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<title>23 March, 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>Evolving antibody evasion and receptor affinity of the Omicron BA.2.75 sublineage of SARS-CoV-2</strong> -
<div>
SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.2.75 has diversified into multiple subvariants with additional spike mutations, and several are expanding in prevalence, particularly CH.1.1 and BN.1. Here, we investigated the viral receptor affinities and neutralization evasion properties of major BA.2.75 subvariants actively circulating in different regions worldwide. We found two distinct evolutionary pathways and three newly identified mutations that shaped the virological features of these subvariants. One phenotypic group exhibited a discernible decrease in viral receptor affinities, but a noteworthy increase in resistance to antibody neutralization, as exemplified by CH.1.1, which is apparently as resistant as XBB.1.5. In contrast, a second group demonstrated a substantial increase in viral receptor affinity but only a moderate increase in antibody evasion, as exemplified by BN.1. We also observed that all prevalent SARS-CoV-2 variants in the circulation presently, except for BN.1, exhibit profound levels of antibody evasion, suggesting this is the dominant determinant of virus transmissibility today.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.22.533805v1" target="_blank">Evolving antibody evasion and receptor affinity of the Omicron BA.2.75 sublineage of SARS-CoV-2</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>How influenza vaccination changed over the COVID-19 pandemic?</strong> -
<div>
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Background: Vaccination for seasonal influenzas is particularly important during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the influenza vaccination coverage in the U.S. was far lower than the targeted rate. Objective: To examine how people9s actual uptake of the influenza vaccine and the disparity of the vaccination changed during the pandemic. Methods: A survey was conducted online in November 2022. Respondents were asked for influenza vaccination during each of the three latest seasons, prior influenza vaccination history, and COVID-19 vaccination. A linear regression model was used to estimate how the respondents9 change in influenza vaccination was associated with their demographics, COVID-19 vaccination status, and other related variables. Results: Nearly 70% of US adults had influenza vaccine each season during past the three seasons of the COVID-19 pandemic. The prevalence of influenza vaccination varied markedly across demographics. Non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic, and people with low educational attainment were more likely to see relatively negative changes in their level of influenza vaccination. Respondents who uptook their COVID-19 vaccine in 2022 increased their level of influenza vaccine more than those who uptook the vaccine in 2021. Conclusions: Our study indicated that influenza vaccination increased during the pandemic compared with before the pandemic. The disparity of influenza vaccination by race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status may enlarge during the pandemic. Tailored interventions were needed to target some groups to promote their vaccination uptake.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.21.23287546v1" target="_blank">How influenza vaccination changed over the COVID-19 pandemic?</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Neck pain, dry eye and Sjogren’s syndrome in Latin American students during the first wave of COVID-19: Frequencies and associated factors</strong> -
<div>
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Introduction: Virtual classes brought many changes to the lives of students, not only the fact of being more exposed to screens, but also because of the repercussions. Aim: To determine the factors associated with suffering from neck pain, dry eye and Sjogren9s syndrome in students in Latin America during the first wave of COVID-19. Methodology: Analytical cross-sectional study, using the COM and DEQ-5 scales, neck pain and dry eye/Sjogren9s syndrome, respectively, were measured; socio-educational variables were associated with them. Discussion: Of the 3939 students, those who lived in Panama, Chile and Bolivia were the ones who suffered the most from these pathologies. These pathologies were associated with the greater number of hours of computer use (all values p&lt;0,001) and sex (all values p&lt;0,002), medical students had more frequent dry eye and Sjogren9s syndrome (both p&lt;0,031), Graduate students had more neck pain (p&lt;0.001), but college students had less dry eye (p=0.025) and those at private universities had more neck pain (p=0.024). Discussion: Important results of these three pathologies were found, this serves so that students can be evaluated in depth in each university, for a specialized diagnosis and try to avoid medium and long-term consequences for the constant use of electronic devices. Conclusion: Neck pain, dry eye and Sjogren9s syndrome in students were associated with more hours of computer use and female sex, medical students had more frequent dry eye and Sjpogren9s syndrome, graduate students had more neck pain, university students had less dry eye and those from private universities had more neck pain.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.21.23287540v1" target="_blank">Neck pain, dry eye and Sjogren’s syndrome in Latin American students during the first wave of COVID-19: Frequencies and associated factors</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Gut microbiome predicts atopic diseases in an infant cohort with reduced bacterial exposure due to social distancing</strong> -
<div>
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Several hypotheses link altered microbial exposure in affluent societies to increased prevalence of allergies, but none have been experimentally tested in humans. Here we capitalize on the opportunity to study a cohort of infants (CORAL) raised during COVID-19 associated social distancing measures to test the interactions between bacterial exposure and fecal microbiome composition with atopic outcomes. We show that fecal Clostridia levels were significantly lower in CORAL infants and correlated with a microbial exposure index. Microbiota composition was the most significant component of regression models predicting risk of atopic dermatitis (AUC 0.86) or food allergen sensitization (AUC 0.98) and mediated the effects of multiple environment factors on disease risk. Although diet had a larger effect on microbiota composition than environmental factors linked to dispersal, most effects were mediated through the microbiota. This study provides critical information to refine existing hypothesis on the importance of the gut microbiota to immune development.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.22.23287583v1" target="_blank">Gut microbiome predicts atopic diseases in an infant cohort with reduced bacterial exposure due to social distancing</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Inter-rater reliability of the Infectious Disease Modeling Reproducibility Checklist (IDMRC) as applied to COVID-19 computational modeling research</strong> -
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Background: Infectious disease computational modeling studies have been widely published during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, yet they have limited reproducibility. Developed through an iterative testing process with multiple reviewers, the Infectious Disease Modeling Reproducibility Checklist (IDMRC) enumerates the minimal elements necessary to support reproducible infectious disease computational modeling publications. The primary objective of this study was to assess the reliability of the IDMRC and to identify which reproducibility elements were unreported in a sample of COVID-19 computational modeling publications. Methods: Four reviewers used the IDMRC to assess 46 preprint and peer reviewed COVID-19 modeling studies published between March 13th, 2020, and July 31st, 2020. The inter-rater reliability was evaluated by mean percent agreement and Fleiss9 kappa coefficients. Papers were ranked based on the average number of reported reproducibility elements, and average proportion of papers that reported each checklist item were tabulated. Results: Questions related to the computational environment (mean = 0.90, range = 0.90–0.90), analytical software (mean = 0.74, range = 0.68–0.82), model description (mean = 0.71, range = 0.58–0.84), model implementation (mean = 0.68, range = 0.39–0.86), and experimental protocol (mean = 0.63, range = 0.58–0.69) had moderate or greater (kappa &gt; 0.41) inter-rater reliability. Questions related to data had the lowest values (mean = 0.37, range = 0.23–0.59). Reviewers ranked similar papers in the upper and lower quartiles based on the proportion of reproducibility elements each paper reported. While over 70% of the publications provided data used in their models, less than 30% provided the model implementation. Conclusions: The IDMRC is the first comprehensive, quality-assessed tool for guiding researchers in reporting reproducible infectious disease computational modeling studies. The inter-rater reliability assessment found that most scores were characterized by moderate or greater agreement. These results suggests that the IDMRC might be used to provide reliable assessments of the potential for reproducibility of published infectious disease modeling publications. Results of this evaluation identified opportunities for improvement to the model implementation and data questions that can further improve the reliability of the checklist.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.21.23287529v1" target="_blank">Inter-rater reliability of the Infectious Disease Modeling Reproducibility Checklist (IDMRC) as applied to COVID-19 computational modeling research</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>COVID-19 Genome Surveillance: A Geographical Landscape and Mutational Mapping of SARS-CoV-2 Variants in Central India over Two Years</strong> -
<div>
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Reading the viral genome through whole genome sequencing enables the detection of changes in the viral genome. The rapid changes in the SARS-CoV-2 viral genome may cause immune escape leading to an increase in the pathogenicity or infectivity. Monitoring mutations through genomic surveillance helps understand the amino acid changes resulting from the mutation. These amino acid changes, especially in the spike glycoprotein, may have implications on the pathogenicity of the virus by rendering it immune-escape. The region of Vidarbha in Maharashtra represents 31.6% of the total area and 21.3% of the total population of the state. In total, 7457 SARS-CoV-2 positive samples belonging to 16 Indian States were included in the study, out of which 3002 samples passed the sequencing quality control criteria. The metadata of 7457 SARS-CoV-2 positive samples included in the study was sourced from the Integrated Health Information Platform. The metadata of 3002 sequenced samples, including the FASTA sequence, was submitted to the Global initiative on sharing Avian Influenza Data and the Indian biological data centre. This study identified 104 different SARS-CoV-2 pango-lineages classified into 19 clades. We have also analysed the mutation profiles of the variants found in the study, which showed eight mutations of interest, including L18F, K417N, K417T, L452R, S477N, N501Y, P681H, P681R, and mutation of concern E484K in the spike glycoprotein region. The study was from November 2020 to December 2022, making this study the most comprehensive genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 conducted for the region.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.22.23287566v1" target="_blank">COVID-19 Genome Surveillance: A Geographical Landscape and Mutational Mapping of SARS-CoV-2 Variants in Central India over Two Years</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Comparison of Vaccination and Booster Rates and Their Impact on Excess Mortality During the COVID-19 Pandemic in European Countries</strong> -
<div>
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Aim To evaluate the effect of vaccination/booster administration dynamics on the reduction of excess mortality during COVID-19 infection waves in European countries. Methods We selected twenty-nine countries from the OurWorldInData project database according to their population size of more than one million and the availability of information on dominant SARS-CoV-2 variants during COVID-19 infection waves. After selection, we categorized countries according to their ″faster″ or ″slower″ vaccination rates. The first category included countries that reached 60% of vaccinated residents by October 2021 and 70% by January 2022. The second or ″slower″ category included all other countries. In the first or ″faster″ category, two groups, ″boosters faster99 and ″boosters slower″ were created. Pearson correlation analysis, linear regression, and chi-square test for categorical data were used to identify the association between vaccination rate and excess mortality. We chose time intervals corresponding to the dominance of viral variants: Wuhan, Alpha, Delta, and Omicron BA.1/2. Results The ″faster″ countries, as opposed to the ″slower″ ones, did better in protecting their residents from mortality during all periods of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and even before vaccination. Perhaps higher GDP per capita contributed to their better performance throughout the pandemic. During mass vaccination, when the Delta variant prevailed, the contrast in mortality rates between the ″faster″ and ″slower″ categories was strongest. The average excess mortality in the ″slower″ countries was nearly 5 times higher than in the ″faster″ countries, and the odds ratio (OR) was 4.9 (95% CI 4.4 to 5.4). Slower booster rates were associated with significantly higher mortality during periods dominated by Omicron BA.1 and BA.2, with an OR of 2.6 (CI 95%. 2.1 to 3.3). Among the European countries we analyzed, Denmark, Norway, and Ireland did best, with a pandemic mortality rate of 0.1% of the population or less. By comparison, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Russia had a much higher mortality rate of up to 1% of the population. Thus, slow vaccination and booster administration was a major factor contributing to an order of magnitude higher excess mortality in ″slower″ European countries compared to more rapidly immunized countries.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.21.23287548v1" target="_blank">Comparison of Vaccination and Booster Rates and Their Impact on Excess Mortality During the COVID-19 Pandemic in European Countries</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Coverage of state-initiated contact-tracing during COVID-19 and factors influencing it: evidence from real-world data</strong> -
<div>
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Contact tracing has been one of the central non-pharmaceutical interventions implemented worldwide to control the spread of Sars-CoV-2, but its effectiveness strongly depends on its ability to capture contacts. To investigate this issue, we analysed an extensive operational database of SARS-CoV-2 tests in Geneva and used permutation statistics to estimate the number of secondary infectious contacts occurring at the same address. Our results show that manual contact tracing captured in average 41% of the secondary infections occurring at the address, with variation in time from 23% during epidemic peaks to 60% during low epidemic activity. Both socio-economic and structural factors influence the under-reporting of contacts. In particular, wealthy neighbourhoods are less likely to report contacts (adjusted odds ratio (aOR): 1.6), while living in buildings increases under-reporting when compared to family houses, with an aOR of 1.08 to 3.14 depending on the variant of concern, the size of the building and if the building had shops. This under-reporting of contact in buildings decreased during periods of mandatory mask-wearing and restriction of private gatherings, indicating the importance of public measures in reducing unnoticed infections in shared spaces. A more effective contact tracing strategy should be partly digitalized to avoid saturation of contact tracing capacity during high activity of the pandemics, and public messages should focus on avoiding unnoticed infectious contacts in large buildings and target special populations, such as those in wealthy areas.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.22.23287577v1" target="_blank">Coverage of state-initiated contact-tracing during COVID-19 and factors influencing it: evidence from real-world data</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Balancing Functional Tradeoffs between Protein Stability and ACE2 Binding in the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.2, BA.2.75 and XBB Lineages : Dynamics-Based Network Models Reveal Epistatic Effects Modulating Compensatory Dynamic and Energetic Changes</strong> -
