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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="covid-19-sentry">Covid-19 Sentry</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-preprints">From Preprints</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-pubmed">From PubMed</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-patent-search">From Patent Search</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-preprints">From Preprints</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Modeling SARS-CoV-2 transmission at a winter destination resort region with high outside visitation</strong> -
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Travel destinations, particularly large resorts in otherwise small communities, risk infectious disease outbreaks from an influx of visitors who may import infections during peak seasons. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted this risk in the context of global travel and has raised questions about appropriate interventions to curb the potential spread of infectious disease at tourist destinations. In Colorado, the initial outbreaks of SARS-CoV-2 in the state occurred in ski communities, leading to large economic losses from closures and visitor restrictions. In this study, we modeled SARS-CoV-2 transmission during the 2020-21 season in a ski region of Colorado to determine optimal combinations of intervention strategies that would keep the region below a predetermined threshold of SARS-CoV-2 infection density. This analysis used an age-stratified, deterministic SEIR compartmental model of disease transmission, calibrated to cellphone-based mobility data, to simulate infection trajectories during the winter ski season. Under three national infection levels corresponding to high, medium, and low viral importation risk, we estimated the potential impact of interventions including policy and behavior changes, visitor restriction strategies, and case investigation/contact tracing, in order to quantify the relative and absolute impacts of these interventions in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our results suggest that, in the context of low viral importation risk, case investigation/contact tracing and policy and behavior changes may be sufficient to stay below predetermined infection thresholds without visitor restrictions. However, if viral importation risk is high, visitor restrictions and/or screening for infected visitors would be needed to avoid lockdown-like control scenarios and large outbreaks in tourist communities. These findings provide important guidance to tourist destinations for balancing policy impact in future infectious disease outbreaks.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.18.21262227v1" target="_blank">Modeling SARS-CoV-2 transmission at a winter destination resort region with high outside visitation</a>
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<li><strong>Interpreting Wastewater SARS-CoV-2 Results using Bayesian Analysis</strong> -
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Wastewater surveillance of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS–CoV–2) has proven a practical complement to clinical data for assessing community-scale infection trends. Clinical assays, such as the CDC–promulgated N1, N2, and N3 have been used to detect and quantify viral RNA in wastewater but, to date, have not included estimates of reliability of true positive or true negative. Bayes Theorem was applied to estimate Type I and Type II error rates for detections of the virus in wastewater. Conditional probabilities of true positive or true negative were investigated when one assay was used, or multiple assays were run concurrently. Cumulative probability analysis was used to assess the likelihood of true SARS–CoV–2 detection using multiple samples. Results demonstrate highly reliable positive (&gt;0.86 for priors &gt;0.25) and negative (&gt;0.80 for priors = 0.50) results using a single assay. Using N1 and N2 concurrently caused greater reliability (&gt;0.99 for priors &lt;0.05) when results concurred but generated potentially counterintuitive interpretations when results were discordant. Regional wastewater surveillance data was investigated as a means of setting prior probabilities. Probability of true detection with a single marker was investigated using cumulative probability across all combinations of positive and negative results for a set of three samples. Findings using a low (0.11) and uniformed (0.50) initial prior resulted in high probabilities of detection (&gt;0.95) even when a set of samples included one or two negative results, demonstrating the influence of high sensitivity and specificity values. Analyses presented here provide a practical framework for understanding analytical results generated by wastewater surveillance programs.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.17.21262165v1" target="_blank">Interpreting Wastewater SARS-CoV-2 Results using Bayesian Analysis</a>
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<li><strong>Controlled evaLuation of Angiotensin Receptor Blockers for COVID-19 respIraTorY disease (CLARITY): Statistical analysis plan for a randomised controlled Bayesian adaptive sample size trial</strong> -
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The CLARITY trial (Controlled evaLuation of Angiotensin Receptor Blockers for COVID-19 respIraTorY Disease) investigates the effectiveness of angiotensin receptor blockers in addition to standard care compared to placebo (in Indian sites) with standard care in reducing the duration and severity of lung failure in patients with COVID-19. The CLARITY trial is a multi-centre, randomised controlled Bayesian adaptive trial with regular planned analyses where pre- specified decision rules will be assessed to determine whether the trial should be stopped due to sufficient evidence of treatment effectiveness or futility. Here we describe the statistical analysis plan for the trial, and define the pre- specified decision rules, including those that could lead to the trial being halted. The primary outcome is clinical status on a 7-point ordinal scale adapted from the WHO Clinical Progression scale assessed at Day 14. The primary analysis will follow the intention-to-treat principle. A Bayesian adaptive trial design was selected because there is considerable uncertainty about the extent of potential benefit of this treatment.
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.17.21262196v1" target="_blank">Controlled evaLuation of Angiotensin Receptor Blockers for COVID-19 respIraTorY disease (CLARITY): Statistical analysis plan for a randomised controlled Bayesian adaptive sample size trial</a>
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<li><strong>Studies on the level of neutralizing antibodies produced by inactivated COVID-19 vaccines in the real world</strong> -
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Background Although effective vaccines have been developed against COVID-19, the level of neutralizing antibodies (Nabs) induced after vaccination in the real world is still unknown. To evaluate the level and persistence of NAbs induced by two inactivated COVID-19 vaccines in China. Methods and findings Serum samples were collected from 1,335 people aged 18 and over who were vaccinated with COVID-19 inactivated vaccine in Peking University People9s Hospital from January 19 to June 23, 2021, for detection of COVID-19 antibodies. The WHO standard of SARS-CoV-2 NAbs was detected. The coefficients of variation between the detection results and the true values of the NAbs detected by the WHO standard were all lower than the WHO international standard 3% after the dilution of the original and the dilution of the theoretical concentrations of 500 IU/mL, 250 IU/mL, 125 IU/mL, 72.5 IU/mL, 36.25 IU/mL and 18.125 IU/mL. On day 11-70, the positive rate of NAbs against COVID-19 was 82% to 100%; From day 71 to 332, the positive rate of NAbs decreased to 27%. The level of NAbs was significantly higher at 3-8 Weeks than at 0-3 Weeks. There was a high linear correlation between NAbs and IgG antibodies in 1335 vaccinated patients. NAbs levels were decreased in 31 of 38 people (81.6%) at two time points after the second dose of vaccine. There was no significant difference in age between the group with increased and decreased neutralizing antibody levels (x2 =-0.034, P&gt;0.05). The positive rate of NAbs in the two-dose vaccine group (77.3%) was significantly higher than that in the one-dose group (18.1%), with statistical difference (x2=312.590, P&lt;0.001). A total of 206 people who were 11-70 days after receiving the second dose were tested and divided into three groups: 18-40 years old, 41-60 years old and &gt;60 years old. The positive rates of NAbs in three groups (18-40 years old, 41-60 years old and &gt;60 years old) were 95.14%, 78.43% and 81.8%, respectively. The positive rate of NAbs was significantly higher in 18-40 years old than in 41-60 years old (x2=12.547, P &lt;0.01). The titer of NAbs in 18-40 years old group was significantly higher than that in 41-60 years old group (t=-0.222, P &lt;0.01). The positive rate of NAbs in male group (89.32%) was lower than in female (91.26%), but there was no significant difference (x2=0.222, P &gt;0.05). Conclusions The positive rate of NAbs was the highest from 10 to 70 days after the second dose of vaccine, and the positive rate gradually decreased as time went by. There was a high linear correlation between COVID-19 NAbs and IgM/IgG antibodies in vaccinators, suggesting that in cases where NAbs cannot be detected, IgM/IgG antibodies can be detected instead. The level of NAbs produced after vaccination was affected by age, but not by gender. The highest levels of NAbs were produced between shots 21 to 56 days apart, suggesting that 21 to 56 days between shots is suitable for vaccination.
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<div class="article-link article- html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.18.21262214v1" target="_blank">Studies on the level of neutralizing antibodies produced by inactivated COVID-19 vaccines in the real world</a>
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<li><strong>Dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 exposure in Malawian blood donors: a retrospective seroprevalence analysis between January 2020 and February 2021</strong> -
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Background: As at end of July 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic has been less severe in sub-Saharan Africa than elsewhere. In Malawi, there have been two subsequent epidemic waves. We therefore aimed to describe the dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 exposure in Malawi. Methods: We measured the seroprevalence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies among randomly selected blood donor sera in Malawi from January 2020 to February 2021. In a subset, we also assesed in vitro neutralisation against the original variant (D614G WT) and the Beta variant. Findings: A total of 3586 samples were selected from the blood donor database, of which 2685 (74.9%) were male and 3132 (87.3%) were aged 20-49 years. Of the total, 469 (13.1%) were seropositive. Seropositivity was highest in October 2020 (15.7%) and February 2021 (49.7%) reflecting the two epidemic waves. Unlike the first wave, both urban and rural areas had high seropositivity by February 2021, Balaka (rural, 37.5%), Blantyre (urban, 54.8%), Lilongwe (urban, 54.5%) and Mzuzu (urban, 57.5%). First wave sera showed potent in vitro neutralisation activity against the original variant (78%[7/9]) but not the Beta variant (22% [2/9]). Second wave sera potently neutralised the Beta variant (73% [8/11]). Interpretation: The findings confirm extensive SARS-CoV-2 exposure in Malawi over two epidemic waves with likely poor cross-protection to reinfection from the first on the second wave. Since prior exposure augments COVID-19 vaccine immunity, prioritising administration of the first dose in high SARS-CoV-2 exposure settings could maximise the benefit of the limited available vaccines in Malawi and the region.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.18.21262207v1" target="_blank">Dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 exposure in Malawian blood donors: a retrospective seroprevalence analysis between January 2020 and February 2021</a>
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<li><strong>Delta variant and mRNA Covid-19 vaccines effectiveness: higher odds of vaccine infection breakthroughs</strong> -
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Background: The SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant (B.1.617.2), initially identified in India, has become predominant in several countries, including Portugal. Few studies have compared the effectiveness of mRNA vaccines against Delta versus Alpha variant of concern (VOC) and estimated variant-specific viral loads in vaccine infection breakthroughs cases. In the context of Delta dominance, this information is critical to inform decision-makers regarding the planning of restrictions and vaccination roll-out. Methods: We developed a case-case study to compare mRNA vaccines9 effectiveness against Delta (B.1.617.2) versus Alpha (B.1.1.7) variants. We used RT-PCR positive cases notified to the National Surveillance System between 17th of May and 4th of July 2021 (week 20 to 26) and information about demographics and vaccination status through the electronic vaccination register. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) or spike (S) gene target failure (SGTF) data were used to classify SARS-CoV-2 variants. The odds of vaccinated individuals to become infected (odds of vaccine infection breakthrough) in Delta cases compared to Alpha SARS-CoV-2 cases was estimated by conditional logistic regression adjusted for age group, sex, and matched by the week of diagnosis. As a surrogate of viral load, mean RT-PCR Ct values were stratified and compared between vaccine status and VOC. Results: Of the 2 097 SARS-CoV-2 RT- PCR positive cases included in the analysis, 966 (46.1%) were classified with WGS and 1131 (53.9%) with SGTF. Individuals infected with the Delta variant were more frequently vaccinated 162 (12%) than individuals infected with the Alpha variant 38 (5%). We report a statistically significant higher odds of vaccine infection breakthrough for partial (OR=1.70; CI95% 1.18 to 2.47) and complete vaccination (OR=1.96; CI95% 1.22 to 3.14) in the Delta cases when compared to the Alpha cases, suggesting lower mRNA vaccine effectiveness against Delta cases. On our secondary analysis, we observed lower mean Ct values for the Delta VOC cases versus Alpha, regardless the vaccination status. Additionally, the Delta variant cases revealed a Ct-value mean increase of 2.24 (CI95% 0.85 to 3.64) between unvaccinated and fully vaccinated breakthrough cases contrasting with 4.49 (CI95% 2.07 to 6.91) in the Alpha VOC, suggesting a lower impact of vaccine on viral load of Delta cases. Conclusions: We found significantly higher odds of vaccine infection breakthrough in Delta cases when compared to Alpha cases, suggesting lower effectiveness of the mRNA vaccines in preventing infection with the Delta variant. Additionally, the vaccine breakthrough cases are estimated to be of higher mean Ct values, suggesting higher infectiousness with the Delta variant infection. These findings can help decision-makers weigh on the application or lifting of control measures and adjusting vaccine roll-out depending on the predominance of the Delta variant and the coverage of partial and complete mRNA vaccination.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.14.21262020v1" target="_blank">Delta variant and mRNA Covid-19 vaccines effectiveness: higher odds of vaccine infection breakthroughs</a>
