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

Added daily report

This commit is contained in:
Navan Chauhan 2021-02-03 12:51:11 +00:00
parent 6492167320
commit a1197859de
3 changed files with 540 additions and 2 deletions
Show Stats Download Patch File Download Diff File Expand all files Collapse all files

207
archive-covid-19/03 February, 2021.html Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,207 @@
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head>
<meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv="Content-Type"/>
<meta content="text/css" http-equiv="Content-Style-Type"/>
<meta content="pandoc" name="generator"/>
<title></title>
<style type="text/css">code{white-space: pre;}</style>
<title>Covid-19 Sentry</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
<body>
<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="covid-19-sentry">Covid-19 Sentry</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-preprints">From Preprints</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-pubmed">From PubMed</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-patent-search">From Patent Search</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-preprints">From Preprints</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>The basis of a more contagious 501Y.V1 variant of SARS-COV-2</strong> -
<div>
Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is causing a world-wide pandemic. A variant of SARS-COV-2 (20I/501Y.V1) recently discovered in the United Kingdom has a single mutation from N501 to Y501 within the receptor binding domain (Y501-RBD), of the Spike protein of the virus. This variant is much more contagious than the original version (N501-RBD). We found that this mutated version of RBD binds to human Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2) a ~10 times more tightly than the native version (N501-RBD). Modeling analysis showed that the N501Y mutation would allow a potential aromatic ring-ring interaction and an additional hydrogen bond between the RBD and ACE2. However, sera from individuals immunized with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine still efficiently block the binding of Y501-RBD to ACE2 though with a slight compromised manner by comparison with their ability to inhibit binding to ACE2 of N501-RBD. This may raise the concern whether therapeutic anti-RBD antibodies used to treat COVID-19 patients are still efficacious. Nevertheless, a therapeutic antibody, Bamlanivimab, still binds to the Y501-RBD as efficiently as its binds to N501-RBD.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.02.428884v1" target="_blank">The basis of a more contagious 501Y.V1 variant of SARS-COV-2</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Evolution of ACE2 and SARS-CoV-2 Interplay Across 247 Vertebrates</strong> -
<div>
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS CoV 2) cause the most serious pandemics of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID 19), which threatens human health and public safety. SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein uses angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) as recognized receptor for its entry into host cell that contributes to the infection of SARS-CoV-2 to hosts. Using computational modeling approach, this study resolved the evolutionary pattern of bonding affinity of ACE2 in 247 jawed vertebrates to the spike (S) protein of SARS-CoV-2. First, high-or-low binding affinity phenotype divergence of ACE2 to the S protein of SARS-CoV-2 has appeared in two ancient species of jawed vertebrates, Scyliorhinus torazame (low-affinity, Chondrichthyes) and Latimeria chalumnae (high-affinity, Coelacanthimorpha). Second, multiple independent affinity divergence events recur in fishes, amphibians-reptiles, birds, and mammals. Third, high affinity phenotypes go up in mammals, possibly implying the rapid expansion of mammals might accelerate the evolution of coronaviruses. Fourth, we found natural mutations at eight amino acid sites of ACE2 can determine most of phenotype divergences of bonding affinity in 247 vertebrates and resolved their related structural basis. Moreover, we also identified high-affinity or low-affinity-associated concomitant mutation group.The group linked to extremely high affinity may provide novel potentials for the development of human recombinant soluble ACE2 (hrsACE2) in treating patients with COVID-19 or for constructing genetically modified SARS-CoV-2 infection models promoting vaccines studies. These findings would offer potential benefits for the treatment and prevention of SARS-CoV-2. Keywords: Vertebrates, ACE2, SARS-CoV-2, Bonding Affinity
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.28.428568v1" target="_blank">Evolution of ACE2 and SARS-CoV-2 Interplay Across 247 Vertebrates</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Computational insights into differential interaction of mamalian ACE2 with the SARS-CoV-2 spike receptor binding domain</strong> -
<div>
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causing agent of the COVID-19 pandemic, has spread globally. Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) has been identified as the host cell receptor that binds to receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the SARS-COV-2 spike protein and mediates cell entry. Because the ACE2 proteins are widely available in mammals, it is important to investigate the interactions between the RBD and the ACE2 of other mammals. Here we analyzed the sequences of ACE2 proteins from 16 mammals and predicted the structures of ACE2-RBD complexes. Analyses on sequence, structure, and dynamics synergistically provide valuable insights into the interactions between ACE2 and RBD. The comparison results suggest that the ACE2 of bovine, cat and panda form strong binding with RBD, while in the cases of rat, least horseshoe bat, horse, pig, mouse and civet, the ACE2 proteins interact weakly with RBD.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.02.429327v1" target="_blank">Computational insights into differential interaction of mamalian ACE2 with the SARS-CoV-2 spike receptor binding domain</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>A Thermostable, Flexible RNA Vaccine Delivery Platform for Pandemic Response</strong> -
<div>
Current RNA vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 are limited by instability of both the RNA and the lipid nanoparticle delivery system, requiring storage at -20{degrees}C or -70{degrees}C and compromising universally accessible vaccine distribution. This study demonstrates the thermostability and adaptability of a nanostructured lipid carrier (NLC) RNA vaccine delivery system for use in pandemic preparedness and pandemic response. Liquid NLC is stable at refrigerated temperatures for [≥] 1 year, enabling stockpiling and rapid deployment by point-of-care mixing with any vaccine RNA. Alternatively, NLC complexed with RNA may be readily lyophilized and stored at room temperature for [≥] 8 months or refrigerated temperature for [≥] 21 months. This thermostable RNA vaccine platform could significantly improve distribution of current and future pandemic response vaccines, particularly in low-resource settings.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.01.429283v1" target="_blank">A Thermostable, Flexible RNA Vaccine Delivery Platform for Pandemic Response</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Potential Risks of a Widespread Use of 3D Printing for the Manufacturing of Face Masks during the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic</strong> -
<div>
Background In 2020 the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic caused serious concerns about the availability of face masks. This paper studies the technical feasibility of user specific face mask production by 3D printing and the effectiveness of these masks. Material and Methods Six different face mask designs were produced by 3D printing and tested by subjective experimenter evaluation and using a respirator fit testing kit. Results were compared to the requirements as given for standard protective face masks. Results None of the printed masks came anywhere near the required standards for personal protective gear. Conclusion In spite of their euphoric presentation in the press, none of the currently advertised 3D printed mask designs are suitable as reliable personal protective equipment.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://engrxiv.org/n57ar/" target="_blank">Potential Risks of a Widespread Use of 3D Printing for the Manufacturing of Face Masks during the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Relationship Functioning During COVID-19 Quarantine</strong> -
<div>
The COVID-19 pandemic presents acute, ongoing relationship challenges. The current research tested how (1) pre-existing vulnerabilities assessed prior to the pandemic (attachment insecurity) and (2) stress as couples endured a mandated quarantine predicted residual changes in relationship functioning. Controlling for pre-quarantine problems, relationship quality and family environment, greater partners’ attachment anxiety predicted greater relationship problems, lower relationship quality, and a less stable and cohesive family environment when people were experiencing more stress. Greater partners’ attachment avoidance predicted lower problem solving efficacy and family cohesion. The effects of partners’ pre-existing vulnerabilities and pandemic-related stress demonstrate the utility of key models in relationship science in identifying who is at most risk of relationship problems in the unprecedented context of a mandated quarantine. The results emphasize that the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on relationship functioning will be shaped by the characteristics of partners with whom people are confined with during the pandemic.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/7cvdm/" target="_blank">Relationship Functioning During COVID-19 Quarantine</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Media Consumption and Mental Health during COVID-19 lockdown: A UK Cross-sectional study across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern</strong> -
<div>
As individuals adjust to new ‘norms’ and ways of living during the COVID-19 lockdown, there is a continuing need for up-to-date information and guidance. This has elevated the importance of media channels, such as social media and traditional media. Evidence suggests that frequent media exposure is related to a higher prevalence of mental health problems, especially anxiety and depression. The aim of this study is to determine whether COVID-19 related media consumption is associated with changes in mental health outcomes. This paper presents baseline data from the COVID-19 Psychological Wellbeing Study. The results showed a statistically significant correlation between COVID-19 media exposure and increases in anxiety (GAD-7) and depression (PHQ-9). The study suggested that media usage is statistically significantly associated with anxiety and depression on the GAD-7 and PHQ-9 scales with excessive media exposure related to higher anxiety and depression scores.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/5d9fc/" target="_blank">Media Consumption and Mental Health during COVID-19 lockdown: A UK Cross-sectional study across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Successful reboot of high-performance sporting activities by Japanese national women's handball team in Tokyo, 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic: An initiative by Japan Sports-Cyber Physical System (JS-CPS) of Sports Research Innovation Project (SRIP)</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted sporting activities across the world. However, practical training strategies for athletes to reduce the risk of infection during the pandemic has not been definitively studied. Objective The purpose of this report was to provide an overview of our challenges encountered during the reboot of high-performance sporting activities of the Japanese national handball team during the 3rd wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Tokyo, Japan. Methods Twenty-nine Japanese national women9s handball players and 24 staff participated in the study. To initiate the reboot of their first training camp after COVID-19 stay-home social policy, we conducted: web-based health-monitoring, SARS-CoV-2 screening with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, real-time automated quantitative monitoring of social distancing on-court using video-based artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm, physical intensity evaluation with wearable heart rate (HR) and acceleration sensors, and self-reported online questionnaire. Results The training camp was conducted successfully with no COVID-19 infections. The web-based health monitoring and the frequent PCR testing with short turnaround times contributed remarkably in early detection of athletes9 health problems and risk screening. During handball, the AI based on-court social-distancing monitoring revealed key time-dependent spatial metrics to define player-to-player proximity. This information facilitated positive team members9 on and off-game distancing behavior. Athletes regularly achieved around 80% of maximum HR during training, indicating anticipated improvements in achieving their physical intensities. Self-reported questionnaires related to the COVID management in the training camp revealed a sense of security among the athletes allowing them to focus singularly on their training. Conclusion The current challenge provided us considerable know-how to create and manage a safe environment for high-performing athletes in the COVID-19 pandemic via the Japan Sports-Cyber Physical System (JS-CPS) of SRIP (Japan Sports Agency, Tokyo, Japan). This report is envisioned to provide informed decisions to coaches, trainers, policymakers from the sports federations in creating targeted, infection-free, sporting and training environments.