<div>
The evolutionary and functional studies suggested that the emergence of the Omicron variants can be determined by multiple fitness trade-offs including the immune escape, binding affinity for ACE2, conformational plasticity, protein stability and allosteric modulation. In this study, we systematically characterize conformational dynamics, protein stability and binding affinities of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike Omicron complexes with the host receptor ACE2 for BA.2 , BA.2.75, XBB.1 and XBB.1.5 variants. We combined multiscale molecular simulations and dynamic analysis of allosteric interactions together with the ensemble-based mutational scanning of the protein residues and network modeling of epistatic interactions. This multifaceted computational study characterized molecular mechanisms and identified energetic hotspots that can mediate the predicted increased stability and the enhanced binding affinity of the BA.2.75 and XBB.1.5 complexes. The results suggested a mechanism driven by the stability hotspots and a spatially localized group of the Omicron binding affinity centers, while allowing for functionally beneficial neutral Omicron mutations in other binding interface positions. A network-based community model for the analysis of non-additive epistatic contributions in the Omicron complexes is proposed revealing the key role of the binding hotspots R498 and Y501 in mediating community-based epistatic couplings with other Omicron sites and allowing for compensatory dynamics and binding energetic changes. The results also showed that mutations in the convergent evolutionary hotspot F486 can modulate not only local interactions but also rewire the global network of local communities in this region allowing the F486P mutation to restore both the stability and binding affinity of the XBB.1.5 variant which may explain the growth advantages over the XBB.1 variant. The results of this study are consistent with a broad range of functional studies rationalizing functional roles of the Omicron mutation sites that form a coordinated network of hotspots enabling balance of multiple fitness tradeoffs and shaping up a complex functional landscape of virus transmissibility.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.21.533701v1" target="_blank">Balancing Functional Tradeoffs between Protein Stability and ACE2 Binding in the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.2, BA.2.75 and XBB Lineages : Dynamics-Based Network Models Reveal Epistatic Effects Modulating Compensatory Dynamic and Energetic Changes</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>BCG administration promotes the long-term protection afforded by a single-dose intranasal adenovirus-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccine</strong> -
<div>
Despite medical interventions and several approved vaccines, the COVID-19 pandemic is continuing into its third year. Recent publications have explored single-dose intranasal (i.n.) adenovirus-based vaccines as an effective strategy for curbing SARS-CoV-2 in naive animal models. However, the effects of prior immunizations and infections have yet to be considered within these models. Here, we investigate the immunomodulatory effects of Mycobacterium bovis BCG pre-immunization on a subsequent S-protein expressing i.n. Ad vaccination, termed Ad(Spike). We found that Ad(Spike) alone conferred long-term protection from severe SARS-CoV-2 pathology within a mouse model, yet it was unable to limit initial infection 6 months post-vaccination. While i.n. Ad(Spike) retains some protective effect after 6 months, a single administration of BCG-Danish prior to Ad(Spike) vaccination potentiates its ability to control viral replication of the B.1.351 SARS-CoV-2 variant within the respiratory tract. Though BCG-Danish had no effect on the ability of Ad(Spike) to generate and maintain humoral immunity, it promoted the generation of cytotoxic and Th1 responses over suppressive FoxP3+ TREG cells in the lungs of infected mice. These data demonstrate a novel vaccination strategy that may prove useful in limiting future viral pandemics by potentiating the long-term efficacy of next generation mucosal vaccines within the context of the safe and widely distributed BCG vaccine.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.21.533720v1" target="_blank">BCG administration promotes the long-term protection afforded by a single-dose intranasal adenovirus-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccine</a>
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<li><strong>Spatiotemporal analysis of SARS-CoV-2 infection reveals an expansive wave of monocyte-derived macrophages associated with vascular damage and virus clearance in hamster lungs</strong> -
<div>
Factors of the innate immune response to SARS-CoV-2 in the lungs are pivotal for the ability of the host to deal with the infection. In humans, excessive macrophage infiltration is associated with disease severity. Using 3D spatiotemporal analysis of optically cleared hamster lung slices in combination with virological, immunohistochemical and RNA sequence analyses, we visualized the spread of SARS-CoV-2 through the lungs and the rapid anti-viral response in infected lung epithelial cells, followed by a wave of monocyte-derived macrophage (MDM) infiltration and virus elimination from the tissue. These SARS-CoV-2 induced innate immune processes are closely related to the onset of necrotizing inflammatory and consecutive remodelling responses in the lungs, which manifests as extensive cell death, vascular damage, thrombosis, and cell proliferation. Here we show that MDM are directly linked to virus clearance, and appear in connection with tissue injury and blood vessel damage. Rapid initiation of prothrombotic factor upregulation, tissue repair and alveolar cell proliferation results in tissue remodelling, which is followed by fibrosis development despite a decrease in inflammatory and anti-viral activities. Thus, although the hamsters are able to resolve the infection following the MDM influx and repair lung tissue integrity, longer-term alterations of the lung tissues arise as a result of concurrent tissue damage and regeneration processes.
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.22.533759v1" target="_blank">Spatiotemporal analysis of SARS-CoV-2 infection reveals an expansive wave of monocyte-derived macrophages associated with vascular damage and virus clearance in hamster lungs</a>
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<li><strong>Nasopharyngeal Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2) Expression as a Risk-Factor for SARS-CoV-2 Transmission in Concurrent Hospital Associated Outbreaks</strong> -
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Background: Widespread human-to-human transmission of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus two (SARS-CoV-2) stems from a strong affinity for the cellular receptor angiotensin converting enzyme two (ACE2). We investigate the relationship between a patient9s nasopharyngeal ACE2 transcription and secondary transmission within a series of concurrent hospital associated SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks in British Columbia, Canada. Methods: Epidemiological case data from the outbreak investigations was merged with public health laboratory records and viral lineage calls, from whole genome sequencing, to reconstruct the concurrent outbreaks using infection tracing transmission network analysis. ACE2 transcription and RNA viral load were measured by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. The transmission network was resolved to calculate the number of potential secondary cases. Bivariate and multivariable analyses using Poisson and Negative Binomial regression models was performed to estimate the association between ACE2 transcription the number of SARS-CoV-2 secondary cases. Results: The infection tracing transmission network provided n = 76 potential transmission events across n = 103 cases. Bivariate comparisons found that on average ACE2 transcription did not differ between patients and healthcare workers (P = 0.86). High ACE2 transcription was observed in 98.6% of transmission events, either the primary or secondary case had above average ACE2. Multivariable analysis found that the association between ACE2 transcription and the number of secondary transmission events differs between patients and healthcare workers. In health care workers Negative Binomial regression estimated that a one unit change in ACE2 transcription decreases the number of secondary cases (B = -0.132 (95%CI: -0.255 to -0.0181) adjusting for RNA viral load. Conversely, in patients a one unit change in ACE2 transcription increases the number of secondary cases (B = 0.187 (95% CI: 0.0101 to 0.370) adjusting for RNA viral load. Sensitivity analysis found no significant relationship between ACE2 and secondary transmission in health care workers and confirmed the positive association among patients. Conclusion: Our study suggests that ACE2 transcription has a positive association with SARS-CoV-2 secondary transmission in admitted inpatients, but not health care workers in concurrent hospital associated outbreaks, and it should be further investigated as a risk-factor for viral transmission.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.20.23287264v2" target="_blank">Nasopharyngeal Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2) Expression as a Risk-Factor for SARS-CoV-2 Transmission in Concurrent Hospital Associated Outbreaks</a>
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<li><strong>Serious harms of the COVID-19 vaccines: a systematic review</strong> -
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BACKGROUND: Serious and severe harms of the COVID-19 vaccines have been downplayed or deliberately excluded by the study sponsors in high impact medical journals. METHODS: Systematic review of papers with data on serious adverse events (SAEs) associated with a COVID-19 vaccine. RESULTS: We included 18 systematic reviews, 14 randomised trials, and 34 other studies with a control group. Most studies were of poor quality. A systematic review of regulatory data on the two pivotal trials of the mRNA vaccines found significantly more SAEs of special interest with the vaccines compared to placebo, and the excess risk was considerably larger than the benefit, the risk of hospitalisation. The adenovirus vector vaccines increased the risk of venous thrombosis and thrombocytopenia, and the mRNA-based vaccines increased the risk of myocarditis, with a mortality of about 1-2 per 200 cases. We found evidence of serious neurological harms, including Bells palsy, Guillain-Barre syndrome, myasthenic disorder and stroke, which are likely due to an autoimmune reaction. Severe harms, i.e. those that prevent daily activities, were underreported in the randomised trials. These harms were very common in studies of booster doses after a full vaccination and in a study of vaccination of previously infected people. CONCLUSIONS: Further randomised trials are needed. Authorities have recommended population-wide COVID-19 vaccination and booster doses. They do not consider that the balance between benefits and harms becomes negative in low-risk groups such as children and people who have already recovered from COVID-19 infection.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.06.22283145v2" target="_blank">Serious harms of the COVID-19 vaccines: a systematic review</a>
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<li><strong>“You are not a horse”: Medicalization, social control, and academic discourse in the Covid-19 era</strong> -
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Since early 2020, public figures in government, medicine, public health, and academia have accused critics of official Covid-19 policy of subverting efforts to contain the crisis, by spreading “misinformation” leading to concerning levels of “vaccine hesitancy” or to the uptake of unproven, even dangerous, therapeutics. These accusations were compellingly captured in an August 2021 tweet from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), “You’re not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it”, warning anyone considering or already consuming the antiparasitic drug ivermectin to treat or prevent Covid-19 that the drug could be “dangerous and even lethal” if used outside of the scope of FDA guidelines. In this study I examine the role of academic popularizing discourse in Covid-19 debates. Drawing from theories and methods that share a concern with how medical language and frames are deployed to control social behaviour, I appraise articles from The Conversation, an outlet that disseminates academic knowledge to facilitate open exchange and democratic governance. My analysis challenges the outlet’s self-presentation, suggesting instead that, in the Covid-19 era, far from contributing to its ostensible goals, The Conversation’s stigmatizing and condemnatory messaging is largely undermining them, with dire implication for the normative academic principles of open inquiry, the free pursuit of knowledge, and the promotion of critical thinking among younger generations.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/fwvem/" target="_blank">“You are not a horse”: Medicalization, social control, and academic discourse in the Covid-19 era</a>
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<li><strong>Persons Diagnosed with COVID in England in the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD): A Cohort Description</strong> -
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Objective: To create case definitions for confirmed COVID diagnoses, COVID vaccination status, and three separate definitions of high risk of severe COVID, as well as to assess whether the implementation of these definitions in a cohort reflected the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of COVID epidemiology in England. Design: Retrospective cohort study Setting: Electronic healthcare records from primary care (Clinical Practice Research Datalink, or CPRD) linked to secondary care data (Hospital Episode Statistics, or HES) data covering 24% of the population in England Participants: 2,271,072 persons aged 1 year and older diagnosed with COVID in CPRD Aurum between August 1, 2020 through January 31, 2022. Main Outcome Measures: Age, sex, and regional distribution of COVID cases and COVID vaccine doses received prior to diagnosis were assessed separately for the cohorts of cases identified in primary care and those hospitalized for COVID (primary diagnosis code of ICD-10 U07.1 COVID-19). Smoking status, body mass index and Charlson Comorbidity Index were compared for the two cohorts, as well as for three separate definitions of high risk of severe disease used in the United Kingdom (NHS Highest Risk, PANORAMIC trial eligibility, UK Health Security Agency Clinical Risk prioritization for vaccination). Results: Compared to national estimates, CPRD case estimates underrepresented older adults in both the primary care (age 65-84: 6% in CPRD vs 9% nationally) and hospitalized (31% vs 40%) cohorts, and overrepresented people living in regions with the highest median wealth areas of England (20% primary care and 20% hospital admitted cases in South East, vs 15% nationally). The majority of non-hospitalized cases and all hospitalized cases had not completed primary series vaccination. In primary care, persons meeting high risk definitions were older, more often smokers, overweight or obese, and had higher Charlson Comorbidity Index score. Conclusions: CPRD primary care data is a robust real-world data source and can be used for some COVID research questions, however limitations of the data availability should be carefully considered. Included in this publication are supplemental files for a total of over 28,000 codes to define each of three definitions of high risk of severe disease.