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<li><strong>Large-scale study of antibody titer decay following BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine or SARS-CoV-2 infection</strong> -
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Background: Immune protection following either vaccination or infection with SARS-CoV-2 decreases over time. Objective: To determine the kinetics of SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies following administration of two doses of BNT162b2 vaccine, or SARS-CoV-2 infection in unvaccinated individuals. Methods: Antibody titers were measured between January 31, 2021, and July 31, 2021 in two mutually exclusive groups: i) vaccinated individuals who received two doses of BNT162b2 vaccine and had no history of previous infection with COVID-19 and ii) SARS-CoV-2 convalescents who had not received the vaccine. Results: A total of 2,653 individuals fully vaccinated by two doses of vaccine during the study period and 4,361 convalescent patients were included. Higher SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibody titers were observed in vaccinated individuals (median 1581 AU/mL IQR [533.8-5644.6]) after the second vaccination, than in convalescent individuals (median 355.3 AU/mL IQR [141.2-998.7]; p&lt;0.001). In vaccinated subjects, antibody titers decreased by up to 40% each subsequent month while in convalescents they decreased by less than 5% per month. Six months after BNT162b2 vaccination 16.1% subjects had antibody levels below the seropositivity threshold of &lt;50 AU/mL, while only 10.8% of convalescent patients were below &lt;50 AU/mL threshold after 9 months from SARS-CoV-2 infection. Conclusions: This study demonstrates individuals who received the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine have different kinetics of antibody levels compared to patients who had been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, with higher initial levels but a much faster exponential decrease in the first group.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.19.21262111v1" target="_blank">Large-scale study of antibody titer decay following BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine or SARS-CoV-2 infection</a>
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<li><strong>Intention to receive a COVID-19 vaccine by HIV status among a population-based sample of women and gender diverse individuals in British Columbia, Canada</strong> -
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Introduction: COVID-19 vaccination is recommended for people living with HIV (PLWH), among whom social inequities and co-morbidities may drive risks of COVID-19 infection and outcome severity. Among a provincial (British Columbia) sample, we determined the prevalence of COVID-19 vaccine intention by HIV status and assessed socio- demographic, vaccine hesitancy, and psychological predictors of vaccine intention. Methods: Individuals (25-69y) recruited from province-wide research cohorts completed an online survey examining COVID-19 impacts (August/2020-March/2021). Among women and gender diverse participants, we compared intention to receive a recommended COVID-19 vaccine (Very likely/Likely vs Neutral/Unlikely/Very Unlikely) by self-reported HIV status. Logistic regression models assessed the independent effect of HIV status and other factors on vaccine intention. Results: Of 5,588 participants, 69 (1.2%) were PLWH, of whom 79.7% were on antiretroviral therapy. Intention to vaccinate was significantly lower among PLWH compared to participants not living with HIV (65.2% vs 79.6%; OR: 0.44; 95%CI: 0.32-0.60). However, this association was attenuated after adjustment for social disparities (aOR:0.85; 95%CI: 0.48-1.55). Among PLWH, those with greater vaccine confidence, positive attitudes towards the COVID-19 vaccine, and more strongly influenced by direct and indirect social norms to vaccinate had significantly higher odds of vaccine intention. Discussion: Tailored messaging is needed to build vaccine confidence, address questions about vaccine benefits, and support informed vaccination decision-making to promote COVID-19 vaccine uptake among women and gender diverse PLWH.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.19.21262249v1" target="_blank">Intention to receive a COVID-19 vaccine by HIV status among a population-based sample of women and gender diverse individuals in British Columbia, Canada</a>
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<li><strong>Assessment of inter-laboratory differences in SARS-CoV-2 consensus genome assemblies between public health laboratories in Australia</strong> -
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Whole-genome sequencing of viral isolates is critical for informing transmission patterns and ongoing evolution of pathogens, especially during a pandemic. However, when genomes have low variability in the early stages of a pandemic, the impact of technical and/or sequencing errors increases. We quantitatively assessed inter-laboratory differences in consensus genome assemblies of 72 matched SARS-CoV-2-positive specimens sequenced at different laboratories in Sydney, Australia. Raw sequence data were assembled using two different bioinformatics pipelines in parallel, and resulting consensus genomes were compared to detect laboratory-specific differences. Matched genome sequences were predominantly concordant, with a median pairwise identity of 99.997%. Identified differences were predominantly driven by ambiguous site content. Ignoring these produced differences in only 2.3% (5/216) of pairwise comparisons, each differing by a single nucleotide. Matched samples were assigned the same Pango lineage in 98.2% (212/216) of pairwise comparisons, and were mostly assigned to the same phylogenetic clade. However, epidemiological inference based only on single nucleotide variant distances may lead to significant differences in the number of defined clusters if variant allele frequency thresholds for consensus genome generation differ between laboratories. These results underscore the need for a unified, best-practices approach to bioinformatics between laboratories working on a common outbreak problem.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.19.21262296v1" target="_blank">Assessment of inter-laboratory differences in SARS-CoV-2 consensus genome assemblies between public health laboratories in Australia</a>
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<li><strong>Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) due to the direct health impact of COVID-19 in India, 2020</strong> -
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COVID-19 has affected all countries. Its containment represents a unique challenge for India due to a large population (&gt;1.38 billion) across a wide range of population densities. Assessment of the COVID-19 disease burden is required to put the disease impact into context and support future pandemic policy development. Here, we present the national-level burden of COVID-19 in India in 2020 that accounts for differences across urban and rural regions and across age groups. Disability-adjusted life years (DALY) due to COVID-19 were estimated in the Indian population in 2020, comprised of years of life lost (YLL) and years lived with disability (YLD). Scenario analyses were conducted to account for excess deaths not recorded in the official data and for reported COVID-19 deaths. The direct impact of COVID-19 in 2020 in India was responsible for 14,106,060 (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 14,030,129-14,213,231) DALYs, consisting of 99.2% (95% UI 98.47-99.64%) YLLs and 0.80% (95% UI 0.36-1.53) YLDs. DALYs were higher in urban (56%; 95% UI 56-57%) than rural areas (44%; 95% UI 43.4-43.6) and in males (64%) than females (36%). In absolute terms, the highest DALYs occurred in the 51-60-year-old age group (28%) but the highest DALYs per 100,000 persons were estimated for the 71-80 year old age group (5,481; 95% UI 5,464-5,500 years). There were 4,823,791 (95% UI 4,760,908-4,924,307) DALYs after considering reported COVID-19 deaths only. The DALY estimations have direct and immediate implications not only for public policy in India, but also internationally given that India represents one sixth of the global population.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.20.21262326v1" target="_blank">Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) due to the direct health impact of COVID-19 in India, 2020</a>
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<li><strong>Seroresponse to SARS-CoV-2 vaccines among maintenance dialysis patients</strong> -
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Importance: Vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 are highly effective in the general population; however, their efficacy may be diminished in maintenance dialysis patients, a population particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 infection and morbidity. Objective: We assessed vaccine response in a national sample of maintenance dialysis patients and identified predictors of response. Design: Retrospective cohort study Setting: 130 Dialysis Clinic, Inc (DCI) facilities Participants: Maintenance dialysis patients without known prior COVID-19 or a positive baseline antibody titer Exposure(s): Vaccine type and clinical characteristics Main Outcome(s): Using a semi-quantitative assay for antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 spike antigen, vaccine response was defined as at least one titer ≥1 U/L between 14 and 74 days after completion of a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine series. Regression analysis was used to identify characteristics associated with response. Results: Among 1528 patients, 437 received BNT162b2/Pfizer vaccine, 766 received mRNA-1273/Moderna, and 325 received Ad26.COV2.S/Janssen. Serologic response differed significantly by vaccine type: 381/437 (87%) among BNT162b2/Pfizer recipients, 736/766 (96%) among mRNA-1273/Moderna recipients, and 119/325 (37%) among Ad26.COV2.S/Janssen recipients. Vaccine type, older age, immune-modulating medication, history of transplantation, and lower serum albumin were associated with vaccine non-response. Conclusions and Relevance: Serologic response to mRNA vaccines is robust among maintenance dialysis patients. Future research should evaluate durability of this response, correlation between seroresponse and protection from COVID-19, and the role of the AD26.COV2.S/Janssen vaccine in this vulnerable population.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.19.21262292v1" target="_blank">Seroresponse to SARS-CoV-2 vaccines among maintenance dialysis patients</a>
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<li><strong>A prospective study of the protective effect of SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies and T cells in Moscow residents</strong> -
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Background: Coronavirus disease COVID-19 has spread worldwide extremely rapidly. Although many individuals have been infected and have cleared the virus, developing virus-specific antibodies and effector/memory T cells, an important question still to be answered is what levels of T cell and antibody responses are sufficient to protect from the infection. Methods: In 5,340 Moscow residents, we evaluated the anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgM/IgG titers and the frequencies of the T cells specific to the nucleocapsid, membrane, and spike proteins of SARS-CoV-2, using IFNy; ELISpot, and we also evaluated the fractions of virus-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cells using intracellular staining of IFNy; and IL2 followed by flow cytometry. Furthermore, we analyzed the post-inclusion COVID-19 rates as a function of the assessed antibody and T cell responses using the Kaplan-Meyer estimator method. Results: We showed that T cell and antibody responses are closely interconnected and commonly are induced concurrently. Individuals positive for both antibody and T cell immunities demonstrated the highest levels of protectivity against the SARS-CoV-2 infection, indistinguishably from individuals with antibody response only. Meanwhile, individuals with T cell response only demonstrated slightly higher protectivity than individuals without both types of immunity, as measured from N-protein-specific or CD4+IL2+ T cells. However, these individuals were characterized by higher IgG titers than individuals without any immunity, although the titers were below the seropositivity cut-off. Conclusions: The results of the study indicated the advantage of serology testing over the analysis of T cell responses for the prediction of SARS-CoV-2 infection rates on a populational level.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.19.21262278v1" target="_blank">A prospective study of the protective effect of SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies and T cells in Moscow residents</a>
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<li><strong>Reduced serum neutralization capacity against SARS-CoV-2 variants in a multiplex ACE2 RBD competition assay</strong> -
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As global vaccination campaigns against SARS-CoV-2 proceed, there is emerging interest in the longevity of immune protection, especially with regard to increasingly infectious virus variants. Neutralizing antibodies (Nabs) targeting the receptor binding domain (RBD) of SARS-CoV-2 are promising correlates of protective immunity and have been successfully used for prevention and therapy. To assess neutralizing capacity, we developed a bead-based multiplex ACE2 RBD competition assay as a large scalable, time-, cost-, and material-saving alternative to infectious live-virus neutralization tests. By mimicking the interaction between ACE2 and RBD, this assay detects the presence of Nabs against SARS-CoV2 in serum. Using this multiplex approach allows the simultaneous analysis of Nabs against all SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern and variants of interest in a single well. Following validation, we analyzed 325 serum samples from 186 COVID-19 patients of varying severity. Neutralization capacity was reduced for all variants examined compared to wild-type, especially for those displaying the E484K mutation. The neutralizing immune response itself, while highly individualistic, positively correlates with IgG levels. Neutralization capacity also correlated with disease severity up to WHO grade 7, after which it reduced.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.20.21262328v1" target="_blank">Reduced serum neutralization capacity against SARS-CoV-2 variants in a multiplex ACE2 RBD competition assay</a>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Use of Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs in Treatment of COVID-19: Safe, Safe, and …. Lifesaving?</strong> -
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A recent systematic review and meta-analysis published at Drug Safety has confirmed the safety of NSAIDs in treatment of COVID-19. The author is discussing another potential of efficacy that might reveal lifesaving as NSAIDs might prevent or reverse the evolution of the aggressive hyperinflammatory responses associated with COVID-19.
