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<title>03 January, 2024</title>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="covid-19-sentry">Covid-19 Sentry</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-preprints">From Preprints</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-pubmed">From PubMed</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-patent-search">From Patent Search</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-preprints">From Preprints</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Four Years of COVID-19: Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Pakistan Have the Highest Research Growth Rates From 2020-2023</strong> -
<div>
We tried to assess the global research scholarly output after COVID-19 (from 2020 to 2023). Based on Scopus record, the world has produced 15, 041, 579 publications with 86, 165, 933 citations. We analyzed those countries, which have published at least 150, 000 research papers. For each country, we retrieved total number of publications, % growth rate, total citations, citations per paper, Field Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI), and % international collaboration. Twenty-seven (n=27) countries were found to be highly productive, with China leading the way in number of publications. Citation metrics are dominated by the USA, China, and European countries. Specifically, Switzerland, Netherlands, and Australia are notable for their high impact and influence. Saudi Arabia achieved the highest growth rate of 53.5%, and highest international collaboration (76.5%). Infact Saudi Arabia also attained high citations per article (8.8), and an FWCI of 1.63. While, Pakistan exhibited an 8.4 citations per article, FWCI of 1.54, growth rate of 34.9%, and collaborative percentage of 64.9%. Egypt also attained the 2nd highest growth rate (n=36.1). Based on four (n=4) distinct performance metrics, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were in the top ten group.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.31.573759v1" target="_blank">Four Years of COVID-19: Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Pakistan Have the Highest Research Growth Rates From 2020-2023</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Complex changes in serum protein levels in COVID-19 convalescents</strong> -
<div>
The COVID-19 pandemic, triggered by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, has affected millions of people worldwide. Much research has been dedicated to our understanding of COVID-19 disease heterogeneity and severity, but less is known about recovery associated changes. To address this gap in knowledge, we quantified the proteome from serum samples from 29 COVID-19 convalescents and 29 age-, race-, and sex-matched healthy controls. Samples were acquired within the first months of the pandemic. Many proteins from pathways known to change during acute COVID-19 illness, such as from the complement cascade, coagulation system, inflammation and adaptive immune system, had returned to levels seen in healthy controls. In comparison, we identified 22 and 15 proteins with significantly elevated and lowered levels, respectively, amongst COVID-19 convalescents compared to healthy controls. Some of the changes were similar to those observed for the acute phase of the disease, i.e. elevated levels of proteins from hemolysis, the adaptive immune systems, and inflammation. In contrast, some alterations opposed those in the acute phase, e.g. elevated levels of CETP and APOA1 which function in lipid/cholesterol metabolism, and decreased levels of proteins from the complement cascade (e.g. C1R, C1S, and VWF), the coagulation system (e.g. THBS1 and VWF), and the regulation of the actin cytoskeleton (e.g. PFN1 and CFL1) amongst COVID-19 convalescents. We speculate that some of these shifts might originate from a transient decrease in platelet counts upon recovery from the disease. Finally, we observed race-specific changes, e.g. with respect to immunoglobulins and proteins related to cholesterol metabolism.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.26.513886v2" target="_blank">Complex changes in serum protein levels in COVID-19 convalescents</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Rapid and specific detection of single nanoparticles and viruses in microfluidic laminar flow via confocal fluorescence microscopy</strong> -
<div>
Mainstream virus detection relies on the specific amplification of nucleic acids via polymerase chain reaction, a process that is slow and requires extensive laboratory expertise and equipment. Other modalities, such as antigen-based tests, allow much faster virus detection but have reduced sensitivity. In this study, we report the development of a flow virometer for the specific and rapid detection of single nanoparticles based on confocal microscopy. The combination of laminar flow and multiple dyes enable the detection of correlated fluorescence signals, providing information on nanoparticle volumes and specific chemical composition properties, such as viral envelope proteins. We evaluated and validated the assay using fluorescent beads and viruses, including SARS-CoV-2. Additionally, we demonstrate how hydrodynamic focusing enhances the assay sensitivity for detecting clinically-relevant virus loads. Based on our results, we envision the use of this technology for clinically relevant bio-nanoparticles, supported by the implementation of the assay in a portable and user-friendly setup.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.31.573251v1" target="_blank">Rapid and specific detection of single nanoparticles and viruses in microfluidic laminar flow via confocal fluorescence microscopy</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>DNA origami vaccine (DoriVac) nanoparticles improve both humoral and cellular immune responses to infectious diseases</strong> -
<div>
Current SARS-CoV-2 vaccines have demonstrated robust induction of neutralizing antibodies and CD4+ T cell activation, however CD8+ responses are variable, and the duration of immunity and protection against variants are limited. Here we repurposed our DNA origami vaccine platform, DoriVac, for targeting infectious viruses, namely SARS-CoV-2, HIV, and Ebola. The DNA origami nanoparticle, conjugated with infectious-disease-specific HR2 peptides, which act as highly conserved antigens, and CpG adjuvant at precise nanoscale spacing, induced neutralizing antibodies, Th1 CD4+ T cells, and CD8+ T cells in naive mice, with significant improvement over a bolus control. Pre-clinical studies using lymph-node-on-a-chip systems validated that DoriVac, when conjugated with antigenic peptides or proteins, induced promising cellular immune responses in human cells. These results suggest that DoriVac holds potential as a versatile, modular vaccine platform, capable of inducing both humoral and cellular immunities. The programmability of this platform underscores its potential utility in addressing future pandemics.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.29.573647v1" target="_blank">DNA origami vaccine (DoriVac) nanoparticles improve both humoral and cellular immune responses to infectious diseases</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Major role of S-glycoprotein in providing immunogenicity and protective immunity in mRNA lipid nanoparticle vaccines based on SARS-CoV-2 structural proteins</strong> -
<div>
Recently we have developed an mRNA lipid nanoparticle (mRNA-LNP) platform providing efficient long-term expression of an encoded gene in vivo after both intramuscular and intravenous application. Based on this platform, we have generated mRNA-LNP coding SARS-CoV-2 structural proteins M, N, S from different virus variants and studied their immunogenicity separately or in combinations in vivo. As a result, all candidate vaccine compositions coding S and N proteins induced excellent anti-RBD and N titers of binding antibodies. T cell responses mainly represented specific CD4+ T cell lymphocyte producing IL-2 and TNF-. mRNA-LNP coding M protein did not show high immunogenicity. High neutralizing activity was detected in sera of mice vaccinated with mRNA-LNP coding S protein (alone or in combinations) against closely related strains but was not detectable or significantly lower against an evolutionarily distant variant. Our data showed that the addition of mRNAs encoding S and M antigens to the mRNA-N in the vaccine composition enhanced immunogenicity of mRNA-N inducing more robust immune response to the N protein. Based on our results, we suggested that the S protein plays a key role in enhancement of immune response to the N protein in the mRNA-LNP vaccine.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.30.573713v1" target="_blank">Major role of S-glycoprotein in providing immunogenicity and protective immunity in mRNA lipid nanoparticle vaccines based on SARS-CoV-2 structural proteins</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>An ATP-Binding Cassette Transporter Gene Links Innate and Adaptive Immune Responses</strong> -
<div>
Positive-strand RNA viruses and DNA viruses generate double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) during their replication processes and innate immune responses against viral infections are orchestrated by numerous interferon-stimulating genes, yet the detailed coordination of downstream signaling of anti-viral immune responses is not fully understood. Recent studies suggest 2’-5’-Oligoadenylate Synthetase 1 (OAS1) may have a protective role in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections; however, the mechanism regulating OAS1 remains uninvestigated. Our aim is to understand the regulation of OAS1 and its modulation of RNaseL activity, as this has significant implications for responses to RNA viruses, including Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) and SARS-CoV-2. We explore the hypothesis that ABCF1 an ATP-binding cassette family member protein, a key regulator of innate immune responses and macrophage polarization and cytokine storm, play a role in regulating the antiviral responses and downstream dsRNA signaling revealed by measuring responses to the synthetic dsRNA analog termed poly (I:C). We utilize ABCF1 haplo-insufficient mice to discover that ABCF1 modulates the amplitude and frequency of VSV-specific Cytolytic T lymphocyte in anti-viral immune responses and suggests that innate immune responses underpin this process. To understand this mechanism, we describe that ABCF1 interacts with 2’-5’-oligoadenylate synthetase 1 (OAS1) which in turn modulates essential proteins that leads to the modulation of RNaseL activity via ABCE1. Furthermore, we find that ABCF1, possibly acting through IRF3 phosphorylation and dimerization, also influences the production of interferon-alpha (IFN-a) and interferon-beta (IFN-b) in bone marrow-derived macrophages. Overall, we unexpectedly discovered that ABCF1 acts as a crucial link between innate and adaptive immunity, regulating the development of adaptive Cytolytic T lymphocyte responses and interacting with OAS1, a key regulator of innate immune responses against viral infections. Exploring pharmacological agents that target ABCE1 or ABCF1 may lead to the discovery of novel modalities for countering SARS CoV-2 and other viruses where OAS1 is a crucial innate immune response gene.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.31.573785v1" target="_blank">An ATP-Binding Cassette Transporter Gene Links Innate and Adaptive Immune Responses</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Identifying Best Practices for Future Pandemic Preparedness: A Comparative Policy Analysis</strong> -
<div>
Background: This comparative policy analysis studies government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on countries severely impacted by the virus. The study aims to assess the impact of various confounding variables, including GDP, healthcare spending per capita, poverty rate, and population density, on the effectiveness of pandemic response policies. Methods: The data obtained for the policies employs a multifaceted approach that incorporates both economic and non-economic policies. The analysis includes fiscal policies encompassing healthcare and economic sectors, adaptability in policy adjustments, and non-economic measures. The study also utilizes a principal component analysis (PCA) to identify similarities and differences among countries with varying levels of success. Results: Key findings indicate that successful countries adopted proactive fiscal policies addressing healthcare and economic challenges simultaneously. Flexibility and adaptability in policy adjustments emerged as significant traits among effective responses. Stricter non-economic policies were generally associated with improved pandemic outcomes. Additionally, effective contact tracing played a pivotal role in case identification and isolation. Conclusions: This research underscores the importance of a comprehensive and adaptable approach to pandemic response, considering economic, healthcare, and social factors. The study’s insights offer valuable guidance to governments and policymakers seeking to enhance preparedness plans for future global health crises. As the world continues to grapple with ongoing and evolving pandemic challenges, the lessons drawn from the pandemic can be used as a model of future success.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/7mwbj/" target="_blank">Identifying Best Practices for Future Pandemic Preparedness: A Comparative Policy Analysis</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Assessing the differentiated impacts of COVID-19 on the immigration flows to Europe</strong> -