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.17.23287415v1" target="_blank">Persons Diagnosed with COVID in England in the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD): A Cohort Description</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>Clinical Performance Evaluation of the CareSuperb™ COVID-19 Antigen Home Test</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Device: CareSuperb COVID-19 Antigen Home Test Kit<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   AccessBio, Inc.<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>MP0420 for Inpatients With COVID-19 (An ACTIV-3/TICO Treatment Trial)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: MP0420;   Drug: Placebo;   Biological: Remdesivir<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of Minnesota;   International Network for Strategic Initiatives in Global HIV Trials (INSIGHT);   University of Copenhagen;   Medical Research Council;   Kirby Institute;   Washington D.C. Veterans Affairs Medical Center;   AIDS Clinical Trials Group;   National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI);   US Department of Veterans Affairs;   Prevention and Early Treatment of Acute Lung Injury (PETAL);   Cardiothoracic Surgical Trials Network (CTSN);   Molecular Partners AG<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>AZD7442 for Inpatients With COVID-19 (An ACTIV-3/TICO Treatment Trial)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: AZD7442;   Biological: Placebo;   Biological: Remdesivir<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of Minnesota;   International Network for Strategic Initiatives in Global HIV Trials (INSIGHT);   University of Copenhagen;   Medical Research Council;   Kirby Institute;   Washington D.C. Veterans Affairs Medical Center;   AIDS Clinical Trials Group;   National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI);   US Department of Veterans Affairs;   Prevention and Early Treatment of Acute Lung Injury (PETAL);   Cardiothoracic Surgical Trials Network (CTSN);   AstraZeneca<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>PF-07304814 for Inpatients With COVID-19 (An ACTIV-3/TICO Treatment Trial)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: PF-07304814;   Drug: Placebo;   Biological: Remdesivir<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of Minnesota;   International Network for Strategic Initiatives in Global HIV Trials (INSIGHT);   University of Copenhagen;   Medical Research Council;   Kirby Institute;   Washington D.C. Veterans Affairs Medical Center;   AIDS Clinical Trials Group;   National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI);   US Department of Veterans Affairs;   Prevention and Early Treatment of Acute Lung Injury (PETAL);   Cardiothoracic Surgical Trials Network (CTSN);   Pfizer<br/><b>Suspended</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>VIR-7831 for Inpatients With COVID-19 (An ACTIV-3/TICO Treatment Trial)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: VIR-7831;   Biological: Placebo;   Biological: Remdesivir<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of Minnesota;   International Network for Strategic Initiatives in Global HIV Trials (INSIGHT);   University of Copenhagen;   Medical Research Council;   Kirby Institute;   Washington D.C. Veterans Affairs Medical Center;   AIDS Clinical Trials Group;   National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI);   US Department of Veterans Affairs;   Prevention and Early Treatment of Acute Lung Injury (PETAL);   Cardiothoracic Surgical Trials Network (CTSN);   Vir Biotechnology, Inc.;   GlaxoSmithKline<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>BRII-196/BRII-198 for Inpatients With COVID-19 (An ACTIV-3/TICO Treatment Trial)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: BRII-196;   Biological: BRII-198;   Biological: Placebo;   Biological: Remdesivir<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of Minnesota;   International Network for Strategic Initiatives in Global HIV Trials (INSIGHT);   University of Copenhagen;   Medical Research Council;   Kirby Institute;   Washington D.C. Veterans Affairs Medical Center;   AIDS Clinical Trials Group;   National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI);   US Department of Veterans Affairs;   Prevention and Early Treatment of Acute Lung Injury (PETAL);   Cardiothoracic Surgical Trials Network (CTSN);   Brii Biosciences Limited<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>LY3819253 (LY-CoV555) for Inpatients With COVID-19 (An ACTIV-3/TICO Treatment Trial)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: LY3819253;   Biological: Placebo;   Biological: Remdesivir<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of Minnesota;   International Network for Strategic Initiatives in Global HIV Trials (INSIGHT);   University of Copenhagen;   Medical Research Council;   Kirby Institute;   Washington D.C. Veterans Affairs Medical Center;   AIDS Clinical Trials Group;   National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI);   US Department of Veterans Affairs;   Prevention and Early Treatment of Acute Lung Injury (PETAL);   Cardiothoracic Surgical Trials Network (CTSN);   Eli Lilly and Company<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>Use of E-health Based Exercise Intervention After COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: Exercise training using an e-health tool<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Norwegian University of Science and Technology;   University of Oslo<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>Effect Of Calcitriol On Neutrophil To Lymphocytes Ratio And High Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein Covid-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Calcitriol;   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Universitas Sebelas Maret<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Clinical Study for the Efficacy and Safety of Ropeginterferon Alfa-2b in Moderate COVID19.</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: P1101 (Ropeginterferon alfa-2b);   Procedure: SOC<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   National Taiwan University 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>Phase I Clinical Trial of Recombinant Variant COVID-19 Vaccine (Sf9 Cell) (WSK-V102)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: Recombinant variant COVID-19 vaccine(Sf9 cell)<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   WestVac Biopharma 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>A Phase II Clinical Trial of Recombinant Variant COVID-19 Vaccine (Sf9 Cell) (WSK-V102)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Recombinant variant COVID-19 vaccine (Sf9 cell);   Biological: Recombinant COVID-19 vaccine (CHO cell);   Biological: Recombinant COVID-19 vaccine (Sf9 cell)<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   WestVac Biopharma 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>Short-term Effects of Transdermal Estradiol on Female COVID-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   Hormone Replacement Therapy<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Climara 0.1Mg/24Hr Transdermal System;   Other: Hydrogel patch<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Istanbul University - Cerrahpasa (IUC);   Turkish Menopause and Osteoporosis Society;   Karakoy Rotary Club;   Rebul Pharmacy<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>Effect of Kinesio Tape Versus Diaphragmatic Breathing Exercise In Post COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Post COVID-19 Condition<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Other: Pursed lip breathing;   Other: Cognitive Behavior Therapy;   Other: Diaphragmatic breathing exercise;   Other: Kinesio tape<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Cairo 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>Teletechnology-assisted Home-based Exercise Program for Severe COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   Telerehabilitation<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: Teletechnology-assisted home-based pulmonary rehabilitation<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   National Taiwan University Hospital<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>The Comprehensive Effects of Carassius auratus Complex Formula against Lipid Accumulation, Hepatocarcinogenesis, and COVID-19 Pathogenesis via Stabilized G-Quadruplex and Reduced Cell Senescence</strong> - Carassius auratus complex formula (CACF) is a traditional Chinese medicine known for its antidiabetic effects. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a major cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, and there are currently no effective therapies for advanced HCC. This study explores the comprehensive effects and possible mechanisms of CACF on HCC. The results show that CACF reduces the viability of hepatoma cells in vitro, while benefiting normal hepatocytes. In addition, CACF inhibits hepatoma cell…</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>Durability and Surface Oxidation States of Antiviral Nano-Columnar Copper Thin Films</strong> - Antiviral coatings that inactivate a broad spectrum of viruses are important in combating the evolution and emergence of viruses. In this study, nano-columnar Cu thin films have been proposed, inspired by cicada wings (which exhibit mechano-bactericidal activity). Nano-columnar thin films of Cu and its oxides were fabricated by the sputtering method, and their antiviral activities were evaluated against envelope-type bacteriophage Φ6 and non-envelope-type bacteriophage Qβ. Among all 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>Evaluation of Broad Anti-Coronavirus Activity of Autophagy-Related Compounds Using Human Airway Organoids</strong> - To deal with the broad spectrum of coronaviruses, including severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), that threaten human health, it is essential to not only drugs develop that target viral proteins but also consider drugs that target host proteins/cellular processes to protect them from being hijacked for viral infection and replication. To this end, it has been reported that autophagy is deeply involved in coronavirus infection. In this study, we used airway organoids to…</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>Myocarditis: causes, mechanisms, and evolving therapies</strong> - INTRODUCTION: Myocarditis is a severe lymphocyte-mediated inflammatory disorder of the heart, mostly caused by viruses and immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). Recently, myocarditis as a rare adverse event of mRNA vaccines for SARS-CoV-2 has caused global attention. The clinical consequences of myocarditis can be very severe, but specific treatment options are lacking or not yet clinically proven.</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>Dietary fish intake increased the concentration of soluble ACE2 in rats. Can fish consumption reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection through interception of SARS-CoV-2 by soluble ACE2?</strong> - The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) enters the cells after binding to the membrane-bound receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), but this may be prevented through interception by soluble ACE2 (sACE2) or by inhibition of the ACE2 receptor, thus obstructing cell entry and replication. The main objective of this study was to investigate if fish intake affected the concentration of sACE2 in rats. The secondary aim was to evaluate the in vitro ACE2 inhibiting…</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>Pseudoknot-targeting Cas13b combats SARS-CoV-2 infection by suppressing viral replication</strong> - CRISPR-Cas13-mediated viral genome targeting is a novel strategy for defending against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants. Here, we generated mRNA-encoded Cas13b targeting the open reading frame 1b (ORF1b) region to effectively degrade the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase gene. Of the 12 designed CRISPR RNAs (crRNAs), those targeting the pseudoknot site upstream of ORF1b were found to be the most effective in suppressing SARS-CoV-2 propagation. Pseudoknot-targeting…</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>Using data mining techniques deep analysis and theoretical investigation of COVID-19 pandemic</strong> - This study uses K-Means Clustering to analyze Corona-Virus Diseases (Covid-19). Data mining in medicine has generated novel approaches to examine diseases. Coronavirus is difficult to treat because of its intricate structure, shape, and texture. Due to data mining improvements, the K-Means approach has been developed for evaluating covid-19. Observe the outbreak’s evolution, including its peak, and containment measures. A basic K-Means model is used to simulate Coronavirus’s prevalence in Iraq….</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>Ceftazidime exhibits a broad inhibition to the infection of SARS-CoV-2 prototype and Omicron variant in vitro by blocking spike protein-ACE2 interaction</strong> - No abstract</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>FXR inhibition: an innovative prophylactic strategy against SARS-CoV-2 infection</strong> - No abstract</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>New bi-phosphonate derivative: Synthesis, characterization, antioxidant activity in vitro and via cyclic voltammetry mode and evaluation of its inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 main protease</strong> - In this study, we have synthesized a new molecule labeled HBPA. Its molecular structure was determined by spectroscopic methods such as: FT-IR, NMR (¹H, ^(13)C and ^(31)P); our compound is subjected to two antioxidant activities assays: DPPH scavenging and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP); in the results, HBPA was expanded remarkable inhibition when compared especially to standard BHT with values of 14.936±0.808 and 7.1486±0.0645 μg/ml, respectively; in addition to the scavenging test 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>Co-pyrolysis of medical protective clothing and oil palm wastes for biofuel: Experimental, techno-economic, and environmental analyses</strong> - The ongoing global pandemic of COVID-19 has devastatingly influenced the environment, society, and economy around the world. Numerous medical resources are used to inhibit the infectious transmission of the virus, resulting in massive medical waste. This study proposes a sustainable and environment-friendly method to convert hazardous medical waste into valuable fuel products through pyrolysis. Medical protective clothing (MPC), a typical medical waste from COVID-19, was utilized for…</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 in-solution snapshot of SARS-COV-2 main protease maturation process and inhibition</strong> - The main protease from SARS-CoV-2 (M^(pro)) is responsible for cleavage of the viral polyprotein. M^(pro) self-processing is called maturation, and it is crucial for enzyme dimerization and activity. Here we use C145S M^(pro) to study the structure and dynamics of N-terminal cleavage in solution. Native mass spectroscopy analysis shows that mixed oligomeric states are composed of cleaved and uncleaved particles, indicating that N-terminal processing is not critical for dimerization. A 3.5 Å…</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>Bioactive Compositions of Cinnamon (<em>Cinnamomum verum</em> J. Presl) Extracts and Their Capacities in Suppressing SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein Binding to ACE2, Inhibiting ACE2, and Scavenging Free Radicals</strong> - Cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum J. Presl) bark and its extracts are popular ingredients added to food and supplement products. It has various health effects, including potentially reducing the risk of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19). In our study, the bioactives in cinnamon water and ethanol extracts were chemically identified, and their potential in suppressing SARS-CoV-2 spike protein-angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) binding, reducing ACE2 availability, and scavenging free radicals was…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Structure-based design of a SARS-CoV-2 Omicron-specific inhibitor</strong> - The Omicron variant of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) introduced a relatively large number of mutations, including three mutations in the highly conserved heptad repeat 1 (HR1) region of the spike glycoprotein (S) critical for its membrane fusion activity. We show that one of these mutations, N969K induces a substantial displacement in the structure of the heptad repeat 2 (HR2) backbone in the HR1HR2 postfusion bundle. Due to this mutation, fusion-entry peptide…</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>Omicron-induced interferon signalling prevents influenza A H1N1 and H5N1 virus infection</strong> - Recent findings in permanent cell lines suggested that SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.1 induces a stronger interferon response than Delta. Here, we show that BA.1 and BA.5 but not Delta induce an antiviral state in air-liquid interface (ALI) cultures of primary human bronchial epithelial (HBE) cells and primary human monocytes. Both Omicron subvariants caused the production of biologically active type I (α/β) and III (λ) interferons and protected cells from super-infection with influenza A viruses….</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>A Ukrainian Philosopher’s Reluctant Departure from Kharkiv</strong> - Irina Zherebkina, who spent the first year of the war under bombardment in Kharkiv, still believes that peace must be imagined into being. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/a-ukrainian-philosophers-reluctant-departure-from-kharkiv">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Racial Politics of the N.B.A. Have Always Been Ugly</strong> - A new book argues that the real history of the league is one of strife between Black labor and white ownership. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-racial-politics-of-the-nba-have-always-been-ugly">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Pakistani Women Are Not All Right</strong> - The country’s annual march for women’s rights was a defiant act of self-assertion that once again sparked panic and condemnation from conservatives. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/pakistani-women-are-not-all-right">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Advice for Alvin Bragg from Former Trump Prosecutors</strong> - The Manhattan District Attorney faces huge legal and political challenges, but the former President’s antics could help the prosecution’s case. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/advice-for-alvin-bragg-from-former-trump-prosecutors">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The U.N. Issues a Final Warning on the Climate—and a Plan</strong> - The I.P.C.C. report contains no new data; nevertheless, it manages to alarm in new ways. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-un-issues-a-final-warning-on-the-climate-and-a-plan">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>What it looks like when a country doesn’t trust its banks</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Piles of Argentine pesos." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/i16NGtwMMsWgAYo7p0vk9pLhpn4=/57x0:968x683/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72105630/GettyImages_1266486231.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Ahead of your post-World Cup vacation to Argentina, you might want to give this story a little scan. | Ricardo Ceppi/Getty Images
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</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
I went to Argentina and the US did a bank run.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="D0GJIi">
I’ve been in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for the last month, including through the <a href="https://www.vox.com/business-and-finance/2023/3/20/23648853/credit-suisse-ubs-silicon-valley-signature-banking-crisis">recent turmoil in the banking industry</a> in the United States and Europe. It’s a coincidence that has, um, given me some things to think about.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="alGY1Y">
For those unfamiliar, the ways people in Argentina navigate the day-to-day economy can sound wild. When you don’t think you can trust the bank, the currency, or anybody in charge, things can get pretty weird pretty fast.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7L0sJx">
Amid <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/15/argentina-inflation-rate-100-percent">super-high inflation</a>, people can’t bet on the value of the Argentine peso staying stable, so when they’re paid in them, they spend them fast or convert their money to American dollars — it’s unwise to keep your money in pesos for too long. The government limits how many US dollars people can buy at the official exchange rate, if they’re allotted any at all, and so they buy them at a much higher black market rate, called the “blue” dollar. It’s about double the official rate — at the moment, the official exchange rate is around 200 pesos to a dollar, while the blue rate is around 380 to one.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ao387I">
“The Argentine economy has taught the people here not to trust in institutions in general but also not to trust in one of the central institutions for the functioning of the economy, which is money,” said Santiago Cesteros, a research fellow at the University of Zurich and former consultant at the World Bank.
