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<title>18 December, 2023</title>
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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>Structure of a SARS-CoV-2 spike S2 subunit in a pre-fusion, open conformation</strong> -
<div>
The 800 million human infections with SARS-CoV-2 and the likely emergence of new variants and additional coronaviruses necessitate a better understanding of the essential spike glycoprotein and the development of immunogens that foster broader and more durable immunity. The S2 fusion subunit is more conserved in sequence, is essential to function, and would be a desirable immunogen to boost broadly reactive antibodies. It is, however, unstable in structure and in its wild-type form, cannot be expressed alone without irreversible collapse into a six-helix bundle. In addition to the irreversible conformational changes of fusion, biophysical measurements indicate that spike also undergoes a reversible breathing action. However, spike in an open, -breathing- conformation has not yet been visualized at high resolution. Here we describe an S2-only antigen, engineered to remain in its relevant, pre-fusion viral surface conformation in the absence of S1. We also describe a panel of natural human antibodies specific for S2 from vaccinated and convalescent individuals. One of these mAbs, from a convalescent individual, afforded a high-resolution cryo-EM structure of the prefusion S2. The structure reveals a complex captured in an -open- conformation with greater stabilizing intermolecular interactions at the base and a repositioned fusion peptide. Together, this work provides an antigen for advancement of next-generation -booster- immunogens and illuminates the likely breathing adjustments of the coronavirus spike.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.14.571764v1" target="_blank">Structure of a SARS-CoV-2 spike S2 subunit in a pre-fusion, open conformation</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses in rats, Berlin, Germany, 2023</strong> -
<div>
We tested 130 rats trapped in Berlin for coronaviruses. Antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 were detected in a single animal only, but not in further 66 rats from the same location, speaking against virus circulation in the rat population. All animals tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 by RT-PCR. However, rodent-associated alphacoronaviruses were found.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.15.571826v1" target="_blank">SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses in rats, Berlin, Germany, 2023</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>“Life would have been harder, harder and more in chaos, if there wasn’t internet”: Digital Inclusion among Newly Arrived Refugees in Australia during the Covid-19 Pandemic</strong> -
<div>
Globally we are living through a continuing transition into the ‘information age’, where information and communication technology has transformed almost every aspect of people’s lives. The COVID-19 pandemic arguably accelerated this change. For refugees, as with other people, digital inclusion is arguably critical to social inclusion. This article seeks to better understand the digital inclusion of refugees during the COVID-19 pandemic, using data from two phases of research conducted in 2020 and 2021 with refugees who had recently resettled in Australia. Digital inclusion was mapped against three domains – access, affordability, and literacy – used in the annual Australian Digital Inclusion Index. Our research makes three contributions: it examines levels of digital inclusion among recently arrived refugees; it explores the relation of these levels to social links and bonds; and discusses differences within the sample according to gender, age, language group and type of digital inclusion.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/nqu8c/" target="_blank">“Life would have been harder, harder and more in chaos, if there wasn’t internet”: Digital Inclusion among Newly Arrived Refugees in Australia during the Covid-19 Pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>How Generative AI Portrays Science. Interviewing ChatGPT from the Perspective of Different Audience Segments</strong> -
<div>
Generative AI in general and ChatGPT in particular have risen in importance. ChatGPT is widely known and used increasingly as an information source for different topics, including science. It is therefore relevant how ChatGPT portrays science and science-related topics. Research on this question is lacking, however. Hence, we “interview” ChatGPT and reconstruct how it presents science, scientists, scientific misbehavior and controversial scientific fields. Combining qualitative and quantitative content analysis, we find that, generally, ChatGPT portrays science largely as the STEM disciplines, in a positivist-empiricist way and a positive light. We compare ChatGPT’s responses to different simulated user profiles and two versions of GPT and find similarities in that the scientific consensus on questions like climate change, COVID-19 vaccinations or astrology is consistently conveyed across them. Beyond these similarities in substance, however, pronounced differences are found in the personalization of responses to different user profiles and between GPT-3.5 and GPT-4.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/erf36/" target="_blank">How Generative AI Portrays Science. Interviewing ChatGPT from the Perspective of Different Audience Segments</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>A distinctive evolution of alveolar T cell responses is associated with clinical outcomes in unvaccinated patients with SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia</strong> -
<div>
Pathogen clearance and resolution of inflammation in patients with pneumonia require an effective local T cell response. Nevertheless, local T cell activation may drive lung injury, particularly during prolonged episodes of respiratory failure characteristic of severe SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia. While T cell responses in the peripheral blood are well described, the evolution of T cell phenotypes and molecular signatures in the distal lung of patients with severe pneumonia caused by SARS-CoV-2 or other pathogens is understudied. Accordingly, we serially obtained 432 bronchoalveolar lavage fluid samples from 273 patients with severe pneumonia and respiratory failure, including 74 unvaccinated patients with COVID-19, and performed flow cytometry, transcriptional, and T cell receptor profiling on sorted CD8+ and CD4+ T cell subsets. In patients with COVID-19 but not pneumonia secondary to other pathogens, we found that early and persistent enrichment in CD8+ and CD4+ T cell subsets correlated with survival to hospital discharge. Activation of interferon signaling pathways early after intubation for COVID-19 was associated with favorable outcomes, while activation of NF-{kappa}B-driven programs late in disease was associated with poor outcomes. Patients with SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia whose alveolar T cells preferentially targeted the Spike and Nucleocapsid proteins tended to experience more favorable outcomes than patients whose T cells predominantly targeted the ORF1ab polyprotein complex. These results suggest that in patients with severe SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia, alveolar T cell interferon responses targeting structural SARS-CoV-2 proteins characterize patients who recover, yet these responses progress to NF-{kappa}B activation against non-structural proteins in patients who go on to experience poor clinical outcomes.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.13.571479v1" target="_blank">A distinctive evolution of alveolar T cell responses is associated with clinical outcomes in unvaccinated patients with SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Scm6A: A fast and low-cost method for quantifying m6A modifications at the single-cell level</strong> -
<div>
It is widely accepted that m6A exhibits significant intercellular specificity, which poses challenges for its detection using existing m6A quantitative methods. In this study, we introduce Scm6A, a machine learning-based approach for single-cell m6A quantification. Scm6A leverages input features derived from the expression levels of m6A trans regulators and cis sequence features, and found that Scm6A offers remarkable prediction efficiency and reliability. To further validate the robustness and precision of Scm6A, we applied a winscore-based m6A calculation method to conduct m6A-seq analysis on CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells isolated through magnetic-activated cell sorting (MACS). Subsequently, we employed Scm6A for analysis on the same samples. Notably, the m6A levels calculated by Scm6A exhibited a significant positive correlation with m6A quantified through m6A-seq in different cells isolated by MACS, providing compelling evidence for Scm6A's reliability. Additionally, we performed single-cell level m6A analysis on lung cancer tissues as well as blood samples from COVID-19 patients, and demonstrated the landscape and regulatory mechanisms of m6A in different T-cell subtypes from these diseases. In summary, our work has yielded a novel, dependable, and accurate method for single-cell m6A detection. We are confident that Scm6A have broad applications in the realm of m6A-related research.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.14.571511v1" target="_blank">Scm6A: A fast and low-cost method for quantifying m6A modifications at the single-cell level</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Inactivation of the Niemann Pick C1 cholesterol transporter 1 (NPC1) restricts SARS-CoV-2 infection</strong> -
<div>
The Niemann Pick C1 (NPC1) protein is an intracellular cholesterol transporter located in the late endosome/lysosome (LE/Ly) and is involved in cholesterol mobilization. Loss-of-function mutations of the NPC1 gene lead to accumulation of cholesterol and sphingolipids in LE/Ly, resulting in severe fatal NPC1 disease. Cellular alterations associated with NPC1 inactivation affect both the integrity of lipid rafts and the endocytic pathway. Because the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and type 2 serine transmembrane protease (TMPRSS2) of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike (S) protein also localize to lipid rafts, we sought to investigate the hypothesis that NPC1 inactivation would generate an intrinsically unfavorable barrier to SARS-CoV-2 entry. In this study, we demonstrate that NPC1 pharmacological inactivation or CRISP/R-Cas mediated ablation of NPC1 dramatically reduced SARS-CoV-2 infectivity. More specifically, our findings demonstrate that pharmacological inactivation of NPC1 results in massive accumulation of ACE2 in the autophagosomal/lysosomal compartment. A &gt;40-fold decrease in virus titer indicates that this effectively prevents VSV-Spike-GFP infection by impeding virus binding and entry. A similarly marked decrease in viral infectivity is observed in cells that had NPC1 expression genetically abrogated. These observations were further confirmed in a de novo SARS-CoV-2 infection paradigm, where cells were infected with the naturally pathogenic SARS-CoV-2. Overall, this work offers strong evidence that NPC1 function is essential for successful SARS-CoV-2 infection, thus implicating NPC1 as a potential therapeutic target in COVID-19 management.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.13.571570v1" target="_blank">Inactivation of the Niemann Pick C1 cholesterol transporter 1 (NPC1) restricts SARS-CoV-2 infection</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Differential outcomes of infection by wild-type SARS-CoV-2 and the B.1.617.2 and B.1.1.529 variants of concern in K18-hACE2 transgenic mice</strong> -
<div>
Background: SARS-CoV-2 is a respiratory virus with neurological complications including loss of smell and taste, headache, and confusion that can persist for months or longer. Severe neuronal cell damage has also been reported in some cases. The objective of this study was to compare the infectivity of Wild-type virus, Delta and Omicron variants in transgenic mice that express the human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (hACE2) receptor under the control of the keratin 18 promoter (K18) and characterize the progression of infection and inflammatory response in the lung, brain medulla oblongata and olfactory bulbs of these animals. We hypothesized that Wild-type, Delta and Omicron differentially infect K18-hACE2 mice, thereby inducing distinct cellular responses. Methods: K18-hACE2 female mice were intranasally infected with Wild-type, Delta, or Omicron variants and euthanized either at 3 days post-infection (dpi) or at the humane endpoint. None of the animals infected with the Omicron variant reached the humane endpoint and were euthanized at day 8 dpi. Virological and immunological analyses were performed in the lungs, olfactory bulbs, medulla oblongata, and brains. Results: Mice infected with Wild-type and Delta display higher levels of viral RNA in the lungs than mice infected with Omicron at 3dpi. Viral RNA levels in the brains of mice infected with the Wild-type virus were however significantly lower than those observed in mice infected with either Delta or Omicron at 3dpi. Viral RNA was also detected in the medulla oblongata of mice infected by all these virus strains at 3dpi. At this time point, mice infected with the Delta virus display a marked upregulation of inflammatory makers both in the lungs and brains. Upregulation of inflammatory markers was also observed in the brains of mice infected with Omicron but not in mice infected with the Wild-type virus, suggesting that during the initial phase of the infection only the Delta and Omicron variants induce strong inflammatory response in the brain. At the humane endpoint/8dpi, mice infected by any of these strains display elevated levels of viral RNA and upregulation of a subset of inflammatory markers in the lungs. There was also a significant increase in viral RNA in the brains of mice infected with Wild-type and Delta, as compared to 3dpi. This was accompanied by an increase in the expression of most cytokines and chemokines. In contrast, mice infected with the Omicron variant showed low levels of viral RNA and downregulation of cytokines and chemokines expression at 8dpi, suggesting that brain inflammation by this variant is attenuated. Reduced RNA levels and downregulation of inflammatory markers was also observed in the medulla oblongata and olfactory bulbs of mice infected with Omicron, while infection by Wild-type and Delta resulted in high levels of viral RNA and increased expression of inflammatory makers in these organs.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.08.556906v2" target="_blank">Differential outcomes of infection by wild-type SARS-CoV-2 and the B.1.617.2 and B.1.1.529 variants of concern in K18-hACE2 transgenic mice</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Differences in Vaccine and SARS-CoV-2 Replication Derived mRNA: Implications for Cell Biology and Future Disease</strong> -
