wikidata subsetting</strong> -
<div>
Knowledge graphs have successfully been adopted by academia, governement and industry to represent large scale knowledge bases. Open and collaborative knowledge graphs such as Wikidata capture knowledge from different domains and harmonize them under a common format, making it easier for researchers to access the data while also supporting Open Science. Wikidata keeps getting bigger and better, which subsumes integration use cases. Having a large amount of data such as the one presented in a scopeless Wikidata offers some advantages, e.g., unique access point and common format, but also poses some challenges, e.g., performance. Regular wikidata users are not unfamiliar with running into frequent timeouts of submitted queries. Due to its popularity, limits have been imposed to allow for fair access to many. However this suppreses many interesting and complex queries that require more computational power and resources. Replicating Wikidata on one’s own infrastructure can be a solution which also offers a snapshot of the contents of wikidata at some given point in time. There is no need to replicate Wikidata in full, it is possible to work with subsets targeting, for instance, a particular domain. Creating those subsets has emerged as an alternative to reduce the amount and spectrum of data offered by Wikidata. Less data makes more complex queries possible while still keeping the compatibility with the whole Wikidata as the model is kept. In this paper we report the tasks done as part of a Wikidata subsetting project during the Virtual BioHackathon Europe 2020 and SWAT4(HC)LS 2021, which had already started at NBDC/DBCLS BioHackathon 2019 in Japan, SWAT4(HC)LS hackathon 2019, and Virtual COVID-19 BioHackathon 2019. We describe some of approaches we identified to create subsets and some susbsets from the Life Sciences domain as well as other use cases we also discussed.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://biohackrxiv.org/wu9et/" target="_blank">Knowledge graphs and wikidata subsetting</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Factor Analysis Approach to Classify COVID-19 Datasets in Several Regions</strong> -
<div>
The aim of this research is to investigate the relationship between the counts of cases with Covid-19 and the deaths due to it in seven countries that are severely affected by the pandemic. First, the Pearson’s correlation is used to determine the relationships among these countries. Then, the factor analysis is applied to categorize these countries based on their relationships.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/6w7tn/" target="_blank">Factor Analysis Approach to Classify COVID-19 Datasets in Several Regions</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Analysis of glycosylation and disulfide bonding of wild-type SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein</strong> -
<div>
The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, the etiologic agent of COVID-19, uses its spike (S) glycoprotein anchored in the viral membrane to enter host cells. The S glycoprotein is the major target for neutralizing antibodies elicited by natural infection and by vaccines. Approximately 35% of the SARS-CoV-2 S glycoprotein consists of carbohydrate, which can influence virus infectivity and susceptibility to antibody inhibition. We found that virus-like particles produced by coexpression of SARS-CoV-2 S, M, E and N proteins contained spike glycoproteins that were extensively modified by complex carbohydrates. We used a fucose-selective lectin to enrich the Golgi-resident fraction of a wild-type SARS-CoV-2 S glycoprotein trimer, and determined its glycosylation and disulfide bond profile. Compared with soluble or solubilized S glycoproteins modified to prevent proteolytic cleavage and to retain a prefusion conformation, more of the wild-type S glycoprotein N-linked glycans are processed to complex forms. Even Asn 234, a significant percentage of which is decorated by high-mannose glycans on soluble and virion S trimers, is predominantly modified in the Golgi by processed glycans. Three incompletely occupied sites of O-linked glycosylation were detected. Viruses pseudotyped with natural variants of the serine/threonine residues implicated in O-linked glycosylation were generally infectious and exhibited sensitivity to neutralization by soluble ACE2 and convalescent antisera comparable to that of the wild-type virus. Unlike other natural cysteine variants, a Cys15Phe (C15F) mutant retained partial, but unstable, infectivity. These findings enhance our understanding of the Golgi processing of the native SARS-CoV-2 S glycoprotein carbohydrates and could assist the design of interventions.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.01.438120v1" target="_blank">Analysis of glycosylation and disulfide bonding of wild-type SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>SARS-CoV-2 binding to ACE2 triggers pericyte-mediated angiotensin-evoked cerebral capillary constriction</strong> -
<div>
The SARS-CoV-2 receptor, ACE2, is found on pericytes, contractile cells enwrapping capillaries that regulate brain, heart and kidney blood flow. ACE2 converts vasoconstricting angiotensin II into vasodilating angiotensin-(1-7). In brain slices from hamster, which has an ACE2 sequence similar to human ACE2, angiotensin II alone evoked only a small capillary constriction, but evoked a large pericyte-mediated capillary constriction generated by AT1 receptors in the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain (RBD). The effect of the RBD was mimicked by blocking ACE2. A mutated non-binding RBD did not potentiate constriction. A similar RBD-potentiated capillary constriction occurred in human cortical slices. This constriction reflects an RBD-induced decrease in the conversion of angiotensin II to angiotensin-(1-7). The clinically-used drug losartan inhibited the RBD-potentiated constriction. Thus AT1 receptor blockers could be protective in SARS-CoV-2 infection by reducing pericyte-mediated blood flow reductions in the brain, and perhaps the heart and kidney.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.01.438122v1" target="_blank">SARS-CoV-2 binding to ACE2 triggers pericyte-mediated angiotensin-evoked cerebral capillary constriction</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Identification of lectin receptors for conserved SARS-CoV-2 glycosylation sites</strong> -
<div>
New SARS-CoV-2 variants are continuously emerging with critical implications for therapies or vaccinations. All 22 N-glycan sites of SARS-CoV-2 Spike remain highly conserved among the variants B.1.1.7, 501Y.V2 and P.1, opening an avenue for robust therapeutic intervention. Here we used a comprehensive library of mammalian carbohydrate-binding proteins (lectins) to probe critical sugar residues on the full-length trimeric Spike and the receptor binding domain (RBD) of SARS-CoV-2. Two lectins, Clec4g and CD209c, were identified to strongly bind to Spike. Clec4g and CD209c binding to Spike was dissected and visualized in real time and at single molecule resolution using atomic force microscopy. 3D modelling showed that both lectins can bind to a glycan within the RBD-ACE2 interface and thus interferes with Spike binding to cell surfaces. Importantly, Clec4g and CD209c significantly reduced SARS-CoV-2 infections. These data report the first extensive map and 3D structural modelling of lectin-Spike interactions and uncovers candidate receptors involved in Spike binding and SARS-CoV-2 infections. The capacity of CLEC4G and mCD209c lectins to block SARS-CoV-2 viral entry holds promise for pan-variant therapeutic interventions.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.01.438087v1" target="_blank">Identification of lectin receptors for conserved SARS-CoV-2 glycosylation sites</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Ultrapotent bispecific antibodies neutralize emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants</strong> -
<div>
The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants that threaten the efficacy of existing vaccines and therapeutic antibodies underscores the urgent need for new antibody-based tools that potently neutralize variants by targeting multiple sites of the spike protein. We isolated 216 monoclonal antibodies targeting SARS-CoV-2 from plasmablasts and memory B cells of COVID-19 patients. The three most potent antibodies targeted distinct regions of the RBD, and all three neutralized the SARS-CoV-2 variants B.1.1.7 and B.1.351. The crystal structure of the most potent antibody, CV503, revealed that it binds to the ridge region of SARS-CoV-2 RBD, competes with the ACE2 receptor, and has limited contact with key variant residues K417, E484 and N501. We designed bispecific antibodies by combining non-overlapping specificities and identified five ultrapotent bispecific antibodies that inhibit authentic SARS-CoV-2 infection at concentrations of &lt;1 ng/mL. Through a novel mode of action three bispecific antibodies cross-linked adjacent spike proteins using dual NTD/RBD specificities. One bispecific antibody was &gt;100-fold more potent than a cocktail of its parent monoclonals in vitro and prevented clinical disease in a hamster model at a 2.5 mg/kg dose. Notably, six of nine bispecific antibodies neutralized B.1.1.7, B.1.351 and the wild-type virus with comparable potency, despite partial or complete loss of activity of at least one parent monoclonal antibody against B.1.351. Furthermore, a bispecific antibody that neutralized B.1.351 protected against SARS-CoV-2 expressing the crucial E484K mutation in the hamster model. Thus, bispecific antibodies represent a promising next-generation countermeasure against SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.01.437942v1" target="_blank">Ultrapotent bispecific antibodies neutralize emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Psychological distress and resilience in a sample of Adolescents and Young Adults with cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
BACKGROUND: Adolescents and young people (AYA) with cancer are at greater risk of psychological distress which can impact treatment. COVID-19 has resulted in changes to cancer care delivery and AYA have been disproportionately affected by economic and educational effects of COVID-19, potentially impacting on mental health. Understanding the impact of COVID-19 on AYA with cancer is important to inform care. METHODS: Online survey of 16-24 year olds receiving cancer treatment at 8 cancer centres in the UK in December 2020. We measured: self-perceived increased anxiety since COVID-19, impact of COVID-19 on treatment, life and relationships and used the 8-item Patient Health Questionnaire(PHQ-8), 7-item Generalised Anxiety Disorder Scale(GAD) and the 2-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale(CD-RISC). RESULTS: 112 AYA participated (17.8% of total eligible). 62.8% were female, 67.3% were 21-24 years. 83% were white. 59.8% had previously experienced mental health difficulties. 67.9% received cancer treatment during the pandemic and 33.9% were diagnosed during the pandemic. 78.6% reported COVID-19 having a significant impact on their life, 55.4% on their key relationship and 39.3% on their treatment. 79% reported experiencing some degree of increased anxiety since COVID-19.43.4% had moderate-severe PHQ-8 scores and 37.1% for GADS-7. Self-report of impact on life was associated with greater anxiety during COVID-19 and moderate-severe PHQ-8 score (OR 3.64, 95% CI 2.52 to 19.40, p &lt;0.01; OR 5.23, 95%CI 1.65 to 16.56, p &lt; 0.01). Impact on relationships was associated with greater anxiety and moderate-severe GADS-7and PHQ-8 score (OR 2.89, 95% CI 1.11 to 7.54, p = 0,03; OR 3.54, 95% CI 2.32 to 15.17, p&lt;0.01; OR 2.42, 95% CI 1.11 to 5.25, p =0.03). Greater CD-RISC score was associated with lower risk of anxiety and mod-severe GADS-7and PHQ-8 scores (OR 0.58, 95%CI 0.41 to 0.81, p &lt;0.01; OR 0.55 95% CI 0.4 to 0.72, p &lt;0.01; OR 0.52, 95% CI 0.38 to 0.69, p &lt;0.01) CONCLUSIONS: We found high levels of psychological distress in AYA with cancer, which is important knowledge for clinical teams working with this age group. Perceived impact of COVID-19 on relationships and life was predictive of poorer mental health, with resilience a potential protective factor.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.29.21254529v2" target="_blank">Psychological distress and resilience in a sample of Adolescents and Young Adults with cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>How unequal vaccine distribution promotes the evolution of vaccine escape</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Health officials warn that SARS-CoV-2 vaccines must be uniformly distributed within and among countries if we are to quell the ongoing pandemic. Yet there has been little critical assessment of the underlying reasons for this warning. Here, we explicitly show why vaccine equity is necessary. Perhaps counter-intuitively, we find that vaccine escape mutants are less likely to come from highly vaccinated regions where there is strong selection pressure favoring vaccine escape and more likely to come from neighboring unvaccinated regions where there is no selection favoring escape. Unvaccinated geographic regions thus provide evolutionary reservoirs from which new strains can arise and cause new epidemics within neighboring vaccinated regions and beyond. Our findings have timely implications for vaccine rollout strategies and public health policy.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.27.21254453v3" target="_blank">How unequal vaccine distribution promotes the evolution of vaccine escape</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Proteomic and Metabolomic Investigation of COVID-19 Patients with Elevated Serum Lactate Dehydrogenase</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) has been established as a prognostic indicator given its differential expression in COVID-19 patients. However, the molecular mechanisms underneath remain poorly understood. In this study, 144 COVID-19 patients were enrolled to monitor the clinical and laboratory parameters over three weeks. Serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) was shown elevated in the COVID-19 patients on admission and declined during the convalescence period, and its ability to classify patient severity outperformed other clinical indicators. A threshold of 247 U/L serum LDH on admission was determined for severity prognosis. Next, we classified a subset of 14 patients into high- and low-risk groups based on serum LDH expression and compared their quantitative serum proteomic and metabolomic differences. The results found COVID-19 patients with high serum LDH exhibited differentially expressed blood coagulation and immune responses including acute inflammatory responses, platelet degranulation, complement cascade, as well as multiple different metabolic responses including lipid metabolism, protein ubiquitination and pyruvate fermentation. Specifically, activation of hypoxia responses was highlighted in patients with high LDH expressions. Taken together, our data showed that serum LDH levels is associated COVID-19 severity, and that elevated serum LDH might be consequences of hypoxia and tissue injuries induced by inflammation.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.10.21249333v2" target="_blank">Proteomic and Metabolomic Investigation of COVID-19 Patients with Elevated Serum Lactate Dehydrogenase</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>A network modelling approach to assess non-pharmaceutical disease controls in a worker population: An application to SARS-CoV-2</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