</p>
<aside id="Uf4H5x">
<div>
</div>
</aside>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eVZEnG">
Argentina, like every country, is its own unique beast with a distinct set of political, economic, and historical issues that tend to render its economy a bit of a <a href="https://someunpleasant.substack.com/p/what-went-wrong-with-argentina">consistently inconsistent mess</a>. There’s no one explanation on why it is the way it is, or how to fix it. But it’s worth backing into the bigger picture here, an issue that matters whatever the context: the question of institutional trust.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9IL5VW">
If you can’t rely on your bank to have your money when you need it or your government to keep things stable, it can wreak all sorts of havoc on society and on the economy. Just look at what happened in the US with <a href="https://www.vox.com/technology/23634433/silicon-valley-bank-collapse-silvergate-first-republic-fdic">Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse</a>. It’s sparked <a href="https://www.vox.com/money/2023/3/16/23643664/silicon-valley-bank-jpmorgan-bank-run-big-banks">widespread concern</a> about the soundness of the US banking system despite the federal government’s best efforts to shore up confidence. The fear of contagion is strong, as America’s crisis is <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/australia-shares-set-to-pare-losses-at-the-open-457bd9e6">now spreading into Europe</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/17/business/economy/economy-banks-recession.html">the risk of recession seems to be on the rise once again</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="y1Jfob">
A well-functioning economy requires confidence in the banking sector and the financial system; when that confidence is eroded, the entire system becomes unstable. Worse, getting that confidence and stability back is a tough order.
</p>
<h3 id="3Fb6VG">
What it looks like to live in an economy where you trust no one
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GKDDpW">
I lived in Argentina for about seven years and go back from time to time. I want to keep up my permanent residency in case everything goes to hell in the US, and also I go because it is fun and great. Every time I’m back, I’m always struck by just how strange the state of economic navigation is, even if I more or less still get it. When someone was describing to me their peso-to-dollar-to-mattress scheme for saving money recently, I remarked how abnormal it was. “What’s not normal here? Things working well,” the person responded, laughing.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wzOD6k">
Last year, I went to visit a friend in the Buenos Aires province who casually informed me there was $20,000 in cash hidden in their small one-bedroom apartment. I spent hours wondering where it was. This year, another friend sold his mother’s house in a $110,000 transaction that will be in all dollars, all cash. He and his brother are trying to figure out how to make sure the dollars the buyer pays in aren’t fake. They think the best move is to put the money in the bank initially, but there’s debate about whether to keep it there — the other option is to take them back out in physical dollars and stash them away.
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<aside id="Ui1zbe">
<q>“What’s not normal here? Things working well”</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PcqLtZ">
To be clear here, when I say people buy and stash dollars, I mean they purchase the literal, physical paper bills — preferably $100 bills with a big Ben Franklin face, or “cara grande,” not the small face, “cara chica,” because those are older. Indeed, if you’re on the flipside and want to sell your dollars to convert them to pesos, you’ll be hard pressed to hand off smaller denominations such as $10s, $20s, and even $50s. If the bill has been used or has marks on it, it’s considered less valuable, too — the guy at the exchange place, called a cave, or “cueva,” might not even take it. People <em>can </em>get dollar (and, of course, peso) accounts in a bank, but many prefer not to — instead, they hide stacks of dollars around their homes.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pslFQm">
“Fundamentally, people only really want dollars because they don’t think the banks are trustworthy, they don’t think the currency is going to hold its value, and they don’t think the government is responsible enough to deal with it, either,” said Maia Mindel, an Argentine economics blogger who writes at <a href="https://someunpleasant.substack.com/?utm_source=substack&amp;utm_medium=web&amp;utm_campaign=substack_profile">Some Unpleasant Arithmetic</a>. “There have been really clear experiences of saying, ‘I’m going to trust my bank, I’m going to take out a fixed deposit, put my money in this bank, my life savings,’ and then the entire thing comes crashing down.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eVLVx8">
It’s sort of a you-have-to-see-it-to-believe-it situation. Nowadays, the money is probably fine in the bank, but what if it isn’t? In 2001, the Argentine government <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corralito">stopped a countrywide bank run</a> by freezing billions of dollars in deposits; many people were never able to recover all of their money.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rFo5ts">
“I don’t think that the government would be willing to steal that money from the people and get the dollars and give them pesos like in 2001. I think they won’t be willing to assume that cost,” Cesteros said. “But I still think people are afraid of something like that. It’s like a ghost.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wN1HWs">
“There is an idea that you need to save in a currency that isn’t the local currency, and you need to save outside of a bank,” Mindel said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nlXXEI">
Argentina’s economy has been troubled for decades, its history punctuated by various episodes of crises, of hyperinflation, of booms and busts. There was a brief moment of relative calm in the 1990s, but it ended in deep recession and skyrocketing poverty. “Since the ’60s and ’70s, Argentines’ confidence in their currency and their economic institutions has been eroding,” said Roy Hora, an Argentine historian. “What Argentines have done is to adapt to that scenario.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6B31fJ">
Hora compared it to boiled frog syndrome, where things get worse and worse but just slowly enough that in the day-to-day it’s rather imperceptible. Then, by the time the disaster has really set in, it’s too late. <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/14/intl_business/argentina-inflation-tops-100-percent-intl-latam/index.html">Argentina’s inflation rate just hit 100 percent annually</a>. (In the US, <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm">it’s 6 percent</a>.) Hora sent me a <a href="https://twitter.com/alfonsopratgay/status/1635726107189346305?t=gxauZ-swU3r77_Jl5mkZHA&amp;s=08">tweet</a> about the country’s mega price increases. “Here’s a title for you,” he said, “Worse than expected, even for the biggest pessimists.”
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<aside id="Xv2WHa">
<q>“They can’t plan for the future, they have to live in an eternal present”</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0TT9Kh">
The distortions caused by these intermittent economic crises, inflation, and <a href="https://www.infobae.com/economia/2022/01/30/sin-confianza-argentina-al-fondo-de-un-ranking-y-destacada-por-la-baja-credibilidad-en-el-gobierno-y-el-bcra/">generalized distrust in financial and governmental institutions</a> show up in big ways and small.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8CDObD">
Consumers try to buy things on long installment plans, knowing that over time, inflation will mean the payments they’re making on their televisions or laptops will amount to the cost of a pair of jeans or a cup of coffee. (In turn, retailers cut down on just how many installments are allowed.) Many businesses offer discounts in cash, the tacit agreement between seller and buyer being that the sale perhaps isn’t being recorded and therefore won’t be taxed. Banks offer fixed-term deposit accounts that pay annual interest rates of 75 percent and may still result in account holders losing money. The peso has a multitude of exchange rates, <a href="https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/economy/qatar-and-coldplay-argentina-multiplies-its-exchange-rates.phtml">including for the World Cup in Qatar and for Coldplay tickets</a>. Workers and unions are consistently in search of higher wages to try to keep up with skyrocketing prices, leading to frequent pickets and protests and a sense that it’s just never enough.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="z93IiS">
“Knowing that inflation has very negative consequences for the medium and long term, for most people, it takes away the opportunity to save,” Hora said. “They can’t plan for the future, they have to live in an eternal present.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rbKPxf">
Much of the turmoil is a question of inertia, Cesteros said. Everything’s getting more expensive because it always does. Everything’s chaos because it always is. “It is not easy at all to change people’s minds that inflation is part of the Argentinian economy,” Cesteros said. “You need a very strong change of regime in order to change the way that people think.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6WTVMO">
There’s a <a href="https://twitter.com/russonacho/status/1161057288125329408?lang=en">saying</a> in Argentina that if you leave for 20 days and come back, everything’s different, and when you leave for 20 years and come back, everything’s the same.
