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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>Model for evaluating cost-effectiveness of surveillance testing for SARS-CoV2</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Testing people without symptoms for SARS-CoV-2 followed by isolation of those who test positive could mitigate the covid-19 epidemic pending arrival of an effective vaccine. Key questions for such programs are who should be tested, how often, and when should such testing stop. Answers to these questions depend on test and population characteristics. A cost-effectiveness model that provides answers depending on user-adjustable parameter values is described. Key parameters are the value ascribed to preventing a death and the reproduction number (roughly, rate of spread) at the time surveillance testing is initiated. For current rates of spread, cost-effectiveness usually requires a value per life saved greater than $100,000 and depends critically on the extent and frequency of testing.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.02.20242644v1" target="_blank">Model for evaluating cost-effectiveness of surveillance testing for SARS-CoV2</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Clinical Evaluation of a COVID-19 Antibody Lateral Flow Assay using Point of Care Samples</strong> -
<div>
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Introduction: The ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has spurred the development of numerous point of care (PoC) immunoassays. Assessments of performance of available kits are necessary to determine their clinical utility. Previous studies have mostly performed these assessments in a laboratory setting, which raises concerns of translating findings for PoC use. The aim of this study was to assess the performance of a lateral flow immunoassay for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies using samples collected at PoC. Method: One lateral flow immunoassay (Humasis® COVID-19 IgG/IgM) was tested. In total, 50 PCR RT-PCR positive and 52 RT-PCR negative samples were collected at PoC. Fifty serum specimens from Dec 2018 to Feb 2019 were used as controls for specificity. Serum samples collected between Dec 2019 to Feb 2020 were used as additional comparators. Clinical data including symptom onset date was collected from patient history and the medical record. Results: The overall sensitivity for the kit was 74% (95% CI: 59.7% - 85.4%). The sensitivity for IgM and IgG detection &gt;14 days after date of onset was 88% (95% CI: 68.8% - 97.5%) and 84% (95% CI: 63.9% - 95.5%), with a negative predictive value (NPV) of 94% for IgM (95% CI: 83.5% - 98.8%) and 93% for IgG (95% CI: 81.8% - 97.9%). The overall specificity was 94% (95% CI: 83.5% - 98.8%). The Immunoglobulin specific specificity was 94% for IgM (95% CI: 83.5% - 98.8%) and 98% for IgG (95% CI: 89.4% - 100.0%), with a positive predictive value (PPV) of 88% for IgM (95% CI: 68.8% - 97.5%) and 95% for IgG (95% CI: 77.2% - 99.9%) respectively for samples collected from patients &gt;14 days after date of onset. Specimen collected during early phase of COVID-19 pandemic (Dec 2019 to Feb 2020) showed 11.8% antibody positivity, and 11.3% of PCR-negative patients demonstrated antibody positivity. Discussion: Humasis® COVID-19 IgG/IgM LFA demonstrates greater than 90% PPV and NPV for samples collected 14 days after the onset of symptoms using samples collected at PoC. While not practical for the diagnosis of acute infection, the use of the lateral flow assays with high specificity may have utility for determining seroprevalence or seroconversion in longitudinal studies.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.02.20242750v1" target="_blank">Clinical Evaluation of a COVID-19 Antibody Lateral Flow Assay using Point of Care Samples</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>ABO-RH blood group and risk of covid-19 in a moroccan population</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Introduction. Given the rapid spread, significant morbidity and mortality associated with COVID-19, there has been scientific interest in obtaining data detailing the factors influencing the risk of COVID-19 infection. The aim of this study was to reveal a possible association between the ABO-RH system and the risk of COVID-19 in the Moroccan population. Materials and methods. This is an analytical cross-sectional study. It was carried out on 1094 patients for the diagnosis of Covid-19 by Rt-PCR at the Moulay Ismail military hospital in the province of Meknes. All Rt-PCR negative individuals were used as a comparison group. Results. Among the 1094 individuals who were diagnosed, RT-PCR for detection of SARS-CoV-2 was positive for 242 individuals. Comparison of the proportions of blood groups of the two groups showed that the proportion of blood group A in patients with COVID-19 was significantly higher than in people in the comparison group (P = 0.007), while the proportion of blood group O in patients with COVID-19 was significantly lower than in people in the control group (P = 0.017). Comparison of the Rh blood groups of the two groups did not find a significant association (P = 0.608). Conclusion: As demonstrated by several previous studies, we concluded that blood group A was associated with a higher risk of acquiring COVID-19. Equally, the O blood group was associated with a lower risk of infection.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.02.20242180v1" target="_blank">ABO-RH blood group and risk of covid-19 in a moroccan population</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Predictive modeling of morbidity and mortality in COVID-19 hospitalized patients and its clinical implications.</strong> -