<div>
Codon optimization describes the process used to increase protein production by use of alternative but synonymous codon changes. In SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines codon optimizations can result in differential secondary conformations that inevitably affect a protein’s function with significant consequences to the cell. Importantly, when codon optimization increases the GC content of synthetic mRNAs, there can be an inevitable enrichment of G-quartets which potentially form G-quadruplex structures. The emerging G-quadruplexes are favorable binding sites of RNA binding proteins like helicases that inevitably affect epigenetic reprogramming of the cell by altering transcription, translation and replication. In this study, we performed a RNAfold analysis to investigate alterations in secondary structures of mRNAs in SARS-CoV-2 vaccines due to codon optimization. We show a significant increase in the GC content of mRNAs in vaccines as compared to native SARS-CoV-2 RNA sequences encoding the spike protein. As the GC enrichment leads to more G-quadruplex structure formations, these may contribute to potential pathological processes initiated by SARS-CoV-2 molecular vaccination.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/bcsa6/" target="_blank">Differences in Vaccine and SARS-CoV-2 Replication Derived mRNA: Implications for Cell Biology and Future Disease</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Examining perceptions of stress, wellbeing and fear among Hungarian adolescents and their parents under lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic</strong> -
<div>
Intensified anxiety responses and even symptoms of post-traumatic stress are commonly observed under quarantine conditions. In this study, the effects on fear, anxiety and wellbeing of the recent pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 were investigated in a sample of otherwise healthy Hungarians. Taking the family as a microsystem, differences in gender, age, family relationships and time spent in isolation were the main focus of this investigation. 346 parent-child dyads were examined; the children were 11-17 years of age. Standard psychological questionnaires (Perceived Stress Scale, WHO Wellbeing Index), and an open question test (the Metamorphosis test) were used, and the results analysed with the aid of basic statistical methods. Stress levels and wellbeing displayed a significant negative correlation with each other in both parents and children. Parental stress and levels of wellbeing had a weak but significant impact on the wellbeing of their children. Among the demographic variables examined, none of them was found to explain the wellbeing or stress level of parents. Natural catastrophes, such as pandemics, create a stressful social environment for parents, and therefore directly impact the psychological wellbeing of all family members.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/feth3/" target="_blank">Examining perceptions of stress, wellbeing and fear among Hungarian adolescents and their parents under lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Acceptability and feasibility of a theatre-based wellness programme to support people living with Long COVID: a single arm feasibility study.</strong> -
<div>
Objectives: To determine acceptability and feasibility of a theatre-based wellness programme to support the health and wellbeing of people with long COVID. Design: Single group, repeated measures feasibility study. Setting: Community centre and online. Participants: Adults with a diagnosis of long COVID experiencing breathlessness, mild to moderate pain, and/or loneliness. Intervention: A six-week participatory creative intervention delivered to two groups of participants, one online and one in-person. The groups were facilitated by movement, voice and drama consultants and designed to improve wellbeing, fatigue, pain, strength and balance through a series of breathing exercises, visualisation, group singing and sound imagery, storytelling, movement exercises and poetry. Primary outcome measures: Acceptability of the intervention and feasibility of recruitment procedures and data collection. Secondary outcome measures: Changes in mental health, wellbeing, quality of life, loneliness, social support, fatigue, breathlessness, and post-COVID-19 functional status. Results: 20 participants took part in the intervention, 19 completed baseline assessments and 16 completed study follow-up. Most participants found the programme acceptable and feasible and improvements were identified in all outcomes at 8-week follow-up, including decreases in generalised anxiety and depressive symptoms, loneliness, shortness of breath, respiratory dysfunction, chronic fatigue and increased mental wellbeing, social support, and self-rated health. Key programme features and mechanisms of action that led to improvements in health and wellbeing were identified in qualitative interviews. Barriers to engagement included: activities being outside of the participant’s comfort zone, ongoing and fluctuating long COVID symptoms, emotional consequences of sharing experiences with the group and connectivity and connecting with others online. Conclusions: A six-week theatre-based programme was perceived as acceptable to most participants and resulted in positive psychosocial impacts. The findings provide a rationale for supporting the ongoing development of this and related programmes and for scaling up research into arts programmes to support people living with long COVID.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/k25qj/" target="_blank">Acceptability and feasibility of a theatre-based wellness programme to support people living with Long COVID: a single arm feasibility study.</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Artificial Intelligence and Robotics for Reducing Waste in the Food Supply Chain: Systematic Literature Review, Theoretical Framework, and Research Agenda</strong> -
<div>
The COVID-19 pandemic has unraveled the inefficiencies in the global food supply chain. One glaring distortion is the wastage of close to a third of global food production, in the face of widespread food insecurity. With population explosion and climate change as additional pressure points, reducing food waste has emerged as an urgent imperative for achieving food security for all. In this paper, we develop a research framework and agenda for the use of Artificial Intelligence and robotics in reducing food loss and waste. The Cognitive Automation for Food (COGAF) has been developed as a theoretical framework for guiding future research. This framework delineates the research landscape into five distinct research streams: sensory enhancement, cognitive automation, physical automation, sensory-motor fusion, and collaborative automation. In order to develop a systematic research agenda, propositions have been developed in each of these research streams. In conjunction with the COGAF framework, this research agenda attempts to provide a road map for future research and knowledge creation pertaining to the use of AI and robotics to reduce food loss and waste.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/h3jgb/" target="_blank">Artificial Intelligence and Robotics for Reducing Waste in the Food Supply Chain: Systematic Literature Review, Theoretical Framework, and Research Agenda</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Ursodeoxycholic acid and severe COVID-19 outcomes in people with liver disease: a cohort study using the OpenSAFELY platform</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Biological evidence suggests ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) - a common treatment of cholestatic liver disease - may prevent severe COVID-19 outcomes. With the approval of NHS England, we conducted a population-based cohort study using primary care records, linked to death registration data and hospital records through the OpenSAFELY-TPP platform. We estimated the hazard of COVID-19 hospitalisation or death between 1 March 2020 and 31 December 2022, comparing UDCA treatment to no UDCA treatment in a population with indication. Of 11,320 eligible individuals, 642 were hospitalised or died with COVID-19 during follow-up, 402 (63%) events among UDCA users. After confounder adjustment, UDCA was associated with a 21% (95% CI 7%-33%) relative reduction in the hazard of COVID-19 hospitalisation or death, consistent with an absolute risk reduction of 1.3% (95% CI 1.0%-1.6%). Our findings support calls for clinical trials investigating UDCA as a preventative measure for severe COVID-19 outcomes.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.11.23299191v1" target="_blank">Ursodeoxycholic acid and severe COVID-19 outcomes in people with liver disease: a cohort study using the OpenSAFELY platform</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>A software tool for at-home measurement of sensorimotor adaptation</strong> -
<div>
Sensorimotor adaptation is traditionally studied in well-controlled laboratory settings with specialized equipment. However, recent public health concerns such as the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as a desire to recruit a more diverse study population, have led the motor control community to consider at-home study designs. At-home motor control experiments are still rare because of the requirement to write software that can be easily used by anyone on any platform. To this end, we developed software that runs locally on a personal computer. The software provides audiovisual instructions and measures the ability of the subject to control the cursor in the context of visuomotor perturbations. We tested the software on a group of at-home participants and asked whether the adaptation principles inferred from in-lab measurements were reproducible in the at-home setting. For example, we manipulated the perturbations to test whether there were changes in adaptation rates (savings and interference), whether adaptation was associated with multiple timescales of memory (spontaneous recovery), and whether we could selectively suppress subconscious learning (delayed feedback, perturbation variability) or explicit strategies (limited reaction time). We found remarkable similarity between in-lab and at-home behaviors across these experimental conditions. Thus, we developed a software tool that can be used by research teams with little or no programming experience to study mechanisms of adaptation in an at-home setting.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.12.571359v1" target="_blank">A software tool for at-home measurement of sensorimotor adaptation</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Identification of an allele-specific transcription factor binding interaction that regulates PLA2G2A gene expression</strong> -
<div>
The secreted phospholipase A2 (sPLA2) isoform, sPLA2-IIA, has been implicated in a variety of diseases and conditions, including bacteremia, cardiovascular disease, COVID-19, sepsis, adult respiratory distress syndrome, and certain cancers. Given its significant role in these conditions, understanding the regulatory mechanisms impacting its levels is crucial. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified several single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), including rs11573156, that are associated with circulating levels of sPLA2-IIA. Through Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx), 234 expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) were identified for the gene that encodes for sPLA2-IIA, PLA2G2A. SNP2TFBS (https://ccg.epfl.ch/snp2tfbs/) was utilized to ascertain the binding affinities between transcription factors (TFs) to both the reference and alternative alleles of identified SNPs. Subsequently, ChIP-seq peaks highlighted the TF combinations that specifically bind to the SNP, rs11573156. SP1 emerged as a significant TF/SNP pair in liver cells, with rs11573156/SP1 interaction being most prominent in liver, prostate, ovary, and adipose tissues. Further analysis revealed that the upregulation of PLA2G2A transcript levels through the rs11573156 variant was affected by tissue SP1 protein levels. By leveraging an ordinary differential equation, structured upon Michaelis-Menten enzyme kinetics assumptions, we modeled the PLA2G2A transcription's dependence on SP1 protein levels, incorporating the SNP's influence. Collectively, these data strongly suggest that the binding affinity differences of SP1 for the different rs11573156 alleles can influence PLA2G2A expression. This, in turn, can modulate sPLA2-IIA levels, impacting a wide range of human diseases.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.12.571290v1" target="_blank">Identification of an allele-specific transcription factor binding interaction that regulates PLA2G2A gene expression</a>