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/a23nj/" target="_blank">Use of Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs in Treatment of COVID-19: Safe, Safe, and …. Lifesaving?</a>
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<li><strong>Comparison of two highly-effective mRNA vaccines for COVID-19 during periods of Alpha and Delta variant prevalence</strong> -
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Although clinical trials and real-world studies have affirmed the effectiveness and safety of the FDA-authorized COVID-19 vaccines, reports of breakthrough infections and persistent emergence of new variants highlight the need to vigilantly monitor the effectiveness of these vaccines. Here we compare the effectiveness of two full-length Spike protein-encoding mRNA vaccines from Moderna (mRNA-1273) and Pfizer/BioNTech (BNT162b2) in the Mayo Clinic Health System over time from January to July 2021, during which either the Alpha or Delta variant was highly prevalent. We defined cohorts of vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals from Minnesota (n = 25,589 each) matched on age, sex, race, history of prior SARS-CoV-2 PCR testing, and date of full vaccination. Both vaccines were highly effective during this study period against SARS-CoV-2 infection (mRNA-1273: 86%, 95%CI: 81-90.6%; BNT162b2: 76%, 95%CI: 69-81%) and COVID-19 associated hospitalization (mRNA-1273: 91.6%, 95% CI: 81-97%; BNT162b2: 85%, 95% CI: 73-93%). In July, vaccine effectiveness against hospitalization has remained high (mRNA-1273: 81%, 95% CI: 33-96.3%; BNT162b2: 75%, 95% CI: 24-93.9%), but effectiveness against infection was lower for both vaccines (mRNA-1273: 76%, 95% CI: 58-87%; BNT162b2: 42%, 95% CI: 13-62%), with a more pronounced reduction for BNT162b2. Notably, the Delta variant prevalence in Minnesota increased from 0.7% in May to over 70% in July whereas the Alpha variant prevalence decreased from 85% to 13% over the same time period. Comparing rates of infection between matched individuals fully vaccinated with mRNA-1273 versus BNT162b2 across Mayo Clinic Health System sites in multiple states (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Arizona, Florida, and Iowa), mRNA-1273 conferred a two-fold risk reduction against breakthrough infection compared to BNT162b2 (IRR = 0.50, 95% CI: 0.39-0.64). In Florida, which is currently experiencing its largest COVID-19 surge to date, the risk of infection in July after full vaccination with mRNA-1273 was about 60% lower than after full vaccination with BNT162b2 (IRR: 0.39, 95% CI: 0.24-0.62). Our observational study highlights that while both mRNA COVID-19 vaccines strongly protect against infection and severe disease, further evaluation of mechanisms underlying differences in their effectiveness such as dosing regimens and vaccine composition are warranted.
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.06.21261707v3" target="_blank">Comparison of two highly- effective mRNA vaccines for COVID-19 during periods of Alpha and Delta variant prevalence</a>
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<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>Pulmonary Rehabilitation Post-COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: Exercise program (virtual/remote)<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of Manitoba;   Health Sciences Centre Foundation, Manitoba;   Health Sciences Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Study of PF-07321332/Ritonavir in Non-hospitalized Low-Risk Adult Participants With COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: PF-07321332;   Drug: Ritonavir;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Pfizer<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Mix and Match Heterologous Prime-Boost Study Using Approved COVID-19 Vaccines in Mozambique</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: BBIBP-CorV - Inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine (Vero cell);   Biological: AZD1222 (replication-deficient Ad type 5 vector expressing full-length spike protein)<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   International Vaccine Institute;   The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI);   Instituto Nacional de Saúde (INS), Mozambique;   University of Antananarivo;   International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh;   Harvard University;   Heidelberg University<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Targeting de Novo Pyrimidine Biosynthesis by Leflunomide for the Treatment of COVID-19 Virus Disease</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: leflunomide<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:  <br/>
Ashford and St. Peter’s Hospitals NHS Trust<br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>COVID-19 Methylene Blue Antiviral Treatment</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Methylene Blue;   Drug: Saline nasal spray<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Irkutsk Scientific Center of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences;   Irkutsk State Medical University<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 I/II Clinical Trial of Recombinant COVID-19 Vaccine (Sf9 Cells) in Children and Adolescents</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Recombinant COVID-19 vaccine (Sf9 cells);   Other: Placebo control<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   WestVac Biopharma Co., Ltd.;   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>To Evaluate Efficacy &amp; Safety of Proxalutamide in Hospitalized Covid-19 Subjects</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: GT0918;   Drug: Standard of care;   Drug: Matching placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Suzhou Kintor Pharmaceutical Inc,;   IQVIA Biotech<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>Double Blind Randomized Clinical Trial of Use of Colchicine Added to Standard Treatment in Hospitalized With Covid-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Infection<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: Colchcine<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:  <br/>
Asociacion Instituto Biodonostia<br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Relaxation Exercise in Patients With COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: Relaxation technique<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Beni- Suef University<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Philippine Trial to Determine Efficacy and Safety of Favipiravir for COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Combination Product: Favipiravir + Standard of Care;   Procedure: Standard of Care<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of the Philippines;   Department of Health, Philippines<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>Combination of Dietary Supplements Curcumin, Quercetin and Vitamin D for Early Symptoms of COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Standard of care;   Dietary Supplement: combination of curcumin, quercetin and Vitamin D<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Ayub Teaching 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>Evaluation of the Effects of Bradykinin Antagonists on Pulmonary Manifestations of COVID-19 Infections (AntagoBrad- Cov Study).</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: C1 Inhibitor Human;   Drug: Icatibant Injection;   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   GCS Ramsay Santé pour l’Enseignement et la Recherche<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>A Study to Evaluate the Safety and Efficacy of Artemisinin- a Herbal Supplement on COVID-19 Subjects</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Dietary Supplement: Artemisinin;   Drug: Dexamethasone<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Mateon Therapeutics;   Windlas Biotech Private Limited<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>Clinical Trial to Assess the Efficacy and Safety of Inhaled AQ001S in the Management of Acute COVID-19 Symptoms</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: Drug, inhalation<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:  <br/>
Aquilon Pharmaceuticals S.A.<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>Local and General Immune Response After Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Vaccination in Volunteers</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Procedure: Blood and nasal fluid sampling before and after COVID-19 vaccination<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University Hospital, Ghent;   University Ghent;   Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie<br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-pubmed">From PubMed</h1>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Challenges of short substrate analogues as SARS-CoV-2 main protease inhibitors</strong> - Specific anti-coronaviral drugs complementing available vaccines are urgently needed to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Given its high conservation across the betacoronavirus genus and dissimilarity to human proteases, the SARS-CoV-2 main protease (M^(pro)) is an attractive drug target. SARS-CoV-2 M^(pro) inhibitors have been developed at unprecedented speed, most of them being substrate-derived peptidomimetics with cysteine-modifying warheads. In this study, M^(pro) has proven resistant towards…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Evaluation of a Visually-Read Rapid Antigen Test Kit (SGA V-Chek) for Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Virus</strong> - Although the reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method has been accepted as the reference method in the detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) RNA, it requires special laboratory conditions, complicated and expensive laboratory instruments, competent laboratory staff and long testing duration. Antigen testing methods such as enzyme immunoassay, fluorescent antibody and visually-read immunochromatographic rapid antigen detection (RAD) tests…</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>OFF-State-Specific Inhibition of the Proprotein Convertase Furin</strong> - The pro-protein convertase furin is a highly specific serine protease involved in the proteolytic maturation of many proteins in the secretory pathway. It also activates surface proteins of many viruses including the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Furin inhibitors effectively suppress viral replication and thus are promising antiviral therapeutics with broad application potential. Polybasic substrate-like ligands typically trigger conformational changes shifting…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Vitamin D3 and its hydroxyderivatives as promising drugs against COVID-19: a computational study</strong> - The epidemiologic correlation between the poor prognosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection and vitamin D deficiency has been observed worldwide, however, their molecular mechanisms are not fully understood. In this study, we used combined molecular docking, molecular dynamics simulations and binding free energy analyses to investigate the potentials of vitamin D3 and its hydroxyderivatives as TMPRSS2 inhibitor and to inhibit the SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain (RBD) binding to angiotensin-converting…</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>Probing the Allosteric Inhibition Mechanism of a Spike Protein Using Molecular Dynamics Simulations and Active Compound Identifications</strong> - The receptor recognition of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 relies on the “down-to-up” conformational change in the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the spike (S) protein. Therefore, understanding the process of this change at the molecular level facilitates the design of therapeutic agents. With the help of coarse-grained molecular dynamic simulations, we provide evidence showing that the conformational dynamics of the S protein are globally cooperative. Importantly, an allosteric path was…</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 1 study in healthy participants of the safety, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of enpatoran (M5049), a dual antagonist of toll-like receptors 7 and 8</strong> - This study evaluated the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics (PK), and pharmacodynamics (PD) of single and multiple oral doses of enpatoran (formerly named M5049), a new toll-like receptor (TLR) 7 and 8 dual antagonist, and the effect of food on a single dose in healthy participants. In this single phase 1, randomized (3:1), double-blind, placebo- controlled study, 96 participants received single and multiple ascending oral doses of enpatoran. Participants in single-dose cohorts received one…</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>MicroRNA-28-3p inhibits angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 ectodomain shedding in 293T cells treated with the spike protein of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 by targeting A disintegrin and metalloproteinase 17</strong> - Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019. Angiotensin‑converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is the SARS‑CoV binding site and is ubiquitously expressed in endothelial cells of several organs, with the highest levels in the cardiovascular system, kidney and lungs. A disintegrin and metalloproteinase 17 (ADAM17) is involved in ectodomain shedding of ACE2. In the present study, reverse‑transcription‑quantitative PCR, transfection, TUNNEL…</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>Rational Design of Hybrid SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease Inhibitors Guided by the Superimposed Cocrystal Structures with the Peptidomimetic Inhibitors GC-376, Telaprevir, and Boceprevir</strong> - SARS-CoV-2 main protease (M^(pro)) is a cysteine protease that mediates the cleavage of viral polyproteins and is a validated antiviral drug target. M^(pro) is highly conserved among all seven human coronaviruses, with certain M^(pro) inhibitors having broad-spectrum antiviral activity. In this study, we designed two hybrid inhibitors UAWJ9-36-1 and UAWJ9-36-3 based on the superimposed X-ray crystal structures of SARS-CoV-2 M^(pro) with GC-376, telaprevir, and boceprevir. Both UAWJ9-36-1 and…</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>Poliovirus Vaccination Induces a Humoral Immune Response That Cross Reacts With SARS-CoV-2</strong> - Background: Millions have been exposed to SARS-CoV-2, but the severity of resultant infections has varied among adults and children, with adults presenting more serious symptomatic cases. Children may possess an immunity that adults lack, possibly from childhood vaccinations. This retrospective study suggests immunization against the poliovirus may provide an immunity to SARS-CoV-2. Methods: Publicly available data were analyzed for possible correlations between national median ages and…</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>Downregulation of CD45 Signaling in COVID-19 Patients Is Reversed by C24D, a Novel CD45 Targeting Peptide</strong> - CD45, the predominant transmembrane tyrosine phosphatase in leukocytes, is required for the efficient induction of T cell receptor signaling and activation. We recently reported that the CD45-intracellular signals in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients are inhibited. We also reported that C24D, an immune modulating therapeutic peptide, binds to CD45 on immune-suppressed cells and resets the functionality of the immune system via the CD45…</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>Morphological cell profiling of SARS-CoV-2 infection identifies drug repurposing candidates for COVID-19</strong> - The global spread of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and the associated disease COVID-19, requires therapeutic interventions that can be rapidly identified and translated to clinical care. Traditional drug discovery methods have a &gt;90% failure rate and can take 10 to 15 y from target identification to clinical use. In contrast, drug repurposing can significantly accelerate translation. We developed a quantitative high-throughput screen to identify efficacious…</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 overview of the preclinical discovery and development of remdesivir for the treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)</strong> - INTRODUCTION: Remdesivir (RDV) is an inhibitor of the viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerases that are active in some RNA viruses, including the Ebola virus and zoonotic coronaviruses. When severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was identified as the etiologic agent of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), several investigations have assessed the potential activity of RDV in inhibiting viral replication, giving rise to hope for an effective treatment.</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>Efficient inactivation of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) in human apheresis platelet concentrates with amotosalen and ultraviolet A light</strong> - CONCLUSION: SARS-CoV-2 was efficiently inactivated in platelet concentrates by amotosalen/UVA treatment. These results are in line with previous inactivation data for SARS-CoV-2 in plasma as well as MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-1 in platelets and plasma, demonstrating efficient inactivation of human coronaviruses.</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>Osteopathic interventions via telehealth in a pediatric population: a retrospective case series</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: In our small retrospective case series, osteopathic interventions via telehealth resulted in decreased average pain scores following treatment while minimizing risk of viral exposure and transmission. Further study is needed to determine if such treatment methods could be effective on a larger scale when distance or illness preclude an in-person OMT visit.