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<title>08 December, 2022</title>
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<title>Covid-19 Sentry</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
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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>Questions of ethics during the Covid-19 pandemic emerging from problems of data fraud and health risks</strong> -
<div>
In more than two years of the global health crisis of the Covid-19 pandemic, ethical issues regarding health data have been emerging quickly to the central focus of the global scientific community. Many papers have been retracted because of data problems, including those from prestigious journals. For example, two papers in The Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) were retracted due to concerns regarding the veracity of datasets. Elisabeth Bik, an academic image sleuth, has found that 4% of more than 20000 biomedical papers she checked contained problematic image duplications; her efforts have led to at least 172 retractions. When the lives and well-being of countless people are at stake, and all eyes are on science, such mistakes could be (and have been) disruptive toward public trust, which might further fuel conspiracy theories, science-denying, and anti-vax attitudes. We require health data of good ethical standards, but who will be responsible if such standards are not met?
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/42kd8/" target="_blank">Questions of ethics during the Covid-19 pandemic emerging from problems of data fraud and health risks</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Reduced SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine immunogenicity and protection in mice with diet-induced obesity and insulin resistance.</strong> -
<div>
Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) are associated with an increased risk of severe outcomes from infectious diseases, including COVID-19. These conditions are also associated with distinct responses to immunization, including an impaired response to widely used SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines. Establishing a connection between reduced immunization efficacy via modeling the effects of metabolic diseases on vaccine immunogenicity is essential for the development of more effective vaccines for this distinct vulnerable population. Here, we utilized a murine model of diet-induced obesity and insulin resistance to model the effects of comorbid T2DM and obesity on vaccine immunogenicity and protection. Mice fed a high-fat diet (HFD) developed obesity, hyperinsulinemia, and glucose intolerance. Relative to mice fed a normal diet (ND), HFD mice vaccinated with a SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine exhibited significantly lower anti-spike IgG titers, predominantly in the IgG2c subclass, associated with a lower type 1 response, along with a 3.83-fold decrease in neutralizing titers. Furthermore, enhanced vaccine-induced spike-specific CD8+ T cell activation and protection from lung infection against SARS-CoV-2 challenge were seen only in ND mice but not in HFD mice. Overall, we demonstrate impaired immunity following SARS-CoV-2 mRNA immunization in a murine model of comorbid T2DM and obesity, supporting the need for further research into the basis for impaired anti-SARS-CoV-2 immunity in T2DM and investigation of novel approaches to enhance vaccine immunogenicity among those with metabolic diseases.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.07.519460v1" target="_blank">Reduced SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine immunogenicity and protection in mice with diet-induced obesity and insulin resistance.</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Serious harms of the COVID-19 vaccines: a systematic review</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Introduction: Serious harms of the COVID-19 vaccines have been underreported in published trial reports. Methods: Systematic review of papers with data on serious adverse events (SAEs) associated with a COVID-19 vaccine. Results: We included 18 systematic reviews, 14 randomised trials, and 34 other studies with a control group. Most studies were of poor quality. The most reliable one was a systematic review of regulatory data on the two pivotal randomised trials of the mRNA vaccines. It found significantly more SAEs of special interest with the vaccines than with placebo, and the excess risk was considerably larger than the benefit, measured as the risk of hospitalisation. The adenovirus vector vaccines increased the risk of venous thrombosis and thrombocytopenia, and the mRNA-based vaccines increased the risk of myocarditis, with a mortality of about 1-2 per 200 cases. We also found evidence of serious neurological harms, including Bel9s palsy, Guillain-Barre syndrome, myasthenic disorder and stroke, which are likely due to an autoimmune reaction, as has been suggested also for the HPV vaccines. Severe harms, i.e. those that prevent daily activities, were hugely underreported in the randomised trials. These harms were very common in studies of booster doses after a full vaccination and in a study of vaccination of previously infected people. Discussion: Serious and severe harms of the COVID-19 vaccines have been ignored or downplayed, and sometimes been deliberately excluded by the study sponsors in high impact medical journals. This area needs further study. Authorities have recommended virtually everyone get vaccinated and receive booster doses. They fail to consider that the balance between benefits and harms becomes negative in low-risk groups such as children and people who have already acquired natural immunity.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.06.22283145v1" target="_blank">Serious harms of the COVID-19 vaccines: a systematic review</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Causal Inference of CNS-regulated Hormones in COVID-19: A Bidirectional Two-sample Mendelian Randomization Study</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Objectives: We assessed the causal association of three COVID-19 phenotypes with insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), estrogen, testosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH), luteinizing hormone (LH), and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH). Methods: We used a bidirectional two-sample univariate and multivariable Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis to evaluate the direction, specificity, and causality of the association between CNS-regulated hormones and COVID-19 phenotypes. Genetic instruments for CNS-regulated hormones were selected from the largest publicly available genome-wide association studies in the European population. Summary-level data on COVID-19 severity, hospitalization, and susceptibility were obtained from the COVID-19 host genetic initiative. Results: DHEA was associated with increased risks of very severe respiratory syndrome (OR=4.21, 95% CI: 1.41-12.59), consistent with the results in multivariate MR (OR=3.72, 95% CI: 1.20-11.51), and hospitalization (OR = 2.31, 95% CI: 1.13-4.72) in univariate MR. LH was associated with very severe respiratory syndrome (OR=0.83; 95% CI: 0.71-0.96) in univariate MR. Estrogen was negatively associated with very severe respiratory syndrome (OR=0.09, 95% CI: 0.02-0.51), hospitalization (OR=0.25, 95% CI: 0.08-0.78), and susceptibility (OR=0.50, 95% CI: 0.28-0.89) in multivariate MR. Conclusions: We found strong evidence for the causal relationship of DHEA, LH, and estrogen with COVID-19 phenotypes.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.07.22283193v1" target="_blank">Causal Inference of CNS-regulated Hormones in COVID-19: A Bidirectional Two-sample Mendelian Randomization Study</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Physical and mental health disability associated with long-COVID: Baseline results from a US nationwide cohort.</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Importance: Persistent symptoms after SARS-COV-2 infection, or long-COVID, may occur in anywhere from 10-55% of those who have had COVID-19, but the extent of impact on daily functioning and disability remains unquantified. Objective: To characterize physical and mental disability associated with long-COVID Design: Cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from a cohort study Setting: Online US nationwide survey Participants: Adults 18 years of age and older who live in the US who either report a history of COVID-19 illness (n=8,874) or report never having had COVID-19 (n=633) Main Outcome and Measures: Self-reported mobility disability (difficulty walking a quarter of a mile and/or up 10 stairs, instrumental activities of daily living [IADL] disability (difficulty doing light or heavy housework), and mental fatigue as measured by the Wood Mental Fatigue Inventory (WMFI). Results: Of 7,926 participants with long-COVID, the median age was 45 years, 84% were female, 89% self-reported white race, and 7.4% self-reported Hispanic/Latino ethnicity. Sixty-five percent of long-COVID participants were classified as having at least one disability, compared to 6% of those with resolved-COVID (n=948) and 14% of those with no-COVID (n=633). Of long-COVID participants, about 1% and 5% were classified as critically physically disabled or mentally fatigued, respectively. Age, prior comorbidity, increased BMI, female gender, hospitalization for COVID-19, non-white race, and multi-race were all associated with significantly higher disability burden. Dizziness at the time of infection (33% non-hospitalized, 39% hospitalized) was associated with all five disability components in both hospitalized and non-hospitalized groups. Heavy limbs, dyspnea, and tremors were associated with four of the five components of disability in the non-hospitalized group, and heavy limbs was associated with four of the five components in the hospitalized group. Vaccination was protective against development of disability. Conclusion and Relevance: We observed a high burden of physical and mental disability associated with long-COVID which has serious implications for individual and societal health that may be partially mitigated by vaccination. Longitudinal characterization and evaluation of COVID-19 patients is necessary to identify patterns of recovery and treatment options.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.07.22283203v1" target="_blank">Physical and mental health disability associated with long-COVID: Baseline results from a US nationwide cohort.</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Apixaban following discharge in hospitalised adults with COVID-19: Preliminary results from a multicentre, open-label, randomised controlled platform clinical trial.</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background The role of thromboprophylaxis in the post-acute phase of COVID-19 is uncertain due to conflicting results from randomised controlled trials and observational studies. We aimed to determine the effectiveness of post-hospital apixaban in reducing the rate of death and hospital readmission of hospitalised adults with COVID-19. Methods HEAL COVID is an adaptive randomised open label multicentre platform trial recruiting participants from National Health Service Hospitals in the United Kingdom. Here we report the preliminary results of apixaban comparison of HEAL-COVID. Participants with a hospital admission related to confirmed COVID-19 and an expected date of discharge in the subsequent five days were randomised to either apixaban 2.5 mg twice daily or standard care (no anticoagulation) for 14 days. The primary outcome was hospital free survival at 12 months obtained through routine data sources. The trial was prospectively registered with ISRCTN (15851697) and Clincialtrials.gov (NCT04801940). Findings Between 19 May 2021 and 21 November 2022, 402 participants from 109 sites were randomised to apixaban and 399 to standard care. Seven participants withdrew from the apixaban group and one from the standard care group. Analysis was undertaken on an intention-to-treat basis. The apixaban arm was stopped on the recommendation of the oversight committees following an interim analysis due to no indication of benefit. Of the 402 participants randomised to apixaban, 117 experienced death or rehospitalisation during a median follow-up of 344.5 days (IQR 125 to 365), and 123 participants receiving standard care experienced death or rehospitalisation during a median follow-up of 349 days (IQR 124 to 365). There was no statistical difference in the rate of death and rehospitalisation (HR: 0.96 99%CI 0.69-1.34; p=0.75). Three participants in the apixaban arm experienced clinically significant bleeding during treatment. Interpretation Fourteen days of post-hospital anticoagulation with the direct oral anticoagulant apixaban did not reduce the rate of death or rehospitalisation of adults hospitalised with COVID-19. These data do not support the use of prophylactic post-hospital anticoagulation in adults with COVID-19. Funding HEAL-COVID is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research [NIHR133788] and the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre [ BRC-1215-20014*].