<b>Background:</b> As part of a concerted pandemic response to protect public health, businesses can enact non-pharmaceutical controls to minimise exposure to pathogens in workplaces and premises open to the public. Amendments to working practices can lead to the amount, duration and/or proximity of interactions being changed, ultimately altering the dynamics of disease spread. These modifications could be specific to the type of business being operated. <b>Methods:</b> We use a data-driven approach to parameterise an individual-based network model for transmission of SARS-CoV-2 amongst the working population, stratified into work sectors. The network is comprised of layered contacts to consider the risk of spread in multiple encounter settings (workplaces, households, social and other). We analyse several interventions targeted towards working practices: mandating a fraction of the population to work from home; using temporally asynchronous work patterns; and introducing measures to create 9COVID-secure9 workplaces. We also assess the general role of adherence to (or effectiveness of) isolation and test and trace measures and demonstrate the impact of all these interventions across a variety of relevant metrics. <b>Results:</b> The progress of the epidemic can be significantly hindered by instructing a significant proportion of the workforce to work from home. Furthermore, if required to be present at the workplace, asynchronous work patterns can help to reduce infections when compared with scenarios where all workers work on the same days, particularly for longer working weeks. When assessing COVID-secure workplace measures, we found that smaller work teams and a greater reduction in transmission risk reduced the probability of large, prolonged outbreaks. Finally, following isolation guidance and engaging with contact tracing without other measures is an effective tool to curb transmission, but is highly sensitive to adherence levels. <b>Conclusions:</b> In the absence of sufficient adherence to non-pharmaceutical interventions, our results indicate a high likelihood of SARS-CoV-2 spreading widely throughout a worker population. Given the heterogeneity of demographic attributes across worker roles, in addition to the individual nature of controls such as contact tracing, we demonstrate the utility of a network model approach to investigate workplace-targeted intervention strategies and the role of test, trace and isolation in tackling disease spread.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.18.20230649v7" target="_blank">A network modelling approach to assess non-pharmaceutical disease controls in a worker population: An application to SARS-CoV-2</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Hydrogel-based slow release of a receptor-binding domain subunit vaccine elicits neutralizing antibody responses against SARS-CoV-2</strong> -
<div>
The development of an effective vaccine that can be rapidly manufactured and distributed worldwide is necessary to mitigate the devastating health and economic impacts of pandemics like COVID-19. The receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, which mediates host cell entry of the virus, is an appealing antigen for subunit vaccines because it is easy to manufacture and highly stable. Moreover, RBD is a target for neutralizing antibodies and robust cytotoxic T lymphocyte responses. Unfortunately, RBD is poorly immunogenic. While most subunit vaccines are commonly formulated with adjuvants to enhance their immunogenicity, most common adjuvant combinations have not been sufficient to improve RBD immunogenicity and none have afforded neutralizing responses in a single-dose RBD vaccine. Here we show that sustained delivery of an RBD subunit vaccine in an injectable hydrogel depot formulation increases total anti-RBD IgG titers compared to bolus administration of the same vaccines. Notably, a SARS-CoV-2 spike-pseudotyped lentivirus neutralization assay revealed neutralizing antibodies in all mice after a single hydrogel vaccine administration comprising clinically-approved adjuvants Alum and CpG. Together, these results suggest that extending the exposure to RBD subunit vaccines significantly enhances the immunogenicity of RBD and induces neutralizing humoral immunity following a single immunization.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.31.437792v1" target="_blank">Hydrogel-based slow release of a receptor-binding domain subunit vaccine elicits neutralizing antibody responses against SARS-CoV-2</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>The need for accessibility to chloride to solubilize insoluble salts may underlie some cases of hypertension</strong> -
<div>
Hypertension is the greatest risk factor for stroke. It is the most common comorbidity of COVID-19, and may be partly caused by the widespread distribution of insoluble and stiff calcium salts such as calcium oxalate. As an intrinsic defensive mechanism, tissues in hypertensive individuals increase blood pressure to pump NaCl to inaccessible parts of the body, and chloride, as a strong anion can solubilize insoluble and rigid salts which are stressful to cells.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/z2m48/" target="_blank">The need for accessibility to chloride to solubilize insoluble salts may underlie some cases of hypertension</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>An alphavirus replicon-based vaccine expressing a stabilized Spike antigen induces sterile immunity and prevents transmission of SARS-CoV-2 between cats</strong> -
<div>
Early in the global SARS-CoV-2 pandemic concerns were raised regarding infection of other animal hosts and whether these could play a significant role in the viral epidemiology. Infection of animals could be detrimental by causing clinical disease but also of concern if they become a viral reservoir allowing further mutations, plus having the potential to infect other animals or humans. The first reported animals to be infected both under experimental conditions and from anecdotal field evidence were cats described in China early in 2020. Given the concerns this finding raised and the close contacts between humans and cats, we aimed to determine whether a vaccine candidate could be developed that was suitable for use in multiple susceptible animal species and whether this vaccine could reduce infection of cats in addition to preventing spread to other cats. Here we report that a Replicon Particle (RP) vaccine based on Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV), known to be safe and efficacious for use in a variety of animals, expressing a stabilised Spike antigen, could induce neutralising antibody titers in guinea pigs and cats. After two intramuscular vaccinations, virus neutralising antibodies were detected in the respiratory tract of the guinea pigs and a cell mediated immune response was induced. The design of the SARS-CoV-2 antigen was shown to be critical in developing a strong neutralising antibody response. Vaccination of cats was able to induce a serum neutralising antibody response which lasted for the course of the experiment. Interestingly, in contrast to control animals, infectious virus could not be detected in oropharyngeal or nasal swabs of vaccinated cats after challenge. Moreover, the challenged control cats spread the virus to in-contact cats whereas the vaccinated cats did not transmit virus. The results show that the RP vaccine induces sterile immunity preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection and transmission. This data suggests that this RP vaccine could be a multi-species vaccine useful for preventing spread to and between other animals should that approach be required.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.01.436305v1" target="_blank">An alphavirus replicon-based vaccine expressing a stabilized Spike antigen induces sterile immunity and prevents transmission of SARS-CoV-2 between cats</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Coagulation factors directly cleave SARS-CoV-2 spike and enhance viral entry</strong> -
<div>
Coagulopathy is recognized as a significant aspect of morbidity in COVID-19 patients. The clotting cascade is propagated by a series of proteases, including factor Xa and thrombin. Other host proteases, including TMPRSS2, are recognized to be important for cleavage activation of SARS-CoV-2 spike to promote viral entry. Using biochemical and cell-based assays, we demonstrate that factor Xa and thrombin can also directly cleave SARS-CoV-2 spike, enhancing viral entry. A drug-repurposing screen identified a subset of protease inhibitors that promiscuously inhibited spike cleavage by both transmembrane serine proteases as well as coagulation factors. The mechanism of the protease inhibitors nafamostat and camostat extend beyond inhibition of TMPRSS2 to coagulation-induced spike cleavage. Anticoagulation is critical in the management of COVID-19, and early intervention could provide collateral benefit by suppressing SARS-CoV-2 viral entry. We propose a model of positive feedback whereby infection-induced hypercoagulation exacerbates SARS-CoV-2 infectivity.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.31.437960v1" target="_blank">Coagulation factors directly cleave SARS-CoV-2 spike and enhance viral entry</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Limiting the priming dose of a SARS CoV-2 vaccine improves virus-specific immunity</strong> -
<div>
Since late 2019, SARS-CoV-2 has caused a global pandemic that has infected 128 million people worldwide. Although several vaccine candidates have received emergency use authorization (EUA), there are still a limited number of vaccine doses available. To increase the number of vaccinated individuals, there are ongoing discussions about administering partial vaccine doses, but there is still a paucity of data on how vaccine fractionation affects vaccine-elicited immunity. We performed studies in mice to understand how the priming dose of a SARS CoV-2 vaccine affects long-term immunity to SARS CoV-2. We first primed C57BL/6 mice with an adenovirus-based vaccine encoding SARS CoV-2 spike protein (Ad5-SARS-2 spike), similar to that used in the CanSino and Sputnik V vaccines. This prime was administered either at a low dose (LD) of 106 PFU or at a standard dose (SD) of 109 PFU, followed by a SD boost in all mice four weeks later. As expected, the LD prime induced lower immune responses relative to the SD prime. However, the LD prime elicited immune responses that were qualitatively superior, and upon boosting, mice that were initially primed with a LD exhibited significantly more potent immune responses. Overall, these data demonstrate that limiting the priming dose of a SARS CoV-2 vaccine may confer unexpected benefits. These findings may be useful for improving vaccine availability and for rational vaccine design.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.31.437931v1" target="_blank">Limiting the priming dose of a SARS CoV-2 vaccine improves virus-specific immunity</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>Pilot Trial of XFBD, a TCM, in Persons With COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Xuanfei Baidu Granules;   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Darcy Spicer<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SERUR: COVID-19 Serological Survey of Staff From the University Reims-Champagne Ardennes</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Diagnostic Test: Anti-SARS-CoV2 Serology<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne<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 DS-5670a (COVID-19 Vaccine) in Japanese Healthy Adults and Elderly Subjects</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: DS-5670a;   Biological: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd.<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>ANTIcoagulation in Severe COVID-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Severe COVID-19 Pneumonia<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Tinzaparin, Low dose prophylactic anticoagulation;   Drug: Tinzaparin, High dose prophylactic anticoagulation;   Drug: Tinzaparin,Therapeutic anticoagulation<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris<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>Neuromodulation in COVID-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Device: Transcranial direct-current stimulation;   Device: Sham Transcranial direct-current stimulation<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   D’Or Institute for Research and Education;   Rio de Janeiro State Research Supporting Foundation (FAPERJ);   Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico;   Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Study to Evaluate MVC-COV1901 Vaccine Against COVID-19 in Elderly Adults</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19 Vaccine<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: MVC-COV1901 (High-Dose);   Biological: MVC-COV1901(Mid-Dose)<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp.<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>Immunogenicity and Safety of Recombinant COVID-19 Vaccine (CHO Cells)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: a middle-dose recombinant COVID-19 vaccine (CHO Cell) (18-59 years) at the schedule of day 0, 28, 56;   Biological: a high-dose recombinant COVID-19 vaccine (CHO Cell) (18-59 years) at the schedule of day 0, 28, 56;   Biological: a middle-dose recombinant COVID-19 vaccine (CHO Cell) (60-85 years) at the schedule of day 0, 28, 56;   Biological: a high-dose recombinant COVID-19 vaccine (CHO Cell) (60-85 years) at the schedule of day 0, 28, 56;   Biological: a middle-dose placebo (18-59 years) at the schedule of day 0, 28, 56;   Biological: a high-dose placebo (18-59 years) at the schedule of day 0, 28, 56;   Biological: a middle-dose placebo (60-85 years) at the schedule of day 0, 28, 56;   Biological: a high-dose placebo (60-85 years) at the schedule of day 0, 28, 56<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Jiangsu Province Centers for Disease Control and Prevention;   Academy of Military Medical Sciences，Academy of Military Sciences，PLA ZHONGYIANKE Biotech Co, Ltd. LIAONINGMAOKANGYUAN Biotech Co, Ltd<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Efficacy, Immunogenicity and Safety of Inactivated ERUCOV-VAC Compared With Placebo in COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: ERUCOV-VAC 3 µg/0.5 ml Vaccine;   Biological: ERUCOV-VAC 6 µg/0.5 ml Vaccine;   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Health Institutes of Turkey;   Erciyes University Scientific Research Projects Coordination<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Post COVID-19 Syndrome and the Gut-lung Axis</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Dietary Supplement: Omni-Biotic Pro Vi 5;   Dietary Supplement: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Medical University of Graz;   CBmed Ges.m.b.H.