</p>
<h3 id="8LjlPY">
It’s not good when things fall apart
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CKKqi0">
I’m not trying to suggest here that what’s going on in the US economy right now is anything akin to Argentina or that any one country can really be neatly compared to any other. But given current concerns about inflation, it’s not a bad idea to take a beat to think about what happens when prices really spiral in a way that seems unstoppable. With the current financial tumult in the US and Europe, why confidence in institutions matters — and what happens when it’s lost — is worth ruminating on, too. Two, three weeks ago, few people in the US would tell you that they were seriously worried about <a href="https://www.vox.com/money/2023/3/16/23643664/silicon-valley-bank-jpmorgan-bank-run-big-banks">the fragility of mid-sized banks</a>. The <a href="https://www.vox.com/money/2023/3/13/23638417/svb-bank-bailout-signature-fed-fdic-treasury-janet-yellen">prospect of bank bailouts</a> felt like a question largely of the past, or at the very least, one not in the immediate present.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6pasBT">
It will be years before we fully understand what’s going on in the banking world right now, what caused it, who’s at fault, and why so many people didn’t see it coming. Still, one issue front and center here is that of trust. Bank runs, <a href="https://www.vox.com/technology/23634433/silicon-valley-bank-collapse-silvergate-first-republic-fdic">like what happened with SVB</a>, don’t come to pass unless people pull their money out, and once they start, they’re hard to stop. It’s like a stampede, said Itamar Drechsler, a professor of finance at Wharton. “I might not want to stampede, but if everybody else does, it doesn’t matter,” he said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="L6Jq6Q">
<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-17/what-is-the-fed-discount-window-why-are-banks-using-it-so-much?sref=qYiz2hd0">Central bankers</a> and government officials in the US and Europe are trying to <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/03/16/1163835018/policymakers-on-both-sides-of-the-atlantic-aim-to-shore-up-banking-confidence">reassure the public and investors</a> that things are okay, to varying degrees of success. Some consumers and businesses are still worried that their deposits might vanish, even though, by and large, there’s absolutely no reason for concern. The markets are still jittery. The banks themselves are working to get people to relax as well — <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-18/midsize-us-banks-ask-fdic-to-insure-all-deposits-for-two-years?sref=qYiz2hd0">and to get the government to promise</a> it will back them if things go awry, too.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ynPAD0">
<a href="https://www.fdic.gov/news/press-releases/2023/pr23019.html">You can debate whether</a> making Silicon Valley Bank’s depositors whole above the $250,000 FDIC insurance threshold was a good idea or whether its customers should have known better. You can certainly question why some banks seem not to have realized that they were at risk among <a href="https://www.vox.com/money/2023/3/14/23640065/silicon-valley-bank-collapse-fdic-interest-rates-federal-reserve">rising interest rates</a> from the Federal Reserve and a very concentrated client base. You can also ask why bank regulators and supervisors didn’t sound the alarm.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yHgw15">
On a broader level, plenty of people are, fairly, scratching their heads that much of the economy <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2022/12/2/23486024/economy-inflation-jobs-report-gdp-stock-market-recession">just doesn’t seem to make sense anymore</a>. They’re also <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/23339531/federal-reserve-inflation-jerome-powell-unemployment-interest-rates">feeling stressed and angry about persistent inflation</a>. In the US, price increases do seem to be slowing, and they’re not nearly as big as they are in other parts of the world, but they’re still happening. What’s more, one of the keys to keeping inflation in check is making sure people don’t expect it to keep going — they’ve got to, again, trust that the Fed will be able to get it under control.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YnJw1K">
The thing about confidence in institutions is that once it’s lost, it’s hard to get it back. Mindel said that for Argentina, she thinks it’s possible to get the economy on track — but it’s a heavy lift. “If you were to manage to solve all the country’s extremely serious and extremely deep-rooted macroeconomic issues and also have some large reforms in the financial system, [you could fix it],” she said. She laid out a laundry list that was a long one — reforming business statutes, labor, the informal economy, people paying so much in cash. “If you could do all that, you could have an economy that runs on trust.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="K33uXb">
Whatever else, it’s a decent reminder of why it’s important not to lose trust in the first place.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5G5qzT">
<em>We live in a world that’s constantly trying to sucker us and trick us, where we’re always surrounded by scams big and small. It can feel impossible to navigate. Every two weeks, join Emily Stewart to look at all the little ways our economic systems control and manipulate the average person. Welcome to </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/the-big-squeeze"><em>The Big Squeeze</em></a><em>.</em>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NF25sR">
<a href="http://vox.com/big-squeeze-newsletter"><em>Sign up to get this column in your inbox</em></a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fEmYHz">
<em>Have ideas for a future column or thoughts on this one? Email </em><a href="mailto:emily.stewart@vox.com"><em>emily.stewart@vox.com</em></a>.
</p></li>
<li><strong>The Broadway musical getting protested by neo-Nazis</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Figures dance on top of a raised wooden platform. One man in the center is spotlit and clutching a newspaper. Images from a historical newspaper are projected onto the background." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/RJE4DtpfEEtSi80wyQdPNukIPU4=/1134x0:7059x4444/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72105548/Jay_Armstrong_Johnson._Photo_by_Joan_Marcus.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Jay Armstrong Johnson, center, as reporter Britt Craig, with the company of <em>Parade</em>. | Joan Marcus
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
How Parade deconstructs the multi-layered tragedy of the lynching of Leo Frank.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vs2ROL">
When the Broadway musical <em>Parade</em> began its previews this February, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/22/theater/parade-broadway-neo-nazi-protest.html">it was met with neo-Nazi protesters</a>. As ticket-holders lined up outside the door, about a dozen masked figures waved signs and tried to distribute antisemitic pamphlets.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IFS6XC">
“You’re about to pay $300 to go in there and worship a fucking pedophile,” <a href="https://twitter.com/jacobhwasserman/status/1628192010405380098">said one</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lfdZHE">
The neo-Nazis felt compelled to protest because, it seems, <em>Parade</em>, which was first produced on Broadway in 1998 and is now scheduled to run in revival through early August, is about a historical antisemitic lynching. It tells the story of Leo Frank, a Jewish factory superintendent who lived in Atlanta and in 1913 was convicted — <a href="https://www.atlantamagazine.com/news-culture-articles/did-leo-frank-kill-mary-phagan-106-years-later-we-might-finally-find-out-for-sure/">almost certainly wrongfully</a> — of raping and murdering a 13-year-old girl.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vMpniR">
Even at the time, it was clear that the prosecution’s case against Frank was flimsy, so much so that it sparked national outrage and appeals traveled all the way to the Supreme Court. Eventually, the constant publicity pressured the governor of Georgia to commute the sentence against Frank from death to life imprisonment. A few months after the commutation came in, an antisemitic mob broke into the prison, kidnapped Frank, and hanged him.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="R9lBFh">
All of this chronology appears in unsparing detail in <em>Parade</em>, which makes much of the bureaucratic wrangling that led to Frank’s ruin. But what is more central to <em>Parade</em>, and what perhaps makes it still powerful enough to worry a neo-Nazi, is its attention to the way antisemitism fits into a broader system of white supremacy. <em>Parade</em> is an intersectional show, and what it parades before the audience is a case study in how antisemitism sits alongside anti-Blackness and misogyny, each system of oppression strengthening the other.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vYIBXP">
<em>Parade</em> does not begin with Leo Frank. Instead, its first scene depicts a young Confederate soldier singing farewell to his sweetheart as he prepares to leave home to go to war. (All the music and lyrics are by Jason Robert Brown, and the book is by <em>Driving Miss Daisy</em> playwright Alfred Uhry. The current Broadway revival is directed by Michael Arden.) By the time the song ends, 50 years have gone by, the soldier has become a wounded veteran, and the town is honoring him in a parade for what was then known as Confederate Memorial Day.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IdpX6x">
“Praise those who fight for the old hills of Georgia,” the townspeople sing, as children jubilantly wave Confederate flags and the few Black residents look on from the back of the stage in silence. This is the context, we are shown, in which Leo Frank was murdered: in a city barely 50 years removed from slavery, where the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/06/the-lost-causes-long-legacy/613288/">southern Lost Cause</a> is recalled not just romantically but with an almost religious fervor.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0SqS4T">
Yet <em>Parade</em> never allows that fervor to transfer to the audience. Always, when white characters begin to speak longingly of the antebellum south, the staging draws our attention to Black characters going rigid in response, skirting themselves away from the topic and toward someplace safer.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eP4NjW">
“Hangin’ another nigra ain’t enough this time,” the corrupt prosecutor Hugh Dorsey concludes after he whips the town into a vengeful frenzy over the murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan. “We gotta do better.” Leo Frank is the superintendent of the factory where Mary’s body was found, and his cosmopolitan New York Jewishness, Dorsey continues, makes him a more interesting suspect. He is alien to the south and as such could surely easily be a monster. “You want evidence? Look at those clothes and that big fancy talk.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="d1EEKP">
Scandal-mongering reporters rapidly adopt Dorsey’s angle. “Take this superstitious city, add one little Jew from Brooklyn, plus a college education and a mousy little wife, and big news!” one concludes.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ycyxhX">
As the publicity storm over the trial mounts, the press transforms Mary from the everyday giggly 13-year-old who appeared onstage at the beginning of the play into a child saint. “Who will restore the angel’s honor?” demands the Christian politician Tom Watson as he calls for Mary’s murder to be avenged. Periodically her ghost descends wordlessly from the rafters on a swing, a visitation from the Virgin Mary in a lavender pinafore. In a misogynistic court system, a sexual assault victim is only useful if she is inhumanly pure.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="J1zxHb">
In turn, the man who destroyed such an angel must be monstrous, Satanic. “Give ’im fangs, give ’im horns, give ’im scaly, hairy palms,” crows a reporter. The old medieval libel that Jews are out to rape Christian women comes back, with interest: “Sure, that fella’s here to rape the whole damned south!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7wElMO">
Meanwhile, as Dorsey builds his case against Leo, the brutal Jim Crow regime gives him plenty of targets to pressure into giving false testimony. The Franks’ Black maid, Minnie, testifies against him, and so does the Black janitor at Leo’s factory. “What was I supposed to do?” Minnie asks when Leo’s wife, Lucille, confronts her about her false testimony. Lucille has no answer.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oz5Jh9">
After Leo’s conviction becomes a cause celebre in the north, it does not escape the notice of Minnie or of the rest of the Black company that none of the righteous liberal anger lavished on Leo’s case ever seems to appear over their daily horrors. “I can tell you this, as a matter of fact, that the local hotels wouldn’t be so packed if a little Black girl had gotten attacked,” one of them sings as the rest cheer him on sardonically. “There’s a Black man swingin’ in every tree, but they don’t never pay attention.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dwzSUl">
Those Black characters are also maddeningly underwritten, in one of the major flaws of <em>Parade</em>. This show tends to depict all its characters outside Leo and Lucille as allegorical figures rather than as real human beings, but the issue becomes especially vexed with the Black characters, who seem to exist solely to comment on the south’s racism.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="crF7mM">
Oddly symbolic, too, is one of the additions Brown and Uhry make to the historical record. In real life, the teenage girls who worked at Frank’s factory were character witnesses for the defense, testifying that Frank never attempted to seduce them and so was unlikely to have tried to attack Mary Phagan in a sexual frenzy. In <em>Parade</em>, they become witnesses for the prosecution, lying that Leo sexually harassed them on a regular basis. As they testify, on the side of the stage, nebbishy Leo transforms himself into a comically incompetent harasser. The result is muddled, an attempt to deal with the complicity of white women in white supremacy that winds up suggesting that if a group of girls accuses their employer of harassing them but the employer is nerdy, then the girls are probably lying.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2zDW6k">
<em>Parade</em> is caught in the systems it examines, which is part of what makes the show so fascinating. Since 1998, it has worked to address its flaws, and in some cases has exacerbated them; underwritten Minnie, for instance, is a late addition to the show. Despite its occasion missteps, it remains committed to depicting the way all of these systems together led to the tragedy of Leo Frank: the antisemitism, the anti-Blackness, the misogyny, all of them interlocking. What <em>Parade</em> has to offer us is a portrait of how all these different forms of oppression can fit together in a single case — and the results are powerful enough that they’ve got neo-Nazis riled up.
</p></li>
<li><strong>How will we feed Earth’s rising population? Ask the Dutch.</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/hMMj1AehPyB4tUZUyfsdtRQi474=/900x0:6300x4050/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72068467/Vox_Doomerism_Netherlands_Final_2.0.jpg"/>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The Netherlands’ hyper-efficient food system is both a triumph and a cautionary tale.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="21GQ5K">
<em>Part of </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/23632673/against-doomerism"><em><strong>Against Doomerism</strong></em></a><em> from </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight?itm_campaign=hloct22&amp;itm_medium=article&amp;itm_source=intro"><em><strong>The Highlight</strong></em></a><em>, Vox’s home for ambitious stories that explain our world.</em>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JtYlA7">
An hour north of Amsterdam, some of the world’s largest seed conglomerates — the first step in a long journey that brings food from the farm to our plates — occupy what the industry calls “Seed Valley.” It’s a play on Northern California’s famous tech hub, but there is no actual valley here — the Netherlands is <a href="https://www.dutchnews.nl/features/2018/04/you-might-not-be-aware-of-it-but-the-netherlands-is-full-of-valleys/">notoriously flat</a> — and there are no Google buses or towering redwood trees. Instead, in this quiet, rural pocket, rows of pristine greenhouses stand beside small experimental farm plots and low-slung office buildings, all without a ping-pong table in sight. While touring a few seed companies there last month, I couldn’t even order an Uber.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NvyKjy">
Despite their differences, both regions share the belief that the best way to overcome humanity’s pressing challenges is through innovation. In California, it’s software and semiconductors, but in the Netherlands, it’s something even more elemental: improved fruit and vegetable seeds that can produce more food per acre for a growing population while withstanding ever-evolving threats to agriculture. And just as Silicon Valley has put its stamp on the global tech sector, Seed Valley has done the same for farming: Wageningen University and Research (WUR), an hour southeast of Amsterdam, is the nucleus of the country’s agricultural sector and is widely considered <a href="https://www.usnews.com/education/best-global-universities/agricultural-sciences">the world leader</a> in agricultural science.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LE7mcM">
Going back nearly 80 years, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2022/netherlands-agriculture-technology/">anxieties over food security</a> have driven the tiny Netherlands to become a global leader in agriculture despite having just half the land area of South Carolina. After a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/31/science/dutch-famine-genes.html">horrific famine</a> during World War II killed more than 20,000 Dutch, the government heavily invested in its agricultural sector <a href="https://www.bahs.org.uk/RuralHistory2010/Papers/Karel.pdf">through</a> subsidies, rural infrastructure, and industrialization. Two decades ago, it pledged to grow <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2022/netherlands-agriculture-technology/">twice as much food</a> with half as many resources, a goal it has already far exceeded. Today, the Netherlands produces <a href="https://www.tsln.com/news/food-control-dutch-farming-on-the-verge-of-a-disaster-as-government-pushes-to-close-3000-farms/#:~:text=In%20the%20European%20Union%20The,of%20food%20in%20the%20EU.">6 percent</a> of Europe’s food with only 1 percent of the continent’s farmland.