</div></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Restoring Energy With Sub-symptom Threshold Optimized Rehabilitation Exercise for Long COVID</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Long Covid19; Exercise Intolerance, Riboflavin-Responsive <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Restoring Energy with Sub-symptom Threshold Aerobic Rehabilitation Exercise; Behavioral: Light Stretching/Breathing Exercises <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Columbia University; New York 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>A Pilot Study of Liraglutide (A Weight Loss Drug) in High Risk Obese Participants With Cognitive and Memory Issues</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Multiple Sclerosis; Long COVID; Long Covid19; Obese; Obesity; Obesity, Morbid; Acute Leukemia in Remission <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: Liraglutide Pen Injector [Saxenda]; Other: Medication Diary <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: University of Chicago <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>EXERCISE TRAINING USING AN APP ON PHYSICAL CARDIOVASCULAR FUNCTION INDIVIDUALS WITH POST-COVID-19 SYNDROME</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Exercise; Behavioral: Control <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: University of Nove de Julho <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 Phase 1 Trial of Recombinant COVID-19 Trivalent Protein Vaccine （CHO Cell）LYB002V14 in Booster Vaccination</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19 Vaccine <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: 30μg dose of LYB002V14; Biological: 60μg dose of LYB002V14; Biological: placebo <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Guangzhou Patronus Biotech Co., Ltd.; Yantai Patronus Biotech Co., Ltd. <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness Against Recurrent Infection Among Lung Cancer Patients and Biomarker Research</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 Recurrent; Lung Cancer; Vaccination; Antibody; Chemotherapy; Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: Any Chinese government-recommended COVID-19 booster vaccine <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Peking Union Medical College Hospital <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>IMMUNERECOV CONTRIBUTES TO IMPROVEMENT OF RESPIRATORY AND IMMUNOLOGICAL RESPONSE IN POST-COVID-19 PATIENTS.</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Long Covid19; Dietary Supplements; Respiratory Tract Infections; Inflammation <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Dietary Supplement: Nutritional blend (ImmuneRecov). <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Federal University of São Paulo <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>Physical Activity Coaching in Patients With Post-COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Post-COVID-19 Syndrome <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Self-monitoring; Behavioral: Goal setting and review; Behavioral: Education; Behavioral: Feedback; Behavioral: Contact; Behavioral: Exercise; Behavioral: Report; Behavioral: Social support; Behavioral: Group activities; Behavioral: World Health Organization recommendations for being physically active <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: University of Alcala; Professional College of Physiotherapists of the Community of Madrid <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>Study on Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome in Improvement of COVID-19 Rehabilitated Patients by Respiratory Training</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19, Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome, Dyspnea, Incentive Spirometer <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Device: breathing training <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Tri-Service General Hospital <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>Ensitrelvir for Viral Persistence and Inflammation in People Experiencing Long COVID</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Long COVID; Post Acute Sequelae of COVID-19; Post-Acute COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: Ensitrelvir; Other: Placebo <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Timothy Henrich; Shionogi Inc. <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Low-intensity Aerobic Training Associated With Global Muscle Strengthening in Post-COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Procedure: muscle strengthening <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Centro Universitário Augusto Motta <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>Intravenous Immunoglobulin Replacement Therapy for Persistent COVID-19 in Patients With B-cell Impairment</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: Immunoglobulins <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Jaehoon Ko <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>Effect of Inhaled Hydroxy Gas on Long COVID Symptoms</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Device: Hydroxy gas <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Oxford Brookes 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>Community Care Intervention to Decrease COVID-19 Vaccination Inequities</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 Vaccination <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Community Health Worker Intervention to Enhance Vaccination Behavior (CHW-VB) <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: RAND; Clinical Directors Network; National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) <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>PROmotion of COVID-19 BOOSTer VA(X)Ccination in the Emergency Department - PROBOOSTVAXED</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Vaccine Messaging; Behavioral: Vaccine Acceptance Question <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: University of California, San Francisco; National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID); Pfizer; Duke University; Baylor College of Medicine; Thomas Jefferson 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>Pursuing Reduction in Fatigue After COVID-19 Via Exercise and Rehabilitation (PREFACER): A Randomized Feasibility Trial</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Long-COVID; Long Covid19; Post-COVID-19 Syndrome; Post-COVID Syndrome; Fatigue <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Other: COVIDEx <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Lawson Health Research Institute; Western University <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-pubmed">From PubMed</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Decoy peptides effectively inhibit the binding of SARS-CoV-2 to ACE2 on oral epithelial cells</strong> - The entry of SARS-CoV-2 into host cells involves the interaction between the viral spike protein and the human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor. Given that the spike protein evolves rapidly to evade host immunity, therapeutics that block ACE2 accessibility, such as spike decoys, could serve as an alternative strategy for attenuating viral infection. Here, we constructed a drug screening platform based on oral epithelial cells to rapidly identify peptides or compounds capable of…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Efficacy and safety of zapnometinib in hospitalised adult patients with COVID-19 (RESPIRE): a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicentre, proof-of-concept, phase 2 trial</strong> - BACKGROUND: Zapnometinib is an oral, non-ATP-competitive, small-molecule inhibitor of MEK1/MEK2 with immunomodulatory and antiviral properties. We aimed to investigate the safety and efficacy of zapnometinib in patients with COVID-19.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of betulinic acid derivatives as potential inhibitors of 3CL-protease of SARS-CoV-2</strong> - During the coronavirus reproduction process, 3-chymotrypsin-like protease (3CLpro) and papain-like protease (PLpro) are accountable for the fragmentation of two polyprotein precursors (pp1a/pp1ab) into substructural proteins. These two proteins are vital for the replication and transcription of the viral genome. Therefore, 3CLpro is a key protein and target for the design of coronavirus inhibitors. In previous studies, we found that betulinic acid has an inhibitory effect on 3CLpro, with 51.5 %…</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>Chlorogenic acid inhibits porcine deltacoronavirus release by targeting apoptosis</strong> - Porcine deltacoronavirus (PDCoV), belonging to family Coronaviridae, genus Deltacoronavirus, can cause acute diarrhea in piglets, and also possesses cross-species transmission potential, leading to severe economic losses and threatening public health. However, no approved drug against PDCoV infection is available. Here, we investigated the antiviral effect of chlorogenic acid (CGA), the main active component of Lonicerae Japonicae Flos, against PDCoV infection. The results showed that CGA…</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>Protective Efficacy of Novel Engineered Human ACE2-Fc Fusion Protein Against Pan-SARS-CoV-2 Infection In Vitro and in Vivo</strong> - Enduring occurrence of severe COVID-19 for unvaccinated, aged, or immunocompromised individuals remains an urgent need. Soluble human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) has been used as a decoy receptor to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 infection, which is limited by moderate affinity. We describe an engineered, high-affinity ACE2 that is consistently effective in tissue cultures in neutralizing all strains tested, including Delta and Omicron. We also found that treatment of AC70 hACE2 transgenic mice…</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>C<sub>60</sub> -based Multivalent Glycoporphyrins Inhibit SARS-CoV-2 Specific Interaction with the DC-SIGN Transmembrane Receptor</strong> - Since WHO has declared the COVID-19 outbreak a global pandemic, nearly seven million deaths have been reported. This efficient spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is facilitated by the ability of the spike glycoprotein to bind multiple cell membrane receptors. Although ACE2 is identified as the main receptor for SARS-CoV-2, other receptors could play a role in viral entry. Among others, C-type lectins such as DC-SIGN are identified as efficient trans-receptor…</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>DYRK1A is a multifunctional host factor that regulates coronavirus replication in a kinase-independent manner</strong> - Coronaviruses, like other positive-sense RNA viruses, can remodel the host membrane to form double-membrane vesicles (DMVs) as their replication organelles. Currently, host factors involved in DMV formation are not well defined. In this study, we used transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV) as a virus model to investigate the regulatory mechanism of dual-specificity tyrosine phosphorylation-regulated kinase 1A (DYRK1A) on coronavirus. Results showed that DYRK1A significantly inhibited TGEV…</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 study, and dosing regimen selection for a pivotal COVID-19 trial of GST-HG171</strong> - This study is aimed to evaluate the safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics (PK), as well as to select an appropriate dosing regimen for the pivotal clinical trial of GST-HG171, an orally bioavailable, potent, and selective 3CL protease inhibitor by a randomized, double-blind, and placebo-controlled phase I trial in healthy subjects. We conducted a Ph1 study involving 78 healthy subjects to assess the safety, tolerability, and PK of single ascending doses (150-900 mg) as well as multiple…</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>Promises and Pitfalls of Calcineurin Inhibitors in COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Controlled Trials</strong> - CONCLUSION: CIs are able to inhibit the virus nucleocapsid protein so that they can prevent replication and respiratory tract tissue damage caused by SARS-CoV-2. Based on the characteristics mentioned in detail, CIs can play a potential therapeutic role for COVID-19 patients.</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 role of Niemann-pick C1 (NPC1) in viral infections and inhibition of viral infections through NPC1 inhibitor</strong> - Viruses communicate with their hosts through interactions with proteins, lipids, and carbohydrate moieties on the plasma membrane (PM), often resulting in viral absorption via receptor-mediated endocytosis. Many viruses cannot multiply unless the host’s cholesterol level remains steady. The large endo/lysosomal membrane protein (MP) Niemann-Pick C1 (NPC1), which is involved in cellular cholesterol transport, is a crucial intracellular receptor for viral infection. NPC1 is a ubiquitous…</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>Acarbose reduces Pseudomonas aeruginosa respiratory tract infection in type 2 diabetic mice</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: This study confirmed the attenuating effect of acarbose on P. aeruginosa RTIs in T2DM and nondiabetic mice and investigated its mechanism, providing novel support for its clinical application in related diseases.</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 exonuclease-resistant chain-terminating nucleotide analogue targeting the SARS-CoV-2 replicase complex</strong> - Nucleotide analogues (NA) are currently employed for treatment of several viral diseases, including COVID-19. NA prodrugs are intracellularly activated to the 5’-triphosphate form. They are incorporated into the viral RNA by the viral polymerase (SARS-CoV-2 nsp12), terminating or corrupting RNA synthesis. For Coronaviruses, natural resistance to NAs is provided by a viral 3’-to-5’ exonuclease heterodimer nsp14/nsp10, which can remove terminal analogues. Here, we show that the replacement of the…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Clinical phenotype and outcome of persistent SARS-CoV-2 replication in immunocompromised hosts: a retrospective observational study in the Omicron era</strong> - CONCLUSION: Ongoing SARS-CoV-2 replication in the lower respiratory tract is a relevant differential diagnosis in patients with severe immunosuppression and continuous cough, fever or dyspnoea even if nasopharyngeal swabs test negative for SARS-CoV-2. Especially in B cell-depleted patients, this may lead to inflammatory or fibrotic-like pulmonary changes, which are partially reversible after inhibition of viral replication. Antiviral therapy seems to be most effective in combination and over a…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Inhibitory effect of napabucasin on arbidol metabolism and its mechanism research</strong> - As a broad-spectrum antiviral, and especially as a popular drug for treating coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) today, arbidol often involves drug-drug interactions (DDI) when treating critical patients. This study established a rapid and effective ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method to detect arbidol and its metabolite arbidol sulfoxide (M6-1) levels in vivo and in vitro. In this study, a 200 μL incubation system was used to study the inhibitory…</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>Tumor Treating Fields (TTFields) demonstrate antiviral functions <em>in vitro</em>, and safety for application to COVID-19 patients in a pilot clinical study</strong> - Coronaviruses are the causative agents of several recent outbreaks, including the COVID-19 pandemic. One therapeutic approach is blocking viral binding to the host receptor. As binding largely depends on electrostatic interactions, we hypothesized possible inhibition of viral infection through application of electric fields, and tested the effectiveness of Tumor Treating Fields (TTFields), a clinically approved cancer treatment based on delivery of electric fields. In preclinical models,…</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Chancellor of Berkeley Weighs In</strong> - Carol Christ reflects on campus protests, then and now. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-new-yorker-interview/the-chancellor-of-berkeley-weighs-in">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Watching Rudy Giuliani Self-Destruct at a Defamation Trial in Washington</strong> - A jury decided that Giuliani owes two election workers whom he defamed nearly a hundred and fifty million dollars. Even his lawyer suggested he “hasn’t been so great lately.” - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-political-scene/watching-rudy-giuliani-self-destruct-at-a-defamation-trial-in-washington">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Federal Reserve Is Trying to Catch Up with Falling Inflation</strong> - With price increases having greatly moderated, Jay Powell and his colleagues are trying to stick a “soft landing” for the economy. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-federal-reserve-is-trying-to-catch-up-with-falling-inflation">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Harrowing Detention in Gaza</strong> - A Palestinian writer is mistaken for a Hamas activist by Israeli forces while he tries to flee Gaza with his family. Plus, a story of Christmas at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-new-yorker-radio-hour/a-harrowing-detention-in-gaza">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The U.N. Human-Rights Chief and the Fugitive Princess of Dubai</strong> - Michelle Bachelet’s private meeting with Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed Al Maktoum was viewed as proof that a long-imprisoned royal was finally free. In her first interview about the encounter, Bachelet reveals her doubts. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-un-human-rights-chief-and-the-fugitive-princess-of-dubai">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>The ridiculously stupid reason the US is letting animals spiral toward oblivion</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Illustrated animals disappearing around a “No hunting” sign" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/AYGsvXRjbH23Pmpv7JxftrGevAU=/240x0:1680x1080/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72974133/image4.0.jpeg"/>
<figcaption>
Eleanor Taylor for Vox
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Good God, give this US agency a few more dollars to stop a mass extinction.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bHCVop">
Exactly five decades ago, <a href="https://www.vox.com/congress">Congress</a> did what would be unimaginable today: It passed a powerful environmental law with almost unanimous support. In 1973, the House voted in favor of the Endangered Species Act, <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/History_of_the_Endangered_Species_Act">390 to 12</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eVQiO8">
“Nothing is more priceless and more worthy of preservation than the rich array of animal life with which our country has been blessed,” Republican President Richard Nixon <a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/statement-signing-the-endangered-species-act-1973">said</a> upon signing the act into law.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rwh2Vf">
Among the most comprehensive environmental laws worldwide, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) was set up to protect the nation’s many plants and animals that are at risk of extinction. It makes it a federal crime to harm species that it deems endangered, with some exceptions. The act also requires that government agencies, such as the Army or the Federal Aviation Administration, try to avoid jeopardizing endangered species or the habitat they need to survive.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XEBaQM">
Over the last five decades, the law has undoubtedly helped save dozens of creatures from extinction, from American alligators to black-footed ferrets. Each is a success. Yet as the ESA heads into its next era — a period that will bring profound environmental change — its ability to stem the extinction crisis warrants a closer look.
</p>
<h3 id="plG9fZ">
The Endangered Species Act, briefly explained
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="w2ce8f">
At the core of the ESA is a list. On it are plants and animals that the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) — agencies that oversee the act on land and at sea, respectively — determine are at risk of extinction, or will be soon. Species in the former category are classified as “endangered,” and those in the latter are classified as “threatened.” Typically, the government makes those determinations after environmental groups present it with overwhelming evidence, in the form of a petition, that a certain species is in peril.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pHN6lH">
As of late 2023, there are roughly 1,670 species on this list, according to a Vox analysis of data from the FWS and NMFS.<strong> </strong>Three-quarters of them are classified as endangered, while the rest are threatened. A little more than half of these threatened and endangered species are plants. (The endangered species list, and the numbers that appear in the graphic below, includes not only species but <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subspecies">subspecies</a> and certain populations within a species that the government determines are important on their own and at risk.)
</p>
<div class="c-wide-block">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="An Ozark hellbender salamander, Achitanella fulgens snail, and northern spotted owl with the text “~1,670 federally endangered and threatened species.”" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/q_yR-q7-CwrY1JHcDauPho830P0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25166103/EleanorTaylor_Vox_1.jpeg"/> <cite>Eleanor Taylor for Vox</cite>
<figcaption>
Data: US Fish and Wildlife Service/National Marine Fisheries Service.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XLz7IF">
Simply put, species that are on this list are protected. From here, things get a bit more complicated.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="x1fxg7">
The Endangered Species Act makes it illegal to kill, harm, or capture endangered animals. The law refers to these actions collectively as “take.” You can’t, say, bring an endangered Florida panther home as a pet, or hunt one down. Plants and species classified as threatened are treated somewhat differently under the law,<strong> </strong>but in many cases the same rule applies, according to Daniel Rohlf, a law professor at Lewis and Clark Law School. On nonfederal lands, for example, it’s not illegal to harm endangered plants as long as it’s not in violation of any state laws.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sTFjkQ">
Under the ESA, all government agencies are supposed to make sure that their activities minimize harm to endangered species and the habitat they need. That includes granting federal permits to private landowners and corporations for something like road construction. If those actions are likely to kill wildlife, the government agency in question essentially has to get sign-off from the FWS or NMFS before moving forward. That sign-off is typically contingent on the agency trying to minimize “take” of the listed species or offering a less harmful alternative (such as a different route for the road).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mNv7AN">
While private companies and citizens typically can’t harm endangered species either, there is an important exception. Companies can essentially get a permit to legally kill listed species if they submit to the government a plan to minimize harm and offset some of the impacts on those animals, such as by funding wildlife conservation. (In Hawaii, <a href="https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth/2023/12/14/23990382/extinction-capital-hawaii-endangered-species-act">for example</a>, some companies that inadvertently kill endangered seabirds with infrastructure like power lines and bright hotel lights have helped fund avian conservation.)
</p>
<aside id="El1gem">
<div>
</div>
</aside>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QxmtAQ">
The act does a number of other things for endangered species, such as requiring that the government craft a plan to restore these species’ populations. (If you want to learn more, the Congressional Research Service has a <a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R46677">great primer</a>.)
</p>
<h3 id="zN9D3W">
The ESA helps avert extinction — that’s the good news
</h3>
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Among environmental advocates, the Endangered Species Act is widely considered the nation’s strongest conservation law. “It’s really one of the most successful land conservation efforts in US history,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental advocacy group.
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One of the most compelling lines of evidence that it works is that most species listed as endangered or threatened have not gone extinct. They’re still on Earth.
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<img alt="A Bachman’s warbler, green blossom pearlymussel, little Mariana fruit bat, and poʻouli bird with the text “~32 species listed by the Endangered Species Act that have gone extinct.”" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/gxGab1yuRlOxWl9K0YrHE9ol9cE=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25166092/image1__3_.jpeg"/> <cite>Eleanor Taylor for Vox</cite>
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Data: US Fish and Wildlife Service.
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Since 1973, only around 32 listed species — less than 2 percent — have gone extinct. The list of the lost includes birds like the Bachman’s warbler, mammals like the little Mariana fruit bat, and several species of freshwater mussels (one of the most <a href="https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth/2022/10/27/23424362/freshwater-mussels-fish-lure-extinction">imperiled groups of organisms nationwide</a>).
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Black-footed ferrets are among the species arguably saved from extinction by the ESA. In 1980, these cute, carnivorous mammals had vanished from the Great Plains and were presumed extinct. But one morning the following year, a ranch dog in the small town of Meeteetse, Wyoming, brought its owners a dead animal that looked like a mink, with some noticeable exceptions: It had black feet and a black mask. The owners brought the carcass to a local taxidermist, who recognized it as an endangered species.
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The dog’s discovery helped lead researchers to an unknown population of black-footed ferrets. And animals from that population formed the basis of a successful captive breeding effort — which was bankrolled, in part, by the ESA. The breeding program has since introduced <a href="https://www.blackfootedferret.org/reintroduction-efforts.html">thousands</a> of ferrets back to the wild across eight states, Canada, and Mexico.
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In the last five decades, the government has removed more than 60 species from the endangered species list because, according to its assessment, they’ve recovered. (What it means for a species to have “recovered” is hotly debated and doesn’t always mean that the species is found throughout its historic range.) Among them: the American alligator, the peregrine falcon, three subspecies of Channel Island foxes, and a plant called the golden paintbrush. Each has its own success story.
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<img alt="An American alligator, Steller sea lion, and golden paintbrush with the text “~63 species listed by the Endangered Species Act that recovered”" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ORkqlTZfSGVR8tXZqwJaYPUdmNc=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25166104/EleanorTaylor_Vox_2.jpeg"/> <cite>Eleanor Taylor for Vox</cite>
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Data: US Fish and Wildlife Service.
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Critics of the ESA, <a href="https://www.epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2018/7/barrasso-we-must-do-more-than-leave-species-on-life-support-we-need-to-see-them-recovered">including Republican lawmakers</a>, see that number of “delisted” species — which is obviously not enormous — as an indication that the law doesn’t work.<strong> </strong>If the ESA were successful, they say, the government would have delisted more species by now. They’ve used what some lawmakers have called a “<a href="https://stauber.house.gov/media/press-releases/stauber-reintroduces-legislation-modernize-endangered-species-act">disappointing track record</a>” to justify reforms that seek to weaken the act’s regulatory power.<strong> </strong>(Studies that examine whether or not species are recovering under the act show mixed results; <a href="https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/55/4/360/270568">some</a> indicate that tools under the ESA are linked to population recovery, whereas <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0035730">others</a> suggest those links are weak or undetectable.)