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Objective: Retrospective study of COVID-19 positive patients treated at NYU Langone Health (NYULH) to identify clinical markers predictive of disease severity to assist in clinical decision triage and provide additional biological insights into disease progression. Materials and Methods: Clinical activity of 3740 de-identified patients at NYULH between January and August 2020. Models were trained on clinical data during different parts of their hospital stay to predict three clinical outcomes: deceased, ventilated, or admitted to ICU. Results: XGBoost model trained on clinical data from the final 24 hours excelled at predicting mortality (AUC=0.92, specificity=86% and sensitivity=85%). Respiration rate was the most important feature, followed by SpO2 and age 75+. Performance of this model to predict the deceased outcome extended 5 days prior with AUC=0.81, specificity=70%, sensitivity=75%. When only using clinical data from the first 24 hours, AUCs of 0.79, 0.80, and 0.77 were obtained for deceased, ventilated, or ICU admitted, respectively. Although respiration rate and SpO2 levels offered the highest feature importance, other canonical markers including diabetic history, age and temperature offered minimal gain. When lab values were incorporated, prediction of mortality benefited the most from blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). Features predictive of morbidity included LDH, calcium, glucose, and C-reactive protein (CRP). Conclusion: Together this work summarizes efforts to systematically examine the importance of a wide range of features across different endpoint outcomes and at different hospitalization time points.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.02.20235879v1" target="_blank">Predictive modeling of morbidity and mortality in COVID-19 hospitalized patients and its clinical implications.</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>The impact of seasonal respiratory virus transmission on syndromic surveillance for COVID-19 in Ontario, Canada</strong> -
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Background: Syndromic surveillance systems for COVID-19 are being increasingly used to track and predict outbreaks of confirmed cases. Seasonal circulating respiratory viruses share syndromic overlap with COVID-19, and it is unknown how they will impact the performance of syndromic surveillance tools. Here we investigated the role of non-SARS-CoV-2 respiratory virus test positivity on COVID-19 two independent syndromic surveillance systems in Ontario, Canada. Methods: We compared the weekly number of reported COVID-19 cases reported in the province of Ontario against two syndromic surveillance metrics: 1) the proportion of respondents with a self-reported COVID-like illness (CLI) from COVID Near You (CNY) and 2) the proportion of emergency department visits for upper respiratory conditions from the Acute Care Enhanced Surveillance (ACES) system. Separately, we plotted the percent positivity for other seasonal respiratory viruses over the same time period and reported Pearson correlation coefficients before and after the uncoupling of syndromic tools to COVID-19 cases. Results: There were strong positive correlations of both CLI and ED visits for upper respiratory causes with COVID-19 cases up to and including a rise in entero/rhinovirus (r = 0.86 and 0.87, respectively). There was a strong negative correlation of both CLI and ED visits for upper respiratory causes with COVID-19 cases (r = -0.85 and -0.91, respectively) during a fall in entero/rhinovirus. Interpretation: Two methods of syndromic surveillance showed strong positive correlations with COVID-19 confirmed case counts before and during a rise in circulating entero/rhinovirus. However, as positivity for enterovirus/rhinovirus fell in late September 2020, syndromic signals became uncoupled from COVID-19 cases and instead tracked the fall in enter/rhinovirus. This finding provides proof-of-principle that regional transmission of seasonal respiratory viruses may complicate the interpretation of COVID-19 surveillance data. It is imperative that surveillance systems incorporate other respiratory virus testing data in order to more accurately track and forecast COVID-19 disease activity.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.02.20242735v1" target="_blank">The impact of seasonal respiratory virus transmission on syndromic surveillance for COVID-19 in Ontario, Canada</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Post-infectious inflammatory disease in MIS-C features elevated cytotoxicity signatures and autoreactivity that correlates with severity</strong> -