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.29.21250745v1" target="_blank">Successful reboot of high-performance sporting activities by Japanese national women's handball team in Tokyo, 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic: An initiative by Japan Sports-Cyber Physical System (JS-CPS) of Sports Research Innovation Project (SRIP)</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>A Molecular network approach reveals shared cellular and molecular signatures between chronic fatigue syndrome and other fatiguing illnesses</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The molecular mechanisms of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS, or Myalgic encephalomyelitis), a disease defined by extreme, long-term fatigue, remain largely uncharacterized, and presently no molecular diagnostic test and no specific treatments exist to diagnose and treat CFS patients. While CFS has historically had an estimated prevalence of 0.1-0.5% [1], concerns of a long hauler version of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) that symptomatically overlaps CFS to a significant degree (Supplemental Table-1) and appears to occur in 10% of COVID-19 patients[2], has raised concerns of a larger spike in CFS [3]. Here, we established molecular signatures of CFS and a corresponding network-based disease context from RNA-sequencing data generated on whole blood and FACs sorted specific peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) isolated from CFS cases and non-CFS controls. The immune cell type specific molecular signatures of CFS we identified, overlapped molecular signatures from other fatiguing illnesses, demonstrating a common molecular etiology. Further, after constructing a probabilistic causal model of the CFS gene expression data, we identified master regulator genes modulating network states associated with CFS, suggesting potential therapeutic targets for CFS.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.29.21250755v1" target="_blank">A Molecular network approach reveals shared cellular and molecular signatures between chronic fatigue syndrome and other fatiguing illnesses</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Sustainable targeted interventions to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic: A big data-driven modeling study in Hong Kong</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
<b>Background</b>: The nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) for contact suppression have been widely used worldwide, which impose harmful burdens on the population and the local economy. The evaluation of alternative NPIs is needed to confront the pandemic with less disruption. By harnessing human mobility data, we develop an agent-based model that can evaluate the efficacies of NPIs with individualized mobility simulations. Based on the model, we propose the data-driven targeted interventions to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong without city-wide NPIs. <b>Methods</b>: We develop a data-driven agent-based model for 7.55 million Hong Kong residents to evaluate the efficacies of various NPIs in the first 80 days of the initial outbreak. The entire territory of Hong Kong has split into 4,905 500m×500m grids. The model can simulate detailed agent interactions based on the demographics data, public facilities and functional buildings, transportation systems, and travel patterns. The general daily human mobility patterns are adopted from Google Community Mobility Report. The scenario without any NPIs is set as the baseline. By simulating the epidemic progression and human movement at the individual level, we proposed model-driven targeted interventions, which focus on the surgical testing and quarantine of only a small portion of regions instead of enforcing NPIs in the whole city. The efficacious of common NPIs and the proposed targeted interventions are evaluated by extensive Monte Carlo simulations. <b>Findings</b>: Without NPIs, we estimate that there are 128,711 total infections (IQR 23,511-70,310) by the end of the 80-day simulation. The proposed targeted intervention averts 95.85% and 94.13% of baseline infections with only 100 (2.04%) and 50 (1.02%) grids being quarantined, respectively. Mild social distancing without testing results in 16,503 total cases (87.18% infections averted), rapid implementation of full lockdown and testing measures (such as the control measure in Mainland China) performs the best, with only 805 infections (99.37% infections averted). Testing-and-quarantining 10%, 20%, 50% of all symptomatic cases with 24-hour/48-hour avert 89.92%/ 87.78%, 95.47%/ 92.42%, and 97.93%/ 95.61% infections, respectively. <b>Interpretation</b>: Big data-driven mobility modeling can inform targeted interventions, which are able to effectively contain the COVID-19 outbreak with much lower disruption of the city. It represents a promising approach to sustainable NPIs to help us revive the economy of the city and the world.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.29.21250786v1" target="_blank">Sustainable targeted interventions to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic: A big data-driven modeling study in Hong Kong</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Molecular epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 in Greece reveals low rates of onward virus transmission after lifting of travel restrictions based on risk assessment during summer 2020</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Molecular epidemiology has provided an additive value to traditional public health tools by identifying SARS-CoV-2 clusters, or providing evidence that clusters based on virus sequences and contact tracing are highly concordant. Our aim was to infer the levels of virus importation and to estimate the impact of public health measures related to travel restrictions to local transmission in Greece. Our phylogenetic and phylogeographic analyses included 389 SARS-CoV-2 sequences collected during the first 7 months of the pandemic in Greece and a random collection in 5 replicates of 3,000 sequences sampled globally, as well as the best hits to our dataset identified by BLAST. Phylogenetic analyses revealed the presence of 70 genetically distinct viruses identified as independent introductions into Greece. The proportion of imported strains was 41%, 11.5%, and 8.8% during the three periods of sampling, namely, March (no travel restrictions), April to June (strict travel restrictions), and July to September (lifting of travel restrictions based on a thorough risk assessment), respectively. These findings reveal low levels of onward transmission from imported cases during summer and underscore the importance of targeted public health measures that can increase the safety of international travel during a pandemic.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.31.21250868v1" target="_blank">Molecular epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 in Greece reveals low rates of onward virus transmission after lifting of travel restrictions based on risk assessment during summer 2020</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Dynamics of SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies during and after COVID19: Lessons from a biobank in Argentina</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background: Biobanks are instrumental for accelerating research. Early in SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the Argentinean Biobank of Infectious Diseases (BBEI) initiated the COVID19 collection and started its characterization. Methods: Blood samples from subjects with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection either admitted to health institutions or outpatients, were enrolled. Highly exposed seronegative individuals, were also enrolled. Longitudinal samples were obtained in a subset of donors, including persons who donated plasma for therapeutic purposes (plasma donors). SARS-CoV-2-specific IgM and IgG levels, IgG titers and IgG viral neutralization capacity were determined. Findings: Out of 825 donors, 57.1% were females and median age was 41 years (IQR 32-53 years). Donors were segregated as acute or convalescent donors, and mild versus moderate/severe disease donors. Seventy-eight percent showed seroconversion to SARS-CoV-2 specific antibodies. Specific IgM and IgG showed comparable positivity rates in acute donors. IgM detectability rate declined in convalescent donors while IgG detectability remained elevated in early (74,8%) and late (83%) convalescent donors. Among donors with follow-up samples, IgG levels seemed to decline more rapidly in plasma donors. IgG levels were higher with age, disease severity, number of symptoms, and was more durable in moderate/severe disease donors. Levels and titers of anti-spike/RBD IgG strongly correlated with neutralization activity against WT virus. Interpretation: The BBEI-COVID19 collection served a dual role in this SARS-CoV-2 global crisis. First, it feed researchers and developers transferring samples and data to fuel research projects. Second, it generated highly needed local data to understand and frame the regional dynamics of the infection.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.31.21250167v1" target="_blank">Dynamics of SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies during and after COVID19: Lessons from a biobank in Argentina</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>COVID-19 vaccine acceptability and inequity in the United States: Results from a nationally representative survey</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background At the time of this survey, September 1st, there were roughly 6 million COVID-19 cases and 176,771 deaths in the United States and no federally approved vaccine. The objective of this study was to explore the willingness to accept a COVID-19 vaccine in the United States and describe variability in this acceptability by key racial, ethnic and socio-demographic characteristics. Methods This was a cross-sectional digital survey that sampled participants from a nationally-representative panel maintained by a third party, Dynata. Dynata randomly sampled their database and emailed web-based surveys to United States residents ensuring the sample was matched to US Census estimates for age, race, gender, income, and Census region. Participants were asked how willing or unwilling they would be to: 1) receive a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as it was made publicly available, and 2) receive the influenza vaccine for the upcoming influenza season. Participants could respond with extremely willing, willing, unwilling, or extremely unwilling. For those who reported being unwilling to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, reasons for this hesitancy were captured. All participants were asked about where they obtain vaccine-related information, and which sources they trust most. Univariable and multivariable logistic regressions were conducted to examine the association of all demographic characteristics with willingness to receive COVID-19 vaccine. Findings From September 1st to September 7, 2020, 1592 respondents completed the online survey. Overall, weighted analyses found that only 58.9% of the sample population were either willing or extremely willing to receive a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as it was made publicly available. In comparison, 67.7% of the respondents were willing or extremely willing to take the influenza vaccine. By gender, 66.1% of males and 51.5% of females were willing to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Males were significantly more willing to receive a COVID-19 vaccine (adjusted odds ratio (OR)=1.98, 95% CI: 1.56, 2.53; p&lt;0.001) than females. Blacks were the least willing racial/ethnic group (48.8%) Blacks, (aOR=0.59, 95%CI: 0.43, 0.80; p&lt;0.001) were significantly less willing, than whites, to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. There were numerous reasons provided for being unwilling to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. The most common reason was concern about the vaccine9s safety (36.9%), followed by concerns over its efficacy (19.1%). Interpretation In conclusion, we found that a substantial proportion (41%) of United States residents are unwilling to receive a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as one is made publicly available. We found that vaccine acceptance differs by sub-populations. In addition to sub-group differences in willingness to receive the vaccine, respondents provided a variety of reasons for being unwilling to receive the vaccine, driven by various sources of vaccine information (and misinformation). This compounds the challenge of delivering a safe and efficacious COVID-19 vaccine at a population level to achieve herd immunity. A multi-pronged and targeted communications and outreach effort is likely needed to achieve a high level of immunization coverage.