<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 Dose Finding, Efficacy and Safety Study of Ensovibep (MP0420) in Ambulatory Adult Patients With Symptomatic COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: ensovibep;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Molecular Partners AG;   Novartis Pharmaceuticals;   Iqvia Pty Ltd;   Datamap;   SYNLAB Analytics &amp; Services Switzerland AG;   Q2 Solutions<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>Vitamin D, Omega-3, and Combination Vitamins B, C and Zinc Supplementation for the Treatment and Prevention of COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Dietary Supplement: Vitamin D;   Dietary Supplement: Omega DHA / EPA;   Dietary Supplement: Vitamin C, Vitamin B complex and Zinc Acetate<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Hospital de la Soledad;   Microclinic International<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Impact of Fecal Microbiota Transplantation as an Immunomodulation on the Risk Reduction of COVID-19 Disease Progression With Escalating Cytokine Storm and Inflammatory Parameters</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Human fecal microbiota, MBiotix HBI;   Drug: Placebo;   Drug: SOC<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Medical University of Warsaw;   Human Biome Institute, Poland<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>STOP-COVID19: Superiority Trial Of Protease Inhibition in COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Brensocatib;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of Dundee;   NHS Tayside;   Insmed Incorporated<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>Monitoring of COVID-19 Seroprevalence Among GHdC Staff Members</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Diagnostic Test: Serology to determine SARS-CoV-2 infection<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Grand Hôpital de Charleroi<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Favipiravir in High-risk COVID-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: Favipiravir<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Penang Hospital, Malaysia<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>A review on antiviral and immunomodulatory polysaccharides from Indian medicinal plants, which may be beneficial to COVID-19 infected patients</strong> - The emergence of the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 has pushed forward the world to experience the first pandemic of this century. Any specific drug against this RNA virus is yet to be discovered and presently, the COVID-19 infected patients are being treated symptomatically. During the last few decades, a number of polysaccharides with potential biological activities have been invented from Indian medicinal plants. Many polysaccharides, such as sulfated xylomannan, xylan, pectins, fucoidans,…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SARS-CoV2 Nsp16 activation mechanism and a cryptic pocket with pan-coronavirus antiviral potential</strong> - Coronaviruses have caused multiple epidemics in the past two decades, in addition to the current COVID-19 pandemic that is severely damaging global health and the economy. Coronaviruses employ between twenty and thirty proteins to carry out their viral replication cycle including infection, immune evasion, and replication. Among these, nonstructural protein 16 (Nsp16), a 2’-O-methyltransferase, plays an essential role in immune evasion. Nsp16 achieves this by mimicking its human homolog, CMTr1,…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SARS-CoV-2 variants B.1.351 and P.1 escape from neutralizing antibodies</strong> - The global spread of SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 is devastating health systems and economies worldwide. Recombinant or vaccine-induced neutralizing antibodies are used to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the recently emerged SARS-CoV-2 variants B.1.1.7 (UK), B.1.351 (South Africa), and P.1 (Brazil) harbor mutations in the viral spike (S) protein that may alter virus-host cell interactions and confer resistance to inhibitors and antibodies. Here, using pseudoparticles, we show that entry of all…</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>Weak humoral immune reactivity among residents of long-term care facilities following one dose of the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine</strong> - BACKGROUND: Several Canadian provinces are extending the interval between COVID-19 vaccine doses to increase population vaccine coverage more rapidly. However, immunogenicity of these vaccines after one dose is incompletely characterized, particularly among the elderly, who are at greatest risk of severe COVID-19.</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>Transcriptome and Functions of Granulocytic Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cells Determine their Association with Disease Severity of COVID-19</strong> - COVID-19 ranges from asymptomatic in 35% of cases to severe in 20% of patients. Differences in the type and degree of inflammation appear to determine the severity of the disease. Recent reports show an increase in circulating monocytic-myeloid-derived suppressor cells (M-MDSC) in severe COVID 19, that deplete arginine but are not associated with respiratory complications. Our data shows that differences in the type, function and transcriptome of Granulocytic-MDSC (G-MDSC) may in part explain…</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>Sulforaphane exhibits in vitro and in vivo antiviral activity against pandemic SARS-CoV-2 and seasonal HCoV-OC43 coronaviruses</strong> - Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the cause of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has incited a global health crisis. Currently, there are no orally available medications for prophylaxis for those exposed to SARS-CoV-2 and limited therapeutic options for those who develop COVID-19. We evaluated the antiviral activity of sulforaphane (SFN), a naturally occurring, orally available, well-tolerated, nutritional supplement present in high concentrations in cruciferous…</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>TMPRSS2 inhibitor discovery facilitated through an <em>in silico</em> and biochemical screening platform</strong> - The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for new antiviral targets, as many of the currently approved drugs have proven ineffective against mitigating SARS-CoV-2 infections. The host transmembrane serine protease TMPRSS2 is a highly promising antiviral target, as it plays a direct role in priming the spike protein before viral entry occurs. Further, unlike other targets such as ACE2, TMPRSS2 has no known biological role. Here we utilize virtual screening to curate large libraries into a…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Prolyl-tRNA Synthetase Inhibitor Halofuginone Inhibits SARS-CoV-2 Infection</strong> - We identify the prolyl-tRNA synthetase (PRS) inhibitor halofuginone ¹ , a compound in clinical trials for anti-fibrotic and anti-inflammatory applications ² , as a potent inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2 infection and replication. The interaction of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein with cell surface heparan sulfate (HS) promotes viral entry ³ . We find that halofuginone reduces HS biosynthesis, thereby reducing spike protein binding, SARS-CoV-2 pseudotyped virus, and authentic SARS-CoV-2 infection. Halofuginone…</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>BTK inhibitors for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2): A Systematic Review</strong> - ImportanceThe Bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK) regulates B cell and macrophage signaling, development, survival, and activation. BTK inhibition was shown to protect against lethal influenza-induced acute lung injury in mice. Inhibiting BTK has been hypothesized to ameliorate lung injury in patients with severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). ObjectiveTo evaluate the use of BTK inhibitors (BTKinibs) during COVID-19 and assess how they may affect patient outcomes.Evidence ReviewWe searched…</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>Tocilizumab: An Effective Therapy for Severely and Critically Ill COVID-19 Patients</strong> - Background: Tocilizumab (TCZ), a monoclonal antibody against the most prevalent cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6), is an emerging therapeutic option for COVID-19 infections. The present study was undertaken to assess the therapeutic response of TCZ therapy in severely or critically ill COVID-19 patients and its role as an effective modality of management. Methods: The present retrospective observational study included 30 admitted severely or critically ill COVID-19 patients, treated with TCZ therapy…</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>Computational drug repurposing study elucidating simultaneous inhibition of entry and replication of novel corona virus by Grazoprevir</strong> - Outcomes of various clinical studies for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) treatment indicated that the drug acts via inhibition of multiple pathways (targets) is likely to be more successful and promising. Keeping this hypothesis intact, the present study describes for the first-time, Grazoprevir, an FDA approved anti-viral drug primarily approved for Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), mediated multiple pathway control via synergistic inhibition of viral entry targeting host cell…</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>Activation of STING signaling pathway effectively blocks human coronavirus infection</strong> - The COVID-19 pandemic poses a serious global health threat. The rapid global spread of SARS-CoV-2 highlights an urgent need to develop effective therapeutics for blocking SARS-CoV-2 infection and spread. Stimulator of Interferon Genes (STING) is a chief element in host antiviral defense pathways. In this study, we examined the impact of the STING signaling pathway on coronavirus infection using the HCoV-OC43 model. We found that HCoV-OC43 infection did not stimulate the STING signaling pathway,…</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 Drug Ivermectin at Nanomolar Concentrations Inhibits Glycine-Induced Chloride Current in Rat Hippocampal Neurons</strong> - Ivermectin (IVM) belongs to the class of macrocyclic lactones, which is used as an antiparasitic agent. At present, the researchers focus on possibility to use IVM in treatment of certain forms of cancer and viral diseases such as COVID-19. The mechanisms of IVM action are not clear. It is assumed that IVM affects chloride channels and increases cytoplasmic concentration of chloride. This study examines the effect of IVM on chloride currents induced by glycine (I(Gly)). Experiments were carried…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Clinical-Stage Cysteine Protease Inhibitor blocks SARS-CoV-2 Infection of Human and Monkey Cells</strong> - Host-cell cysteine proteases play an essential role in the processing of the viral spike protein of SARS coronaviruses. K777, an irreversible, covalent inactivator of cysteine proteases that has recently completed phase 1 clinical trials, reduced SARS-CoV-2 viral infectivity in several host cells: Vero E6 (EC(50)&lt; 74 nM), HeLa/ACE2 (4 nM), Caco-2 (EC(90) = 4.3 μM), and A549/ACE2 (&lt;80 nM). Infectivity of Calu-3 cells depended on the cell line assayed. If Calu-3/2B4 was used, EC(50) was 7 nM, but…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Novel Compounds Targeting Neuropilin Receptor 1 with Potential To Interfere with SARS-CoV-2 Virus Entry</strong> - Neuropilin-1 (NRP-1) is a multifunctional transmembrane receptor for ligands that affect developmental axonal growth and angiogenesis. In addition to a role in cancer, NRP-1 is a reported entry point for several viruses, including severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causal agent of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The furin cleavage product of SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein takes advantage of the vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A) binding site on NRP-1…</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>5-(4-TERT-BUTOXY PHENYL)-3-(4N-OCTYLOXYPHENYL)-4,5-DIHYDROISOXAZOLE MOLECULE (C-I): A PROMISING DRUG FOR SARS-COV-2 (TARGET I) AND BLOOD CANCER (TARGET II)</strong> - The present invention relates to a method ofmolecular docking of crystalline compound (C-I) with SARS-COV 2 proteins and its repurposing with proteins of blood cancer, comprising the steps of ; employing an algorithmto carry molecular docking calculations of the crystalized compound (C-I); studying the compound computationally to understand the effect of binding groups with the atoms of the amino acids on at least four target proteins of SARS-COV 2; downloading the structure of the proteins; removing water molecules, co enzymes and inhibitors attached to the enzymes; drawing the structure using Chem Sketch software; converting the mol file into a PDB file; using crystalized compound (C-I) for comparative and drug repurposing with two other mutated proteins; docking compound into the groove of the proteins; saving format of docked molecules retrieved; and filtering and docking the best docked results. - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=IN320884617">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>USING CLINICAL ONTOLOGIES TO BUILD KNOWLEDGE BASED CLINICAL DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR NOVEL CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) WITH THE ADOPTION OF TELECONFERENCING FOR THE PRIMARY HEALTH CENTRES/SATELLITE CLINICS OF ROYAL OMAN POLICE IN SULTANATE OF OMAN</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU320796026">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Peptides and their use in diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU319943278">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A PROCESS FOR SUCCESSFUL MANAGEMENT OF COVID 19 POSITIVE PATIENTS</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU319942709">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>IN SILICO SCREENING OF ANTIMYCOBACTERIAL NATURAL COMPOUNDS WITH THE POTENTIAL TO DIRECTLY INHIBIT SARS COV 2</strong> - IN SILICO SCREENING OF ANTIMYCOBACTERIAL NATURAL COMPOUNDS WITH THE POTENTIAL TO DIRECTLY INHIBIT SARS COV 2Insilico screening of antimycobacterial natural compounds with the potential to directly inhibit SARS COV2 relates to the composition for treating SARS-COV-2 comprising the composition is about 0.1 – 99% and other pharmaceutically acceptable excipients. The composition also treats treating SARS, Ebola, Hepatitis-B and Hepatitis–C comprising the composition is about 0.1 – 99% and other pharmaceutically acceptable excipients. - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=IN320777840">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Sars-CoV-2 vaccine antigens</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU318283136">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SARS-COV-2 BINDING PROTEINS</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU318004130">link</a></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Bildschirmgerät mit verbesserter Wirkung bei der Befestigung von UV-Entkeimungslampen</strong> -
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
</p><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Ein Bildschirmgerät mit verbesserter Wirkung bei der Befestigung von UV-Entkeimungslampen, umfassend: ein Bildschirmgerät, das einen Umfang hat; eine UV-Entkeimungslampe, die sich am Umfang des Bildschirmgeräts befindet; eine Stromquelle, die elektrisch mit der UV-Entkeimungslampe verbunden ist; eine Steuerschaltung, die elektrisch mit der UV-Entkeimungslampe verbunden ist; und eine Befestigungsvorrichtung, durch die die UV-Entkeimungslampe am Umfang des Bildschirmgeräts befestigbar ist, wobei die Befestigungsvorrichtung einen Sitzkörper, eine erste Klemmplatte und eine zweite Klemmplatte aufweist, wobei der Sitzkörper mit der UV-Entkeimungslampe versehen ist, wobei die erste Klemmplatte und die zweite Klemmplatte beabstandet am Sitzkörper gleitbar angeordnet sind, wodurch ein Klemmabstand zwischen der ersten Klemmplatte und der zweiten Klemmplatte besteht, wobei ein elastisches Element zwischen der zweiten Klemmplatte und dem Sitzkörper angeordnet ist, um die zweite Klemmplatte dazu zu zwingen, sich der ersten Klemmplatte zu nähern.</p></li>
</ul>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=DE320246402">link</a></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Schublade mit antiepidemischer Wirkung</strong> -
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
</p><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Schublade mit antiepidemischer Wirkung, mit einem Schrank (1); mindestens einer Schublade (2), die in dem Schrank (1) angeordnet ist, wobei jede Schublade (2) einen Schubladenraum (25) aufweist; einer UV-Sterilisationsvorrichtung (3), die an der Schublade (2) angeordnet ist; einer Stromquelle (4), die elektrisch mit der UV-Sterilisationsvorrichtung (3) verbunden ist; einer Steuerschaltung (5), die elektrisch mit der Stromquelle (4) und der UV-Sterilisationsvorrichtung (3) verbunden ist; und einem Sensor (6), der elektrisch mit der Steuerschaltung (5) verbunden ist.</p></li>
</ul>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=DE320246401">link</a></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Gerät zur Unterstützung und Verstärkung natürlicher Lüftung</strong> -
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
</p><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Lüftungssystem für einen mit öffnbaren Fenstern (16) ausgestatteten Gebäuderaum, gekennzeichnet dadurch, dass es ein Gehäuse (18) und einen Ventilator (20) aufweist, wobei durch das Gehäuse eine vom Ventilator erzeugte Luftströmung strömen kann, wobei das Gehäuse dafür eine Einströmöffnung (24) für Luft und eine Ausströmöffnung (22) für Luft enthält, wobei eine der beiden Öffnungen der Form eines Öffnungsspalts (26) zwischen einem Fensterflügel (12) und einem Blendrahmen (14) des Fensters (16) angepasst ist.</p></li>
</ul>