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="r2Vkfh"/>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WM8KV5">
Gerthon Van de Bunt, a senior plant breeder with the seed company Pop Vriend, is one of countless scientists in Seed Valley tinkering away to further boost agricultural output. When I met him in the company’s greenhouse complex, he showed me a few trays of small green bean plants he had infected with anthracnose, a fungal disease that’s killing green beans around the world.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LGd8pm">
Several days after infection, some plants looked perfectly healthy, while others were shriveled and discolored. After I’d spent hours poring over news articles and academic papers trying to better understand plant breeding, this small experiment made its power unmistakably clear. Plant the wrong seed and it could fall prey to disease, ruining an entire crop and wreaking economic and environmental damage, while newer varieties, bred through years of painstaking experimentation by scientists — many of them in Seed Valley — can make all the difference.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A photograph of a small tray with about 15 small green bean plants. Some look healthy, while others are shriveled and discolored." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/oICfqqNNz6gDXyq_ql-7QI75Tc8=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24483987/IMG_4675.JPG"/> <cite>Kenny Torrella/Vox</cite>
<figcaption>
Van de Bunt’s anthracnose test.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YZlzug">
Van de Bunt will go on to breed those resistant varieties with ones that meet all the other desired green bean traits, such as color, size, texture, and yield. But before his anthracnose-resistant beans can make it to supermarket shelves, it’ll take six or seven years of testing in Pop Vriend’s climate-controlled greenhouses and in the field. Years ago, Van de Bunt developed a heat-tolerant variety of green beans this way, making them better able to tolerate rising temperatures that one year had killed as much as 80 to 90 percent of the harvest for some farmers in the southeastern US.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EKRQSl">
Thousands of such small improvements to food production add up, helping us grow more food on less land and feed a population that’s <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/population-and-demography?facet=none&amp;pickerSort=desc&amp;pickerMetric=location&amp;hideControls=false&amp;Metric=Population&amp;Sex=Both+sexes&amp;Age+group=Total&amp;Projection+Scenario=None&amp;country=~OWID_WRL">more than doubled</a> in the past 50 years. We’ve largely been winning the race to feed humanity, but it’s a race that will only get tougher. Countless more innovations will be critical to feed the nearly <a href="https://www.un.org/en/desa/world-population-projected-reach-98-billion-2050-and-112-billion-2100">10 billion people</a> projected to be alive in 2050, all against the backdrop of a <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/srccl/chapter/chapter-5/">changing and worsening climate</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1X7JGF">
In part because of its unique role in the global food system, the Netherlands in recent years has also become an emblem of ascendant debates over the future of food. After decades of doggedly chasing efficiency, many Dutch politicians and agriculture experts are now questioning the ills of the intensive farming style that drives that efficiency, calling for drastic changes in how the Dutch eat and farm in order to reduce pollution, improve biodiversity, and meet climate targets.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="U7D647">
In the effort to stake out a middle ground between intensification and environmental conservation, I continually heard an updated version of their 20-year slogan throughout my trip: “Grow twice as much food with half as many resources — <em>sustainably</em>.”
</p>
<h3 id="sNeIQL">
Silicon Valley, but for seeds
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="V8Rn7b">
Rapid world population growth over the past century has repeatedly <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/8/20/20802413/overpopulation-demographic-transition-population-explained">fueled fears</a> of mass starvation. But that hasn’t come to pass, in part because fertility levels began to <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.TFRT.IN">decline sharply</a> beginning in the mid-1960s, but also because advancements in agricultural technology, like the spread of tractors, synthetic fertilizers, and more sophisticated plant breeding, helped us squeeze more food out of less land.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9VfOZR">
To take one example, if the yields of staple crops like wheat, corn, and rice remained frozen where they were in 1961, we would have had to deforest an additional area of land close to the combined size of the <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/yields-vs-land-use-how-has-the-world-produced-enough-food-for-a-growing-population">US and India</a> to provide the world with enough food. That would have been catastrophic for global biodiversity.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8nbEhA">
Much of that growth in yield is attributed to the <a href="https://link.vox.com/view/608adc3891954c3cef0363bdedsbh.adt/27185eb8">Green Revolution</a>, a US-led agricultural shift from the 1960s to ’80s to adopt synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, better irrigation, and hardier, higher-yield seeds in the Global South (Latin America, Africa, and Asia). The revolution spread harmful pollutants around the globe, but it also led to a <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/12/201217145235.htm?utm_source=Sailthru&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=Future%20Perfect%206.15.21&amp;utm_term=Future%20Perfect">dramatic reduction</a> in death rates and immense economic growth, helping lift millions out of extreme poverty and hunger. No revolution is fought without casualties, but in the case of the Green Revolution, the benefits far outweighed the costs.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OWdn4L">
But despite decades of progress, as many as 811 million people — one in every 10 — still go to bed <a href="https://www.fao.org/state-of-food-security-nutrition/2021/en/">hungry</a>. The coming century will bring new challenges for food production, some similar to what we’ve experienced before, some that we’ve never faced. We’re not doomed to suffer climate change-induced famine, but we’ll need a combination of improved technology and smarter, more just farm policy that prioritizes more resource-efficient foods — something tantamount to a <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/foodfeatures/green-revolution/">second Green Revolution</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gOC5b7">
One of the most pressing problems is closing what’s termed the “<a href="https://www.yieldgap.org/">yield gap</a>” — the difference in agricultural productivity between high- and low-income countries. If every country had farms as productive as those of the Netherlands, we’d have no problem feeding the world. But they don’t — while the Green Revolution significantly narrowed the yield gap, it <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/crop-yields">stubbornly persists</a>. A potato farmer in the Netherlands will harvest almost twice as many potatoes from an acre of land as a farmer in India, or three times as much wheat as a farmer in Brazil, to name just a few examples.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fKUzu5">
On top of the deadly bacteria and viruses like those Van de Bunt battles with his green beans, plants can also be devoured by insects, withered by drought, or drowned in a flood. Up to <a href="https://news.trust.org/item/20210602151218-6e6zv">40 percent</a> of global crop production is lost to disease and insects alone. Too much salt in the soil and poof — plant growth is stunted. Strong winds can carry seeds away or knock down plants, and extreme temperatures can kill crops or prevent them from ever sprouting.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="c7tUas">
All this will be amplified by climate change, said Xana Verweij, manager of research and application of cell technologies at Enza Zaden, a top seed producer located just a few miles from Pop Vriend. In an unstable climate, “sometimes it’s drought and the next week it rains cats and dogs,” Verweij said. “Putting that into the [plant’s] genetics, that’s a really big challenge.”
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A woman inside a sunny greenhouse inspecting a tall lettuce plant." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/-LtkFKbMc6KMhN9QLBEJuUrixuE=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24483996/Xana_Verweij_220602Enza_032Bew_HR.jpg"/> <cite>Enza Zaden</cite>
<figcaption>
Xana Verweij, of the seed company Enza Zaden, inspecting lettuce plants.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Y5FJZQ">
Agriculture experts say we’re still far from getting the most food out of each seed. One way of strengthening agricultural resilience in the face of climate change is by shortening the time it takes to develop new seed varieties that can adapt to the latest threats.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4P3mxy">
This is high-tech work, but it’s a continuation of something humans have been doing since the dawn of agriculture some 10,000 years ago: selectively breeding plants by crossing one variety that has a particular trait, like size or color, with another, like resistance to a disease or insect. Scientists like Verweij can speed up the process using what’s called molecular marker technology, by simply tearing off little pieces of a plant and quickly scanning its DNA for a genetic marker associated with a particular trait. This and other technologies have enabled breeders to significantly shorten the number of years it takes to develop a new variety.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UUYNWv">
“It’s almost like a race against the clock,” Verweij said. It previously took seven or eight years to breed a new lettuce variety; now it’s more like three or four. It usually takes eight to 10 years to develop a new tomato variety, but Enza Zaden recently created one in just five that is resistant to ToBRFV, a virus that <a href="https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/tobrfv-a-new-concern-for-tomato-and-pepper-producers">first appeared in Israel</a> in 2014 and has since destroyed tomato crops across Europe, the Middle East, and North America.
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="omq4Xi"/>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="97YQ01">
A suite of technologies to make seeds go further, known as seed enhancement, is also in the works in Seed Valley.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZNrWjm">
Newly planted seeds are especially vulnerable, since exposure to extreme temperatures can prevent them from sprouting, which depresses yields. So some Seed Valley companies, like Incotec, enhance them for seed companies through “priming.” They begin the germination process in the seed to shorten the vulnerable period and expand the temperature range in which seeds can grow. Priming dates back to <a href="https://agriallis.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/SEED-PRIMING-%E2%80%93-A-SUSTAINABLE-APPROACH-FOR-FARMING.pdf">ancient Greece</a> — companies like Incotec are simply advancing the technique.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WLyH9H">
Priming also increases seed uniformity, according to Maria Vermeer, a germination specialist at Incotec, which can improve yield because when plants grow at uneven rates, farmers are forced to harvest some before they’ve reached their full size.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Aat6FE">
Inside Incotec’s germination lab, the power of priming is obvious to the naked eye. Vermeer showed me a priming test of lettuce seeds — in the photo below, on the left are regular, unprimed seeds, and on the right are primed seeds that had also been pelleted, meaning covered with a coat of liquid and powders to give the seeds a uniform size, which makes planting more efficient.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Two rows of small circular trays with lettuce seeds and placards that denote the temperature at which the seed was grown. On the left side are unprimed and non-pelleted seeds, all of which are smaller and haven’t grown nearly as fast as the seeds on the right, which have been primed and pelleted." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/L14qjOsqJ-5wXj23RD05YbZxhjs=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24484003/IMG_4680.JPG"/> <cite>Kenny Torrella/Vox</cite>
<figcaption>
On the left are unprimed lettuce seeds, and on the right are pelleted and primed lettuce seeds, which makes it more likely for the seeds to germinate and grow at a more uniform pace.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="v3DcvT">
Incotec can also coat seeds with a thin film that contains a fungicide or other solution to prevent disease, or coat especially tiny seeds, like carrot or flower seeds, to make sure they don’t blow away in the wind.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wCMYPB">
The company also feeds an artificial intelligence program images of healthy and unhealthy seeds that it then uses to scan through massive batches of its customers’ seeds, tossing out the ones that have a lower likelihood of sprouting and maturing.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Someone holds a circular tray with hundreds of small, coated seeds." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/vJRQfGbG9RdmRGWtkALgq0pUY4w=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24484052/pelleting_general.jpeg"/> <cite>Courtesy of Incotec</cite>
<figcaption>
Seed enhancement companies like Incotec coat small seeds with a thin layer of material to make planting more efficient.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qLF3fh">
Treated seeds are already routinely used among farmers in high-income countries, but if the technology can be deployed globally, it could be a critical tool in closing the yield gap. A <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13593-022-00761-z">2022 meta-analysis</a> found seed treatment can reduce crop disease incidence or severity by an astounding 48 percent, and it increases yield by 6 percent on average. These effects vary by crop, geography, and farming practices.