<div>
The immediate effects of COVID-19 on mortality, fertility, and internal and international migration have been widely studied. Particularly, immigration to high-income countries declined in 2020. However, the persistence of these declines, and the extent to which they have impacted different migration corridors are yet to be established. Drawing on immigration flows from Eurostat and ARIMA time-series models, we assess the impact of COVID-19 on different immigration streams to seven European countries. We forecast counterfactual levels of immigration in 2020 and 2021 assuming no pandemic, and compare these estimates with actual immigration counts. We use regression modelling to explore the role of immigrants´ origin, distance, stringency measures and GDP trends at origins and destinations as potential driving forces of changes in immigration during COVID-19. Our results show that, while there was a general decline in immigration during 2020, inflows returned to expected levels in 2021, except for Spain. However, immigration corridors originating from outside the Schengen Area were still hardly affected in 2021. Immigrant´s origin emerged as the main factor modulating immigration changes during the pandemic, and to a lesser extent stringency measures and GDP trends in destination countries. Contextual factors at origin seem to have been less important.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/bsezk/" target="_blank">Assessing the differentiated impacts of COVID-19 on the immigration flows to Europe</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Saponin Nanoparticle Adjuvants Incorporating Toll-Like Receptor Agonists Improve Vaccine Immunomodulation</strong> -
<div>
Over the past few decades, the development of potent and safe immune-activating adjuvant technologies has become the heart of intensive research in the constant fight against highly mutative and immune evasive viruses such as influenza, SARS-CoV-2, and HIV. Herein, we developed a highly modular saponin-based nanoparticle platform incorporating toll-like receptor agonists (TLRas) including TLR1/2a, TLR4a, TLR7/8a adjuvants and their mixtures. These various TLRa-SNP adjuvant constructs induce unique acute cytokine and immune-signaling profiles, leading to specific Th-responses that could be of interest depending on the target disease for prevention. In a murine vaccine study, the adjuvants greatly improved the potency, durability, breadth, and neutralization of both COVID-19 and HIV vaccine candidates, suggesting the potential broad application of these adjuvant constructs to a range of different antigens. Overall, this work demonstrates a modular TLRa-SNP adjuvant platform which could improve the design of vaccines for and dramatically impact modern vaccine development.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.16.549249v2" target="_blank">Saponin Nanoparticle Adjuvants Incorporating Toll-Like Receptor Agonists Improve Vaccine Immunomodulation</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>The Double-Edged Sword Mediatized Integration Processes during the COVID-19 Pandemic</strong> -
<div>
The issue of media appropriation by refugees experienced a boom in 2015, but since then the topic has received less attention over the years. In addition, refugees have faced significant challenges since the appearance of COVID-19. In this paper, I discuss how Syrian migrants and refugees who have lived in Germany for at least four years used media technologies during COVID-19. I present findings from twelve guided interviews conducted in a northern German city. In summary, media use in general has increased, as has that of the majority society. On the other hand, media use during the pandemic has proven to be a double-edged sword: Some refugees had great(er) problems coping with the situation, while others gained self-empowerment and agency through using media during the pandemic.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/yjt23/" target="_blank">The Double-Edged Sword Mediatized Integration Processes during the COVID-19 Pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Trivalent mRNA vaccine-candidate against seasonal flu with cross-specific humoral immune response</strong> -
<div>
Seasonal influenza remains a serious global health problem, leading to high mortality rates among the elderly and individuals with comorbidities. It also imposes a substantial economic burden through increased absenteeism during periods of active pathogen circulation. Vaccination is generally accepted as the most effective strategy for influenza prevention. As both influenza A and B viruses circulate and cause seasonal epidemics, vaccines need to include multiple antigens derived from different viral subtypes. While current influenza vaccines are effective, they still have limitations, including narrow specificity for certain serological variants, which may result in a mismatch between vaccine antigens and circulating strains. Additionally, the rapid variability of the virus poses challenges in providing extended protection beyond a single season. Therefore, mRNA technology is particularly promising for influenza prevention, as it enables the rapid development of multivalent vaccines and allows for quick updates of their antigenic composition. mRNA vaccines have already proven successful in preventing COVID-19 by eliciting rapid cellular and humoral immune responses. In this study, we present the development of a trivalent mRNA vaccine candidates, evaluate its immunogenicity using the hemagglutination inhibition assay, and assess its efficacy in animals. We demonstrate the higher immunogenicity of the mRNA vaccine candidates compared to the inactivated split influenza vaccine and its enhanced ability to generate a cross-specific humoral immune response. These findings highlight the potential mRNA technology in overcoming current limitations of influenza vaccines and hold promise for ensuring greater efficacy in preventing seasonal influenza outbreaks.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.30.573722v1" target="_blank">Trivalent mRNA vaccine-candidate against seasonal flu with cross-specific humoral immune response</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Tying the Knot: Unraveling the Intricacies of the Coronavirus Frameshift Pseudoknot</strong> -
<div>
Understanding and targeting functional RNA structures towards treatment of coronavirus infection can help us to prepare for novel variants of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus causing COVID-19), and any other coronaviruses that could emerge via human-to-human transmission or potential zoonotic (inter-species) events. Leveraging the fact that all coronaviruses use a mechanism known as -1 programmed ribosomal frameshifting (-1 PRF) to replicate, we apply algorithms to predict the most energetically favourable secondary structures (each nucleotide involved in at most one pairing) that may be involved in regulating the -1 PRF event in coronaviruses, especially SARS-CoV-2. We compute previously unknown most stable structure predictions for the frameshift site of coronaviruses via hierarchical folding, a biologically motivated framework where initial non-crossing structure folds first, followed by subsequent, possibly crossing (pseudoknotted), structures. Using mutual information from 181 coronavirus sequences, in conjunction with the algorithm KnotAli, we compute secondary structure predictions for the frameshift site of different coronaviruses. We then utilize the Shapify algorithm to obtain most stable SARS-CoV-2 secondary structure predictions guided by frameshift sequence-specific and genome-wide experimental data. We build on our previous secondary structure investigation of the singular SARS-CoV-2 68 nt frameshift element sequence, by using Shapify to obtain predictions for 132 extended sequences and including covariation information. Previous investigations have not applied hierarchical folding to extended length SARS-CoV-2 frameshift sequences. By doing so, we simulate the effects of ribosome interaction with the frameshift site, providing insight to biological function. We contribute in-depth discussion to contextualize secondary structure dual-graph motifs for SARS-CoV-2, highlighting the energetic stability of the previously identified 3_8 motif alongside the known dominant 3_3 and 3_6 (native-type) -1 PRF structures. Integrating experimental data within minimum free energy (MFE) hierarchical folding algorithms provides novel structure predictions to distill the relationship between RNA structure and function. In particular, fully categorizing most stable secondary structure predictions via hierarchical folding supports our identification of motif transitions and critical site targets for future therapeutic research.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.28.573501v1" target="_blank">Tying the Knot: Unraveling the Intricacies of the Coronavirus Frameshift Pseudoknot</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>CParty: Conditional partition function for density-2 RNA pseudoknots</strong> -
<div>
RNA molecules fold into biologically important functional structures. Efficient dynamic programming RNA (secondary) structure prediction algorithms restrict the search space to evade NP-hardness of general pseudoknot prediction. While such prediction algorithms can be extended to provide a stochastic view on RNA ensembles, they are either limited to pseudoknot-free structures or extremely complex. To overcome this dilemma, we provide the theoretical framework and implementation for our algorithm, CParty, that follows the hierarchical folding hypothesis, i.e., the bio-physically well-motivated assumption that non-crossing structures fold relatively fast prior to the formation of pseudoknot interactions. Thus, we efficiently compute the conditional partition function (CPF) given a non-crossing structure G for a subset of pseudoknotted structures, i.e., density-2 structures G U G’ for non-crossing disjoint structure G’. Notably, this can enable sampling from the hierarchical distribution P(G’|G). With CParty we develop for the first time an unambiguous scheme based on HFold, i.e., the minimum free energy hierarchical folding algorithm based on a realistic pseudoknot energy model. Thus, we develop the first partition function variant for density-2 structures. Compared to the only other available pseudoknot partition function algorithm, which covers simple pseudoknots (and follows a different strategy, mapped from a pure minimum free energy structure prediction), our method covers a much larger structure class; at the same time, it is significantly more efficient—reducing the time as well as the space complexity by a quadratic factor. Summarizing, we provide an efficient, cubic time, algorithm for the stochastic analysis of pseudoknotted RNAs, which enables novel applications. We discuss one such application, i.e., how the CPF for a pseudoknotted therapeutic target in SARS-CoV-2 can provide insight into RNA structure formation.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.16.541023v2" target="_blank">CParty: Conditional partition function for density-2 RNA pseudoknots</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>The 8C model of vaccination readiness: A common framework to facilitate cross-study comparisons.</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Several factors can potentially influence an individual’s vaccination readiness. To facilitate cross-study comparisons, it is essential that researchers use a shared framework to measure these factors. This would not only help determine their relative importance cross different contexts but also would aid in tailoring interventions to enhance vaccine uptake. Historically, five psychological antecedents of vaccination were identified: confidence, complacency, constraints, calculation, and collective responsibility. This 5C scale was later expanded to a 7C model by incorporating two additional components: compliance and conspiracy. Building upon this framework, we propose an eighth component, certification, defined as the person’s self-report that, in the past, they have had to provide evidence of vaccination. This component addresses a significant gap in the 7C model, as some individuals reported taking the COVID-19 vaccine primarily to obtain proof of vaccination, a motivation not captured by the 7C model. Our confirmatory factor analysis (N = 406) of a bifactor model of US citizens9 self-reported COVID-19 vaccination status showed that this eighth component had good psychometric properties and the 8C model had slightly higher criterion validity than the 7C model. We present the 8C model as a framework that provides a richer and more complete descriptions of the factors that determine vaccination readiness and encourage future studies of vaccination readiness to utilise it.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.22.23300464v1" target="_blank">The 8C model of vaccination readiness: A common framework to facilitate cross-study comparisons.