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<title>07 September, 2023</title>
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<title>Covid-19 Sentry</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
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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>Influenza A virus H1N1-derived circNP37 positively regulates viral replication by sponging host miR-361-5p</strong> -
<div>
RNA viruses, such as respiratory syncytial virus and SARS-CoV-2, can generate viral circular RNAs (circRNAs), which may play important roles during viral infection. However, whether influenza A viruses have this ability to generate viral circRNAs remains unknown. In this study, we discovered that the negative-strand RNA of the H1N1 nucleoprotein (NP) gene can generate a circRNA, designated circNP37. Furthermore, we demonstrated that circNP37 positively regulated viral replication by competitively sponging host miR-361-5p which inhibited polymerase basic protein 2 (PB2) expression. These results were confirmed using in vivo experiments. Compared with wild-type virus, infection with circNP37 knockout virus resulted in a reduced viral load in the lungs. This study demonstrates, for the first time, the existence and biological function of H1N1-derived circNP37. These findings help us better understand the mechanisms of influenza virus replication and pathogenicity.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.04.556164v1" target="_blank">Influenza A virus H1N1-derived circNP37 positively regulates viral replication by sponging host miR-361-5p</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>A Mixed-Effects Model to Predict COVID-19 Hospitalizations Using Wastewater Surveillance</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries and regions investigated the potential use of wastewater-based disease surveillance as an early warning system. Initially, methods were created to detect the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater. Investigators have since conducted extensive studies to examine the link between viral concentration in wastewater and COVID-19 cases in areas served by sewage treatment plants over time. However, only a few reports have attempted to create predictive models for hospitalizations at county-level based on SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations in wastewater. This study implemented a linear mixed-effects model that observes the association between levels of virus in wastewater and county-level hospitalizations. The model was then utilized to predict short-term county-level hospitalization trends in 21 counties in California based on data from March 21, 2022, to May 21, 2023. The modeling framework proposed here permits repeated measurements as well as fixed and random effects. The model that assumed wastewater data as an input variable, instead of cases or test positivity rate, showed strong performance and successfully captured trends in hospitalizations. Additionally, the model allows for the prediction of SARS-CoV-2 hospitalizations two weeks ahead. Forecasts of COVID-19 hospitalizations could provide crucial information for hospitals to better allocate resources and prepare for potential surges in patient numbers.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.14.23293945v2" target="_blank">A Mixed-Effects Model to Predict COVID-19 Hospitalizations Using Wastewater Surveillance</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>COVFlow: phylodynamics analyses of viruses from selected SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences</strong> -
<div>
Phylodynamic analyses generate important and timely data to optimise public health response to SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks and epidemics. However, their implementation is hampered by the massive amount of sequence data and the difficulty to parameterise dedicated software packages. We introduce the COVFlow pipeline, accessible at https://gitlab.in2p3.fr/ete/CoV-flow, which allows a user to select sequences from the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data (GISAID) database according to user-specified criteria, to perform basic phylogenetic analyses, and to produce an XML file to be run in the Beast2 software package. We illustrate the potential of this tool by studying two sets of sequences from the Delta variant in two French regions. This pipeline can facilitate the use of virus sequence data at the local level, for instance, to track the dynamics of a particular lineage or variant in a region of interest.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.17.496544v7" target="_blank">COVFlow: phylodynamics analyses of viruses from selected SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Open Science Discovery of Potent Non-Covalent SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease Inhibitors</strong> -
<div>
We report the results of the COVID Moonshot, a fully open-science, crowd sourced, structure-enabled drug discovery campaign targeting the SARS-CoV-2 main protease. We discovered a non-covalent, non-peptidic inhibitor scaffold with lead-like properties that is differentiated from current main protease inhibitors. Our approach leveraged crowdsourcing, machine learning, exascale molecular simulations, and high-throughput structural biology and chemistry. We generated a detailed map of the structural plasticity of the SARS-CoV- 2 main protease, extensive structure-activity relationships for multiple chemotypes, and a wealth of biochemical activity data. All compound designs (&gt;18,000 designs), crystallographic data (&gt;840 ligand-bound X-ray structures), assay data (&gt;10,000 measurements), and synthesized molecules (&gt;2,400 compounds) for this campaign were shared rapidly and openly, creating a rich open and IP-free knowledgebase for future anti-coronavirus drug discovery.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.29.339317v5" target="_blank">Open Science Discovery of Potent Non-Covalent SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease Inhibitors</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Safety and immunogenicity of VLPCOV-02, a SARS-CoV-2 self-amplifying RNA vaccine with a modified base, 5-methylcytosine, in healthy individuals</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Continuing emergence of variants of concern resulting in reduced SARS-CoV-2 vaccine efficacy necessitates additional prevention strategies. The structure of VLPCOV-01, a lipid nanoparticle-encapsulated, self-amplifying RNA COVID-19 vaccine with a comparable immune response to BNT162b2, was revised by incorporating a modified base, 5-methylcytosine to reduce reactogenicity, and an updated receptor-binding domain derived from Brazil (gamma) variant. Interim analyses of a phase 1 dose-escalation booster vaccination study with the resulting construct, VLPCOV-02, in healthy, previously vaccinated Japanese individuals (N=96) are reported (jRCT2051230005). A dose-related increase in solicited local and systemic adverse events was observed, which were generally rated mild or moderate. The most commonly occurring events were tenderness, pain, fatigue, and myalgia. Serum SARS-CoV-2 immunoglobulin titers increased during the 4 weeks post-immunization. VLPCOV-02 demonstrated a favorable safety profile compared with VLPCOV-01, with a lower frequency of adverse events and fewer fever events at an equivalent dose. These findings support further study of VLPCOV-02.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.04.23294493v1" target="_blank">Safety and immunogenicity of VLPCOV-02, a SARS-CoV-2 self-amplifying RNA vaccine with a modified base, 5-methylcytosine, in healthy individuals</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Cluster-level spillover randomized controlled trial to assess the impact of monetary incentives on COVID-19 vaccination uptake</strong> -
<div>
To motivate contributions to public goods, should policy makers employ financial incentives like taxes, fines, subsidies, and rewards? While these are widely considered as the classic policy approach, a substantial academic literature suggests the impact of financial incentives is not always positive; they can sometimes fail or even backfire. To test whether policy makers are overly bullish about financial incentives, we asked county heads, mayors, and municipal government representatives of medium-to-large towns in Germany to predict the effects of a financial incentive on COVID-19 vaccination, and tested the exact same incentive in a field experiment involving all 41,548 inhabitants (clustered in 10,032 addresses) of the German town of Ravensburg. Whereas policy makers overwhelmingly predict that the financial incentive will increase vaccination—by 15.3 percentage points on average—the same financial incentive yielded a precisely estimated null effect on vaccination. We discuss when financial incentives are most likely to fail, and conclude that it is critical to educate policy makers on the potential pitfalls of employing financial incentives to promote contributions to public goods.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/jq28n/" target="_blank">Cluster-level spillover randomized controlled trial to assess the impact of monetary incentives on COVID-19 vaccination uptake</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Serological outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 infection by vaccination status and variant in England</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background Throughout the SARS–CoV–2 pandemic, several vaccines have been rolled out and distinct variants with different severity and immune profiles emerged in England. Using data from enhanced surveillance of COVID-19 in vaccine eligible individuals we investigated the antibody response following SARS–CoV–2 infection according to vaccination status and variant. Methods PCR–positive eligible individuals were identified from community PCR testing data in England between February 2021 and April 2022 and contacted by nurses to complete questionnaires at recruitment and 21 days post recruitment. Individuals were sent self–sampling kits and self–sampled nasal/oropharyngeal swabs were taken day 1, day 3 and day 7 post–recruitment as well as acute (day 1), convalescent (follow–up) serum and oral fluid samples. Regression analyses were used to investigate how N antibody seroconversion differs by vaccine status, and to investigate how N and S antibody levels differ by vaccine status overall and stratified by variants. Interval–censored analyses and regression analyses were used to investigate the effect of acute S antibody levels on the duration of positivity, the cycle threshold values, the self–reported symptom severity and the number of symptoms reported. Results A total of 1,497 PCR positive individuals were included. A total of 369 (24.7%) individuals were unvaccinated, 359 (24.0%) participants were infected with Alpha, 762 (50.9%) with Delta and 376 (25.2%) with Omicron. The median age of participants was 49 years old (IQR 39–57). Convalescent anti–N antibody levels were lower in vaccinated individuals and convalescent anti–S antibody levels were higher in vaccinated individuals and increased with the number of doses received. Acute anti–S antibody level increased with the number of doses received. Higher acute anti–S antibody levels were associated with a shorter duration of positivity (overall and for the Delta variant). Higher acute anti–S antibody levels were also associated with higher Ct values (overall and for the Alpha and Delta variants). There was no association between the acute anti–S antibody level and self–reported symptom severity. Individuals with higher acute anti–S antibody level were less likely to report six or more symptoms (overall and for Delta variant). Conclusion Understanding the characteristics of the antibody response, its dynamics over time and the immunity it confers is important to inform future vaccination strategies and policies. Our findings suggest that vaccination is associated with high acute anti–S antibody level but reduced convalescent anti–N antibody level. High anti–S antibody level is associated with reduced duration of infection, reduced infectiousness and may also be associated with reduced symptoms severity and number of symptoms.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.05.23295073v1" target="_blank">Serological outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 infection by vaccination status and variant in England</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>IMPACT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON ROUTINE HIV CARE AND ANTIRETROVIRAL TREATMENT OUTCOMES IN KENYA: A NATIONALLY REPRESENTATIVE ANALYSIS</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic adversely disrupted global health service delivery. We aimed to assess impact of the pandemic on same-day HIV diagnosis/ART initiation, six-months non-retention and initial virologic non-suppression (VnS) among individuals starting antiretroviral therapy (ART) in Kenya. Methods: Individual-level longitudinal service delivery data were analysed. Random sampling of individuals aged &gt;15 years starting ART between April 2018 - March 2021 was done. Date of ART initiation was stratified into pre-COVID-19 (April 2018 - March 2019 and April 2019 - March 2020) and COVID-19 (April 2020 - March 2021) periods. Mixed effects generalised linear, survival and logistic regression models were used to determine the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on same-day HIV diagnosis/ART initiation, six-months non-retention and VnS, respectively. Results: Of 7,046 individuals sampled, 35.5%, 36.0% and 28.4% started ART during April 2018 - March 2019, April 2019 - March 2020 and April 2020 - March 2021, respectively. Compared to the pre-COVID-19 period, the COVID-19 period had higher same-day HIV diagnosis/ART initiation (adjusted risk ratio [95% CI]: 1.09 [1.04-1.13], p&lt;0.001) and lower six-months non-retention (adjusted hazard ratio [95% CI]: 0.66 [0.58-0.74], p&lt;0.001). Of those sampled, 3,296 (46.8%) had a viral load test done at a median 6.2 (IQR, 5.3-7.3) months after ART initiation. Compared to the pre-COVID-19 period, there was no significant difference in VnS during the COVID-19 period (adjusted odds ratio [95% CI]: 0.79 [95% CI: 0.52-1.20], p=0.264). Conclusions: In the short term, the COVID-19 pandemic did not have an adverse impact on HIV care and treatment outcomes in Kenya. Timely, strategic and sustained COVID-19 response may have played a critical role in mitigating adverse effects of the pandemic and point towards maturity, versatility and resilience of the HIV program in Kenya. Continued monitoring to assess long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on HIV care and treatment program in Kenya is warranted.