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Environmental advocates like Greenwald see it differently. Recovery is a tall order, they say, especially for species that were on the brink of extinction when they were first listed, which is often the case. The number of species taken off the list is “a poor measure of the success of the ESA,” Greenwald and his colleagues at the Center for Biological Diversity <a href="https://peerj.com/articles/6803/">wrote in a 2019 study</a>. “Most species have not been protected for sufficient time such that they would be expected to have recovered.”
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The law could do so much more
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But even staunch defenders of the ESA say it could be doing much more. For one, the act protects only a fraction of the species that are slipping away. In the US, more than 5,300 plant and animal species are at a “high risk” of extinction, according to <a href="https://www.natureserve.org/bif">NatureServe</a>, a nonprofit data organization. These include species like the Bethany Beach firefly, a lightning bug native to coastal Delaware that scientists say is imperiled yet remains unprotected under the ESA. (Again, the act protects only about 1,670 species.)
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“There are hundreds and hundreds of species that need consideration for protection that the Fish and Wildlife Service isn’t doing anything about,” Greenwald said.
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<img alt="A rodent, fish, and firefly with the text “~5,360 species in the US at high risk of extinction”" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/B-SO79WKhkgQYD9f-grT6raifxs=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25166109/EleanorTaylor_Vox_4.jpeg"/> <cite>Eleanor Taylor for Vox</cite>
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Data: <a class="ql-link" href="https://www.natureserve.org/bif" target="_blank">NatureServe</a>.
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Part of the problem, environmental groups say, is that the FWS is failing to work through a backlog of species that are in desperate need of protection. “Under the ESA, decisions about protection for species are supposed to take two years, but on average, it has taken the Fish and Wildlife Service 12 years,” <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006320716302695">wrote</a> researchers, including Greenwald, in a 2016 study. “Such lengthy wait times are certain to result in loss of further species.” (A <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0275322">more recent assessment</a> indicates that wait times between 2010 and 2020 were shorter, likely because the FWS received fewer petitions to list species during that time.)
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The Fish and Wildlife Service is aware of these delays. Gary Frazer, the agency’s assistant director for ecological services, which administers the act, blames them on funding and staff shortages.<strong> </strong>The process to formally declare a species endangered, which requires an extensive review, is expensive.
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This is something that everyone seems to agree on: The FWS needs a lot more money from Congress to do its job. “Currently, the Service only receives around 50% of the funding required to properly implement the Act,” as more than 120 environmental groups wrote in <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/esa/pdfs/FY24-ESA-Funding-Letter-to-Congress.pdf?_gl=1*apozhv*_gcl_au*NDc4MzM2OTcwLjE3MDE5MDc0NDY.">a letter</a> to Congress in March 2023, urging the government to ramp up spending by hundreds of millions of dollars. (That may sound like a lot, but it’s a tiny, nearly imperceivable fraction of what the US spends on, say, national defense, or fails to recoup in <a href="https://www.vox.com/fossil-fuels">fossil fuel</a> subsidies.)
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“[The ESA] isn’t broken, it’s starving,” said Jamie Rappaport Clark, CEO and president of Defenders of Wildlife, a conservation group. (She’s stepping down from her role at Defenders next year.) “It can do its job if it’s supported,” said Clark, who formerly led the FWS. “But it’s not.”
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Here’s what’s strange: Even though the FWS acknowledges there is a resource shortage, the agency doesn’t ask Congress for more money outside of relatively modest budget increases, according to Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity. What’s more, the FWS actually asks Congress to <em>restrict</em> the amount it can spend to list species as threatened or endangered. According to Frazer, that’s because the agency receives an enormous number of petitions. If it were to address all of them, he said, it would have to pull resources away from other important activities under the act.
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(When asked why the FWS wouldn’t just request more money overall for the ESA, a spokesperson for the agency said that “federal funding decisions are complex” and pointed me to the agency’s recent <a href="https://www.fws.gov/media/fiscal-year-2024-fish-and-wildlife-service-budget-justification">budget justification</a>. Hartl suspects the FWS doesn’t ask for more funding because Frazer is highly risk averse and doesn’t want to come under scrutiny for putting forward a more substantial budget request. There are also pro-industry ESA critics who say the law is already too restrictive, even in its underfunded state.)
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Limited funding has forced officials and environmental advocates to prioritize efforts to save species in the most critical conditions — the ones that are about to blink out. And that leads to another criticism of the ESA: The law is reactive, helping species only when they’re on the edge of extinction. It fails to address more fundamental problems that are driving wildlife declines in the first place.
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In search of a more proactive approach, some policymakers have been trying to pass another environmental law, known as <a href="https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth/23288563/recovering-americas-wildlife-act-explained">Recovering America’s Wildlife Act</a> (RAWA). The act, as it was envisioned a few years ago, would funnel roughly $1.4 billion to states and Indigenous tribes to restore ailing animals, even before<em> </em>they’re listed as endangered. But it has run into similar problems as the ESA — namely, policymakers can’t figure out how to pay for it. Now the RAWA, at least as it was originally drafted, seems all but dead.
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It’s not that the US government can’t afford to fund conservation, said Ken Hayes, a conservation biologist at Hawaii’s Bishop Museum, who has studied endangered species for more than two decades. The problem, he said, is that we, as a society, don’t value biodiversity nearly as much as we should. “We don’t have a money problem,” he said. “We have a prioritization problem.”
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<li><strong>So it’s come to this: We might have to worry about the deficit</strong> -
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<img alt="A line of porcelain piggy banks stand at the edge of a rectangular cliff. One has fallen off the cliff, pictured mid-air." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/LZa7Yo4LsW68KiFnL2_yapPjsgI=/117x0:2004x1415/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72974070/GettyImages_1072593736.0.jpg"/>
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The government might be in a smidge of a pickle with deficits and debt. | PM Images via Getty Images
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America rarely has its financial ducks in a row. Does it finally matter?
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As though there were not <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18080002/israel-palestine-conflict-history-overview-map">enough</a> <a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/11/14/23958866/trump-vermin-authoritarian-democracy">things</a> in the world to <a href="https://www.vox.com/scotus/2023/12/4/23984674/supreme-court-abortion-emtala-emergency-medically-necessary-idaho">worry</a> <a href="https://www.vox.com/videos/23991037/why-buying-house-us-hard-homeowner-economy">about</a> at the moment, a perennial issue has once again been percolating: Is the United States’ financial house in order? Talk about the federal government’s deficit — meaning the difference between what it spends and what it collects in taxes — has started to pick back up. The same goes for chatter about the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/07/national-debt-fiscal-trajectory/674665/">country’s debt</a>. <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2601125">Deficits are a gamble</a> — a wager that the government paying out more than it’s taking in, especially as time goes on, is worth the risk. Not everyone thinks it’s such a good bet.
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Some <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-07/public-debt-spiral-must-be-averted-at-all-costs-blanchard-says?sref=qYiz2hd0">prominent</a> <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/07/national-debt-fiscal-trajectory/674665/">economists</a> who were once pretty laid back on the matter have started to change their tune. Not everyone is <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/no-need-to-panic-about-the-budget-deficit/">setting their hair on fire</a>, but it has been a bit of a “Wait, what?” moment in terms of deciphering just how much to worry, or whether to worry at all.
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The federal deficit officially <a href="https://www.fiscal.treasury.gov/files/reports-statements/mts/mts0923.pdf">clocked in at</a> $1.7 trillion in fiscal year 2023 (the government’s fiscal year runs from October 1 to September 30), up from almost $1.4 trillion in 2022. Thanks to some wonkiness around <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-budget-deficit-jumps-23-nearly-17-trillion-social-security-health-costs-rise-2023-10-20/#:~:text=The%20fiscal%20year%202022%20deficit,trillion%2C%20a%20Treasury%20official%20said.">the Supreme Court-thwarted attempt</a> to cancel <a href="https://www.vox.com/student-loan-debt">student loan debt</a>, it was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/20/business/treasury-report-shows-1-7-trillion-deficit.html#:~:text=Those%20student%20loan%20effects%20changed,call%20with%20reporters%20on%20Friday.">actually likely closer to $2 trillion</a> for 2023 and $1 trillion for 2022. In other words, the gap between what the government spends and what it makes is a big one — and about doubled from one year to the next.
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There are some 2023-specific reasons that the deficit was particularly high; namely, the government saw a big dip in <a href="https://www.marketplace.org/2023/10/23/revenue-u-s-budget-deficit/">tax revenue</a>. However, there are plenty of trends that aren’t limited to this specific year.
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What’s further spooked onlookers are higher interest rates, which have made the country’s debt more expensive because of higher interest costs. Interest rates on US Treasury bonds started to climb over the summer and into the fall, and while they <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/05/business/economy/high-interest-rates-us-deficit.html">have come down</a> from some of the highs they were at in October, they remain elevated overall, making people a little more nervous.
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“You know the meme that’s like mess around and find out? That’s a little what happened here,” said <a href="https://www.crfb.org/biography/staff/marc-goldwein">Marc Goldwein</a>, senior vice president and senior policy director for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a think tank focused on fiscal responsibility. Years of low interest rates, low inflation, and strong global savings, among other factors, made deficits palatable and easy to ignore in practice on both the right and the left (except when politically convenient). Now, the landscape has shifted.
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Lawmakers have made the bet that deficits are worth the trade-off and the debt is manageable, and these soaring rates and their attendant anxiety show just how high the stakes of that gamble are. That risk also calls attention to how difficult the issue is, politically. While many experts say there’s next to no chance of balancing the budget, getting revenue and spending back in line would require compromises few people on <a href="https://www.vox.com/congress">Capitol Hill</a> are willing to make. Republicans don’t want to raise taxes and <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/12/2/16724978/gop-tax-bill-deficit-debt-fraud">keep cutting them instead</a>, seemingly worrying about deficits largely only when they’re not in office. Democrats don’t want to curb spending, and raising taxes isn’t easy. It’s not clear what, if anything, would make anyone budge.
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“I don’t think you’re going to get a solution to this [deficit] until it really is something quite salient to the public, to politicians, and the thing that I’ve been saying for years is … that will happen when markets start to care, when interest rates start to rise,” said <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/people/louise-sheiner/">Louise Sheiner</a>, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and policy director of the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy. Despite high interest rates, she’s still not sure if this will prove to matter now. “This may be just this little head-fake where interest rates went up and then they came back down and it was no big deal, or we may turn around and may look back at this moment in 10 years and say, ‘That was the moment when people did start to worry about the deficit again and we started doing stuff.’ I don’t know which one it will be.”