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.29.21250784v1" target="_blank">COVID-19 vaccine acceptability and inequity in the United States: Results from a nationally representative survey</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Genetic determination of regional connectivity in modelling the spread of COVID-19 outbreak for improved mitigation strategies</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Covid-19 has resulted in the death of more than 1,500,000 individuals. Due to the pandemic9s severity, thousands of genomes have been sequenced and publicly stored with extensive records, an unprecedented amount of data for an outbreak in a single year. Simultaneously, prediction models offered region-specific and often contradicting results, while states or countries implemented mitigation strategies with little information on success, precision, or agreement with neighboring regions. Even though viral transmissions have been already documented in a historical and geographical context, few studies aimed to model geographic and temporal flow from viral sequence information. Here, using a case study of 7 states, we model the flow of the Covid-19 outbreak with respect to phylogenetic information, viral migration, inter- and intra-regional connectivity, epidemiologic and demographic characteristics. By assessing regional connectivity from genomic variants, we can significantly improve predictions in modeling the viral spread and intensity. Contrary to previous results, our study shows that the vast majority of the first outbreak can be traced to very few lineages, despite the existence of multiple worldwide transmissions. Moreover, our results show that while the distance from hotspots is initially important, connectivity becomes increasingly significant as the virus establishes itself. Similarly, isolated local strategies -such as relying on herd immunity- can negatively impact neighboring states. Our work suggests that we can achieve more efficient unified mitigation strategies with selective interventions.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.30.21250785v1" target="_blank">Genetic determination of regional connectivity in modelling the spread of COVID-19 outbreak for improved mitigation strategies</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Radius of Gyration as predictor of COVID-19 deaths trend with three-weeks offset</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Total and perimetral lockdowns were the strongest nonpharmaceutical interventions to fight against Covid-19, as well as the with the strongest socioeconomic collateral effects. Lacking a metric to predict the effect of lockdowns in the spreading of COVID-19 with, authorities and decision-makers opted for preventive measures that showed either too strong or not strong enough after a period of two to three weeks, once data about hospitalizations and deaths was available. We present here the radius of gyration as a candidate predictor of the trend in deaths by COVID-19 with an offset of three weeks. Indeed, the radius of gyration aggregates the most relevant microscopic aspects of human mobility into a macroscopic value, very sensitive to temporary trends and local effects, such as lockdowns and mobility restrictions. We use mobile phone data of more than 13 million users in Spain during a period of one year (from January 6th 2020 to January 10th 2021) to compute the users9 daily radius of gyration and compare the median value of the population with the evolution of COVID-19 deaths: we find that for all weeks where the radius of gyration is above a critical value (70% of its pre-pandemic score) the number of weekly deaths increases three weeks after. The reverse also stands: for all weeks where the radius of gyration is below the critical value, the number of weekly deaths decreased after three weeks. This observation leads to two conclusions: i) the radius of gyration can be used as a predictor of COVID-19-related deaths; and ii) partial mobility restrictions are as effective as a total lockdown as far the radius of gyration is below this critical value.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.30.21250708v1" target="_blank">Radius of Gyration as predictor of COVID-19 deaths trend with three-weeks offset</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>Study to Evaluate a Single Dose of STI-2020 (COVI-AMG™) in Adults With Mild COVID-19 Symptoms</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: COVI-AMG;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Phase III Study of AZD7442 for Treatment of COVID-19 in Outpatient Adults</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: AZD7442;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   AstraZeneca<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>Fluvoxamine Administration in Moderate SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) Infected Patients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Placebo;   Drug: Fluvoxamine<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   SigmaDrugs Research 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>TOCILIZUMAB - An Option for Patients With COVID-19 Associated Cytokine Release Syndrome; A Single Center Experience</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: Tocilizumab<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   FMH College of Medicine and Dentistry<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>APT™ T3X on the COVID-19 Contamination Rate</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Tetracycline hydrochloride 3%;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of Nove de Julho;   Santa Casa de Misericórdia de Porto Alegre<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Study to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of VB-201 in Patients With COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Severe COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: VB-201 + Standard of care;   Drug: Standard of care<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Vascular Biogenics Ltd. operating as VBL Therapeutics<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>COVID-19 Immunologic Antiviral Therapy With Omalizumab</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Omalizumab;   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   McGill University Health Centre/Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre<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>An Outpatient Clinical Trial Using Ivermectin and Doxycycline in COVID-19 Positive Patients at High Risk to Prevent COVID-19 Related Hospitalization</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Ivermectin Tablets;   Drug: Doxycycline Tablets;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Max Health, Subsero Health<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 and Efficacy of Doxycycline and Rivaroxaban in COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Doxycycline Tablets;   Drug: Rivaroxaban 15Mg Tab;   Combination Product: Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Yaounde Central 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>Phase IIb Clinical Trial of Recombinant Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia (COVID-19) Vaccine (Sf9 Cells)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Recombinant COVID-19 vaccine (Sf9 cells);   Biological: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Jiangsu Province Centers for Disease Control and Prevention;   West China 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>Famotidine vs Placebo for the Treatment of Non-Hospitalized Adults With COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Famotidine;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Northwell Health;   Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>COVID-19 and Pregnancy: Placental and Immunological Impacts</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: Specimens specific for the study<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Hopital Foch<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Study to Assess Efficacy and Safety of Inhaled Interferon-β Therapy for COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2;   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: SNG001;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Synairgen Research 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>Convalescent Plasma in the Treatment of Covid-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Convalescent plasma from COVID-19 donors;   Biological: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Helsinki University Central Hospital;   Finnish Red Cross<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>Early Use of Hyperimmune Plasma in COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: hyperimmune plasma<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Catherine Klersy;   Policlinico San Matteo Pavia Fondazione IRCCS<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-pubmed">From PubMed</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Computational and Experimental Studies Reveal That Thymoquinone Blocks the Entry of Coronaviruses Into In Vitro Cells</strong> - CONCLUSION: Thymoquinone is a potential broad-spectrum inhibitor for the treatment of coronavirus infections.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SARS-CoV-2 recruits a haem metabolite to evade antibody immunity</strong> - The coronaviral spike is the dominant viral antigen and the target of neutralizing antibodies. We show that SARS-CoV-2 spike binds biliverdin and bilirubin, the tetrapyrrole products of haem metabolism, with nanomolar affinity. Using cryo-electron microscopy and X-ray crystallography we mapped the tetrapyrrole interaction pocket to a deep cleft on the spike N-terminal domain (NTD). At physiological concentrations, biliverdin significantly dampened the reactivity of SARS-CoV-2 spike with immune...</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>Magnitude and timing of the antiviral response determine SARS-CoV-2 replication early in infection</strong> - The interferon response is a potent antiviral defense mechanism, but its effectiveness depends on its timing relative to viral replication. Here, we report viral replication and host response kinetics in patients at the start of SARS-CoV-2 infection and explore the impact of these kinetics experimentally. In both longitudinal patient nasopharyngeal samples and airway epithelial organoids, we found that SARS-CoV-2 initially replicated exponentially with a doubling time of ∼6hr, and induced...</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>Genome-scale metabolic modeling reveals SARS-CoV-2-induced host metabolic reprogramming and identifies metabolic antiviral targets</strong> - Tremendous progress has been made to control the COVID-19 pandemic, including the development and approval of vaccines as well as the drug remdesivir, which inhibits the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. However, remdesivir confers only mild benefits to a subset of patients, and additional effective therapeutic options are needed. Drug repurposing and drug combinations may represent practical strategies to address these urgent unmet medical needs. Viruses, including coronaviruses, are known...