</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>BNT162b2 XBB1.5-adapted Vaccine and COVID-19 Hospital Admissions and Ambulatory Visits in US Adults</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Importance Data describing the early additional protection afforded by recently recommended XBB1.5-adapted COVID-19 vaccines are limited. Objective We estimated the association between receipt of BNT162b2 XBB1.5-adapted vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech 2023-2024 formulation) and medically attended COVID-19 outcomes among adults &gt;=18 years of age. Design, Setting, and Participants We performed a test-negative case-control study to compare the odds of BNT162b2 XBB1.5-adapted vaccine receipt between COVID-19 cases and test-negative controls among adults in the Kaiser Permanente Southern California health system between October 11 and December 10, 2023. Adjusted odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated from multivariable logistic regression models that were adjusted for patient demographic and clinical characteristics. Exposure The primary exposure was receipt of BNT162b2 XBB1.5-adapted vaccine compared to not receiving an XBB1.5-adapted vaccine of any kind, regardless of prior COVID-19 vaccination or SARS-CoV-2 infection history. We also compared receipt of prior (non-XBB1.5-adapted) versions of COVID-19 vaccines to the unvaccinated to estimate remaining protection from older vaccines. Main Outcomes and Measures Cases were those with a positive SARS-CoV-2 polymerase chain reaction test, and controls tested negative. Analyses were done separately for COVID-19 hospital admissions, emergency department (ED) and urgent care (UC) encounters, and outpatient visits. Results Among 4232 cases and 19,775 controls with median age of 54 years, adjusted ORs for testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 among those who received BNT162b2 XBB1.5-adapted vaccine a median of 30 days ago (vs not having received an XBB1.5-adapted vaccine of any kind) were 0.37 (95% CI: 0.20-0.67) for COVID-19 hospitalization, 0.42 (0.34-0.53) for ED/UC visits, and 0.42 (0.27-0.66) for outpatient visits. Compared to the unvaccinated, those who had received only older versions of COVID-19 vaccines did not show significantly reduced risk of COVID-19 outcomes, including hospital admission. Conclusions and Relevance Our findings reaffirm current recommendations for broad age-based use of annually updated COVID-19 vaccines given that (1) XBB1.5-adapted vaccines provided significant additional protection against a range of COVID-19 outcomes and (2) older versions of COVID-19 vaccines offered little, if any, additional protection, including against hospital admission, regardless of the number or type of prior doses received.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.24.23300512v1" target="_blank">BNT162b2 XBB1.5-adapted Vaccine and COVID-19 Hospital Admissions and Ambulatory Visits in US Adults</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>Could Wearing Face Mask Have Affected Demodex Parasite</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Pandemic, COVID-19; Demodex Infestation <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Diagnostic Test: standard superficial skin biopsy (SSSB) <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Nurhan Döner Aktaş <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>TDCS Stimulation After Covid-19 Infection</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Procedure: Transcranial Direct Stimulation <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Istanbul Medipol University Hospital; Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat University <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Safety and Immunogenicity of a Booster Vaccination With an Adapted Vaccine</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: SARS-CoV2 Infection <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: PHH-1V81; Biological: Comirnaty Omicron XBB1.5 <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Hipra Scientific, S.L.U <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>Transcranial Pulse Stimulation (TPS) in Post-COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Post-COVID-19 Syndrome; Fatigue <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Device: Transcranial pulse stimulation Verum; Device: Transcranial pulse stimulation Sham <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Medical University of Vienna; Campus Bio-Medico University <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Study to Evaluate the Safety, Tolerability, and Immunogenicity of a Combined Modified RNA Vaccine Candidate Against COVID-19 and Influenza.</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Influenza; COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: Influenza and COVID-19 Combination A; Biological: Licensed influenza vaccine; Biological: COVID-19 Vaccine; Biological: Influenza and COVID-19 Combination B; Biological: Placebo <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: BioNTech SE; Pfizer <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>One-step silver coating of polypropylene surgical mask with antibacterial and antiviral properties</strong> - Face masks can filter droplets containing viruses and bacteria minimizing the transmission and spread of respiratory pathogens but are also an indirect source of microbes transmission. A novel antibacterial and antiviral Ag-coated polypropylene surgical mask obtained through the in situ and one-step deposition of metallic silver nanoparticles, synthesized by silver mirror reaction combined with sonication or agitation methods, is proposed in this study. SEM analysis shows Ag nanoparticles fused…</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 novel inhibitor of SARS-CoV infection: Lactulose octasulfate interferes with ACE2-Spike protein binding</strong> - The ongoing challenge of managing coronaviruses, particularly SARS-CoV-2, necessitates the development of effective antiviral agents. This study introduces Lactulose octasulfate (LOS), a sulfated disaccharide, demonstrating significant antiviral activity against key coronaviruses including SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV, and MERS-CoV. We hypothesize LOS operates extracellularly, targeting the ACE2-S-protein axis, due to its low cellular permeability. Our investigation combines biolayer interferometry…</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>IFN-γ-mediated control of SARS-CoV-2 infection through nitric oxide</strong> - INTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need to identify mechanisms of antiviral host defense against SARS-CoV-2. One such mediator is interferon-g (IFN-γ), which, when administered to infected patients, is reported to result in viral clearance and resolution of pulmonary symptoms. IFN-γ treatment of a human lung epithelial cell line triggered an antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2, yet the mechanism for this antiviral response was not identified.</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>HDAC1-3 inhibition increases SARS-CoV-2 replication and productive infection in lung mesothelial and epithelial cells</strong> - CONCLUSION: This study highlights a previously unrecognized effect of HDAC1-3 inhibition in increasing SARS-CoV-2 cell entry, replication and productive infection correlating with increased expression of ACE2 and TMPRSS2. These data, while adding basic insight into COVID-19 pathogenesis, warn for the use of HDAC inhibitors in SARS-CoV-2 patients.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Should Virtual Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) Teaching Replace or Complement Face-to-Face Teaching in the Post-COVID-19 Educational Environment: An Evaluation of an Innovative National COVID-19 Teaching Programme</strong> - Background The COVID-19 pandemic brought about drastic changes to medical education and examinations, with a shift to online lectures and webinars. Additionally, social restrictions in the United Kingdom (UK) inhibited students’ ability to practice for objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) with their peers. Methods The Virtual OSCE buddy scheme (VOBS) provided a means to practice OSCE skills virtually by linking groups of 2-6 final-year medical students with a junior doctor who had…</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>Valorizing pomegranate wastes by producing functional silver nanoparticles with antioxidant, anticancer, antiviral, and antimicrobial activities and its potential in food preservation</strong> - The food sector generates massive amounts of waste, which are rich in active compounds, especially polyphenols; therefore, valorizing these wastes is a global trend. In this study, we produce silver nanoparticles from pomegranate wastes, characterized by enhanced antioxidant, anticancer, antiviral, and antimicrobial properties and investigated their potential to maintain the fruit quality for sixty days in market. The pomegranate waste-mediated silver nanoparticles (PPAgNPs) were spherical shape…</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>Antibody-Conjugated Magnetic Nanoparticle Therapy for Inhibiting T-Cell Mediated Inflammation</strong> - Tolerance induction is critical for mitigating T cell-mediated inflammation. Treatments based on anti-CD3 monoclonal antibody (mAb) play a pivotal role in inducing such tolerance. Anti-CD3 mAb conjugated with dextran-coated magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) may induce inflammatory tolerance is posited. MNPs conjugated with anti-CD3 mAb (Ab-MNPs) are characterized using transmission and scanning electron microscopy, and their distribution is assessed using a nanoparticle tracking analyzer. Compared…</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>Optimization of the 5-plex digital PCR workflow for simultaneous monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 and other pathogenic viruses in wastewater</strong> - Wastewater-based epidemiology is a valuable tool for monitoring pathogenic viruses in the environment, including severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). While quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) is widely used for pathogen surveillance in wastewater, it can be affected by inhibition and is limited to relative quantification. Digital PCR (dPCR) offers potential solutions to these limitations. In this…</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>Porcine delta coronavirus inhibits NHE3 activity of porcine intestinal epithelial cells through miR-361-3p/NHE3 regulatory axis</strong> - Porcine deltacoronavirus (PDCoV) infection in piglets can cause small intestinal epithelial necrosis and atrophic enteritis, which leads to severe damages to host cells, and result in diarrhea. In this study, we investigated the relationship between miR-361, SLC9A3(Solute carrier family 9, subfamily A, member 3), and NHE3(sodium-hydrogen exchanger member 3) in in porcine intestinal epithelial cells (IPI-2I) cells after PDCoV infection. Our results showed that the ssc-miR-361-3p expression…</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><em>In silico</em> study of inhibition activity of boceprevir drug against 2019-nCoV main protease</strong> - Boceprevir drug is a ketoamide serine protease inhibitor with a linear peptidomimetic structure that exhibits inhibition activity against 2019-nCoV main protease. This paper reports electronic properties of boceprevir and its molecular docking as well as molecular dynamics simulation analysis with protein receptor. For this, the equilibrium structure of boceprevir has been obtained by DFT at B3LYP and ωB97XD levels with 6-311+G(d,p) basis set in gas and water mediums. HOMO-LUMO and absorption…</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>Novel sofosbuvir derivatives against SARS-CoV-2 RNA-dependent RNA polymerase: an in silico perspective</strong> - The human coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, had a negative impact on both the economy and human health, and the emerging resistant variants are an ongoing threat. One essential protein to target to prevent virus replication is the viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp). Sofosbuvir, a uridine nucleotide analog that potently inhibits viral polymerase, has been found to help treat SARS-CoV-2 patients. This work combines molecular docking and dynamics simulation (MDS) to test 14 sofosbuvir-based…</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>Differential Roles of Interleukin-6 in Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2 Infection and Cardiometabolic Diseases</strong> - Severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection can lead to a cytokine storm, unleashed in part by pyroptosis of virus-infected macrophages and monocytes. Interleukin-6 (IL-6) has emerged as a key participant in this ominous complication of COVID-19. IL-6 antagonists have improved outcomes in patients with COVID-19 in some, but not all, studies. IL-6 signaling involves at least 3 distinct pathways, including classic-signaling, trans-signaling, and trans-presentation…</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>Excessive daytime sleepiness is associated with impaired antibody response to influenza vaccination in older male adults</strong> - CONCLUSION: Our results provide an additional and easily measured variable explaining poor vaccine effectiveness in older adults. Our results support that gaining sufficient sleep is a simple non-vaccine interventional approach to improve influenza immune responses in older adults. Our findings extend the literature on the negative influence of excessive daytime sleepiness on immune responses to influenza vaccination in older male adults.