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Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) is a life-threatening post-infectious complication occurring unpredictably weeks after mild or asymptomatic SARS-CoV2 infection in otherwise healthy children. Here, we define immune abnormalities in MIS-C compared to adult COVID-19 and pediatric/adult healthy controls using single-cell RNA sequencing, antigen receptor repertoire analysis, unbiased serum proteomics, and in vitro assays. Despite no evidence of active infection, we uncover elevated S100A-family alarmins in myeloid cells and marked enrichment of serum proteins that map to myeloid cells and pathways including cytokines, complement/coagulation, and fluid shear stress in MIS-C patients. Moreover, NK and CD8 T cell cytotoxicity genes are elevated, and plasmablasts harboring IgG1 and IgG3 are expanded. Consistently, we detect elevated binding of serum IgG from severe MIS-C patients to activated human cardiac microvascular endothelial cells in culture. Thus, we define immunopathology features of MIS-C with implications for predicting and managing this SARS-CoV2-induced critical illness in children.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.01.20241364v1" target="_blank">Post-infectious inflammatory disease in MIS-C features elevated cytotoxicity signatures and autoreactivity that correlates with severity</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>THE THERAPEUTIC POTENTIAL OF IVERMECTIN FOR COVID-19: A REVIEW OF MECHANISMS AND EVIDENCE</strong> -
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Introduction: Ivermectin is a commonly used antihelminthic agent with over 35 years of established safety data in humans. Recent data demonstrates antiviral activity in vitro against SARS-CoV-2, in addition to a range of viruses. In vitro and animal models also provide evidence of immunomodulatory action. These additional modes of action are supported by in silico modelling, which propose a number of viral and host targets that would mediate these effects. Objectives: The aim of this study is to systematically review the published and preprint clinical literature and study results that assessed the potential role of ivermectin as a COVID-19 therapeutic and prophylactic agent. Methods: We conducted a comprehensive review of PubMed, medRxiv, ClinicalTrials.gov, Global Coronavirus COVID-19 Clinical Trial Tracker, World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform, EU Clinical Trials Register, ANZ clinical trials registry, and references from relevant articles. Results: Search keywords- 9COVID-19 (and synonyms) AND ivermectin9- generated 86 articles on PubMed, 48 on medRvix and 37 on clinicaltrials.gov at the time of writing. Twelve of these were listed as completed clinical trials and of these, 8 were included as investigators had released results. Positive mortality benefit, reduced time to clinical recovery, reduced incidence of disease progression and decreased duration of hospital admission were reported in patients across all stages of clinical severity. Limitations: Due to the time-critical nature of the COVID-19 pandemic our review included preprint data, which must be interpreted with caution while it awaits peer review.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.30.20236570v1" target="_blank">THE THERAPEUTIC POTENTIAL OF IVERMECTIN FOR COVID-19: A REVIEW OF MECHANISMS AND EVIDENCE</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>COVID-19 as cause of viral sepsis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis</strong> -
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Importance COVID-19 is a heterogenous disease most frequently causing respiratory tract infection but in its severe forms, respiratory failure and multiple organ dysfunction syndrome may occur, resembling sepsis. The prevalence of viral sepsis among COVID-19 patients is still unclear. Objective We aimed to describe this in a systematic review. Data sources MEDLINE(PubMed), Cochrane and Google Scholar databases were searched for studies reporting on patients hospitalized with confirmed COVID-19, diagnosed with sepsis or infection-related organ dysfunctions or receiving organ replacement therapy. Study selection Eligible were full-text English articles of randomized and non-randomized clinical trials and observational studies reporting on patients with confirmed COVID-19, who are diagnosed with sepsis or have infection-related organ dysfunctions. Systematic reviews, editorials, conference abstracts, animal studies, case reports, articles neither in English nor full-text, and studies with fewer than 30 participants were excluded. Data extraction and synthesis All eligible studies were included in a narrative synthesis of results and after reviewing all included studies a meta-analysis was conducted. Separate sensitivity analyses were conducted per adult vs pediatric populations and per Intensive Care Unit (ICU) vs non-ICU populations. Main outcomes and measures Primary endpoint was the prevalence of sepsis using Sepsis-3 criteria among patients with COVID-19 and among secondary, new onset of infection-related organ dysfunction. Outcomes were expressed as proportions with respective 95% confidence interval (CI). Results Of 1,903 articles, 104 were analyzed. The prevalence of sepsis in COVID-19 was 39.9% (95% CI, 35.9-44.1; I2, 99%). In sensitivity analysis, sepsis was present in 25.1% (95% CI, 21.8-28.9; I2 99%) of adult patients hospitalized in non-Intensive-Care-Unit (ICU) wards (40 studies) and in 83.8 (95% CI, 78.1-88.2; I2,91%) of adult patients hospitalized in the ICU (31 studies). Sepsis in children hospitalized with COVID-19 was as high as 7.8% (95% CI, 0.4-64.9; I2, 97%). Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome was the most common organ dysfunction in adult patients in non-ICU (27.6; 95% CI, 21.6-34.5; I2, 99%) and ICU (88.3%; 95% CI, 79.7-93.5; I2, 97%) Conclusions and relevance Despite the high heterogeneity in reported results, sepsis frequently complicates COVID-19 among hospitalized patients and is significantly higher among those in the ICU. PROSPERO registration number: CRD42020202018. No funding.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.02.20242354v1" target="_blank">COVID-19 as cause of viral sepsis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis</a>