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.04.23294973v1" target="_blank">IMPACT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON ROUTINE HIV CARE AND ANTIRETROVIRAL TREATMENT OUTCOMES IN KENYA: A NATIONALLY REPRESENTATIVE ANALYSIS</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Individual and spatial determinants of mortality during the Covid-19 pandemic: The case of Belgium in 2020</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Context. The year 2020 was marked by the Covid 19 pandemic. In Belgium, it led to a doubling in deaths, mainly grouped into two periods. This article aims to compare the relative importance of predictors and individual and spatial determinants of mortality during these two waves to an equivalent non-pandemic period and to identify whether and to what extent the pandemic has altered the sociodemographic patterns of conventional mortality. Methods. The analyses relate to all-cause mortality during the two waves of Covid-19 and their equivalent in 2019. They are based on matching individual and exhaustive data from the Belgian National Register with tax and population census data. A multi-level approach was adopted combining individual and spatial determinants. Results. Mortality patterns during the pandemic are very similar to those observed outside the pandemic. As in 2019, age, sex, and household composition significantly determine the individual risk of dying, with a higher risk of death among the oldest people, men, and residents of collective households. However, their risk of death increases during the Covid period, especially in the 65/79 age group. Spatial information is no more significant in 2020 than in 2019. However, a higher risk of death is observed when the local excess mortality index or the proportions of isolated or disadvantaged people increase. Conclusions. While the Covid pandemic did not fundamentally alter conventional mortality patterns, it did amplify some of the pre-existing differences in mortality.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.04.23295014v1" target="_blank">Individual and spatial determinants of mortality during the Covid-19 pandemic: The case of Belgium in 2020</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Emerging Links Between COVID-19 and Cardiovascular &amp; Cerebrovascular Thromboembolic Events: A Systematic Review</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
COVID-19, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, initially identified as a respiratory illness, has increasingly been linked to a broader range of organ complications. This systematic review explores the impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular and cerebrovascular health, focusing on thromboembolic events in post-COVID patients. A comprehensive literature search was conducted in PubMed and Google Scholar databases up to July 2023, utilizing the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Studies meeting eligibility criteria were analyzed for outcomes and associations between COVID-19 and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events. The review includes 6 studies involving over 12 million patients, demonstrating a strong connection between COVID-19 and elevated risks of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular thromboembolic events. The risk of these events is evident in conditions such as ischemic heart disease, stroke, and cardiac arrhythmias. The burden of these events beyond the acute phase of the disease is concerning, warranting further exploration of long-term implications. Variability in event rates among different cohorts and healthcare settings underscores the need for understanding underlying factors influencing these differences. Potential mechanisms behind these events include endothelial dysfunction, systemic inflammation, and viral invasion. Implications for public health policies, clinical guidelines, and future research directions are discussed. This review serves as a valuable resource for healthcare providers, policymakers, and researchers to enhance patient care, outcomes, and preparedness for future waves of COVID-19 infections. However, there remain unexplored aspects of the COVID-19 and thromboembolic events relationship, urging further investigations into mechanistic insights and potential therapeutic interventions.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.05.23295067v1" target="_blank">Emerging Links Between COVID-19 and Cardiovascular &amp;amp; Cerebrovascular Thromboembolic Events: A Systematic Review</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Psychotherapies and Psychological Support for Individuals Facing Psychological Distress during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scoping Review</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
In this scoping review, we investigated psychotherapies and psychological support provided during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic to clarify its recipients and the methods employed. We used Scopus and PubMed as the search engines on October 18, 2022, employing specific search terms (″COVID* ″ AND (″Psychotherap<em>″ OR ″psychological support</em>″) AND ″psychological distress*″). The initial search yielded 153 articles, of which 18 met the eligibility criteria after two rounds of screening. The distribution of participants ranged from the general population to patients with COVID-19 and those who had recovered. However, no studies of patients with post-COVID-19 sequelae were found. The distribution of the types of psychotherapies and psychological support varied and the use of new technology was suggested. Online interventions comprised the majority of the means of psychotherapies and psychological support. This study suggests that psychotherapies and psychological support during the COVID-19 pandemic were influenced by the social situation.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.04.23295013v1" target="_blank">Psychotherapies and Psychological Support for Individuals Facing Psychological Distress during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scoping Review</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Differentiation of COVID-19 from other emergency infectious disease presentations using whole blood transcriptomics then rapid qPCR: a case-control and observational cohort study</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background. The overlapping clinical presentations of patients with acute respiratory disease can complicate disease diagnosis. Whilst PCR diagnostic methods to identify SARS-CoV-2 are highly sensitive, they have their shortcomings including false-positive risk and slow turnaround times. Changes in host gene expression can be used to distinguish between disease groups of interest, providing a viable alternative to infectious disease diagnosis. Methods. We interrogated the whole blood gene expression profiles of patients with COVID-19 (n=87), bacterial infections (n=88), viral infections (n=36), and not-infected controls (n=27) to identify a sparse diagnostic signature for distinguishing COVID-19 from other clinically similar infectious and non-infectious conditions. The sparse diagnostic signature underwent validation in a new cohort using reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and then underwent further external validation in an independent in silico RNA-seq cohort. Findings. We identified a 10-gene signature (OASL, UBP1, IL1RN, ZNF684, ENTPD7, NFKBIE, CDKN1C, CD44, OTOF, MSR1) that distinguished COVID-19 from other infectious and non-infectious diseases with an AUC of 87.1% (95% CI: 82.6%-91.7%) in the discovery cohort and 88.7% and 93.6% when evaluated in the RT-qPCR validation, and in silico cohorts respectively. Interpretation. Using well-phenotyped samples collected from patients admitted acutely with a spectrum of infectious and non-infectious syndromes, we provide a detailed catalogue of blood gene expression at the time of hospital admission. The findings result in the identification of a 10-gene host diagnostic signature to accurately distinguish COVID-19 from other infection syndromes presenting to hospital. This could be developed into a rapid point-of-care diagnostic test, providing a valuable syndromic diagnostic tool for future early pandemic use.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.03.23294989v1" target="_blank">Differentiation of COVID-19 from other emergency infectious disease presentations using whole blood transcriptomics then rapid qPCR: a case-control and observational cohort study</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Correlation of myeloid-derived suppressor cell expansion with upregulated transposable elements in severe COVID-19 unveiled in single-cell RNA sequencing reanalysis</strong> -
<div>
Some studies investigated the potential role of transposable elements (TEs) in COVID-19 pathogenesis and complications. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is no study to examine the possible association of TEs expression in cell functions and its potential role in COVID-19 immune response at the single-cell level. In this study, we reanalyzed single-cell RNA seq data of bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) samples obtained from six severe COVID-19 patients and three healthy donors to assess the probable correlation of TE expression with the immune responses induced by the SARS-CoV-2 virus in COVID-19 patients. Our findings indicated that the expansion of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs (may be a characteristic feature of COVID-19. Additionally, a significant increase in TEs expression in MDSCs was observed. This upregulation of TEs in COVID-19 may be linked to the adaptability of these cells in response to their microenvironments. Furthermore, it appears that the identification of overexpressed TEs by Pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) in MDSCs may enhance the suppressive capacity of these cells. Thus, this study emphasizes the crucial role of TEs in the functionality of MDSCs during COVID-19.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.04.556192v1" target="_blank">Correlation of myeloid-derived suppressor cell expansion with upregulated transposable elements in severe COVID-19 unveiled in single-cell RNA sequencing reanalysis</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Neutralization Escape by SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Subvariant BA.2.86</strong> -
<div>
The continued evolution of SARS-CoV-2 may lead to evasion of vaccine immunity and natural immunity. A highly mutated Omicron variant BA.2.86 has recently been identified with over 30 amino acid changes in Spike compared with BA.2 and XBB.1.5. As of September 4, 2023, BA.2.86 has been identified in 37 sequences from 10 countries, which is likely an underestimate due to limited surveillance. The ability of BA.2.86 to evade NAbs compared with other currently circulating Omicron variants remains unknown. Our data show that NAb responses to BA.2.86 were lower than to BA.2 but were comparable or slightly higher than to the current circulating recombinant variants XBB.1.5, XBB.1.16, EG.5, EG.5.1, and FL.1.5.1.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.04.556272v1" target="_blank">Neutralization Escape by SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Subvariant BA.2.86</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Enhanced protective efficacy of a novel, thermostable, RBD-S2 fusion immunogen against SARS-CoV-2 and its variants</strong> -
<div>