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2023 is unique, and it isn’t
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The 2023 deficit wasn’t <a href="https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/national-deficit/#:~:text=In%20FY%202023%2C%20the%20federal,referred%20to%20as%20deficit%20spending.">necessarily outlandishly high</a>. The deficit also topped $1 trillion in the years following the Great Recession. It was over $3 trillion in 2020 and more than $2 trillion in 2021 because of the pandemic and related spending under Presidents <a href="https://www.vox.com/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a> and <a href="https://www.vox.com/joe-biden">Joe Biden</a>. “You had Donald Trump go on a huge tax cut and spending spree, and then Joe Biden went on a spending spree,” said <a href="https://manhattan.institute/person/brian-riedl">Brian Riedl</a>, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
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But the deficit being so high in a relatively normal period in 2023 — no recession, no war the US is fighting — is a bit different. What exactly were we spending money on, and why didn’t we have the funds to cover it?
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The main culprit this year is taxes (spending was only slightly higher than where it was in 2022). As Jim Tankersley at the New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/20/business/federal-budget-deficit-trillion.html">explains</a>, the government brought in an especially low amount of revenue. The IRS extended tax-filing deadlines for people because of <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2023/1/6/23542194/california-atmospheric-river-flood-drought">natural disasters</a>, including for <a href="https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-announces-tax-relief-for-victims-of-severe-winter-storms-flooding-and-mudslides-in-california">most people in California</a>, the country’s most populous state. A lot of firms took advantage of a pandemic-era tax credit for retaining workers — some of those claims <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/26/us/politics/employee-retention-credit-tax-fraud.html#:~:text=220-,This%20Little%2DKnown%20Pandemic%2DEra%20Tax%20Credit%20Has%20Become%20a,in%20violation%20of%20federal%20rules.&amp;text=Alan%20Rappeport%20covers%20economic%20policy%20and%20the%20Treasury%20Department.">may be fraud</a>. Capital gains taxes, which come when an asset, like a stock, is sold, also fell from 2022, when they were abnormally high. The decline in capital gains taxes is an effect of high interest rates from the Federal Reserve, which contributed to <a href="https://www.vox.com/stock-market">stock market</a> declines and a downturn in companies going public. (This is a <a href="https://www.governing.com/finance/what-caused-californias-68b-budget-hole">big issue</a> in California’s budget.)
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<q>“The trajectory of debt has not fundamentally shifted in the last few years”</q>
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“The 2023 deficit was certainly anomalous, and I think people are using a ‘that’s weird’ as a point of proof, but I don’t think it actually has much to do with genuine concern over fiscal risk,” said <a href="https://equitablegrowth.org/people/michael-linden/">Michael Linden</a>, senior policy fellow at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. “The trajectory of debt has not fundamentally shifted in the last few years.”
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Still, the trajectory is one that some people find to be uncomfortable.
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Tax revenue <a href="https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/government-revenue/">as a percentage of GDP</a> was abnormally high in 2022 and in 2023, it reverted closer to what it was pre-pandemic. Tax cuts, including those put in place by George W. Bush (and made permanent under Barack Obama) and Donald Trump, are taking a bite out of revenue and will continue to do so. The Trump tax cuts are set to expire in 2025, and it’s not clear whether they might be extended.
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At the same time, government spending is on track to continue growing. As baby boomers age, programs like Social Security and Medicare are getting costlier. Defense is always an expensive line item, and there’s demand for more in order to help <a href="https://www.vox.com/israel">Israel</a> and Ukraine. And there’s the question of interest costs, too.
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“People have changed their views because the aging population is starting to hit — the pre-programmed rise in Social Security and Medicare is happening, and people are looking at it in 10-year projections where it wasn’t before, because baby boomers are retiring. The second issue is interest costs,” said <a href="https://www.econ.berkeley.edu/profile/1010623">Danny Yagan</a>, an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley. “The truth is that the interest costs are a much smaller deal now than people think they are, because economic growth has edged out interest rates for years and is generally projected to for some time.”
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How big of a deal this is isn’t really clear
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America’s debt and the potential implications of high deficits were pretty easy to ignore in the lower interest rate environment the country has been in for the last several years. As borrowing costs rise, paying interest on America’s debt load becomes pricier, especially if those higher costs persist.
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“The debt used to appear costless, because the interest rates were, in many cases, below inflation and almost always, for the last 15 years, below economic growth,” Goldwein said. The debt issued when borrowing that was more or less free is now being rolled over, meaning renewed, at higher interest rates, he said. The Center for a Responsible Federal Budget <a href="https://www.crfb.org/blogs/high-cost-borrowing-low-rates#:~:text=While%20it%20is%20less%20costly,of%20high%20and%20rising%20debt">notes</a> that more than half of the country’s debt matures over the next three years.
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There are a number of factors potentially playing into interest rate increases on Treasury bonds in the financial markets, but there’s no one single factor to pinpoint. The Federal Reserve has hiked interest rates to fight inflation and is expected to perhaps keep them there for a while. The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/05/business/economy/high-interest-rates-us-deficit.html">New York Times points out</a> strong growth, fewer buyers of American debt from abroad, and overall worries about debt sustainability as contributing factors. Sheiner, from the Brookings Institution, said brinkmanship over the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/5/9/23715753/debt-ceiling-limit-default-deal-crisis">debt ceiling</a>, threats of a government shutdown, the overall political environment, and a <a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/econographics/credit-downgrades-are-a-much-needed-warning/">downgrade on US credit</a> could be part of it as well. “Markets aren’t always 100 percent rational, and you can’t predict every day why it’s doing stuff,” Sheiner said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gScDuh">
“Why did we see a spike of interest rates on federal debt over the last six months, and why is it coming down now? I don’t think it’s obvious what the right answer is,” Linden said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vmpFfO">
If the <a href="https://www.vox.com/economy">economy</a> grows faster than interest rates, the general line is that running a deficit is more or less okay, because the debt-to-GDP ratio, an indicator of the country’s ability to pay back its debts, doesn’t increase. The problem would come if interest rates outpace economic growth.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PVlQLL">
Many economists and experts say it’s not time to panic — interest rates have come back down. “Growth is definitely still higher than interest rates, but it’s closer than it was in the past,” Linden said. “If the 10-year Treasuries were sustained at 5, 6, 7 percent for more than six months or something like that, I would start to be like, ‘Okay, is there something really going on here?’ Especially if that happened at the same time as a Fed cut.”
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<aside id="lrsS2x">
<q> “All else being equal, lower debt is better, but all else is never equal”</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qXN6xb">
<a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/people/bobby-kogan/">Bobby Kogan</a>, senior director of federal budget policy at the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank, emphasized that it’s also important to take a look at what a high deficit is paying for. Kogan — who is in the camp that believes the <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/article/tax-cuts-are-primarily-responsible-for-the-increasing-debt-ratio/">Bush and Trump tax cuts are largely responsible</a> for the issues of today — pointed out that the spending side of the equation is one that is popular. Most people <a href="https://apnews.com/article/social-security-medicare-cuts-ap-poll-biden-9e7395e8efeab68063d741beac6ef24b">don’t want cuts</a> to Social Security and Medicare. “All else being equal, lower debt is better, but all else is never equal,” he said. “All else being equal, we probably would want lower debt, but if you gave me an option between the current path and eviscerating the social safety net, that’s a different question.”
</p>
<h3 id="5KlPU4">
When it comes down to it, the political will to fix this is roughly zero
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RztLVs">
The country isn’t necessarily careening toward financial ruin because of its deficits and debt. To quote Kogan, “our current level of debt is manageable because we’re managing it.” But it’s something that probably has to be addressed eventually.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iUSQeR">
The worst-case scenario here would be something like a debt spiral, where higher interest rates and a growing debt mean the costs of servicing the debt get higher and higher, eventually spinning out of control and pushing deficits up more and more. But the worst-case scenario isn’t the only undesirable one. There could be other consequences around slowing economic growth or “crowding out” investment, meaning the government’s needs on borrowing and spending impact borrowing and investing in the private sector. “You don’t need a crisis for debt to be bad,” Goldwein said.
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<aside id="7A72lR">
<q>“Neither party is remotely serious about either spending cuts or tax increases”</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MiRYkg">
Given the landscape, one might find themselves asking why the government doesn’t take a look at the deficit before it gets out of hand. That’s where there’s an awkward standoff. The GOP generally wants to cut taxes, and certainly not raise them, and would rather cut spending instead. Democrats do not want to cut spending, especially on vital programs such as Social Security and Medicare. Many Democrats would be into raising taxes, especially on corporations and the wealthy. They haven’t had the numbers to do so in a big enough way, though the Biden administration has implemented <a href="https://pro.bloombergtax.com/brief/the-inflation-reduction-act-corporate-tax-provisions/">some tax changes</a> on corporate minimum tax and stock buyback tax, and is pushing for more funding for the IRS to collect more of what’s owed.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H9INso">
“Neither party is remotely serious about either spending cuts or tax increases,” Reidl said. “The momentum has shifted that people are at least talking about the deficit and they’re not proposing a big expansion, but they’re nowhere close to actually solving the deficit.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yneh9J">
“Not only do you not have to balance the budget, but it’s not clear that you could,” Goldwein said. Even if there were a “staunch <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/paul-ryan-the-most-daring-budget-hawk-of-his-generation/">Paul Ryan-type figure</a>,” referring to the former budget hawk Speaker of the House, who was looking to go after spending, it’s unlikely the issue could be addressed without looking at revenue, he added. “The bottom line is either the middle class is going to have to contribute … on the tax side or on the spending side,” he said. “There really is no path if they’re not part of it and realistically even that, I think, would be very hard.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4x1JDA">
The runway isn’t endless. The Social Security trust fund <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy/2023/4/21/23663654/social-security-retirement-age-1983-greenspan-ball">is expected to run out of money</a> in about a decade, which means taxes or benefits would need to be cut or the government would have to find money somewhere else.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oZrpcK">
Republicans often claim that they’re serious about addressing the deficit. This year, some hardline members of the House GOP have been <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/11/15/23962996/house-funding-bill-government-shutdown-mike-johnson">fighting for spending cuts</a>, proclaiming concerns for the budget. But when in power, the GOP has slashed taxes. Efforts even now seem insincere — many Republicans are also pushing to <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/11/2/23944340/mike-johnson-house-israel-aid-bill-passes">take funding away from the IRS</a>, which would lower revenue, not increase it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="B9p5Fy">
Democrats have taken a more complex approach to deficits. There’s an argument to be made that during the Obama years, <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/12/5/16730978/deficits-tax-bill-democrats-reagan">Democrats were too worried about them</a>. That resulted in a reluctance to spend and ultimately dampened the recovery from the Great Recession.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WL6rHm">
Part of what’s disturbing about the situation is that nobody really knows the answer to what level of deficit is truly sustainable, what level of debt would be completely destabilizing, and if or when that day will arrive. Nobody can really predict the future here.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="C0m4Un">
“We will have to do something eventually. What does that mean? Nobody really knows what [that] eventually means, the longer you wait, the more you are shifting costs onto the future generation,” Sheiner said. “It’s always about intergenerational equity.”