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.07.22283175v1" target="_blank">Apixaban following discharge in hospitalised adults with COVID-19: Preliminary results from a multicentre, open-label, randomised controlled platform clinical trial.</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Remote patient monitoring and digital therapeutics in heart failure: lessons from the Continuum pilot study</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Introduction: The increasing use of digital health solutions to monitor heart failure (HF) outpatients has been driven by the COVID-19 pandemic. An ideal technology should answer the specific needs of a public healthcare system: easy integration and proof of clinical benefit to justify investment in its long-term use. Through a consortium bringing together patients, physicians, industry, and hospital organizations, we developed a digital solution called Continuum, targeting patients with HF and other comorbidities. Hypothesis: A digital health solution combining remote patient monitoring (RPM) and digital therapeutics (DTx) was developed to ensure a better follow-up of patients and to rapidly optimize their medication and subsequently avoid future severe adverse events. Methods: A pilot intervention/control study with a three-month follow-up was conducted. Patients in the intervention group (remote patient monitoring group, RPM+) had a smartphone or tablet and entered in their mobile app their vital signs, weight, and HF symptoms daily. HF patients who either did not have a mobile device or the skills to use the app were enrolled in the control group (RPM-). The HealthCare Professionals (HCPs) used a web-based dashboard to follow the RPM+ patients. They could access the results of a DTx solution to help them optimize the HF treatment according to Canadian guidelines. Results: 52 HF patients were enrolled in this study, 32 in the RPM+: 69+/-9y age, 75% male, ejection fraction 42 +/- 14%. In the RPM- group, more patients had at least one hospitalization (all-cause) compared to the RPM+ group (35% versus 6% respectively; p=0.008). Similarly, the number of patients with at least one HF hospitalization was more significant in the RPM+ group compared to the RPM- (25% versus 6%, p=0.054). Finally, the intervention showed a medium effect on HF treatment optimization (w=0.26) and quality of life for the most compliant patients to the intervention (g=0.48). Conclusion: The results of this pilot study demonstrated the feasibility of an intervention combining RPM and DTx solutions for HF patients. Preliminary results suggest promising impacts on quality of life, hospitalizations, and patients9 medication optimization. However, they need to be confirmed in a more extensive study. Keywords: chronic heart failure, telemonitoring, digital therapeutics, software as medical device (SAMD), remote patient management, digital health, mobile health, algorithms
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.06.22283117v1" target="_blank">Remote patient monitoring and digital therapeutics in heart failure: lessons from the Continuum pilot study</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Non-generalizability of biomarkers for mortality in SARS-CoV-2: a meta-analyses series</strong> -
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Objectives: Sophisticated scores have been proposed for prognostication of mortality due to SARS-CoV-2 but perform inconsistently. We conducted these meta-analyses to uncover why and to pragmatically seek a single dependable biomarker for mortality. Design: We searched the PubMed database for the keywords SARS-CoV-2 with biomarker name and mortality. All studies published from 01st December 2019 to 30th June 2021 were surveyed. To aggregate the data, the meta library in R was used to report overall mean values and 95% confidence intervals. We fitted a random effects model to obtain pooled AUCs and associated 95% confidence intervals for the European/North American, Asian, and overall datasets. Setting and Participants: Data was collected from 131 studies on SARS-CoV-2 PCR-positive general hospital adult admissions (n=76,169 patients in total). Main Outcome Measures: We planned a comparison of pooled area under curves (AUCs) from Receiver Operator Characteristic curves plotted for admission D-dimer, CRP, urea, troponin and interleukin-6 levels. Main Results: Biomarker effectiveness varies significantly in different regions of the world. Admission CRP levels are a good prognostic marker for mortality due to SARS-CoV-2 in Asian countries, with a pooled area under curve (AUC) of 0.83 (95% CI 0.80-0.85), but only an average predictor of mortality in Europe/North America, with a pooled AUC of 0.67 (95% CI 0.63-0.71, P&lt;0.0001). We observed the same pattern for D-dimer and IL-6. This variability explains why the proposed prognostic scores did not perform evenly. Notably, urea and troponin had pooled AUCs ≥ 0.78 regardless of location, implying that end-organ damage at presentation is a key prognostic factor. These differences might be due to age, genetic backgrounds, or different modes of death (younger patients in Asia dying of cytokine storm while older patients die of multi-organ failure). Conclusions: Biomarker effectiveness for prognosticating SARS-CoV-2 mortality varies significantly by geographical location. We propose that biomarkers and by extension prognostic scores need to be tailored for specific populations. This also implies that validation of commonly used prognostic scores for other conditions should occur before they are used in different populations.
