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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>Introduction to Qualitative Evidence Synthesis as a Methodology</strong> -
<div>
The outbreak of COVID-19 has disrupted research methods just as it had to all other sectors of education across the globe. Many institutions and organisations, including researchers sought to find ways to deal with research while observing the requirement for remote interactions. While many options have been implemented, the use of systematic reviews, and in particular, Qualitative Evidence Synthesis (QES) have not been explored. QES, as a research method, offers a high level of evidence through the synthesis of primary qualitative studies, using established and endorsed critical appraisal methods such as PRISMA Workflow charts or COREQ, CASP (the latter is commonly used in QES), and many more that are suitable based on the nature of the study design. The other beneficial quality of QES is the ability to preserve research, use and embellish primary research and provide formidable networks among researchers. This presentation was first presented at a workshop organized by the National Center for Research Methods and the University of Manchester (UK) in October 2021 and later on at the 6th World Conference on Qualitative Research (Spain) in January 2022.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/africarxiv/jgn5f/" target="_blank">Introduction to Qualitative Evidence Synthesis as a Methodology</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Development of a digital game to refute COVID-19 misconceptions</strong> -
<div>
Compounding the public health challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic is an infodemic of misinformation (WHO, 2020). Misconceptions are mitigated when a correct alternative is presented clearly and stored in long-term memory (Kendeou et al., 2014). However, recent findings show that some attempts to correct health related misinformation are ineffective or even backfire, paradoxically strengthening misconceptions (Nyhan, Reifler, Richey, &amp; Freed, 2014). Solutions for successful revision of misconceptions must address several interlocking problems: (1) designing content to promote the specific cognitive processes required to revise misconceptions; (2) developing a new delivery method to present content that captures and maintains attention; (3) mitigating negative affect and biased reasoning. Thus, this project leveraged the unique strengths of psychological research on belief change and design principles of gamification to develop, evaluate, and widely distribute a new digital game to combat misconceptions regarding COVID-19. Gamification refers to the process of adding elements and mechanics of game play (e.g., challenges, competition, progress, feedback) into traditional educational contexts to take advantage of their motivational and affective strengths (Deterding et al., 2011; Sailer et al., 2017 ; Sardi et al., 2017). Research Questions: 1. Do positive emotional reactions to gamified belief corrections positively predict public support for health policies? 2. Do negative emotional reactions to gamified belief corrections negatively predict support for public health policies?
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/fv63c/" target="_blank">Development of a digital game to refute COVID-19 misconceptions</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Bereavement from COVID-19, Gender, and Reports of Depression among Older Adults in Europe</strong> -
<div>
Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic has left older adults around the world bereaved by the sudden death of relatives and friends. We examine if COVID-19 bereavement corresponds with older adults’ reporting depression in 27 countries, and test for variation by gender and country context. Methods: We analyze SHARE COVID-19 data collected between June-August 2020 from N=51,383 older adults (age 50–104) living in 27 countries, of whom 1,363 reported the death of a relative or friend from COVID-19. We estimate pooled-multilevel logit regression models to examine if COVID-19 bereavement was associated with self-reported depression and worsening depression, and we test whether national COVID-19 mortality rates moderate these assocations. Results: COVID-19 bereavement is associated with significantly higher probabilities of both reporting depression and reporting worsened depression among older adults. Net of one’s own personal loss, living in a country with the highest COVID-19 mortality rate is associated with women’s reports of worsened depression but not men’s. However, the country’s COVID-19 mortality rate does not moderate associations between COVID-19 bereavement and depression. Discussion: COVID-19 deaths have lingering mental health implications for surviving older adults. Even as the collective toll of the crisis is apparent, bereaved older adults are in particular need of mental health support.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/tzm9n/" target="_blank">Bereavement from COVID-19, Gender, and Reports of Depression among Older Adults in Europe</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Simultaneous and sequential multi-species coronavirus vaccination</strong> -
<div>
Although successful COVID-19 vaccines have been developed, multiple pathogenic coronavirus species exist, urging for development of multi-species coronavirus vaccines. Here we developed prototype LNP-mRNA vaccine candidates against SARS-CoV-2 (Delta variant), SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, and test how multiplexing of these LNP-mRNAs can induce effective immune responses in animal models. A triplex scheme of LNP-mRNA vaccination induced antigen-specific antibody responses against SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, with a relatively weaker MERS-CoV response in this setting. Single cell RNA- seq profiled the global systemic immune repertoires and the respective transcriptome signatures of multiplexed vaccinated animals, which revealed a systemic increase in activated B cells, as well as differential gene expression signatures across major adaptive immune cells. Sequential vaccination showed potent antibody responses against all three species, significantly stronger than simultaneous vaccination in mixture. These data demonstrated the feasibility, antibody responses and single cell immune profiles of multi-species coronavirus vaccination. The direct comparison between simultaneous and sequential vaccination offers insights on optimization of vaccination schedules to provide broad and potent antibody immunity against three major pathogenic coronavirus species.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.07.491038v1" target="_blank">Simultaneous and sequential multi-species coronavirus vaccination</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>The bacterial lysate Lantigen B reduces the expression of ACE2 on primary oropharyngeal cells</strong> -
<div>
Background: Vercelli and coworkers recently observed that a well-established bacterial lysate (OM-85, Vifor Pharma; CH) was able to downregulate the expression of Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2) on epithelial cells. This downregulation was also associated with a reduced infectivity of cells, resulting in a reduced viral titre. We evaluated whether another bacterial lysate (Lantigen B, Bruschettini Ltd; Italy) may have similar activities. However, while OM-85 is given per os and has a systemic effect after absorption at the gut level, Lantigen B is given locoregionally. Thus, the concentration that the bacterial lysate can reach at the mucosal level seems to be promising. Methods: Oropharyngeal cells were collected from healthy donors. After 24 hours of treatment in vitro with doses of Lantigen B comparable to those that are reached in vivo, the expression of ACE2 was evaluated by direct fluorescence and flow cytometry. Results: A reduction in the number of ACE2-positive cells was observed in 80% of treated samples. Only a few donors had poor expression of ACE2, and in these donors, the downregulation was less evident or absent. Conclusions: These results suggest that Lantigen B, at pharmacological doses, could be an interesting drug to reduce ACE2 expression on oropharyngeal cells, thus contributing to the prophylaxis of COVID-19 in humans.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.06.490962v1" target="_blank">The bacterial lysate Lantigen B reduces the expression of ACE2 on primary oropharyngeal cells</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Cell cycle independent role of cyclin D3 in host restriction of SARS-CoV-2 infection</strong> -
<div>
The COVID-19 pandemic caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) presents a great threat to human health. The interplay between the virus and host plays a crucial role in successful virus replication and transmission. Understanding host-virus interactions is essential for development of new COVID-19 treatment strategies. Here we show that SARS-CoV-2 infection triggers redistribution of cyclin D1 and cyclin D3 from the nucleus to the cytoplasm, followed by its proteasomal degradation. No changes to other cyclins or cyclin dependent kinases were observed. Further, cyclin D depletion was independent from SARS-CoV-2 mediated cell cycle arrest in early S phase or S/G2/M phase. Cyclin D3 knockdown by small interfering RNA specifically enhanced progeny virus titres in supernatants. Finally, cyclin D3 co-immunoprecipitated with SARS-CoV-2 Envelope and Membrane proteins. We propose that cyclin D3 inhibits virion assembly and is depleted during SARS-CoV-2 infection to restore efficient assembly and release of newly produced virions.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.07.491022v1" target="_blank">Cell cycle independent role of cyclin D3 in host restriction of SARS-CoV-2 infection</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Molecular dynamics of spike variants in the locked conformation: RBD interfaces, fatty acid binding and furin cleavage sites.</strong> -
<div>
Since December 2019 the SARS-CoV-2 virus has infected billions of people around the world and caused millions of deaths. The ability for this RNA virus to mutate has produced variants that have been responsible for waves of infections across the globe. The spike protein on the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 virion is responsible for cell entry in the infection process. Here we have studied the spike proteins from the Original, Alpha (B.1.1.7), Delta (B1.617.2), Delta-plus (B1.617.2-AY1), Omicron BA.1 and Omicron BA.2 variants. Using models built from cryo-EM structures with linoleate bound (6BZ5.pdb) and the N-terminal domain from 7JJI.pdb, each is built from the first residue, with missing loops modelled and 45 disulphides per trimer. Each spike variant was modified from the same Original model framework to maximise comparability. Three replicate, 200 ns atomistic molecular dynamics simulations were performed for each case. (These data also provide the basis for further, non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations, published elsewhere.) The analysis of our equilibrium molecular dynamics reveals that sequence variation at the closed receptor binding domain interface particularly for Omicron BA.2 has implications for the avidity of the locked conformation, with potential effects on Omicron BA.1 and Delta-plus. Linoleate binding has a mildly stabilizing effect on furin cleavage site motions in the Original and Alpha variants, but has no effect in Delta, Delta-plus and slightly increases motions at this site for Omicron BA.1, but not BA.2, under these simulation conditions.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.06.490927v1" target="_blank">Molecular dynamics of spike variants in the locked conformation: RBD interfaces, fatty acid binding and furin cleavage sites.</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>HELICOPER MONEY AND THE PROSPECT OF IMPLEMENTATION IN VIETNAM DURING ECONOMIC CRISES</strong> -
<div>
As the current COVID-19 pandemic lingers on with its fallout agonizing several economies on the globe, a number of policy instruments have been summoned by governments to cope with the looming recession. Among those instruments is the contentious “helicopter money”, which has received the endorsement of multiple economists while many others consider it a too risky tactic to follow. This paper is going to discuss the suitability of implementing “helicopter money” in the context of Vietnam during economic crises, particularly with a focus on the ongoing novel coronavirus-induced economic downturn. The author also makes an attempt to clarify certain challenges that Vietnamese legislators should better study carefully if “helicopter money” is ever to be deployed, as well as the circumstances and extent of such deployment.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/rcpk4/" target="_blank">HELICOPER MONEY AND THE PROSPECT OF IMPLEMENTATION IN VIETNAM DURING ECONOMIC CRISES</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Reconstruction of the cell pseudo-space from single-cell RNA sequencing data with scSpace</strong> -