</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>Aurintricarboxylic acid and its metal ion complexes in comparative virtual screening versus Lopinavir and Hydroxychloroquine in fighting COVID-19 pandemic: synthesis and characterization</strong> - The salt of Aurintricarboxylic acid (ATA) was utilized in this study to synthesize new alkaline earth metal ion complexes. The analytical results proposed the isolation of mononuclear (Sr<sup>(+2)&amp;Ba</sup>(+2)) and binuclear complexes (Mg<sup>(+2)&amp;Ca</sup>(+2)). These complexes were analyzed by available analytical and spectral techniques. The tetrahedral geometry was suggested for all complexes (SP³) through bidentate binding mode of ligand with each central atom. UV-Vis spectra reveal the influence of L→M...</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>Structure of papain-like protease from SARS-CoV-2 and its complexes with non-covalent inhibitors</strong> - The pandemic caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) continues to expand. Papain-like protease (PLpro) is one of two SARS-CoV-2 proteases potentially targetable with antivirals. PLpro is an attractive target because it plays an essential role in cleavage and maturation of viral polyproteins, assembly of the replicase-transcriptase complex, and disruption of host responses. We report a substantive body of structural, biochemical, and virus replication studies 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>Mediterranean Diet for the Prevention of Gestational Diabetes in the Covid-19 Era: Implications of Il-6 In Diabesity</strong> - The aim of this review is to highlight the influence of the Mediterranean Diet (MedDiet) on Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM) and Gestational Weight Gain (GWG) during the COVID-19 pandemic era and the specific role of interleukin (IL)-6 in diabesity. It is known that diabetes, high body mass index, high glycated hemoglobin and raised serum IL-6 levels are predictive of poor outcomes in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The immunopathological mechanisms of the severe acute respiratory...</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>Current Updates on Naturally Occurring Compounds Recognizing SARS-CoV-2 Druggable Targets</strong> - The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been identified in China as the etiologic agent of the recent COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. Due to its high transmissibility, this virus quickly spread throughout the world, causing considerable health issues. The scientific community exerted noteworthy efforts to obtain therapeutic solutions for COVID-19, and new scientific networks were constituted. No certified drugs to efficiently inhibit the virus were identified, and 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>mTOR inhibition: a double-edged sword in patients with COVID-19?</strong> - The current COVID-19 is one of the deadliest pandemics in recent decades. In the lack of a specific treatment for this novel infection, knowing the role of cell signaling pathways in the pathogenesis of this infection could be useful in finding effective drugs against this disease. The mammalian or mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) is an important cell signaling pathway that has important role in the regulation of cell growth, protein synthesis, and metabolism in reactance to upstream...</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>Virtual screening of phytochemical compounds as potential inhibitors against SARS-CoV-2 infection</strong> - CONCLUSION: The in silico methods used in this study suggests that the compound Piperolactam A to be the most effective inhibitor of S-protein from binding to the GRP78 receptor. By blocking the binding of the S-protein to the CS-GRP78 cell surface receptor, they can inhibit the binding of the virus to the host.</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>Identification of natural compounds as potent inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 main protease using combined docking and molecular dynamics simulations</strong> - Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has emerged from China and globally affected the entire population through the human-to-human transmission of a newly emerged virus called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The genome of SARS-CoV-2 encodes several proteins that are essential for multiplication and pathogenesis. The main protease (M^(pro) or 3CL^(pro)) of SARS-CoV-2 plays a central role in its pathogenesis and thus is considered as an attractive drug target for 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>The SARS-Coronavirus Infection Cycle: A Survey of Viral Membrane Proteins, Their Functional Interactions and Pathogenesis</strong> - Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a novel epidemic strain of Betacoronavirus that is responsible for the current viral pandemic, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a global health crisis. Other epidemic Betacoronaviruses include the 2003 SARS-CoV-1 and the 2009 Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), the genomes of which, particularly that of SARS-CoV-1, are similar to that of the 2019 SARS-CoV-2. In this extensive review, we document the most...</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Computational Determination of Potential Multiprotein Targeting Natural Compounds for Rational Drug Design Against SARS-COV-2</strong> - SARS-CoV-2 caused the current COVID-19 pandemic and there is an urgent need to explore effective therapeutics that can inhibit enzymes that are imperative in virus reproduction. To this end, we computationally investigated the MPD3 phytochemical database along with the pool of reported natural antiviral compounds with potential to be used as anti-SARS-CoV-2. The docking results demonstrated glycyrrhizin followed by azadirachtanin, mycophenolic acid, kushenol-w and 6-azauridine, as potential...</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>Immunogenic BNT162b vaccines protect rhesus macaques from SARS-CoV-2</strong> - A safe and effective vaccine against COVID-19 is urgently needed in quantities sufficient to immunise large populations. We report the preclinical development of two BNT162b vaccine candidates, which contain lipid-nanoparticle (LNP) formulated nucleoside-modified mRNA encoding SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein-derived immunogens. BNT162b1 encodes a soluble, secreted, trimerised receptor-binding domain (RBD-foldon). BNT162b2 encodes the full-length transmembrane spike glycoprotein, locked in its...</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 drug repurposing screen identifies hepatitis C antivirals as inhibitors of the SARS-CoV2 main protease</strong> - Effective SARS-CoV-2 antiviral drugs are desperately needed. The SARS-CoV-2 main protease (Mpro) appears as an attractive target for drug development. We show that the existing pharmacopeia contains many drugs with potential for therapeutic repurposing as selective and potent inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro. We screened a collection of ~6,070 drugs with a previous history of use in humans for compounds that inhibit the activity of Mpro in vitro and found ~50 compounds with activity against Mpro....</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SARS-CoV-2 antibodies</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU315792577">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SARS-CoV-2 antibodies</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU315792579">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A PHARMACEUTICAL COMPOSITION OF NITAZOXANIDE AND MEFLOQUINE AND METHOD THEREOF</strong> - A pharmaceutical composition for treating Covid-19 virus comprising a therapeutically effective amount of a nitazoxanide or its pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof and an mefloquine or its pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof is disclosed. The pharmaceutical composition comprises the nitazoxanide in the ratio of 0.05% to 66% w/v and the mefloquine in the ratio of 0.05% to 90% w/v. The composition is found to be effective for the treatment of COVID -19 (SARS-CoV2). The pharmaceutical composition of nitazoxanide and mefloquine has been found to be effective and is unexpectedly well tolerated with a low rate of side-effects, and equally high cure-rates than in comparable treatments. - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=IN316412781">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>TREATMENT OF COVID-19 WITH REBAMIPIDE</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU315792482">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ACQUIRING POWER CONSUMPTION IMPACT BASED ON IMPACT OF COVID-19 EPIDEMIC</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU314745621">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A PHARMACEUTICAL COMPOSITION OF ARTESUNATE AND MEFLOQUINE AND METHOD THEREOF</strong> - A pharmaceutical composition for treating Covid-19 virus comprising a therapeutically effective amount of an artesunate or its pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof and a mefloquine or its pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof is disclosed. The pharmaceutical composition comprises the artesunate in the ratio of 0.25% to 66% w/v and mefloquine in the ratio of 0.25% to 90% w/v. The composition is found to be effective for the treatment of COVID -19 (SARS-CoV2). The pharmaceutical composition of Artesunate and Mefloquine has been found to be effective and is unexpectedly well tolerated with a low rate of side-effects, and equally high cure-rates than in comparable treatments. The present invention also discloses a method to preparing the pharmaceutical composition comprising of Artesunate and Mefloquine. - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=IN315303355">link</a></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Zahnbürstenaufsatz, elektrische Versorgungseinheit einer elektrischen Zahnbürste, elektrische Zahnbürste mit einem Zahnbürstenaufsatz, Zahnbürste sowie Testaufsatz für eine elektrische Zahnbürste</strong> -
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
</p><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Zahnbürstenaufsatz für eine elektrische Zahnbürste (20) umfassend einen Koppelabschnitt (2), über den der Zahnbürstenaufsatz (1) mit einer elektrischen Versorgungseinheit (10) der elektrischen Zahnbürste (20) verbindbar ist und einen Bürstenabschnitt (3), der zur Reinigung der Zähne ausgebildete Reinigungsmittel (3.1) aufweist, dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass an dem Zahnbürstenaufsatz (1) eine Sensoreinheit (4) vorgesehen ist, die dazu ausgebildet ist, selektiv das Vorhandensein eines Virus oder eines Antigen im Speichel eines Nutzers des Zahnbürstenaufsatzes (1) durch Messen zumindest eines virusspezifischen Parameters zu bestimmen.</p></li>
</ul>
<img alt="embedded image" id="EMI-D00000"/>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></p>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=DE315274678">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>一种医用可佩戴式防护口鼻的微型气幕系统</strong> - 本发明公开了一种医用可佩戴式防护口鼻的微型气幕系统，包括框柱，框柱一侧开凿有气幕送风口和呼吸用送风口，气幕送风口和呼吸用送风口内分别连接有软管一和软管二，框柱内开凿有水平条缝和垂直条缝，水平条缝与垂直条缝均与气幕送风口相连通，框柱靠近水平条缝的一侧贯穿开凿有出风口，出风口内设有滤网，出风口贯穿框柱的一端连接有高效过滤器，滤网与高效过滤器之间连接有吸气泵，框柱靠近出风口的一侧连接有电池和开关。本发明通过提出一种在口腔处应用洁净空气幕阻挡气溶胶传播的可佩戴装置，可以在口腔类相关诊疗过程，保护医生和周围人的健康，避免引起可能引发的呼吸道疾病交叉感染。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN316342421">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>COVID-19 CLASSIFICATION RECOGNITION METHOD BASED ON CT IMAGES OF LUNGS</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU314054415">link</a></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Vorrichtung umfassend einen Schutzschirm und einen Filter zum Herausfiltern von Viren aus einem Schall erzeugenden Luftstrom</strong> -
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
</p><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Vorrichtung (10) umfassend einen Schutzschirm (12) und einen Filter (14) zum Herausfiltern von Viren (16) aus einem Schall erzeugenden Luftstrom (18), der von einem Musiker (20) beim Musizieren mit einem Musikinstrument oder beim Singen erzeugt wird, wobei der Schutzschirm (12) zur Verringerung des Risikos einer Infektion mit den Viren (16) dafür vorgesehen ist, wenigstens einen Teil der mit dem Luftstrom transportierten Viren (16) aufzufangen, der Schutzschirm (12) eine erste Seite (22) und eine zweite Seite (24) aufweist, die voneinander abgewandt sind, und der Schutzschirm (12) wenigstens einen sich von der ersten (22) bis zu der zweiten Seite (24) erstreckenden Durchlass (26) aufweist, wobei dieser Durchlass (26) zum Durchströmen mit wenigstens einem Teil des beim Musizieren erzeugten Luftstroms (18) vorgesehen ist und der Filter (14) zum Herausfiltern von Viren (16) aus dem Luftstrom (18) in dem Durchlass (26) des Schutzschirms (12) angeordnet ist.</p></li>