</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>Deconstructing the Treatment Effect of Remdesivir in the Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial-1: Implications for Critical Care Resource Utilization</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: Remdesivir speeds time to recovery by preventing worsening to clinical states that would extend the course of hospitalization and increase intensive respiratory support, thereby reducing the overall demand for hospital care.</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SARS-COV-2 BINDING PROTEINS</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU333402004">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>자외선살균등</strong> - 본 발명은 사람의 의복이나 사용한 마스크 등에 부착하여 있다 호흡기로 유입되어 감염을 유발할 수 있는 COVID-19와 같은 유해균류를 간편하게 살균하기 위한 휴대용 자와선살균등에 관한 것이다. 반감기가 길고 인체에 유해한 오존을 발생하지 않으면서 탁월한 살균능력이 있는 250~265nm(최적은 253.7nm) 파장의 자외선을 발광하는 자외선램프를 본 발명의 막대형의 자외선살균등 광원으로 사용하고 비광원부를 손으로 잡고 의복이나 사용한 마스크 등 유해균류가 부착되었을 것으로 의심되는 곳에 자외선을 조사하여 간편하게 유해균류를 살균하므로써 감염을 예방하기 위한 휴대용 자외선살균등에 관함 것이다. - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=KR332958765">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Protein chip and kit for detecting SARS-CoV-2 N protein and its preparation method</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU333400881">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Protein chip and kit for detecting the SARS-CoV-2 S antigen</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU333400883">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Cabina de desinfección de doble carga exterior</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=ES331945699">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Novel Method COVID -19 infection using Deep Learning Based System</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU331907400">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>一种新冠病毒疫苗的表达载体及其构建方法、应用和疫苗</strong> - 本发明适用于生物技术领域，提供了一种新冠病毒疫苗的表达载体及其构建方法、应用和疫苗，该表达载体的构建方法包括以下步骤：将表达新冠病毒S蛋白与NP蛋白的核苷酸序列使用2A肽进行连接，合成融合基因；在融合基因的两端分别包含两个酶切位点，并装载到质粒，得到重组质粒；对重组质粒进行双酶切，切胶回收目的基因片段；对原始的质粒进行双酶切，切胶回收载体片段；将目的基因片段和载体片段进行连接，得到所述表达载体。本发明实施例通过同时表达冠状病毒S蛋白受体结合区与NP蛋白，使该表达载体感染的细胞不但可以诱导抗体反应还能诱导T细胞反应，从而有效诱导体液免疫和细胞免疫，为受试者提供更强的免疫保护。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN333442015">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>EMPUNADURA DE RAQUETA O PALA PARA JUEGO DE PELOTA CON DISPENSADOR LIQUIDO POR CAPILARIDAD INSERTADO</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=ES331563132">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR COVID- 19 DIAGNOSIS USING DETECTION RESULTS FROM CHEST X- RAY IMAGES</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU330927328">link</a></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>System zum computergestützten Nachverfolgen einer von einer Person durchzuführenden Prozedur</strong> -
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Ein System (2000) zum computergestützten Nachverfolgen einer von einer Person (1) durchzuführenden Testprozedur, insbesondere für einen Virusnachweistest, bevorzugt zur Durchführung eines SARS-CoV-2 Tests, wobei das System (2000) umfasst:</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">eine Identifizierungseinheit eines Endgeräts (30), die eingerichtet ist zum Identifizieren (201) der Person</li>
</ul>
<ol type="1">
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">unmittelbar vor einem Durchführen der Testprozedur durch die Person (1);</li>
</ol>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">wobei die Identifizierungseinheit des Endgeräts (30) weiter eingerichtet ist zum Identifizieren (202) zumindest eines Testobjekts (20), bevorzugt einer Testkassette, insbesondere für einen SARS-CoV-2 Test, mehr bevorzugt eines Teststreifens, weiter bevorzugt ein Reagenz in einem Behälter, weiter bevorzugt eines Testsensors, unmittelbar vor der Durchführung der Testprozedur, die Identifizierungseinheit aufweisend:</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">eine Kamera (31) des Endgeräts (30), eingerichtet zum Erfassen (2021) eines Objektidentifizierungsdatensatzes (21) als maschinenlesbaren Datensatz; und</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">eine Auswerteeinheit (33) des Endgeräts (30), eingerichtet zum Vergleichen (2022) des erfassten Objektidentifizierungsdatensatzes (21) mit einem Objektdatensatz</li>
</ul>
<ol start="420" type="1">
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">eines Hintergrundsystems (40);</li>
</ol>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">eine Nachverfolgungseinheit des Endgeräts (30), die eingerichtet ist zum Nachverfolgen (203) einer oder mehrerer Positionen der Person (1) während der Durchführung der Testprozedur mittels Methoden computergestützter Gesten- und/oder Muster- und/oder Bilderkennung mittels eines Prüfens, ob beide Hände (12) der Person (1) während der gesamten Durchführung der Testprozedur in einem vordefinierten Bereich oder einem von der Kamera (31a) des Endgeräts (30) erfassbaren Bereich sind;</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">die Nachverfolgungseinheit des Endgeräts (30), zudem eingerichtet zum Nachverfolgen (203) von einer oder mehreren Positionen des zumindest einen Testobjekts (20) anhand der Form des Objekts während der Durchführung der Testprozedur mittels Methoden computergestützter Gesten- und/oder Muster- und/oder Bilderkennung; und</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">einer Anzeigeeinheit (34) des Endgeräts, eingerichtet zum Anleiten (204) der Person (1) zum Durchführen der Testprozedur während der Durchführung der Testprozedur.</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=DE333370869">link</a></li>
</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Trying—and Failing—to Save the Family of the Afghan Who Saved Me</strong> - Twelve years ago, Tahir Luddin helped us both escape after we were kidnapped by the Taliban. Now I am struggling to get his family out of Kabul. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/trying-and-failing-to-save-the-family-of-the-afghan-who-saved-me">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Pumpers, Dumpers, and Shills: The Skycoin Saga</strong> - The cryptocurrency promised to change the world and make its users rich in the process. Then it began to fall apart. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/pumpers-dumpers-and-shills-the-skycoin-saga">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Will the Next American War Be with China?</strong> - Elbridge Colby is leading a conservative effort to prepare Americans for a military conflict in Taiwan. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-inquiry/will-the-next-american-war-be-with-china">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Have You Already Had a Breakthrough COVID Infection?</strong> - The question of what “infection” means is just one of the riddles posed by the late-stage pandemic. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/science/medical-dispatch/have-you-already-had-a-breakthrough-covid-infection">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>After the Earthquake, a Mayor in Haiti Struggles to Console His Town</strong> - In Saint-Louis-du-Sud, ten miles from the epicenter, the medical clinic is overrun and thousands of people are sleeping in the streets. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/as-told-to/after-the-earthquake-a-mayor-in-haiti-struggles-to-console-his-town">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Biden backs school districts in fight against GOP mask mandate bans</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Children wearing masks sit at a classroom table" src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/kC8v_K9sIgBE2ur3iTDNoAowR94=/333x0:3868x2651/1310x983/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69758207/1234721230.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Third graders in Los Angeles, California wear masks on the first day of school at Montara Avenue Elementary School on Monday, Aug. 16, 2021. | Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Eight states, including Florida and Texas, are trying to ban mask mandates.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2Be2pd">
The 2021-22 school year is here, and with the US once more facing an <a href="https://twitter.com/ryanstruyk/status/1429072359517048836?s=20">out-of-control surge of Covid-19 cases</a>, the fight over public health measures in schools is reaching a fever pitch as K-12 students head back into classrooms.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RvQFnD">
Republicans in at least <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/18/biden-
education-governors-state-mask-bans-506070">eight states</a> are taking a hard line against classroom mask requirements, contrary to <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/k-12-guidance.html">federal public health guidance</a> — and increasingly, individual school districts, with the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/18/us/politics/biden-masks-schools-civil-rights.html">support</a> of the Biden administration, are moving to mandate masks anyway to protect their students.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CSMMyN">
In Texas and Florida, the two largest states to block school mask mandates outright, the school year has already gotten off to a <a href="https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/education/2021/08/19/3-400-palm-beach-county-kids-sent-home-covid-
exposure/8192164002/">bad start</a>. More and more students and teachers in both states are testing positive for the virus, and some school districts have been forced to shut down entirely.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="G5lXPj">
Arizona, Florida, Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah have all prohibited mask mandates in schools, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/18/biden-education-governors-state-mask-bans-506070">according to Politico</a>, though in Texas that ban is currently not in effect <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/08/20/texas-court-masks-schools-abbott/">pending further litigation</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eLC1hr">
In Florida, where Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis last month issued a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/florida-gov-desantis-issue-order-giving-parents-choice-mask-children-
school-2021-07-30/">blanket ban</a> on mask mandates imposed by school districts in the name of “parents’ freedom to choose,” teenagers and children under 12 are now testing positive for the virus at a higher rater than any other group, <a href="https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/2021/08/20/floridas-covid-deaths-climb-as-kids-lead-state-in-positivity-
rate/">according to the Tampa Bay Times</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KRamYy">
Overall, the state has seen one of the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/florida-covid-cases.html">worst Covid resurgences</a> in the country. Over the past week, Florida has reported an average of about 21,500 cases per day — more than it did during the worst of the pandemic in January.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="f18Vd5">
<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/08/17/florida-
students-covid-quarantine-hillsborough/">Thousands</a> of Florida students have been sent home because of possible Covid exposure, disrupting the school year almost before it begins. In places like Palm Beach County, as many as one in 50 students are currently under stay-at-home orders, the Palm Beach Post <a href="https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/education/2021/08/19/3-400-palm-beach-county-kids-sent-home-covid-
exposure/8192164002/">reported</a> on Friday.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ksn40h">
<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/children-
hospitalized-with-covid-19-us-hits-record-number-2021-08-14/">Pediatric hospitalizations</a> from the virus are also climbing, even as ICU wards around the state <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2021/08/19/these-6-states-
have-almost-no-icu-beds-left-as-covid-hospitalizations-soar/?sh=7c0057376bb5">approach capacity</a> amid Florida’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/22547537/delta-coronavirus-variant-covid-19-vaccines-masks-lockdown">delta variant</a>-fueled surge — and the worst may be yet to come, since Florida’s most populous county, Miami-Dade, won’t even <a href="https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/schools-and-covid/miami-dade-county-public-schools-approve-mask-mandate-for-
upcoming-year/2532236/">resume classes</a> until next week.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="y2YRta">
Things in Texas are looking equally dire: Republican Gov. Greg Abbott <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/31/world/greg-abbott-mask-vaccine-
mandate.html">banned mask and vaccination mandates</a> in July, and as of this month, Covid outbreaks have <a href="https://apnews.com/article/health-texas-education-coronavirus-
pandemic-8e78f68e2c0f118a3cc0c7cc68ff28cc">temporarily shuttered</a> at least four Texas school districts, while cases are <a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/COVID-cases-rise-as-school-districts-
across-16401520.php">soaring</a> among students as the virus runs rampant throughout the state.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="m2RAiT">
Abbott, who is fully vaccinated and has also received a booster shot, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/texas-gov-greg-abbott-tests-positive-covid-n1277021">tested positive</a> for a breakthrough case of Covid-19 on Tuesday, and Texas had <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/19/us/texas-covid-icu-beds-mask-mandate/index.html">more pediatric hospitalizations</a> from Covid than any other state in the US as of earlier this week.
</p>
<h3 id="yElk9v">
Some school districts are requiring masks anyway
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wkuzwe">
In several states, school districts are ignoring their governors to implement mask mandates anyway, despite the threat of sanctions and lawsuits.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jPoUrt">
At least five school districts in Florida — those in Alachua, Broward, Hillsborough, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach counties — <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/education/article253598398.html">have done so</a> as of this week.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hTe5Zj">
And at least eight counties in Texas have done likewise, <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2021/08/18/greg-abbott-joe-biden-texas-mask-mandates/">according to the Texas Tribune</a>. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, has <a href="https://apnews.com/article/health-coronavirus-pandemic-b8abb5fce7c9cf5c1586f412af1243f0">promised to sue</a> any entity that requires masks contrary to Abbott’s order banning such mandates, but has yet to do so.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xpEZ0y">
“Yesterday I spoke with a mother of a child who died. Over the week, I’ve spoken with employees and their relatives, begging me to do the right thing,” Miami-Dade public schools superintendent Alberto Carvalho, whose school district is now requiring masks in schools, <a href="https://www.tampabay.com/news/education/2021/08/18/miami-dade-
schools-superintendent-says-district-will-do-the-right-thing-on-masks/">said this week</a>. “I will do all that I can to do that.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NVHGOJ">
Currently, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/k-12-guidance.html">guidance</a> “recommends universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students, and visitors to K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status” because of the delta variant, which is <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/variants/delta-
variant.html">highly transmissible</a> and may also result in more severe illness among unvaccinated people.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6Mrzsc">
<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/science/science-briefs/masking-science-sars-
cov2.html">Studies indicate</a> that masks not only make a difference in limiting Covid-19 transmission by “asymptomatic or presymptomatic” individuals, but provide protection for uninfected people who are exposed to “respiratory droplets” from people who are sick with the virus.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="f0nwKR">
And their importance is particularly pronounced for unvaccinated people — such as students younger than 12, who are not <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-
shots/2021/08/18/1027035486/covid-vaccine-children-under-12-your-questions-answered">currently eligible</a> to receive a Covid-19 vaccine.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iQdYp4">
As Vox’s Anna North <a href="https://www.vox.com/22609711/school-covid-
cdc-2021-fall-reopening">reported</a> earlier this month,
</p>
<blockquote>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bt3jOX">
Schools that used masks well were still able to keep transmission low last year, Maldonado emphasized. And masks still work against delta, Zimmerman said, but with the variant more transmissible, it’s more critical than ever for schools to be meticulous about compliance. “It can’t be that there’s a slippage, or it’s hanging down at your chin for 10 minutes.”