With the rapid emergence of variants of concern (VOC), the efficacy of currently licensed vaccines has reduced drastically. VOC mutations largely occur in the S1 subunit of Spike. The S2 subunit of SARS-CoV-2 is conserved and thus more likely to elicit broadly protective immune responses. However, the contribution of the S2 subunit in improving the overall efficacy of vaccines remains unclear. Therefore, we designed, characterized, and evaluated the immunogenicity and protective potential of a stabilized SARS-CoV-2 Receptor Binding Domain (RBD) fused to a stabilized S2. Designed immunogens were expressed as soluble proteins with approximately fivefold higher purified yield than the Spike ectodomain and formulated along with Squalene-in-water emulsion (SWE) adjuvant. S2 immunization failed to elicit a neutralizing immune response but significantly reduced lung viral titers in mice challenged with the heterologous Beta variant. In hamsters, SWE-formulated RS2 showed enhanced immunogenicity and efficacy relative to corresponding RBD and Spike formulations. Despite being based on the ancestral Wuhan strain of SARS-CoV-2, RS2 exhibited broad neutralization, including against Omicron variants (BA.1, BA.5 and BF.7), as well as the clade 1a WIV-1 and SARS-CoV-1 strains. RS2 sera also showed enhanced competition with both S2 directed and RBD Class 4 directed broadly neutralizing antibodies, relative to RBD and Spike elicited sera. When lyophilized, RS2 retained antigenicity and immunogenicity even after incubation at 37 {degrees}C for a month. The data collectively suggest that the RS2 immunogen is a promising modality to combat SARS-CoV-2 variants.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.19.533338v2" target="_blank">Enhanced protective efficacy of a novel, thermostable, RBD-S2 fusion immunogen against SARS-CoV-2 and its variants</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>A 2nd Generation E1/E2B/E3-Deleted Adenoviral COVID-19 Vaccine: The TCELLVACCINE TRIAL</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: hAd5-S-Fusion+N-ETSD;   Biological: Placebo (0.9% (w/v) saline)<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   ImmunityBio, Inc.<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>KAND567 Versus Placebo in Subjects Hospitalized With COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: KAND567;   Drug: Microcrystalline cellulose<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Kancera AB<br/><b>Terminated</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>Aerobic Training for Rehabilitation of Patients With Post Covid-19 Syndrome</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Post-COVID-19 Syndrome;   Long-COVID-19 Syndrome<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: Aerobic Exercise Training<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of Witten/Herdecke;   Institut für Rehabilitationsforschung Norderney<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Pilot Clinical Evaluation of Astepro® Nasal Spray for Management of Early SARS-CoV-2 Infection</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Experimental: Primary Cohort;   Other: Placebo Comparator: Primary Cohort - Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   University of Chicago<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>Comparative Immunogenicity of Concomitant vs Sequential mRNA COVID-19 and Influenza Vaccinations</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Influenza;   COVID-19;   Influenza Immunogencity;   COVID-19 Immunogenicity<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Simultaneous Vaccination (Influenza Vaccine and mRNA COVID booster);   Biological: Sequential Vaccination (Influenza vaccine then mRNA COVID booster);   Biological: Sequential Vaccination (mRNA COVID booster then Influenza vaccine)<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Duke University;   Centers for Disease Control and Prevention;   Arizona State University;   University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center;   University of Pittsburgh;   Washington University School of Medicine;   Valleywise Health;   VA Northeast Ohio Health Care;   Senders Pediatrics<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>Bronchoalveolar Lavage in Recovered From COVID-19 Pneumonia</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Bronchoalveolar Lavage<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Procedure: Bronchoalveolar Lavage<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Mohamed Abd Elmoniem Mohamed;   Marwa Salah Abdelrazek Ghanem;   Mohammad Khairy El-Badrawy;   Tamer Ali Elhadidy;   Dalia Abdellateif Abdelghany<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>Randomized, Double-blind, Placebo-controlled Trial of the Efficacy and Safety of Tianeptine in the Treatment of Covid Fog Symptoms in Patients After COVID-19.</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Nervous System Diseases<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Tianeptine;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Military Institute od Medicine National Research Institute;   ABM Industries<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>Effects of Cognitive-behavioral Therapy for Insomnia in Nurses With Post Covid-19 Condition</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Cognitive Behavioral Therapy<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: cognitive behavioral therapy<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Tri-Service General Hospital<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Effectiveness of Natural Resources for Reducing Stress</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Distress, Emotional;   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Combination Product: Balneotherapy plus complex;   Combination Product: Combined nature resources treatment;   Other: Nature therapy procedure<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Klaipėda University;   Research Council of Lithuania<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>Pre-probiotic Supplementation for Post-covid Fatigue Syndrome</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Long COVID<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Dietary Supplement: Dietary Supplement: Experimental;   Dietary Supplement: Dietary Supplement: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Sport and Physical Education<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>A Study of Healthy Microbiome, Healthy Mind</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Critical Illness;   COVID-19;   PICS;   Cognitive Impairment;   Mental Health Impairment;   Weakness, Muscle;   Dysbiosis<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: Fermented Food Diet<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Mayo Clinic<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>Primary exposure to SARS-CoV-2 via infection or vaccination determines mucosal antibody-dependent ACE2 binding inhibition</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: Our study provides new insights into the relationship between antibody isotypes and neutralization by using a sensitive and high-throughput ACE2 binding inhibition assay. Key differences are highlighted between vaccination and infection at the mucosal level, showing that despite differences in the quantity of the response, post-infection and post-vaccination ACE2 binding inhibition capacity did not differ.</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>Outcomes of MIS-C patients treated with anakinra: a retrospective multicenter national study</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: In this retrospective cohort of severe MIS-C patients treated with anakinra we report favorable clinical outcomes with a low incidence of side effects. The simultaneous use of steroids ± IVIG in these patients hinders definitive conclusions regarding the need of IL-1 inhibition in MIS-C treatment.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Unleashing the link between the relaxation of the COVID-19 control policy and residents’ mental health in China: the mediating role of family tourism consumption</strong> - CONCLUSION: Based on the findings, the study proposes that government and policymakers should strengthen mental health intervention, improve access to mental health counseling, stimulate economic development, expand the employment of residents, and track the mutation of the novel coronavirus.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Alpha-1 antitrypsin protects against phosgene-induced acute lung injury by activating the ID1-dependent anti-inflammatory response</strong> - Phosgene is widely used as an industrial chemical, and phosgene inhalation causes acute lung injury (ALI), which may further progress into pulmonary edema. Currently, an antidote for phosgene poisoning is not known. Alpha-1 antitrypsin (α1-AT) is a protease inhibitor used to treat patients with emphysema who are deficient in α1-AT. Recent studies have revealed that α1-AT has both anti-inflammatory and anti-SARS-CoV-2 effects. Herein, we aimed to investigate the role of α1-AT in phosgene-induced…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>RNA-dependent RNA polymerase of SARS-CoV-2 regulate host mRNA translation efficiency by hijacking eEF1A factors</strong> - The RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (NSP12) of COVID-19 plays a significant role in the viral infection process, which promotes viral RNA replication by cooperating with NSP7 and NSP8, but little is known about its regulation on the function of host cells. We firstly found that overexpression of NSP12 had little effect on host mRNAs transcription. Using iCLIP technology, we found that NSP12 can bind a series of host RNAs with the conserved binding motif G(C/A/G)(U/G/A)UAG, especially ribosomal RNA….</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>Antiviral Activity of Cinchona officinalis, a Homeopathic Medicine, against COVID-19</strong> - CONCLUSION: Based on this in silico and in vitro evidence, we propose CO-MT as a promising antiviral medicine candidate for treating COVID-19. In vivo investigation is required to clarify the therapeutic potential of CO-MT in COVID-19.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Betacoronaviruses SARS-CoV-2 and HCoV-OC43 Infections in IGROV-1 Cell Line Require Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor</strong> - AbstractThe emergence of novel betacoronaviruses has posed significant financial and human health burdens, necessitating the development of appropriate tools to combat future outbreaks. In this study, we have characterized a human cell line, IGROV-1, as a robust tool to detect, propagate, and titrate betacoronaviruses SARS-CoV-2 and HCoV-OC43. IGROV-1 cells can be used for serological assays, antiviral drug testing, and isolating SARS-CoV-2 variants from patient samples. Using time-course…</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>Radiologists’ experiences and perceptions regarding the use of teleradiology in South Africa</strong> - CONCLUSION: It is important to address structural barriers to the implementation of teleradiology. Clear communication strategies and multistakeholder engagement are also required.</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>Increased Fungal Infection Mortality Induced by Concurrent Viral Cellular Manipulations</strong> - Certain respiratory fungal pathogen mono-infections can cause high mortality rates. Several viral pathogen mono-infections, including influenza viruses and coronaviruses including SARS-CoV-2, can also cause high mortality rates. Concurrent infections by fungal pathogens and highly manipulative viral pathogens can synergistically interact in the respiratory tract to substantially increase their mortality rates. There are at least five viral manipulations which can assist secondary fungal…</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 wild boar cathelicidin peptide derivative inhibits severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 and its drifted variants</strong> - The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) poses a clear threat to humanity. It has infected over 200 million and killed 4 million people worldwide, and infections continue with no end in sight. To control the pandemic, multiple effective vaccines have been developed, and global vaccinations are in progress. However, the virus continues to mutate. Even when full vaccine coverage is achieved, vaccine-resistant mutants will likely emerge, thus requiring new annual vaccines…</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>Inhibition of the SREBP pathway prevents SARS-CoV-2 replication and inflammasome activation</strong> - SARS-CoV-2 induces major cellular lipid rearrangements, exploiting the host’s metabolic pathways to replicate. Sterol regulatory element binding proteins (SREBPs) are a family of transcription factors that control lipid metabolism. SREBP1 is associated with the regulation of fatty acids, whereas SREBP2 controls cholesterol metabolism, and both isoforms are associated with lipid droplet (LD) biogenesis. Here, we evaluated the effect of SREBP in a SARS-CoV-2-infected lung epithelial cell line…</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>SELEX based aptamers with diagnostic and entry inhibitor therapeutic potential for SARS-CoV-2</strong> - Frequent mutation and variable immunological protection against vaccination is a common feature for COVID-19 pandemic. Early detection and confinement remain key to controlling further spread of infection. In response, we have developed an aptamer-based system that possesses both diagnostic and therapeutic potential towards the virus. A random aptamer library (~ 10^(17) molecules) was screened using systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX) and aptamer R was identified as…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>High-CBD cannabis extracts inhibit the expression of proinflammatory factors via miRNA-mediated silencing in human small intestinal epithelial cells</strong> - The incidence of chronic inflammatory disorders and autoimmune diseases is rapidly growing. To date, the COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has killed over 6,209,000 people globally, while no drug has been proven effective for the disease. Screening natural anti-inflammatory compounds for clinical application has drawn much attention. In this study, we showed that high-CBD cannabis extracts #1, #5, #7, #169, and #317 suppressed the levels of expression of proinflammatory cyclooxygenase 2…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Plant flavonoid inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 main protease and viral replication</strong> - Plant-based flavonoids have been evaluated as inhibitors of β-coronavirus replication and as therapies for COVID-19 on the basis of their safety profile and widespread availability. The SARS-CoV-2 main protease (Mpro) has been implicated as a target for flavonoids in silico. Yet no comprehensive in vitro testing of flavonoid activity against SARS-CoV-2 Mpro has heretofore been performed. We screened 1,019 diverse flavonoids for their ability to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 Mpro. Multiple…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Combating pan-coronavirus infection by indomethacin through simultaneously inhibiting viral replication and inflammatory response</strong> - Severe infections with coronaviruses are often accompanied with hyperinflammation, requiring therapeutic strategies to simultaneously tackle the virus and inflammation. By screening a safe-in-human broad-spectrum antiviral agents library, we identified that indomethacin can inhibit pan-coronavirus infection in human cell and airway organoids models. Combining indomethacin with oral antiviral drugs authorized for treating COVID-19 results in synergistic anti-coronavirus activity. Coincidentally,…</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>Virtual-Reality School as the Ultimate School Choice</strong> - The conservative education activist Erika Donalds envisions a world where parents unsatisfied with their public schools can opt out by putting their kids in a headset. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-education/virtual-reality-school-as-the-ultimate-school-choice">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Twilight of Mitch McConnell and the Spectre of 2024</strong> - On the dangerous reign of the octogenarians. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/the-twilight-of-mitch-mcconnell-and-the-spectre-of-2024">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How a Man in Prison Stole Millions from Billionaires</strong> - With smuggled cell phones and a handful of accomplices, Arthur Lee Cofield, Jr., took money from large bank accounts and bought houses, cars, clothes, and gold. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-south/how-a-man-in-prison-stole-millions-from-billionaires">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Why “Alone” Is the Best Reality Show Ever Made</strong> - As contestants devolve into hunger and desolation, the camera proves to be as uncaring as the wilderness itself. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/why-alone-is-the-best-reality-show-ever-made">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Life and Death in America’s Hottest City</strong> - Carolyn Kormann on how climate change threatens to increase the high incidence of heat-related deaths in and near Phoenix, Arizona. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/science/elements/life-and-death-in-americas-hottest-city">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>The lawsuits seeking to keep drag queens legal, explained</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Drag queen Brigitte Bandit, in a fuchsia top and cotton candy pink hair, reads a story book." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/hIZwiK3uQqqL7sYEr9hh3Wf0aoQ=/459x0:7798x5504/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72620527/1640795088.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Drag queen Brigitte Bandit reads a book during a drag time story hour at The Little Gay Shop fashion accessories store on August 26, 2023, in Austin, Texas.  | Brandon Bell/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Republicans are losing their fight to ban drag — at least for now.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EmBjky">