</ul>
<img alt="embedded image" id="EMI-D00000"/>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=DE315274597">link</a></li>
</ul>
<script>AOS.init();</script></body></html>

331
archive-daily-dose/03 February, 2021.html Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,331 @@
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head>
<meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv="Content-Type"/>
<meta content="text/css" http-equiv="Content-Style-Type"/>
<meta content="pandoc" name="generator"/>
<title></title>
<style type="text/css">code{white-space: pre;}</style>
<title>Daily-Dose</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><style>*{overflow-x:hidden;}</style><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
<body>
<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Three Biggest Lessons of the Coronavirus Economy</strong> - Nearly a year into the pandemic, solving the economic crisis means defeating the virus. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-three-biggest-lessons-of-the-coronavirus-economy">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Biden Administration’s Landmark Day in the Fight for the Climate</strong> - The newly announced actions may well mark the beginning of the end of the fossil-fuel era. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-biden-administrations-landmark-day-in-the-fight-for-the-climate">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Coronavirus Vaccine Presents a Dilemma for Pregnant Women</strong> - Vaccine trials have excluded the pregnant population, even though women of reproductive age make up a majority of frontline workers. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/science/medical-dispatch/the-coronavirus-vaccine-presents-a-dilemma-for-pregnant-women">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>State Republican Leaders Are Rushing to Exploit Trump’s Big Lie</strong> - In diverse parts of the country, followers of the former President are attacking voting laws and systems, using his claims that the election was stolen as a justification. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/state-republican-leaders-are-rushing-to-exploit-donald-trumps-big-lie">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Novelist’s Turn on the U.K.’s Nerdiest Quiz Show</strong> - “University Challenge” is a TV competition so difficult, so unlucrative, and, crucially, so snobbishly acceptable that even the most camera-shy cannot resist. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/onward-and-upward-in-the-garden/a-novelists-turn-on-the-uks-nerdiest-quiz-show">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The second act of Jeff Bezos could be as big as his first</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A mask of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos seen during a three-day strike of “Prime Day” by Amazon employees in San Fernando De Henares, Spain, on July 16, 2018." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/VkF66lZLNP8oLyH_kpGyWAWS_Ic=/156x0:4600x3333/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/68760652/GettyImages_1000391324.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
It’s a new era for Jeff Bezos. Watch it closely. | LightRocket via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure></li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Jeff Bezos isn’t getting less powerful. His power is just getting less obvious.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Y7UKwr">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hkCHy6">
Jeff Bezos isn’t going anywhere.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VRKAD9">
Just because he’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2021/2/2/22263090/jeff-bezos-amazon-ceo-stepping-down-andy-jassy">no longer going to be the CEO of Amazon</a> doesn’t mean he will fade as a protagonist in American life. That’s because, unlike many leaders in Corporate America, Bezos’s public profile far outstrips his role as leader of Amazon. Even if he isn’t the CEO — or maybe<em> </em>because he isn’t the CEO — Bezos will remain one of America’s most famous business leaders, wielding power in politics, philanthropy, and media.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NHlhEb">
As prominent today as Apple founder Steve Jobs was before his death, Bezos is not as divisive a figure as one might think. While he has loud critics on the left and right, he is not as widely as disliked as, say, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, <a href="https://accountabletech.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Accountable-Tech-071920-FQ.pdf">polling has found</a>, probably in part because <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/12/11/18129809/amazon-polling-popular-confidence">Amazon itself is broadly popular</a>. And he has something else that your standard departing CEO doesn’t have: $200 billion at his disposal to expand his influence and burnish his legacy.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sy4SjS">
To be sure, that money could prove double-edged: Bezos remains Amazon’s largest individual shareholder, and if Amazon keeps surging and surging, <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/5/14/21259443/jeff-bezos-amazon-trillionaire-comparisun-study">Bezos will keep getting wealthier and wealthier</a>. The tech baron who became the poster child for income inequality — proponents of a wealth tax constructed a guillotine outside his mansion this summer — won’t shake off scrutiny easily.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8hdZ3L">
But the headlines that surround Bezos, 57, over the next few decades of his life will likely center on friendlier terrain. It won’t be Bezos but <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/6/10/18660224/amazon-facial-recognition-rekognition-federal-regulation-andy-jassy-aws">Andy Jassy, his successor</a>, who gets <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/7/27/21340218/jeff-bezos-congress-testimony-antitrust-big-tech-ceos">hauled before Congress</a> to face questions about whether Amazon has too much power.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SVBOqg">
There is ample precedent for America’s tech CEOs finding their second act in public life once relinquishing the top role at their companies. Eric Schmidt, the longtime No. 1 at Google, became the tip of the spear of Google’s lobbying operation as the company’s executive chair. Bill Gates resigned from his role as Microsoft’s CEO in 2000 to become executive chairman, and then spent the next two decades building out the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; today, during the coronavirus pandemic, he is one of America’s most <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/4/7/21203179/coronavirus-billionaires-philanthropy-bill-gates-larry-ellison-mark-zuckerberg-jack-dorsey">influential voices on public health</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EqQbgB">
That other Seattle tech mega-billionaire, Gates, serves as the 21st-century model for the founder-cum-philanthropist. Like Bezos two decades later, Gates had earned a reputation as a cold-blooded corporate killer — but his philanthropy in recent years has helped make him into a widely liked figure. He was even awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QBA4T3">
Bezos on Tuesday suggested that he would try to follow a similar playbook — although his portfolio is less concentrated and involves more for-profit entities.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NVreqM">
“As Exec Chair I will stay engaged in important Amazon initiatives but also have the time and energy I need to focus on the Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, The Washington Post, and my other passions,” <a href="http://aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/email-from-jeff-bezos-to-employees">he told Amazon employees</a>. “I’ve never had more energy, and this isn’t about retiring. I’m super passionate about the impact I think these organizations can have.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PV1Y9Z">
Like Gates, Bezos’s philanthropic efforts were in their nascent stages as company CEO. Prior to about 2017 — when Bezos became the world’s richest person for a time — Bezos’s philanthropic footprint was minuscule, which was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/15/business/media/jeff-bezos-amazon-rich-charity.html">increasingly earning him negative attention</a>. He’s set up two charitable vehicles since then: At the <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/8/12/20758787/jeff-bezos-day-one-fund-philanthropy-charity-homelessness">Day 1 Fund, Bezos has been donating about $100 million </a>a year to charities combating homelessness, and the network of Montessori preschools he set up has barely gotten off the ground. And the $10 billion that he set aside for the Bezos Earth Fund is one of the biggest charitable gifts ever, but it <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/11/16/21569469/jeff-bezos-earth-fund-climate-change-philanthropy-grants">just issued its first grants this winter</a>, and <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/2/19/21143107/jeff-bezos-earth-fund-questions-climate">details about its operations are scarce</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GabSeu">
Bezos’s civic-minded, for-profit work is more developed. Two decades ago, Bezos founded Blue Origin, an attempt to commercialize space travel. He now sells about $1 billion a year in Amazon stock to finance the private company, which he has called his “most important work.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UTd9X2">
“The only way that I can see to deploy this much financial resource is by converting my Amazon winnings into space travel. That is basically it,” <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-interview-axel-springer-ceo-amazon-trump-blue-origin-family-regulation-washington-post-2018-4">he said in 2018</a>. “Blue Origin is expensive enough to be able to use that fortune.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iNyNOp">
And then there’s the Washington Post, which Bezos bought in 2013 for just $250 million. The landmark deal is seen as broadly having bolstered Bezos’s reputation; Bezos led a business turnaround at the newspaper, which is now profitable and has added hundreds of journalists. His ownership of the Post has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/02/business/media/to-trump-its-the-amazon-washington-post-to-its-editor-thats-baloney.html">opened him up to attacks from President Trump</a> and even a blackmail attempt <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/1/9/18175344/jeff-bezos-divorce-mackenzie-amazon-ceo">connected to his 2019 divorce from his wife, MacKenzie Scott</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0mpA1z">
“My stewardship of The Post and my support of its mission, which will remain unswerving, is something I will be most proud of when I’m 90 and reviewing my life, if I’m lucky enough to live that long, regardless of any complexities it creates for me,” <a href="https://medium.com/@jeffreypbezos/no-thank-you-mr-pecker-146e3922310f">Bezos wrote when confronted by Trump allies with a threat</a> to publish nude photos of him.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eMn6SQ">
That extraordinary saga and its fallout helped cement Bezos as one of America’s celebrity CEOs and an occasional gossip figure. His personal life will probably remain more colorful than Zuckerberg’s or Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai’s, for instance. He will likely still show up on a <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2020/01/jeff-bezos-and-lauren-sanchez-learn-the-red-carpet-couple-rules">red carpet or two</a>. Maybe <a href="https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/amazon-founder-jeff-bezos-interested-in-owning-nfl-team-has-strong-support-among-current-owners/">he’ll buy an NFL team</a>. The word “Bezos” will still draw clicks in a tabloid headline.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LIB8xh">
But the story of Jeff Bezos is about to shift abruptly. The billionaire’s decisions will still have profound implications across this planet and maybe others. But that power will mutate from the corporate to the individual — and from the obvious to the more hidden.