<div>
Tissues are highly complicated with spatial heterogeneity in gene expression. However, the cutting-edge single-cell RNA-seq technology eliminates the spatial information of individual cells, which contributes to the characterization of cell identities. Herein, we propose single-cell spatial position associated co-embeddings (scSpace), an integrative algorithm to distinguish spatially variable cell subclusters by reconstructing cells onto a pseudo-space with spatial transcriptome references (Visium, STARmap, Slide-seq, etc.). We demonstrated that scSpace can define biologically meaningful cell subpopulations neglected by single-cell RNA-seq or spatially resolved transcriptomics. The use of scSpace to uncover the spatial association within single-cell data, reproduced, the hierarchical distribution of cells in the brain cortex and liver lobules, and the regional variation of cells in heart ventricles and the intestinal villus. scSpace identified cell subclusters in intratelencephalic neurons, which were confirmed by their biomarkers. The application of scSpace in melanoma and Covid-19 exhibited a broad prospect in the discovery of spatial therapeutic markers.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.07.491043v1" target="_blank">Reconstruction of the cell pseudo- space from single-cell RNA sequencing data with scSpace</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies among vaccinated and non-vaccinated adults in the West Bank: Results of a repeated cross-sectional study</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background Seroprevalence studies are known to provide better estimates of the proportion of people previously infected, which did not undertake diagnostic testing. Repeated cross-sectional sero-studies are encouraged in the same locations to monitor trends overtime. The aim of this study was to assess the seroprevalence among a random sample of vaccinated and non-vaccinated Palestinian adults living in the West Bank region of Palestine, irrespective of the source of antibodies, be it due to infection with COVID-19 or due to vaccination or both. Methods This repeated cross- sectional study used serologic testing on a random sample of vaccinated and non-vaccinated adults, 18 years and older residing in 11 governorates of the West Bank region of Palestine. Antibodies/Blood samples were taken using Elecsys Anti-SARS-CoV-2 assay by using the Cobas Analyzer cobas e 411 (Roche) for detection of antibody seropositivity against COVID-19. Seroprevalence was estimated as the proportion of individuals who had a positive result in the total SARS- CoV-2 antibodies in the immunoassay. Sociodemographic information and medical history data was collected using a questionnaire. Results Among 1451 total participants enrolled in the study, serum samples were tested from 910 persons. Study findings from this randomly selected sample indicated a seroprevalence 75.9%, 95% CI (73.1-78.7). The seroprevalence results indicated that the prevalence of antibodies among those who reported that they were not infected and did not get vaccinated was 45.2% with 95% CI (39.9-50.5%). The average age of participants was 37.6 years old. 49.2% were female and 50.8% were male. In relation to COVID-19, the following was found: Conclusion Our findings revealed a drastic rise in seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. This information is useful for assessing the degree of herd immunity, and provides for better understanding of the pandemic. Population-based seroprevalence studies should be conducted periodically to monitor the SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in Palestine and inform policymakers about the efficacy of the surveillance system.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.06.22274755v1" target="_blank">Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies among vaccinated and non-vaccinated adults in the West Bank: Results of a repeated cross-sectional study</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Escape of SARS-CoV-2 variant Omicron to mucosal immunity in vaccinated subjects.</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Omicron s escape to vaccine-induced systemic antibody responses has been shown in several studies in Omicron- infected patients and vaccine controls. In the present study we compared mucosal antibody response to Omicron to mucosal antibody response to ancestral strain and Delta variant. This was done on nasal epithelial lining fluid (NELF) prospectively collected in 84 otherwise healthy healthcare workers who had never exhibited PCR-documented COVID-19 and had received three doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 mRNA vaccine. NELF was collected prior to Omicron detection in the geographical area of inclusion. We show that NELF antibodies from vaccinated individuals were less efficient at inhibiting the binding of the Omicron Spike protein to ACE-2 compared to those of Delta or the ancestral strain. These findings may explain the increased risk of onward transmission of Omicron, consistent with its successful global displacement of Delta in countries with a high vaccination coverage.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html- link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.03.22274517v1" target="_blank">Escape of SARS-CoV-2 variant Omicron to mucosal immunity in vaccinated subjects.</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Reporting Rates for VAERS Death Reports Following COVID-19 Vaccination, December 14, 2020-November 17, 2021</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background: Despite widely available safety information for the COVID-19 vaccines, vaccine hesitancy remains a challenge. In some cases, vaccine hesitancy may be related to concerns about the number of reports of death to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). Objective: To provide information and context about reports of death to VAERS following COVID-19 vaccination. Design: Descriptive study; reporting rates for VAERS death reports. Setting: United States; December 14, 2020, to November 17, 2021. Participants: COVID-19 vaccine recipients. Measurements: Reporting rates for death events per million persons vaccinated; adverse event counts; data mining signals of disproportionate reporting. Results: 9,201 death events were reported for COVID-19 vaccine recipients aged five years and older (or age unknown). Reporting rates for death events increased with increasing age, and males generally had higher reporting rates than females. For death events within seven days and 42 days of vaccination, respectively, observed reporting rates were lower than the expected all-cause death rates. Reporting rates for Ad26.COV2.S vaccine were generally higher than for mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, but still lower than the expected all-cause death rates. Reported adverse events were non-specific or reflected the known leading causes of death. Limitations: VAERS data are subject to several limitations such as reporting bias (underreporting and stimulated reporting), missing or inaccurate information, and lack of a control group. Reported diagnoses, including deaths, are not causally verified diagnoses. Conclusion: Reporting rates for death events were lower than the expected all-cause mortality rates. Trends in reporting rates reflected known trends in background mortality rates. These findings do not suggest an association between vaccination and overall increased mortality. Funding Source: No external sources of funding were used.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.05.22274695v1" target="_blank">Reporting Rates for VAERS Death Reports Following COVID-19 Vaccination, December 14, 2020-November 17, 2021</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Assessing the feasibility of sustaining a ‘Zero-COVID’ policy in China in the era of highly transmissible variants</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
We developed a spatially structured, fully stochastic, individual-based SARS-CoV-2 transmission model to evaluate the feasibility of sustaining a 9Zero-COVID9 policy in mainland China in light of currently dominant Omicron variants, China9s current immunization level, and non-pharmaceutical intervention (NPI) strategies. We found that due to high transmissibility, neither Omicron BA.1 or BA.2 sublineages could be contained by China9s Pre-Omicron non- pharmaceutical intervention strategies which were successful at sustaining the 9Zero-COVID9 policy until March 2022. However, increased intervention intensity, such as enhanced population mobility restrictions and multi-round mass testing, could lead to containment success without the necessity of population-wide lockdown. As China9s current vaccination has yet to reach high coverage in older populations, non-pharmaceutical interventions remain essential tools to maintain low levels of infection while building protective population immunity, ensuring a smooth transition out of the pandemic phase, and minimizing the overall disease burden and societal costs.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.07.22274792v1" target="_blank">Assessing the feasibility of sustaining a ‘Zero-COVID’ policy in China in the era of highly transmissible variants</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>“Does a respiratory virus have an ecological niche, and if so, can it be mapped?” Yes and yes.</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Although the utility of Ecological Niche models (ENM) and Species Distribution models (SDM) has been demonstrated in many ecological applications, their suitability for modelling epidemics or pandemics, such as SARS- Cov-2, has been questioned. In this paper, contrary to this viewpoint, we show that ENMs and SDMs can be created that can describe the evolution of pandemics, both in space and time. As an illustrative use case, we create models for predicting confirmed cases of COVID-19, viewed as our target ``species“, in Mexico through 2020 and 2021, showing that the models are predictive in both space and time. In order to achieve this, we extend a recently developed Bayesian framework for niche modelling, to include: i) dynamic, non-equilibrium ``species” distributions; ii) a wider set of habitat variables, including behavioural, socio-economic and socio-demographic variables, as well as standard climatic variables; iii) distinct models and associated niches for different species characteristics, showing how the niche, as deduced through presence-absence data, can differ from that deduced from abundance data. We show that the niche associated with those places with the highest abundance of cases has been highly conserved throughout the pandemic, while the inferred niche associated with presence of cases has been changing. Finally, we show how causal chains can be inferred and confounding identified by showing that behavioural and social factors are much more predictive than climate and that, further, the latter is confounded by the former.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.04.22274675v1" target="_blank">“Does a respiratory virus have an ecological niche, and if so, can it be mapped?” Yes and yes.</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Covid-19 vaccine effectiveness against general SARS-CoV-2 infection from the omicron variant: A retrospective cohort study</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Objective: To estimate the effectiveness of 2-dose and 3-dose mRNA vaccination (BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273) against any SARS-CoV-2 infection (asymptomatic or symptomatic) caused by the omicron variant. Design: Propensity-score matched retrospective Cohort Study. Setting: Large public university undergoing weekly Covid-19 testing in South Carolina, USA. Participants: Population consists of 24,145 university students and employees undergoing weekly Covid-19 testing between January 3rd and January 31st, 2022. The analytic sample was constructed via propensity score matching on vaccination status: Unvaccinated, completion of 2-dose mRNA series within previous 5 months, and receipt of mRNA booster dose within previous 5 months. The resulting analytic sample consists of 1,944 university students and 658 university employees. Intervention: Vaccination with a two dose or 3 dose regimen of the BNT162b2 or mRNA-1273 vaccine. Results: Booster protection against any SARS-CoV-2 infection was 66.4% among employees (95% CI: 46.1-79.0%; P&lt;.001) and 45.4% among students (95% CI: 30.0-57.4%; P&lt;.001). Compared to the 2-dose mRNA series, estimated increase in protection from the booster dose was 40.8% among employees (P=.024) and 37.7% among students (P=.001). We did not have enough evidence to conclude a statistically significant protective effect of the 2-dose mRNA vaccination series, nor did we have enough evidence to conclude that protection waned in the 5-month period after receipt of the 2nd or 3rd mRNA dose. Furthermore, we did not find evidence that protection varied by manufacturer. Conclusions: Covid-19 mRNA booster doses offer moderate protection against any SARS-CoV-2 infection caused by the omicron variant and provide a substantial increase in protection relative to the 2-dose mRNA vaccination series.