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<li><a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=DE319927546">link</a></li>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Biden’s New Deal and the Future of Human Capital</strong> - The President introduced the first part of his economic program, involving airports and bridges. The second, which invests in “human infrastructure,” could define his Administration. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-populism/bidens-new-deal-and-the-future-of-human-capital">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>There Are No Borders in a Climate Crisis</strong> - Greenhouse gases will still sail right across even the biggest, most beautiful wall. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-a-warming-planet/there-are-no-borders-in-a-climate-crisis">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What Alexey Navalny Is Experiencing in Prison</strong> - As the Russian opposition leader’s health appears to deteriorate, plans are under way for more mass protests demanding his release. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/what-alexey-navalny-is-experiencing-in-prison">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Is Biden Really the Second Coming of F.D.R. and L.B.J.?</strong> - Proposing historic legislation is not transformative; passing it is. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/is-biden-really-the-second-coming-of-fdr-and-lbj">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How Bellingcat Unmasked Putin’s Assassins</strong> - The collective’s innovation has been to recognize that the digital-age panopticon actually works in two directions. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/how-bellingcat-unmasked-putins-assassins">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>The Covid-19 vaccines have done the impossible: Made Big Pharma really popular</strong> -
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/f40EItwDJHyEkZ4q-y2jrKezLL4=/0x0:3200x2400/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69065618/GettyImages_1231696404.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Jason Redmond/AFP via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
But US voters still want drug pricing reforms, a new Data for Progress survey finds.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9J8JjB">
The pharmaceutical industry is enjoying new popularity with the American public after delivering <a href="https://www.vox.com/covid-19-coronavirus-treatment-prevention-cure-vaccines">effective Covid-19 vaccines</a> at record speed, according to <a href="https://www.filesforprogress.org/datasets/2021/3/dfp-pharma-infrastructure-funding.pdf">new polling from Data for Progress</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fJN9UH">
But that doesn’t mean voters have lost their interest in bringing down prescription drug costs, the same survey finds.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Fmce6T">
More than half of voters, 56 percent, say they have a favorable view of pharmaceutical companies in the Data for Progress poll of 1,225 likely voters conducted in late March. Just 24 percent said they have an unfavorable view.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NkcMS0">
That is a substantial improvement in public feelings toward pharma from <a href="https://www.filesforprogress.org/memos/hr3-can-stand-up-to-scrutiny.pdf">a November 2019 Data for Progress poll</a> that found 48 percent of voters had a favorable view of “pharma research companies” and 38 percent had an unfavorable view. In September 2019, <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/266060/big-pharma-sinks-bottom-industry-rankings.aspx">a Gallup survey</a> showed the industry’s reputation in even deeper trouble before the pandemic, with 58 percent of Americans holding a negative view of drugmakers and just 27 percent saying they had a positive opinion.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mZbnyU">
It is not hard to understand why the public is feeling so magnanimous toward an industry that is usually a political villain. <a href="https://www.vox.com/22167841/fda-vaccine-approval-pfizer-biontech-covid-19-eua-coronavirus">Pfizer</a>, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/12/18/22188715/moderna-vaccine-covid-19-fda-emergency-use-authorization-coronavirus">Moderna</a>, and <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22301014/covid-19-vaccine-johnson-and-johnson-coronavirus">Johnson &amp; Johnson</a> have all developed effective Covid-19 vaccines in less than a year (the previous record for vaccine development was four years). Those specific companies are even more popular than the drug industry as a whole: Pfizer has a 65 percent favorability rating, Moderna is at 60 percent, and Johnson &amp; Johnson registers 68 percent favorability.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yMr2LW">
More than 100 million Americans have received at least one dose of a vaccine. A return to relative normalcy in the US by this summer is actually plausible. The industry can rightfully argue it delivered critical innovation at a moment when it was desperately needed (though those efforts were supported by <a href="https://www.vox.com/coronavirus-covid19/2020/10/7/21504134/trump-covid-19-vaccine-operation-warp-speed-debate">a lot of public investment</a>).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ns3ldW">
Pharma’s popularity is a stark reversal from the past decade, when <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/12/17/10436618/martin-shkreli-arrest-explained">headlines about price-gouging</a> induced bipartisan outrage and lawmaker interest in policy changes that would reduce drug costs. But though the public seems grateful for the industry’s work on Covid-19, they are still supportive of drug pricing reforms, according to Data for Progress.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="w7dqJw">
Three-fourth of Americans say they disapprove of how drug companies are handling the rising cost of prescription drugs. And 77 percent said that while pharmaceutical firms did a good job developing the vaccines, they still need to be regulated to reduce drug costs; just 16 percent said drug companies shouldn’t be burdened with any more regulation because it would prevent the development of new treatments.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jxvWcn">
Proposals to allow Medicare to <a href="https://www.vox.com/health-care/2019/10/14/20914388/prescription-drug-prices-health-care-medicare">directly negotiate</a> with drugmakers on prescription drugs, to allow the federal government to <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/12/20/18146993/elizabeth-warren-2020-election-drug-prices-bill">manufacture generic alternatives</a> to brand-name drugs, and to link US drug prices to <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/10/25/18023090/trump-drug-prices-foreign-countries-reference-prices">the prices paid by other countries</a> are all supported by strong majorities of the American voting public.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jrRJxn">
But public support for reforms has not always translated to government action. Pharma enjoys massive clout with Congress and the rest of the federal government. <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/12/7/22158418/joe-biden-prescription-drug-prices-agenda">As I reported in December</a>, the drug industry’s reputation is just one reason lobbyists and policy experts are skeptical about major movement to rein in drug costs over the next few years.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OiExGV">
“Now that it’s looking like we’ll have successful vaccines, drug companies could come out of this pandemic as heroes that saved us from the evil virus,” Larry Levitt, executive vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation, told me. “That will make it harder to demonize the pharmaceutical industry in a fight over drug pricing.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sQNwAX">
For now, the Biden administration and Democrats in Congress are still promising big actions. The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/democrats-look-at-lowering-medicare-eligibility-age-in-healthcare-package-11617109207">reported</a> this week that a provision to give Medicare more authority to negotiate drug prices directly with manufacturers is expected to be a priority for Biden’s next legislative push. There could also be smaller, more targeted reforms that attract bipartisan support, particularly those that encourage the development of generics. And Biden has plenty of administrative authority to set up pilot programs or pursue other policy changes in Medicare and Medicaid that could reduce the cost of medications, <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/12/7/22158418/joe-biden-prescription-drug-prices-agenda">as I reviewed a few months ago</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uOo2z3">
The drug pricing issue is a complicated one, in part because it’s actually two distinct problems. One is the actual list prices set by pharma companies, which most insured patients and health systems don’t actually pay but that still set the top line from which various discounts and rebates are applied. (And for the uninsured, that is their price unless they get some kind of assistance.) The other issue is out-of-pocket costs, or what patients must pay under their insurance plan.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jGwCTd">
But regardless, depending on the specific policy, Congress and the White House risk alienating drug companies, hospitals, doctors, or all of the above when they discuss how to bring down health care costs. That’s why it’s proven so hard to get anything done.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="drVadk">
Activists argue that the urgency of reducing drug costs for Americans has become only more apparent during the Covid-19 pandemic, even if pharmaceutical companies try to use their success with vaccines to their political advantage.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="M2mYWF">
“If there is anything that this pandemic should have taught us, it’s that something should be done. We shouldn’t allow ourselves to think it’s not possible,” Dana Brown, who promotes drug pricing reform for the Democracy Collaborative, told me in December. “Can we literally afford the status quo? For me, the answer is no.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9NQHjv">
The American public has been demanding action on drug prices for a while, with limited success. Millions <a href="https://khn.org/morning-breakout/one-in-five-americans-cant-afford-prescriptions-with-gender-gap-getting-increasingly-worse/">still struggle</a> to afford necessary medications. This Data for Progress polling suggests Biden would have voters behind him if he decided to tackle drug costs, even with the industry’s vaccines set to bring the pandemic to an end.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="14s21x">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uVySRa">
</p></li>
<li><strong>One weird trick to fix our broken child care system</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A child care worker holds a baby as she is surrounded by other children." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/eWHmecCnrM42xuiG15ARbIJY5lw=/328x0:2579x1688/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69065602/header2.0.png"/>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Early education in the US is endlessly convoluted, and a massive expense for lower- and middle-class families. What if the solution were as straightforward as making child care a “good” job?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ba7vKF">
When I graduated from college in the mid-2000s, I moved to Seattle to find a job waitressing. After weeks of handing over résumés, I was still unemployed. Then I saw an advertisement in the local alt-weekly for a teacher’s assistant position at a preschool, just across the street from the University of Washington. I’d babysat, usually for around $2 an hour, since fifth grade. Infants, toddlers, 4-year-olds: I’d spent endless hours with them all, sometimes all at once, sometimes even overnight. I had great references. I got the job, which paid $8 an hour — just over the state’s then-minimum wage of $7.16 — almost instantly.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="d4Qdtf">
In the toddler room, where kids were between 1 and 2 years old, another teacher and I handled the care of a dozen squawking, endlessly curious kids. The job, as anyone who’s worked in a child care center or preschool can tell you, is incredibly physical; I was sore every night in some new way.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zjV1o9">
This was before the Affordable Care Act, and I had no health insurance. I caught colds and flus from the kids, got the familiar tingle of strep throat, but instead of getting antibiotics, I let it ride out, lucky it didn’t get worse. I was living with three friends in a small house nearby and watched as the $500-a-month rent, plus $80 a month for a subsidized bus pass, ate up the majority of my paycheck. I tried to cut costs by grazing on the leftovers of the food provided for the kids for breakfast and lunch. My small savings, accumulated over the summer while working at a dude ranch, began to dwindle.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NbC3ia">
When a friend told me about a nanny agency that could get me at least $13 an hour, paid time off, and a stipend for health insurance, how could I say no? I could’ve taken some night classes to get my early childhood accreditation, but that would bump my pay by a dollar, maybe slightly more. I loved those kids, and I honestly loved the group care environment, which would stand in stark contrast to my long, lonely days as a nanny. But I couldn’t survive on the pay long term. So I became a statistic: one of hundreds of thousands of workers who leave early childhood care and education — an umbrella term for home child care, child care centers, and private and public preschools for children under 5 — every year for higher-paying work, whether at the Starbucks down the road or in the K-8 public school system.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="i2QEbN">
The vast majority of early childhood jobs, at least as they’re currently conceived, are not good jobs. The pay is breathtakingly low: In 2019, the median was <a href="https://www.bls.gov/ooh/personal-care-and-service/childcare-workers.htm">$11.65 an hour</a>, or $24,230 a year. As a result, turnover is incredibly high. A recent study in Louisiana found that every year more than one-third of early childhood educators <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/0162373720985340">leave their jobs</a>. Not for competitors, not for slightly higher-paying jobs. They leave the sector altogether.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NJgioi">
Between 43 and 54 percent of early childhood workers are <a href="https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2018.05493">enrolled</a> in some form of government assistance; in most states, the share of the workforce living below the poverty line is somewhere between <a href="https://cscce.berkeley.edu/workforce-index-2020/the-early-educator-workforce/early-educator-pay-economic-insecurity-across-the-states/">15 and 25 percent</a>. An <a href="https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2018.05493">ongoing study</a> of 49 early childhood education (ECE) centers in Seattle and Austin found that 42 percent of the workforce was food-insecure. Like other fields with low pay and the subsequent stress and anxiety that accompany poverty, workers have higher rates of chronic disease and are two to five times more likely to report clinically depressive symptoms.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="r17mpf">
Child care workers are paid so little, yet the cost of care continues to rise. “Child care is my second mortgage,” one friend, who’s solidly middle-class enough to have a first mortgage, told me. “I’m lucky that I don’t have student loans, because there’d be no way for me to pay those plus what I’m paying for two kids,” said another. Parents love their children’s teachers and caregivers, but when confronted with the reality of their low pay, they also wonder: Where is all the money going?