Last Friday, a judge in Knoxville, Tennessee, prohibited a prosecutor who <a href="https://interactive.wbir.com/pdfs/Judge-Ronnie-Greer-order.pdf">threatened to bring criminal charges against drag performers</a> at a nearby college from doing so.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="X6ZOAg">
The prosecutor had planned to target the performers using a new state law that, among other things, lists “male or female impersonators” alongside “<a href="https://casetext.com/statute/tennessee-code/title-7-consolidated-governments-and-local-governmental-functions-and-entities/local-government-functions/chapter-51-miscellaneous-governmental-and-proprietary-functions/part-14-adult-oriented-establishments/section-7-51-1401-part-definitions">topless dancers, go-go dancers, exotic dancers, [and] strippers</a>” as forms of speech subject to tight restrictions.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Gkio6J">
Judge Ronnie Greer, the author of that decision, is a Bush appointee and the second federal judge appointed by Republicans to issue such an order in Tennessee. Greer relied heavily on Judge Thomas Parker’s opinion in <a href="https://casetext.com/case/friends-of-georges-inc-v-mulroy#:~:text=Plaintiff%20Friends%20of%20George's%2C%20Inc,of%20the%20United%20States%20Constitution."><em>Friends of George’s v. Mulroy</em></a>, an opinion shielding drag artists in Memphis. Parker is a Trump judge.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LzU3Wg">
The question of whether a state can ban drag shows should not be controversial in a nation governed by the First Amendment. A state legislature may not ban standup comedy. Nor could it ban musical theater, kabuki, noh, koothu, or mime. Dressing in clothes conventionally worn by the opposite sex and satirizing gender norms is no less a protected form of expression than any other form of theatre.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ALUgf2">
And, to their credit, the courts have thus far agreed with this assessment of the Constitution.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dkB7ff">
According to the Movement Advancement Project, a pro-LGBTQ think tank, two states, Tennessee and Montana, have <a href="https://www.lgbtmap.org/equality-maps/criminaljustice/drag_restrictions">enacted laws explicitly targeting drag performers</a>. Four others — Florida, Texas, Arkansas, and North Dakota — have laws targeting “adult” performances that can be used to target drag shows and that in some cases have been used to do so.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Gy1GjO">
But these laws have not fared well in court. In addition to the two federal court decisions blocking Tennessee’s anti-drag law, federal courts blocked similar laws in <a href="https://www.publishersweekly.com/binary-data/ARTICLE_ATTACHMENT/file/000/006/6300-1.pdf">Montana</a>, <a href="https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000188-e989-d144-a5bc-ebfdfb4f0000">Florida</a>, and <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.txsd.1928300/gov.uscourts.txsd.1928300.75.0.pdf">Texas</a>. For now, at least, the First Amendment is holding firm.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="V7vDN1">
That said, there’s no guarantee that judges will continue to protect free speech as these cases advance to higher (and more politicized) courts. As recently as last June, for example, there was strong consensus among federal courts that <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/6/26/23752360/supreme-court-lgbtq-transgender-bathrooms-sports-gender-affirming-care-bostock">laws banning gender-affirming care for minors are unconstitutional</a>. That <a href="https://www.vox.com/scotus/2023/7/10/23789633/supreme-court-lgbtq-lw-skrmetti-transgender-health-care-jeffrey-sutton-sixth-circuit">consensus was recently broken</a>, however, by <a href="https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/paul-eknes-tucker-versus-the-state-of-alabama.pdf">anti-trans decisions in two federal appeals courts</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0dhyOB">
Still, the First Amendment arguments against laws targeting drag performers are exceptionally strong. And it helps that most of these state laws are so poorly drafted that they should be struck down as unconstitutionally vague.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BimWOu">
It is fairly likely, in other words, that, at the very least, the current slate of amateurishly drafted anti-drag laws will continue to fall in court.
</p>
<h3 id="uIerMb">
Most anti-drag laws are incompetently drafted
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tyc0EI">
Most current state laws attacking drag are likely to fall in court simply because they are unconstitutionally vague. As the Supreme Court said in <a href="https://casetext.com/case/united-states-v-williams-6#p304"><em>United States v. Williams</em></a> (2008), a criminal law is invalid if it “fails to provide a person of ordinary intelligence fair notice of what is prohibited, or is so standardless that it authorizes or encourages seriously discriminatory enforcement.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8GHRiX">
This sort of vagueness abounds in state anti-drag laws. Take Florida’s law, for example, which makes it a crime to knowingly <a href="https://casetext.com/statute/florida-statutes/title-xlvi-crimes/chapter-827-abuse-of-children/section-82711-exposing-children-to-an-adult-live-performance#:~:text=Section%20827.11%20%2D%20Exposing%20children%20to%20an%20adult%20live%20performance%20(1,sexual%20excitement%2C%20or%20specific%20sexual">admit a “child” to an “adult live performance.”</a> It also allows the state to revoke the operating or liquor license of establishments that violate this prohibition. Using this provision, the state has<a href="https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000188-e989-d144-a5bc-ebfdfb4f0000"> attempted to revoke an Orlando business’s liquor license</a> after it hosted “A Drag Queen Christmas” show.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zfA6oX">
The Constitution does allow states to <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/390/629/">restrict underage access</a> to pornography, strip shows, and other highly sexual material. But even if drag performers were the same as strippers for First Amendment purposes (and they are not), Florida’s law is far too vague for a “person of ordinary intelligence” to figure out what, exactly it bans.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JWXEAA">
Among other things, the law bars children from any live show that depicts <a href="https://casetext.com/statute/florida-statutes/title-xlvi-crimes/chapter-827-abuse-of-children/section-82711-exposing-children-to-an-adult-live-performance#:~:text=Section%20827.11%20%2D%20Exposing%20children%20to%20an%20adult%20live%20performance%20(1,sexual%20excitement%2C%20or%20specific%20sexual">“lewd conduct.”</a> But it provides no definition of that term.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="y4ISY0">
Similarly, Montana’s anti-drag law purports to ban drag performances at public libraries, in public schools, or on any public property “where the performance is in the presence of an individual under the age of 18.” But its definition of who counts as a drag performer is ridiculously vague. The law <a href="https://leg.mt.gov/bills/2023/billhtml/HB0359.htm">defines a “drag queen”</a> as anyone, male or female, “who adopts a flamboyant or parodic feminine persona with glamorous or exaggerated costumes and makeup.” It also applies a similarly broad and vague definition to “drag kings.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7AHi28">
How on earth is a judge supposed to determine whether a character is sufficiently “flamboyant” to trigger this statute, or whether their costume is too “glamorous?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2K9CPZ">
Montana’s law is also so broad that it likely runs afoul of the Supreme Court’s warning that “a law may be overturned as <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/552/442/">impermissibly overbroad</a> because a ‘substantial number’ of its applications are unconstitutional” under the First Amendment. Flamboyance, parody, glamour, and exaggerated costumes are hardly limited to drag shows — they are, in fact, some of the most common elements in performances of all kinds.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Katy Perry on stage in a very shiny dress with matching handless gloves going up to her shoulders. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/QIZ3zCq8-H7Cd7b5VP9N5QrdRrs=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24900532/1488572024.jpg"/> <cite>Leon Neal/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
In this picture, singer Katy Perry adopts a flamboyant or parodic feminine persona with glamorous or exaggerated costumes and makeup.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="X67iDs">
And then there’s Tennessee’s law. It defines any show that is “harmful to minors” (a term that the statute, at least, defines) and that features “<a href="https://casetext.com/statute/tennessee-code/title-7-consolidated-governments-and-local-governmental-functions-and-entities/local-government-functions/chapter-51-miscellaneous-governmental-and-proprietary-functions/part-14-adult-oriented-establishments/section-7-51-1401-part-definitions">male or female impersonators</a>” as a form of “adult cabaret entertainment,” and then it bans this form of entertainment in any location where it “<a href="https://casetext.com/statute/tennessee-code/title-7-consolidated-governments-and-local-governmental-functions-and-entities/local-government-functions/chapter-51-miscellaneous-governmental-and-proprietary-functions/part-14-adult-oriented-establishments/section-7-51-1407-restrictions-on-locations-of-adult-oriented-businesses">could be viewed by a person who is not an adult</a>.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="asEekY">
First off, let’s talk about the law’s use of the word “could.” Literally any performance “could” be viewed by someone who is not an adult. If a venue cards patrons to make sure they are over 18, an underage person could still sneak in a back door or trick the bouncer with a fake ID. Similarly, if someone decides to host a drag performance in the privacy of their own home, a local child “could” still conceivably walk by the home and catch a glimpse of the show through a window.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vRLPE2">
As Judge Parker writes in his <em>Friends of George’s</em> opinion, the word “could” means that it is merely “possible” that something could happen. But it is always possible that a child could sneak into literally any place in the state of Tennessee — and thus the state’s anti-drag law applies everywhere in the state.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wlTCQZ">
Similarly, who, exactly, counts as a “male or female impersonator?” What if a male performer wears an article of clothing that resembles both a skirt and a Scottish kilt? How is a judge supposed to determine if this piece of clothing is too feminine? Or, for that matter, does this term encompass a live performance of the Oscar-winning 1993 comedy <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107614/"><em>Mrs. Doubtfire</em></a>, where a divorced man disguises himself as a female housekeeper to spend more time with his children? What about a live performance of Disney’s <em>Mulan</em>, a story about a woman who <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulan_(2020_film)">disguises herself as a man in order to join the army</a>?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZCH7LZ">
And just how feminine must a male performer be before they cross the line into impersonation? Consider, for example, actor Tom Holland’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Brq-exSvB7Q">famous dance routine to Rihanna’s “Umbrella,”</a> where Holland embraces the kind of hip-gyrating, ass-shaking choreography that will be familiar to pretty much anyone who has watched a performance from a young, hot, female pop star.