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html- link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.06.22274771v1" target="_blank">Covid-19 vaccine effectiveness against general SARS-CoV-2 infection from the omicron variant: A retrospective cohort 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>Immunogenicity and Safety of Fractional Booster Dose of COVID-19 Vaccines Available for Use in Pakistan/Brazil: A Phase 4 Dose-optimizing Trial</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Sinovac;   Biological: AZD1222;   Biological: BNT162b2<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Albert B. Sabin Vaccine Institute;   Aga Khan University;   Oswaldo Cruz Foundation;   Stanford University<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Study to Evaluate the Safety and Immunogenicity of Omicron COVID-19 Vaccine (Vero Cell), Inactivated in Population 18 Years Old of Age and Above</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: Omicron COVID-19 Vaccine (Vero Cell), Inactivated<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   China National Biotec Group Company Limited;   Beijing Institute of Biological Products Co Ltd.;   Shulan (Hangzhou) 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 Evaluate the Immunogenicity and Safety of a Recombinant Protein COVID-19 Vaccine as a Booster Dose in Population Aged 12-17 Years</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   SARS-CoV-2 Infection<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: SCTV01E;   Biological: mRNA-1273<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Sinocelltech Ltd.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A First-In-Human Phase 1b Study of AmnioPul-02 in COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: AmnioPul-02<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Amniotics AB<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Study of COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine (SYS6006) in Chinese Healthy Older Adults.</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: 20 μg dose of SYS6006;   Biological: 30 μg dose of SYS6006;   Biological: 50 μg dose of SYS6006;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:  <br/>
CSPC ZhongQi Pharmaceutical Technology Co., Ltd.<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Study of COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine (SYS6006) in Chinese Healthy Adults Aged 18 -59 Years.</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: 20 μg dose of SYS6006;   Biological: 30 μg dose of SYS6006;   Biological: 50 μg dose of SYS6006;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:  <br/>
CSPC ZhongQi Pharmaceutical Technology Co., Ltd.<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Safety, Reactogenicity, and Immunogenicity Study of a Lyophilized COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: A Lyophilized COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine;   Biological: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Jiangsu Rec-Biotechnology Co., Ltd.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Use of Chinese Herbal Medicine and Vitamin C by Hospital Care Workers in HK to Prevent COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: Chinese herbal medicine<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:  <br/>
Hong Kong Baptist University<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Safety, Reactogenicity, and Immunogenicity Study of a Lyophilized COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Pandemic<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: A Lyophilized COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine;   Biological: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Wuhan Recogen Biotechnology Co., Ltd.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Home-based Exercise Program in Patients With the Post-COVID-19 Condition</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Long COVID;   Post-acute COVID-19 Syndrome<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: Home- based physical training<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   University of Sao Paulo<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Kesuting Syrup in the Treatment of Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19 Pneumonia;   Cough<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Kesuting syrup;   Drug: LianHuaQingWen Granules<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Guizhou Bailing Group Pharmaceutical Co Ltd<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Immune Function in Elderly Patients With Mild to Moderate COVID-19 on Hemodialysis</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   Hemodiafiltration<br/><b>Interventions</b>:  <br/>
Dietary Supplement: Oral nutritional supplement;   Behavioral: Nutrition consultation<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:  <br/>
Ruijin Hospital<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Phase 2b/3 Trial of NuSepin® in COVID-19 Pneumonia Patients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Pneumonia<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: NuSepin® 0.2 mg/kg;   Drug: NuSepin® 0.4 mg/kg;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Shaperon<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>Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cell Derived Extracellular Vesicles as Early Goal Directed Therapy for COVID-19 Moderate-to-Severe Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS): A Phase III Clinical Trial</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: EXOFLO<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Direct Biologics, LLC<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>High Frequency Percussive Ventilation in COVID-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   Acute Respiratory Failure<br/><b>Intervention</b>:  <br/>
Device: High frequency Percussive ventilation<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   University Magna Graecia<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>Green synthesis of zinc oxide nanoparticles using <em>Anoectochilus elatus</em>, and their biomedical applications</strong> - Zinc and its derivatives requirement increased to enhance human immunity against the different pandemics, including covid-19. Green synthesis is an emerging field of research. Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles have been prepared from Anoectochilus elatus and characterized using absorption, vibrational and electron microscope analysis. They were carried for antibacterial, inflammatory control tendency, and potential antioxidant activities. The brine shrimp lethal assay tested the biologically…</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>Neutralizing Effect of Synthetic Peptides toward SARS-CoV-2</strong> - The outbreak caused by SARS-CoV-2 has taken many lives worldwide. Although vaccination has started, the development of drugs to either alleviate or abolish symptoms of COVID-19 is still necessary. Here, four synthetic peptides were assayed regarding their ability to protect Vero E6 cells from SARS-CoV-2 infection and their toxicity to human cells and zebrafish embryos. All peptides had some ability to protect cells from infection by SARS-CoV-2 with the D614G mutation. Molecular docking predicted…</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>Transient but recurrent complete heart block in a patient after COVID-19 vaccination - A case report</strong> - CONCLUSION: COVID-19 vaccination may transitorily interfere with cardiac conduction system even in subjects without known underlying heart disease.</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>Loneliness is not a homogeneous experience: An empirical analysis of adaptive and maladaptive forms of loneliness in the UK</strong> - Understanding loneliness is pivotal to informing relevant evidence-based preventive interventions. The present study examined the prevalence of loneliness in the UK, during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the association between loneliness, mental health outcomes, and risk and protective factors for loneliness, after controlling for the effects of social isolation. It was estimated that 18.1% of the population in our study experienced moderately high to very high loneliness. We also found that…</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>Biological activity of interferons in the novel coronavirus infection COVID-19</strong> - CONCLUSION: The obtained data on deficiency of the functional biologically active IFN confirm the hypothesis about the predominant role of impaired IFN production of different types in the immunopathogenesis of the novel coronavirus infection.</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>Bromhexine is a potential drug for COVID-19; From hypothesis to clinical trials</strong> - COVID-19 (novel coronavirus disease 2019), caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, has various clinical manifestations and several pathogenic pathways. Although several therapeutic options have been used to control COVID-19, none of these medications have been proven to be a definitive cure. Transmembrane serine protease 2 (TMPRSS2) is a protease that has a key role in the entry of SARS-CoV-2 into host cells. Following the binding of the viral spike (S) protein to the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2…</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 problem of the use of interferons in the novel coronavirus disease COVID-19 (Coronaviridae: Coronavirinae: Betacoronavirus: Sarbecovirus)</strong> - By the end of 2021, about 200 studies on the effect of interferons (IFNs) on the incidence and course of the new coronavirus infection COVID-19 (Coronaviridae: Coronavirinae: Betacoronavirus: Sarbecovirus) have been reported worldwide, with the number of such studies steadily increasing. This review discusses the main issues of the use of IFN drugs in this disease. The literature search was carried out in the PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, RSCI databases, as well as in the…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Challenges for rapamycin repurposing as a potential therapeutic candidate for COVID-19: implications for skeletal muscle metabolic health in older persons</strong> - The novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) emerged as the causative agent of the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic that has spread worldwide, resulting in over 6 million deaths as of March</li>
</ul>
<ol start="2022" type="1">
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Older people have been disproportionately affected by the disease, as they have greater risk of hospitalization, are more vulnerable to severe infection, and have higher mortality than younger patients. Although effective vaccines have been rapidly developed…</li>
</ol>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Immunogenicity and reactogenicity after booster dose with AZD1222 via intradermal route among adult who had received CoronaVac</strong> - CONCLUSION: Low-dose ID AZD1222 booster enhanced lower neutralizing antibodies at 3 months compared with IM route. Less systemic reactogenicity occurred, but higher local reactogenicity.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Treatment of vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT)</strong> - Vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT) is a novel prothrombotic disorder characterized by thrombosis, thrombocytopenia, and disseminated intravascular coagulation identified in hundreds of recipients of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (Oxford/AstraZeneca), an adenovirus vector coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine. VITT resembles heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) in that patients have platelet-activating anti-platelet factor 4 antibodies; however, whereas heparin typically enhances…</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>Type I interferon regulates proteolysis by macrophages to prevent immunopathology following viral infection</strong> - The ability to treat severe viral infections is limited by our understanding of the mechanisms behind virus-induced immunopathology. While the role of type I interferons (IFNs) in early control of viral replication is clear, less is known about how IFNs can regulate the development of immunopathology and affect disease outcomes. Here, we report that absence of type I IFN receptor (IFNAR) is associated with extensive immunopathology following mucosal viral infection. This pathology occurred…</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>Early and Rapid Identification of COVID-19 Patients with Neutralizing Type I Interferon Auto-antibodies</strong> - CONCLUSION: IFN-AABs may serve as early biomarker for the development of severe COVID-19. We propose to implement routine screening of hospitalized COVID-19 patients for rapid identification of patients with IFN-AABs who most likely benefit from specific therapies.