</p>
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang">
<aside id="H2gnOd">
<q>Early childhood care is a total market failure, and has been, whether we realized it or not, for decades</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H6FPK7">
These are the hallmarks of a broken system. The cost of care places an unsustainable burden on parents, working to hollow out the middle class and close it off to lower- or working-class parents, but the wages keep many practitioners teetering on the edge of poverty, prompting many of those most adept at the work to seek employment elsewhere. Early childhood care is, as one policy expert put it to me, a total market failure, and has been, whether we realized it or not, for decades.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qWGDpg">
How do you fix a fundamentally broken system? It’s not as simple as blowing it up and starting over. The failure is so textured, so tied up in ideas of gender and race, of women and work, of “choice” and “kids are best cared for at home,” solutions thus far have largely been piecemeal: Add an incentive here, cut a cost there, even take the big step of establishing universal pre-K. Some of these reforms have meaningfully changed kids’ (and parents’) lives, but the entire process feels, as Lea Austin, executive director of UC Berkeley’s <a href="https://cscce.berkeley.edu/">Center for the Study of Child Care Employment</a>, put it to me, “like pouring water into a bucket with a hole in the bottom.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IfSrkH">
The first step toward lasting reform has to be a conceptual one, the sort that will have cascading effects on the entire sector and our society as a whole. We can start thinking of early child care and education the same way we think about public parks or sanitation or libraries or public schools: as a public good, foundational to a functioning society regardless of whether you directly benefit from its existence. Like other public goods, access shouldn’t be limited by employment, income, or location, and those who make it run should, at the very least, be paid a living wage.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Z8oDCA">
This scenario is only possible, of course, when and if early childhood care is robustly funded with tax dollars, just as public schools are. To be clear, tax dollars are already being used to inadequately prop up the system, whether in the form of vouchers for parents, pay supplements for teachers, incentives for practitioners to pursue ECE degrees, or government assistance programs such as Medicare and SNAP for child care workers who cannot pay their bills or provide for their families with their current wages. What if we stopped using tax dollars and massive additional portions of our income to keep pouring water in the bucket, and just plugged the hole?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ejQyls">
That sounds like a straightforward solution, and in some ways it is. In other ways, it’s endlessly complicated. The conversations most people have about child care usually start with the astronomical cost, touch on the difficulty of waiting lists, glance toward the difficulty of finding a “good fit” (often code for perceived quality), and then stop. Families somehow figure out a way to make it work, even if that means someone dropping out of the workforce, relying on informal “kith and kin” care, or emptying out savings, and then everyone breathes a deep sigh of relief when the youngest kid hits kindergarten. The struggle to pay for care is acute, but ultimately too short-lived to accumulate political might.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ExK1CL">
That can change. Regardless of whether you have children, whether you have three in care or yours have already left the home, we can identify the burden — and the way it exacerbates racial inequities, sustains the gender pay gap, discourages parenthood, and generally makes life really, really<em> </em>hard for millions of people — and agree it doesn’t have to be this way.
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="bhSdba"/>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RPx6X1">
In the United States, child care (like <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22297809/student-loan-debt-cancel-forgiveness-middle-class">paying for higher education</a>) is conceived of as an individual problem, with individual solutions. There is an alternate reality for the United States, a clear fork in the road we didn’t take. Back in 1971, the Comprehensive Child Development Act made its way through Congress with overwhelming bipartisan support. Building on the success of Head Start, which had launched in 1965, the Child Development Act would’ve made high-quality child care available for all on an affordable, sliding scale basis. Nixon vetoed the bill — a move that, as Anna K. Danziger Halperin, a historian of the child care movement, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/08/06/richard-nixon-bears-responsibility-pandemics-child-care-crisis/">explains</a>, “surprised even officials within his own administration.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uS8TY2">
The reasoning, according to Halperin, was fear from the right wing of the Republican Party that the bill would encourage women to join the workforce, thereby destroying the “integrity” of the middle-class family unit, while also providing solutions that felt dangerously close to communistic, “un-American” care. There was also conservative concern that the bill was an “overreach” into the lives of low-income people, and that its primary beneficiaries were families of color. As Elizabeth Palley, a professor who studies the history of child care, <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/21432940/child-care-bailout-covid-economy-work-parents-great-rebuild">told</a> Vox’s Anna North, “White people don’t want to pay for Black people’s children to be cared for.”
</p>
<div class="c-float-left c-float-hang">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A child care worker’s hand holds a book while reading to three young girls" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/UijHxUWoImZhkp1ynA4YjCVpf64=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22414716/Spot1_v2.png"/>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EJAuMz">
Decades later, patriarchal fear is still alive and well, as evidenced by the state of Idaho’s rejection of $6 million in early education funding in March. “I don’t think anybody does a better job than mothers in the home, and any bill that makes it easier or more convenient for mothers to come out of the home and let others raise their child, I don’t think that’s a good direction for us to be going,” state Rep. Charlie Shepherd <a href="https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/local/208/idaho-republican-votes-against-education-funds-convenient-for-mothers-to-come-out-of-the-home/277-645ae7a7-601e-4557-9d7c-f8df5c22949c">said</a> during the discussion of the bill. “We are really hurting the family unit in the process.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OqeA77">
It’s too simple to just blame a bunch of right-wing conservative men for where we’ve found ourselves; the idea of child care as an individual responsibility was, however inadvertently, supported by feminists as well. After Nixon vetoed the Child Development Act, the broad coalition that had worked to get it through Congress dispersed, including various feminist groups whose focus shifted to getting more women into jobs and combating the gender discrimination that faced them once there.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ko4Svo">
“They stopped fighting for child care, and other sorts of collective issues, and really focused on individual professional success,” Halperin tells me. “When you think of child care as a personal choice, it creates all of these new inequalities. Women of color, Black and immigrant women — they end up caring for the children of professional women. Those professional women, in turn, don’t want their whole paycheck going to child care, so it gets undervalued and underpaid.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FGCxn0">
This attitude has long been part of the critique of second-wave feminism. In its focus on getting women into the workforce, the movement lost sight of the inequities that were reproduced and exacerbated in the process. Indeed, many white, educated women were satisfied with the child care situation as it was, even with low pay levels for workers, because it still fundamentally worked for <em>them</em>. As more and more of those women entered the workforce, regulations that govern the ratio between children and caregivers expanded, and insurance, real estate, and staff turnover costs continued to rise.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9O2tpJ">
Finding affordable, reliable care has never not been a problem for lower-income women, particularly for women of color. But as early as 1979, Columbia professor Jane Price, author of <em>How to Have a Child and Keep Your Job</em>, was referring to the difficulty of finding care, particularly in the suburbs, as “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1979/12/09/archives/westchester-weekly-croton-author-sees-a-childcare-crisis.html?searchResultPosition=1">a crisis</a>.” Price predicted that the problem, if ignored, would only get worse, and she was right. Between 1970 and 2000, the cost of care per child rose <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/1-Investing-in-Children-%3A-Changes-in-Parental-on-%2C-Furstenberg/89d01df48596e4d3e43f4dbaf05a138cafb90dfe?p2df">200 percent</a>; today, the average cost of care for families with children under 5 hovers around <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/early-childhood/reports/2019/06/20/471141/working-families-spending-big-money-child-care/#:~:text=The%20results%20of%20the%20child,and%20Human%20Services'%20definition%20of">10 percent of a family’s monthly income</a>, with many families paying <a href="http://www.freddiemac.com/research/insight/20200107_family_budget_burdens.page">considerably more</a>.
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The pandemic has clarified <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/3/25/22345214/child-care-covid-19-daycare-american-rescue-plan">just how dire the situation has become</a>, and there are hopeful steps forward in raising pay and creating universal or sliding scale programs in pockets all over the United States. President Joe Biden’s stimulus plan includes <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/1/20/22238757/joe-biden-covid-19-stimulus-child-care">more than $25 billion to support child care centers</a> and $15 million in child care assistance to families, as well as a $3,600 annual tax credit for every child under 6 (and $3,000 a year for children between 6 and 17). Richard Nixon he is not; his <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/3/31/22357179/biden-two-trillion-infrastructure-jobs-plan-explained">forthcoming infrastructure bill</a> will have a child care component, too.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Rkbefg">
But any lasting solution to our current crisis demands a shift in our thinking when it comes to accessing high-quality early childhood care: from a personal responsibility to a public good. If you have children, this shift will directly benefit them — but it will also benefit you, as their parent, and whoever else’s mental and financial load is lessened as a consequence. It will benefit employers, who, as the pandemic has shown, rely on their employees having access to reliable care. It will benefit their coworkers without children. And, for countless reasons, it will benefit the caregivers themselves, providing a pathway into the middle class, but only if we transform ECE work into a “good job.”