</p>
<div id="lqV3nj">
<div style="width: 100%; height: 0; padding-bottom: 56.25%;">
</div>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DoLxcl">
If Holland recreated this exact same performance in Tennessee, would he be labeled a “female impersonator?” Would the answer be different if he wore stereotypically male clothing? And, if not, how is a court supposed to determine if his dance moves are too feminine for the state of Tennessee?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HsaNgh">
In fairness, the Tennessee law does include some limiting language, such as a provision limiting the law’s scope to performances that would offend “<a href="https://casetext.com/case/friends-of-georges-inc-v-mulroy#:~:text=Plaintiff%20Friends%20of%20George's%2C%20Inc,of%20the%20United%20States%20Constitution.">the average person applying contemporary community standards</a>.” But this provision raises vagueness problems of its own. Among other things, how is a drag performer supposed to know, in advance, whether a show that is legal in Nashville might run afoul of “contemporary community standards” in a different part of the state?
</p>
<h3 id="mr4Ncd">
Tennessee’s and Montana’s inability to pin down what, exactly, they want to ban should be an insurmountable constitutional problem
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Xhytb4">
Setting aside these particular drafting errors, anti-drag lawmakers’ trouble defining what, exactly, they want to ban may very well be an insurmountable constitutional problem — at least assuming that the courts follow existing law.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="65BJUQ">
As Judge Parker explains in <em>Friends of George’s</em>, the First Amendment typically prohibits “content-based” restrictions on speech. In the <a href="https://casetext.com/case/police-department-of-chicago-v-mosley#p95">Supreme Court’s words</a>, “the First Amendment means that government has no power to restrict expression because of its message, its ideas, its subject matter, or its content.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="j1XdaM">
Restrictions on drag unavoidably run afoul of this rule. The entire point of such laws is to restrict artistic performances because they depict something — performers dressing as members of the opposite sex and satirizing gender norms — that the government believes should not be viewed by all audiences.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="197DHw">
That said, the Constitution does, on rare occasions, permit content-based restrictions on speech to exist — but only if those laws survive a difficult-to-overcome legal test known as “strict scrutiny.” Under this test, a law survives judicial review <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/12/2/21726876/supreme-court-religious-liberty-revolutionary-roman-catholic-diocese-cuomo-amy-coney-barrett">only if it uses</a> the “least restrictive means” to advance a “compelling governmental interest.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Pu14G0">
Let’s concede that there are some drag performances, like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTJvdGcb7Fs">some Broadway shows</a> or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATQ4349yK2o">standup comedy routines</a>, that are inappropriate for children. Let’s also assume, as the Supreme Court said in <a href="https://casetext.com/case/reno-v-american-civil-liberties-union#p879"><em>Reno v. ACLU</em></a> (1997), that states have ‘“a compelling interest in protecting the physical and psychological well-being of minors’ which extended to shielding them from indecent messages that are not obscene by adult standards,’” and that this interest is broad enough to allow states to bar underage audience members from the most sexually charged performances.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="y0FXCw">
Even with this assumption in place, such a law would still need to use the “least restrictive means” to prevent children from seeing those performances. It would need to be precisely drafted to cover only those performances that are genuinely pornographic, or otherwise resemble the <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/390/629/">limited range of expression</a> that may be restricted under the First Amendment. And the law couldn’t effectively bar adults from seeing such performances.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rujpOB">
Indeed, any law that targets drag writ large is unlikely to survive strict scrutiny, because most drag performances are not pornographic or otherwise similar to strip shows. And, at least so far, the federal courts have agreed on this point.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UOeqwY">
Ultimately, in other words, the question in cases like <em>Friends of George’s</em> is whether judges — and, ultimately, the justices — will carve out an exception to longstanding First Amendment rules because they are squicked out by drag queens. Under existing First Amendment law, there is no basis for anything more than the most narrowly tailored laws targeting the most sexualized performances.
</p></li>
<li><strong>Bonuses are a little bit bogus</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A woman is walking away from a sundae with a cherry on top in the direction of a cherry tree on a hill." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/tOdAgAgrIwNztqb6JqrnMg_3LYc=/0x0:1440x1080/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72620456/Bonuses_BigSqueeze_Vox_PaigeVickers.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Paige Vickers/Vox
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Ask your boss for a raise instead of a bonus. Really.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FDtZF0">
I am not saying that the next time your boss offers you a bonus, you should tear up the check and throw it back in their face. Money is money, after all. But it might be an opportunity to explain why you would be much happier about that bonus if it were spelled R-A-I-S-E.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KYiol4">
It is a pretty decent moment to be a worker in America and <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22841490/work-remote-wages-labor-force-participation-great-resignation-unions-quits">has been</a> for the past couple of years. <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/07/12/real-wage-gains-inflation">Wages are rising</a>, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/wages-surged-lowest-paid-americans-pandemic-covid-19/">especially for lower earners</a>, and now faster than inflation. Companies <a href="https://www.axios.com/2021/06/30/fast-food-restaurants-hiring">have had to compete</a> to get people in the door and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/13/business/employee-retention-quitting-companies.html">fight to retain</a> those who are already there.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8uz2O7">
Many employers have tried to accomplish that with bonuses, offering workers an extra financial treat for signing on or staying on, for the holidays, or for a particularly good moment for the business. But, to quote <a href="https://www.vox.com/joe-biden">Joe Biden</a>, here’s the deal: A one-time bonus is often just that, <em>one time</em>. A bonus is not a lasting change to your compensation, and it can be taken away just as easily as it’s given out.
</p>
<aside id="IU7FuQ">
<div>
</div>
</aside>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="L3ohIJ">
“You want to get the gift that keeps on giving,” said <a href="https://hls.harvard.edu/faculty/sharon-block/">Sharon Block</a>, a law professor at Harvard and former Biden administration official.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RKSZ7T">
Receiving a bonus in place of a pay bump can feel like a gut punch — and like it’s less than advertised when it lands in your bank account. Jenny Petty, a teacher in Arkansas, was miffed over the state legislature’s <a href="https://www.kait8.com/2022/08/23/school-district-votes-teacher-bonuses/">decision</a> to hand teachers a $5,000 bonus in 2022 instead of giving them a raise. “If they just raise our salary, we’re not going to be taxed so heavily on that. Plus there’s no guarantee year-to-year what they’re going to do,” she said. Bonuses <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/why-bonus-taxed-high">can be taxed at a higher rate</a> than normal wages, though <a href="https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/jobs-and-career/how-bonuses-are-taxed/L7UjtAZbh">there are some ways to mitigate that</a>, and you might wind up getting a refund.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="S6kwQM">
This year, <a href="https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/apr/02/state-says-it-will-fund-learns-raises-but/">the state voted to increase</a> teachers’ minimum salaries and give raises, resulting in a $13,000 raise for Petty that will show up in her paycheck for years.
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<aside id="fAPgwJ">
<q>“You want to get the gift that keeps on giving”</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nxKf8O">
“Pay raises have so much more of a ripple effect because it affects a lot of things, like even what goes into Social Security on your behalf,” Block said. “Anything that is calculated as a percentage of your income, a pay increase is going to ripple out through other benefits.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bq0njk">
Here’s a look at the problems with bonuses, why they may not sometimes even benefit the companies that give them out, and what you should ask for instead — especially now.
</p>
<h3 id="KlGDHU">
Why your boss might like this bonus thing
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OOPBD3">
A bonus is <a href="https://www.themuse.com/advice/how-bonuses-work">any form of compensation</a> that’s not guaranteed, a proverbial cherry on top of the sundae that is your salary. They’re often doled out after the fact, when a certain target is hit or when the business has had a good year, but not always. Plenty of companies use signing bonuses, for example, as a way to recruit new talent.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="O9wWJI">
Now, I know what you might be thinking here: Aren’t bonuses mainly a thing for already high-paid lawyers and finance guys who manage to get handed thousands of dollars in extra cash each year for ??? reasons? The answer is not really. According to the <a href="https://www.bls.gov/ebs/factsheets/nonproduction-bonuses.htm#:~:text=Access%20to%20nonproduction%20bonuses%20includes,other%20(such%20as%20birthday%20and">Bureau of Labor Statistics</a>, in March 2022, 41 percent of private industry and 37 percent of state and local government workers had access to nonproduction bonuses — meaning bonuses for the holidays, longevity, retention, attendance, management incentives, and more. Two-thirds of workers in finance and information had bonus access, but so did over half of workers in manufacturing, a third of workers in education and health services, and a quarter of workers in leisure and hospitality. In other words, this is an issue for workers across the <a href="https://www.vox.com/economy">economy</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W5JpFp">
There are plenty of reasons an employer might want to opt for a bonus instead of a pay raise. For one thing, pay raises are sticky. “On a fundamental level, pay raises are quite a permanent change to compensation. One might think that companies, nothing would stop them from lowering pay, but empirically, that very rarely happens,” said <a href="https://mgmt.wharton.upenn.edu/profile/barankay/">Iwan Barankay</a>, an associate professor of management, business economics, and public policy at Wharton. “There’s a downward rigidity to wages.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0mypIR">
If the economy goes south or business starts to falter, it’s a lot easier to skip holiday bonuses next year than it is to ask everyone to take a 10 percent pay cut.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pCJXxt">
Raises often include a more comprehensive review of someone’s performance and include objective and subjective measures, whereas a bonus may be based on something specific — a worker helped recruit someone or met some sort of attendance threshold. To that end, bonuses can be used as ways to incentivize workers toward certain behaviors, and companies spend time trying to figure out the right balance to make them work. If the required task to get the bonus is too hard, people don’t bother; the same goes for if the amount of the bonus itself is not generous.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pSTuBL">
Whether companies use bonuses can depend on what’s happening outside of the firm altogether, Barankay noted, and what’s common among competitors. “When there’s a change in the marketplace, a company will introduce or discontinue bonuses,” he said, noting that monetary incentives are often easier to dole out or get rid of than other, softer and perhaps more psychological measures. “The advantage of money is that it’s easy to pull back and correct it,” he said.