</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>25 (S)-Hydroxycholesterol acts as a possible dual enzymatic inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2 M<sup>pro</sup> and RdRp-: an insight from molecular docking and dynamics simulation approaches</strong> - The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has rapidly extended globally and killed approximately 5.83 million people all over the world. But, to date, no effective therapeutic against the disease has been developed. The disease is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and enters the host cell through the spike glycoprotein (S protein) of the virus. Subsequently, RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) and main protease (M^(pro)) of the virus mediate viral…</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>Dual targeting of RdRps of SARS-CoV-2 and the mucormycosis-causing fungus: an <em>in silico</em> perspective</strong> - During the past few months, mucormycosis has been associated with SARS-CoV-2 infections. Molecular docking combined with molecular dynamics simulation is utilized to test nucleotide-based inhibitors against the RdRps of SARS-CoV-2 solved structure and Rhizopus oryzae RdRp model built in silico. The results reveal a comparable binding affinity of sofosbuvir, galidesivir, ribavirin and remdesivir compared with the physiological nucleotide triphosphates against R. oryzae RdRp as well as the…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Potential Inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 from <em>Neocarya macrophylla</em> (Sabine) Prance ex F. White: Chemoinformatic and Molecular Modeling Studies for Three Key Targets</strong> - CONCLUSION: The findings of this study have shown that N. macrophylla contains potential leads for SARS-CoV-2 inhibition and thus, should be studied further for development as therapeutic agents against COVID-19.</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>Partisanship Is Biden’s Only Choice After the Supreme Court Leak</strong> - With the impending evisceration of Roe v. Wade, the President must contend with the reality of a broken system. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/what-choice-does-joe-biden-have">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Scooping the Supreme Court</strong> - The first Roe v. Wade leaks happened fifty years ago. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/05/16/scooping-the-supreme-court">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What J. D. Vance’s Victory in the Ohio Republican Primary Means for Trumpism</strong> - The “Hillbilly Elegy” author will be a strong favorite in the race for the U.S. Senate, where he would become one of its youngest and most controversial members. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-political-scene/what-j-d-vances-victory-in-the-ohio-republican-primary-%20means-for-trumpism">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Frank Viva’s “Viva Vélo!”</strong> - The artist discusses biking with his family and finding work-life balance. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cover-story/cover-story-2022-05-16">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Mohsin Hamid Reads “The Face in the Mirror”</strong> - The author reads his story from the May 16, 2022, issue of the magazine. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-writers-voice/mohsin-hamid-reads-the-face-in-the-mirror">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>The solution to “differential demography” is more migration</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A very young baby, looking at the camera, held in an adult’s hands." src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/ZHmFQhunwCFA1c9Tx4BpsEuhLJ4=/374x0:6347x4480/1310x983/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70847731/GettyImages_1337746534.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
But political barriers will hobble our ability to deal with the shifting patterns of global population.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JSuwuG">
If you’re like me, you’re hearing one word echoing through the playgrounds and preschools of America: “Liam!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lFk8Ch">
It’s not that Americans have rediscovered the underrated contributions of frontman Liam Gallagher to the 1990s Britpop band Oasis, and as far as I know, <a href="https://www.looper.com/329974/will-taken-4-ever-happen/">we’re still waiting</a> for the actor Liam Neeson to bring his <a href="https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a31775/taken-speech/">very particular set of skills</a> to the next installment of the <em>Taken</em> franchise. Rather, it’s because for the fifth year running, “Liam” is the most popular name for baby boys in the US, according to data <a href="https://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/">released</a> on May 6 by the Social Security Administration. “Olivia” topped the charts for baby girls for the third straight year.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="s3J7FF">
You can see the full list here, though if you told me these very classic names were from 1921, not 2021, I wouldn’t be surprised:
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Most popular baby names" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/8IN4XdZCVNMedCO8UbDM3FPd5Cc=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23443108/B6QTS_top_10_baby_names_of_2021_in_the_u_s_.png"/>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EHfog6">
Whatever American babies are being named, from the hordes of Liams all the way down to the occasional “Davian” (number 1,000 for 2021), this fact is indisputable: There are fewer of them. In 2020, the general fertility rate in the US <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57003722">hit its lowest level on record</a>, and provisional data for the first six months of 2021 <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Health/births-decreased-
half-2021-linked-pandemic-cdc/story?id=83157873">showed a 2 percent decline</a> in the number of births compared to the same time period in the previous year.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6ylZyF">
And what’s happening in the US is taking place in much of the rest of the world, as people are slower to marry and slower to have children.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4kBzq9">
That trend has helped contribute to what will be one of the dominant themes of the 21st century: <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2022/02/global-population-forecast-disagreement/621243/">the slowdown of population growth</a>, especially in developed countries, and the eventual shrinking of the number of human beings on the planet. It’s a theme tackled by Jennifer Sciubba, an associate professor of international studies at Rhodes College, in her excellent new book <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324002703"><em>8 Billion and Counting: How Sex, Death, and Migration Shape Our World</em></a>.
</p>
<h3 id="2fclAj">
Demography isn’t destiny — but it’s close
</h3></li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LorG9G">
For thousands of years, human population numbers barely budged, increasing by just 0.04 percent a year between 10,000 BCE and 1700 AD, according to <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth">Our World in Data</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="I81vvm">
Then, as the Industrial Revolution and its resulting increase in human life expectancy began to spread around the world, population began growing exponentially, leading to the hockey-stick graph to end all hockey-stick graphs.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Graph showing global population over human
history" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/4FgohzwEOxlLRKziRb4xVd1T0_M=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23439916/Annual_World_Population_since_10_thousand_BCE.png"/> <cite>Courtesy of Our World in Data</cite>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GJPcG1">
Today, Sciubba writes, the world is on the precipice of 8 billion people, meaning that those alive today “represent around 7 percent of the 108 billion who have ever taken a breath.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JRBRY3">
But the days of exponential growth are already behind us. In China, still the world’s most populous country, the number of babies born <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00926-6">has fallen for five straight years</a>, despite the government’s repealing of its one-child policy.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XLQruq">
In South Korea, the birth rate has dropped to a record low 0.92, and in 2020 the country’s population <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/04/south-korea-population-falls-for-first-time-in-history">fell for the first time in its history</a>. In the US — which has long been more fertile than many of its developed peers — the fertility rate is <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2022/1/5/22867184/us-census-population-growth-slowdown-
migration-birth-death">already well below</a> the replacement level of 2.1 children, and will <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/27/style/family-birth-control-pandemic.html">likely continue falling</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4GlwfU">
While countries in sub-Saharan Africa still have huge and growing young populations and much higher fertility rates than more developed countries, the slowdown is universal, with “fertility trending downward pretty much everywhere,” Sciubba told me in an interview. We know we’re headed toward a world with smaller families and older people — and eventually, fewer of them.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mbyY2y">
Why? That’s a trickier question. Sciubba <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-on-books/author-talks-one-billion-more">notes</a> that while demography is the study of large-scale population changes, “at the end of the day it’s about individual people — just aggregated.” And individual people around the world — responding to shifting economic, cultural, and even religious factors — have made the decision to have <a href="https://ifstudies.org/blog/the-rise-of-childless-america">fewer or even no children</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lQQjgY">
Governments can and will try to influence those decisions in a desired direction, but Sciubba told me that public<strong> </strong>policy — whether anti-natalist like China’s coercive one- child law or pro-natalist like the <a href="https://ifstudies.org/blog/pro-natal-policies-work-but-they-come-with-a-
hefty-price-tag">many countries that now pay citizens to have children</a> — has generally taken a back seat to individual<strong> </strong>preference. Policies “may accelerate things for a time, but it doesn’t work” over the long term, she said.
</p>
<h3 id="rXzW3O">
Old World, young world
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sbwx9j">
If the global trend is largely moving in a single direction — fewer children — the impacts of changing demographics in the 21st century will be anything but shared.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0qqSu4">
Developed nations will be forced to grapple with the consequences of an aging and eventually falling population — Japan, Sciubba writes, “could eventually disappear altogether” if current trends hold. They’ll need to figure out how to keep their economies functioning with an ever-shrinking pool of young, productive workers, a problem no nation has ever faced before.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5jSIYx">
But even as fertility is expected to continue to fall, many nations in the global South still have decades of exponential population growth in front of them. Sub-Saharan Africa’s population is projected to grow sixfold over the 21st century, while by 2050 countries like Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo will likely be among the world’s 10 most populous countries.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6CW9vG">
Those burgeoning young populations could be an economic boon for the world’s poorest region. The East Asian economic miracle was <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w6268">built in part by a demographic transition</a> that led to a huge pool of young workers, greatly expanding per-capita productive capacity. We can hope that the 21st century’s dwindling number of young countries could enjoy the same demographic dividend.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eVbUhi">
There’s no guarantee, though. If young workers can’t be put to good use, that dividend can become a penalty. Many of the world’s youngest countries are also <a href="https://fragilestatesindex.org/">among the most fragile</a> and the most susceptible to the <a href="https://www.fpri.org/article/2021/10/the-impact-of-climate-change-on-africas-economies/">worst effects of climate change</a>. Masses of young people with little to do is a historic recipe for instability.