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There’s a pretty straightforward way to do this: Pay early childhood teachers like public school teachers. Providing quality care is expensive. It just is. In fact, it is too much for individual families to bear — just like hiring teachers to provide care for K-12 students would also be too much to bear, and is the reason we have a publicly funded school system. Even if you don’t have children, you can see the benefits of a public school system. The same should hold true for a publicly funded care system, in whatever form that might take.
</p>
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang">
<aside id="QQtexN">
<q>There’s a pretty straightforward way to do this: Pay early childhood teachers like public school teachers</q>
</aside>
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Right now, <a href="https://cscce.berkeley.edu/workforce-index-2020/the-early-educator-workforce/early-educator-pay-economic-insecurity-across-the-states/">depending on the state</a>, a pre-K teacher with a bachelor’s degree can make up to 50 percent less than a kindergarten teacher. In Vermont, the difference is about 17.2 percent — the sixth-smallest such gap in the country. Lawmakers know it’s still not enough. <a href="https://legislature.vermont.gov/bill/status/2022/H.171">H 171</a>, currently moving through the legislature in Vermont, with two-thirds of the House of Representatives signed on as co-sponsors, aims to close the pay gap entirely, while also paying off existing student loans for educators in the system in order to increase retention.
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The state bill, if passed, would add an estimated $13 million to the yearly budget. As with its <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/21432940/child-care-bailout-covid-economy-work-parents-great-rebuild">previous bailout of the industry</a> during the height of the pandemic, the legislature seems to understand that a healthy economy is only possible with a healthy child care system. H 171 promises to fundamentally remake the child care system in the state: No family would be asked to pay more than 10 percent of their income for care, hundreds would be able to stay in their profession, and it would significantly decrease the 10.9 percent of Vermont care workers who, as of 2020, lived in poverty. Just imagine the effect that a similar bill would have in Tennessee (where 22.9 percent of the ECE workforce is in poverty), or Nebraska (29.2 percent), or New Mexico (27.4 percent).
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“The people who do the work are the linchpin of good child care and good early learning,” Lea Austin, with UC Berkeley’s Center for the Study of Child Care Employment, explains. “The stability of the workers in a particular program, the continuity of their relationships with children, all that is disrupted when we have turnover. It’s disruptive to the children and their families, and it’s disruptive to the centers, who have to do the hiring, recruiting, training, and all those costs, and it’s disruptive to the employees who remain in the program, who have to take on extra work. There’s a ripple effect, all around.”
</p>
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There’s a ripple effect when the job is unstable, and there’s a different ripple effect when you stabilize the job. Decrease the stressors in workers’ lives — their need to worry about groceries or their own children’s care or health care — and they become better workers. This is particularly important for child care and child education, which calls workers to be fully engaged and attentive. “It seems obvious,” Austin says, “that we would want anyone working with children to be healthy and supported and as present with children as they possibly can be. We have to provide the conditions for them to do so.”
</p>
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Most advocates, policymakers, and caregivers that I spoke to agreed that a publicly funded system should not simply require existing elementary schools to extend care. This is where choice can really be preserved: If you’d rather your child go to the home of a certified caregiver in your neighborhood, or someone from your same cultural or linguistic background, those caregivers can also receive funding. They’re entrepreneurs and small-business owners, who, as any politician will tell you, form the backbone of the American middle class. And, in this case, they’re almost all women, and an <a href="https://www.realclearpolicy.com/articles/2020/05/12/the_forgotten_essential_workers_women_of_color_in_child_care_491313.html">estimated 40 percent</a> are women of color.
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“When we talk about universal child care, that doesn’t mean that all kids, from 0 to 5, need to be in school,” Juliet Bromer, a research scientist at the Erikson Institute in Chicago, tells me. “It means honoring these places and spaces that families have long relied on. For some people, that might be a center, but for many, it is not.” Bromer points out that when we talk about “quality,” we often talk about low ratios of teachers to children and accreditation, which is important but misses less quantifiable components. “One dimension of quality, especially for Black and brown children, is being in a setting where you’re really able to see yourself,” Bromer said. “That really happens with home care, particularly for Black boys, who, in a school setting, have to have this sort of vigilance.”
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That’s exactly the sort of care that small providers like Miren Algorri, who has run a child care center in Chula Vista, Texas, since 1997, wants to provide. It’s most possible when she and her employees are making a living wage, which is what she, along with her union, <a href="https://childcareprovidersunited.org/">Childcare Providers United</a>, has been agitating for in the state of California.
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“If we could have quality care, and keep this small ratio, it would be a dream come true,” Algorri says. “To have that peace of mind, knowing that at the end of the month, we’d have some money left to buy a book! I’d have an extra $20, as opposed to wondering, ‘How do I pay my electric bill?’ I live very close to the border, so a lot of my colleagues are postponing their medical checkups, because they usually go over the border to Mexico. Why should we have to do that? Why do I have to put my health on the back burner so I can continue to perform as a public worker?”
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="YZEe6P"/>
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Like many forms of feminized labor, child care has long been thought of as part of the domestic, private sphere — something that comes “naturally” to women and, as such, something that any woman can do well, instead of a discrete skill. I’m personally good with children not because I’m a woman, but because I spent years figuring out how to do the work, and I’m not nearly as good with kids as the people who’ve made this their life’s work. Not even the scarcity of child care over the past year and the rippling effects on the economy and millions of parents’ mental health has effectively driven home just how essential, how valuable, this work really is.
</p>
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“The job of caring for and educating young children is so hard, and so<em> </em>complex,” Lea Austin explains. “People understand that it’s low-paid work, but they have no idea how low. I’ve found myself in meetings, even with people who work in the sector, in various policy roles, and you put out that number, that the median wage for a child care worker is $11.65 across the country, and that more than half of ECE workers use aid programs, and sometimes there’s an audible gasp. When people make that connection and understand the consequences, they find it shocking and egregious.”
</p>
<div class="c-float-left c-float-hang">
<aside id="idZHxk">
<q>“Our work is infantilized and minimized, and the vast majority of it is done by women like myself, a woman of color” </q>
</aside>
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Yet most people don’t make that connection. As Austin explains, “work performed by women and performed by women of color is historically undervalued. We have a convergence of those two categories in the ECE workforce.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4GVLln">
“Don’t get me started on the racism and sexism,” Algorri told me. “Our work is infantilized and minimized, and the vast majority of it is done by women like myself, a woman of color.”
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It’s incredibly difficult to elevate any occupation that’s undervalued. When a type of labor is not considered a skill or is conceived of as something that people “naturally” want to do for free, it keeps wages down. When wages are low, employers have to lower their necessary qualifications, which in turn reinforces the idea that the work is unskilled. In most child care centers in the United States, teaching assistant positions require only a high school diploma or GED, plus a background check. Teacher positions require an associate or bachelor’s degree in ECE, but the pay bump is so small that many who obtain their certification, which extends to children in third grade, move to the K-8 system. Various government programs have attempted to “upskill” the profession, encouraging existing care workers to pursue certification, but the low pay remains a consistent barrier.
</p>
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“I’ve seen providers have to close their doors because they cannot find or pay an assistant,” Algorri says. “I’ve been lucky, but I’ve sacrificed a lot to keep the quality of assistants over the years. It’s disheartening, because providers will have to downsize, going from a license for 14 kids down to eight or six, because they just can’t afford to keep paying, which then causes issues in the community because people need care for infants or toddlers but they can’t find it anywhere.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tGE5uA">
There’s demand, in other words, but at current pay levels, inadequate supply, which can lead to “child care deserts” — places where infant to 3-year-old care is incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to find, no matter the cost — in urban, suburban, and rural areas. In <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588&amp;xs=1&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fbookshop.org%2Fbooks%2Fcrawling-behind-america-s-child-care-crisis-and-how-to-fix-it%2F9781684334278&amp;referrer=vox.com&amp;sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Fthe-goods%2F22360152%2Fchild-care-free-public-funding" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em>Crawling Behind: America’s Childcare Crisis and How to Fix It</em></a>, Elliot Haspel points out that as many as 95 percent of Americans live in child care deserts, where three or more children are in need of care for every available spot; people with above-average income are as likely to live in these areas as people with less income. The number of centers and homes providing care simply cannot keep pace with the demand. Before the pandemic, centers, some of them the only infant-to-3-year-old providers in the area, were closing at alarming rates. As of March 2021, an estimated 20,000 care centers have <a href="https://www.thelily.com/20000-day-cares-may-have-closed-in-the-pandemic-what-happens-when-parents-go-back-to-work/">closed permanently</a>.
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In its current figuration, child care is not a lucrative business. Unlike so many other industries, demand is simply not enough to spark the creation of new businesses. That’s how broken the market is, and without a significant refiguration of funding sources, it’s not going to change. In Texas, like many states, the state workforce commission has allocated funding to subsidize students pursuing degrees in “high-growth, high demand, and emerging occupations that are critical to the state and local economies.” Depending on the location in Texas, targeted occupations include registered nurses, electricians, dental hygienists, respiratory therapists, and many more.
</p>
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As Cathy McHorse, who heads up the United Way’s <a href="https://www.unitedwayaustin.org/success-by-6-plan/">Success by 6</a> program in Travis County (home to Austin), told me, early childhood educators are nowhere to be found on the list. “Child care would qualify,” McHorse says. “But we can’t be a ‘targeted’ occupation because the job doesn’t make a living wage. You’d get the degree, and your wages wouldn’t change.”
</p>
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Betsy, who currently lives in South Carolina, has a bachelor’s of science in child development. She’s worked in the field for 14 years, and most recently worked as a teacher’s aide for a Montessori public charter school, pulling in $19 an hour because of previous experience. She lives in a 600-square-foot apartment with her dog, and had to take on a second job waiting tables to cover costs. “I was so miserable and exhausted,” she says. She lost her Montessori job with the pandemic, but has been making solid money — around $25 an hour — tutoring kids doing remote school. Now those kids are back in full-time school, and she’s applying to preschool teacher and kindergarten assistant positions. The highest she’s been offered is $15 an hour, which, she says, you can make at Target for a lot less effort. She’s decided to drive for Uber Eats instead.
</p>
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Three children climb on an oversized set of number blocks." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/9UFi52s-crLXt1cuXqWhTxehxrs=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22415070/spot1_v3.png"/>
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In Missouri, Danielle has worked as a senior development teacher at a center that doubled as a university learning laboratory for four years, and has a degree in ECE with a focus on teaching young children. Her salary is currently just over $28,000, and even though she splits rent for a small home with her partner who works at a nonprofit, they still struggle to cover costs from month to month and live paycheck to paycheck. Her student loans have been in forbearance since she graduated from college in 2019. She recently watched a coworker leave her position to work at a bank, where she now makes double her old salary. Other coworkers regularly leave for fast food jobs.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LdnnvY">
At a previous center, the director would often tell workers to be mindful of just how lucky they were, despite their low pay, to have health insurance and paid leave. “But these are basic needs of employees,” Danielle tells me. “Health insurance is a need, not a want. Paid leave is necessary for teachers to still maintain their own lives outside of work.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AacZCG">
“It makes me feel so underappreciated that teachers working in K-8 are taken more seriously and paid way more than ECE educators,” she continues. “But there is a vast difference in how our society views K-8 teachers compared to ECE.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="97r2Lk">
All over the country, there are people who feel called to the work, who want to continue doing the work, but simply cannot afford to keep doing the work. Because in the end, none of the piecemeal solutions actually address the real problem: that instead of figuring out ways to make care into a public good and caregiving into a good job, many people still think that women, preferably children’s own mothers, should be doing this work for free.
</p>
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“Here in Charleston, there are many [ECE] jobs that start at $9 and $10 an hour,” Danielle explains. “The profession seems to be looked at as a babysitter, something that a housewife can do for some extra cash,” she says. “But that’s not how we provide quality education and care, and that’s not a living wage.”
</p>
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Over the past 50 years, the decline of the American middle class has been inseparable from the decline in unionized manufacturing jobs, which paid well enough for many families to be supported by a single salary. As those jobs disappeared, more and more middle-class women entered the workforce, spiking the demand for child care outside the home. The two shifts cannot be untangled: As one sector declined, another rose, at least in part, in response. Both were performed by a mix of workers with and without college degrees, but for many reasons, including a burst of anti-union sentiment and a resistance to viewing child care as a skilled profession, the child care workforce did not unionize en masse. Even as the workforce became more and more essential, the jobs never even came close to providing the sort of pay and benefits that made a manufacturing job a potential pathway to the middle class.