</p>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Big Tech is so big it doesn’t need its founders anymore</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/pthzMOxq2ZLeOta3a6-VPqiPvPo=/0x0:3556x2667/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/68760428/813951608.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Jeff Bezos at the annual Sun Valley conference in 2017. | David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure></li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
With one big exception. Rhymes with “Zuckerberg.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UIuRPe">
Here’s the Great Tech Founder Story we have been told over the years: Brilliant, quirky dude (always a dude) has a flash of inspiration, sets off on a quest to build something earth-changing, gets doubted along the way, and eventually steers his company to massive success — success that comes directly from his leadership.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1BKQX2">
And here is the Great Tech Company Story we have also been taught over the years: That even though these massively successful companies have grown way beyond their humble roots, they continue to win because they keep the focus and ferocity they had at the beginning.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XNKO8M">
But just because we all know these stories doesn’t mean they are true. A more honest version goes like this: Once one of these companies attains a certain size and status, it’s very, very hard for the company and its founder to keep that single-mindedness. More importantly: They probably don’t have to.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="S2I0qv">
Which might be the takeaway from Tuesday’s news that <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2021/2/2/22263090/jeff-bezos-amazon-ceo-stepping-down-andy-jassy">Jeff Bezos is stepping down from the CEO job at Amazon</a>, 27 years after starting the company.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BPUUCE">
Bezos’s move means that of all the major tech companies that dominate our lives today, only one of them — Facebook — <a href="https://twitter.com/ceciliakang/status/1356731057429762048?s=20">is still run by the man who started it</a>. But the rest of them, it turns out, have done fine without their founders.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dP4pfG">
You can chalk that up to the initial insight, breakthroughs, and drive that got them to the place where the founder could hand the reins to a protege and no one would miss them much. Or you could argue that at some point, these companies are so swollen that they make their own gravity and plot their own path, beyond the control of any single person. Probably a mix of both.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cbkWXq">
But in any case, it’s clear that most of Big Tech has become so Big and entrenched that it no longer needs the men who made it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="alcDYW">
That doesn’t mean they don’t pay lip service to the idea that they’re still the scrappy startups they once were: Bezos, in his step-down note to employees, insisted that it is still “Day 1” at Amazon. That’s a reference to the company’s insistence that everyone at the company — a $1 trillion company that hired more than 250,000 people in 2020 alone — <a href="https://www.podean.com/amazon-explained-the-day-1-mentality/">should act as if they’re at a just-launched startup</a>. Amazon also <a href="https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/workplace/how-a-door-became-a-desk-and-a-symbol-of-amazon">fetishizes the desks that Bezos and his early co-workers made out of wooden doors</a>, which are supposed to symbolize the company’s lean, stay-hungry mentality.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MUuOOn">
The counter to all of that lip service: There’s a serious antitrust movement afoot that wants to break up, or at least slow down, Google, Apple, and Amazon. (Microsoft, which faced its own antitrust breakup case 20 years ago, has largely avoided the wrath of politicians, regulators, and activists this time around.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="f10dFX">
There are still plenty of caveats to consider as we look at what happens when founders separate themselves from their companies. Steve Jobs didn’t leave the Apple CEO job to Tim Cook because he was bored with Apple — he did it because he was too sick to run Apple, and he died months after the handoff. Bill Gates stepped down as Microsoft CEO in 2000, but he stuck around and watched as the company meandered for years under successor Steve Ballmer; it didn’t regain its footing until 2014, when Satya Nadella took over and Gates had truly moved on. Larry Page didn’t formally leave his company until 2019, but he definitely handed over operating control in 2015, and folks inside Google will tell you he had been detached for some time before that. Reed Hastings hasn’t actually stopped being the CEO of Netflix — he’s moved over to become co-CEO with Ted Sarandos.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tO3sYe">
But investors, at the very least, have learned to live with Big Tech companies run by someone other than their founders. You can see the performance of Google/Alphabet, Apple, and Microsoft once their CEOs stopped running the companies day to day; Netflix is the counterexample, but it’s a story still in its very early days — Hastings didn’t make his side-shuffle until the middle of last year, and the overall market has been on a crazy tear for a while now.
</p>
<div id="fZLt2s">
<div id="datawrapper-99DsI">
</div>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="h5VPSe">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="B2NkCv">
The big outlier to this trendlet is Mark Zuckerberg, who has been running Facebook since its founding 17 years ago and who is still only 36 years old. He doesn’t look remotely ready to leave: Not only is there is no obvious succession planning underway, but by all accounts Zuckerberg has been extremely hands-on during the last few years, trying to convince regulators and employees that there’s a way for his company to connect 2 billion people and dominate the market for digital ads without destabilizing the planet.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JTELjg">
He could leave, of course. He controls a majority of Facebook’s voting shares, and can do almost anything he wants. And maybe Facebook, like its other Big Tech peers, could chug along for some time without him. Even though the company is constantly battered in the press and by politicians, it continues to hoover up ad dollars without any sign of flagging. Like its Big Tech peers, it’s a perpetual money machine that never seems buffeted by the outside world: Last year, it generated <a href="https://investor.fb.com/investor-news/press-release-details/2021/Facebook-Reports-Fourth-Quarter-and-Full-Year-2020-Results/default.aspx">$85.9 billion in revenue, up 22 percent from the year before</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hDM08G">
But for right now it’s impossible to see Zuckerberg letting go — not when the <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22166437/facebook-instagram-ftc-attorneys-general-antitrust-monopoly-whatsapp">US government is suing to break up the empire he’s built</a>, and not when there are genuine questions about whether Facebook and civil society can coexist. Facebook certainly isn’t a scrappy dorm-room startup anymore, but it’s also still tightly tied to the man who created it. Which will be true right up until the time it isn’t.