</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>Elevated ferritin, mediated by IL-18 is associated with systemic inflammation and mortality in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: Ferritin is a clinically useful biomarker in ARDS and is associated with worse patient outcomes. These results provide support for prospective interventional trials of immunomodulatory agents targeting IL-18 in this hyperferritinaemic subgroup of patients with ARDS.</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>Sutimlimab suppresses SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine-induced hemolytic crisis in a patient with cold agglutinin disease</strong> - Cold agglutinin disease (CAD) is a rare form of acquired autoimmune hemolytic anemia driven mainly by antibodies that activate the classical complement pathway. Several patients with CAD experience its development or exacerbation of hemolysis after severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection or after receiving the SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine. Therefore, these patients cannot receive an additional SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination and have a higher risk of severe SARS-CoV-2…</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>Colorado’s Top Court Kicked Trump Off the Ballot. Will the Supreme Court Agree?</strong> - A legal scholar analyzes how the nine Justices are likely to view the blockbuster decision. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/colorados-top-court-kicked-trump-off-the-ballot-will-the-supreme-court-agree">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Why the Noise of L.A. Helicopters Never Stops</strong> - The L.A.P.D. says it has the largest local airborne law-enforcement unit in the world. A recent audit found little evidence that its choppers deter crime. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-los-angeles/why-the-noise-of-la-helicopters-never-stops">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>When Americans Are the Threat at the Border</strong> - Many people charged with trafficking in Tucson are U.S. citizens, suffering from the same problems of poverty and addiction that plague the rest of the country. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/when-americans-are-the-threat-at-the-border">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Border Crisis</strong> - Dexter Filkins reports on the chaotic situation at the southern border. Plus, a poet whose writing on the DeafBlind experience is full of humor and life. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-new-yorker-radio-hour/the-crisis-at-the-border">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How Netanyahu’s Right-Wing Critics See Israel’s Future</strong> - Danny Danon, the former Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations, believes there’s no path forward for a Palestinian state. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/how-netanyahus-right-wing-critics-see-israels-future">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Take a mental break with the newest Vox crossword</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="New Vox Crossword puzzles come out Monday through Saturday" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ECHILeiK4TAzAxKFrZTXYrKg8R0=/634x0:4367x2800/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/67656692/crossword_yellow__1_.0.jpg"/>
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New Vox Crossword puzzles come out Monday through Saturday | Amanda Northrop
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For the curious in all of us. Can you solve it?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="y3Ysq7">
Welcome to the Vox crossword. Puzzles come out Monday through Saturday. Make sure to bookmark this page (or <a href="https://www.howtogeek.com/667910/how-to-add-a-website-to-your-iphone-or-ipad-home-screen/">add to your phone’s home screen</a>) to find new ones each day. You can also get a weekly email reminder by <a href="http://vox.com/crossword-newsletter">signing up for our crossword newsletter</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1RGcR3">
Puzzles are constructed by <a href="https://www.vox.com/e/21273241">these great people</a> and edited by <a href="https://www.vox.com/authors/elizabeth-crane">Elizabeth Crane</a>. If you want to get in touch, email us at <a href="mailto:crosswords@vox.com">crosswords@vox.com</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ftGXse">
And if you solve our crosswords often, consider <a href="https://www.vox.com/pages/support-now?itm_campaign=congratsscreen&amp;itm_medium=site&amp;itm_source=crossword">chipping in</a> to help keep them free for everybody.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cCaULm">
<strong>Looking for even more crosswords?</strong> Our <a href="https://www.vox.com/crossword-puzzles/23916105/crossword-puzzle-book-print">first-ever crosswords books</a> are now available for purchase wherever you buy books. The first,<em> </em>the<em> </em><a href="https://go.skimresources.com/?xcust=___vx__p_23680146__t_w__r_vox.com__d_D&amp;id=1025X1701643&amp;xs=1&amp;url=https://bookshop.org/contributor_profiles/1106"><em>Vox Mega Book of Mini Crosswords</em></a>, features 150 of our bite-sized weekday puzzles. The second, the<em> </em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHWJWYPD?ots=1&amp;slotNum=1&amp;imprToken=d4c59f0a-e804-f752-ae0&amp;ascsubtag=___vx__p_23680146__t_w__r_voxmedia.stories.usechorus.com__d_D&amp;linkCode=ll2&amp;tag=voxdotcom-20&amp;linkId=3f169e0f18a1e40dafb14f69c9f41362&amp;language=en_US&amp;ref_=as_li_ss_tl"><em>Vox Pop Culture Crosswords</em></a> book, highlights pop culture references in our big Saturday puzzles ranging from Mario Kart to <em>iCarly</em>.
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<a class="p-button" href="https://www.vox.com/pages/crossword-puzzles-free-archive">More crossword puzzles</a>
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<ul>
<li><strong>How death threats get Republicans to fall in line behind Trump</strong> -
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<img alt="A blurry photo of Trump pointing out at a crowd from a stage." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/nX6UVZ79QbHhal8S-x_Zj-_6vbI=/107x0:1814x1280/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73015852/Alt_AP21299820011960.0.png"/>
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Former president Donald Trump at a Turning Point Action gathering, in Phoenix, Arizona, on July 24, 2021. | Ross D. Franklin/AP Photo
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The insidious way violence is changing American politics — and shaping the 2024 election.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1EF9Mf">
Stephen Richer should have been safe.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="p5Zm3M">
In early 2021, Richer was an Arizona Republican official who regularly attended local party events. At the time, he was the newly elected county recorder of Maricopa County. The job was a new level of prominence — he was now the most important election supervisory official in the state’s largest county — but going to Arizona Republican events was routine: the kind of thing that Richer, like any state politician, had done hundreds of times before.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oQL58V">
But at one event, the crowd heckled and harassed him. When he tried to leave, they dragged him back in, yanking on his arms and shoulders, to berate him about the allegedly stolen <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020-presidential-election">2020 election</a>. He started to worry: Would his own people, fellow Republican Party members, seriously hurt him?
</p>
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Stephen Richer is seen with a disturbed look on his face. A blur is in the foreground." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/jgUivwuu990qDBkrR50ce4cmOyA=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25179435/GettyImages_1440627524.jpg"/> <cite>Justin Sullivan/Getty Images</cite>
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Maricopa County recorder Stephen Richer speaks to reporters during a news conference at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center on November 10, 2022, in Phoenix, Arizona.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aTDYEX">
There was a clear reason for the madness. Many of the Republican faithful had recently decided that Maricopa County had been the epicenter of “the steal,” <a href="https://www.vox.com/joe-biden">Joe Biden</a>’s theft of Arizona from <a href="https://www.vox.com/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a> — and the entire presidential election with it. This wasn’t true, obviously. Richer tried to tell them it wasn’t true, hoping his long track record in the state Republican party would give him some credibility.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Jk0LgN">
It did not. What happened instead reveals a pattern that is quietly reshaping American politics: Across the board and around the country, data reveals that threats against public officials have risen to unprecedented numbers — to the point where <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/4357594-majority-concerned-about-political-violence-threat-survey/">83 percent of Americans</a> are now concerned about risks of political violence in their country. The threats are coming from across the political spectrum, but the most important ones in this regard emanate from the MAGA faithful.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="V51BY5">
Trump’s most fanatical followers have created a situation where challenging him carries not only political risks but also personal ones. Elected officials who dare defy the former president face serious threats to their well-being and to that of their families — raising the cost of taking an already difficult stand.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pFrsiH">
As a result, the threat of violence is now a part of the American political system, to the point where Republican officials are — by their own admissions — changing the way they behave because they fear it. For Richer, the price back in 2021 was high — and enough to prevent him from safely participating in his own party’s politics.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TDNCR2">
The more he tried to convince people that the 2020 results were legitimate, the more hostile the audience became — and <a href="https://www.azmirror.com/2022/08/04/how-stephen-richer-endures-a-job-thats-psychologically-unfun/">not just at this one event</a>. He recalls people at Republican meetings getting in his face, grabbing him, and even banging on his car windshield in the parking lot. Richer kept attending party meetings for three months, hoping that the attendees’ behavior would go back to normal.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nL9pHQ">
But they didn’t. The once-friendly events were emotionally exhausting — and, worse, potentially even dangerous.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="I8K0cQ">
“I was a Republican activist. That’s what you do: show up to events,” Richer recalls. But eventually, “you don’t feel comfortable.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dRlo40">
By 2022, when Richer was presiding over the November election’s ballot tally, his office was fortified like a military base: surrounded by armed police deployed to protect him and his staff from threats. He recalls numerous staff members quitting on the spot after heated confrontations — and he was personally targeted by credible threats. When we spoke, he was about to testify in one of three federal cases against people who had vowed to kill him.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WLr5fY">
“You need to do your fucking job right because other people from other states are watching your ass,” the man <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1526911/download?utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=govdelivery">allegedly said in a voicemail</a>. “You fucking renege on this deal or give them any more troubles, your ass will never make it to your next little board meeting.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JBHmzg">
It’s been well over two years since Richer attended the kinds of Arizona GOP grassroots events where he was once welcome. Today, the institutional Arizona Republican party is dominated by politicians who have embraced Trump’s lies about the election — people like Kari Lake, Blake Masters, and Mark Finchem. The harassment and threats from the MAGA faithful was one weapon in the extremist takeover’s arsenal, working to push voices of sanity out of key party events — breaking even determined ones like Richer.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pPGfqg">
In Arizona, the Trumpist threat of violence <em>worked</em>. And it worked for reasons that should worry all of us at the beginning of an election year that could decide the fate of American democracy.