</p>
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Those manufacturing jobs aren’t coming back, at least not in any approximation of what they once were.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lNilo8">
Instead of waxing about their decline, we could shift our attention to transforming a whole sector of existing jobs, jobs with incredibly high demand, jobs that serve as the backbone of our personal and public lives, into good, middle-class jobs. This transformation could have cascading effects on the lives of the existing, majority-white middle class, many of whose middle-class salaries depend on the ability to access care. The greatest economic effect, however, would be to open up the middle class to over 2 million caregivers — and remember that <a href="https://cscce.berkeley.edu/racial-wage-gaps-in-early-education-employment/">40 percent</a> are women of color.
</p>
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UC Berkeley’s <a href="https://cscce.berkeley.edu/">Center for the Study of Child Care Employment</a> has calculated what it would cost to transform <a href="https://cscce.berkeley.edu/financing-early-educator-quality-a-values-based-budget-for-every-state/">each state’s current system</a> into one that was “values” based, with a “well-qualified and fairly compensated early care workforce” providing high standards of care. In Missouri, where Danielle lives, the proposed increase in funding would raise salaries for early educators with bachelor’s degrees to $49,626 (on par with elementary and middle school educators) and teacher’s assistants to $29,776. Both positions would come with benefits including paid time off and health insurance.
</p>
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With this proposal, Danielle’s current income would be doubled. “It would change my life significantly,” she says. “It could lead to me living a comfortable, less stressful life. I could pay off my debts, my student loans, and even be able to save for my future.” Doubling pay might seem extreme, but these salary increases aren’t exorbitant. What they are is stabilizing: for the millions of kids in care, for the millions of parents who depend on it, but also for the millions of women who do this work.
</p>
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“The stimulus plan is an interesting opportunity to say, we’re capable of making significant investments in people when everyone can see the need,” Molly Sullivan, the director of national initiatives at First Children’s Finance, says. “We don’t often publicly talk about not being able to afford child care. It’s often a private struggle that we keep out of the spotlight, and I think there’s an opportunity to see this as a wake-up call. It’s okay to acknowledge that what we were doing in the past wasn’t working, so let’s build a system that didn’t exist.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yWF2XM">
That system will be complicated. You can read about <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-12-13/how-universal-pre-k-affects-infant-daycare-costs">what happens</a> when you extend universal pre-K, as New York, Boston, Nashville, San Antonio, Charlotte, and a handful of other cities have, and don’t consider what sucking the older students out of the system does to drive up the price of toddler and infant care. You can deliberate whether the funding should come directly from the federal government or remain the provenance of the states, and how that will reinforce existing discrepancies in educational outcomes in places like Idaho and Mississippi that refuse federal dollars. Some people told me there’s too much demand in some areas with universal pre-K, with the same long waiting lists as private preschool, and others directed me to complicated rules about when a pre-K student enters the system, which then make it difficult to give a kid an extra year, if they need it, before moving on to kindergarten.
</p>
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It’s a tangled set of problems, set against a backdrop of historical and cultural prejudices — and an undeniable part of the current quagmire, as Anna North <a href="https://www.vox.com/22321909/covid-19-pandemic-school-work-parents-remote">recently argued</a>, is the sheer number of hours that Americans have to work to arrive at a living wage. But as Sullivan put it to me, “as a country, we have proved that we can tackle big, complicated, incredibly complex things, from the WPA to the Covid vaccine rollout. This is just an area where policy has not really ventured yet.” At least not in a substantive way that doesn’t just fiddle with the margins — and at least not since 1971, when Nixon chose that other fork in the road, and mired us in our current, broken approach.
</p>
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We’ve shown that we can care about inequities even when they don’t primarily affect us. We’ve shown that we can support public projects even when we are not the primary beneficiaries. If you’re drowning in child care costs right now, probably none of this will get done in time to help you. That’s the thing about conceiving of child care as a public good: It will serve you, someday, in ways you might not yet appreciate. A public good is good, in some way, for everyone. Plug the hole in the bucket, and the benefits overflow.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UGBe8P">
<em>If you’d like to share your experience as part of the hollow middle class with The Goods, email </em><a href="mailto:annehelenpetersen@vox.com"><em><strong>annehelenpetersen@vox.com</strong></em></a><em> or fill out </em><a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScc-Rm_NMsyRPfevs25lhxHFoq2k72fwxyhGpgEOpWbSxZjoQ/viewform?gxids=7628"><em><strong>this form</strong></em></a><em>.</em>
</p></li>
<li><strong>There’s a new lawsuit attacking Obamacare — and it’s a serious threat</strong> -
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/A42ypmjWLAU9iwm-8NNGE49VoIs=/217x0:2784x1925/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69065527/73523183.jpg.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Justice Clarence Thomas. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
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The legal arguments in Kelley v. Becerra<em> </em>aren’t exactly good arguments, but five justices have signaled that they agree with them.
</p>
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Tell me if you’ve heard this one before.
</p>
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A team of conservative activists filed a lawsuit last year which asks the courts to strike down several key provisions of the Affordable Care Act. The plaintiffs’ legal arguments are at odds with longstanding precedents, but the case is assigned to a very conservative Republican-appointed judge. And that judge has <a href="https://affordablecareactlitigation.files.wordpress.com/2021/03/kelley-order-on-mo-dism-2-25-21.pdf">already signaled</a> that he’s likely to rule in those plaintiffs’ favor.
</p>
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<em>Kelley v. Becerra</em> is the fourth round of litigation attacking major provisions of the Affordable Care Act. It seeks to take out several provisions of Obamacare governing which forms of preventive care — things like birth control or vaccinations or cancer screenings — must be covered by health insurers. And it primarily relies on the kind of legal arguments that fell out of vogue in the federal courts more than 80 years ago.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1NPIeY">
But there’s a twist. Though the primary legal argument in <em>Kelley</em> is tough to square with existing legal precedents, five members of the Supreme Court recently signaled that they intend to <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/7/8/21317323/supreme-court-obamacare-little-sisters-clarence-thomas-pennsylvania-birth-control">abandon longstanding legal principles</a> in favor of the same interpretation of the Constitution proposed by the <em>Kelley</em> plaintiffs.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bq0JmD">
The case, which was filed in a federal court in Texas, is being heard by Judge Reed O’Connor, a former Republican Capitol Hill staffer who once ruled that the Affordable Care Act must be <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/12/18/20858157/fifth-circuit-obamacare-texas-united-states">repealed in its entirety</a>. (That case is now before the Supreme Court, and a majority of the Court appeared likely to <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/11/10/21558447/supreme-court-obamacare-california-texas-john-roberts-brett-kavanaugh-amy-coney-barrett">reject key parts of O’Connor’s arguments</a> when the case was argued last November.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="X6VsXj">
So the Affordable Care Act’s preventive care provisions could be in for a rough ride. Their immediate fate rests in the hands of one of the most partisan judges in the country. And a majority of the justices recently signaled that even fair-minded judges should look upon these provisions of Obamacare with extreme skepticism.
</p>
<h3 id="HCy75u">
The Affordable Care Act’s preventive care provisions, briefly explained
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sXnp6G">
Several provisions of the Affordable Care Act require group and individual health plans to cover various preventive treatments and to <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/300gg-13">not “impose any cost sharing requirements,”</a> such as copays, for them. When Congress wrote Obamacare, however, it did not itemize which treatments must be covered. Instead, it delegated that power to three different government bodies.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4Mwusg">
An expert panel known as the United States Preventive Services Task Force (PSTF), for example, has the power to place many health services on the list of services that insurers must cover without imposing out-of-pocket costs on patients. Another panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, may add vaccines to the list. And the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), a federal agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, may require insurers to cover “preventive care and screenings” for women and children.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OV08r1">
Congress had a very good reason for writing the statute in this way. If Obamacare had itemized which health services insurers must cover when the law was written in 2010, then Congress would have needed to pass an entirely new law in order to add new items to this list. Covid-19 did not even exist in 2010, for example. So, if Congress had decided to itemize which vaccines insurers must cover in 2010, it couldn’t have known to include the Covid-19 vaccine on that list. (The federal government is <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210211005937/en/U.S.-Government-Purchases-Additional-100-Million-Doses-of-Moderna%E2%80%99s-COVID-19-Vaccine">purchasing Covid-19 vaccines for public use</a>, but once the initial vaccination campaign is over, it may make sense for private insurers to take over the burden of paying to vaccinate children or teenagers when they reach a certain age.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KWICM5">
The three federal panels and agencies have <a href="https://www.healthcare.gov/coverage/preventive-care-benefits/">placed about 80 items on the preventive services list</a>. That list includes things like blood screening for newborns, vision screening for children, contraceptive care, pap smears, and screening for conditions like <a href="https://www.healthcare.gov/preventive-care-adults/">depression, hepatitis, HIV, and some forms of cancer</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="E6kTC7">
And yet, the plaintiffs’ theory in <em>Kelley </em>could potentially endanger patients’ access to all of these health services — although the full implications of this lawsuit are a bit nuanced. If the plaintiffs’ theory prevails, insurers could be free to refuse to cover preventive care services or, at the very least, to impose new costs on patients who seek those services.
</p>
<h3 id="gMCM9W">
So what are the <em>Kelley</em> plaintiffs’ arguments?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IcMaT1">
The plaintiffs in <em>Kelley </em>are an array of religious conservatives, and what Judge O’Connor labels as “Free-Market Plaintiffs,” who wish to purchase health plans that do not cover some of the preventive services that insurers are currently required to cover.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XE0SjD">
Some of these plaintiffs, for example, object to a requirement that insurers <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/11/private-insurers-must-cover-prep-at-no-cost-to-high-risk-patients.html">pay for pre-exposure prophylaxis (“PrEP”</a>), drugs that are very effective in preventing the transmission of HIV, because those plaintiffs believe that PrEP “<a href="https://affordablecareactlitigation.files.wordpress.com/2021/03/kelley-order-on-mo-dism-2-25-21.pdf">encourage[s] and facilitate[s] homosexual behavior</a>.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="V7rzT7">
The plaintiffs raise a number of legal claims against Obamacare’s preventive care provisions, including a pair of constitutional arguments.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rndZMA">
The first of these arguments claims that the PSTF and the ACIP, the two expert panels empowered to add items to the list of preventive services, are not composed of “officers of the United States” and therefore cannot wield regulatory power.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7hr7la">
The Constitution provides that “officers of the United States” may <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articleii">only be appointed by the president</a>, the “courts of law,” or the “heads of departments.” ACIP members — members of the panel that deals with vaccinations — are <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/members/index.html">appointed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services</a>, who unquestionably qualifies as a “head of department.” But members of the PSTF are <a href="https://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf/about-uspstf/current-members">appointed by the director of the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality</a>, and the director of this agency may not qualify as a “head of department.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sRF5mR">
This argument about whether the members of these two panels were properly appointed, however, could prove to be a bit of a sideshow in the <em>Kelley</em> litigation because the plaintiffs raise a different constitutional argument that is very likely to prevail in the Supreme Court.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TpfnTy">
Under current law, Congress has broad authority to delegate regulatory power to federal agencies. As the Court held in <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=10855858816503634838&amp;hl=en&amp;as_sdt=6&amp;as_vis=1&amp;oi=scholarr"><em>Mistretta v. United States</em></a><em> </em>(1989), Congress may permit agencies to regulate private entities so long as it “lay[s] down by legislative act an intelligible principle to which the person or body authorized to [exercise the delegated authority] is directed to conform.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QJViai">
Dissenting in <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/18pdf/17-6086_2b8e.pdf"><em>Gundy v. United States</em></a> (2019), however, Justice Neil Gorsuch proposed replacing this longstanding rule with a vague new standard that would effectively empower the Supreme Court to <a href="https://www.vox.com/22276279/supreme-court-war-joe-biden-agency-regulation-administrative-neil-gorsuch-epa-nondelegation">veto any regulation promulgated by a federal agency</a>. And, while Gorsuch wrote that opinion in dissent, five justices have since <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/11/26/20981758/brett-kavanaughs-terrify-democrats-supreme-court-gundy-paul">signed onto the general framework that Gorsuch laid out in <em>Gundy</em></a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PdppUH">
The framework laid out in Gorsuch’s <em>Gundy</em> opinion is complicated, and important parts of that opinion are so vague that it’s not possible to predict its full implications. But the heart of Gorsuch’s approach is that there should be strict constitutional limits on Congress’s power to delegate regulatory authority to agencies.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BKFHPy">
A federal law permitting agencies to regulate, Gorsuch wrote in <em>Gundy</em>, must be “‘sufficiently definite and precise to enable Congress, the courts, and the public to ascertain whether Congress’s guidance has been followed.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kwvPnR">
And that brings us to the Supreme Court’s decision in <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/19-431_5i36.pdf"><em>Little Sisters v. Pennsylvania</em></a> (2020). <em>Little Sisters </em>involved a Trump administration regulation that permitted employers with religious or moral objections to birth control to refuse to cover contraceptive care in their employee’s health plans. But, in his majority opinion upholding this Trump-era regulation, Justice Clarence Thomas also strongly suggested that the provision of Obamacare governing women’s preventive care is unconstitutional.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8wlE1g">
That provision, which permits HRSA to lay out “comprehensive guidelines” regarding which “preventive care and screenings” for women should be covered by insurers, gives HRSA “<a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/7/8/21317323/supreme-court-obamacare-little-sisters-clarence-thomas-pennsylvania-birth-control">virtually unbridled discretion</a>,” according to Thomas — a clear sign that Thomas and the four other justices who joined Thomas’s opinion believe that this provision is unconstitutional under the framework Gorsuch laid out in <em>Gundy</em>. (Thomas elected not to strike down the provision because “no party has pressed a constitutional challenge to the breadth of the delegation involved here.”)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zpIwyt">
The other preventive care provisions of the Affordable Care Act — the ones dealing with vaccinations, pediatric care, and other preventive care services — are <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/300gg-13">similar to the provision dealing with women’s health care</a>. And thus they are also potentially vulnerable under the approach that Gorsuch laid out in <em>Gundy</em> and that Thomas laid out in <em>Little Sisters</em>.