</p>
</blockquote>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ObAihc">
However, DeSantis, who has made his opposition to public health measures like mask and vaccine mandates <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/11/biden-desantis-florida-covid-surge-504064">core to his national political profile</a>, has threatened that the state board of education could <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/09/us/florida-
desantis-school-mask-mandates/index.html">withhold the salaries</a> of public school officials who don’t go along with his ban on mask mandates.
</p>
<div id="TaboJL">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
Let me be clear: We will do everything we can to support local school districts in safely reopening schools. American Rescue Plan funds can be used to backfill the salaries of the brave Florida school board members, superintendents, and other educators keeping our children safe. <a href="https://t.co/sDoZHm3MMH">https://t.co/sDoZHm3MMH</a>
</p>
— President Biden</blockquote></div></li>
</ul>
<ol class="example" type="1">
<li><a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1428831054794829830?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 20, 2021</a></li>
</ol>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hirbL1">
In response, President Joe Biden <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1428831054794829830?s=20">announced</a> Wednesday as part of a larger push to support school districts that require masks in classrooms that funds from the <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-
politics/2021/3/10/22320350/biden-sign-stimulus-bill-covid-19">American Rescue Plan</a> — the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill that Democrats passed earlier this year — could be used to “backfill” any salaries withheld by the Florida board of education.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vS93hw">
“As I’ve said before, if you aren’t going to fight COVID-19, at least get out of the way of everyone else who is trying,” Biden <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-
remarks/2021/08/18/remarks-by-president-biden-on-fighting-the-covid-19-pandemic-2/">said</a>. “You know, we’re not going to sit by as governors try to block and intimidate educators protecting our children.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="f2uKxk">
In addition to backfilling salaries, Biden’s secretary of education, former public school teacher and administrator Miguel Cardona, said this week in a <a href="https://blog.ed.gov/2021/08/meeting-the-presidents-call-to-support-the-safe-and-sustained-
reopening-of-schools/">blog post</a> that the department could use its civil rights authority to support mask requirements, citing “students who may experience discrimination as a result of states not allowing local school districts to reduce virus transmission risk through masking requirements and other mitigation measures.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NIzhwC">
“Let me reiterate,” Cardona said in a Friday <a href="https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/secretary-
cardona-tells-alachua-and-broward-county-school-districts-we-stand-you">statement</a>. “We stand ready to assist any district facing repercussions for imposing CDC-recommended COVID-19 prevention strategies that will protect the health and safety of students, educators, and staff.”
</p>
<h3 id="8QPvVk">
Polling suggests public health mandates are popular
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yzCgZS">
While Abbott, DeSantis, and other GOP governors have successfully launched school mask requirements as a national controversy — to the point that teachers have been <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/08/18/eanis-texas-covid-schools-mask-teacher/">physically</a> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/08/13/california-mask-fight-school/">assaulted</a> by anti-mask parents in several cases — mandates actually have broad support in the US, according to several recent polls.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RMyw9n">
<a href="https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/poll-finding/kff-covid-19-vaccine-monitor-parents-and-the-
pandemic/">According to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll</a>, almost two thirds of parents support schools requiring masks for unvaccinated students and staff, though results split sharply along partisan lines.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eBZ9Lm">
Additionally, an <a href="https://www.axios.com/axios-ipsos-poll-mandates-masks-
vaccinations-f0f105a7-3c2e-4953-aac9-f25516128b11.html">Axios-Ipsos poll</a> released Wednesday found 69 percent of American adults support school mask mandates, and almost as many — 66 percent — oppose Texas-style laws prohibiting local mask mandates.
</p>
<div id="Wr9AnV">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
From a new Kaiser Family Foundation poll: “Most Parents Say Their Child’s School Should Require Unvaccinated Students And Staff To Wear Masks When At School”<a href="https://t.co/TiAjqDVnWc">https://t.co/TiAjqDVnWc</a> <a href="https://t.co/14Z5pP4pI0">pic.twitter.com/14Z5pP4pI0</a>
</p>
— Kevin Robillard (<span class="citation" data-cites="Robillard">@Robillard</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/Robillard/status/1425508182240251908?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 11, 2021</a>
</blockquote>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LxGvXA">
Even vaccine mandates had majority support in the Axios-Ipsos poll, with 55 percent of adults saying they would support their employers requiring vaccinations. Separately, a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-business-health-travel-coronavirus-
pandemic-27bf20514cd3da917c54bf71a41f2e8e">poll from the Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research</a> released Friday also found majority support for vaccine mandates to attend “crowded public events,” eat at restaurants, or fly.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mKzkFT">
Such measures haven’t yet become widespread in the US — only 16 percent of adults told Axios and Ipsos that their workplaces require them to get vaccinated, for example — but there are signs they are picking up momentum.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BRaWPd">
Already, Biden has said that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/28/us/politics/biden-federal-workers-vaccination.html">civilian federal employees</a> must either be vaccinated or submit to frequent Covid tests, and the Pentagon is expected to require <a href="https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-vaccine-us-military-requirement-
pentagon-3975940c732352f72e41f6e34a3a2669">service members</a> to get vaccinated starting next month, if not sooner.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2Vocgh">
Several states, including <a href="https://www.sacbee.com/news/coronavirus/article253030383.html">California</a>, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/07/28/1021770181/andrew-cuumo-new-york-state-workers-coronavirus-vaccine-mandate">New York</a> and <a href="https://medium.com/wagovernor/inslee-announces-vaccination-requirement-for-most-state-employees-
private-health-care-and-7c765161cbb6">Washington</a>, also put similar requirements in place for state employees, and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/health-education-california-coronavirus-
pandemic-7699f4496101d261ac94ed22e7544417">California</a>, <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/education/2021/08/oregon-
will-require-vaccination-for-all-teachers.html">Oregon</a>, and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/08/18/world/covid-delta-variant-
vaccine?action=click&amp;pgtype=Article&amp;module=&amp;state=default&amp;region=header&amp;context=breakout_link_back_to_briefing">Washington</a> all imposed a new vaccine mandate on teachers this month.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fj2XVj">
“This virus is increasingly impacting young people, and those under the age of 12 still can’t get the vaccine for themselves,” Washington state Governor Jay Inslee said at a <a href="https://medium.com/wagovernor/inslee-announces-educator-vaccination-requirement-and-statewide-
indoor-mask-mandate-3da2ada64951">news conference</a> on Wednesday. “We won’t gamble with the health of our children, our educators and school staff, nor the health of the communities they serve.”
</p>
<h3 id="udNPUF">
Cases and vaccinations are both on the rise
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ha1r6O">
As vaccine mandates begin to gain traction in the US, the country is also reporting the highest number of new infections and hospitalizations since February 2021.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HJ9pBD">
This week, the US reported more than 1 million cases in a seven-day stretch for the first time since February 2, <a href="https://twitter.com/ryanstruyk/status/1429072359517048836?s=20">according to CNN’s Ryan Struyk</a>, and the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html">rolling seven-day case average</a> is closing in on 146,000 new cases per day.
</p>
<div id="6O8R05">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
The United States reported more than 1,000,000 new coronavirus cases in the last seven days for the first time since February 2, according to data from <a href="https://twitter.com/CNN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"><span class="citation" data-cites="CNN">@CNN</span></a> and Johns Hopkins University.
</p>
— Ryan Struyk (<span class="citation" data-cites="ryanstruyk">@ryanstruyk</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/ryanstruyk/status/1429072359517048836?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 21, 2021</a>
</blockquote>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="px6MNI">
The South has been particularly hard-hit, with Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, Alabama, and Tennessee reporting <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html">more new cases</a> per 100,000 people than any other state, and the surge has been fueled by the delta variant, which now makes up about 98.8 percent of all Covid cases in the US, <a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions">according to the CDC</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nGAbit">
The severity of the outbreak, however, may also be boosting vaccine uptake in the US: <a href="https://twitter.com/cyrusshahpar46/status/1429093553448259587?s=20">According to White House Covid-19 data director Cyrus Shapar</a>, the US administered more than 1 million shots for the third day in a row on Saturday, the first time it has done so in more than two months.
</p>
<div id="bATPeh">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
Saturday just in: +1.05M doses reported administered over yesterday, including 526K newly vaccinated. Third consecutive 1M+ day in over two months. Now 60% of all eligible (12+) fully vaccinated. Keep adding to our protection against Delta, we can get through this together!
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">— Cyrus Shahpar (<span class="citation" data-cites="cyrusshahpar46">@cyrusshahpar46</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/cyrusshahpar46/status/1429093553448259587?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 21, 2021</a></p>
</blockquote>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Xrd0nE">
There’s also more good news coming on the vaccination front: The Food and Drug Administration is set to issue a full approval for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as early <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/20/us/politics/fda-pfizer-covid-vaccine-full-approval.html">as Monday</a>, more than eight months after it was first approved for use under an <a href="https://www.vox.com/22167841/fda-vaccine-
approval-pfizer-biontech-covid-19-eua-coronavirus">emergency use authorization</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="G7mWhN">
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/20/us/politics/fda-pfizer-covid-vaccine-full-approval.html">According to the New York Times</a>, “the approval is expected to pave the way for a series of vaccination requirements by public and private organizations who were awaiting final regulatory action before putting in effect mandates,” including the Pentagon.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kXWmON">
It could also be a boon for vaccine confidence in the US: About three in 10 unvaccinated people, <a href="https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/perspective/how-full-fda-authorization-could-spur-vaccination/">according to the Kaiser Family Foundation</a>, say they would be “more likely to get vaccinated if the FDA moved vaccines from emergency use to full approval.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QjMMcQ">
The Pfizer vaccine is by far the <a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations_vacc-total-admin-rate-total">most common</a> in the US: More than 203 million doses have been administered, according to the CDC, versus 142 million doses of the Moderna vaccine and just 14 million of the Johnson &amp; Johnson shot.
</p>
<h3 id="1WNDQ3">
Vaccinations for children under 12 could be coming soon
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Jld7cW">
In addition to being the first Covid-19 vaccine to receive an EUA and (likely) the first to receive full FDA approval, the Pfizer vaccine could also be the first shot authorized for children younger than 12.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="m6RDhd">
Clinical trials for both mRNA vaccines — Moderna and Pfizer — are currently underway in the US, and Pfizer’s chief scientific officer for viral vaccines, Dr. Phil Dormitzer, <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/08/18/1027035486/covid-vaccine-children-under-12-your-questions-
answered">told NPR</a> this week that “we’re hoping to have authorization” for children ages 5 through 11 “not too long after the school year starts,” with an EUA for children younger than 5 coming shortly after that.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dpw60F">
An EUA could make a big difference as the pandemic wears on, especially as school starts up again. The US reported a record 1,902 children hospitalized from Covid-19 last week, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/children-hospitalized-
with-covid-19-us-hits-record-number-2021-08-14/">according to Reuters</a>, and high levels of Covid-19 transmission throughout the country mean that the unvaccinated — including young children — are particularly vulnerable.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TvoSX4">
From August 5 through August 12, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the US reported 121,427 Covid-19 cases among children, or about 18 percent of the total number of US cases over that span.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="L1A5Nb">
With a vaccine authorization likely still weeks or months away, however, officials are urging adults and teenagers who are still unvaccinated to get their shot — to protect themselves, and their community.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0MQWGi">
“When you decide to get a vaccine, you’re protecting a kid out there who can’t get it,” Inslee <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/08/18/world/covid-delta-variant-
vaccine?action=click&amp;pgtype=Article&amp;module=&amp;state=default&amp;region=header&amp;context=breakout_link_back_to_briefing">said</a> Wednesday.