</p>
<h3 id="CtVgZD">
Permanent money &gt; temporary money
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="66jBSR">
I think about the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2017/12/20/16790040/gop-tax-bill-winners">Trump tax cuts a lot</a>, when in late 2017 then-<a href="https://www.vox.com/donald-trump">President Donald Trump</a> signed into law legislation that, among other things, slashed taxes for corporations. A bunch of companies subsequently <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/01/11/list-companies-paid-bonuses-boosted-pay-since-tax-bill-passed/1023848001/">made splashy announcements</a> about spending on workers, including on bonuses.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IGxc2Q">
Much of the fanfare was <a href="https://www.vox.com/explainers/2018/1/25/16904136/corporate-america-tax-cut-celebrations-explained">largely about PR</a> — a lot of these companies had these plans in the works already — and <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/12/17/18136119/republican-tax-cuts-bonus-announcements-companies">trying to make the tax cuts look helpful up and down income levels</a>. However, as discussed, those bonuses <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/12/18/18144509/tax-cut-bill-workers-bonus">didn’t amount to much</a>, <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/2020/01/14/tax-cut-bonus-one-time-wage-growth-lower/41000013/">nor were they a lasting change</a>. That’s the rub with a bonus.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9VsVTa">
“It’s not as good as a permanent raise, that’s the core, and I think workers know that, they’re not fooled,” said <a href="https://www.epi.org/people/heidi-shierholz/">Heidi Shierholz</a>, former chief economist at the Department of Labor and the president of the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank. “It makes a massive difference in your expected earnings over a longer period than just the current year.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hsjHsD">
A wage increase will continuously mean higher contributions for Social Security and 401(k) matching and retirement benefits. It can also help workers negotiate higher wages in their next <a href="https://www.vox.com/labor-jobs">jobs</a>. Like it or not, we still live in a world where potential employers ask candidates what their current pay is. I suppose you can try to lie, but a lot of people don’t.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1aLZNa">
If you’re buying a new house, getting a new car, or applying for some kind of a loan, a lender <a href="https://time.com/3342841/bonus-bad-news/">might not give as much credence</a> to bonuses as they do your total salary.
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<aside id="FKT2OU">
<q>Bonuses are not always all they’re made out to be from the corporate angle</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LbFj2n">
Paige, who works for a Chicago-based electronics company and asked to use a pseudonym out of fear of jeopardizing her job, recalled her feelings around her company’s decision to hand out a one-time bonus in December 2020 in lieu of the raises employees had been asking for. “A raise is consistent … you can factor it into your budget,” she said. Her employer has announced it’s doing another “one-time bonus” this year, but again, it’s very much at their whim. “Because they’re phrasing it as a one-time bonus, it can obviously go away at any time.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bTOn4J">
Bonuses are not always all they’re made out to be from the corporate angle, either. A signing bonus isn’t going to help with retention — it’s just as easy for a worker to say, “Thanks for the extra $300 that one time, bye,” in three months as it is three years. Short-term incentives are just that: short term.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VxDLxI">
“Merit increases actually provide a higher sense of security and stability,” said <a href="https://ler.illinois.edu/directory/998/">Mengjie Lyu</a>, an assistant professor at the School of Labor and Employment Relations at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. They can also help employees get a line of sight into how to make progress in an organization’s pay structure — especially when there’s transparency around pay.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WXPj1o">
Employers may ultimately miss out on certain workers by focusing on bonuses over base pay and raises because some people just can’t accept that level of variability in their <a href="https://www.vox.com/personal-finance">personal finances</a>. “Employers may think if I use bonuses I’m attracting good performers and people who are more competent with their productivity, but maybe the good performers are risk-averse or have financial constraints, have a family to support, have children to raise,” Lyu said. “That means they cannot go the bonus way, they just want to make sure that they have a secure income level every month.”
</p>
<h3 id="YMWY5y">
The labor market is strong right now — and it won’t be forever
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PdQy64">
Negotiating at work can be hard. (If you’re great at it, good for you, and teach me your ways.) But this is really the moment to push for what you want. The unemployment rate in the United States is at decades-long lows, and <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/08/29/jolts-july-data">while there are signs the labor market is cooling somewhat</a>, it’s still pretty damn good. Now is the time for workers to try to make some of that strength stick for themselves. At some point, the job market won’t be like this anymore.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qEpL76">
“This is such an unusual moment when workers have such leverage. It’s a shame to bargain that away, whether that’s actual collective bargaining or even other just non-<a href="https://www.vox.com/unions">union</a> workers deciding whether to take a job or not,” Block said. “We don’t know where the labor market will be next year. Workers won’t be able to say, ‘You gave me a bonus last year, I would like one this year.’ They may not have as much leverage to demand that from an employer.”
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<aside id="yeEYYt">
<q>“This is the moment for workers up and down the wage scale to push for as high wages as possible”</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZOD7ou">
That means, practically, that if there’s a signing bonus in the mix, try to see what sort of movement you can make on your base pay instead. That applies to someone applying for a service job and someone looking to land a new gig in marketing. “Employers think that’s the kind of thing that can lure people into the labor market. But again, I think if you step back, workers are much better off getting a higher wage than getting a one-time bonus payment,” Block said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AkYmqE">
Workers may not always win this fight. Who among us hasn’t asked for a raise or bump in compensation, either to be told no, flat out, or offered some sort of one-time pile of cash as a consolation prize? Plenty of workers have seen spot bonuses and holiday bonuses come and go, seemingly at random, without any rhyme or reason.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pqsg5a">
Still, this is the time to go for it, Block said. “This is the moment for workers up and down the wage scale to push for as high wages as possible. We’re seeing wages rise for low-wage workers actually faster than high-wage workers. I can’t think of a time when that’s happened before,” she said. “My advice is then organize a union, so you can be sure that you continue to push for higher wages.”
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<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. Each month, 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>
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<a href="http://vox.com/big-squeeze-newsletter"><em>Sign up to get this column in your inbox</em></a>.
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<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>.
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<li><strong>What if AI treats humans the way we treat animals?</strong> -
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<img alt="An illustration showing a person and animals mixed with scientific-looking blobs. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/IGCa3trP6xxWndgWUgD9Rv8eYJA=/50x0:1490x1080/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72439651/illust_2_1920px_x_1080px_asya_demidova_UPD.0.png"/>
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Asya Demidova for Vox
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The dehumanizing philosophy of AI is built on a hatred of our animal nature.
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By now, you may have heard — possibly from the same people creating the technology — that <a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/4/28/23702644/artificial-intelligence-machine-learning-technology">artificial intelligence</a> might one day <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/30/technology/ai-threat-warning.html">kill us all</a>. The specifics are hazy, but then, they don’t really matter. Humans are very good at fantasizing about being exterminated by an alien species, because we’ve always been good at devising creative ways of doing it to our fellow creatures. AI could destroy humanity for something as stupid as, in philosopher Nick Bostrom’s famous <a href="https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2017/10/11/16457742/ai-paperclips-thought-experiment-game-frank-lantz">thought experiment</a>, turning the world’s matter into paper clips — much like humans are now <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/29/world/asia/orangutan-indonesia-palm-oil.html">wiping out</a> our great ape cousins, orangutans, to cultivate palm oil to make junk foods like Oreos.
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You might even say that the human nightmare of subjugation by machines expresses a sublimated fear of our treatment of non-human animals being turned back on us. “We know what we’ve done,” as journalist Ezra Klein <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/02/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-erik-davis.html">put it</a> on a May episode of his podcast. “And we wouldn’t want to be on the other side of it.”
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AI threatens the quality that many of us believe has made humans unique on this planet: intelligence. So, as author Meghan O’Gieblyn wrote in her book <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/567075/god-human-animal-machine-by-meghan-ogieblyn/"><em>God, Human, Animal, Machine</em></a>, “We quell our anxiety by insisting that what distinguishes <em>true</em> consciousness is emotions, perception, the ability to experience and feel: the qualities, in other words, that we share with animals.” We tell ourselves, in other words, that even if AI may one day be smarter than us, unlike the machines, we have subjective experience, which makes us morally special.
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<q>The dehumanizing philosophy of AI’s prophets is among the worst possible starting points to defend the value of our fleshy, living selves</q>
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The obvious problem with this, though, is that humans aren’t special in this way. Non-human animals share many of our capacities for intelligence and perception, yet we’ve refused to extend the generosity we might expect from AI. We rationalize unmitigated cruelty toward animals — caging, commodifying, mutilating, and killing them to suit our whims — on the basis of our purportedly superior intellect. “If there were gods, they would surely be laughing their heads off at the inconsistency of our logic,” O’Gieblyn continues. “We spent centuries denying consciousness in animals precisely because [we thought] they lacked reason or higher thought.”
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Why should we hope that AI, particularly if it’s built on our own values, treats us any differently? We might struggle to justify to a future artificial “superintelligence,” if such a thing could ever exist, why we’re deserving of mercy when we’ve failed spectacularly at offering our fellow animals the same. And, worse still, the dehumanizing philosophy of AI’s prophets is among the worst possible starting points to defend the value of our fleshy, living selves.
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Transhumanism is built on a hatred of animality
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<q>We aren’t cruel to animals because they’re stupid; we say they’re stupid because we’re cruel to them</q>
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Although modern humans defend the exploitation of non-human animals in terms of their assumed lack of intelligence, this has never been the real reason for it. If we took that argument at face value and treated animals according to their smarts, we would immediately stop <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/1/31/18203959/octopus-factory-farms">factory-farming octopuses</a>, <a href="https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/octopuses-keep-surprising-us-here-are-eight-examples-how.html">which can</a> use tools, recognize human faces, and figure out how to escape enclosures. We wouldn’t <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/what-happens-when-captive-us-elephants-live-alone">keep elephants in solitary confinement</a> in zoos, recognizing it as a violation of their rights and needs as smart, caring, deeply social creatures. We wouldn’t psychologically torture pigs by <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23721488/prop-12-scotus-pork-pigs-factory-farming-california-bacon">immobilizing them in cages</a> so small they can’t turn around, condemning them to a short lifetime essentially spent in a coffin, all to turn them into cheap cuts of bacon. We would realize that it’s wholly unnecessary to subject <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/cow-cattle-animal-intelligence-science-personalities-emotion-697979">intelligent cows</a> to the trauma of repeated, human-induced pregnancies and separation from their newborns, just so we can drink the milk meant for their calves.
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In reality, we aren’t cruel to animals because they’re stupid; we say they’re stupid because we’re cruel to them, inventing <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-startling-intelligence-of-the-common-chicken1/">fact-free mythologies</a> about their minds to justify our dominance, as political theorist Dinesh Wadiwel lays this out in his brilliant 2015 book <a href="https://brill.com/display/title/32110?language=en"><em>The War Against Animals</em></a>. In a chapter called “The Violence of Stupidity,” Wadiwel contends that human power over animals enables <em>us</em> to be willfully and unaccountably stupid about what they are really like. “How else might we describe a claimed superiority by humans over animals (whether based on intelligence, reason, communication, vocalisation, or politics) that has no consistent or verifiable ‘scientific’ or ‘philosophical’ basis?” he writes. Humans, like animals, are vulnerable, breakable creatures who can only thrive within a specific set of physical and social constraints. We can only hope that future AI, however intelligent, doesn’t evince the same stupidity with respect to us.