</p>
<h3 id="lJaSVL">
The Netherlands has too many cows
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cgSaqJ">
Improving crop yields and resilience is only one part of the agricultural revolution that we’ll need to confront the climate crisis — we’ll also need to change <em>what</em> we farm and eat. As a result of <a href="https://www.bahs.org.uk/RuralHistory2010/Papers/Karel.pdf">decades of government policy</a> that promoted efficiency and intensification above all else, the Netherlands now has the <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Agri-environmental_indicator_-_livestock_patterns">most densely concentrated</a> livestock population in Europe. To meet climate and conservation goals, this will have to change.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Mv14sA">
Meat and dairy production account for around <a href="https://www.vox.com/22787178/beyond-impossible-plant-based-vegetarian-meat-climate-environmental-impact-sustainability">15 percent</a> of global greenhouse gas emissions, and while the Dutch <a href="https://landgeist.com/2021/10/05/meat-consumption-in-europe/">eat less meat</a> than many of their neighbors, their huge livestock population has led to immense nitrogen pollution that’s contaminating the country’s water and air and <a href="https://www.eea.europa.eu/soer/2010/countries/nl/nature-protection-and-biodiversity-why">destroying its biodiversity</a>. The solution to that challenge primarily isn’t technological advancement, but political and behavioral change.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zpLmq5">
“If we reduce our meat production and dairy production 50 percent, actually, that’s the solution,” said Wijnand Sukkel, an agroecology researcher at WUR. “That’s the biggest step we can take forward.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cU60xM">
You’ll hear similar sentiments from some Dutch politicians. When policymakers around the world suggest cuts to meat and dairy production or consumption, it’s <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/163079/convince-people-eat-less-meat">often</a> <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22360062/meat-vegetarian-vegan-lyon-france-culture-identity">met</a> <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2021/4/26/22403599/biden-red-meat-ban-burger-kudlow">with</a> <a href="https://www.euractiv.com/section/agriculture-food/news/meat-debate-heats-up-in-italy-after-remarks-by-new-super-minister/">backlash</a>. But the Netherlands has been far more receptive to calls for dietary change, even though this is a country where cheese is a national <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34380895">point of pride</a> and cheese shops put Roomba-size Gouda wheels on window display.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YcbBQq">
In 2018, an environmental advisory board for the Dutch government <a href="https://en.rli.nl/press/2018/meeting-climate-targets-requires-a-new-food-policy">recommended</a> that the country transition 20 percent of its protein intake from animal- to plant-based sources by 2030. Ever since, the recommendation has been seeping into local and national policy, with <a href="https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2022/02/15/Dutch-consumers-back-animal-free-future-of-meat">strong public support</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xRjDdF">
The world’s first lab-grown or “cultivated” hamburger was created by Dutch scientist Mark Post, and last year, the Dutch government invested <a href="https://www.foodingredientsfirst.com/news/dutch-government-invests-record-%E2%82%AC60m-to-boost-cellular-meat-agriculture.html">$65 million</a> into cultivated meat research, with plans to invest at least another $272 million. Six months later, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/06/haarlem-netherlands-bans-meat-adverts-public-spaces-climate-crisis">city of Haarlem</a> banned meat advertisements, and last month, the city of Altena — in partnership with WUR — launched a <a href="https://vegnews.com/vegan-health-wellness/activism/dutch-town-altena-plant-based-foods">“Plant-Based Together”</a> pilot program to influence its 55,000 residents to opt for more vegetarian meals.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TDJlsA">
Also last month: the Ministry of Agriculture — also in partnership with WUR — <a href="https://www.wur.nl/en/newsarticle/five-major-players-launch-masterplan-for-protein-transition-as-economic-engine-in-the-netherlands.htm#:~:text=The%20ambition%20of%20the%2087,the%20food%20industry%20and%20consumers.">announced the goal</a> of doubling legume consumption by 2030. It’s no wonder, then, that the country has been described as a “<a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90573547/how-the-netherlands-became-a-plant-based-protein-powerhouse">plant-based protein powerhouse</a>,” with more than 60 companies and research institutions working to make better-tasting meat and dairy alternatives.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oEzzUg">
Consuming more legumes and less meat and dairy as a way to conserve land is a lesson we could stand to learn in the US. <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1720760115#:~:text=Feed%20crops%20take%20up%20roughly,of%20edible%20calories%20(2).">Three-quarters</a> of US cropland is dedicated to growing corn and soy to feed farmed animals, even though meat and dairy only account for about <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK218176/#:~:text=Red%20meats%20account%20for%20the,and%20shellfish%20(0.9%20percent).">one-third</a> of our calories.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WGEmMP">
The comparatively positive reception to such policies in the Netherlands might be explained in part by how the Dutch seem less driven by the ideologies that typically dominate food fights — organic versus industrial, vegan versus carnivore, local versus global — and more by their national goal of growing twice as much food with half as many resources.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ByXcKZ">
The focus on outcomes over ideology is in part a result of what the Dutch call <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/027046760102100401?journalCode=bsta">the polder model</a>, an approach to decision-making employed in the Netherlands that emphasizes broad consensus and compromise among stakeholders. Much of the country is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3Dzz0vSabI">under sea level</a>, and <a href="https://ich.unesco.org/doc/src/50959-EN.pdf">one theory</a> says that the origins of the polder model date back to the Middle Ages when its <em>polders</em> — the Dutch word for the country’s low-lying parcels of land protected from flooding by dikes — required shared responsibility and cooperation to maintain.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Y79k7V">
The philosophy is palpable at WUR, the country’s agricultural R&amp;D giant, where sometimes clashing agricultural experts share space and collaborate: Plant breeders, livestock researchers, environmental scientists, plant-based advocates, organic farmers, and social scientists.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PAFg8O">
But the Netherlands’ sky-high nitrogen pollution, which has plagued the tiny country for <a href="https://www.energymonitor.ai/policy/the-dutch-nitrogen-crisis-shows-what-happens-when-policymakers-fail-to-step-up/">decades</a> and has now turned into a full-blown crisis, is testing the peacekeeping model. In 2019, the European Union’s <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/dutch-farmers-emissions-global-right-wing-culture-war-rcna60269">highest court</a> ruled that the country’s system for permitting construction and farming that emits high levels of nitrogen, which can cause <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1247398/">respiratory distress</a> in people and trigger mass die-offs in plants and fish, puts it in violation of EU environmental law. The Dutch Council of State agreed and put thousands of construction projects on hold, including new livestock farms.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9WdmnB">
The government now aims to slash its nitrogen emissions <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/20/world/europe/netherlands-farmers-protests.html">50 percent</a> by 2030, and most of the cuts will have to come from the livestock sector, the <a href="https://www.energymonitor.ai/policy/the-dutch-nitrogen-crisis-shows-what-happens-when-policymakers-fail-to-step-up/#:~:text=The%20Netherlands%20is%20struggling%20with,herd%20is%20causing%20environmental%20damage.">largest emitter</a>. It plans to do that by spending over <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/dec/15/netherlands-announces-25bn-plan-to-radically-reduce-livestock-numbers">$26 billion</a> to pay farmers to change their practices, or buy them out, leading to a potential <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220622-dutch-farmers-protest-livestock-cuts-to-curb-nitrogen">30 percent</a> reduction in livestock.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vFih0a">
The decisions have polarized a populace that enjoys an incredibly high rate of <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/12/03/social-trust-in-advanced-economies-is-lower-among-young-people-and-those-with-less-education/">social trust and cohesion</a>. Livestock farmers have jammed up highways with tractors in protest, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/20/world/europe/netherlands-farmers-protests.html">set fire</a> to manure and hay bales, and blocked access to supermarket distribution centers. The farmers benefit from high levels of public sympathy, though that appears to be <a href="https://www.ioresearch.nl/actueel/licht-dalende-steun-voor-boerenprotesten/">slowly waning</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="j0wugu">
Upside-down Dutch flags, a symbol of protest against the livestock regulations, lined the highway on my way out to rural Leeuwarden to visit WUR’s dairy research campus, where scientists are working to reduce nitrogen from the country’s <a href="https://longreads.cbs.nl/the-netherlands-in-numbers-2021/how-many-farm-animals-are-there-in-the-netherlands/">3.8 million cows</a>. That’s where I met with manager Kees de Koning, a dairy veteran, who handed me overalls and boots before we headed into the first research barn.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/qfJJd-9wPfCZSlMP87Q16Sn765o=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24484075/JB19_0517_1459.jpg"/> <cite>Jeroen Bouman</cite>
<figcaption>
Dairy cows at Wageningen University and Research’s dairy campus in Leeuwarden, Netherlands.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kxdrYA">
Most dairy cows are raised on cement flooring, where their urine and feces, both high in nitrogen, fall through slats and mix into a slurry, <a href="https://www.extension.iastate.edu/ampat/urine-feces-segregation">creating ammonia</a> — a more potent form of nitrogen. De Koning’s research center has tested new flooring that separates the urine and feces early on to reduce ammonia emissions. WUR researchers also say they can cut cows’ ammonia levels <a href="https://www.wur.nl/en/article/changing-the-cows-diet-reduces-methane-and-nitrogen-emissions.htm">15 percent</a> by reducing the protein in cows’ diets by 10 percent — another project at the dairy campus.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kLCCXd">
One of the more elaborate approaches to reducing nitrogen from dairy farms is the <a href="https://hanskamp.nl/en/cowtoilet">CowToilet</a>, a machine developed by the agriculture equipment company Hanskamp and tested by WUR. The cow enters a feed station, and after she’s finished eating, a bucket rubs a nerve above her udder that triggers a urinating reflex. The bucket catches the urine, which is then stored in a tank. Hanskamp says this can catch about <a href="https://www.agweb.com/news/livestock/dairy/cowtoilet-more-passing-novelty">50 percent</a> of a mature dairy cow’s 3.75 to 5 gallons of daily urination, as they also urinate elsewhere.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="62kUR9">
It’s unclear how much of a role these techniques will play in solving the country’s nitrogen crisis, as some are still in the research phase and others will be costly to scale up. The most affordable option — altering cows’ diets — only has a modest nitrogen reduction and is difficult to monitor and verify, while the CowToilet is so convoluted it borders on satire.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kZhYre">
The reality is that we’re never going to make 1,500-pound animals more resource-efficient than plant-based foods, and for ethical reasons, we should hesitate before endlessly engineering them for efficiency like we do with plants. At the same time, demand for dairy and beef isn’t likely to fall globally, especially as more people from the Global South become rich enough to <a href="https://data.oecd.org/agroutput/meat-consumption.htm">adopt a more Western diet</a>. The most obvious and effective solution is simply raising fewer cows, but given how politically fraught the proposal to buy out farmers has been, anything that can shave off nitrogen emissions will help.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4RHLqm">
“I’m pretty sure at the end, we will find the balance,” de Koning said. “That’s the Dutch way of thinking.” But he’s worried about how polarized the issue has become. Some Dutch farmers unions, “now they call themselves the Farmers Defense Force,” he said. “That’s also something I would have thought never would happen.”
</p>
<h3 id="1tBiJC">
Combining old farming methods with new tech
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rubtzT">
Not everyone in the Netherlands’ agriculture sector, or at WUR, agrees the intensive, industrialized farming model is best.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bJslV0">
“We need some quite drastic system changes,” said Wijnand Sukkel, who manages WUR’s Farm of the Future, after rattling off the ills of conventional, chemical-laden farming that dominates the Netherlands and other high-income countries: soil degradation, pollution, biodiversity loss. His agroecological approach seeks to find a better balance between agricultural productivity and environmental conservation. At Farm of the Future, Sukkel and other staff experiment on small farm plots to figure out how to wean Dutch farmers off monoculture farming without sacrificing crop yield.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="v4VP4p">
One solution is strip cropping, which dates back <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/open-field-system">thousands of years</a>. Instead of planting crops in a monoculture fashion, Sukkel said that planting numerous crops in alternating strips can increase biodiversity and reduce the need for synthetic pesticides.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DRCMlA">
Crop diversity can also <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3464021/">slow the spread</a> of plant diseases. After implementing strip cropping, a large organic farm that worked with Sukkel slowed the spread of a potato disease that had afflicted its crops in the past, increasing yields by up to 25 percent.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A large farm that has dozens of strips of alternating crops. There’s a small tractor in the center of the photo." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/M-8_1rrXMJxYuj9_8xzubyy_POw=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24484024/unnamed.png"/> <cite>Courtesy of ERF BV</cite>
<figcaption>
A strip crop farm owned by ERF BV, the largest private organic agriculture company in the Netherlands.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="R6RdeD">
But Sukkel cautions that right now, it wouldn’t be wise for conventional farmers to adopt a highly diverse strip cropping model, as it’s still more labor-intensive and<strong> </strong>could increase production costs by up to 20 percent. But that increase in cost has to be weighed against rising costs of conventional farming, he added. The cost of nitrogen fertilizer, for example, which can account for around <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/QANDA_22_6566">10 percent</a> of European farmers’ input costs, has <a href="https://blogs.worldbank.org/opendata/fertilizer-prices-ease-affordability-and-availability-issues-linger">more than doubled</a> over the past two years.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Wkfh3w">
Planet-friendly agroecological methods might seem low-tech, but they actually need new technology to work at scale. That’s the biggest bottleneck, Sukkel said. For example, he uses robots to detect where pesticides are needed and to spray them in a targeted way, rather than the indiscriminate use typical in conventional agriculture, which he compares to using a cannon to shoot a mosquito. But it’ll be some time before techniques like this can scale affordably.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A large, high-tech tractor in a field with a technician pressing a touch-screen on the tractor." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/yxpvsIM68CXXJWhi4IKnasrjjeU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24484028/unnamed__1_.png"/> <cite>Courtesy of Wageningen University and Research</cite>
<figcaption>
A multifunctional farm robot that can, among other things, apply pesticides in a more targeted fashion, thereby reducing the overall amount necessary.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bAVfDP">
Sukkel’s work is still limited to the Netherlands, but many of his WUR colleagues are devoted to working with farmers around the world to ensure their breakthroughs can make a difference where they’re needed most.