</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>The history of US intervention in Afghanistan, from the Cold War to 9/11</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/aXJHtpWADI3eXF_IHkIXc11xw2I=/188x0:2855x2000/1310x983/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69757070/GettyImages_672846_copy.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
President George W. Bush addresses soldiers in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, in November 2001, after the US invaded Afghanistan. Bush warned of the mission’s difficulty, but few in the administration anticipated the long war ahead. | Randy Janoski/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
How American meddling shaped life in Afghanistan.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jMmpt2">
The United States’ decision to <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/4/25/22402539/afghanistan-military-withdrawal-final-biden-
september-11th">withdraw troops from Afghanistan</a> closes a 20-year chapter between the two countries. But US intervention in Afghanistan far predates the 21st century, stretching back decades.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sOQMMo">
In the weeks and months ahead, there are going to be a lot of questions about what’s next for Afghanistan, including how the US approaches it. But contemplating what happens going forward also means looking at the past, including the ways American involvement has shaped Afghan politics and life for more than 50 years.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bTKJ87">
During the Cold War, both the US and the Soviet Union sought to gain footholds in Afghanistan, first through infrastructure investments and then military intervention. Once they withdrew in the late 1980s, the country entered a civil war — a backdrop to the rise of the Taliban. And while the US took a back seat in Afghanistan during much of the ’90s, it invaded after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001 and undertook a two-decade project for which the underlying mission would evolve. Now President Joe Biden has finally pulled American troops out of Afghanistan, but the two nations are still intertwined.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/ehSPCSzkK3dN7oqMa-F9GTdnOW0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22795014/GettyImages_92981480_copy.jpg"/> <cite>Romano Cagnoni/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Russian soldiers sitting on a tank in the Hindu Kush mountains during the invasion of Afghanistan in 1980.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/Eg9DbGfG9kpsnJkKfFgIQLHUh_w=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22795133/GettyImages_1229924205_copy.jpg"/> <cite>Rob Curtis/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
US soldiers guard a Marine base at Kandahar International Airport in 2001.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mPplVn">
I recently spoke with Ali A. Olomi, a historian of the Middle East and Islam at Penn State Abington, about the long, storied history of US meddling in Afghanistan and how it has shaped the country and people’s lives there. Olomi, who is the host of the podcast <a href="https://www.stitcher.com/show/head-on-history"><em>Head on History</em></a>, discussed the US’s funding of some factions of the mujahedeen, or Afghan guerrilla fighters, during the 1970s and ’80s; America’s rolling reasoning for its involvement in Afghanistan post-2001; and whether the US, even without soldiers present, is really gone.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QjDqHK">
Our conversation, edited for length and clarity, is below.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yBSCZv">
<strong>A lot of people date US intervention in Afghanistan to 2001. But is that the right place to start?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aO4gfi">
The actuality is that the United States was involved all the way back in the 1950s. Afghanistan was going through a series of modernizing projects, and it attempted to really build into a modern nation-state under two subsequent leaders: first, King Zahir Shah, and then followed by his cousin who overthrew him, President Mohammad Daoud Khan. And it was right in the midst of the Cold War.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1tAOf9">
Both the Soviet Union and the United States were involved in Afghanistan, namely through infrastructure building. The Soviet Union really built what’s known as the Salang Tunnel, which connected northern Afghanistan to Kabul. The United States was involved in what was known as the Helmand Valley project, which was an irrigation project and agricultural project about building dams in southern Afghanistan. It had been funneling a significant amount of money from the ’50s and ’60s on.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="juW2So">
There was a lot of money coming from both of these big, great powers in Afghanistan. And that really sets the stage for what eventually becomes a more formal military relationship to the country.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8ktlzY">
<strong>And where does the military relationship start? The 1970s?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eEy8Bc">
Yes. In the ’70s, the United States is at first quite hesitant to support any type of military expansion.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rStMUj">
Daoud Khan starts to ally himself more and more with the Soviet Union. He tries to establish a friendly relationship. He has a very famous phrase that he uses: “I feel happiest when I light my American cigarette with Soviet matches.” That really speaks to his attempt to leverage his really weird, uncomfortable Cold War relationship. But his allying with the Soviet Union makes the United States very, very nervous.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MkGsAj">
Things get even worse in 1978, when Daoud Khan is formally overthrown in what’s known as the Saur Revolution and a Marxist-Leninist government is established, the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. Here, the United States starts to slowly funnel money toward some resistance groups. It doesn’t have a unified policy. It’s not like, okay, we need to start a resistance movement to overthrow this communist government. It has a little bit of a muddled approach.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MpZndH">
There were some in the [US] government, like former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, who was very interested in getting involved. There were other military leaders that thought if we get involved, that’s going to force the Soviet Union to get involved. And so they have a bit of a mixed bag approach. But they do start to agitate quite early on in 1978, and in 1979, they are funneling money to Pakistan’s intelligence services, who are then funneling it into the hands of the resistance. That does eventually induce a Soviet invasion.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="42buBA">
The US was actually involved a little before the Soviets invaded. Once they got invaded, then the United States throws its full backing. It goes from meddling and funneling and agitating to outright saying, “Okay, we need to support the mujahedeen,” and allying themselves with the anti-communist resistance movement.
</p>
<h3 id="OeCs3i">
In the Cold War, the US backs Afghan reactionaries to fight a Soviet-friendly regime
</h3>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/zDbxWSaPkYC2jcorw9Ai9K8sf1s=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22795147/AP551216093.jpg"/> <cite>AP</cite>
<figcaption>
Sardar Mohammed Daoud Khan, then prime minister of Afghanistan (far right), seen with Soviet Minister of Defense Marshal Nikolai Bulganin in Kabul on December 16, 1955. These Soviet ties brought a slow escalation of conflict with the US in the Cold War.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NeU1ZT">
<strong>And just to be clear, what is the mujahedeen?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QhaH43">
The mujahedeen is a sort of resistance movement that emerges in response to the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. The People’s Democratic Republic party is wildly, wildly repressive, which as a result produces a good deal of resistance.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3Fjhgr">
Now, we should note that it’s also a really progressive government. This is a government that expands women’s rights, it extends literacy, it builds agricultural reforms in the economy. But at the same time, they’re also disappearing people. There are people who are like, hey, I can finally find a job, and other people who are like, wait a minute, we have health care. But if you spoke up against the government, there were chances that you’d be thrown in jail, arrested, disappeared. As a result of that repressive component, there were pockets of resistance that have been growing.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Uox6xr">
The mujahedeen are not a single group. We often talk about the mujahedeen as one group, but [they were] actually four different kinds of groups that roughly align as resisting this new oppressive, repressive government.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Tbn1Sy">
The first is the more organized. There is the Islamist faction, led by people like Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who is trained in the sort of jihadist ideology; he’d like to see an Islamic government. He’s a really regressive, retrograde, reactionary figure. In fact, even before the Soviet invasion, he carried out a series of horrific acid attacks against women.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="O0If6H">
This is a very unsavory character. And he happens to be one of the more organized groups, allied with the more moderate Ahmad Shah Massoud, who’s not carrying out acid attacks. He’s not regressive. He is much more interested in a sort of egalitarian vision of an Islamic republic, one with representative rather than this kind of autocratic rule. And yet despite these ideological differences, these two people ally themselves or at least align in opposition to communist government.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/cpdBs1NYgiGEynWizDEge-
Vi57Q=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22795193/AP20046463966879__1__copy.jpg"/></p>
<cite>AP</cite>
<figcaption>
Mujahedeen at a border camp near Wanna, Afghanistan, in 1984.
</figcaption></figure></li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SeRGhQ">
There’s also leftists as part of the mujahedeen; Maoists and leftists who have been disaffected by this government, who felt that they weren’t being heard or being repressed. And the mujahedeen is also made up of the Communist Party’s own military commanders, a group of young military commanders who defect from the government.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ngy9Ux">
Then the fourth and final group are just ordinary people — people that just pick up arms and fight and resist. They don’t have an ideology. They don’t have any particular vision of what the government is supposed to look like or what the government is supposed to do. They just realize that, wait a minute, this government is oppressive, or they’re changing things in a way that they’re not happy with, and they resist. This movement is a little slower. Once the Soviets invade, this group of ordinary people will grow dramatically, and this is the bulk of the mujahedeen.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="O6v3YU">
We’re talking about a coalition of groups with different aims, different goals that only align when the Soviets are there. Once the Soviets are gone, this group will turn amongst itself and we will see the civil war of the ’90s.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6PGgci">
<strong>What was the US’s involvement with those different groups?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RroVPI">
The US involvement is uneven. The US isn’t just funding mujahedeen. There’s an oversimplification that happens sometimes in this discourse, partly as a result of the US’s own claims. Brzezinski very proudly pats himself on the back and says, “We created the mujahedeen.” But he says this after the fact. In reality, when we look at the archives, that’s not true. [The US] exploits the mujahedeen. They definitely use the mujahedeen to their advantage. And they do funnel money through Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). But that money is mostly going into the hands of the more organized groups of the mujahedeen.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XAIJIl">
Ordinary people aren’t receiving training from the CIA or Pakistan’s ISI. They’re just ordinary people who have guns in their houses, pick up their guns, and fight. But unfortunately, the more organized groups are those reactionary elements. It’s people like Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who is an Islamist who is quite dangerous, who does receive funds, who does receive some form of training.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="quPSvv">
You even have CIA documents that complain that the Afghans are very hard to train because they operate on a different sense of time, that they won’t organize in the same way that the US military will organize. Anyone who’s familiar with Middle Eastern culture, Central Asian culture, or Indian culture knows that if you go to a wedding that says it starts at 7 pm, it’ll start at 9 pm. There’s a similar experience with the mujahedeen: They tell mujahedeen, hey, we’re going to start at 0800, and they’ll do it on their own time.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gwQMC6">
But it is to these more reactionary elements that the US allies itself. And, in fact, it makes some really horrific blunders. One of the things that the US ends up doing is that it pressures Egypt to release a group of Islamists that it had arrested. And one of the Islamists that was arrested in Egypt and then is released is Ayman al-Zawahiri, who happens to be the second-in-command of al-Qaeda.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Fb3V02">
The US inadvertently imports him — and we don’t have the full picture, so it could very easily have been intentional as an attempt to bolster the mujahedeen by bringing in foreign fighters. But they start to bring in what are known as the Arab Afghans, or the Arab mujahedeen, and these are people from Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, these are people from Yemen, people from Saudi Arabia, who then go on to form al-Qaeda.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3LwkBR">
There is a relationship here in which the US, through funneling money to ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence services, either inadvertently or intentionally ends up funding a group of foreign fighters who ally with the more organized elements of the mujahedeen. The consequence of that will be that once the US and the Soviet Union withdraw their influence, Afghanistan falls into a civil war. And in that civil war, both al-Qaeda will be born and the Taliban.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vvNUPS">
The unintended consequence of that meddling is chaos. And that chaos will give us al-Qaeda and the Taliban, both of whom have American training manuals, some American funds, and American guns, all that they received funneled through Pakistan’s ISI. And now the CIA says, “Oops. We’ve just allowed these groups to take form because we took our eye off of Afghanistan.”
</p>
<h3 id="dBvxBe">
After the Cold War, a civil war brings the Taliban to power
</h3>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A woman sits before ruined buildings." src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/2PiMAET6gDF8aPTtbOsnbtSAwQU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22795259/GettyImages_635231127_copy.jpg"/> <cite>Peter Turnley/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
The ruins of buildings destroyed by Soviet attacks and the Afghan civil war.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2N1wNL">
<strong>Once the Soviet Union withdraws, and there’s a civil war in Afghanistan, is the US still present during that time? Like, during the ’90s?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="44wTju">
The Soviet Union and the United States both sign an agreement, or at least, they are the guarantors of this agreement known as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_Accords_(1988)">Geneva Accords</a>. It’s technically between Afghanistan and Pakistan. But the United States agrees that we will no longer fund the mujahedeen, or at least that one group of the mujahedeen, and the Soviet Union agrees that they will withdraw. The Soviet Union does formally withdraw. It leaves no real support for its former allies, the government. And the United States continues to funnel some money, but it mostly turns away.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zxOTHT">
The result is that within three years, the government collapses and the civil war emerges between these old and mujahedeen factions, who, again, like I mentioned, are completely different with very different visions. It’s in that moment that the United States is not involved, the Soviet Union’s not involved. In fact, the former Soviet Union ambassador will actually blast the United States and the Soviet Union and say, “We meddled in Afghanistan, and then we stopped paying attention.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FAJBWz">
It is hidden in that language of “stopped paying attention” that really speaks to what ends up happening. A power vacuum is created, and into that vacuum will step the civil war. From that civil war will be born the Taliban who emerged as a completely new actor. They’re the second generation that grew up in refugee camps in Pakistan — Afghans were born in refugee camps, raised in refugee camps. They arrived fresh onto the scene. They intervene into this civil war, are able to exploit it, and therefore establish the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in 1996-’97.
</p>
<h3 id="EPWVv2">
The US invades after 9/11, without clear goals. The Taliban wait out the long war.