</p>
<h3 id="3MFKUc">
So what happens if the <em>Kelley </em>plaintiffs win?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="e3jzcN">
In the short term, it is exceedingly likely that O’Connor will strike down the challenged provisions of the Affordable Care Act. O’Connor hears an unusually large diet of Obamacare-related cases, including the case where he <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/12/18/20858157/fifth-circuit-obamacare-texas-united-states">ruled that the entire law must be repealed</a>, because conservative litigants often intentionally file challenges to Obamacare in O’Connor’s court in the hope that the case will be assigned to him.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2GVMBj">
Yet, because O’Connor so frequently hands down orders benefiting anti-Obamacare litigants, his opinions sometimes reveal the limits of the judiciary’s power to diminish access to health care.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1FC1Bm">
In 2018, for example, O’Connor issued an injunction forbidding the federal government from enforcing the requirement that health insurers cover birth control, at least with respect to individuals who “object to the Contraceptive Mandate for sincere religious reasons.” But, as O’Connor lamented in a more recent opinion, this injunction had little effect “because <a href="https://affordablecareactlitigation.files.wordpress.com/2021/03/kelley-order-on-mo-dism-2-25-21.pdf">few, if any, insurance companies are currently offering contraceptive-free policies</a>.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PLYRmc">
So, even though O’Connor issued an order that permits insurers to offer contraceptive-free policies to people who object to birth control on religious grounds, the insurers themselves have elected not to do so.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="m9JhDp">
A likely reason for this decision by health insurers is fairly straightforward. The cost of birth control is much less than the cost of a pregnancy. Indeed, one of the Obama administration’s arguments for requiring insurers to cover contraceptive care is that insurers would <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/obama-birth-control-rule-change-why-its-not-cave/">break even or even save money</a> if they provide free contraceptive coverage to their customers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="n3PJdW">
For similar reasons, many insurers may still choose to cover many preventive treatments even if they are no longer required to do so. It may be cheaper, for example, for an insurer to pay for <a href="https://www.healthcare.gov/preventive-care-children/">vaccines</a> rather than to pay to treat the disease prevented by that vaccine.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SJGHah">
But not all preventive treatments are likely to be cost-effective from the perspective of an insurance company driven solely by a profit motive. According to the National Cancer Institute, for example, the median age when a cancer patient is diagnosed with that disease is <a href="https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/age#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20most%20recent,in%20people%20above%20this%20age.">66 years old</a> — which means that the majority of cancer patients are over the age of 65 and therefore are eligible for Medicare.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dgrgSs">
For this reason, health insurers may not be willing to offer free cancer screenings to their patients, on the theory that the cost of paying for cancer treatments is likely to be picked up by the federal government.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yKUK5E">
The biggest victims of the <em>Kelley </em>litigation, in other words, could be patients who put off being screened for deadly diseases until after those patients are eligible for free care under Medicare — thereby risking that, by the time the disease is discovered, it may be too advanced to treat it successfully.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4cnc0q">
And yet, given the Supreme Court’s opinion in <em>Little Sisters</em>, there is a very good chance that this fate will await cancer patients and other people whose lives could be saved by preventive care.
</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>Coach Stimac expresses desire to include overseas citizens of India in Indian football team</strong> - The coach cited the Afghanistan national team as an example</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>Olympic torch relay may be cancelled in areas with high COVID-19 cases, says Hashimoto</strong> - Tokyo 2020 President Seiko Hashimoto said on Friday that the Olympic Games organizing committee is flexible for the cancellation of the torch relay i</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>Former India captain Sachin Tendulkar hospitalised, after testing positive for COVID-19</strong> - Tendulkar had tested positive for the infection on March 27 and was in home isolation ever since.</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>Barty reaches Miami final as Hurkacz topples Tsitsipas</strong> - Tsitsipas admitted it was a crushing outcome in a tournament where the absences of superstars Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer and his own recent solid form seemed to offer him a chance to shine.</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>Basketball | Antetokounmpo brothers enter record books</strong> - Milwaukee Bucks spoil Drummond’s Lakers debut.</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>COVID-19 | Restaurants, bars, malls to be shut for week in Pune</strong> - The decision to impose these curbs was taken during a review meeting chaired by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar in Pune.</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>Religious conversion by ‘carrot-and-stick’ against Constitution, says plea in SC</strong> - Petition seeks direction to Centre to control black magic and conversion by intimidating, deceivingly luring through gifts and monetary benefits</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>Floods: CM expresses apprehension over Opposition charge</strong> - He says studies have attributed the disaster to heavy rainfall</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>Mukhtar Ansari ambulance row: U.P. Police lodge FIR against woman BJP leader</strong> - Alka Rai is charged with forgery in the ownership of ambulance used to ferry jailed Mau MLA Mukhtar Ansari by Punjab Police</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>Will anti-incumbency be the joker in the Kerala poll?</strong> - High voltage campaign of the LDF has eclipsed the UDF, beset by internal fissures</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>Dutch PM Rutte narrowly survives no-confidence vote</strong> - Mark Rutte is accused of lying and trying to sideline an MP during talks to form a governing coalition.</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>Belgian police break up fake festival started as April Fools’ joke</strong> - Some 2,000 people attend a party that was announced on social media as a joke, defying Covid measures.</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>Italy Russia arrest: Wife of navy ‘spy’ reveals dire finances</strong> - Walter Biot has made no statement about allegations he spied for the Russians - but his wife has.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>French government condemns reality TV ‘virginity test’</strong> - Marlène Schiappa condemns a scene in which young brides are supposed to prove their virginity.</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>Ieva Lesinska: ‘I discovered my father was a spy’</strong> - Ieva Lesinska faced an agonising choice after discovering the truth about her father.</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>Rocket Report: SpaceX readies Super Heavy, Russia tests new engine</strong> - “We chose the name Dauntless because we believe it embodies the spirit of the company.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1753940">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Not an April Fool’s joke: Theatrical trailer for The Suicide Squad drops</strong> - “The only joke here is on the supervillains who agreed to work for Amanda Waller.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1753962">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The secret to a rat’s sense of touch? It’s all in how the whiskers bend</strong> - Scientists develop first mechanical simulation of whisker/follicle interactions. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1753405">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Xinuos—owners of what used to be SCO—file suit against Red Hat and IBM</strong> - Suit alleges stolen intellectual property in IBM AIX, and collusion with RHEL. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1753868">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Microsoft’s Cortana meets an untimely end on iOS and Android</strong> - This is only the latest development in a series of cuts for Cortana. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1753752">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Sad News: The founder of /r/jokes has passed away</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
RIP Larry Tesler, the UI designer that created Cut, Copy and Paste, died age 74
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/MikeWillHugYou"> /u/MikeWillHugYou </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/mi9ff4/sad_news_the_founder_of_rjokes_has_passed_away/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/mi9ff4/sad_news_the_founder_of_rjokes_has_passed_away/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>Veronica’s husband died young and left his vast coconut estate to her.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Veronica was a very good-looking woman and determined to keep the properties, but knew very little about coconut farming, so she spread the word that she needed a man to look after the estate.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Two men applied for the job. One was the local drunk handyman, Sebastio, and the other was Benedict who was gay.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Veronica thought long and hard about it, and when no one else applied for the job she decided to hire Benedict, figuring it would be safer to have a gay around the house than a drunk.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Benedict proved to be a hard worker who put in long hours every day and knew a lot about caring for coconut trees. For weeks, the two of them worked side by side, and the coconut plantation was soon flourishing.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Then one Saturday the widow Veronica said to Benedict, “You have done a really good job, and the farm and the coconut trees look great. You should take a break and go out and have a good time. Maybe watch a movie or go for a dance. Here’s some money. Have a blast!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Benedict readily agreed and went into town that Saturday night.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
One o’clock came and no Benedict
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Two o’clock and no Benedict.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Finally Benedict returned around two-thirty in the morning, and upon entering the room, he found the widow Veronica sitting in the candlelit hall with a glass of wine, waiting for him.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
She quietly called him over to her.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
‘Unbutton my blouse and take it off,’ she said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Trembling, he did as she directed..
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
‘Now take off my shoes.’
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
He did as she asked, ever so slowly.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
‘Now take off my stockings.’
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
He removed each gently and placed them neatly by her boots.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
"Now take off my skirt.’
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
He slowly unbuttoned it, constantly watching her eyes in the candlelight.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
‘Now take off my bra.’
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Again, with trembling hands, he did as he was told and dropped it to the floor.
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Then she looked at him and said,
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‘’If you ever wear my clothes into town again, you’re fired.’’
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/mememaestero"> /u/mememaestero </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/mhvbrd/veronicas_husband_died_young_and_left_his_vast/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/mhvbrd/veronicas_husband_died_young_and_left_his_vast/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>A dear friend of mine passed away this week. This was one of his jokes: What do you call half of a thousand native American insomniacs?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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The Indian nap-less 500.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Hearte42"> /u/Hearte42 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/mia2rj/a_dear_friend_of_mine_passed_away_this_week_this/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/mia2rj/a_dear_friend_of_mine_passed_away_this_week_this/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>The Bible says being gay is fine, as long as you’re high…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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“A man who lays with another man should be stoned.”
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Leviticus 20:13 ESV
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/chuncky-chungus"> /u/chuncky-chungus </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/miap5j/the_bible_says_being_gay_is_fine_as_long_as_youre/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/miap5j/the_bible_says_being_gay_is_fine_as_long_as_youre/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>I found 20 quid outside the supermarket and I felt a little bit guilty as I picked it up, so because it’s Good Friday I thought to myself, “What would Jesus do?”.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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So I turned it into wine…
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/PogbaIsGood"> /u/PogbaIsGood </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/migsx5/i_found_20_quid_outside_the_supermarket_and_i/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/migsx5/i_found_20_quid_outside_the_supermarket_and_i/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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