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.03.22282974v1" target="_blank">Non-generalizability of biomarkers for mortality in SARS-CoV-2: a meta-analyses series</a>
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<li><strong>Emergence and antibody evasion of BQ and BA.2.75 SARS-CoV-2 sublineages in the face of maturing antibody breadth at the population level</strong> -
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The Omicron era of the COVID-19 pandemic commenced at the beginning of 2022 and whilst it started with primarily BA.1, it was latter dominated by BA.2 and related sub-lineages. Over the course of 2022, we monitored the potency and breadth of antibody neutralization responses to many emerging variants at two levels: (i) we tracked over 400,000 U.S. plasma donors over time through various vaccine booster roll outs and Omicron waves using antibody pools. (ii) we mapped the antibody response at the individual level using blood from strigently curated vaccine and convalescent cohorts. In pooled antibody samples, we observed the maturation of neutralization breadth to Omicron variants over time through continuing vaccine and infection waves. Importantly, in many cases we observed increased antibody breadth to variants that were yet to be in circulation. Resolution of viral neutralisation at the cohort level supported equivalent coverage across prior and emerging variants with emerging isolates BQ.1.1, XBB.1 and BR.2.1 the most evasive. Further, these emerging variants were resistant to Evusheld, whilst neutralization resistance to Sotrovimab was restricted to BQ.1.1 and further supported by lack of Spike glycoprotein binding to this variant. An outgrowth advantage through better utilization of TMPRSS2 was observed across BQ lineages and not those derived from BA.2.75. We conclude at this current point in time that variants derived from BQ lineages can evade antibodies at levels equivalent to their most evasive BA.2.75 counterparts but sustain an entry phenotype that would promote an additional outgrowth advantage.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.06.22283000v1" target="_blank">Emergence and antibody evasion of BQ and BA.2.75 SARS-CoV-2 sublineages in the face of maturing antibody breadth at the population level</a>
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<li><strong>Outbreak.info Research Library: A standardized, searchable platform to discover and explore COVID-19 resources</strong> -
<div>
To combat the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, scientists have been conducting research at breakneck speeds, producing over 52,000 peer-reviewed articles within the first year. To address the challenge in tracking the vast amount of new research located in separate repositories, we developed outbreak.info Research Library, a standardized, searchable interface of COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2 resources. Unifying metadata from twelve repositories, we assembled a collection of over 270,000 publications, clinical trials, datasets, protocols, and other resources as of May 2022. We used a rigorous schema to enforce consistency across different sources and resource types and linked related resources. Researchers can quickly search the latest research across data repositories, regardless of resource type or repository location, via a search interface, public API, and R package. Finally, we discuss the challenges inherent in combining metadata from scattered and heterogeneous resources and provide recommendations to streamline this process to aid scientific research.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.20.477133v5" target="_blank">Outbreak.info Research Library: A standardized, searchable platform to discover and explore COVID-19 resources</a>
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<li><strong>What is the effectiveness of community diagnostic centres: a rapid review</strong> -
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The COVID-19 pandemic directly impacted diagnostic services in the UK and globally. This exacerbated the rapid rise in demand for diagnostics that existed before the pandemic, resulting in significant numbers of patients requiring various diagnostic services and increased waiting times for diagnostics and treatment. In 2021, community diagnostic centres were launched in England. As diagnostic services account for over 85% of clinical pathways within the NHS and cost over six billion pounds per year, diagnostic centres across a broader range of diagnostic services may be effective, efficient, and cost-effective in the UK health sector. This rapid review aimed to identify and examine the evidence on the effectiveness of community diagnostic centres. A prior Research Evidence Map was used, along with the stakeholder input, to select a substantive focus for the rapid review. Comparative studies examining community diagnostic centres that accept referrals from primary care as a minimum were included. Prioritised outcomes included those relating to impact on capacity and pressure on secondary care, ensuring equity in uptake or access, and economic outcomes. The review included evidence available up until August 2022. Twenty primary studies were included. Twelve individual diagnostic centres were evaluated across the 20 studies. Most studies evaluated diagnostic centres located within hospital settings. One study evaluated a mobile diagnostic ultrasound service. Most studies were specific to cancer diagnoses. Six studies covered multiple health conditions, which will have also included cancer. Other conditions reported included: severe anaemia, fever of uncertain nature, and multiple sclerosis. A range of outcomes was identified. 11 studies conducted in Spain evaluated the same type of clinic i.e. Quick Diagnostic Unit and seven studies evaluated the same centre at different time intervals. No evidence relating to equity of access was identified. The evidence relating to effectiveness appeared mixed. There is evidence to suggest that diagnostic centres can reduce various waiting times, including time to surgical consultation, time from consultation to treatment, time from cancer suspicion to treatment, time from diagnosis to specialist consultation and time from diagnosis to treatment. Diagnostic centres could help reduce pressure on secondary care by avoiding hospitalisations in stable patients. Cost-effectiveness may depend on whether the diagnostic centre is running at full capacity. Factors that could determine the costs incurred by a centre include the diagnostic and clinical complexity of patients, and the characteristics of the unit including the number of staff and contribution of staff time.
</p>
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.07.22283199v1" target="_blank">What is the effectiveness of community diagnostic centres: a rapid review</a>
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<li><strong>Perceptions of (inter)personal and collective risk on the adoption of COVID-19 preventative behaviours</strong> -
<div>
Public adoption of preventative behaviours to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 is crucial to managing the pandemic, and so it is vital to determine what factors influence the uptake of those behaviours. Previous studies have identified COVID-19 risk perceptions as a key factor, but this work has typically been limited both in making no distinction between personal risk and risk to others, and in being reliant on self-reported data. In two online studies involving UK residents, we investigated the effects of two different types of risk on preventative measure taking, and collected our data using intuitive and interactive tasks. In Study 1 (n = 199; data collected 27 May 2021), we investigated the effects of (inter)personal and community risk on physical distancing. In Study 2 (n = 553; data collected 20 September 2021), we investigated the effects of (inter)personal and community risk on the speed at which tests are booked as COVID-19 symptoms develop. In both studies, we find that perceptions of community risk, but not perceptions of (inter)personal risk, influence the extent to which preventative measures are adopted. We discuss the implications for government and health authority communication and the importance of community building.
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/vw7ze/" target="_blank">Perceptions of (inter)personal and collective risk on the adoption of COVID-19 preventative behaviours</a>
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<li><strong>Spatio-temporal characteristics of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant spread at fine geographical scales, and comparison to Delta</strong> -
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To better understand the drivers of spread of an infectious disease such as COVID-19, it is crucial to identify the most likely individuals to become infected. The continued circulation of SARS-CoV-2 remains a global concern, however with falls in testing only a small fraction of infections are now being recorded. Comprehensive data from earlier periods may then prove a unique resource for probing finer patterns of infection. To this end we analyse the fine spatio-temporal distribution of over 450,000 cases of COVID-19 in Scotland in waves of the B.1.1.529 Omicron and B.1.617.2 Delta lineages, from May 2021 to January 2022. We use random forest regression on case numbers, informed by measures of geography, sociodemographics, testing and vaccination. We then identify indicators for higher case numbers, showing that despite marked differences in the velocity of the outbreaks, the risk factors are remarkably similar. We show how finer variation is only adequately explained through the use of multiple explanatory variables, implying that case heterogeneity resulted from a complex interplay of individual behaviour, immunity, and willingness to test. This analysis also provides evidence that the case distribution may be biased relative to that of all infections, particularly with respect to local deprivation.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.03.22278013v2" target="_blank">Spatio-temporal characteristics of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant spread at fine geographical scales, and comparison to Delta</a>
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<li><strong>Measuring Intolerance of Uncertainty after Acquired Brain Injury: Factor Structure, Reliability, and Validity of the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale-12</strong> -
<div>
Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) is a risk factor for poor mental health. Acquired brain injury (ABI; e.g., stroke, traumatic brain injury), often brings considerable uncertainty and increased mood disorder vulnerability. The Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale-12 (IUS-12) is a brief, well-validated measure of IU argued to comprise two subscales, Prospective Anxiety and Inhibitory Anxiety. Here, for the first time, we investigated its reliability and validity (N = 118), and factor structure (N = 176), in ABI. Both subscales had high test-retest reliability (ICCs of 0.75 and 0.86) and were significantly associated with mood disorder symptoms. The two-factor model was superior to a one-factor IU model fit. IUS-12 scores were stable despite great uncertainties of COVID-19, consistent with its conceptualisation as a trait. Consistent with recent debates about the factor structure of IUS-12 and, in exploratory analyses, we found indications of improved fits that warrant further investigation in independent ABI samples.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/qjx25/" target="_blank">Measuring Intolerance of Uncertainty after Acquired Brain Injury: Factor Structure, Reliability, and Validity of the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale-12</a>