</h3>
<figure class="e-image">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/yuYKe8xg9I8Zpkuk2-DCkZzb9uU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22795278/AP21119536380190.jpg"/> <cite>Mazhar Ali Khan/AP</cite></p>
<figcaption>
Osama bin Laden attends a news conference in Khost, Afghanistan, in 1998. Just before the 2001 US invasion, Taliban offered to give up Osama bin Laden.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cVjmjN">
<strong>How long were the Taliban in control? Until 2001?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2ArApz">
The Taliban exerts its authority through most of Afghanistan, not all of it. Unlike now, where they seem to have extended their control to everywhere other than the Panjshir Valley. In the ’90s, they only controlled from Kandahar to Kabul, both Herat and the North did resist quite a bit.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zfD7hL">
Herat will eventually fall, but the North — led again by the Panjshir Valley, and Ahmad Shah Massoud and what would eventually become known as the United Front or the Northern Alliance — they will have their own autonomous territory that the Taliban will never conquer. So Afghanistan will kind of be split between the Northern Alliance in the North and the Taliban, who establish the Islamic Emirate. And only a few countries will recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan — Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. But they fall in 2001, relatively quickly.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="L7jQhZ">
<strong>And that’s after the US invades?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="saKPk4">
The US starts, actually, through a bombing campaign, and the Taliban really collapses there. The Taliban doesn’t have air support, there’s no Taliban air force. And so they actually pursued peace quite early on.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iIgLho">
In October 2001, they offer to hand over Osama bin Laden in return for an end to the bombing campaign. The Bush administration, at the time, didn’t accept it, and a formal invasion is undertaken. The offer was rejected because the Taliban wanted to hand him over to a third party and for a trial. The US also viewed their mission as “ending a safe haven for terror,” so invasion was explicitly part of the plans.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="liROFk">
The Taliban just completely vanish and become a small insurgency group that lives mostly in mountains. Some of them try to escape into hiding in Pakistan, some of them end up in pockets in Kandahar, some of them are in safe houses. But they’re no longer a sort of organized, unified group. They’re no longer in government.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vppmr1">
They’re just pockets of insurgency allied with al-Qaeda. They won’t really emerge until the mid-2010s, where they are much more organized and seem to have received more money than they ever had. There’s some estimates that we’re looking at billions of dollars. Somehow, in the process, they were defeated, they went away and hid and kind of built a spate of an economic base through extortion and drug trafficking. They were reorganized in the 2010s and emerged as once more a sort of unified political movement.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4KkNmF">
<strong>To back up a bit, and I feel odd asking this, but why did the US even go to Afghanistan in 2001? Because of al-Qaeda? Because of bin Laden? I feel like we all sort of know this and we don’t.</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Gl1OgV">
Ostensibly, the reason was, first, some form of justice against Osama bin Laden, some form of revenge, that we need to get him for what he did, for 9/11. But there was also a language of liberation that was woven into it. And that was more of an addition, a post-hoc, after-the-fact justification. The main justification was to go after Osama bin Laden. Once the Taliban collapses, and they say, “Hey, we’ll hand over Osama bin Laden,” a sort of new justification had to be invented. And that was, we need to nation-build, we need to build Afghanistan up.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IoKhdU">
What we can see of the internal <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/10.7249/mg716cc.12.pdf">discussions</a> between former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and former Vice President Cheney and former President George W. Bush, the argument or justification for why they want to nation-build is, one, so that they can create a pro-American government, a foothold in the region, and therefore are able to extend American bases. And two, so that they can therefore create a nation-state that’s favorable to the United States and would not allow terror bases to ever take root there again.
</p>
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang">
<figure class="e-image">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/oH96Wyw8TKXW7nDJKGePLvC981k=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22795271/AP060512013693_copy.jpg"/> <cite>Ron Edmonds/AP</cite></p>
<figcaption>
President Bush speaks with reporters, flanked by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and former Secretary of State Colin Powell. Competing motives in the Bush administration derailed the US mission in Afghanistan.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vxkl6a">
The justification was that it was to prevent future attacks, but it was also about extending American military bases and allowing more bases to be built there and therefore extending American military might.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yGkG3e">
Part of the strength of the American military has always been the ability to deploy quickly. If you have to deploy from the United States, that’s going to take time. This is one of the reasons we have aircraft carriers in various parts of the ocean; it’s why we build the bases in places like Djibouti. And the United States thinks in those terms. So the ability to build bases is a very important aspect of invading Afghanistan — build American bases, make an American-friendly government, or at least allow it to take root there.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ElKnpy">
Technically, the US could have accepted the surrender, accepted Osama bin Laden, and that’s it. Justice is served, right? Put Osama bin Laden on trial or execute him or whatever. But going further by invading was an attempt to extend American influence in that region.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GME8dk">
That’s where the United States got involved in, I think, a bit of a quagmire, because not only did it not know how to build the infrastructure, or the democratic institutions, but more importantly, it flooded Afghanistan with money that often went into the hands of military contractors and advisers and all these different segments — even warlords — who all got really rich off of American dollars.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sVrPUl">
Afghan society never really got any of those benefits. The economic disparity was still real. There was no real social mobility; jobs were incredibly hard to come by. So, yeah, you develop Kabul with new skyscrapers, and maybe you have a couple KFCs there, but the rural parts of Afghanistan remain neglected. And that, in many ways, is the great failure of the United States’ invasion.
</p>
<h3 id="L6IPwJ">
A failed rebuilding, and the US withdraws once more. But is this the end?
</h3>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/7wBNzEQXL_s1Wr4YPQmVRjckFiQ=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22795285/GettyImages_1233700582_copy.jpg"/> <cite>Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Maryam Durani works at radio station in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in May 2021. Many women in Afghanistan fear a return of the Taliban’s oppressive policies.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mrQvvA">
<strong>How has the United States’ involvement in Afghanistan shaped life for the people there?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eT6Wnz">
I think that in one instance, it did offer an opportunity to think of the future in a different way. There was a sense of hopelessness with the Taliban. I think post-2001, there is a great sense of energy and excitement and opportunity that does open up when we’re talking about people who are thinking about becoming engineers or journalists or going into government. So there is a great activity of optimism and an attempt to really reform society.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2r9yYH">
Also, it is coupled with a very real contradiction of that, that the United States was a major aggressor still. The United States wasn’t just in Afghanistan, it was carrying out a <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/03/27/afghanistan-drones-america-legacy-taliban/">droning campaign</a>. And so young Afghans would grow up with the experience of, okay, I can go to school today, something I may not have been able to do under the Taliban. But that also means that if the skies are blue, I might get droned.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="h5ygA5">
So they had to live in this really precarious, frustrated environment where, yes, there was some really great progress, some really great strides, things opening up. But simultaneously, they were recognizing and acknowledging the fact that the US was still at war, carrying out bombing campaigns. The government that was set up was precarious, at best, corrupt at worst. And so there was a real complicated feeling.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ucg5C3">
I speak to Afghans, I have family there, and they’ll tell you that there’s a lot of great and beautiful things, jobs and opportunities. But there’s also the real sense that an American tank is just going to roll down your street, that if you, unfortunately, move in a certain way, nervous troops are going to fire on you because they think you have a bomb, they think that you are part of al- Qaeda.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yymuAq">
That anxiety was real. Afghans felt occupied, while simultaneously also seeing that there were these different changes in society, that there was a transformation taking place. And that tension was very real for them — the experience of occupation and the experience of change and transformation.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LqlIzE">
<strong>How do you describe the situation now? I mean, I don’t know how to describe the situation now.</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fEzYux">
Nobody does; you’re not alone. Experts don’t know how to describe this situation. It’s a bizarre moment. We don’t know what the formal policy toward Afghanistan will be. There is obviously a military withdrawal, but will the United States normalize the relationship with the Taliban? Will the former enemies suddenly become a government?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W1wtZq">
We know that they’re thinking of blocking the money, so there’s that element of it. But what happens if most of the countries in the world recognize the Taliban as the rightful leaders of Afghanistan, even if Afghans themselves don’t? The majority of Afghans despise the Taliban; they’re universally hated across ethnic groups and political spectrums. But what happens with the de facto relationship that’s going to be? The United States allied itself with all sorts of unsavory governments — Saudi Arabia, right? What is that relationship going to be? Nobody knows.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/uFV558dSPzk7XQ5Sfe9GnsgAfvQ=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22795340/AP21231364890781_copy.jpg"/> <cite>Rahmat Gul/AP</cite></p>
<figcaption>
Taliban fighters patrol the streets of Kabul on August 19.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/OOsSFG8xIqQqv3qJQdOoXeehtHI=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22795355/GettyImages_1234761729_copy.jpg"/> <cite>Shakib Rahmani/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Afghan nationals sit inside a US military aircraft to leave Afghanistan on August 19. The evacuation process has been chaotic, with the US failing to predict the Taliban’s quick capture of Kabul.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iB84dL">
It seems that the military engagement, at least in terms of troops, is going to end, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that droning is going to end. So the Afghan experience of death from above is going to continue. In fact, President Joe Biden made it very openly clear that he will continue to use America’s Air Force to “degrade the terrorists,” which is a code for drone warfare. The continuation of drones in Afghanistan means that while US troops might be gone, US presence might be gone, the threat of US military is still there.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1zEkJC">
We also don’t know what the US’s commitments are to ordinary Afghans. Will they now be willing to take more refugees? The answer is yes, so far, but there’s no real talk about really raising the cap of dealing with things like the visa process, which is a complete quagmire, a labyrinthine process that is impossible to navigate. An Afghan who’s been cut off from the internet, how are they supposed to navigate that process?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zB7KuL">
There are no answers, just questions that have been raised by what is going on. There’s also the real anxiety that Afghanistan may fall into an outright civil war within a matter of years. What happens there? Do we stand by and watch a humanitarian crisis unfold? I think the universal feeling among most Afghans — and I should be careful not to speak for every Afghan — but there is a sort of acceptance that US withdrawal is a good thing. But what is the US going to do after is a crucial question that needs to be answered. And it is not being answered yet.
</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Fox News ignores a DC bomb threat inspired by right-wing conspiracy theory culture</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/DtUSHi2fryBb6cLpcgyQuckrHmE=/0x0:7135x5351/1310x983/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69754406/GettyImages_1335150156.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
The police and blockades are seen on Constitution Avenue as a suspect bomb threat is under investigation on August 19, 2021, in Washington, DC. | Chen Mengtong/China News Service via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Nothing to see here.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UUdGL9">
A Thursday night news brief on Fox News contained a remarkable claim — that the network doesn’t have enough information to determine what motivated a man spouting right-wing conspiracy theories to shut down a significant portion of Washington, DC, around the Library of Congress by <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/19/politics/us-capitol-suspected-explosives/index.html">claiming to have a bomb</a> earlier in the day.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="itX0B4">
“So far, no word on a possible motive,” said anchor Jackie Ibanez at the conclusion of a 15-second brief that amounted to <a href="https://twitter.com/LisPower1/status/1428549866339319809">the entirety</a> of Fox News’s Thursday night coverage of the incident.
</p>
<div id="hWrQbr">
<blockquote class="twitter- tweet">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
Incredible — Fox News just reported “no word on a possible motive” for DC bomb threat suspect Floyd Ray Roseberry, even though Roseberry posted video rants in which he echoed right-wing Trump and Fox News talking points <a href="https://t.co/warM2ulPCS">pic.twitter.com/warM2ulPCS</a>
</p>
— Aaron Rupar (<span class="citation" data-cites="atrupar">@atrupar</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1428557825404510211?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 20, 2021</a>
</blockquote></div></li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CTrHOk">
The brevity could conceivably be excused: No one was injured, and US Capitol Police <a href="https://www.uscp.gov/media-center/press-releases/uscp-arrests-bomb-threat-suspect-clears-vehicle">announced</a> Thursday evening they had cleared the suspect’s black pickup truck. And Fox News covered the incident as it was ongoing earlier in the day. But Ibanez’s claim about motive bears more scrutiny.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZlGH13">
It’s true that after the bomb threat suspect — later identified as 49-year-old Floyd Ray Roseberry, of Grover, North Carolina — surrendered to law enforcement, police <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/08/19/1029275390/bomb-threat-near-capitol-library-of-
congress">said</a> “we don’t know what his motives are at this time.” (Fox News didn’t immediately respond to an inquiry from Vox asking the network to explain Ibanez’s “no word on a possible motive” report.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dehPsw">
But Ibanez’s comment may have been intended to obscure an uncomfortable truth for America’s most-watched cable news network. In <a href="https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/dc/suspect-in-capitol-bomb-threat-echoed-big-lie-demanded-free-
health-insurance-floyd-ray-roseberry-grover-north-carolina-donald-
trump/65-588eb04d-b12e-4191-84b7-a5718f6cce90">videos</a> streamed to Facebook before and during the bomb threat while he sat in a truck,<strong> </strong>Roseberry made clear he’s immersed in right-wing conspiracy theories and grievances that receive heavy play on Fox.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rpcHlK">
“Once this dickhead Biden’s out of office and the Democrats sitting down there in the f**kin’ jailhouse, our president’s gonna be Donald Trump, and this is no limit on his pardons,” claimed Roseberry in a video posted early Tuesday morning, alluding to a lie propagated by former President Donald Trump on Fox News as recently as Wednesday about the 2020 election being stolen from him.