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<div class="c-wide-block">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A woman wearing an american flag-patterned top holds a smartphone and points toward a man while standing at a podium." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/MuV6u5r2YA-eKkEqDyNzx0KOLDI=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25179011/AP22332745642464.jpg"/> <cite>Matt York/AP Photo</cite>
<figcaption>
A woman points at Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer during the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors general election canvass meeting on November 28, 2022, in Phoenix.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8hD0Kp">
Brave Republicans at all levels of government, from local officials like Richer to Sen. Mitt Romney (UT), have been warning us of the dangers going into 2024. They have seen the recent rise in right-wing political violence, most notably on January 6, and seen how comfortable Trump is with openly directing his supporters to hurt people.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2kJWWz">
“Violence and threats against elected leaders are suppressing the emergence of a pro-democracy faction of the GOP,” <a href="https://ceipfiles.s3.amazonaws.com/pdf/Political+Violence+the+2022+Midterm+Elections.pdf?v=2">writes</a> <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/experts/699">Rachel Kleinfeld</a>, an expert on political violence at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Absent threats, Kleinfeld argues, a move to Trump from inside the party — perhaps <a href="https://www.vox.com/23979441/nikki-haley-afp-koch-republican-billionaire-trump">a more serious challenge</a> in the presidential primary — might have had a better chance of getting off the ground.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9SIZQn">
In her paper, Kleinfeld notes a striking example of this effect at work — a comment by Kim Ward, the Trump-supporting Republican leader of the Pennsylvania state Senate, on what would happen if she spoke out against the former president.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bSYwSJ">
“I’d get my house bombed tonight,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/09/us/politics/trump-pennsylvania-electoral-college.html">Ward said</a>.
</p>
<h3 id="UsCavE">
Our politics have gotten more violent
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QW6FV2">
Bob Inglis, a South Carolina Congressman for 12 years who left office in 2011, remembers getting in some fairly bitter brawls with his Democratic rivals. In his later years as a Congress member, after making a more moderate turn, he recalled receiving some real vitriol from the base — even facing a crowd in his hometown that seemed so volatile that he refused to introduce his family on stage.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YCcGBm">
But that was the exception, not the rule.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VCr2ht">
“Now,” Inglis says, “members of Congress face that [level of hostility] routinely.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wTleWq">
In 2016, the Capitol Police recorded <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/09/18/congress-security-spending-violence-threats/">fewer than 900 threats</a> against members of Congress. In 2017, that figure more than quadrupled, per data provided by the Capitol Police.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wKDlt8">
The numbers continued to increase in every year of the Trump presidency, peaking at 9,700 in 2021. In 2022, the first full year of Biden’s term, the numbers went down to a still-high 7,500. The 2023 data has not yet been released, but a spike in threats against legislators during <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/10/20/house-republicans-death-threats-jim-jordan">the House Republican speaker fight</a> and <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/11/17/israel-hamas-war-protests-threats-palestinian-threats-congress">Israel-Hamas conflict</a> suggests an increase over the 2022 numbers is plausible.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="abUCsQ">
Members of Congress are taking these threats seriously. In September, three journalists at the Washington Post reviewed FEC filings to assess how much candidates for the House and Senate were spending on security. They found an <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/09/18/congress-security-spending-violence-threats/">overall increase of 500 percent between 2020 and 2022</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bI1EzT">
The death threats aren’t just directed at politicians in Washington. Data has shown extraordinary levels of threats against <a href="https://mayorsinnovation.org/2022/05/11/an-assault-on-local-democracy/">mayors</a>,<a href="https://time.com/6227754/political-violence-us-states-midterms-2022/"> federal judges</a>,<a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/reuters-unmasks-trump-supporters-terrifying-us-election-workers-2021-11-09/"> election administrators</a>,<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7026e1.htm"> public health officials</a>, and even <a href="https://bridgingdivides.princeton.edu/sites/g/files/toruqf246/files/documents/Threats%20and%20Harassment%20Report.pdf">school board members</a>. It’s hard to know how large the increase is for many of these local positions because no one has been keeping records for all that long. In the past, there was simply no need.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YLWiMY">
“It’s not even accurate to say [threatening election workers] was rare prior to 2020. It was so rare as to be virtually nonexistent,” <a href="https://electioninnovation.org/team/david-becker/">David Becker</a>, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation &amp; Research, <a href="https://www.vox.com/22774745/death-threats-election-workers-public-health-school">told me in 2021</a>. “This is beyond anything that we’ve ever seen.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yN7JIG">
While this level of threat is unfamiliar in modern America, political violence is far from unprecedented in the long arc of the country’s history. We’ve seen a civil war, the assassinations of multiple presidents, <a href="https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/The_Caning_of_Senator_Charles_Sumner.htm">and a senator beaten unconscious on the Senate floor</a>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7R3rNC">
“American politics has always been violent. The question is how violent,” says <a href="https://history.yale.edu/people/joanne-freeman">Joanne Freeman</a>, a historian at Yale and author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Field-Blood-Violence-Congress-Civil/dp/0374154775">a book on violence in Congress</a> before the Civil War.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="llxloE">
Freeman and other scholars see rising political violence as a reflection of deeper political tensions. Research suggests it tends to be perpetrated by angry, aggressive people with poor impulse control. Systematic increases in violent threats would thus happen at moments of heightened political emotion — meaning those times when the stakes of politics seem especially high and personal.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nxX4zT">
That’s clearly the case now.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CgFHy1">
Some of the recent increase in American violence (both political and otherwise) <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/why-homicide-rates-spiked-30-during-the-pandemic-/6420391.html">might be attributable to the pandemic</a>. But the spike in threats began well before <a href="https://www.vox.com/coronavirus-covid19">Covid-19</a>. Something else is going on — something that’s raising the temperature of American politics, making people feel more angry, afraid, and feeling like they need to take political matters into their own hands.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="soMbxU">
That “something” is Donald Trump. No figure in American politics commands Trump’s devoted following; no figure is as capable of heightening the stakes of American politics to the breaking point.
</p>
<div class="p-fullbleed-block">
<div class="c-image-grid">
<div class="c-image-grid__item">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/4Vq6Ugz6aD3EDHyUy7B7FjSfiak=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25179449/AP22088690963096.jpg"/> <cite>Evan Vucci/AP Photo</cite>
<figcaption>
President Donald Trump speaks during a rally protesting the electoral college certification of Joe Biden as President in Washington on January 6, 2021.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<div class="c-image-grid__item">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="An overhead shot of a crowd of people, many holding flags. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/mQMx1Nn-o42TaSjs-DKSUDLdK2c=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25179451/AP22008642553294.jpg"/> <cite>Evan Vucci/AP Photo</cite>
<figcaption>
People listen as then-President Donald Trump speaks during a rally on January 6, 2021, in Washington.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="z7iUgJ">
Trump’s hardcore base is motivated by social grievances that are known to give rise to violence. Political scientists have repeatedly found that <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Understanding_Ethnic_Violence/eAGHrPd3lEwC?hl=en&amp;gbpv=1&amp;dq=roger+peterson+resentment+ethnic+conflict&amp;pg=PA37&amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;bshm=rime/1#v=onepage&amp;q=&amp;f=false">ethnic violence</a> is <a href="http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&amp;aid=6866152&amp;fileId=S0043887109990219">particularly likely</a> when a privileged portion of society sees power slipping into the hands of a group that hadn’t previously held it — as has been happening in the United States for years. A backlash to social change is probably the single biggest reason behind both Trump’s political rise and the rash of white supremacist terrorism <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/8/6/20754828/el-paso-shooting-white-supremacy-rise">starting in the late 2010s</a>, like the <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/10/18/20899208/tree-of-life-anniversary-pittsburgh-shooting-american-jews">Pittsburgh synagogue shooting in 2018</a>, the attack on an <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/8/3/20753049/el-paso-walmart-cielo-vista-mall-shooting-what-we-know">El Paso Walmart frequented by Latinos in 2019</a>, or the <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/5/16/23074812/buffalo-shooting-accelerationism-great-replacement-neo-nazi">2022 massacre of supermarket shoppers</a> in a Black area of Buffalo.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NXZTLr">
The former president’s rhetoric has often directly encouraged violence. At a 2016 rally in Iowa, Trump instructed his supporters to “knock the crap out of” disruptive protesters. “I promise you I will pay for the legal fees,” he added. During the 2020 protests over George Floyd’s murder, Trump implied that any rioters should be shot by tweeting <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/05/29/864818368/the-history-behind-when-the-looting-starts-the-shooting-starts">an old white supremacist slogan</a>: “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7EhTIK">
And, at the fateful rally on January 6, 2021, he <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/02/10/966396848/read-trumps-jan-6-speech-a-key-part-of-impeachment-trial">told his assembled supporters that</a> “if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” That day, and ones immediately to follow, dramatize just how profoundly threats of violence have come to shape Republican politics.
</p>
<h3 id="AERqks">
How the threat of violence cemented Trump’s control over the GOP when it looked most vulnerable
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="R9ACNd">
On January 6, a crowd chanting “hang <a href="https://www.vox.com/mike-pence">Mike Pence</a>” rampaged through the Capitol’s halls. Members of Congress on both sides legitimately feared for their lives, leading many Republicans to privately support Democrats’ impeachment push afterward. Trump, they believe, needed to be held accountable for what they had been through.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="j3Lpgv">
But the fear of physical harm, of someone killing them or their families, held some of these Republicans back from voting to impeach him. The threat even became a tool of peer pressure — Republicans citing the danger of speaking out to keep each other in line. Sen. Romney <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/11/mitt-romney-retiring-senate-trump-mcconnell/675306/">recounted stories</a> to this effect to the Atlantic’s McKay Coppins:
</p>
<blockquote>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lABixR">
When one senator, a member of leadership, said he was leaning toward voting to convict, the others urged him to reconsider. You can’t do that, Romney recalled someone saying. Think of your personal safety, said another. Think of your children. The senator eventually decided they were right.