</p>
<h3 id="bI3UCB">
The global effort to close the yield gap
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qXlpgM">
The Netherlands is a rich country that exports much of the food it produces, so its agricultural system will weather climate change more easily than most — especially compared to countries in the Global South, which will face an <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2021.691191/full">increasingly precarious</a> farming environment in the decades ahead. And they’re standing on a much shakier foundation, in large part because of the yield gap that remains for many crops and animals.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="avV1iQ">
One barrier to closing the yield gap for crops is cost. The expensive, high-performing seeds that most seed companies sell will drop in yield over time if saved and reused, so farmers have to buy new ones each year to keep yields high. Many countries limit the exchange of seeds, per World Trade Organization policy, and major seed companies that sell genetically modified and bioengineered seeds seek to protect their intellectual property by <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/agriculture-seeds-seed-laws-agribusinesses-climate-change-food-security-seed-sovereignty-bayer/a-57118595">prohibiting</a> farmers from saving or exchanging seeds.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XdwAy1">
Another barrier is a mismatch between what subsistence farmers need and which seeds big seed companies develop. The seed industry, which is <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/agriculture-seeds-seed-laws-agribusinesses-climate-change-food-security-seed-sovereignty-bayer/a-57118595">highly consolidated</a> and <a href="https://news.agropages.com/News/NewsDetail---32780.htm">concentrated</a> in Europe, focuses on high-margin, internationally traded vegetables and fruits — not the staple crops that so much of the Global South relies on for calories, like cassava (yucca), yams, and millet. The lack of resources devoted to developing new varieties for these foods has earned them the nickname “<a href="https://www.rtb.cgiar.org/orphan-crops-what-they-are-why-they-matter-and-whats-being-done/">orphan crops</a>.” That’s especially unjust considering that the Global South is far less responsible for climate change than rich countries, yet will suffer disproportionately from it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pGzOuf">
Governments across the developing world, as well as on-the-ground research centers like those run by the global agricultural development organization CGIAR, are working to close the yield gap by developing <a href="https://www.cgiar.org/initiative/accelerated-breeding/">higher-yielding seeds</a> and working with farmers to improve practices. A number of teams and programs at WUR are doing similar work.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1M6ESf">
WUR’s international reach starts with who studies there. <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/holland-agriculture-sustainable-farming">Almost half</a> of its graduate students aren’t Dutch — as of 2017, the number of students from Asia was almost higher than the entire non-Dutch European student population. Many WUR alumni end up working in their home countries.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gfzLFh">
Walter de Boef, a senior adviser at WUR’s Centre for Development Innovation, works with experts in low-income countries to develop their seed systems. In 2021, WUR and a local consultant in Nigeria compared challenges in the country’s seed registration and approval process to other African countries and found that Nigeria’s was too slow, unclear, and expensive, costing the equivalent of $8,500 to $21,000-plus to register a new seed variety.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YviACn">
As a result, new higher-yielding, climate-adaptive seeds from Nigerian breeders and elsewhere weren’t coming on the market for Nigerian farmers, so agriculture experts from Nigeria and WUR brought case studies to the government.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="X0GVfs">
“This is the reason why you don’t close this huge [yield] gap,” they explained to regulators, de Boef said. “This is one of the reasons why farmers still have varieties that are not doing well.” They worked with regulators to run pilot trials for new tomato, rice, maize, and cassava varieties, learning from how Kenya and other African countries go about approving new seeds to make the process more efficient and affordable.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0yauwX">
In the first year, three new tomato varieties and one new maize variety were released in Nigeria under the new pilot rules. They’re in talks to pilot onions next. Other WUR programs include developing <a href="https://www.wur.nl/en/research-results/research-institutes/centre-for-development-innovation/show-cdi/benefit.htm">Ethiopia’s seed sector</a> and <a href="https://www.wur.nl/en/project/N2AFRICA-Putting-nitrogen-fixation-to-work-for-smallholder-farmers-in-Africa-1.htm">legume production</a> across Africa.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zzoQ0H">
The stakes of improving yields and other aspects of farming in Nigeria and across Africa couldn’t be higher, according to Kenton Dashiell, a plant breeder and a deputy director at Nigeria’s International Institute of Tropical Agriculture — part of CGIAR.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lfWMEW">
“We have to produce our own food,” he said. “Africa imports over <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-24/africa-needs-up-to-65-billion-loans-yearly-to-curb-food-imports#xj4y7vzkg">100 million metric tons</a> of food per year, at a cost of $75 billion annually. This is $75 billion governments could use to develop their countries. To kind of put it in blunt terms, Africa is making farmers in other parts of the world rich.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3pqn9B">
Lack of access to higher-yielding seeds is just one of many barriers subsistence farmers face, Dashiell said. They also need increased access to financing, fertilizer, and information on best practices.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MNS3pY">
De Boef acknowledged that while some of WUR’s corporate seed partners want farmers in the Global South to source their seeds from the formal market — which includes <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249644277_Integrated_Seed_Sector_Development_in_Africa_A_Basis_for_Seed_Policy_and_Law">both companies and public institutions</a> — this is not necessarily just or realistic. Upward of <a href="https://theconversation.com/africas-informal-seed-system-needs-to-be-brought-in-from-the-cold-54609">90 percent</a> of seed production among small-scale farmers in Africa is informal, coming from sources like local markets and fellow farmers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ExzAhv">
“We are not [the industry’s] consultants,” de Boef said. “We have to work with informal markets.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="16LlSj">
The world should learn from both the Netherlands’ ingenuity and its willingness to make hard policy choices to rectify the harms of agricultural intensification. But climate change and food insecurity are global challenges fueled by global inequality, and solutions to feeding nearly 10 billion people by 2050 — with most of that growth coming from the Global South — will need to be much more inclusive and democratic. It’s no longer the 1960s, when the countries of the Global South lacked economic and political influence. The second Green Revolution will need to come primarily from within, not just be imported from abroad.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eA83R2">
Dashiell, for one, has hope. “The challenges can be overcome,” he said. “And I believe they will be overcome.”
</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Loss against Australia a timely wake up call; no need to press panic button for Indian cricket team World Cup preparations</strong> - The string of low scores this month may actually be a blessing in disguise for Suryakumar Yadav as he still has enough time to work on his flaws.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>India bag silver, bronze in mixed team events at shooting World Cup</strong> - India have taken their medals tally in the competition to four, including one gold, a silver and two bronze.</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>Euro qualifiers | New dawn for France as Mbappé leads team against Netherlands</strong> - Kylian Mbappe replaced the retired Hugo Lloris as captain of the France national team in a new-look squad</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>IPL coming but Australia ODI series loss shouldn’t be forgotten: Gavaskar warns India ahead of World Cup</strong> - Gavaskar said Rohit Sharma’s men could be up against the same opponents in the 50-over World Cup which the country is hosting in October-November.</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>Sindhu, Prannoy advance to pre-quarterfinals of Swiss Open</strong> - Two-time Olympic medallist and fourth seed P.V. Sindhu too made a positive start to her title defence, beating Jenjira Stadelmann of Switzerland.</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>Illegal dargah in Arabian Sea demolished after Raj Thackeray’s ultimatum</strong> - Demolition is part of a “conspiracy” by the MNS and the Shinde-Fadnavis government to project Raj Thackeray as greater than his cousin Uddhav, say Opposition leaders from Shiv Sena (UBT) and AIMIM</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>Royal Navy’s frigate HMS Lancaster calls at Kochi after Konkan 2023 exercise</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>Karnataka High Court restrains transport employees from going on strike</strong> - The court noted that the proposed strike would affect students across Karnataka who are preparing for their annual exams</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.M. Ibrahim is planning to contest from Narasimharaja Assembly segment in Mysuru, says JD(S) leader Abdul Azeez</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>More centres for Calicut varsity common entrance test this year</strong> - The number of centres has gone up from 21 to 28; students can choose nearby centres while filing online applications</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>Ron DeSantis says his Ukraine remarks ‘mischaracterised’</strong> - The Republican was criticised in the US and Ukraine for calling the war a “territorial dispute”.</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>French reforms: Macron refuses to give way as pension protests escalate</strong> - The French leader says he has no regrets about unpopular pension reforms but tries to calm tensions.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine war: Zelensky visits front line near Bakhmut as Russia targets cities</strong> - The Ukrainian leader’s visit near Bakhmut coincides with two deadly Russian attacks.</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>Beethoven: Tests on hair prove composer’s genetic health woes</strong> - Five locks of Ludwig van Beethoven’s hair were analysed by scientists led by Cambridge University.</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>Andrew Tate: Brothers’ custody in Romania extended by another month</strong> - The controversial social media influencer and his brother have both been detained since December.</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>If your Netgear Orbi router isn’t patched, you’ll want to change that pronto</strong> - The threat is serious enough to warrant a manual check ASAP. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1926153">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Moderna CEO brazenly defends 400% COVID shot price hike, downplays NIH’s role</strong> - Sen. Sanders accused the company of an “unprecedented level of corporate greed.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1926141">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Counter-Strike 2 will bring a huge technical overhaul to the classic shooter</strong> - Sub-tick-rate updates seek to end a long-standing struggle for precise gameplay. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1926028">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Animals without a brain still form associative memories</strong> - Cnidarians like anemones and corals have a nerve net, but that seems to be enough. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1926068">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Journalist plugs in unknown USB drive mailed to him—it exploded in his face</strong> - Explosives replace malware as the scariest thing a USB stick may hide. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1925950">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Clark Kent was lying in his death bed with his wife Lois Lane beside him.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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After some time, Lois said “Darling, I have to confess something. Years ago, I had an affair with Superman. It was only one night, but I’ve regretted it ever since. I hope you can forgive me.”
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“You don’t need to worry about that because,” Clark said as he took off his glasses, “I am Superman! Even if you didn’t know it was me, in my eyes you were always faithful.”
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“Oh thank God!” said Lois. “ I can’t tell you what a weight that is off my chest.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Glad we cleared that up,” said Clark.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“So I guess this means you were Batman too.”
</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Waitsfornoone"> /u/Waitsfornoone </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11yw1n3/clark_kent_was_lying_in_his_death_bed_with_his/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11yw1n3/clark_kent_was_lying_in_his_death_bed_with_his/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Why are gay men so stylish?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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You spend enough time in the closet, you oughta find something good
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Motasim09"> /u/Motasim09 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11zgi2k/why_are_gay_men_so_stylish/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11zgi2k/why_are_gay_men_so_stylish/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>There were two white christian men, Adam and Jack, whose plane crashed into a desert.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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Luckily they survived unharmed. As they traveled through the hot desert looking for food and water, they gave up and sat down, thinking of what to do.
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As the dust in the air settled, they suddenly could view a mosque ahead. They became very hopeful. But then Adam said ‘’Muslims are there. They might help us if we say we are muslim.’’ Then Jack said ‘’No way, I won’t say I’m muslim, I’m gonna be honest’’.
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So Adam and Jack went to the Mosque ahead and were greeted by an Arab Muslim, who asked what their names were.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Adam thought of a Muslim name and said, ‘My name is Muhammed’. And Jack said ‘My name is Jack’.
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The Arab man said ‘Hello Jack.’ And told these other men to take Jack and give him food and drink.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Then he turned to Adam and said, ’Salaam Muhammed. Ramadan Mubarak! (Hello Muhammad, Happy Ramadhan)
</p>
</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/saudkazia"> /u/saudkazia </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11yn0ya/there_were_two_white_christian_men_adam_and_jack/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11yn0ya/there_were_two_white_christian_men_adam_and_jack/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A man was sitting on the edge of the bed, watching his wife, who was looking at herself in the mirror. Since her birthday was not far off, he asked what she’d like to have for her birthday.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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‘I’d like to be eight again’, she replied, still looking in the mirror. On the morning of her birthday, he arose early, made her a nice big bowl of Coco Pops, and then took her to Adventure World theme park.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
What a day! He put her on every ride in the park; the Death Slide, the Wall of Fear, the Screaming Roller Coaster, everything there was. Five hours later they staggered out of the theme park. Her head was reeling and her stomach felt upside down.
</p>
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He then took her to a McDonald’s where he ordered her a Happy Meal with extra fries and a chocolate shake.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Then it was off to a movie, popcorn, a soda pop, and her favorite candy, M&amp;M’s. What a fabulous adventure!
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Finally she wobbled home with her husband and collapsed into bed exhausted. He leaned over his wife with a big smile and lovingly asked, ‘Well Dear, what was it like being eight again’?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Her eyes slowly opened and her expression suddenly changed. “I meant my dress size, you retard!!!!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The moral of the story: Even when a man is listening, he’s gonna get it wrong.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
If it was posted before - sorry - but, it’s totally new to me.
</p>
</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/elder65"> /u/elder65 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11yw0lq/a_man_was_sitting_on_the_edge_of_the_bed_watching/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11yw0lq/a_man_was_sitting_on_the_edge_of_the_bed_watching/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>I saw my ex girlfriend at the other end of the museum hall, but I was too self conscious to say hello.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
There was too much history between us.
</p>
</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/porichoygupto"> /u/porichoygupto </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11yfs8n/i_saw_my_ex_girlfriend_at_the_other_end_of_the/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11yfs8n/i_saw_my_ex_girlfriend_at_the_other_end_of_the/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
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