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<li><strong>Stress, Mood, and Smartphone Use in University Students: A 12-week Longitudinal Study</strong> -
<div>
The current study used device-logged screen time records to measure week-to-week within-person associations between stress and smartphone use in undergraduate students (N = 187, Mage = 20.1) during Fall 2020, focusing on differences across types of app used and whether accumulated screen use each week predicted end-of-week mood states. Participants uploaded weekly screenshots from their “Screen Time” settings display and completed surveys measuring stress, mood, and COVID-19 experiences. Results of multilevel models showed no week-to-week change in smartphone hours of use or device pickups. Higher stress levels were not concurrently associated with heavier smartphone use, either overall or by type of app. Heavier smartphone use in a given week did not predict end-of-week mood states, but students who tended to spend more time on their phones in general reported slightly worse moods—a between-person effect potentially reflecting deficits in well-being that are present in students’ offline lives as well. Our findings contribute to a growing scholarly consensus that time spent on smartphones tells us little about young people’s well-being.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/frvpb/" target="_blank">Stress, Mood, and Smartphone Use in University Students: A 12-week Longitudinal Study</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 Clinical Trial to Explore Efficacy and Safety of Pyramax in Mild to Moderate COVID-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: Pyramax<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Shin Poong Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.<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>Animation Supported COVID-19 Education</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Pandemic<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: Animation-Supported Education<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Siirt University<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>CareSuperb COVID-19 Antigen Test Usability</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Device: CareSuperb COVID-19 Antigen Home Test Kit<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   AccessBio, Inc.<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>COVID-19 Huashi Baidu Formula Clinical Study</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Huashi Baidu Granule;   Drug: Monapiravir<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Xiyuan Hospital of China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences;   Beijing YouAn Hospital;   Kossamak Hospital;   Kamuzu University of Health Sciences<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Shaping Care Home COVID-19 Testing Policy</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Diagnostic Test: Lateral Flow Device<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   University College, London<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>Asunercept for the Treatment of Patients With Moderate to Severe COVID-19 Disease</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Asunercept;   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Apogenix AG<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>Study in Adults to Assess the Safety and Efficacy of Inhaled IBIO123, for Post-exposure Prophylaxis of COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: IBIO123;   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Immune Biosolutions Inc<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Feasibility and Usability of COVID-19 Antigen RDTs in Uganda</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Pandemic<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Diagnostic Test: PMC Sure Status COVID-19 Antigen Test;   Diagnostic Test: Acon Flowflex COVID-19 Antigen Home Test<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   PATH<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>The Roles of Vitamin D and Microbiome in Children With Post-acute COVID-19 Syndromes (PACS) and Long COVID</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Post-acute COVID-19 Syndromes<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Other: Vitamin D;   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   China Medical University Hospital<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Study to Learn About Bivalent COVID-19 RNA Vaccine Candidate(s) in Healthy Infants and Children</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Bivalent BNT162b2 (original/Omicron BA.4/BA.5) 3 microgram dose;   Biological: Bivalent BNT162b2 (original/Omicron BA.4/BA.5) 6 microgram dose;   Biological: Bivalent BNT162b2 (original/Omicron BA.4/BA.5) 10 microgram dose;   Biological: Bivalent BNT162b2 (original/Omicron BA.4/BA.5) 1 microgram dose<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   BioNTech SE;   Pfizer<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SUNRISE-3: Efficacy and Safety of Bemnifosbuvir in High-Risk Outpatients With COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   SARS CoV 2 Infection;   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Bemnifosbuvir (BEM);   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Atea Pharmaceuticals, Inc.<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Evaluation of an Integrative Medicine Outpatient Clinical Setting for Post-COVID-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   Fatigue<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Behavioral: outpatient clinic with multimodal integrative medicine and naturopathy for post-COVID-19 patients;   Other: waiting group<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Universität Duisburg-Essen<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Study to Evaluate the Efficacy, Safety, and Immunogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 Variant (BA.4 /5) mRNA Vaccine</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: ABO1020;   Biological: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Suzhou Abogen Biosciences Co., Ltd.<br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Prednisolone and Vitamin B1/6/12 in Patients With Post-Covid-Syndrome</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Post-COVID-19 Syndrome<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Prednisolone 20 mg/ 5 mg;   Drug: Vitamin B compound (100mg B1, 50 mg B6, 500 µg B12);   Drug: Placebo for Vitamin B compound;   Drug: Placebo for Prednisolon<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Wuerzburg University Hospital;   University Hospital Tuebingen;   University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein<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>Clinical Evaluation of the Panbio™ COVID-19/Flu A&amp;B Rapid Panel Professional Use Product Using Mid-Turbinate Nasal Swabs</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   Influenza A;   Influenza Type B<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Diagnostic Test: Panbio™<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Abbott Rapid Dx<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-pubmed">From PubMed</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Influenza A virus modulates ACE2 expression and SARS-CoV-2 infectivity in human cardiomyocytes</strong> - No abstract</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Screening of Selected Stingless Bee Honey Varieties for ACE2-Spike Protein-Binding Inhibition Activity: A Potential Preventive Medicine Against SARS-Cov-2 Infection</strong> - No abstract</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Steroid treatment suppresses the CD4<sup>+</sup> T-cell response to the third dose of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine in systemic autoimmune rheumatic disease patients</strong> - No abstract</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Desloratadine, an FDA-approved cationic amphiphilic drug, inhibits SARS-CoV-2 infection in cell culture and primary human nasal epithelial cells by blocking viral entry</strong> - No abstract</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SARS-CoV-2 Non-Structural Protein 1(NSP1) Mutation Virulence and Natural Selection: Evolutionary Trends in the Six Continents</strong> - No abstract</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Antibody feedback regulates immune memory after SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination</strong> - No abstract</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Mechanistic investigation of SARS-CoV-2 main protease to accelerate design of covalent inhibitors</strong> - No abstract</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>FXR inhibition may protect from SARS-CoV-2 infection by reducing ACE2</strong> - No abstract</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The impact of sphinogosine-1-phosphate receptor modulators on COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2 vaccination</strong> - No abstract</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Correction: A Truncated Receptor-Binding Domain of MERS-CoV Spike Protein Potently Inhibits MERS-CoV Infection and Induces Strong Neutralizing Antibody Responses: Implication for Developing Therapeutics and Vaccines</strong> - No abstract</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Efficacy and Safety of Pacritinib vs Placebo for Patients With Severe COVID-19: A Phase 2 Randomized Clinical Trial</strong> - No abstract</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Sertraline Is an Effective SARS-CoV-2 Entry Inhibitor Targeting the Spike Protein</strong> - No abstract</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Real-time monitoring of enzyme-catalyzed phosphoribosylation of anti-influenza prodrug favipiravir by time-lapse NMR spectroscopy</strong> - No abstract</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Development of a live biotherapeutic throat spray with lactobacilli targeting respiratory viral infections</strong> - No abstract</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Establishment of Quality Evaluation Method for Yinqiao Powder: A Herbal Formula against COVID-19 in China</strong> - No abstract</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How Raphael Warnock Defeated Herschel Walker in Georgia’s U.S. Senate Runoff</strong> - The race was a test of candidate quality in an era of fierce partisanship, and it remained, until the end, extremely close. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-political-scene/how-raphael-warnock-defeated-herschel-walker-in-georgias-us-senate-runoff">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Harvey Weinstein, the Monster of #MeToo</strong> - If Weinstein is acquitted in L.A., it will be tempting to conclude that #MeToo is over. But, even if he is convicted, some may reach the same conclusion. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-los-angeles/harvey-weinstein-the-monster-of-metoo-trial-los-angeles">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Averted National Rail Strike Is a Parable of Contemporary American Capitalism</strong> - Railroads are prioritizing payments to Wall Street stockholders over everything else, including serving the public interest. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-averted-national-rail-strike-is-a-parable-of-contemporary-american-capitalism">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Some Lessons from Herschel Walker’s Campaign Debacle in Georgia</strong> - The Senate candidate’s weak performance relative to his fellow-Republicans provides strong evidence that the biggest impediment to his campaign was himself. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/some-lessons-from-herschel-walkers-campaign-debacle-in-georgia">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How Dissent Grows in China</strong> - The protests of recent weeks carry an echo, and a warning, from the Maoist era. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/how-dissent-grows-in-china">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Elon Musk’s tunnels to nowhere</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Elon Musk standing at the entrance to a car tunnel." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/uoAyHZkXobK0dFAs5mRignVnPMw=/444x0:4000x2667/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71725393/GettyImages_1074387594.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Elon Musk opened the first Boring Company tunnel in Hawthorne, California in 2018. | Robyn Beck via Bloomberg