</p></li>
<li><strong>Canada is promoting child care for $10 a day.</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Two preschoolers play with Play-Doh at a table" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/xZjX1BC5u1MGwU_NEymUHYMGOxs=/336x0:4581x3184/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72974007/AP120405155587.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
AP
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Could it work in the US?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ptUvXI">
A massive <a href="https://www.vox.com/social-policy">social policy</a> experiment is unfolding in Canada to provide families throughout the country with <a href="https://www.vox.com/child-care">child care</a> for an average of $10 a day. The plan, which was introduced in 2021 amid the turmoil of the pandemic, aims to spend up to 30 billion Canadian dollars by 2026 to bring down child-care costs for parents and to create 250,000 new slots.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3ElU8X">
The federally backed effort brings Canada’s safety net closer to that of other Western democracies that have <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/06/upshot/child-care-biden.html">stepped up on child care</a>, including Finland, Sweden, France, Germany, and Australia — and it could prove an inspiration to other countries whose systems still lag, like the United States.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uvcd8j">
Almost three years in, Canadian families are already seeing a significant drop in price, paying hundreds of dollars less for care each month than they were prior to 2021. Canada is making “solid progress in offering more affordable child care,” <a href="https://policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National%20Office/2023/10/measuring-matters-FINAL-October%2027%202023.pdf">concluded a think tank report</a> issued in October. Five of Canada’s 13 provinces and territories have already reached the $10-a-day child-care goal ahead of schedule, while others have reduced their fees by over 50 percent. ($10 in Canadian currency is roughly $7.50 in US dollars.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tGZF82">
In addition to reducing costs for parents, the plan has created about 52,000 new child-care spots, and in some provinces, like Nova Scotia, federal funding has <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9190076/ns-early-childhood-educators-wage-raise/">helped boost the wages</a> of early-childhood educators.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="o687dQ">
“This is social infrastructure that will drive jobs and growth,” Canada’s deputy prime minister, Chrystia Freeland, said of the policy in a <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2021/04/budget-2021-address-by-the-deputy-prime-minister-and-minister-of-finance.html">2021 budget speech</a>. “This is feminist economic policy. This is smart economic policy.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="44wbls">
Canada is a less populous country than the United States (about 40 million people to the US’s 340 million), and while it has never previously had a national child-care policy, it has long embraced a more sturdy safety net than the US, providing its citizens with universal <a href="https://www.vox.com/health-care">health care</a> and annual family allowances to parents. Moreover, Canada provides parents who want to stay home with their infants <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/ei/ei-maternity-parental.html">partial paid leave</a> for up to 18 months.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9n48wt">
Still, the two countries aren’t “radically different,” Elliot Haspel, the author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Crawling-Behind-Americas-Child-Crisis/dp/1684334276"><em>Crawling Behind: America’s Child Care Crisis and How to Fix It</em></a>, told Vox, “which is one reason [Canada is] an interesting near peer.” Like in the US, Canadian child-care advocates had been organizing with minimal success for decades prior to the pandemic — but unlike in the US, they’re finally seeing meaningful progress.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2tItB0">
Consequently, US activists and lawmakers are looking to this dramatic shift in Canadian child-care policy for inspiration, and leading congressional Democrats even began this year to incorporate the successful “$10 a day” idea into <a href="https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warren-sherrill-lawmakers-unveil-new-child-care-bill#:~:text=Guarantees%20affordability%3A%20Half%20of%20families,U.S.%20military%20child%20care%20program.">their own political messaging</a>. The Child Care for Every Community Act, introduced in Congress in February, pledges to cap costs for all families and ensure that at least half of families nationwide pay no more than $10 a day.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Hzp7Tf">
The policy shift among Democratic lawmakers is backed by research from the progressive polling firm Data for Progress, which found that when it comes to building support for expanding food assistance, voters <a href="https://www.filesforprogress.org/decks/2023/dfp_snap_ag_polling_deck.pdf">were more persuaded</a> when presented with a dollar-per-meal framing compared with a dollar-per-month framing. This fact struck the pollsters, who soon realized the same concept held true when messaging on child care.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="I7UCqg">
“It’s really about drilling down to the smallest dollar denominator that you can to get your point across,” Danielle Deiseroth, the executive director of Data for Progress, told Vox. “You want to avoid having to do mental gymnastics to figure out how much things cost or you’ll be spending. And for child care we found talking about the actual dollars and cents, especially given how top of mind inflation and high prices have been for voters, was particularly effective.”
</p>
<h3 id="sdteId">
<strong>Local organizing in Canada helped spur national action</strong>
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="R83hLh">
Canada’s national child-care plan is on a potentially transformative trajectory, but it didn’t come out of nowhere; rather, years of locally driven organizing proved pivotal in finally moving the needle on the federal level.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YQVZI9">
Beginning in 1997, the province of Quebec invested in <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-29/lessons-from-quebec-on-universal-child-care?sref=qYiz2hd0">a universal and affordable child-care system</a> with the goals of raising public revenue, helping more women join the labor force, and improving child development. While rollout of the effort has been uneven over the last 25 years, researchers found it has helped<a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/content/Committee/421/FEWO/Brief/BR8806290/br-external/FortinPierre-e.pdf"> boost female workforce participation</a> and that the public investments more than paid for themselves. Moreover, when child-care centers closed throughout Canada during the pandemic, the publicly subsidized centers in Quebec, which are less reliant on charging parents high fees to operate, were more able to stay open and bounce back to full enrollment. This comparative advantage was not lost on federal politicians struggling to lead Canada out of its economic downturn.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pN6GIp">
“I’ve been defending private markets all my life. I’m not an extreme leftist. But you also have to be pragmatic,” Pierre Fortin, an economist at the University of Quebec at Montreal, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-29/lessons-from-quebec-on-universal-child-care?sref=qYiz2hd0">told Bloomberg</a> in 2021. “Child care is an area where private markets don’t do a very good job.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5cShll">
Advocates in another Canadian province, British Columbia, began organizing for child care under the banner of $10 a day and, beginning in 2016, persuaded the provincial branch of Canada’s New Democratic Party (NDP) <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/ndp-child-care-plan-1.3813514">to embrace the idea too</a>. It became a <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/3509285/bc-ndp-to-speak-about-the-future-of-child-care-in-b-c/">central and popular legislative plank</a> for the NDP, which identifies as a social democratic party, and helped propel it into government after British Columbia’s 2017 provincial elections.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WMcpob">
Carolyn Ferns, the policy coordinator at the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care, said advocates in other provinces were wary at first about embracing the $10-a-day mantra pioneered in British Columbia, since for some low-income families, $10 a day is still too high.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NzZO8p">
“But the simple language made a real difference in getting buy-in from the public and families, especially in terms of retail politics and just being able to explain to people on their doorstep what you’re doing,” Ferns told Vox. “That’s what sold the federal government on it.”
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A woman with wavy hair and glasses speaks into a microphone while others stand behind her" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/M0vKSD7LttM3qdMQDdtwulmzGME=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25165383/1158809332.jpg"/> <cite>Andrew Francis Wallace/Toronto Star via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Carolyn Ferns of the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care speaks during a press conference at Toronto City Hall.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fENLwo">
In the US, some advocates hope to chart a similar path by organizing landmark state-level child-care policy reforms. Earlier this year, Vermont legislators approved a first-of-its-kind package to pour tens of millions of new dollars into the state’s child-care system, raising wages for child-care workers and reducing costs for families. The path to victory in Vermont <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/5/22/23726703/childcare-investments-vermont-ece-economy-parents-kids">involved a concerted 10-year advocacy effort</a> backed by philanthropy and grassroots volunteers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="o3CY3L">
Similarly, in New Mexico, voters <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/10/18/23404090/new-mexico-election-result-child-care-early-childhood-prek">approved a historic ballot measure</a> in 2022 to guarantee a constitutional right to early-childhood education, a political effort that came out of more than 10 years of organizing led by early-childhood educators and parents. National child-care advocates heralded the victories in both states and studied the campaigns, hoping to replicate them in other parts of the country.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2zvsFB">
In Canada, though, child-care advocates trace their efforts for a universal nationwide program back well beyond more recent grassroots efforts in the provinces, to the <a href="https://women-gender-equality.canada.ca/en/commemorations-celebrations/royal-commission-status-women-canada.html">release of a federal report in 1970</a> that recommended steps to enhance equal opportunities for women throughout Canada.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RBG4WT">
Martha Friendly, who in 1982 founded the <a href="https://childcarecanada.org/">Childcare Resource and Research Unit</a>, a small Toronto-based policy institute, has watched the social movement for child care grow in her country over 50 years. “A lot of the social infrastructure in Canada was developed post–World War II, and child care then wasn’t viewed with a feminist lens, it was established before women were really entering the workforce in a large way,” she told Vox. “Child care was long conceived as a welfare program for the deserving poor, but in the 1980s and 1990s a real movement emerged to reframe child care as an important policy issue for women.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PtdnOm">
Advocates like Friendly also credit feminist leaders like Freeland, who is also Canada’s first female minister of finance, and former premier of Quebec Pauline Marois, who served as education minister between 1996 and 1998, with moving government-backed child care efforts forward.