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<li><strong>Functional profile, homing and residency of protective T cell immune responses against SARS-CoV-2</strong> -
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To inform on the correlates of protection against SARS-CoV-2, we studied T cell functions, migration patterns and apoptosis associated with antigen responses in three groups of patients during acute infection. T cell functional profiles against SARS-CoV-2 depended on the targeted viral protein and clinical outcome. Hospitalization and disease severity were associated with predominant IFNg and IL-4 responses, as well as increased responses against S peptides and apoptosis, while non-hospitalized patients were characterized by IL-10 secretion, to which a particular subset expressing high levels of CCR7 contributed abundantly. Importantly, lung-resident memory T cells were strongly detected in convalescent patients, in which contemporary blood did not reflect tissue resident profiles. Our results suggest that a balanced anti-inflammatory antiviral response promoted by non-spike proteins may be key to favor infection resolution without major complications. Still, these immune responses can migrate and establish in the lung as resident memory T cells, affecting future protection.
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.02.20238907v1" target="_blank">Functional profile, homing and residency of protective T cell immune responses against SARS-CoV-2</a>
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<li><strong>Unraveling US National COVID-19 Racial/Ethnic Disparities using County Level Data Among 328 Million Americans</strong> -
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Racial and ethnic disparities in COVID-19 outcomes reflect the unequal burden experienced by vulnerable communities in the United States (US). Proposed explanations include socioeconomic factors that influence how people live, work, and play, and pre-existing comorbidities. It is important to assess the extent to which observed US COVID-19 racial and ethnic disparities can be explained by these factors. We study 9.8 million confirmed cases and 234,000 confirmed deaths from 2,990 US counties (3,142 total) that make up 99.8% of the total US population (327.6 out of 328.2 million people) through 11/8/20. We found national COVID-19 racial health disparities in US are partially explained by various social determinants of health and pre-existing comorbidities that have been previously proposed. However, significant unexplained racial and ethnic health disparities still persist at the US county level after adjusting for these variables. There is a pressing need to develop strategies to address not only the social determinants but also other factors, such as testing access, personal protection equipment access and exposures, as well as tailored intervention and resource allocation for vulnerable groups, in order to combat COVID-19 and reduce racial health disparities.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.02.20234989v1" target="_blank">Unraveling US National COVID-19 Racial/Ethnic Disparities using County Level Data Among 328 Million Americans</a>
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<li><strong>McQ - An open-source multiplexed SARS-CoV-2 quantification platform</strong> -
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Implementation of cost-efficient high-throughput methods for detection of RNA viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 is a potent strategy to curb ongoing and future pandemics. Here we describe Multiplexed SARS-CoV-2 Quantification platform (McQ), an inexpensive scalable framework for SARS-CoV-2 quantification in saliva samples. McQ is based on the parallel sequencing of barcoded amplicons generated from SARS-CoV-2 genomic RNA. McQ uses indexed, target- specific reverse transcription (RT) to generate barcoded cDNA for amplifying viral- and human-specific regions. The barcoding system enables early sample pooling to reduce hands-on time and makes the approach scalable to thousands of samples per sequencing run. Robust and accurate quantification of viral load is achieved by measuring the abundance of Unique Molecular Identifiers (UMIs) introduced during reverse transcription. The use of homemade reverse transcriptase and polymerase enzymes and non-proprietary buffers reduces RNA to library reagent costs to ~92 cents/sample and circumvents potential supply chain shortages. We demonstrate the ability of McQ to robustly quantify various levels of viral RNA in 838 clinical samples and accurately diagnose positive and negative control samples in a testing workflow entailing self-sampling and automated RNA extraction from saliva. The implementation of McQ is modular, scalable and could be extended to other pathogenic targets in future.