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The billionaire dug himself into a hole with the Boring Company.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Y2q2fp">
In late 2016, billionaire Elon Musk was sitting in traffic on West Los Angeles’s notoriously clogged 405 freeway while shuttling between one of his Bel Air mansions and SpaceX’s headquarters in nearby Hawthorne. Fed up with “soul-destroying traffic,” he initially suggested adding another layer to the 405 before <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2016/12/17/13993754/elon-musk-tunnel-boring-tesla-spacex">tweeting out</a> an even more far-fetched idea: a 3D network of <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/elon_musk_the_future_we_re_building_and_boring?language=en">tunnels</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rbSeA1">
The idea is even more <a href="https://www.vox.com/2017/4/28/15475636/elon-musk-boring-company-tunnels-ted">complicated</a> than it sounds: Teslas would drive from the street onto elevator platforms called car “skates,” be lowered to tunnels below ground, and be propelled autonomously at 120 to 150 miles per hour to their destinations, while their passengers relaxed. Thus was launched <a href="https://www.boringcompany.com/">the Boring Company</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1HnE3y">
Musk’s new company <a href="https://archive.curbed.com/2020/1/8/21046929/elon-musk-ces-vegas-boring-company">bought</a> a machine and started boring a tunnel under Hawthorne. An opening party for the test tunnel in late 2018 received <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/19/18148061/boring-tunnel-test-drive-hawthorne-tesla-elon-musk">mixed reviews</a>. The path was bumpy; the cars did not drive themselves, and they never went faster than 40 miles an hour.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="s9q2te">
In the years since, the company built a 1.7-mile-long tunnel under the Las Vegas convention center, in which passengers are ferried back and forth in human-driven Teslas. Proposed projects in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/11/28/boring-company-cancels-plans-open-one-its-los-angeles-test-tunnels/">Los Angeles</a>, <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-elon-musk-hyperloop-las-vegas-20201014-asq4yai5qvdkhlhxfzyahq6sm4-story.html">Chicago</a>, and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/elon-musk-hyperloop/2021/04/16/b340314e-9edd-11eb-9d05-ae06f4529ece_story.html">Baltimore</a> were scrapped. But that hasn’t stopped cities large and small, in <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-07-27/elon-musk-abandons-plans-for-ontario-airport-tunnel">California</a>, <a href="https://spectrumnews1.com/ky/louisville/news/2022/12/01/proposal-could-bring-underground-tunnels-to-louisville">Kentucky</a>, <a href="https://www.statesman.com/story/business/technology/2022/11/08/elon-musk-tunnel-austin-tx-plans-canceled/69616709007/">Texas</a>, <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22569190/elon-musk-boring-company-tunnels-hyperloop-tesla-climate-change-forida">Florida</a>, and elsewhere, from expressing interest in building tunnels for cars. But as Curbed’s Alissa Walker explains on <a href="https://www.vox.com/today-explained"><em>Today, Explained</em></a>, the company is continually ghosting these cities once they bump into permitting issues or other infrastructural complexities.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="t2Kh8R">
Below is an excerpt of the conversation, edited for length and clarity. There’s much more in the full podcast, so listen to<em> </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/today-explained"><em>Today, Explained</em></a> wherever you get podcasts, including <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/today-explained/id1346207297">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9yc3MuYXJ0MTkuY29tL3RvZGF5LWV4cGxhaW5lZA==">Google Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/3pXx5SXzXwJxnf4A5pWN2A">Spotify</a>, and <a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/vox/today-explained">Stitcher</a>.
</p>
<div id="QhblhJ">
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="miLWUc">
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="IKNgXH"/>
<h4 id="UHORfy">
Noel King
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="powUwg">
When does this idea become real?
</p>
<h4 id="EXqKED">
Alissa Walker
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IhS4MJ">
He did actually buy a tunnel-boring machine. It was a second-hand machine that was used to dig sewer tunnels in Northern California. And he starts digging in the SpaceX property, which is, you know, right near LAX, in a different city, though, named Hawthorne. And he creates this whole culture around this new company that he names the Boring Company.
</p>
<h4 id="ZKpeOI">
Noel King
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1lQyKq">
So he gets a digging machine, which I’m imagining, tell me if I’m wrong — Do you remember the movie <em>Tremors</em>?
</p>
<h4 id="GDVu2X">
Alissa Walker
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="njWt8d">
I do. I do.
</p>
<h4 id="S8Imc7">
Noel King
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AyTGIZ">
Okay. Is it like the monster from <em>Tremors</em>? It’s just, like, big and round, and it pushes through the earth?
</p>
<h4 id="4hOfh4">
Alissa Walker
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RCYhwd">
Yeah, it chews through the ground. And that’s exactly right. You have to dig a big hole, you kind of drop it down into the ground. Then it uses these, like, large metal teeth to chew through the substrate.
</p>
<h4 id="RiwOed">
Noel King
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="68ME1l">
Okay. So he gets his <em>Tremors</em> monster. And then there is another step required here, which is convincing people, elected officials in various parts of the country, to let him dig with it. How does he go about doing that?
</p>
<h4 id="3B4jaX">
Alissa Walker
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uq1hGX">
At the beginning, he’s just in the city of Hawthorne, which is this very small city. It does a lot of work with these aerospace companies that have always been there. So they’re probably excited about it. They see this as a way of supporting innovation. They sign off. It’s just under the SpaceX property. That’s not a problem. But then it goes under the city, and you see this just really tremendous excitement from LA elected officials. The council members actually grant him an environmental review exemption to be able to do a test dig within the city of LA area. And then you see the mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, posts some tweets about how supportive he is of the project.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="F3K5Me">
Then you start to see all this interest from other cities, representatives who do these types of projects in other cities, are coming to this test digging site, and trying to figure out like, well, what’s he doing here? Maybe we can get in on this. We need tunnels, we have traffic, you know, where do we sign up?
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A Tesla emerges from the Boring Company tunnel outside of the Las Vegas Convention Center West Station." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/BzbB9BpL8egiGsjRo6yU66EP4_g=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24274256/GettyImages_1311708766.jpg"/> <cite>Ethan Miller/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
A Tesla emerges from the Boring Company tunnel outside of the Las Vegas Convention Center West Station.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h4 id="jx4X8J">
Noel King
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Wn6tHI">
So he begins in Los Angeles, and as you’ve said, it’s a great opportunity to dig a tunnel and make something happen. Does he and his digger, do they make a bunch of really awesome tunnels really quickly?
</p>
<h4 id="IMLwn2">
Alissa Walker
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jh9Q8D">
That’s the one thing I think is still up for debate. I mean, the big claim from the Boring Company was that they’d be able to dig faster, more efficiently, and cheaper than the way that cities were already doing it. And it’s not clear yet if they’re able to introduce any type of innovation to the tunnel boring process. But the bigger problem is these challenges that come from political, legal, environmental obstacles. And that’s what Musk himself started to run up against.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XKheDK">
What happened in LA was kind of what happens to a lot of these projects. A group of neighbors who live on the west side, near that 405 freeway that is perpetually clogged with traffic, sued to stop it. It’s a very wealthy group of neighbors who were worried about the idea of somebody tunneling under their properties. But I will say also, there were a lot of local groups that just said, “Hey, this isn’t actually going to stop traffic.” This isn’t the way we fix this. We actually need to think about a better solution that’s going to be available to more people. And it was never very clear about who was going to be able to use the tunnels and what kind of vehicle was going to travel in them and how fast you were going. All these numbers changed all the time. And when it came down to actually pinning down what would be going on in there, and when they had the debut of this test tunnel at the end of 2018, it was actually just a regular Tesla driving through a paved tunnel.
</p>
<h4 id="SlFoOS">
Noel King
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kmfvQw">
All right. So in Los Angeles, things get hung up with a lawsuit, but other cities do get on board?
</p>
<h4 id="Evm9GD">
Alissa Walker
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bUgMXq">
Yeah, their first paying customer came along, and it might not surprise you that it was Las Vegas. They were planning a large expansion to their convention center and decided that they needed some kind of transportation system to get people from one side to another. And the Boring Company comes along and says, hey, we can build you one of these systems that goes underneath the convention center. It’s less than two miles long from one end to the other. So they underbid significantly compared to other proposals, they get the job, and they get to work, starting with their first paying customer for about $50 million. Then the Boring Company proposed this giant 30-mile system that’s going all over Vegas, and that is actually starting to be dug. You can actually ride from the convention center under the strip and you can pop up in a casino across the street now.