</p>
<h3 id="OW9q79">
<strong>Reducing fees is the easiest part</strong>
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hPm47j">
Not everything has been smooth sailing in the implementation of Canada’s child-care plan, especially in more densely populated provinces that have struggled to attract enough new workers to meet the demand for care. Most of the money thus far has gone into bringing down costs for families and not to recruiting and retaining more child-care workers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UHp9OX">
“The goal of offering child-care spaces at $10 a day is not the most difficult part. The difficult part is to create new child-care spaces, because it requires more people working in the sector,” Sophie Mathieu, an appointee on Canada’s <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/news/2022/11/government-of-canada-announces-members-of-new-national-advisory-council-on-early-learning-and-child-care.html">national advisory council</a> on early learning and child care, told Vox. “Currently child-care workers are not very well paid, even in Quebec.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="p1vyCP">
In November, child-care advocates across Canada organized a National Day of Action to demand further public investments. In Ontario, the most populous<strong> </strong>province, <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231130517497/en/Events-Across-Ontario-as-Canada-Wide-Day-of-Action-for-Child-Care-Unites-Families-and-Educators-to-Demand-Better-Access-and-Working-Conditions">activists drew attention to</a> the thousands of families stuck on waiting lists and the meager salaries of child-care workers. To address this, activists are calling for a clearer salary scale, beginning at $30 to $40 per hour for <a href="https://www.college-ece.ca/public/about-reces/">registered early childhood educators</a> and $25 per hour for other staff.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xKZzws">
A <a href="https://www.cp24.com/news/more-federal-provincial-funding-needed-to-boost-child-care-spaces-in-toronto-report-1.6664310#:~:text=Children's%20Services%20estimates%20that%20an,requires%20a%20%E2%80%9Cthriving%20workforce.%E2%80%9D">report</a> issued by Toronto’s economic development committee in late November affirmed that in order to meet its 2017 goal of creating 30,000 new child-care slots by 2026, the city will need to add funding and raise wages and benefits “to levels comparable to positions in the public sector.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lC6x0E">
It’s not a new problem, even for countries that invest more heavily in their social safety nets; Haspel points to Germany, which is dealing with <a href="https://bnnbreaking.com/breaking-news/education/dire-staffing-shortage-looms-over-german-daycare-centers-study/">similar workforce issues</a>. In 2013, Germany declared that all families have a <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/amp/International/place-germany-promises-daycare-parents/story?id=19847116">legal right to child care</a>, but then failed to invest enough in funding staff to meet demand. “If you can get your kid into <a href="https://www.expatica.com/de/living/family/daycares-and-preschools-in-germany-107640/#:~:text=The%20term%20'kita'%20is%20short,Erzieher%2Finnen%20(educators).">Kita</a> [preschool] you are set, but it’s a huge scramble,” Haspel said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LtPoa8">
Friendly, of the Childcare Resource and Research Unit, agrees that more investment into raising wages will be needed but said she’s not too worried overall about Canada’s efforts, as other countries have established comprehensive child-care systems through iterative progress over time. “I think building any kind of social program like this is push and pull,” she told Vox. “So it’s not that Canada’s effort is not successful, it’s that we’re in the first phase. In every country that is happy with their child-care system, it always took a lot of work.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HiU8j2">
Canada’s national child-care effort, which prioritizes nonprofit and public day cares, does have some critics, <a href="https://financialpost.com/opinion/opinion-10-a-day-daycare-disaster#:~:text=It's%20an%20inequitable%20model%20for,to%20use%20lower%2Dquality%20care.">like Peter Jon Mitchell</a>, of the conservative think tank <a href="https://www.cardus.ca/">Cardus</a>, who would rather see the government just give families more money directly to spend. “The federal government is trying to entrench an expensive but poor-quality program that serves a minority of programs and that only funds some forms of child care that parents use,” he told Vox. “And they really underestimate the cost and complexity of their plan.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mEh21S">
But Ferns, with the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care, rejects this critique and argues it’s been tried before with little success. “We had the conservative approach to child care for over a decade at the federal level under the [Stephen] Harper government, and it didn’t make child care affordable,” she told Vox. “They had universal child-care benefits, and child-care fees just went up. It didn’t help improve accessibility, affordability, and quality.”
</p>
<h3 id="fADnKl">
<strong>More lessons for the United States </strong>
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VxhxFG">
The $10-a-day effort in Canada offers a number of practical lessons that may aid child-care reformers in the United States. In addition to the value of working to seed local victories that can potentially be replicated nationally later on, and of simply not giving up, advocates praise Canada’s savvy implementation and straightforward messaging on child-care reform.
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One feature of the five-year child-care implementation plan that Haspel described as “really smart” is the federal government’s commitment to giving voters some immediate benefits as it works toward its larger affordability goal. As an interim step, provinces have already worked to bring average fees down by at least 50 percent. “So you as a politician can say, ‘You were paying $8,000, now you’re paying $4,000,’ and we’re slowly continuing to build these new child-care sites online over time,” Haspel said.
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Another possible lesson for the US — which, like Canada, faces a shortage of child-care workers — is Canada’s <a href="https://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-levels-plans.html#:~:text=Under%20its%20Immigration%20Levels%20Plan,reunite%20families%2C%20and%20help%20refugees.">openness to immigration</a>. In addition to raising wages and benefits in the child-care sector, enlarging the workforce could help create new child-care slots. Mathieu told Vox it’s a “very delicate issue,” but it’s one she and her colleagues on the national advisory council have been discussing. “It’s part of the solution,” she said. “It’s one solution among others.”
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Advocates in the US also admit there’s something fundamentally more appealing about Canada’s $10-a-day concept than the more complicated advocacy language often used in the US about capping costs to a percentage of one’s annual income. Democrats still use this more cumbersome messaging — it was included in Senate Democrats’ <a href="https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warren-sherrill-lawmakers-unveil-new-child-care-bill#:~:text=Guarantees%20affordability%3A%20Half%20of%20families,U.S.%20military%20child%20care%20program.">Child Care for Every Community Act</a>, and the <a href="https://www.vox.com/joe-biden">Biden administration</a>’s proposed child-care rule <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2023/07/11/new-rule-proposed-improve-child-care-access-affordability-stability.html#:~:text=Lower%20Families%27%20Child%20Care%20Costs%3A%20Reduces%20the%20significant%20financial%20strain,or%20below%20150%25%20of%20the">back in July</a>.
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“I like the simplicity of $10 a day,” said Marica Cox Mitchell, a leader with the Bainum Family Foundation, a Maryland-based philanthropy focused on early childhood. “It’s universal.”
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Some, however, argue that implementing a Canada-style child-care plan pegged to a $10-a-day pledge isn’t the best way to address family challenges in the US. Josh McCabe, the director of social policy at the DC-based Niskanen Center think tank, said he thinks the US would be better off focusing on prioritizing a paid leave policy similar to Canada’s rather than trying to replicate the country’s strategy around child care.
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“Canada doesn’t have to worry about supplying nearly as much infant care precisely because the majority of Canadian infants are being cared for at home by their parents for the first year of their life, when center-based care is at its most expensive,” he told Vox. “Another reason to prioritize paid leave over child care is it reduces this problem.”
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Many national advocacy groups in the US, including <a href="https://momsfirst.us/">Moms First</a>, <a href="https://www.chamberofmothers.com/">Chamber of Mothers</a>, and <a href="https://www.momsrising.org/campaigns">Moms Rising</a>, reject the idea that politicians must choose one over the other and maintain that, like in Canada, activists in the United States can and should lay the political groundwork so leaders can capitalize on windows of opportunity when they arise.
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“Our neighbors to the north have shown it is possible to cut across party lines and invest in a child-care system that works for more families,” said Jessica Sager, CEO of <a href="https://allourkin.org/">All Our Kin</a>, a national group that trains and supports family child-care educators. “The vision of a mixed-delivery system, which offers a variety of options to families, is already taking hold in parts of the US. While we can consider Canada’s efforts, we can also find remarkable efforts across our own country.”
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</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Art Collector, The Godfather and Booster Shot show out</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Odisha Masters winner Sathish Kumar sets sights on Paris 2024</strong> - The 22-year-old says he will also prioritise mixed doubles as he felt he, along with teammate Aadya Variyath, has a good chance of making the cut for the Olympics</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>Daily Quiz | Facts on the first anniversary of FIFA World Cup</strong> - A quiz on lesser-known facts and trivia on the first anniversary of the FIFA World Cup that came to a close on December 18 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>Premier League | Man United frustrates Liverpool as Arsenal moves to top of table</strong> - A draw saw Liverpool knocked off the top of the table and into second place by Arsenal, which beat Brighton 2-0 and travels to Anfield on December 23.</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>Arshdeep reveals spending time with Avesh Khan a day before 1st ODI “boosted” his performance</strong> - Both pacers combined to claim nine wickets between them, which was the most by Indian pacers against South Africa in an ODI innings</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>DGCA approves Drone Academy at Telangana Agri University</strong> - It offers six-week training to ryots, agri-graduates, rural youth in drone piloting</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>Watch | Meet the ‘Forest Man of Karnataka’</strong> - Mukund Rao’s vision is to bring back the forests around Bengaluru and in various other districts in Karnataka</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>Elusive tiger finally captured at Koodallur in Kerala’s Wayanad district</strong> - It took 10 days of effort for Kerala Forest department to cage the tiger that is suspected to have killed a farmer at Kodallur on December 8. The animal also reportedly killed a cow and many fowls at a poultry farm</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>Google has removed 2,500 fraudulent loan apps from its Play Store, says Finance Minister Sitharaman</strong> - The government is constantly engaged with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and other regulators and stakeholders concerned to control fraudulent loan apps</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>Nearly 38 lakh people counselled, treated for mental health issues at Karnataka government clinics in four years</strong> - Over 10% of those treated and counselled at government centres reported common mental health disorders such as anxiety, depression, substance and alcohol abuse apart from obsessive compulsive disorders</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>Serbia’s Aleksandar Vucic claims big election victory for ruling party</strong> - The president’s party is set to win, projections say, but the opposition claimed electoral fraud.</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>France calls for ‘immediate and durable’ ceasefire in Gaza</strong> - Foreign Minister Colonna said on a visit to Israel that too many civilians were being killed.</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>Alex Batty: French couple give details about British teen’s life</strong> - Alex Batty is back in the UK after vanishing on a holiday in Spain in 2017 with his mother and grandfather.</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>Cardinal Becciu: Vatican court convicts former Pope adviser of financial crimes</strong> - Italian cardinal Angelo Becciu is sentenced to five-and-a-half years in jail for financial crimes.</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>Film director Otar Iosseliani dies aged 89</strong> - The Georgian-born director is known for films such as Pastorale and Favourites of the Moon.</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>How Microsoft’s cybercrime unit has evolved to combat increased threats</strong> - Microsoft has honed its strategy to disrupt global cybercrime and state-backed actors. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1991622">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Here’s how an off-road racing series will make its own hydrogen fuel</strong> - Extreme E, the electric off-road series, is switching to hydrogen in 2025. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1991074">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>This “smoking gun” killed the McDonald’s ice cream hackers’ startup</strong> - Three-year-old email shows evidence of plot to undermine repair business. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1991363">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A top-secret Chinese spy satellite just launched on a supersized rocket</strong> - This satellite may carry a large telescope to continuously monitor the Indo-Pacific. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1991612">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Marketer sparks panic with claims it uses smart devices to eavesdrop on people</strong> - “Real-time” listening claims were exaggerated, but the creepy factor remains. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1991469">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
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