</p>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The metamorphosis of Jeff Bezos is complete</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/B2QkwUStjgTn2eSwR2gUCleFWC8=/0x0:4949x3712/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/68760314/GettyImages_1036084102_4.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos provides the keynote address at the Air Force Association’s Annual Air, Space &amp; Cyber Conference in 2018. | Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure></li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
How the Amazon founder went from nerd selling books to celebrity rocket man.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MqMJVU">
In a Groundhog Day surprise, <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2021/2/2/22263090/jeff-bezos-amazon-ceo-stepping-down-andy-jassy">Jeff Bezos has announced that he is stepping aside</a> as the CEO of Amazon. He’ll become executive chair of the Amazon board, and <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/6/10/18660224/amazon-facial-recognition-rekognition-federal-regulation-andy-jassy-aws">Andy Jassy, the current CEO of Amazon Web Services</a>, will become the new chief executive later this year. Bezos says this transition will give him more time to own a space company (Blue Origin), own a newspaper (the Washington Post), own a philanthropic fund (Day 1 Fund), and generally just own the fact that he’s one of the richest men on the planet. The Amazon founder <a href="https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/email-from-jeff-bezos-to-employees">says</a> he’s “excited about this transition.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pvSJk2">
The timing of the announcement might seem odd at first. It was a few hours after Amazon <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-unveils-outdoorsy-new-hq2-renewing-its-commitment-to-offices-11612267200?mod=hp_lead_pos5">revealed the design of its HQ2</a> in Arlington, Virginia, and after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2021/2/2/22262335/amazon-flex-driver-tips-ftc-settlement">ordered Amazon to pay nearly $62 million</a> over taking tips meant for its delivery drivers. But for Bezos, those must be minor headlines. The day that the 57-year-old entrepreneur lets someone else sit in the CEO seat will be the day that Jeff Bezos completes his transformation from nerdy e-commerce wunderkind to muscled media magnate with rockets to fly and galas to attend. This day has been years in the making.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="56zJQu">
Bezos has been counting, too. As he points out in <a href="https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/email-from-jeff-bezos-to-employees">his farewell email</a> to employees, it’s been 27 years since he started the company with nothing but an ambitious idea to create a store on the internet that sold everything. (Bezos jokes that the question he got most back then was, “What is the internet?”) After <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/02/what-amazon-billionaire-jeff-bezos-was-doing-in-his-20s.html">failing</a> to convince his bosses at the hedge fund D.E. Shaw to back the idea, Bezos started Amazon in 1994. For nearly two decades, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/leadership-and-life-lessons-from-jeff-bezos-1536938179?mod=article_inline">he was a low-key CEO</a> — a family man who said he read the newspaper, had breakfast with his kids, and got eight hours of sleep a night.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<pre><code> &lt;img alt="Jeff Bezos sits on a bench holding a book in front of a library in France." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/nKDkPrRxvFdCs31v_KEcEjBfR8I=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22277461/GettyImages_541365582.jpg" /&gt;
&lt;cite&gt;Yves Forestier/Sygma via Getty Images&lt;/cite&gt;
&lt;figcaption&gt;Jeff Bezos enjoys some books while celebrating the launch of Amazon’s website in France in 2000.&lt;/figcaption&gt;</code></pre>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3ysw0u">
Not long after Amazon’s market cap cracked $1 trillion for the first time in 2018, he told an audience at the Economic Club of Washington, DC, that he <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/leadership-and-life-lessons-from-jeff-bezos-1536938179?mod=article_inline">didn’t just think of himself as the richest man in the world</a>. “I would much rather if they said, like, ‘inventor Jeff Bezos’ or ‘entrepreneur Jeff Bezos’ or ‘father Jeff Bezos.’ Those kinds of things are much more meaningful to me.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Y2eiLF">
By this point, however, the transition from CEO dad to titan of industry was well underway. The process appears to have visibly begun around 2013, when Bezos <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-jeff-bezos-life-career-scandals-changes-in-2010s-2019-11#in-2013-bezos-bought-the-washington-post-for-250-million-which-amounted-to-less-than-1-of-his-net-worth-5">started shaving his head</a>. That’s also the year he bought the Washington Post for $250 million. It’s important to highlight the fact that this was a personal purchase by Jeff Bezos; Amazon had “no role in the purchase,” <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/washington-post-to-be-sold-to-jeff-bezos/2013/08/05/ca537c9e-fe0c-11e2-9711-3708310f6f4d_story.html">according to the announcement</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mVBOeF">
Things literally took off in 2015, when Blue Origin <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/25/science/space/blue-origins-rocket-launches-and-lands.html?_r=0">launched and landed</a> its first reusable rocket. Bezos had actually founded the small aerospace company back in 2000 after seeing <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxJQgYPXjN4&amp;lc=UghhLK2SGocUN3gCoAEC">the popular Jake Gyllenhaal movie <em>October Sky</em></a>, and by 2014, he had spent $500 million of his own money on the enterprise. Bezos later revealed that he was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/05/science/blue-origin-rocket-jeff-bezos-amazon-stock.html?_r=0">selling about $1 billion a year</a> in Amazon stock to fund Blue Origins, in a sort of private space race with Elon Musk and his aerospace company SpaceX. But he didn’t call it that. “It’s a mistake to race to a deadline when you’re talking about a flying vehicle, especially one that you’re going to put people on,” Bezos <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/05/science/blue-origin-rocket-jeff-bezos-amazon-stock.html?_r=0">told the New York Times</a> in 2017. “I still think we can do commercial paying passengers in 2018.” The company has yet to send a human to space.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<pre><code> &lt;img alt="Jeff Bezos standing beside a space capsule bearing the words “Blue Origin.”" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Tgc1BhGMMUVbhll4q4PblGnQyfM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22277490/GettyImages_665033916.jpg" /&gt;
&lt;cite&gt;Matthew Staver/Bloomberg via Getty Images&lt;/cite&gt;
&lt;figcaption&gt;Jeff Bezos unveils the Blue Origin New Shepard system during the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on April 5, 2017.&lt;/figcaption&gt;</code></pre>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6Es0UX">
Bezos hit a different sort of milestone in 2018 when he established the Day 1 Fund after becoming the subject of growing scrutiny over <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/15/business/media/jeff-bezos-amazon-rich-charity.html">how little money he’d publicly given</a> to charity. Along with his then-wife MacKenzie Scott, the budding philanthropist <a href="https://twitter.com/JeffBezos/status/1040253796293795842/photo/1">committed $2 billion</a> to “funding existing nonprofits that help homeless families, and creating a network of new, nonprofit, tier-one preschools in low-income communities.” Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott <a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/1/10/18176048/jeff-bezos-ami-extortion-medium-photos-divorce">announced their divorce</a> the following year. Since then, Scott has begun giving away her wealth publicly — first <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/5/28/18641623/mackenzie-bezos-giving-pledge-philanthropy-jeff-bezos-divorce">signing the Giving Pledge</a> and then revealing at the end of 2020 that she <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/12/15/22176710/mackenzie-scott-bezos-philanthropy-speed-four-billion">had given away $4 billion in four months</a> in 2020. That same year, Bezos <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/11/16/21569469/jeff-bezos-earth-fund-climate-change-philanthropy-grants">committed $10 billion to fight climate change</a> — but again only <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/9/20/20874497/amazon-climate-change-walkout-google-microsoft-strike-tech-activism">after escalating public pressure</a> from Amazon employees to do something for the environment. And since Bezos currently has a net worth of <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/jeff-bezos/?sh=29831c401b23">over $196 billion</a>, it’s safe to say he has more money to give away. And despite years of criticism, Bezos still has not signed the Giving Pledge.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nWn7xX">
Of course, one doesn’t become one of the richest men in history without <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/6/29/21303643/amazon-coronavirus-warehouse-workers-protest-jeff-bezos-chris-smalls-boycott-pandemic">creating some controversy</a>. The FTC fine announced Tuesday represents just one of many labor scandals Amazon has faced in recent years. Some Amazon warehouse workers have long decried the company’s labor practices, saying they deal with <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/11/amazon-warehouse-reports-show-worker-injuries/602530/">dismal safety standards</a>, <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/12/10/21005098/amazon-warehouse-workers-sacramento">back-breaking labor</a> with little time off, and the <a href="https://gizmodo.com/amazons-last-mile-1820451224">use of contract positions</a> that offer no benefits. Under Bezos, Amazon has also <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/02/02/amazon-union-warehouse-workers/">gone to great lengths</a> to prevent its workers from organizing. The company has been cracking down on unionization efforts especially hard during the pandemic, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/02/02/amazon-union-warehouse-workers/">most recently in Bessemer, Alabama</a>, where warehouse workers will vote on whether to unionize later this month.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CyUeke">
Bezos seems somewhat aware of this aspect of his legacy at Amazon. In announcing his departure as CEO, he praised the company’s “inventiveness” and bragged that, in its commitment to the Climate Pledge and a $15 minimum wage, Amazon “staked out leadership positions and then asked others to come along.” Similar to his late arrival to the philanthropy scene, Bezos only took the Climate Pledge and raised his company’s minimum wage after tremendous pressure from rank-and-file Amazon employees, politicians like Bernie Sanders, and the public.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<pre><code> &lt;img alt="Jeff Bezos wears a vest at the Sun Valley Conference in 2017." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/DPg4gi8DLbU3iImqzLGwhL0d1TY=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/10003221/813884326.jpg.jpg" /&gt;
&lt;cite&gt;Drew Angerer/Getty Images&lt;/cite&gt;
&lt;figcaption&gt;Jeff Bezos wears a vest at the Sun Valley Conference in 2017.&lt;/figcaption&gt;</code></pre>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mIIdM5">
But while Bezos the businessman was launching all these ventures and making all this money in the past decade, he was also going through some personal changes. Again, the process really started around the time Bezos bought the Washington Post<em>.</em> A few months before the purchase was announced, he had been named honorary chair of the Met Gala in 2012, and as Amazon <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/5/3/18511544/amazon-prime-oral-history-jeff-bezos-one-day-shipping">fired up its entertainment division</a>, Amazon Studios, we started to see Bezos on the red carpet in a tuxedo much more often. Then, in 2017, there was the famous series of photos <a href="https://www.vox.com/2017/7/13/15929348/photos-sun-valley-allen-company-retreat-silicon-valley-tech-2017">taken at Sun Valley</a> — the one with Jeff and the muscles and the sunglasses. Suddenly, this nerdy tech guy seemed like he was trying to be extremely cool.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="c4mQY4">
Bezos also bought some new houses during this period. He bought a 27,000-square-foot former museum near the Obamas in the Kalorama neighborhood of Washington, DC, in 2015 for $23 million, and then last year, he bought the former home of the late Hollywood studio mogul Jack Warner in Beverly Hills <a href="https://la.curbed.com/2020/2/12/21135328/jeff-bezos-house-los-angeles">for a record-setting $165 million</a>. Bezos <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-many-places-amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos-calls-home-1507204462">already owned a lot of houses</a>, including a 300,000-acre ranch in Texas, but these new houses put him yards away from huge celebrities. This is appropriate as Bezos became a regular attendee at Oscar parties and <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/2/8/18216590/jeff-bezos-national-enquirer-affair-medium">became more of a celebrity himself</a>, increasingly <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/jeff-bezoss-journey-from-private-family-man-to-tabloid-sensation-11549837862">attracting the attention of paparazzi and the tabloids</a>. And who could forget the time he got in <a href="https://www.vox.com/technology/2019/2/7/18216281/jeff-bezos-medium-national-enquirer-ami-pecker-release-dick-pic">a public spat with the National Enquirer</a> over some dick pics?