</p>
<h3 id="PCbmL1">
We need to move
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oh7quE">
If government policy is unlikely to significantly<strong> </strong>change the choices individuals make around reproduction, it can help soften the effects of demographic change. Sciubba suggests that aging, developed nations could raise retirement ages, reduce benefits, increase the percentage of the population that works, and increase immigration — all fairly controversial policies.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LXdfWm">
The last option is especially fraught. If the future is one of empty rich nations and overflowing poor ones, allowing far more people to move from the global South to the North could address both challenges. Think of it as globalization, just for people.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bzNGaf">
The problem, as Sciubba notes, is <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/4/27/23043477/title-42-border-biden-
midterms-trump">politics</a>. Even in an age of unprecedented refugee flows, migration remains rare — as of 2015, just <a href="https://www.unfpa.org/migration">3.3 percent of the world’s populatio</a>n was living outside the country where they were born. Political barriers to migration are mostly rising, not falling.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8YVBBC">
“While it makes sense on paper that we would do with people what we do with capital, and have them flow freely to where they would get the most bang for our buck, economic concerns are not the top concerns,” Sciubba told me. “It’s always politics.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jAo8Oj">
Every day, we actively choose to bring about the future we will have. Choosing to have fewer children is in many ways, as Sciubba notes, “a sign of human progress,” the result of the fact that many of us can have far more confidence that a child born today will make it to adulthood than our ancestors had through most of history. How the world deals with the consequences of those decisions will be a choice as well.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BwLxqE">
<em>A version of this story was initially published in the </em>Future Perfect<em> newsletter. </em><a href="https://confirmsubscription.com/h/d/A2BA26698741513A"><em><strong>Sign up here to subscribe!</strong></em></a>
</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>The Biden experts waging war without weapons</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/6VAzt9yHv15eMDwPKtZk4W2P7eU=/400x0:3600x2400/1310x983/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70847430/GettyImages_1394236628.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
President Joe Biden gives remarks on providing more sanctions and other support to Ukraine’s war efforts against Russia from the Roosevelt Room of the White House on April 28. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The Russia sanctions are an unprecedented economic assault.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yu4aYl">
In recent months, the Biden administration has repeatedly trumpeted its “unprecedented sanctions” against Russia and extolled their impact. At a press conference at the end of April, President Joe Biden <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-
remarks/2022/04/21/remarks-by-president-biden-providing-an-update-on-russia-and-ukraine-3/">said</a> that the sanctions “are devastating their economy and their ability to move forward.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cCN0WQ">
Sanctions, long before the war in Ukraine, have become one of<strong> </strong>the United States’ go-to methods to assert primacy in the world. In the past 20 years alone, Washington has used sanctions to target the finances of<strong> </strong>terrorist networks or drug dealers,<strong> </strong>and has taken more far-reaching measures to freeze the economies of whole countries. The US, in short, is now fighting its foreign policy battles through sanctions.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bbp0Zh">
A small group of experts, mostly lawyers and some economists, have crafted Biden’s Russia sanctions, which have now gone further and are more sweeping than any previous administration’s. At the Treasury, Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo and Assistant Secretary Liz Rosenberg; at the White House, Daleep Singh and Peter Harrell.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1Vwgtr">
Biden’s sanctions team are technocrats who’ve been <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-inquiry/the-biden-official-who-pierced-putins-
sanction-proof-economy">profiled</a> in the <a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/west-wing-
playbook/2022/02/24/the-daleep-doctrine-00011437">press</a> and <a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/morning-
money/2022/03/02/bidens-sanctions-team-faces-down-putin-again-00013085">praised</a> for their quick, multilateral approach. They worked together in President Barack Obama’s administration and then, out of government during the Trump years, wrote policy papers thinking through how sanctions could be better.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4LZpaK">
Now, they see themselves as implementing lessons learned. There’s no doubt that<strong> </strong>the Biden administration<strong> </strong>was successful in getting international partners on board with sanctions against Russia in the immediate aftermath of its invasion of Ukraine. But less attention has been paid to why sanctions have become the hammer of choice for this group and how effective these sanctions might be.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xsJkOw">
Leaders from both parties have turned sanctions into a foreign-policy tool of “first resort,” according to Biden’s Treasury Department’s policy <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/136/Treasury-2021-sanctions-review.pdf">review</a>, published last fall. Sanctions have increased by 933% from 2000 to 2021, and both Democratic and Republican presidents have used them as a stand-in for military methods of <a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v44/n06/tom-stevenson/first-recourse-for-
rebels">asserting US power</a> abroad.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MBgmf2">
Trump <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-
sanctions-insight/biden-will-keep-using-u-s-sanctions-weapon-but-with-sharper-aim-sources-idUSKBN28Q1CV">issued</a> 3,800 new sanctions, and Obama 2,350 in his second term. Presidents hold <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-
work/analysis-opinion/how-russia-sanctions-work-and-what-congress-needs-know">largely unconstrained authority</a> to implement sanctions, and previous administrations have used them to <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/revisiting-the-evidence-impact-of-the-2017-sanctions-on-venezuela/">decimate Venezuela’s economy</a> or<strong> </strong><a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2019/10/29/maximum-pressure/us-economic-
sanctions-harm-iranians-right-health">Iran’s</a>. They’ve also gone after the wealth of officials behind political and human rights crises in <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/financial-sanctions/sanctions-programs-and-
country-information/nicaragua-related-sanctions">Nicaragua</a>, <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-
releases/jy0572">Myanmar</a>, and elsewhere, often with little congressional oversight and little public disclosure about their effects.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yqrdgn">
A former Trump Treasury official said that when they were in the room with officials from across the federal government during a crisis, meetings would often go something like this: The State Department didn’t want to do anything, the Defense Department didn’t want to do anything. So everyone at the table would turn to the Treasury folks and say, “Do something,” or, “Well, can we sanction them?” (The official requested anonymity to speak candidly about their former colleagues.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sLa9tt">
But an economy the magnitude of Russia’s, the 11th largest in the world, has never been sanctioned so comprehensively. Going after a central bank of this size, a major economy’s connections to international banking systems, and many of its sectors, is indeed unprecedented. And to target an economy that large unleashes unintended consequences on Russia, the US, and the globe.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lMMHoN">
Russia is a major energy exporter, and <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22949683/russia-ukraine-gas-prices-oil-inflation-
stock-market">energy prices</a> are rising and sending inflation even higher. Russia also exports significant amounts of grains, cooking oils, and fertilizer. So sanctioning the country — even with carve-outs and waivers for humanitarian purposes — could have a devastating impact on vulnerable people in poor countries. The <a href="https://www.fao.org/3/cb9448en/cb9448en.pdf">United Nations</a> says that economic sanctions<strong> </strong>will impact Russian and Ukrainian food production, which is exacerbated by the war and Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian ports. One possible outcome, the UN reports, is that “the global number of undernourished people could increase by 8 to 13 million people in 2022/23.”
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/wSpZQDRr_tC_Ht94bHE1oesUsoI=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23442815/GettyImages_1239260954.jpg"/> <cite>Khaled Desouki/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Egyptian men work in a bakery at a market in Cairo in March. Soaring bread prices sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have bitten into the purchasing power of consumers in Egypt, a leading importer of wheat from the former Soviet states.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="trdUGM">
It’s difficult to account for these types of second-, third-, and fourth-order effects. In fact, last fall, the Treasury Department’s own review of US sanctions policy warned about these outcomes. In the worst-case scenario, the West’s Russia sanctions could <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/20/opinions/sachs-ukraine-negotiation-op-ed/index.html">contribute to widespread unrest</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lS4UjP">
Given that it’s untenable for the US and its allies to send troops into Ukraine, and even less tenable for the US to do nothing at all, sanctions may be the West’s least bad option. Even so, the acceptance of sanctions as an unimpeachable instrument for good by Biden’s team stands in contrast to academic studies about sanctions — and to some degree<strong> </strong>what the president’s key advisers have written previously.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="N9gbi9">
Here’s the story of how Biden and his sanctions wonks came to believe so strongly in this economic weapon, and how they might think through these potential knock-on issues.
</p>
<h3 id="y8eZsc">
How Biden’s sanctions team thinks
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HAkyia">
Even sanctions experts recognize that sanctions are overused.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="luXXmm">
In October 2021, Treasury released a seven-page document that was the culmination of a months-long <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/136/Treasury-2021-sanctions-review.pdf">sanction review</a>. The report encapsulated the internal debates: It<strong> </strong>acknowledged that sanctions are overused, which incentivizes countries to move away from using the dollar. The report also recognized that more exemptions need to be implemented to ensure vulnerable populations don’t<strong> </strong>shoulder the effects of sanctions, and that sanctions need to be multilateral to work. “Sanctions should be clearly communicated,” the report says, so that targets know when and why they would be “escalated or reversed.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0VO5Dh">
Treasury officials identified these shortcomings not to say the US should never use sanctions — but because they see sanctions as “an effective national security tool” and wanted to ensure they stay that way, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-administration-to-trim-use-of-sanctions-in-a-
foreign-policy-shift-11634600029">according</a> to Deputy Treasury Secretary Adeyemo, who oversaw the review. Adeyemo has been the administration’s leader on economic statecraft and has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/08/us/politics/russia-sanctions-effectiveness-adeyemo.html">traveled Europe</a> to harden the sanctions on Russia.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DrscUl">
“I’m happy we did the review when we did, because it’s put us in a better position to be able to use this tool with regard to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” Adeyemo told me.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZGrpzx">
Some experts called the document <a href="https://www.justsecurity.org/78785/the-biden-administrations-
disappointing-sanctions-report-what-should-come-next/">underwhelming</a>; others called it impressive. But what’s clear is that the document reflected how insular the world of sanctions-making is. A former Trump Treasury official, whose current employer did not authorize them to speak publicly, told me they could have written the whole review in an afternoon. “The principles that they stressed in there were principles that you could also say, like, the Trump administration lived up to,” they said. Another former Treasury official told me it read exactly like the think tank reports that Biden’s sanctions team had written during the Trump years.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sWxqCR">
The Treasury review argued that sanctions must be paired with a broader diplomatic strategy, a principle Biden’s sanctions team has stressed in and out of office. “I urge policymakers not to confuse the contemporary popularity of sanctions statecraft to address a wide array of major security threats with the notion of their utility in all instances,” Rosenberg, who now runs the Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes at Treasury, <a href="https://www.cnas.org/publications/congressional-testimony/assessing-the-use-of-sanctions-in-addressing-national-
security-and-foreign-policy-challenges">testified</a> to Congress in May 2019 <a href="https://financialservices.house.gov/uploadedfiles/hhrg-116-ba10-wstate-singhd-20190515.pdf">alongside Singh</a>. “They cannot force capitulation and regime change and cannot be a substitute for a holistic strategy to address the threats to our national security.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zKdKez">
Harrell issued a similar <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2018-09-11/us-using-sanctions-too-aggressively">warning</a> to the Trump administration that year, <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/10/05/trump-sanctions-iran-venezuela-russia-north-
korea-different-obamas/">writing</a> that sanctioned countries often “refuse to make concessions despite draconian economic costs.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wgCO6J">
Now, this “<a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/10/05/trump-sanctions-iran-
venezuela-russia-north-korea-different-obamas/">foreign-policy weapon</a>,” as Harrell called it, is being deployed as part of the assault on Moscow. The US is also sending billions of dollars of weapons to Ukraine and sharing high-level intelligence with the Ukrainian government, but sanctions are a key part of a broader economic strategy to move away from a dependence on Russian energy resources.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XUEF9Q">