</p>
<div id="wgraIx">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
Remember when Fox News was trying to prevent Trump and company from lying about the 2020 election on its programming? Those days are loooooong gone. <a href="https://t.co/fXIAeSuyTc">pic.twitter.com/fXIAeSuyTc</a>
</p>
— Aaron Rupar (<span class="citation" data-cites="atrupar">@atrupar</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1428046099403710475?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 18, 2021</a>
</blockquote>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="y1ByKV">
“I just got chose for the job. Unlike you,” Roseberry added. “This ain’t about politics. I don’t care if Donald Trump ever becomes president again. I think y’all Democrats need to step down. Y’all need to understand people don’t want you there.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jqcQgO">
Talking Points Memo editor and publisher Josh Marshall <a href="https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/inspired-by-trump">reviewed</a> Roseberry’s videos and concluded that “his core grievance seemed to be focused on the illegitimacy of Joe Biden and his need to resign from office,” adding:
</p>
<blockquote>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="F7qtj4">
As the day grew nearer he would speak to Joe Biden, essentially saying that if anyone were killed in Washington it would be the President’s fault since he wouldn’t fire the first shot. The videos are strewn with what we might call the ideational detritus of Trumpism: Trump’s reinstatement as President, the imprisonment of Democratic leaders, refusals to mask, claims that Hunter Biden was wealthy enough that Biden could afford to retire peacefully, etc.
</p>
</blockquote>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3ya6zt">
Roseberry <a href="https://twitter.com/donmoyn/status/1428415640025669634">ranted</a> about alleged Facebook shadow-banning and complained about immigrants receiving government subsidies for health care — gripes regularly stoked by Fox during segments that frame social media companies’ effort to root out hate speech and disinformation <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/vaccine-protect-censorship-frederick-pinto">as censorship</a> and portray immigration as <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/tucker-carlson-s-great-replacement-fox-news-segment-uses-
newer-ncna1263880">an existential threat to white America</a>. He complained about the quality of American coinage, said “Southern boys are here,” and vowed, “You can take me out. But when you do, you know what’s going to happen, Joe Biden? There’s going to be a chain reaction. And that chain reaction’s going to be on your hands.” He ultimately surrendered to police.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LFdFxt">
Facebook eventually removed Roseberry’s profile, but not before his videos were widely watched and summarized in media reports. Yet if you’d watched Fox News Thursday night, you’d have no idea those videos existed.
</p>
<h3 id="OlIqwz">
The bomb threat isn’t just the story of an individual conspiracy theorist — it’s about US political culture, too
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VzmEXx">
It’s certainly possible to dismiss Roseberry as a disturbed individual, but notably, one of the Trumpiest members of Congress went out of his way on Thursday to do the opposite.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VVCnG2">
Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL), who’s perhaps best known for the speech he delivered before the January 6 Capitol insurrection urging Trump supporters to start “<a href="https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1347973909870739472">kicking ass</a>,” released a statement condemning the suspect’s tactics — even as he expressed sympathy with Roseberry’s views.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KvfxQj">
“Although this terrorist’s motivation is not yet publicly known, and generally speaking, I understand citizenry anger directed at dictatorial Socialism and its threat to liberty, freedom and the very fabric of American society. The way to stop Socialism’s march is for patriotic Americans to fight back in the 2022 and 2024 election,” Brooks wrote.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OfVdBk">
Brooks wasn’t alone among members of Congress in identifying Thursday’s bomb threat as a symptom of political culture. Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) decried the incident as a manifestation of the “violent cult” surrounding Trump that views “violence as an extension of politics.”
</p>
<div id="Ra1v9z">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
There’s a right wing domestic terrorist threatening to blow up the Capitol this very moment. We must confront the violent cult that created this. This isn’t about tax rates or abortion or the EPA - this is about whether we will tolerate violence as an extension of politics.
</p>
— Brian Schatz (<span class="citation" data-cites="brianschatz">@brianschatz</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/brianschatz/status/1428400799583916034?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 19, 2021</a>
</blockquote>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0DLCLS">
Meanwhile, another Democratic senator, Chris Murphy of Connecticut, <a href="https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1428479516893122564">tweeted</a> in response to Brooks’s statement that “I know it seems like hyperbole when we say that Republicans have become enemies of democracy, but here is a mainstream Republican taking the side of the bomber.”
</p>
<div id="ZIqovM">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
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I know it seems like hyperbole when we say that Republicans have become enemies of democracy, but here is a mainstream Republican<br/><br/>TAKING <br/>THE <br/>SIDE <br/>OF <br/>THE <br/>BOMBER. <a href="https://t.co/O0VGgbJANI">https://t.co/O0VGgbJANI</a>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">— Chris Murphy (<span class="citation" data-cites="ChrisMurphyCT">@ChrisMurphyCT</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1428479516893122564?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 19, 2021</a></p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WZpPNg">
But Brooks’s remarkable statement and the backlash to it have been totally ignored by Fox, which didn’t mention the bomb threat a single time on Friday morning after barely covering it Thursday evening, even as CNN and MSNBC covered the incident and its fallout extensively.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3HNJHd">
This isn’t the first time in recent years a violent right-wing extremist has been motivated by the same sort of incendiary rhetoric that the network traffics in.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="l61rYj">
In October 2018, social media posts from the lone suspect in a shooting that killed 11 people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh indicated he was motivated by conspiracy theories about migrant caravans to the southern border representing an “invasion” of the country, conspiracy theories that continued to receive play on the network <a href="https://archive.thinkprogress.org/fox-news-invasion-migrant-caravan-robert-bowers-4850831b6bd4/">even in the days immediately following the shooting</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Y9cNfm">
That same month, Fox News <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/10/cesar-sayoc-fox-news-trump-fanaticism.html">strained to avoid acknowledging</a> the right-wing fanaticism that inspired a man to send explosive devices to CNN and other perceived enemies of then-President Trump.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="J8i9gz">
Hammering people with lies about Democrats stealing elections and overseeing an immigrant invasion of the country can have deadly consequences. It’s notable but not surprising that Fox News is unwilling to reckon with those consequences — especially in comparison to the wall-to-wall coverage that would likely ensue if an adherent of antifa or Black Lives Matter shut down the Capitol area with a bomb threat.
</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>West Indies all the way - it’s no brainer for me: Darren Sammy on T20 World Cup</strong> - The men’s T20 World Cup will be held between October 17 and November 14 in Oman and the UAE</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>Defence Minister to felicitate armed forces personnel who participated in Tokyo Olympics at ASI</strong> - ASI has produced 34 Olympians, 22 Commonwealth Games medalists, 21 Asian Games medalists, six Youth Games medalists and 13 Arjuna Awardees</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>Tokyo Paralympics to open under shadow of pandemic</strong> - As at the Olympics, the event will be marked by strict virus rules, with almost all spectators banned and tough restrictions on athletes</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>Silverwood should have asked Root, “What hell is going on”: Vaughan on bouncer tactic</strong> - Michael Vaughan said the onus is on Silverwood to change the momentum of the series</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>‘I almost broke my hand,’ Medvedev collides with camera in shock loss</strong> - The compatriots were tied 1-1 in the second set when Medvedev crashed into an on-court camera and knocked it to the ground while chasing the ball at the baseline.</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>‘Chinese hurdle’: KSEB looks at other options</strong> - Installing power plant machinery at Pallivasal Extension Scheme</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>3 shot dead as Assam police foil bid to rob bank</strong> - Gang fired on police while fleeing bank in Kokrajhar district’s Chengmari area</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>From 1,095 days to 306: Govt data shows quicker disposal of commercial disputes</strong> - Time standards are respected in more than 50% of cases in dedicated commercial courts, the Department of Justice said</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>PDP leader Parra moves HC over similarity of charges levelled by NIA and J&amp;K Police, says violation of rights</strong> - In the petition, PDP leader Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra submitted that he was investigated for the same offences by the NIA as well as the Counter Intelligence (Kashmir) wing of J&amp;K Police separately</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>Haryana extends lockdown till Sep 6, earlier relaxations to continue</strong> - The relaxations include the opening of restaurants, bars, malls, clubhouses and shops</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>Greece erects fence at Turkey border amid warnings of Afghan migrant surge</strong> - A 40km (25-mile) barrier is placed at the land border amid warnings of a surge of Afghan migrants.</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>Spain migrants: Sole survivor rescued in dinghy in Atlantic</strong> - The woman, who was spotted clinging to an upturned boat, says at least 52 other people died.</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>Alexei Navalny: UK sanctions for seven Russians over poisoning</strong> - The staunch critic of President Vladimir Putin almost died in a nerve agent attack last year.</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>Belgium stabbing suspect won’t be charged over unborn baby’s death</strong> - A man in Belgium is charged with allegedly stabbing his partner, but not her unborn baby’s death.</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>Trabzonspor 1-2 Roma: Jose Mourinho reign starts with European win</strong> - Jose Mourinho’s spell as Roma boss starts with a win at Turkish side Trabzonspor in the Europa Conference League play- off.</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>Looking for a new job in tech? It may be your lucky day</strong> - Employers are turning on the charm to attract engineers and developers to their firms. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1788920">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Hydrogen lobbyist quits, slams oil companies’ “false claims” about blue hydrogen</strong> - Recent studies have questioned blue hydrogen’s low-carbon bona fides. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1788930">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>On Roblox, kids learn it’s hard to earn money making games</strong> - New report claims that the massive video game platform can exploit young developers. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1788915">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Now that machines can learn, can they unlearn?</strong> - Researchers see if they can remove sensitive data without retraining AI from scratch. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1788910">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Report: Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine may get full FDA approval Monday</strong> - Regulators are reportedly working to finish approval Friday, but timeline could slip. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1788948">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Statistics</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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Statistically:
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">5 people out of 6 are satisfied with the result of Russian roulette
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></p>
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</p><ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">0 out of 6 people complain about the result
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</li></ul></li></ul></div>
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submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Aelita_beauty"> /u/Aelita_beauty </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/p905s2/statistics/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/p905s2/statistics/">[comments]</a></span></li>
</ul>
<li><strong>simulation of monkey touching button</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
simulation complete
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Witty_Macaron_1"> /u/Witty_Macaron_1 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/p9a9rb/simulation_of_monkey_touching_button/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/p9a9rb/simulation_of_monkey_touching_button/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>What do you call a line at the gay bar?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
An LGBT queue.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/TheRosses"> /u/TheRosses </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/p938fa/what_do_you_call_a_line_at_the_gay_bar/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/p938fa/what_do_you_call_a_line_at_the_gay_bar/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>I used to date a girl who was a fan of “Lion king” like me.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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Whenever we made out, she used to say Sukona ma tatas.
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I always corrected her saying that it’s Hakuna matata.
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I just realized that I am an idiot.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/who_reads_username"> /u/who_reads_username </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/p93rtf/i_used_to_date_a_girl_who_was_a_fan_of_lion_king/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/p93rtf/i_used_to_date_a_girl_who_was_a_fan_of_lion_king/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>An engineer dies and goes to hell</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
An engineer dies and goes to Hell. He’s hot and miserable, so he decides to take action. The A/C has been busted for a long time, so he fixes it. Things cool down quickly. The moving walkway motor is jammed, so he unjams it. People can get from place to place more easily. The TV was grainy and unclear, so he fixes the connection to the satellite dish, and now they get hundreds of high def channels. One day, God decides to look down on Hell to see how his grand design is working out and notices that everyone is happy and enjoying umbrella drinks. He asks the Devil what’s up? The Devil says, “Things are great down here since you sent us an engineer.” “What?” says God. “An engineer? I didn’t send you one of those. That must have been a mistake. Send him upstairs immediately.” The Devil responds, “No way. We want to keep our engineer. We like him.” God demands, “If you don’t send him to me immediately, I’ll sue!” The Devil laughs. “Where are you going to get a lawyer?”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/LoneShark81"> /u/LoneShark81 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/p900g5/an_engineer_dies_and_goes_to_hell/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/p900g5/an_engineer_dies_and_goes_to_hell/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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