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While we can only guess whether some powerful future AI will categorize us as unintelligent, what’s clear is that there is an explicit and concerning contempt for the human animal among prominent AI boosters. AI research itself has strong ties to transhumanism, a movement that aims to radically alter and augment human bodies with technology. Its most extreme aspirants hope to merge humanity with computers, excising suffering from life like a tumor from a cancer patient and living in a state of <a href="https://nickbostrom.com/utopia">everlasting bliss</a>, as Bostrom, one of the main proponents of transhumanism, has suggested. <a href="https://www.vox.com/elon-musk">Elon Musk</a>, for instance, has said that he launched Neuralink, his brain-computer interface startup, in part so that humans can remain competitive in an intelligence arms race with AI. “Even under a benign AI, we will be left behind,” Musk <a href="https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/a28423949/elon-musk-neuralink/">said at a Neuralink event in 2019</a>. “With a high bandwidth brain-machine interface, we will have the option to go along for the ride.”
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This aspiration can be interpreted as an implicit loathing of our animality, or at least a desire to liberate ourselves from it. “We will be the first species ever to design our own descendants,” technologist Sam Altman, now the CEO of OpenAI, wrote in a 2017 <a href="https://blog.samaltman.com/the-merge">blog post</a>. “My guess is that we can either be the biological bootloader for digital intelligence” — meaning just a stepping stone for advanced AI — “and then fade into an evolutionary tree branch, or we can figure out what a successful merge looks like.”
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<q>Human/animal dualism relies on an implausible model of human intelligence as having nothing to do with our physical, animal selves</q>
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Computer scientist Danny Hillis, co-founder of the now-defunct AI company Thinking Machines, declared in the early ’90s that humans are composed of two fundamentally different things: “We’re the metabolic thing, which is the monkey that walks around, and we’re the intelligent thing, which is a set of ideas and culture,” as historian David Noble quotes in his 1997 book <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/331339/the-religion-of-technology-by-david-f-noble/"><em>The Religion of Technology</em></a><em>. </em>”What’s valuable about us,” Hillis continued, “what’s good about humans, is the idea thing. It’s not the animal thing.” Merging with computers signifies our extrication from animal biology.
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This human/animal dualism posits a clean cognitive break between us and the rest of the animal evolutionary tree, when in fact no such division exists. It relies on an implausible model of human intelligence as having nothing to do with our physical, animal selves: a notion that “the mind is computation, that it does not involve the affective dimensions of the human experience, and it doesn’t involve the body,” Michael Sacasas, a technology critic who writes <a href="https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/">The Convivial Society</a>, a popular Substack, told me.
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The societal reckoning taking place now over where humans fit in a world of AI, might, as Sacasas hopes, prompt us to start to rethink this dualism, to recognize that the body is “not just as the firmware for the rational software, but actually an integral part of what we call ‘mind.’” Breaking down that dualism ought to also mean giving up the separate status we assign ourselves as human beings. It could help us broaden the definition of intelligence itself to encompass the animal qualities described by O’Gieblyn — “emotions, perception, the ability to experience and feel.” There is, after all, no single thing in our brains called “intelligence” or “thought”; it’s not a body part, but an emergent property continuous with our other mental processes. Animals share these, and in some cases exceed them.
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Migratory birds, for example, can famously <a href="https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth/22901324/birds-migration-navigation-earth-magnetic-field">navigate</a> by perceiving the Earth’s magnetic field. Raccoons can <a href="https://slate.com/technology/2016/09/raccoons-are-taking-over-urban-environments.html">“see”</a> and learn about the world with their hyper-sensitive hands (this is why they can sometimes be seen enthusiastically <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMnQzmKsXu8">patting</a> objects and other animals). Pigs are undoubtedly smart, but the <a href="https://www.humanesociety.org/animals/pigs#:~:text=Pigs%20are%20gentle%20creatures%20with,few%20sows%20and%20their%20piglets.">widely</a> <a href="https://www.lhf.org/2014/02/is-a-pig-smarter-than-a-5th-grader/">cited</a> idea that they’re “as smart as” 3-year-old children reflects the depressing way that we’ve come to measure intelligence against a single-variable, anthropocentric yardstick, rather than recognizing different beings as having different minds. Yet this is dehumanizing to us, too, because it judges our cognition as though it were a computer’s CPU. If we can properly value animals’ capacities, then we might also see how claiming human exceptionalism through a disembodied view of our minds has done spiritual harm to ourselves.
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AI criticism ought to include non-human animals
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You don’t have to believe that AI could become autonomous and orchestrate our extinction to see how, for example, chatbots are already blurring the line between humans and machines, creating the illusion of sentience where it doesn’t exist, a critique made by linguist <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/ai-artificial-intelligence-chatbots-emily-m-bender.html">Emily Bender</a>. Others, like Sacasas, point to how AI replacing humans represents the culmination of modernity’s drive to eliminate inefficiency from life. “By the logic of the market and of techno-capitalism, if you like, the inefficiencies of the human being were always ultimately meant to be disposed of,” he said. “AI, in a sense, just kind of furthers that logic … and brings it to its logical conclusion, which is, you’re just getting rid of people.”
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These kinds of critiques ring true to me — yet they also have a way of fixating on the ethical and spiritual uniqueness of human beings, to the exclusion of the other sentient, intelligent creatures with whom we’ve always shared the planet. “One of the anxieties generated by AI is built upon how we have sought to distinguish the human, or to elevate the human, or to find the unique thing about the human,” Sacasas points out. Humans are, in important ways, obviously unique among animals. But the critical discourse about AI has shown little interest in thinking beyond ourselves, or reckoning with what implications this moment has for our undervaluing of animals.
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One of the best-known critiques of AI large language models, or LLMs, for example, compares AI’s lack of language understanding to that of an animal: the concept of the <a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3442188.3445922">“stochastic parrot,”</a> which refers to how chatbots, not having minds, spit out language based on probabilistic models with no regard for meaning. “You are not a parrot,” proclaimed the headline of a widely read March <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/ai-artificial-intelligence-chatbots-emily-m-bender.html">profile</a> of Emily Bender in New York magazine.
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I’m sure Bender has nothing against parrots — <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/22/science/parrots-are-a-lot-more-than-pretty-bird.html">exceptionally smart</a> animals that are <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0049747">thought</a> to reproduce sounds with astonishing fidelity as part of their communication with one another and with humans. But parrots aren’t machines, and imagining them as such only reinforces the human/animal dualism that gave us the disembodied view of our own minds. It’s as if we have no language for affirming our worth as humans without repudiating animality.
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The ascendance of AI should be a pivotal moment from which to start to come to grips with our relationship to other sentient, biological life. If AI were ever in a position to make judgments about us, we should hope that it’s far more charitable than we have been, that it doesn’t nitpick, mock, or nullify our capacities and needs as we’ve done to other animals. If we wouldn’t want to be tyrannized by a more powerful intelligence, we have no credible defense for continuing to do the same.
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We don’t know if sentient AI is possible, but if it is, we shouldn’t build it
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None of this necessarily tells us whether the machines themselves could ever become sentient, or how we should proceed if they can. I used to find the idea of sentient AI risible, but now I’m not so sure. The scientific method has not figured out how to explain consciousness, as O’Gieblyn points out. Modern science, she writes, “was predicated in the first place on the exclusion of the mind.”
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If we don’t know where consciousness comes from, we may want to be careful about assuming it can only arise from biological life, especially given our poor track record of appreciating it in animals. “Evolution was just selecting repeatedly on ability to have babies, and here we are. We have goals,” as Vox’s Kelsey Piper <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/21/podcasts/ezra-klein-podcast-transcript-kelsey-piper.html">said</a> on <em>The</em> <em>Ezra Klein Show</em> in March. “Why does that process get you things that have goals? I don’t know.”
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We have no reason to believe any current AIs are sentient, but we also have no way of knowing whether or how that could change. “We’re kind of at the point where we can make fire but do not even have the rudiments of what we’d need to understand it,” my friend <a href="https://lgessler.com/">Luke Gessler</a>, a computational linguist, told me.
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If sentience in AI could ever emerge (a big if), I’m doubtful we’d be willing to recognize it, for the same reason that we’ve denied its existence in animals. Humans are very good at dismissing or lying about the interests of beings that we want to exploit (including not just animals but also, of course, enslaved humans, women, and any other class of people who have been excluded from moral consideration). Creating sentient AI would be unethical because we’d be bringing it into the world as chattel. Consigning sentient beings to property status, as we know from the experience of non-human animals, is inherently unjust because their welfare will always be subordinated to economic efficiency and the desires of their owners. “We will inevitably inflict suffering on them,” science fiction author Ted Chiang <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/30/podcasts/ezra-klein-podcast-ted-chiang-transcript.html">said</a> of building sentient AI in 2021. “That seems to me clearly a bad idea.”
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<q>Because we imagine our cognition as a computer, we start to imagine that computers can think</q>
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In a May <a href="https://lineofbeauty.substack.com/p/on-animate-intelligence">essay</a>, Columbia philosopher Dhananjay Jagannathan offered a different perspective on the AI minds question. Drawing from Aristotle, he suggests that the nature of thought isn’t something that can be scientifically deduced or implanted into a computer, because it’s an irreducible part of our lives as biological animals. “Thinking is life,” the Aristotelian idea puts it. A raccoon who <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMnQzmKsXu8">pats</a> things to learn about her environment, for example, or a baby bird who pecks around at objects to do the same, or a human whose sense of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/28/magazine/covid-smell-science.html">smell</a> vividly triggers a distant memory are all having experiences of thinking that are inextricable from the biological organs through which they’re engaging with the world.
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One upshot of this, Jagannathan writes, is that the transhumanist dream of digitally uploading our consciousness and splitting from our bodies, far from being any sort of liberation, amounts to “self-annihilation.” The idea of thinking as inseparable from animality can be hard for modern people to comprehend because, as O’Gieblyn writes, our concept of the mind pulls so heavily from computational metaphors. Because we imagine our cognition as a computer, we start to imagine, erroneously, that computers can think.
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AI evokes our anxieties about the fragility and mistreatment of animality
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Jagannathan’s view, that we can understand thought through our kinship with non-human animals, helps clarify what is disconcerting about the dualist, computational view of experience, taken to its logical endpoint by AI and transhumanist philosophy. The assumption that we can apprehend, measure, and perfect subjective experience, rendering life as though it were bits of information encoded on a computer, can lead to conclusions that are obviously repugnant. It has made the annihilation of biological life, both human and non-human, imaginable.
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Prominent philosopher Will MacAskill, for example, proposed in his 2022 book <a href="https://whatweowethefuture.com/"><em>What We Owe the Future</em></a><em> </em>that declining populations of wild animals (we are, if you haven’t heard, in the middle of a <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/6/6/21280720/endangered-species-extinction-ecosystem-climate-change-biodiversity-crisis">mass extinction</a>) may actually be desirable. Their lives might be “worse than nothing on average, which I think is plausible (though uncertain),” he writes, because they may consist more of suffering, from things like predation and disease, than of pleasure. Perhaps, then, they’d be better off if they’d never been born — an argument that springs from the same well as the transhumanist impulse to remove suffering from life and colonize the universe with beings merged with machines.