Adeyemo articulated more clearly than any other Biden official how sanctions fit within US objectives. “The overarching goal of our foreign policy strategy is to end the invasion in Ukraine, and the way that sanctions are helping to support that is about reducing the level of resources that Russia has to project power and by cutting off their military-industrialized complex,” he told me.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/w3cvd20ADVSZa3s39fcFKXGBHNw=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23442857/GettyImages_1239590505.jpg"/> <cite>Johanna Geron/Pool/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
US Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo speaks during a joint news conference with the European Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and the Capital Markets Union in Brussels, Belgium, on March 29.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OGC6yr">
His description was a subtle contrast to the way some administration leaders have stated those<strong> </strong>goals. Biden has <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/03/26/remarks-by-president-biden-on-the-united-
efforts-of-the-free-world-to-support-the-people-of-ukraine/">said</a> that sanctions reflect “the power to inflict damage that rivals military might” and are “sapping Russian strength.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qipDjO">
“We all worry about the overuse of sanctions, but I think that this is clearly not a case of overuse,” an administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity told me. “This is a case of responding to a clear and egregious violation of basic tenets of international law and human rights. I think this is a case of indisputable agreement that the world needs to respond and sanctions are an appropriate tool.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5f14pX">
Biden has also <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-
room/speeches-remarks/2022/03/24/remarks-by-president-biden-in-press-conference-7/">bluntly</a> stated that “sanctions never deter.” But Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan <a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/national-security-daily/2022/03/25/what-biden-means-by-sanctions-never-
deter-00020602">both said</a> before the war that the threat of sanctions was about deterrence. In April, Blinken described sanctions as a tactic to <a href="https://www.state.gov/secretary-antony-j-blinken-press-availability-at-the-
meeting-of-nato-foreign-ministers/">strengthen Ukraine’s hand</a> in negotiations with Russia, while the White House has said some are about imposing “<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/04/06/fact-
sheet-united-states-g7-and-eu-impose-severe-and-immediate-costs-on-russia/">severe and immediate costs</a>” and others are about holding “<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/04/28/fact-sheet-
president-bidens-comprehensive-proposal-to-hold-russian-oligarchs-accountable/">the Russian government and Russian oligarchs accountable</a>” for the war.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QseyNf">
Adeyemo’s rationale seems to be the clearest yet: Sanctions are serving one narrow purpose. But “as long as Russia’s invasion continues, our sanctions will continue,” he <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0719">said</a> in a recent speech to economists.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2yV4i2">
From the time that US intelligence began warning about Russia’s troop buildup on Ukraine’s borders <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-inquiry/the-biden-official-who-pierced-putins-sanction-proof-economy">in November</a>, Biden’s sanctions team was already drafting the blueprint for an economic war on Russia’s sophisticated economy.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9jAzZH">
Partially that’s about how limited the sanctions team and this administration see other options. The US wants to do everything short of going to war with a nuclear power.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hpo5KR">
Moreover, this group of sanctions-makers came of age as the forever wars in Iraq and Afghanistan showed the limits of US military power abroad and as Washington learned to rely on sanctions.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sDXV4p">
In 2004, Bush’s Treasury established a new agency to run sanctions, the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, and in 2009 Obama kept on its first undersecretary Stuart Levey. (His successor, David S. Cohen, now serves as the deputy director of the CIA.) Within the agency, the Office of Foreign Assets Control oversees sanctions. Considering its power, <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-20-324.pdf">OFAC as of 2019</a> had a comparatively small budget of $46 million and about 200 employees. Several former Treasury officials told me that the office is understaffed. “We do need more resources and different resources at OFAC,” Adeyemo told me.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KlS7Wd">
Adeyemo and Harrell studied at Yale Law School during the second term of George W. Bush along with Jon Finer and Brian Deese, who are both top advisers in Biden’s White House. Biden withdrew troops from Afghanistan last summer, cementing his turn against America’s longest war. (The administration, however, continues to impose sanctions on the central bank in Afghanistan, causing <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/03/17/time-running-out-address-afghanistans-hunger-crisis">malnutrition</a>, especially among children.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PKJmW4">
Across Washington, sanctions have been internalized as a more politically appealing alternative to war. “One of the reasons I think that it’s attractive is that there’s not necessarily an upfront cost,” said Rachel Ziemba, a fellow at the Center for a New American Security. “It’s hard to come up with examples of [sanctions] working. There are not a lot, which in and of itself says something.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="odqVIa">
As historian Nicholas Mulder <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/01/podcasts/transcript-ezra-klein-interviews-
nicholas-mulder.html">said recently</a>, “somewhere between about 10 to 30 percent of the time do sanctions work, at least somewhat, to achieve one of their stated goals.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1a8TuA">
But the sanctions team remains committed to the tool.<strong> </strong>Daleep Singh — a markets expert who held positions at Goldman Sachs and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York — is a <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/04/07/1091487896/are-the-sanctions-on-russia-working">key mover</a> of sanctions as a deputy national security adviser in the White House. Singh’s presence has “accounted for some of this big-picture view” on the macroeconomic effects, according to sanctions expert Edoardo Saravalle. (Last month, it was <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/04/26/biden-sanctions-coordinator-white-
house/">reported</a> that Singh will take a leave of absence from the White House.)
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<pre><code> &lt;img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-</code></pre>
cdn.com/thumbor/_T0TL9SlDWYdaK1_wX8tLsC91ps=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox- cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23442868/GettyImages_1238737902.jpg" /&gt; <cite>Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Deputy National Security Adviser Daleep Singh speaks during a press briefing at White House on February 24.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MRbNJD">
He and the rest of the sanctions team share a similar profile. During the Trump years, they <a href="https://prospect.org/power/biden-adviser-jake-sullivan-think-tanker-
scholar-consultant/">in turns</a> conducted research, held university roles, and did corporate work, as many Biden officials did. Harrell and Rosenberg published <a href="https://www.cnas.org/publications/reports/next-generation-of-
sanctions">policy papers</a> together. Harrell served as an outside legal counsel to Microsoft. Rosenberg, who worked as a senior adviser to the Bidenworld firm <a href="https://prospect.org/power/meet-the-consulting-firm-staffing-biden-
administration-westexec/">WestExec Advisors</a>, consulted for ExxonMobil. Adeyemo worked as president of the Obama Foundation and before that as a managing director at the investment powerhouse BlackRock.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9SVIyZ">
The core sanctions team consists not of operatives or strategists, but of pragmatic professionals. “Peter, Liz, Daleep, and all these guys — this is not meant as a demerit at all — they are very skilled technocrats,” said one of the former Treasury officials. “It means that they look for sophisticated ways to tweak and adjust US regulation.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hgCORz">
The circle of sanctions experts was small before this crisis, and has since expanded in a whole-of-Treasury approach, bringing in other government agencies like the Commerce Department and USAID.<strong> </strong>Throughout, the sanctions team says they’re continuing to refine their approach and apply lessons — all with the belief that they can address a foreign policy problem with expertise and diligence.
</p>
<h3 id="YdjcBy">
Our new era of technocratic war
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="n0BgRj">
Most sanctions ramp up over weeks, months, or years, but the Russia sanctions came together days after Russia’s assault on Ukraine and were initially harsh — part of the administration’s “start high and stay high” approach. “We know where Russia’s pressure points are,” Singh <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/02/08/1079112768/biden-is-
promising-crippling-sanctions-on-russia-if-it-invades-ukraine">told NPR</a>, reflecting on what he had learned since</p></li>
</ul>
<ol start="2014" type="1">
<li>“So that’s why instead of taking a gradualist approach, we’re prepared to start with sanctions at the top of our escalation ladder and stay there.”
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="C60oLm">
Just two days after Russia’s invasion, the US, the European Commission, and major European countries <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0612">imposed</a> sanctions on Russia’s Central Bank. The next day, Japan <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/japan-govt-cbank-
executives-meet-ukraine-crisis-jolts-markets-2022-02-28/">joined</a>. The central banks of petro-states like Venezuela and Iran have been sanctioned before, but a country the size of Russia took it to a whole new level. And since then, new sanctions are being rolled out almost every week against individuals, companies, and banks. Russia’s energy sector is perhaps the last arena that the US has yet to comprehensively sanction with its partners and allies. All told, 30 countries that consist of more than half of the global economy have joined the coalition.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9zRjHG">
The Biden administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity emphasized that major Russian financial and banking institutions have been sanctioned without causing major global disruptions. “We’ve really carefully kicked the tires on these measures before we’ve done them,” the official said. “We’ve managed this in a way that has been remarkably effective at minimizing collateral costs.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gTH7Eq">
The central bank sanctions had to have been prepared methodically and well in advance, says Daniel Fried, a former ambassador to Poland who coordinated sanctions on Russia in Obama’s State Department. “And I thought, ‘Damn, they’re good,’” he told me.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6oZZ1A">
In 2014, Fried traveled Europe with Singh, then a senior Treasury official, in advancing sanctions against Russia during its initial invasion of Ukraine. “Jack Lew, the Treasury secretary, basically sent Daleep [Singh] on my delegation to make sure that ‘Wild Man’ Fried wouldn’t trash the world financial system with my sanctions on Russia,” said Fried, who then quickly realized that Singh was a huge asset and supported his work.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="POdTWl">
Lew told me the Treasury Department had studied “how Russia was interconnected to the European global economy” to ensure that sanctions didn’t kick off a recession. “State was pushing to do more, and Treasury was making the case to do it in a surgically targeted way, to have the maximum impact you’re looking for with the minimum unintended consequences that could undermine the whole effort,” Lew said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HZDHt7">
The combined effort put pressure on Putin that, according to Lew, brought Russia to the negotiating table and culminated in the 2014 <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/what-are-minsk-
agreements-ukraine-conflict-2022-02-21/">Minsk agreement</a>. “If State and Treasury are knit up, who’s gonna stop us?” Fried added.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iex1hH">
Now, the stakes are higher. The sanctions against Russia aren’t just about Ukraine, but may impact the future of sanctions — a coercive tool that policymakers think might<strong> </strong>be the route of first resort in a potential conflict against China. Julie Friedlander, a former career Treasury official, said that if sanctions fail to achieve Biden’s goals in Europe,<strong> </strong>new questions will be raised about the tool. “Can we really pretend to have faith in this kind of maximum pressure and financial sanctions again?” she said. “Maybe we have to realize that we’ve been barking up the wrong tree.”
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/CAMEniBv69Ubdj0jXBbdeWm-i2g=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23442881/GettyImages_1240436987.jpg"/> <cite>Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Pedestrians walk past a screen displaying Russian President Vladimir Putin during a news broadcast about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in Tokyo, Japan, on May 4.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jFKK6D">
It’s also <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/25/politics/biden-administration-russia-strategy/index.html">not been articulated</a> yet what lifting sanctions would look like. Singh <a href="https://www.business-
standard.com/article/international/us-not-in-talks-with-russia-about-lifting-sanctions-white-house-
advisor-122042200076_1.html">said</a> last month that “we’re not at the point at which we’re talking about sanctions relief.” And an administration official declined to speculate about what circumstances might lead to sanctions being lifted.<strong> </strong>Limited congressional oversight means the president is not required to spell out goals, say how the administration is tracking them, or describe humanitarian fallout from sanctions.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ySmREj">
Critics worry that the administration is overselling how effective<strong> </strong>sanctions will be. In March, for example, Rosenberg spoke to anti-money laundering (AML) specialists. She went so far as to <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0671">say</a>, “The fate of Ukrainian democracy and the strength of democracies to push back against autocracy <em>writ large</em> depends on whether we do our jobs — and whether you do AML and Russian sanctions compliance work well.”