</p>
<h4 id="0CXILk">
Noel King
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0k3Crq">
Las Vegas is a place where it actually happened! But Elon Musk is also trying to convince other cities. Where did it not work?
</p>
<h4 id="R12tkN">
Alissa Walker
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uqpJUQ">
Elon Musk had gone to Chicago and met with Mayor Rahm Emanuel at the time and was proposing a tunnel that would go from the downtown area to O’Hare Airport. They were saying it was going to cost up to a billion dollars and that the Boring Company would pay for all of it. In December of 2018, with the opening of the test tunnel, we had these alderpeople from Chicago come to the opening, and their reviews weren’t so good. One of them said, “It was a little bumpy. There have to be more questions answered before we can begin a type of project like that.” And one of them even said, “If you look at Elon Musk’s career, he comes off as a grifter.” So when Lori Lightfoot was elected mayor after Rahm Emanuel left office, she actually killed the tunnel immediately.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lx7Ukf">
You have a place like Maryland where Governor Larry Hogan recorded this video of him standing in this field with a chain link fence around him with the sign that says the Boring Company, saying that he thinks they’re going to come build a tunnel from Baltimore to DC.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hv0PjP">
You have officials from Florida, the mayor of Miami and the mayor of Fort Lauderdale, basically replying to Musk on Twitter saying, “Oh, we need tunnels, we have bad traffic. Why don’t you come bring some of that here?” And they are actually moving forward on a project in Fort Lauderdale that would be tunneling from the downtown area to the beach.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9w8vYF">
And then you also have a situation like we had in the Inland Empire here outside of LA with the Ontario Airport, where they weren’t even talking about tunnels. And somebody from the Boring Company came to them and said, “Oh, we can help you build a tunnel transportation system that gets from the airport terminal to the local commuter rail station.” And it’s something they’re actually continuing to pursue, even though the Boring Company completely bailed on them.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AmQWga">
You also have what they’re doing in Texas, which is where they relocated the Boring Company headquarters to, outside of Austin. And they are basically going to cities of every size in Texas and really soliciting tunnels, saying like, “How can we solve your tunneling problems? We want to propose tunnels for all of your tunneling needs.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JQC1C7">
We also have situations like where there’s a candidate for governor in Kentucky who is just proposing that he wants to build Boring Company tunnels under the ground throughout the state. They now have people taking this idea and saying they want to be part of it and saying they want these tunnels for cars underneath their cities just because they seem to think that this is going to solve some kind of traffic problem.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A Tesla drives through the entrance of a Boring Company tunnel underneath the Las Vegas Convention Center." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ymfxcwNGmDrnDKsHShC4vtJuOpc=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24274257/GettyImages_1311709612.jpg"/> <cite>Ethan Miller/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
A Tesla drives through the entrance of a Boring Company tunnel underneath the Las Vegas Convention Center.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h4 id="kWlfr2">
Noel King
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BgUGb7">
Is Wall Street interested in the Boring Company? Is it getting investment?
</p>
<h4 id="5MNdg3">
Alissa Walker
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zkxBlI">
The Boring Company has gotten a huge round of investment. Just this year, in fact, Sequoia Capital, which is one of the biggest VC investors, they’re pouring a lot of money into it, and a bunch of real estate developers that maybe want to integrate it into their new developments. And so it now has a valuation of $5.5 billion, if you can believe it.
</p>
<h4 id="MutrHM">
Noel King
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="usjLbA">
You know, Alissa, I can’t help but think of a particular <em>Simpsons</em> episode. Do you know where I’m going with this?
</p>
<h4 id="eCQsa9">
Alissa Walker
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="x6D5JH">
I do. This comes up a lot. Any time I tell people about what I’m reporting on and the long saga of the Boring Company and Elon Musk going from town to town trying to sell his tunnels, the monorail episode, “Marge versus the Monorail,” comes up. It was written by Conan O’Brien, and it’s actually a riff on the very famous musical <em>The Music Man</em>, where Lyle Lanley comes to Springfield and tries to sell them a monorail. They have this windfall of cash, and they decide they’re going to invest in this monorail, even though they’re not sure if it is going to solve their transportation problems. And meanwhile, they’re driving home from the meeting where Lyle Lanley has done a literal song and dance to sell the idea through. And their car is like retching over these potholes, and Marge is like, “But what about Main Street?” And then they’re like, “No, you know, the monorail is going to be better, don’t worry.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2sdhLi">
I rewatched it many times in reporting my stories because the parallels are really quite eerily similar. And what’s so funny about everybody referencing this monorail episode of <em>The Simpsons</em> is that the way that the Boring Company can build its system in Vegas is that it has to be called a monorail. So on all the documents it says, like, “The Boring Company is now operating a monorail.”
</p></li>
<li><strong>Layoffs, buyouts, and rescinded offers: Amazon’s status as a top tech employer is taking a hit</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A photo of the Amazon Spheres alongside the company’s downtown headquarters in Seattle, Washington." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/SasQfsgXqCVoAnCuwK1BRRSoYUw=/234x0:3967x2800/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71725310/1244779669.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
The exterior of the Amazon Spheres in downtown Seattle on November 14, 2022, as Amazon began the largest layoffs in its history. | David Ryder/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A leaked memo shows Amazon was concerned with attracting and retaining top engineers earlier this year.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Wni1EG">
Amazon has long been one of the top employers in the tech industry. Online shopping was consistently growing, and Amazon’s two main profit engines, cloud services and <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2022/11/10/23450349/amazon-advertising-everywhere-prime-sponsored-products">advertising</a>, were growing even faster. If you took a white-collar job at Amazon, whether you stayed there two years or 10, your career seemed to be set. Until last month.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H2GJU6">
In late November, Amazon began making what are expected to be <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2022/11/16/23463223/amazon-layoffs-2022-alexa-luna-voluntary-release-program">the largest corporate staff cuts in its 28-year history</a>, axing as many as 10,000 corporate employees, or about 3 percent of the company’s office staff. Rumors continue to spread internally that the number of job cuts might grow, either through traditional layoffs or by pushing out more employees than usual for unsatisfactory performance, with one publication reporting that <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3682071/amazon-layoffs-now-expected-to-mount-to-20000-including-top-managers.html">20,000 cuts are the actual target</a>. And Amazon began quietly rescinding job offers to future employees as well. This is upending the lives of would-be staff and threatening the company’s reputation in the job market for technical talent — where it was already facing challenges, according to a leaked internal memo exclusively viewed by Recode.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dkjPcu">
A company spokesperson confirmed that job offers were pulled, which was <a href="https://www.theinformation.com/articles/amazon-rescinds-job-offers-in-retail-organization">first reported</a> by The Information, but declined to disclose specific numbers. Even without knowing exactly how many offers the company has rescinded, current and future Amazon employees alike are shocked — underscoring the rarity of the current cost-cutting climate at the tech giant and raising the question of what these pullbacks signal for the economy as a whole. Inside the company, some employees are questioning whether Amazon will still prioritize pursuing big ideas that don’t generate immediate financial payoff. Crucially, much of Amazon’s success can be attributed to investing in projects that weren’t profitable in the short run but which, with Wall Street’s backing, allowed the company to increase its market share and power in a given sector by focusing instead on growth.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="w8X9wa">
“The question among employees is, ‘Does this mean we should only be on teams that add revenue or that we think are ‘the most safe’?” an Amazon senior manager of more than 10 years told Recode. “That’s very damaging to the ‘Think Big’ and ‘Invent and Simplify’ ethos of this company.” (Those are two of the 16 leadership principles that are supposed to guide how work gets done inside Amazon.)