</p>
</blockquote>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="b4WHwg">
Romney personally refused to bow to this intimidation and voted to impeach, just as he did during Trump’s first impeachment. But not every Republican displayed this level of bravery in the face of serious threats to both their political and personal future.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="G1t2Ai">
Just before the House vote on impeachment, Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) has said he heard firsthand from Republicans that fear was holding at least two of them back.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XGNFbj">
“I had a lot of conversations with my Republican colleagues last night, and a couple of them broke down in tears — saying that they are afraid for their lives if they vote for this impeachment,” he <a href="https://twitter.com/MeetThePress/status/1349369689227603968">said in an MSNBC</a> appearance.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7A9w1R">
Former Rep. Peter Meijer (R-MI) <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/2021/01/09/opinion-after-heinous-assault-time-reckon-reality/6599593002/">recalls</a> one of his House colleagues privately condemning Trump’s claims of election fraud, but voting to overturn the election results on the evening of January 6 — just hours after the assault.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3hpO6y">
“My colleague feared for family members, and the danger the vote would put them in,” Meijer wrote in a <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/2021/01/09/opinion-after-heinous-assault-time-reckon-reality/6599593002/">Detroit News op-ed</a>. This fear wasn’t idle: After voting to impeach Trump, Meijer himself faced so many threats that felt the need to <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/01/14/impeachment-vote-causes-republican-peter-meijer-buy-body-armor/4158935001/">purchase body armor</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fsAYHy">
And reporters confirmed these accounts.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uRMWzn">
“I know for a fact several members <em>want</em> to impeach but fear casting that vote could get them or their families murdered,” journalist Tim Alberta <a href="https://twitter.com/TimAlberta/status/1349389150622019584">tweeted before the House impeachment vote</a>.
</p>
<div class="c-wide-block">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Capitol police officers inside the Capitol building are seen through damaged glass." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/efodmYRvXYRHE6XZSIPOEP9Ohlk=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25179216/GettyImages_1230477353.jpg"/> <cite>Shay Horse/NurPhoto via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Trump supporters hold a “Stop the Steal” rally in DC amid ratification of the presidential election on January 6, 2021, in Washington, DC.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TsfXJs">
While the January 6 riot failed to crown Trump president, it had a clear and undeniable secondary effect: intimidating Republicans who might otherwise have voted to impeach him. Absent these threats, it’s possible that Republicans like Romney could have mustered up additional GOP votes in the Senate to convict Trump.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="82MDV6">
If these threats could so powerfully shape the behavior of some of America’s wealthiest and most powerful legislators, how much might they affect state and local officials with far fewer resources?
</p>
<h3 id="cDKzKB">
The unique importance of Republican-on-Republican violence
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9qXIIv">
The increase in threats of late is bipartisan. Ordinary Democrats and Republicans feel like politics have taken on an existential cast in the Trump era, and there are angry people with poor impulse control from all factions in both parties. In 2017, a left-wing extremist opened fire on Republican members of Congress practicing for the Congressional Baseball Game, <a href="https://scalise.house.gov/media/press-releases/scalise-reflects-shooting-five-years-later-previews-tonight-s-congressional">nearly killing Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA)</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Db6PbC">
Since then, staunch Trump-aligned Republicans like Rep. Matt Gaetz (FL) have said they’d experienced significant levels of threat. <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/11/17/israel-hamas-war-protests-threats-palestinian-threats-congress">Jewish</a> and <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/muslim-ilhan-omar-congress-spikes-death-threats-rcna121248">Muslim</a> Democrats with differing positions on the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18079996/israel-palestine-conflict-guide-explainer">Israel-Palestine conflict</a> have reported significant increases in death threats during the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/10/7/23907683/israel-hamas-war-news-updates-october-2023">Israel-Hamas war</a>. All of this is consistent with data showing partisans of both sides issuing threats at higher rates than they did in the pre-Trump era.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="plGE38">
But this does not mean the threats are evenly distributed, or that the effects are symmetrical across officials of both parties.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Cv7ECI">
The simplest way to think about it is that threats on the right are more credible than threats on the left. Statistics regularly show that far-right political violence is <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/far-right-violence-a-growing-threat-and-law-enforcements-top-domestic-terrorism-concern">not only more common</a> than other forms in today’s America but also <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/pushed-extremes-domestic-terrorism-amid-polarization-and-protest">far more deadly</a> and impactful. In recent years, far-right killers have been responsible for the largest mass murders of Jews <em>and</em> Latinos in American history and the only riot ever to breach the US Capitol.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2B6mUz">
Moreover, the physical realities of political life make one uniquely exposed to radicals on one’s own side. Stephen Richer wasn’t attending Democratic rallies back when Arizona Democrats hated his guts; he had no reason to. But putting himself in front of Republican crowds made him uniquely exposed, especially in places where people bring their firearms everywhere they go.
</p>
<div class="p-fullbleed-block">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/vVMdzl-a8tPih8gLK_0zsIX_KkU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25179079/GettyImages_1304077708.jpg"/> <cite>Lynsey Addario/Getty Images Reportage</cite>
<figcaption>
Supporters of Donald Trump gather in front of the Harrisburg Capitol building to protest the 2020 election results, which declared Joe Biden as the winner on November 7, 2020, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pIrLt5">
Romney recalls feeling this kind of fear when he went to Utah after the <a href="https://www.vox.com/trump-impeachment-inquiry">Trump impeachment</a> fight. Facing crowds full of Mormon Republicans who had long been his base, he received such a hostile reaction that he was beginning to fear for his life. “It only takes one really disturbed person,” he told Coppins, adding that he began paying $5,000 a day out of pocket for personal security.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="osSUZu">
The special impact of right-on-right violent threats isn’t just about means and opportunity; it’s also about motive.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="q1vpGG">
Broadly speaking, Democrats have safety in numbers from the far right: Because the party in general opposes Trump and Trumpism, individual members’ anti-Trump positioning is less likely to attract ire from his supporters. By contrast, individual Republicans who dissent from the Trumpist line immediately get singled out in conservative and far-right media — attracting the sort of attention reserved for a handful of “most hated” Democrats such as Reps. Nancy Pelosi (CA) or Ilhan Omar (MN).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NPkwNg">
For all these reasons, threats of violence are likely to be uniquely effective on Republicans when issued from their own base. The threats work, more than anything else, to <em>discipline</em> elected Republicans — to force them to toe whatever line the Trumpists want them to walk, or else.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Zy7WiX">
That said, the power of this disciplining effect will likely vary from case to case. During October’s battle to decide the next speaker of the House, supporters of the Trumpy Rep. Jim Jordan (OH) directed <a href="https://apnews.com/article/house-speaker-jim-jordan-threats-54eeecef0188edfcb9903e45019f190f">a large number of death threats</a> at House Republicans who refused to vote for him. But this time, the wavering Republicans refused to cave — even citing the threats as a reason for opposing Jordan, who was ultimately forced out of the race.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oU43Za">
But we have no reason to believe the threat of violence has lost its disciplining power entirely.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cf1tj2">
For one, the danger simply hasn’t gone away: <a href="https://www.civicpulse.org/post/the-cost-of-local-government-leadership">Data on threats to local officials</a> released in September, from Civic Pulse and Princeton’s Bridging Divides Institute, shows that the level of threat has remained constant over the past year.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TxKMdW">
“The threat against [Trump-skeptical Republicans] is real and continuing,” <a href="https://www.cfr.org/blog/violent-far-right-terrorist-threat-republican-party-and-american-conservatism">writes</a> the Council on Foreign Relations’ <a href="https://www.cfr.org/expert/jacob-ware">Jacob Ware</a>. “Trump today retains an overwhelming power to deploy vitriol and violence against his political rivals.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="E1edzS">
For another, the Jordan speakership fight was missing several crucial features that make threats appear more serious. Unlike the 2020 election, which forced Republicans in the House and Senate to pick between siding with Trump or the Democrats, this was an internal fight between conservative Republicans. And it’s one where Trump’s personal future wasn’t directly at stake — unlike, say, this year’s election.
</p>
<h3 id="0lS9XK">
Threats and the 2024 election
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QGRTUP">
As Trump returned to the campaign trail in 2023, he became <a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/11/14/23958866/trump-vermin-authoritarian-democracy">increasingly willing to employ naked authoritarian rhetoric and physical threats</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iEX6vu">
He encouraged people to “go after” New York Attorney General Leticia James, suggested shoplifters should be shot, and intimated that former Joint Chiefs of Staff chair Mark Milley deserves to be executed. Perhaps most ominously, he vowed to “root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JArm1w">
According to Kleinfeld, people around the world are substantially more likely to engage in political violence when they feel like they have permission from their political representatives to do it. It’s a major part of the reason why, in the US data she’s examined, incidents of threats and actual violence are “three to five times higher” on the political right today than on the left.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0JZz9f">
This cannot be lost on Republican officials, and their behavior in the past few years suggests it in fact isn’t. The lockstep support for Trump even after four indictments, indicates they remain disciplined by the former president’s power — both electoral and physical. The lessons of January 6 and its aftermath have been fully internalized.
</p>
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And we’re now entering an election season that’s especially likely to raise the threat level.
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During the last presidential election cycle, threats against public officials tended to rise at pivotal moments in the campaign calendar. Threats against local election officials <a href="https://bridgingdivides.princeton.edu/sites/g/files/toruqf246/files/documents/Threats%20and%20Harassment%20Report.pdf">peaked around the November 2020 election itself,</a> while threats against members of Congress (of course) spiked in the days around January 6. Thankfully, none were killed during either of those periods — but not for lack of trying.
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<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/2mGdcdDsT7Fw6_vp8VA-4XgZNhk=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25179350/AP21008636939499.jpg"/> <cite>Paul Sancya/AP Photo</cite>
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Armed men stand on the steps at the Michigan State Capitol after a rally in support of then-President Donald Trump in Lansing, Michigan, on January 6, 2021.
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Then-Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt, a Republican responsible for election oversight, became a lightning rod in 2020 when Trump singled him out <a href="https://billypenn.com/2020/12/01/al-schmidt-death-threats-trump-philadelphia-election-zero-fraud-republican-commissioner/">by name in a tweet</a> as someone who was “being used big time by the Fake News Media” as a cover for election fraud.
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He received <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/policy-solutions/election-officials-under-attack">a wave of threats</a>; a deputy commissioner, Seth Bluestein, was subjected to anti-Semitic abuse. Schmidt’s wife got emails with threats such as “ALBERT RINO SCHMIDT WILL BE FATALLY SHOT” and “HEADS ON SPIKES. TREASONOUS SCHMIDTS.” The family left their home for safety reasons after the election, and Schmidt did not run for reelection in 2023 (he was recently appointed to serve as secretary of state under Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro).