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The idea of <a href="https://thebreakthrough.org/journal/climate-change-banned-words/moral-obligation-abolish-wilderness">wild animal eradication</a> represents one of the more extreme manifestations of the drive to denude life of physical content. In a similar vein, transhumanist philosopher <a href="https://twitter.com/webmasterdave">David Pearce</a>, who sits on the board of the organization <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg25834342-600-why-we-need-to-be-honest-with-children-about-the-brutality-of-nature/#:~:text=Headed%20by%20philosopher%20David%20Pearce,of%20suffering%20in%20the%20world.%20">Herbivorize Predators</a> (it aims to do what the name implies), <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20230323170950/https://www.herbivorizepredators.org/who-we-are">hopes to</a> technologically “eliminate all forms of unpleasant experience from human and non-human life, replacing suffering with ‘information-sensitive gradients of bliss.’”
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In the actual world, where wild animals are often exterminated wholesale when their presence is inconvenient for us, the notion that it could actually be morally righteous to get rid of them might provide a justification for the ecocide that humans are engaged in anyway. Who’s to say that an AI won’t one day say the same thing about us, deciding that it’s best to put us out of our misery based on its cold calculation of our pains and pleasures? That would be consistent with the transhumanist ethos of transcending the hardship of physical existence.
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<q>AI reminds us of our own vulnerability, the parts of us that are unfathomable or expendable in mechanistic terms</q>
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Yet this dim estimation of our biological selves, as well as those of animals, forecloses the possibility of valuing or interpreting life in other ways. We can hardly access an animal’s interiority, much less be able to say whether they think their lives are worth living. If a utilitarian bean counter told me that the rest of my life would be 70 percent suffering, I wouldn’t choose to die, even if I truly believed them; I would want to live out my life.
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A very different, more integrated interpretation of animal life, one that I return to again and again, can be found in a work by the poet Alan Shapiro. His 2002 poem <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42710/joy-56d2215426412">“Joy”</a> gives expression to the strange entanglement of joy, fear, and tragedy that defines our lives, and, he imagines, perhaps those of wild animals also. “Joy,” he writes, is the thing that is “Savagely beautiful,” likening it to antelope evading a lion:
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<img alt="poem excerpt: as like the herd/escaping/that the camera/pans to, zig-/zagging,/swerving as/one,/their leaping strides now/leaping higher,/faster,/even after,/it seems,/the fear subsides—/after the fear and/the relief/they keep/on running/for nothing but/the joy of running/though/it could be/any one of them/is running/from its fallen/mother or father/sister or brother/across the wide/savanna/under a bright sun/into fresher grass." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/GZee1D4WdHVeqRl0yqLM3sRVYPU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24758777/Screen_Shot_2023_06_28_at_12.18.12_PM.png"/>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GaVgMq">
This vision doesn’t, to me, suggest that the suffering of wild animals doesn’t matter, but rather that the vulnerable, mysterious fullness of their lives is worth living. AI evokes our anxieties about the fragility and mistreatment of animality — our own, as well as that of nonhuman animals. It reminds us of our own vulnerability, the parts of us that are unfathomable or expendable in mechanistic terms. In a world where the ability to manipulate language is no longer a uniquely human capacity, the rationalizing impulse might ask us to co-sign our own obsolescence. We might, instead, decide that our creaturely selves are worth holding on to, and, in doing so, invite our fellow animals into our moral circle.
</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>Knight Defensor, Regal Aristocracy, Art Gallery, Roman Spirit and Multisided caught the eye</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>Axlrod and Endurance please</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ishan Kishan’s rise: from Patna to Ranchi to India’s trusted wicketkeeper-batter</strong> - Kishan had to shift from Patna to Ranchi in search of better cricketing facilities</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>European football clubs renew UEFA deal and will share in $4.7 billion revenue for competitions</strong> - UEFA and the influential European Club Association signed a renewed working agreement through 2030.</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>U.S. Open 2023 | Alcaraz downs Zverev to complete all-star semifinal lineup</strong> - Daniil Medvedev, the 2021 winner, overcame Andrey Rublev 6-4 6-3 6-4 to set up a semifinal clash with defending champion Alcaraz</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>India’s crèche scheme and the laws that govern childcare facilities | Explained</strong> - How has the 2006 National Crèche Scheme fared? How many women make use of crèche services? How do childcare services impact women’s participation in the labour force?</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>Sanatana Dharma row | Congress distances itself from Udhayanidhi’s remarks</strong> - Neither the Indian Constitution nor our own party’s tradition allow us to show someone as better than others, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Congress to be pushed outside Hyderabad limits to Tukkuguda for its public meeting on September 17</strong> - The public meeting will be organised after the conclusion of the Congress Working Committee meeting in the city</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>Sanatana Dharma row | Udhayanidhi, A. Raja’s remarks reflect ‘deep-rooted Hinduphobia’ of INDIA bloc: Dharmendra Pradhan</strong> - ‘The Congress and its friends are consciously maligning the soul, spirit and roots of Bharat,’ Pradhan posted on social media</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>What has the Supreme Court said about the validity of ‘self-respect’ marriages? | Explained</strong> - What are ‘self-respect’ marriages and the rationale behind them? What did the Supreme Court rule recently? What other law governs secular marriages?</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>Greek floods: Austrian honeymooners missing after holiday home swept away</strong> - Rescuers are searching for the couple after torrential rains swept away their holiday home.</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: US to arm Kyiv with depleted uranium tank shells</strong> - It will be the first time the US is sending the armour-piercing munitions to Ukraine.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>UK rejoins EU science research scheme Horizon</strong> - UK-based scientists and institutions will have access to the £85bn fund from today.</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: 16 killed during attack on market in ‘peaceful city’</strong> - President Zelensky condemns the “deliberate” strike on Ukraine’s “peaceful city” of Kostyantynivka.</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>Migrants bundled out of Europe lose court challenge against EU’s Frontex</strong> - The EU Court rejects a case against border agency Frontex from a Syrian family deported from Greece.</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>Ford’s electric Mustang Mach-E gets a $65,000 Rally-inspired version</strong> - Ford adds chunky tires and protective shielding, plus a new rallysport drive mode. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1965854">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>BA.2.86 fears fizzle as other variants drive up hospitalizations, deaths</strong> - Three preliminary studies suggest BA.2.86 may not be the scary subvariant some feared. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1966041">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>TurboTax-maker Intuit offers an AI agent that provides financial tips</strong> - AI-generated financial advice also arrives in Credit Karma, QuickBooks, and Mailchimp. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1965752">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>AI-generated child sex imagery has every US attorney general calling for action</strong> - “A race against time to protect the children of our country from the dangers of AI.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1965814">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Microsoft finally explains cause of Azure breach: An engineer’s account was hacked</strong> - Other failures along the way included a signing key improperly appearing in a crash dump. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1965985">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>Man walks into a bar with an octopus</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
He says “I bet anyone $50 they can’t bring me a musical instrument this octopus can’t play.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
People in the bar look around, talk amongst themselves, and someone brings up an acoustic guitar. The octopus looks at the guitar, tests the strings, tunes it, and begins playing a country song.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Next somebody brings a trumpet. The octopus looks at the trumpet, adjusts the keys, licks its lips, and begins playing a jazz solo on the trumpet.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The bartender’s been watching this. He goes out back, and afte ra few minutes comes back with a set of bagpipes. He sets the bagpipes on the counter and says, “I bet you $100 the octopus can’t play this.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The octopus takes the bagpipes and looks at them. Then turns them over and looks at them from another angle. Then turns them again.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The guy’s getting impatient. “Quit screwing around, jstart playing.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The octopus says, “Play? If I can figure out how to take her pajamas off I’m gonna fuck her.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Rechan"> /u/Rechan </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16ca53v/man_walks_into_a_bar_with_an_octopus/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16ca53v/man_walks_into_a_bar_with_an_octopus/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Mark says to John: “Can you believe that an Arab millionaire saw my wife and told me that he would pay her weight in gold?”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
John: “I can’t believe it, and what did you say?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Mark: “I asked him if he could wait a month.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
John: “So you can think about it?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Mark: “No, to make her fat.”
</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/MarcoDanielRebelo"> /u/MarcoDanielRebelo </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16cbx60/mark_says_to_john_can_you_believe_that_an_arab/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16cbx60/mark_says_to_john_can_you_believe_that_an_arab/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Two economists are walking in a forest when they Come across a pile of shit.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Two economists are walking in a forest when they Come across a pile of shit.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The first economist says to the other “Ill pay you $100 to eat that pile of shit.” The second economist takes the $100 and eats the pile of shit.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
They continue walking until they come across a second pile of shit. The second economist turns to the first and says “l pay you $100 to eat that pile of shit.” The first economist takes the $100 and eats a pile of shit.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Walking a little more, the first economist looks at the second and says, “You know, I gave you $100 to eat shit, then you gave me back the same $100 to eat shit. can’t help but feel like we both just ate shit for nothing.” “That’s not true”, responded the second economist. “We increased the GDP by $200!”
</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/Sufficient_Ticket237"> /u/Sufficient_Ticket237 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16bq4r9/two_economists_are_walking_in_a_forest_when_they/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16bq4r9/two_economists_are_walking_in_a_forest_when_they/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What’s German for virgin?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Goodentite.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/TinyXena"> /u/TinyXena </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16c4rsp/whats_german_for_virgin/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16c4rsp/whats_german_for_virgin/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A newly-wed couple moves into their new house</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
One day the husband comes home from work and his wife says, “Honey, one of the pipes is leaking, could you fix it?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The husband says, “What do I look like, a plumber?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A few days go by, and he comes home from work and his wife says, “Honey, the car won’t start. I think it needs a new battery. Could you check it for me?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
He says, “What do I look like, a mechanic?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Another few days go by, and it’s raining pretty hard. The wife finds a leak in the roof. She says, “Honey, there’s a leak on the roof! Can you please fix it?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
He says, “What do I look like, a handy-man?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The next day the husband comes home, and the roof is fixed. So is the plumbing. So is the car. He asks his wife what happened.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Oh, I had a handyman come in and fix them,” she says.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Great! How much is that going to cost me?” he snarls.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The wife says, “Nothing. He said he’d do it for free if I either baked him a cake or slept with him.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Uh, well, what kind of cake did you make?” asks the husband.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
She said, “ Do I look like Betty Crocker?”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Major_Independence82"> /u/Major_Independence82 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16cbzbu/a_newlywed_couple_moves_into_their_new_house/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16cbzbu/a_newlywed_couple_moves_into_their_new_house/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
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