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<div id="tBcZ1W">
<div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RcOuPC">
Yet the problem with looking for deeper meaning in Amazon’s recent moves — beyond what we already know about its leaders being leery about the future of the economy and that they bet that a pandemic-fueled e-commerce boom would continue longer than it did — was that Amazon has been in a league of its own as a hiring machine. Between 2019 and 2021, Amazon doubled its employee count, adding 800,000 employees in just two years, including warehouse employees. Amazon now also has <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/14/amazon-layoffs-tech/">more than 300,000 tech and corporate employees</a> across the globe.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tvHufa">
“No company had hired like Amazon had in the previous decade,” said Amazon’s former head of communications, Craig Berman, who left the company in 2018 after 14 years. “And so I hesitate to even start to guess at what this could mean because there is nothing historical to base the reaction on.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rA5Q65">
As a result, the bewilderment felt by employees and would-be future employees in the wake of the layoffs and job rescissions is understandable, Berman said, especially since the company has not had major job cuts in more than 20 years and largely kept its foot on the gas even during the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Z0e1HQ">
“They seemed immune,” Berman said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6Z8WAW">
Amazon’s new reality has been a harsh wake-up call for would-be employees. Several told Recode they were counting on the job to remain in, or reenter, the US on a work visa and were distraught over needing to find new employment in a short period of time. One employee who had their job offer pulled in late November had just received it in September, with a start date planned for January. Another employee who was slated to start working in a high-paying technical role in the retail division in January was offered a job in October only to have it pulled back the next month.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QRvsCg">
“I think the worst part for Amazon is the damage they’ve done to their reputation,” this person told Recode.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gfTNbt">
The employee said they mainly chose Amazon over offers from rival companies because the Seattle-based tech giant was offering a significantly higher pay package. If the financials had been more equal, they said, they would have likely chosen a competitor with a better reputation for work-life balance.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AR2vmV">
While Amazon had long remained a stable corporate hirer that kept adding new, lucrative roles every year — especially as its stock price rose consistently for much of the past decade — it also developed a reputation among some staff as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html">a sometimes brutal and cutthroat workplace</a>, and one where some employees from <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2021/2/26/22297554/amazon-race-black-diversity-inclusion">underrepresented backgrounds felt discriminated against or worse</a>. Earlier this year, Insider reported that high-performing <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazons-regretted-attrition-rate-more-than-doubled-in-the-past-year-2022-5">employees were leaving Amazon corporate divisions</a> at double the normal rate. And according to an internal Amazon memo from June that Recode reviewed, perception of the company’s corporate culture already seemed to be having a negative impact on recruiting even before this cycle of layoffs and pulled offers began.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="F3Fh0N">
The internal memo cited a LinkedIn survey of more than 7,000 software developers who weren’t working for Amazon at the time. Among a set of 25 top tech competitors, Amazon only ranked 19th for “good work-life balance,” while it came in 10th for “flexible work arrangements” and 11th for “ongoing employee training &amp; development.” These rankings, the memo stated, were hurting recruiting, with 40 percent fewer job seekers applying for software development jobs at Amazon in May than in January.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FvoLT8">
Those preexisting recruitment issues could now be exacerbated by the tech giant slashing roles and rescinding job offers. Amazon seems aware of this and is attempting damage control: For those who have had an Amazon job offer reversed, the company will pay them a month’s worth of the base pay they were set to make.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CuELHd">
“It’s going to have an impact on your employer brand,” Tom Wilson, president of the HR executive search firm Frederickson Partners, said of companies that rescind job offers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XVEgS4">
But whether the one-month payment is enough to fortify the company’s reputation as a top employer is an open question.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UMCNuD">
Despite offering <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2022/11/23/23475697/amazon-layoffs-buyouts-recruiters-ai-hiring-software">buyouts to at least hundreds of its recruiters</a>, Amazon <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-29/amazon-s-cloud-unit-expects-to-keep-expanding-hiring-in-2023?sref=qYiz2hd0">expects to hire in some growing areas</a> in 2023, such as Amazon Web Services, even as it retrenches in others like Alexa and its core retail business. After all, if it wants to compete for top tech talent as it pursues ambitions in other industries ranging from e-commerce to video streaming to cloud computing to advertising, it needs to improve its reputation. While 10,000 job cuts only represent approximately 3 percent of all its corporate roles, this is a shift that’s foreign to most employees at Amazon and those who once saw the company as their dream employer.
</p></li>
<li><strong>Why Republicans are so intent on rolling back the military’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Senate Eyes $10 Billion In Covid Aid" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/7jin7X68F4qtEh5OyN_sH6zDZuQ=/329x0:3885x2667/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71723817/1239769197.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, an outspoken critic of the military’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate, heralded its rollback in the defense bill. | Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
It’s the GOP’s latest attempt to undo such policies.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ofOgeV">
This year, Congress’s annual defense bill, a must-pass measure that authorizes military spending for the next year, includes a unique provision.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iyWrEb">
The legislation, known as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), lays out more than $840 billion in defense funds and would roll back the military’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate. That mandate, put in place in August 2021 to prevent the spread of coronavirus among service members, is opposed by Republicans, who’ve long railed against vaccine mandates in general. Now the GOP is using the NDAA to seize a win on something they’ve made into a culture war issue.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dKBQjH">
Republicans’ main argument centers on staffing: They say the military’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate has pushed out thousands of service members in a time when there are already severe labor shortages. Roughly 8,000 active-duty service members have been discharged because they refused vaccination, <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2022-12-06/congress-set-to-rescind-covid-19-vaccine-mandate-for-troops">per US News</a>, but that represents a small fraction of the military’s more than <a href="https://www.governing.com/now/2021-military-active-duty-personnel-civilians-by-state">1 million active-duty service members</a>. <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/12/06/ndaa-pentagon-coronavirus-vaccine-mandate-00072668">As Politico reported</a>, about 98 percent of the military has been vaccinated.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2k3FqL">
Because the NDAA needs at least 10 Republican votes to pass in the Senate, and will probably need House Republican support given Democrats’ narrow majority in that chamber, the GOP has a key opportunity to secure a policy and messaging win on vaccine requirements. Republican efforts hint, too, at how they’ll continue to leverage Democrats’ need for their cooperation in the new term, when they’ll control the House and the Democrats the Senate.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mGuN5O">
“That’s the first victory of having a Republican majority, and we’d like to have more of those victories, and we should start moving those now,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mccarthy-vows-military-vaccine-mandate-end-national-defense-bill-wont-move-forward">on Fox News</a> this past weekend, regarding the vaccine mandate rollback.
</p>
<h3 id="Etj456">
Why Republicans pushed to overturn the vaccine mandate
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BhPf1j">
The Biden administration, including Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, has opposed putting the repeal of the vaccine mandate in the NDAA, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/07/politics/biden-military-covid-mandate-ndaa/index.html">though it’s</a> stopped short of saying the president won’t sign it if it contains this provision. “A million people died in the United States of America. We lost hundreds in DOD. So this mandate has kept people healthy,” <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/defense/3763875-lawmakers-agree-to-repeal-military-vaccine-mandate-in-defense-bill-over-pentagon-objections/">Austin told reporters this past weekend</a>. Additionally, the White House has noted the military has long had mandates for other vaccines including <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/list-vaccines-mandated-us-military-covid-1641228">the flu and a host of other illnesses</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9R1UBB">
In recent weeks, however, Republicans have made repealing the Covid-19 vaccine mandate a chief priority, claiming that it’s impacted the military’s ability to staff itself. The NDAA represented a prime chance to make a point on this issue, which has been politicized over the past few years, with Republicans arguing mandates represent an un-American assault on personal freedom. As Covid-19 cases have declined across the country, Republican lawmakers have only argued more vocally that there’s less of a need for these requirements.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LEdV48">
Republicans’ main grievance is that the vaccine mandate has made it tougher for the military to retain people and recruit new service members, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-military-says-no-hard-data-showing-vaccine-mandate-hurts-recruiting-2022-12-06/">a claim that isn’t backed up by “hard data,”</a> according to Austin. The reasons for recruitment shortfalls are nuanced: <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/congress-rescind-covid-19-vaccine-mandate-for-troops/">As the Associated Press reported</a>, the Army did miss its recruitment target by 25 percent in the last year, with military leaders attributing the gap to a number of factors, including inability to do in-person recruiting because of the pandemic as well as vaccine hesitancy. <a href="https://www.military.com/daily-news/2022/12/04/vaccine-mandate-hurting-recruiting-top-marines-general-says.html">Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger</a>, a top military leader, has said vaccine mandates pose some obstacles in recruiting due to misinformation about the Covid-19 shots.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LWfLYQ">
Along with the rescinding of the mandate, Republicans have called for a provision that would reinstate service members who’ve been discharged in the past because of the vaccine mandate, though that has not made it into the bill.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7eBfNJ">
The push against the military vaccine mandate marks the latest effort by the GOP to make vaccine mandates an issue of contention in different must-pass bills. <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/596929-senate-conservatives-threaten-to-hold-up-government-funding-over-vaccine/">Republicans have repeatedly threatened</a> to hold up government funding unless they could vote on amendments that would defund vaccine mandates the Biden administration has put in place for federal employees and medical workers. Since those mandates were established, GOP lawmakers have frequently tapped into the issue as a way to show their base that they’re protecting people’s liberties.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mJWkex">
“It’s an honor to fight for our servicemembers and ensure they are protected from Biden’s COVID vaccine mandate,” <a href="https://twitter.com/MarshaBlackburn/status/1600331841826828289">Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) tweeted</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zVoJeF">
The White House, on the other hand, has criticized Congress’s decision to rescind the vaccine mandate, saying immunizations remain important for maintaining troops’ ability to serve whenever and wherever necessary. “Vaccines are saving lives, including our men and women in uniform. So this remains very, very much a health and readiness issue for the force,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Monday, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/06/us/politics/vaccine-mandate-defense-bill.html">per the New York Times</a>.