</p>
<h3 id="ukRcZx">
Unintended consequences of sanctions
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2gPFWZ">
Those who praise the Biden administration’s coordination of sanctions also express concern about their unintended consequences. “I do think that no one has really had the time to plan out what the longer-term implications are going to be of essentially annihilating the Russian economy,” Friedlander, now a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, told me.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="On5t59">
The truth is that Russia will adapt — it already has, and the ruble has begun to bounce back.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HV46vp">
Research indicates<strong> </strong>that sanctions <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/3/30/11333008/sanctions-jack-lew">aren’t a very effective tool</a> unless formulated within a broader foreign policy strategy. A 2019 report from the Government Accountability Office <a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-20-145">found</a> that government agencies aren’t great at assessing whether sanctions are working. “We need more accountability around sanctions policy — when and how they’re successful,” said Michael Wahid Hanna of the International Crisis Group.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9EDwcY">
“US and European policymakers have never clearly defined how weakening or diminishing the economic welfare of ordinary people creates the conditions for a possible political or diplomatic resolution to something as significant as a military conflict,” said Esfandyar Batmanghelidj of the economic research institution Bourse &amp; Bazaar Foundation.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="N80Do8">
The intensive sanctions on Russia will also change the way countries think about the free movement of capital. Adam Posen of the Peterson Institute for International Economics has <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/world/2022-03-17/end-globalization">argued</a> that these sanctions on Russia will have a corrosive effect on the world economy that might result in the “end of globalization.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lWA0VM">
Above all, the humanitarian effects may be staggering and could elevate international food prices by up to <a href="https://www.fao.org/3/cb9448en/cb9448en.pdf">22 percent</a>, with vulnerable people bearing most of the <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/2022/04/14/outlook-for-global-economy-and-policy-priorities-event-7856">war’s costs</a>. As a result of US sanctions, Iranians <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2019/10/29/maximum-pressure/us-
economic-sanctions-harm-iranians-right-health">suffered</a> from limited access to medicine, especially early in the pandemic. In Venezuela, sanctions contributed to the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-
development/2019/apr/05/un-urged-to-declare-full-scale-crisis-in-venezuela-as-health-system-collapses">collapse of the health care system</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Fctcwh">
Humanitarian exemptions are built into sanctions for <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/126/russia_gl6.pdf">foods, agricultural items, and medicines</a>, as well as licenses for <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/126/russia_gl5.pdf">some international organizations and nonprofit</a> groups to operate in Russia. “Even so, they don’t always work to mitigate those unintended impacts in the way that the designers and implementers of sanctions law or executive orders intend,” a Democratic congressional aide told me.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="h9j4IV">
Lew explained that sanctions at this level will inevitably hurt Russians. “When you’re in a war, like the war that Russia has created here, it’s impossible to protect all the quote-unquote innocent people, and there’s a question of what innocent means when your country is doing things like that,” he told me.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/or-
fLysQPgkHAAhEMGpGnIZdtlw=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23442892/AP22059421002366.jpg"/> <cite>Dmitri Lovetsky/AP</cite></figure></li>
</ol>
<figcaption>
People stand in line to withdraw US dollars and euros from an ATM in St. Petersburg, Russia, on February 25. Ordinary Russians faced the prospect of higher prices and crimped foreign travel as Western sanctions hit.
</figcaption>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oDH7UC">
Since OFAC is so understaffed, former Treasury officials explained, it can be difficult to create enough licenses and waivers for humanitarian reasons.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vh2eZU">
The humanitarian consequences “can never be a secondary issue,” said Adeyemo, who says he and his team are “thinking about how we can get more consistency around our humanitarian carve-outs.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="N5tTxI">
Banks tend to overcomply with<strong> </strong>sanctions: they want to avoid potential hits to their reputations, and are generally overcautious. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/04/07/opinion/companies-ukraine-boycott.html">More than 250 companies</a> have already left Russia, including airlines, banks, consulting firms, and retailers. One bank executive told me that they were working 15-hour days since December to understand the overlapping layers of Biden’s sanctions.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DjSo0v">
There are concerns the humanitarian fallout becomes collateral or peripheral to the immediate crisis. “If you really want to amp the pressure up as much as possible, you’re obviously going to affect the population,” Friedlander said. So when the Biden administration announces that they’ve taken the humanitarian dynamic into account, as the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/04/06/fact-sheet-united-states-g7-and-
eu-impose-severe-and-immediate-costs-on-russia/">White House</a> often does in press releases, it’s only part of the story. “You’ve taken it into account but then you bagged it,” she explained. “And then you try to mitigate it afterward.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="R8AcYa">
Narges Bajoghli, an anthropologist at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies who is writing a book on sanctions, says the fact that the sanctions team uses military terminology suggests that the humanitarian consequences are, to some extent, intentional.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xzYfPF">
“It’s similar to the way in which the humanitarian aspect is thought about in some ways in a hot war situation,” she said, “where, yes, it’s unfortunate, but it’s a necessary byproduct of going up against the state.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fna52b">
</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Hong Kong ushers in a new era of restriction under John Lee</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Hong Kong Votes For Chief Executive In Single-Candidate Race" src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/6Q0sANXyGawHYbKs_fVLiNyYITU=/444x0:4000x2667/1310x983/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70846266/1396033755.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Anthony Kwan/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Lee ran uncontested and won 99 percent of the vote.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XEsJyO">
John Lee is the new chief executive of Hong Kong. The 64-year-old ran the only approved campaign to succeed Carrie Lam, the embattled head of the Chinese territory who oversaw a dramatic degradation to democratic institutions throughout 2019’s pro-democracy protests. Lee’s tenure will likely bring more of the same: a former deputy chief of Hong Kong’s police force, he was instrumental in the brutal crackdowns on pro-democracy activists.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cP4gMW">
As the sole Beijing- approved candidate to replace Lam, Lee’s victory was all but assured as soon as he announced his candidacy. While Hong Kong doesn’t have what Americans would recognize as a democratic electoral system, previous elections have seen multiple candidates vie for Hong Kong’s top job. But this year, Lee was the only person Beijing apparently deemed sufficiently loyal to China’s Communist Party under its new electoral policies for Hong Kong, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/china-hongkong-election-
legislature/2021/03/30/bb1f405c-912d-11eb-aadc-af78701a30ca_story.html">unveiled last March</a>. He won handily with <a href="https://apnews.com/article/voting-rights-elections-beijing-hong-kong-f136ce684eaafab980800337dd9ef4c2">99 percent</a><a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/05/08/1097452402/beijing-loyalist-john-lee-elected-as-hong-kongs-next-
leader"> of the votes</a> from the <a href="https://www.cmab.gov.hk/en/issues/election_committee.htm">1,500-member electoral commission</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="h0swg5">
Since 2019, the Chinese government has instituted laws and policies which have eroded the relative autonomy that Hong Kong enjoyed after the territory was returned from the UK to China in 1997. Protests about <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hongkong-protests-timeline/timeline-key-dates-in-hong-kongs-
anti-government-protests-idUSKBN23608O">changes to extradition laws</a>, which would allow Hong Kong residents accused of crimes could be extradited to mainland China for trial, erupted across the region amid demands for strengthened democratic institutions. Those protests, although they were effective in indefinitely delaying the extradition laws, resulted ultimately in a <a href="https://www.law.georgetown.edu/law-asia/wp-content/uploads/sites/31/2021/02/GT-HK-
Report-Accessible.pdf">national security law</a> being enacted. Under that law, many high-profile activists like <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/china/hong-kong-democracy-activist-agnes-chow-released-prison-2021-06-12/">Agnes Chow</a>, a pro-democracy activist and member of pro-democracy civil society group Demosisto, as well as opposition politicians and business leaders, were arrested. Since then, a “climate of fear” has pervaded the city and virtually extinguished the democratic resistance movement, according to a <a href="https://www.law.georgetown.edu/law-asia/wp-
content/uploads/sites/31/2021/02/GT-HK-Report-Accessible.pdf">February 2021 analysis</a> by Thomas E. Kellogg and Lydia Wong of the Georgetown Center for Asian Law. (Lydia Wong is a pseudonym for a scholar operating in the People’s Republic of China.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wOwABE">
The government in mainland China also instituted several reforms to Hong Kong’s governing structure, which helped solidify China’s control over the city, as Michael Martin of the Center for Strategic and International Studies outlined in <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/hong-kong-2022">a February report.</a> Twelve pro-democracy candidates were barred from running in the 2020 Legislative Council (Hong Kong’s legislature, often shortened to LegCo) elections, which were then postponed until December 2021. In the intervening time, China’s Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), with Lam’s help, instituted changes to Hong Kong’s Basic Law — the city’s governing charter — assuring a greater proportion of seats on the LegCo would friendly to China.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LXpxY0">
The Standing Committee of the NPC also created an institution to vet potential political candidates, the <a href="https://npcobserver.com/2021/03/31/legislation-analysis-npc-standing-committee-approves-overhaul-of-hong-kongs-
electoral-system/">Candidate Eligibility Review Committee</a>, or CERC. As of April 14, the CERC had only four members — all unelected government officials — and three non-official members, according to a <a href="https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202204/14/P2022041400227.htm#:~:text=As%20such%2C%20the%20CERC%20only,than%203%20non%2Dofficial%20members.">government press release</a>. Lee, now poised to take over as Hong Kong’s chief executive, was until April 7 the chair of the CERC.