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XHj9ck">
The <a href="https://www.vox.com/2024-elections">2024 election</a> promises to be every bit as contentious. If anything, Trump’s ongoing legal woes make the stakes even higher — both for him and his movement. His rhetoric is already escalating, his followers at even higher alert for signs of betrayal from the “RINOs” in the “Republican establishment.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aB5C9v">
Never before has it been more important for Republican officials to stand up for the integrity of the American electoral system. But they haven’t faced this level of threat in their political lives — in fact, no currently living elected official has.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="84KM2P">
“They say ‘it’s never been this bad before.’ Well, on the one hand, it has,” says Freeman, the Yale professor. “On the other hand … I’m talking about the lead-up to the Civil War.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QGrvxr">
<em>Ben Jacobs contributed reporting to this piece</em>.
</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>There’s more than one way to feel lonely</strong> -
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<img alt="A man wearing a sweatshirt with the hood pulled over his head looking up into the distance. He stands all alone on an empty backdrop of orange and blue." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/8aimuWBYxg4YUNYBarj7ZGhuJYs=/734x0:6067x4000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73015785/GettyImages_1339615370.0.jpg"/>
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Getty Images/iStockphoto
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Here’s how to interpret your own feelings.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="inliCs">
Despite having a network of friends and acquaintances, Rohit Singla, an MD-PhD student in Vancouver, knows no other existence than one of loneliness. “I think I associate myself with being baseline lonely,” the 31-year-old says. Beneath the exterior of a productive, competent scholar is a man who feels he is lacking deep, caring, reciprocal relationships. Seeing friends in long-term relationships only illuminates the distance that naturally grows when romance takes precedence over friendship. When the group chat is silent in response to his attempts at coordinating a hangout, Singla suspects he’s low on his friends’ lists of priorities.
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There are times he feels appreciated, less alone: when a pal checks in just to see how he’s doing or when someone he hasn’t spoken to in awhile reconnects. But despite these respites of connection, the undercurrent of alienation persists. “Loneliness,” Singla says, “is this simmering, ongoing feeling.”
</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iWqlh6">
Over the last decade, loneliness has reached <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2023/05/03/new-surgeon-general-advisory-raises-alarm-about-devastating-impact-epidemic-loneliness-isolation-united-states.html">so-called epidemic levels</a>, with <a href="https://www.vox.com/public-health">public health</a> officials and researchers alike quantifying the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/emotional-wellbeing/social-connectedness/loneliness.htm">mental</a> and <a href="https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/05/ce-corner-isolation">physical health impacts</a> of living in social isolation. Still, there is no one way to experience loneliness. It’s the isolating dread of not having found your place in the world. It’s the heaving weight of grief after losing a person, a place, a community. It’s the pang of anxiety when you remember how long it’s been since you saw your best friend. It’s a sense of foreignness despite being surrounded by familiar faces. For Singla, loneliness is a palpable burden (“My loneliness physically feels heavy,” he says) as well as an emotionally destabilizing one. “It feels unsteady. I almost feel like I just lose myself.”
</p>
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Researchers have put names to this kaleidoscope of experiences in the hope that by distinguishing the root causes of loneliness, people can better understand how to address it. “The differentiation of the nature of loneliness is predicated, to some degree, on the fact that you can intervene and do something about it,” says <a href="https://www.brunel.ac.uk/people/christina-victor">Christina Victor</a>, a professor of gerontology and public health at Brunel University London.
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<h3 id="r76trH">
What is loneliness?
</h3>
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The state of isolation is not the same as loneliness. “People can still feel lonely when they’re around other people,” says <a href="https://julianneholtlunstad.byu.edu/julianne-holt-lunstad">Julianne Holt-Lunstad</a>, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brigham Young University, ”and you can be isolated but not feel lonely.” <a href="https://peplau.psych.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/141/2017/07/Perlman-Peplau-81.pdf">Loneliness refers</a> to the distressing feeling you have when your social desires don’t align with your reality. Someone may have a close confidant in their romantic partner but still feel lacking in social connection. Someone else could interact with people all day but crave deep conversation. Loneliness is a personal experience, Victor says, not an objective one. An outsider cannot diagnose a person as being lonely; only that person can admit loneliness to themselves and others.
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Just like hunger or thirst, loneliness is a biological signal prompting people to satiate their need for social interaction, Holt-Lunstad says.
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Within the overall scope of loneliness are distinct ways people can experience it. According to <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Chikako-Ozawa-De-Silva">Chikako Ozawa-de Silva</a>, a professor of Japanese studies and anthropology at Emory University, the breakdown is as simple as “ordinary” loneliness (sadness after a breakup or a move, homesickness), grief, and “afflictive” loneliness. The latter “is a deep, pervasive sense of disconnection,” says Ozawa-de Silva, who is the author of <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520383494/the-anatomy-of-loneliness"><em>The Anatomy of Loneliness: Suicide, Social Connection, and the Search for Relational Meaning in Contemporary Japan</em></a>. “Of not being accepted or acknowledged by others.” Victor distinguishes between transient loneliness — a period of heartache that comes and goes — and chronic loneliness.
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Three common types of loneliness have been defined in the scientific literature, Victor and her colleagues found in <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8582800/">a 2021 review</a> of loneliness studies dating back to 1945. There, the experiences of loneliness fell into three categories: social, emotional, and existential. To be socially lonely is to lack social connection with those you know and love, Victor says. If you’re grieving the loss of a person, you’re experiencing emotional loneliness. Those who feel separated from others due to death, divorce, or physical or mental decline are said to endure existential loneliness. The lived experience of loneliness is less about feeling one of these three ways and more a Venn diagram of intersecting and overlapping social desires: a yearning for another community outside of the ones you already inhabit, desiring the intimate connection offered by a romantic partner.
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<a href="https://www.norc.org/about/experts/louise-hawkley.html">Louise Hawkley</a>, a principal research scientist at NORC, a nonpartisan research organization at the University of Chicago, isn’t totally satisfied with those descriptors. “Social loneliness, it’s also emotional,” she says. <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16181443/">In her</a><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3889142/"> research</a>, Hawkley focused on areas of connectedness that contribute to loneliness: intimate connectedness (deep relationships with, say, a spouse); relational connectedness (quantity of friends and how often you see them); and collective connectedness (feeling like you’re a part of a community). Like other frameworks of loneliness, these dimensions of connectedness are not independent of one another; people need to connect in all three domains in order to feel emotionally fulfilled. “We think of those three dimensions as critical that underlie loneliness,” Hawkley says. “People who tend to feel lonely on one of those dimensions tend to feel lonely [overall].”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="g2xRxV">
While the signifiers may slightly differ, the experiences they describe are universal. The phrases “<a href="https://magazine.hms.harvard.edu/articles/alone-crowd">feeling alone in a crowd,</a>” <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8985970/">“lost at sea,” and “living in darkness”</a> conjure vivid images for social, emotional, and existential loneliness or the lack of intimate, relational, and collective connectedness.
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<h3 id="cIpPSd">
Experiences of loneliness change as life shifts
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jDJAmi">
Loneliness takes different forms throughout a person’s lifespan. A child, for instance, can feel socially ostracized by their peers. Young adulthood can be alienating for teens who leave home for college. New parents often feel untethered from their communities, especially among childfree friends. Come retirement, relationships with colleagues can be strained without physical proximity. “People who are lonely because they’ve geographically relocated,” Hawkley says, “are going to feel something different than somebody who’s lonely because their spouse just died, or somebody who feels lonely because they’ve become immobile and they’re limited to staying in their house.”
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For much of her career, loneliness was only thought to impact older people, Victor says. But young adults can feel social, emotional, and existential loneliness. “I hypothesize that one of the reasons that we see high levels of loneliness in young people is there probably is social loneliness: ‘People in my gang won’t talk to me anymore,’” she says. “There is the emotional loneliness of perhaps as a young person, losing your grandparent who might have been a very important part of your social group … And I’m quite taken with the idea that perhaps some of the loneliness that young adults experience is this existential bit, particularly if you think about the challenges confronting young people in terms of <a href="https://www.vox.com/climate">climate change</a> and war.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uiLayt">
A more contemporary contributing factor, social media, shapes our expectations of relationships. Consuming the highlight reel of peers’ social lives fosters comparison among younger cohorts. Perhaps ironically, young people who spend more time on social media as a means of maintaining relationships feel lonelier than those who have differing motivations for using social media, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9817115/">according to a recent study</a>. “Are we using it to supplement our friendship experience,” asks friendship coach <a href="https://www.betterfemalefriendships.com/about">Danielle Bayard Jackson</a>, author of the forthcoming book <a href="https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/danielle-bayard-jackson/fighting-for-our-friendships/9780306830631/"><em>Fighting for Our Friendships</em></a>, “or are we using it to take the place of being with people?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ppc6Df">
Social, health, and economic factors also make a person more prone to loneliness. Young adults under the age of 30 and those who make less than $24,000 per year <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/473057/loneliness-subsides-pandemic-high.aspx">report higher levels of loneliness</a> compared to older and wealthier people, according to the Gallup National Health and Well-Being Index. Hispanic and Black Americans, parents, and those with physical or <a href="https://www.vox.com/mental-health">mental health</a> challenges are also more likely to be lonely, according to a <a href="https://newsroom.thecignagroup.com/loneliness-epidemic-persists-post-pandemic-look">2021 survey by Cigna and Morning Consult.</a> “I wonder if that’s just a [lack of] group connectedness — the collective — because they’re often a peripheralized population,” Hawkley says. “They’re not made to feel like they belong. The same would be true [of] <a href="https://www.vox.com/lgbtq">LGBTQ</a> folks — [they] are definitely at a higher risk, immigrants at a higher risk.” Fostering meaningful connections can prove challenging when you’re working three jobs or don’t feel welcome in a community.
</p>
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<aside id="JZFY4t">
<q>Just like hunger or thirst, loneliness is a biological signal prompting people to satiate their need for social interaction</q>
</aside>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GWhQJu">
Multiple cross-country moves gave Emily Gonzales, 35, more clarity when it came to her own social needs. Upon relocating to Indianapolis, where she had grown up, she noticed a wedge between herself and her childhood friends. Their values didn’t align, she realized, and they didn’t have similar aspirations. “You’re around a bunch of people, but you don’t feel like anybody really gets you,” says Gonzales, who works in medical sales. “These people I’ve known for my entire life, but I don’t feel like they know me or I know them.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Pchmm3">
Once Gonzales and her husband moved to their current home base of Scottsdale, Arizona, she was purposeful when forging new connections. She used Bumble For Friends to spend time with people with similar interests and life experiences, like being a stepmom. One of the first women she met was Ashlee Smith, a 36-year-old insurance broker who had also recently moved to the area from Portland, Maine.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nfWXta">
Though Smith recently had a baby, she and Gonzales still make time for one another. Gonzales frequently checks in with Smith and even traveled with her and her infant to Portland. “Your world gets so much smaller,” Smith says of parenthood. “Emily and I even had a conversation about it because she could tell I was just a little off. So she checked in and she’s like, ‘What do you need? How can I help you?’”