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<pre><code> &lt;img alt="Jeff Bezos hangs out with Kim Kardashian West, Kylie Jenner, Kendall Jenner, and Jared Leto at the 2019 Met Gala." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/nggcffVdtudigCYmeaFvtUb-hjc=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22277486/GettyImages_1147445303.jpg" /&gt;
&lt;cite&gt;Kevin Mazur/MG19/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue&lt;/cite&gt;
&lt;figcaption&gt;Jeff Bezos hangs out with Kim Kardashian West, Kylie Jenner, Kendall Jenner, and Jared Leto at the 2019 Met Gala.&lt;/figcaption&gt;</code></pre>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9Zg8PA">
Squinting back through the years, it’s hard to see the dorky guy who started Amazon in the ’90s. It’s almost as though that guy retreated into an office in Seattle sometime around Y2K and emerged a decade later with a chiseled physique, a network of mansions presumably filled with Hollywood stars, and a plan to fly tourists to the moon. And he was still running Amazon!
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZsDaJd">
Now that Jeff Bezos will no longer be Amazon’s CEO, he won’t have to worry as much about the mounting scrutiny over Amazon’s unchecked power or the volley of antitrust cases the company <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/10/6/21505027/congress-big-tech-antitrust-report-facebook-google-amazon-apple-mark-zuckerberg-jeff-bezos-tim-cook">faces</a> in the US and abroad. He also probably won’t have to sweat through <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/7/29/21346584/jeff-bezos-amazon-antitrust-hearing-congressional-testimony-power-to-make-or-break-small-merchants">any more congressional hearings</a>. That stuff will be Jassy’s job now.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cyqPza">
Instead, Bezos will have more time to pursue his <em>October Sky</em>-inspired dreams, to host fundraisers in his former museum of a home, and to work out. And if he really does want to be more involved at the Washington Post<em> </em>on top of all those exciting projects, the paper <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/martin-baron-washington-post-retirement/2021/01/26/62a76198-5ff0-11eb-9430-e7c77b5b0297_story.html">needs a new editor</a>.
</p>
<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>Sri Lanka's tour of West Indies in doubt after positive COVID-19 tests</strong> - Head coach Mickey Arthur and opening batsman Lahiru Thirimanne tested positive for coronavirus</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>Chittagong Test | Bangladesh holds firm against West Indies on Day 1</strong> - Left-handed opener Shadman Islam was the best batsman for Bangladesh with 59 runs, his second fifty in the Test format.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Former cricketers express concern about Australia pulling out of South Africa tour</strong> - Vaughan says it is not a good precedent; Pietersen calls it ‘dark time in cricket’.</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>Cricket Australia to grant NOC to IPL-bound players on case-by-case basis</strong> - Players' agents have indicated that unless there are injury concerns, there should not be any issue in granting NOCs as the event will be organised during CA's official break.</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>We did everything possible, also offered to host South Africa: Cricket Australia’s CEO Hockley</strong> - Cricket South Africa (CSK) expressed its “extreme disappointment” over the postponement, forcing Hockley to come out in CA’s defence.</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>Nearly 50% of candidates to be new faces: Cong.</strong> - Selection process will start in within a week, says Tariq Anwar</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>Cases against Aishwarya Kerala Yatra organisers, workers</strong> - For failing to follow COVID-19 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>Five teens held for beating 70-year-old man to death</strong> - Enmity between two schoolboys results in the murder</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>Parliament proceedings | Committee formed to suggest reforms in criminal laws, govt tells Parliament</strong> - The Centre has set up a committee to suggest reforms in criminal laws and sought suggestions from State governments, courts and bar councils, Rajya S</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>Air India employees' interest will be protected, says minister</strong> - The civil aviation minister was responding to a query on whether current employees of Air India will remain employed.</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>Russia: Mass detentions after Putin critic Navalny jailed</strong> - More than 1,400 people are held after opposition leader Alexei Navalny is jailed, monitors say.</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>Austrian 'Neo-Nazi rapper' held after long search</strong> - Songs by the man known as Mr Bond are said to have inspired a gunman who killed two people in 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>Mario Draghi 'to form new Italian government'</strong> - The former European Central Bank chief will meet President Sergio Mattarella on Wednesday.</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>Liberia war crimes: Rebel commander 'Angel Gabriel' on trial in Finland</strong> - Gibril Ealoghima Massaquoi denies murder, rape and recruiting child soldiers.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Covid: France restricts AstraZeneca vaccine to under-65s</strong> - It is the latest EU country to limit use of the jab citing lack of efficacy data for elderly people.</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>We have finally played the lost, official Goldeneye 007 remaster for Xbox 360</strong> - It's real, and it's spectacular. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1739361">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Putting the latest Starship crash into perspective—it’s “stupidly difficult”</strong> - "It's not like they were huge idiots who wanted to throw their rocket away." - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1739174">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>New study cracks the case of why food sticks to center of nonstick pans</strong> - It's the same underlying process behind the coffee ring effect and wine tears. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1739131">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>New COVID cases dropping, but worrying signs on the horizon</strong> - Easing off restrictions while cases are still common is asking for another surge. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1739163">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>B.1.1.7 coronavirus variant is picking up a worrisome new mutation</strong> - There's a lot of unknowns, but it's clear the virus isn't done trying to outwit us. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1739212">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>A Nazi walks into a bar</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
He goes up to the bartender and looks around seeing an older Jewish man sitting in a corner. He turns to the bartender and announces loudly: "A round of beer for everyone except that Jew over there!"
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The Nazi turns to the Jew smiling nastily and is surprised to see him smiling warmly back. Somewhat miffed the Nazi turns back to the bartender and says "A round of your sweetest wine for everyone here except that Jew!"
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Once again while everyone is cheering he turns back to the Jew grinning evilly but is shocked to see the Jew still smiling warmly and even inclined his head in the Nazi's direction.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The Nazi turns to bartender and says as loud as he could through gritted teeth "A bottle of your most expensive drink for everyone in this bar except for that Jew".
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The Nazi satisfied turns around chuckling to himself and freezes gobsmacked seeing the Jew smiling broadly at him and waving.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Furiously the Nazi turns back to the bartender and says "What the hell is wrong with that Jew? Is he crazy or just plain stupid?"
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The bartender replies "Neither. He's the owner of the bar."
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/MudakMudakov"> /u/MudakMudakov </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/lbahw1/a_nazi_walks_into_a_bar/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/lbahw1/a_nazi_walks_into_a_bar/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>Why does Melania need to be on top when she and Trump have sex?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Because Trump can only fuck up.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/JukeboxSommelier"> /u/JukeboxSommelier </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/laxulx/why_does_melania_need_to_be_on_top_when_she_and/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/laxulx/why_does_melania_need_to_be_on_top_when_she_and/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>Johnny sits at the bar staring at his drink when a large, trouble-making biker steps up next to him, grabs his drink, gulps it down in one swig, and menacingly says, “Well thank you! Whatcha gonna to do about it?"</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Johnny burst into tears. "Come on, man," the biker says, "I didn't think you'd CRY. I can’t stand to see a man crying. What’s your problem?"
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
"This is the worst day of my life," Johnny says. "I'm a complete failure. I was late to a meeting and my boss fired me. When I went to the parking lot, I found my car had been stolen and I don't have any insurance. I left my wallet in the cab I took home. I found my wife in bed with the postman, and then my dog bit me. So, I come to this bar to work up the courage to put an end to it all. I buy a drink, drop a capsule in, and sit here watching the poison dissolve, and then you show up and drink the whole thing!
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
But enough about me, how's your day going?”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/evan_lolz"> /u/evan_lolz </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/lb0pnk/johnny_sits_at_the_bar_staring_at_his_drink_when/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/lb0pnk/johnny_sits_at_the_bar_staring_at_his_drink_when/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>My girlfriend asked me if I wanted to do a threesome...</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
I told her, if I wanted to disappoint two people at once I'll go have dinner with my parents.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/nassimch"> /u/nassimch </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/lay5b6/my_girlfriend_asked_me_if_i_wanted_to_do_a/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/lay5b6/my_girlfriend_asked_me_if_i_wanted_to_do_a/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>Anybody interested in a free ride in a helicopter for 4 people? I'm still looking for 2 more adults to join me and my wife.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
We leave early Saturday morning (Feb 6th) from New York and will fly to Boston , where we will have breakfast, then have lunch on a friend’s yacht. Then we’ll do a flight along the coast, up to Cape Elizabeth returning to Boston for dinner, then fly back home. If interested, please message me.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Preferably someone with a helicopter and yacht, otherwise we can't go.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/DeeKew005"> /u/DeeKew005 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/lbdjgt/anybody_interested_in_a_free_ride_in_a_helicopter/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/lbdjgt/anybody_interested_in_a_free_ride_in_a_helicopter/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
<script>AOS.init();</script></body></html>

4
index.html
View File

File diff suppressed because one or more lines are too long