</p>
<h3 id="NUBn49">
John Lee will be Beijing’s enforcer
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hLZcb2">
Prior to joining Hong Kong’s government as Chief Secretary for Administration — the second-most powerful position in the government — Lee was the deputy head of the police force and a career cop, having <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-
china-61267490">joined the force in 1977</a>. He’ll be the first chief executive from the police force in the 25 years since its handover to China, and will take office on July 1, the anniversary of that day.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aIfh6Y">
Over the past four decades, Lee rose through the ranks of the city’s police force to become the Secretary of Security, overseeing the city’s police force during the 2019 protests over the extradition bill (for which, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-61267490">according to the BBC</a>, Lee was a strong advocate). During his tenure, Hong Kong police were strongly criticized for using excessive force, such as deploying rubber bullets, tear gas, and water cannons, and occasionally using live ammunition against protesters. Lee defended the use of force and the response to the protest, including the National Security Law, saying it had helped “<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-61267490">restore stability from chaos.</a>”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="r5tVhb">
Lee <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-61267490">has also said</a> he intends to enact legislation that will “prohibit any act of treason, secession, sedition, subversion,” which is legal under <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3138956/national-security-what-article-23-hong-kong-and-why-
issue">Article 23 of Hong Kong’s Basic Law</a>, in a bid to rid the city of “the ideology of Hong Kong independence, violence and extremism.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vmVweW">
While his policies and response to the 2019 and 2020 pro-democracy protests clearly pleased Beijing, the <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm1088">US Treasury Department</a> sanctioned Lee, Lam, and other government officials for “undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy and restricting the freedom of expression or assembly of the citizens of Hong Kong” in August 2020. Lee was specifically designated for his role in “coercing, arresting, detaining, or imprisoning individuals under the authority of the National Security Law, as well as being involved in its development, adoption, or implementation,” according to a press release from the <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm1088">Office of Foreign Assets Control</a>. However, given that the order applies only to assets that are in the US or under the control of US persons, it won’t likely affect his economic status. It could potentially raise complications as Lee tries to salvage Hong Kong’s economy after the Covid-19 pandemic and the National Security Law pushed foreigners and international firms out of the city, though.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1Pm4t5">
Lee’s selection isn’t completely without precedent, either. Beijing has often had a preferred candidate in the contest for chief executive. But the uncontested run of the former security chief is almost too on-the-nose after pro-democracy activism and calls for Hong Kong independence threatened China’s grip on the city. It also points to the erosion of the civil service in Hong Kong. Lee’s not part of the civil service and political class, or a business leader, as past chief executives have been. Rather, the valuable expertise he brings to the job is his loyalty to Beijing, Kenneth Chan Ka-lok, formerly a pro-democracy lawmaker and associate professor at Hong Kong Baptist University, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/04/08/hong-kong-chief-executive-beijing-china/">told the Washington Post in April</a>, after Lee announced his candidacy. “What matters most is that Lee is a cadre appointed by Beijing. As long as he can serve his master well, [Hong Kong’s] pro-establishment side will not have a voice that deviates far from his,” he said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wu37f4">
The fact that loyalty, rather than competency, is the most important quality for leadership in Hong Kong doesn’t bode particularly well for the future, Ho-fung Hung, a professor of political economy at Johns Hopkins University and an expert on the politics of Hong Kong <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/04/08/hong-kong-chief-executive-beijing-china/">told the Post</a>. Hung predicted that Lee’s leadership points to the “gradual erosion of professionalism spirit in Hong Kong in all quarters of society will be continuing or even speeding up.”
</p>
<h3 id="GF5y81">
Can Lee shore up Hong Kong’s battered business sector?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="i2rIcs">
Lee’s lack of experience — either in government or in business — puts him in a tough position when it comes to one of the main mandates of his leadership: rebuilding Hong Kong’s economy after the one-two punch of the National Security Law and the Covid-19 pandemic.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VhIQHK">
Hong Kong has occupied a middle place over the past 25 years, with a degree of social and political autonomy far exceeding that of mainland China — encompassed in the “one party, two systems” philosophy that has governed Hong Kong since 1997. That level of Western- style openness and freedom, coupled with tax breaks, attracted international companies and thousands of expats. However, as the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/hong-kong-europe-business-5a7f50d5d5027fda34f9addeb883e809">Associated Press reported last year</a>, a survey from the American Chamber of Commerce last year showed that 40 percent of expats surveyed that May were considering leaving Hong Kong due to the National Security Law, and many international companies moved their operations elsewhere.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2rWrjS">
Furthermore, the Covid-19 pandemic shut off the city, and breakouts crippled the health system. The dynamic zero-Covid policy employed by the Chinese government has added to the exodus, with more than 150,000 people leaving since the beginning of 2022, according to <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/4/2/hong-kong-faces-brain-drain-as-talent-flees-zero-covid-controls">Al Jazeera</a>. “It’s an unarguable fact that we have a brain drain and some senior management of some corporates have left Hong Kong,” Lam said of the city’s Covid-19 policies.
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Lee is tasked with shoring up Hong Kong’s business sector once again, but instead of luring international companies back, perhaps with a less restrictive political atmosphere and Covid-19 policy, he’s proposing <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-29/hong-kong-s-lee-to-focus-on-reopening-china-border-scmp-says">a different approach altogether</a>: Opening the border with mainland China and developing the northern part of the island, the so-called Northern Metropolis, as an option to alleviate the city’s housing crisis — and shore up connections with the mainland.
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“He may be a decisive leader. He may make the city function better. That’s true. But he’s not a businessman. He doesn’t have links to business,” Tara Joseph, the former president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/5/3/not-a-businessman-hong-
kongs-leader-in-waiting-draws">told Al Jazeera</a>. “He has links to the security apparatus.”
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</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>With improved technique, Annu Rani ready for the Worlds</strong> - Her National record on Sunday has taken her to the third spot in this year’s World list</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>National football captain Sunil Chhetri interacts with North East cricketers at NCA</strong> - Chhetri joined NCA head VVS Laxman for a one-on-one session with the cricketers in Bengaluru</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>Lake Tahoe and Triumphant please</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>Alcaraz graduates from up-and-comer to French Open threat</strong> - 19-year-old Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz thrashed Alex Zverev 6-3 6-1 in the claycourt final, having already toppled ‘Big Three’ titans Rafa Nadal and Novak Djokovic in a watershed week in Madrid Open</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>La liga: Real Madrid receive no guard of honour from Atlético de Madrid, lose 1-0</strong> - Atlético Madrid went on to beat the newly crowned Spanish league champion 1-0 and moved closer to securing a Champions League spot</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>Stop evicting the poor from waterbodies: Ramadoss</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>Golden jubilee block to be opened at Arts College</strong> - Institution formulates master plan in conformity with green protocol</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>Assam Rifles honours surviving soldiers of India’s most successful counter-insurgency operation</strong> - Naib Subedar Padam Bahadur Chhetri and 14 others killed 72 extremists, captured 13 others at 14,000 ft in J&amp;K on May 5, 1991</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>Bike theft: Three arrested in Bengaluru</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>Tobacco Control Cell objects to varsity programme</strong> - Laptops given to students by cigarette manufacturing company</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>Putin says Russia fighting for motherland in Ukraine in Victory Day speech</strong> - The Russian leader uses Victory Day to tie the war in Ukraine to the fight against Nazi Germany.</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: Putin gives few clues in Victory Day speech</strong> - Prior to Victory Day, Moscow was full of rumours about what Putin might announce in his speech.</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 conflict: Patron the mine-sniffing dog awarded medal</strong> - Patron, aged two-and-a-half, is credited with helping find more than 200 devices since the war began.</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>Haiti gang kidnaps Turkish bus passengers</strong> - A gang infamous for taking hostages for ransom abducts a bus full of Haitian and Turkish passengers.</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>UK YouTuber Benjamin Rich quizzed and fined at Russian space centre</strong> - Bald and Bankrupt vlogger Benjamin Rich says he was questioned by Russian police in Kazakhstan.</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>Why our continued use of fossil fuels is creating a financial time bomb</strong> - We’re investing in things that will have little value if we move off fossil fuels. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1852602">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Museum rigs up multi-screen N64 GoldenEye to prevent “screencheating”</strong> - Step one: Spend thousands on outdated CRT signal processing tech. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1852894">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Corals convert sunscreen chemical into a toxin that kills them</strong> - The chemical in the sunblock is fine until the coral alters it. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1852873">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Small drones are giving Ukraine an unprecedented edge</strong> - Consumer drones are having a huge impact on the country’s defense against Russia. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1852831">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>An encyclopedia of geology that’s less a reference than a journey</strong> - Rocks are not nouns but verbs, says Marcia Bjornerud in her new book. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1830359">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>A dirty joke from the 1400s…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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In Florence, a young woman, somewhat of a simpleton, was on the point of delivering a baby. She had long been enduring acute pain, and the midwife, candle in hand, inspected her secret area, in order to ascertain if the child was coming. “Look also on the other side,” said the poor creature, “my husband has sometimes taken that road.”
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From “The Facetiae Or Jocose Tales of Poggio”, a joke book published in the 1400’s by Poggio Bracciolini:
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/DennySmith62"> /u/DennySmith62 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ulglza/a_dirty_joke_from_the_1400s/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ulglza/a_dirty_joke_from_the_1400s/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>Politicians go visit a school</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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High ranking politicians visit a school. The top one goes over the expenses and decides to make adjustments to cut costs.<br/> “The lunch portions are too big. Cut them in half. Internet connection too fast. Too many computers.”
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After that, they go to a preschool. Again, the expenses are too great.<br/> “The lunch portions are too big. Reduce them to half. Too many toys around.”
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After the preschool, they go to a prison.<br/> “The lunch portions are too small and the selection is too limited. Get faster broadband and more comfortable beds. TVs are too old. Get a few consoles as well.”
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One of them asks the leader, baffled:<br/> - Are you mad? We just cut costs in schools and prechools, and now you do this?<br/> - My friend! We will never go to school or preschool again. But we can still easily end up here…
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/crufter"> /u/crufter </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ulc4yt/politicians_go_visit_a_school/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ulc4yt/politicians_go_visit_a_school/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>After my ex died, I couldn’t shower alone for 10 years</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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But I’m out of prison now
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/PrinceJustice237"> /u/PrinceJustice237 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ulel9f/after_my_ex_died_i_couldnt_shower_alone_for_10/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ulel9f/after_my_ex_died_i_couldnt_shower_alone_for_10/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>my girlfriend says her pussy’s like a rose</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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But I think it looks more like tulips
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/MoonIhide"> /u/MoonIhide </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ulco5w/my_girlfriend_says_her_pussys_like_a_rose/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ulco5w/my_girlfriend_says_her_pussys_like_a_rose/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>What are the 3 most useless things?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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Pope’s balls, nun’s nipples and thank you from Boss without a raise.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/AntsAndFriends"> /u/AntsAndFriends </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ulo7ef/what_are_the_3_most_useless_things/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ulo7ef/what_are_the_3_most_useless_things/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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