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<h3 id="llAjrG">
How to address various dimensions of loneliness
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IgRWDK">
Understanding the drivers of loneliness can help individuals — and societies — effectively resolve it. Because each dimension of loneliness and connection requires different solutions, one blanket suggestion may not work for every lonely individual. “Simply increasing social contact may not reduce someone’s loneliness,” Holt-Lunstad says.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JF2J2N">
Self-reflection can offer a few solutions. In one of her <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35716479/">studies</a>, Victor found 71 percent of older adults had felt lonely during their lives. She and her collaborators asked participants how they had addressed past loneliness. “People were referring to things that they did. One I really liked, but we’ve never published it,” she says. “A guy said, ‘If I feel lonely, I’d go to the church or the pub, depending upon what day of the week it is.’” To manage present loneliness, remember past bouts of alienation and mull over what made you feel more connected. Can you replicate the strategy in your current situation?
</p>
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If you feel like you’re <a href="https://www.vox.com/22992901/how-to-find-your-community-as-an-adult">lacking a community</a>, <a href="https://www.vox.com/even-better/23837430/how-to-make-friends-start-a-club">joining the first club</a> that comes to mind may not be inherently satisfying. Instead, consider important aspects of your identity you’d like to explore, suggests Bayard Jackson. Complete the phrase “I am …” to help guide you. “I might say, ‘I am Black. I am a woman. I am a Christian. I am a mom,’” she says. “Then ask yourself for each one of these identifiers, ‘Am I in community for each one of these in spaces that are formed by this aspect of identity?’” If not, you might want to seek out connection with people who share one of these domains.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FdqK1D">
You don’t need to accomplish the modern feat of making new friends in adulthood to combat loneliness either. Deepening existing relationships is just as rewarding, but it also requires a shift in mindset: Strengthening these friendships must be a priority. Diversifying your social diet to include <a href="https://www.vox.com/even-better/23744304/how-much-social-interaction-do-you-need-loneliness-burnout">interactions with strangers and acquaintances</a> is also socially fulfilling. “We often have to make time out of our busy schedules to be physically active,” Holt-Lunstad says, “and we need to make time in our busy schedules to be socially active.” Both Gonzales and Smith say they were strategic in identifying the types of people and friendships that would satiate their loneliness.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GrYICI">
Connection can also be found absent other people. People form strong relationships to places (like a hometown or a hiking trail) and activities (like music or art), Ozawa-de Silva notes. Visiting these locales or engaging in these hobbies may curb loneliness.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6p18ZE">
But the responsibility to address loneliness can’t fall solely to the individual. Societies that value productivity and competition over the unique merits of its people breed loneliness, says Ozawa-de Silva. “An increasing number of individuals who are experiencing loneliness, anxiety, panic [disorders],” she says, “I think that’s a sign that something is really not right in our society.” To help address this crisis, Ozawa-de Silva says communities can instill values like compassion and empathy at an early age and encourage a teamwork-oriented goal structure for children. “We need to address it at the systemic level,” she says. “Maybe social education, different kinds of programs, something that would hopefully change a few priorities in contemporary societies to think about the limitations of hypervigilance and a hyperfocus on competition and productivity.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="65rauc">
Addressing any form of loneliness isn’t an overnight endeavor. Relationships of every variety require dedication and persistence to bloom. Consider your quest toward social harmony like tending to a garden, planting seeds for a variety of different types of connection — intimate, relational, and collective alike.
</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>After junior wrestlers’ protest, ad-hoc panel announces organisation of U-15, U-20 Nationals</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>WFI without Sanjay Singh is acceptable to us: Sakshi Malik</strong> - Fresh protest erupts in Indian wrestling; this time against Bajrang, Sakshi and Vinesh</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>Ind vs SA 2nd Test | Siraj lets rip as India bowls South Africa out for 55</strong> - Mohammed Siraj was superb with his line and length in a nine-over spell, taking a career-best of 6 for 15</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>Suryakumar doesn’t quite know what to do in ODIs but he is a freak in T20 cricket, says Hussain</strong> - “The person for the world to watch out for at the moment in T20 is Suryakumar Yadav,” says Hussain</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>Bangladesh cricketer Shakib Al Hasan to contest election from hometown constituency</strong> - Shakib Al Hasan is contesting the election from Magura-1 with the Awami League’s Boat symbol as a first-time MP hopeful</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>ASI urges Varanasi court not to make Gyanvapi survey report public for four more weeks</strong> - The ASI submitted its survey report to the district court in a sealed cover on December 18</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>Jaishankar speaks to Ukranian counterpart</strong> - The phone conversation came days after Mr. Jaishankar paid a five-day visit to Moscow</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>Sarathkumar pays respects to late Vijayakant</strong> - Sarathkumar recalled how Vijayakant helped him when he needed it the most.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Here are the big stories from Karnataka today</strong> - Welcome to the Karnataka Today newsletter, your guide from The Hindu on the major news stories to follow today. Curated and written by Nalme Nachiyar.</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>Interest rates for deposits in Kerala’s cooperative sector to be hiked</strong> - On deposits of terms up to one year, the interest rate will go up by 0.50% and on those above one year by 0.75%, said Minister for Cooperation V.N. Vasavan after a meeting of top functionaries in Kerala’s cooperative sector</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>Ukraine war: Missiles fired at Russian city Belgorod and occupied Crimea</strong> - Russian officials say Belgorod, where 25 people were killed on Saturday, came under a new attack.</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: Grim new year for Ukrainians under shadow of Russian attack</strong> - Ukrainians see in a second new year under some of the heaviest aerial bombardment since Russia’s war began.</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>In pictures: Nordic states gripped by winter freeze</strong> - Sweden and Finland record their coldest temperatures of the winter, as Denmark is hit by a snowstorm.</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>Turkey detains 34 on suspicion of spying for Israel</strong> - Investigators allege the suspects were planning abductions on behalf of Israeli intelligence.</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 is behind Turkey’s staunch support for Hamas in Gaza?</strong> - Turkey has vociferously criticised Israel during the Gaza war, risking recently rebuilt relations.</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>A commander’s lament on the loss of a historic SpaceX rocket</strong> - This rocket restored NASA crew launches to US soil, then launched 18 more times. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1993381">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ancient desert mega-structures were planned using carved maps to scale</strong> - “This calls for the representation of space in a way not seen at this time.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1993193">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>34 years later, a 13-year-old hits the NES Tetris “kill screen”</strong> - BlueScuti forces the game to crash after 40 minutes and 1,511 lines. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1993353">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Vizio settles for $3M after saying 60 Hz TVs had 120 Hz “effective refresh rate”</strong> - Vizio claimed backlight scanning made refresh rates <em>seem</em> twice as high. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1993296">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Since Elon Musk’s Twitter purchase, firm reportedly lost 72% of its value</strong> - Fidelity cuts value of X stake, implying 72% drop since Musk paid $44 billion. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1993311">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>A pony and its handler walk into a bar</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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When the bartender tries to shoo them away, the handler says, “You don’t understand. This is no ordinary pony - she can sing like Aretha Franklin!”
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The bartender is almost impressed by such a claim. “If that’s the case, why don’t you trot her over to our stage and put on a show for everyone? Hell, there might even be a free drink in it for you.”
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“That’s really quite the offer,” says the handler, “and ordinarily id take you up on it, but there’s just one problem with that.”
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“And what might that be?”
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“Well, you see, sir… she’s a little hoarse.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Drewdiniskirino"> /u/Drewdiniskirino </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18xbzls/a_pony_and_its_handler_walk_into_a_bar/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18xbzls/a_pony_and_its_handler_walk_into_a_bar/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>I dropped the soap in the prison shower on my first day.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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A big inmate, with a cock like a python, handed it back to me. “Nice try, you ugly asshole,” he said.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Make_the_music_stop"> /u/Make_the_music_stop </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18xeuk5/i_dropped_the_soap_in_the_prison_shower_on_my/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18xeuk5/i_dropped_the_soap_in_the_prison_shower_on_my/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>In a second grade classroom,</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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The teacher Ms. Jones is calling on students to ask them: what does your mom or dad do as a job, and can you spell that word?
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She calls on Sally who says “my daddy is a baker, ummm I think it’s b-a-c-e-r?”
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“Very close! Great work!” She gives Sally the correct spelling and calls the next student.
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Timmy says, “my dad’s a cop, c-o-p.” “That’s right, great job!”
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She then calls on Johnny but before he can speak, Oliver in the back of the class jumps up and shouts out
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“Yo! My dad’s a bookie, that’s b-double o-k-i-e and I’ll give any of yous ten to one odds that Johnny fucks up spelling chiropractor!”
</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/hungrylikethewolffe"> /u/hungrylikethewolffe </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18xbd32/in_a_second_grade_classroom/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18xbd32/in_a_second_grade_classroom/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Two Thai girls asked me if I wanted to sleep with them.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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They said it would be like winning the Lottery. To my horror they were right, we had six matching balls.
</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/Nikkere"> /u/Nikkere </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18wxnkx/two_thai_girls_asked_me_if_i_wanted_to_sleep_with/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18wxnkx/two_thai_girls_asked_me_if_i_wanted_to_sleep_with/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A tired man arrives home after attending his son’s wedding, proud that his son remained chaste until marriage. Take a shower. And he is almost asleep when his phone rings…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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“Dad?”, asks his son on the phone. “I’m on my honeymoon, and I don’t know how to have sex. Can you explain it to me?”
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“Ah, son, it’s easy; just insert the hardest part of your body where she pees,” replies the sleepy father.
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He yawns, hangs up the phone and lays his head on the pillow when another call comes in.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Mister?, asks his daughter-in-law.”I need help! Your son stuck his head in the toilet."
</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/Ms_Kratos"> /u/Ms_Kratos </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18wrsfy/a_tired_man_arrives_home_after_attending_his_sons/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18wrsfy/a_tired_man_arrives_home_after_attending_his_sons/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
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