</p>
<h3 id="U0iCb0">
Republicans want to use these bills to score political points
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1qiGxe">
McCarthy has signaled that Republicans are eager to use legislation like the defense bill to make their case on cultural issues once they assume the House majority in January. <a href="https://www.defensenews.com/congress/budget/2022/11/16/mccarthy-threatens-to-hold-up-key-defense-bill-until-next-year/">He even urged Congress to delay the passage of the defense bill</a> until next year so they could include more provisions that combat the “woke-ism” that he argued Democrats are supporting. Although McCarthy did not specify which policies he was interested in targeting, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/18/house-gop-vs-the-pentagon-get-ready-for-the-woke-wars-00069557">Politico has reported</a> that this umbrella could include things like initiatives aimed at making the military more diverse.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vTqGJ2">
Republicans’ pushback on this issue indicates how they may use House control next year in a split Congress to secure their priorities on everything from defense policy to appropriations to the debt ceiling. Because several must-pass bills will need House support to advance, the GOP will have multiple opportunities to use their leverage to lobby for provisions like this one. The House is expected to pass the NDAA with the inclusion of the vaccine mandate rollback this week, a move Republicans have described as just the beginning.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VSWXiv">
“[I]n 28 days, the real work begins,” <a href="https://twitter.com/GOPLeader/status/1600317568790589441/photo/1">McCarthy said in a Tuesday statement</a>. “The new House Republican majority will work to finally hold the Biden administration accountable and assist the men and women in uniform who were unfairly targeted by this administration.”
</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>The Awakening, Amarone, Arc De Triomphe and Spicy Star work well</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Kings Ransom and Flaming Lamborgini catch the eye</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Salento, Isnt She Beautiful, Aldiva, Ebotse and Splendido catch the eye</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Anahat fights her way into semifinals</strong> - Rallies brilliantly from two games down to defeat Tanvi</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>India-Australia Test series to begin at Nagpur from Feb 9</strong> - The Test series will be part of the World Test Championship cycle.</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>Winter session of Assembly likely in December third week</strong> - Cabinet meeting on Dec 10 to take a call on the date of commencement</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>Victory in Gujarat polls an endorsement of BJP’s development agenda: Veerraju</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Most Ministers suffer defeat in Himachal Pradesh election</strong> - Eight Ministers of Jai Ram Thakur government in Himachal Pradesh suffered defeat in the assembly election</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>IRPS officer posted as Mission Director of Competitive Exams under ‘Naan Mudhalvan’ scheme</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>IFFK: 27th edition of International Film Festival of Kerala kicks off in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday</strong> - With the IFFK now back to its full-fledged version, after floods and the pandemic, the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy, the festival organisers, is gearing up to put up its best show yet</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>Wirecard trial of executives opens in German fraud scandal</strong> - Markus Braun, who ran the disgraced payment firm, presided over its meteoric rise and disastrous fall.</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>Risk of Russia using nuclear weapons has lessened, says Germany’s Scholz</strong> - The German chancellor said Western pressure had contributed to making Russia tone down its nuclear rhetoric.</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>‘Doctors fitted a contraceptive coil without my consent’</strong> - A Danish investigation will look at a historic scandal in Greenland, but women tell the BBC of recent involuntary contraception.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Spanish train collision outside Barcelona injures scores</strong> - Two trains collide near Barcelona on Wednesday morning, leaving at least 155 people injured.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine war: Animal eye packages sent to embassies ‘from German address’</strong> - Ukraine says bloody packages sent to its embassies bore the address of a German Tesla dealership.</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>Amazon’s Echo Show 15 smart display becomes a transportable Fire TV</strong> - Amazon already had a lot of success with Fire TV devices. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1902831">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>New kilonova has astronomers rethinking what we know about gamma-ray bursts</strong> - Long gamma-ray burst stems from neutron star merger, not usual supernova explosion. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1902420">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Sunny Balwani sentenced to nearly 13 years in prison for Theranos fraud</strong> - Balwani was convicted in July on all 12 counts of fraud related to Theranos. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1902843">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Gun stockpile in hospital closet leads to $63K in fines from NJ health dept.</strong> - It remains unclear what the hospital’s marketing director was doing with the guns. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1902801">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Oldest DNA yet sequenced shows mastodons once roamed a warmer Greenland</strong> - DNA left behind during a warm period is viable 2 million years later. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1902795">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A woman has twin boys and gives them up for adoption.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The first goes to a family in Egypt, which names him Ahmal.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The second goes to a family in Spain, which names him Juan.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Years later, Juan sends a picture of himself to his birth mother.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Excited at receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wishes she also had a picture of Ahmal.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Her husband responds, “They’re twins! If you’ve seen Juan, you’ve seen Ahmal.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/EndersGame_Reviewer"> /u/EndersGame_Reviewer </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/zft1wl/a_woman_has_twin_boys_and_gives_them_up_for/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/zft1wl/a_woman_has_twin_boys_and_gives_them_up_for/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Looking Good</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
My face in the mirror isn’t wrinkled or drawn.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
My house isn’t dirty. The cobwebs are gone.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
My garden looks lovely and so does my lawn.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
I think I might never put my glasses back on.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Goatmanthealien"> /u/Goatmanthealien </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/zfir77/looking_good/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/zfir77/looking_good/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Putin, Biden and Zelensky are all in a hot air balloon</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
… when suddenly they started to lose altitude. They need to lose some weight to stop from crashing.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Putin throws out a bottle of vodka and says “don’t worry I’ve got too much of that in my country anyway”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Biden throws out an AR-15 and says “don’t worry I’ve got too much of that in my country anyway”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Zelensky throws out Putin and says “don’t worry I’ve got too much of that in my country anyway” and looks at Biden smugly as they crash anyways due to the massive weight of Zelensky’s balls.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/JoshGallie"> /u/JoshGallie </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/zf46fv/putin_biden_and_zelensky_are_all_in_a_hot_air/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/zf46fv/putin_biden_and_zelensky_are_all_in_a_hot_air/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>I recently joined a nudist colony</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The first few days were the hardest.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/JBOBHK135"> /u/JBOBHK135 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/zf1jzy/i_recently_joined_a_nudist_colony/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/zf1jzy/i_recently_joined_a_nudist_colony/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How many politicians does it take to screw in a light bulb</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Three. One to screw it in. One to screw it up. One to screw an intern.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/AllCingEyeDog"> /u/AllCingEyeDog </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/zfj8of/how_many_politicians_does_it_take_to_screw_in_a/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/zfj8of/how_many_politicians_does_it_take_to_screw_in_a/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
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