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.02.20242628v1" target="_blank">McQ - An open-source multiplexed SARS-CoV-2 quantification platform</a>
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<li><strong>Using RT-PCR Testing to Assess the Effectiveness of Outbreak Control Efforts in Sao Paulo State, the Epicenter of COVID-19 Pandemic in Brazil, according to Socioeconomic Vulnerabilities</strong> -
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Background The testing of infected persons with SARS-CoV-2 is one of the cornerstones of an effective strategy deployed for pandemic control. The public health diagnostic effort is particularly important in regions with a critical transmission scenario and in vulnerable populations in these districts, such as Sao Paulo state, the Brazilian epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods We developed an RT-PCR testing intensity effort index (RT-PCR TIEI) composed of seven indicators to assess the survelliance efforts in the Sao Paulo State. We used dynamic time-series cross-sectional models to analyze the association between the RT-PCR TIEI, the population living under high socioeconomic vulnerability levels, dependent on public health service (SUS), per capita income, and population density. Results On average, the RT-PCR TIEI score was 21.07. In the long-run, the RT-PCR TIEI is negatively associated with socioeconomic vulnerability (p-value=0.000, 95% CI -0.887, -0.811), with a higher proportion of the population dependent on SUS (p-value= 0.000, 95% CI -0.871, -0.805), per capita income (p-value= 0.000, 95% CI -0.849,-0.792) and with population density (p-value=0.000, 95% CI -0.853; -0.801). Conclusion Testing efforts declined as the pandemic advanced, and the the lowest RT-PCR TIEI values were found in the most socioeconomic vulnerable RHDs. Local public laboratory presence was a predictor of a higher score. Thus, the low testing RT-PCR efforts and local laboratory inequalities affected surveillance capability, especially for socioeconomic vulnerable populations.
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.29.20221960v3" target="_blank">Using RT-PCR Testing to Assess the Effectiveness of Outbreak Control Efforts in Sao Paulo State, the Epicenter of COVID-19 Pandemic in Brazil, according to Socioeconomic Vulnerabilities</a>
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<li><strong>Explaining the Effective Reproduction Number of COVID-19 through Mobility and Enterprise Statistics: Evidence from the First Wave in Japan</strong> -
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This study uses mobility statistics-a relatively novel data source consisting of smartphone location data-combined with business census data for the eight Japanese prefectures with the highest COVID-19 infection rates to study the effect of lockdown measures on the effective transmission rate of the virus. Based on data for the first wave of infections in Japan, we found that reductions targeting the hospitality industry were more effective than restrictions on general business activities. Specifically, we found that to fully converge the pandemic (that is, to reduce the effective reproduction number to one or less for all the days), a 40-67% reduction in weekly mobility is required, depending on the region. A lesser goal, 80% of days with one or less observed transmission, a 14-61% reduction in weekly mobility is needed.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.08.20209643v2" target="_blank">Explaining the Effective Reproduction Number of COVID-19 through Mobility and Enterprise Statistics: Evidence from the First Wave in Japan</a>
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<li><strong>A meta-analysis on the role of children in SARS-CoV-2 in household transmission clusters</strong> -
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The role of children in the spread of SARS-CoV-2 remains highly controversial. To address this issue, we performed a meta-analysis of the published literature on household SARS-CoV-2 transmission clusters (n=213 from 12 countries). Only 8 (3.8%) transmission clusters were identified as having a paediatric index case. Asymptomatic index cases were associated with a lower secondary attack in contacts than symptomatic index cases (estimate risk ratio [RR], 0.17; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.09-0.29). To determine the susceptibility of children to household infections the secondary attack rate (SAR) in paediatric household contacts was assessed. The secondary attack rate in paediatric household contacts was lower than in adult household contacts (RR, 0.62; 95% CI, 0.42-0.91). These data have important implications for the ongoing management of the COVID-19 pandemic, including potential vaccine prioritization strategies.
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.26.20044826v2" target="_blank">A meta-analysis on the role of children in SARS-CoV-2 in household transmission clusters</a>
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<li><strong>AI4CoV: Matching COVID-19 Patients to Treatment Options Using Artificial Intelligence</strong> -
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We developed AI4CoV, a novel AI system to match thousands of COVID-19 clinical trials to patients based on each patient9s eligibility to clinical trials in order to help physicians select treatment options for patients. AI4CoV leveraged Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning to parse through eligibility criteria of trials and patients9 clinical manifestations in their clinical notes, both presented in English text, to accomplish 92.76% AUROC on a cross-validation test with 3,156 patient-trial pairs labeled with ground truth of suitability. Our retrospective multiple-site review shows that according to AI4CoV, severe patients of COVID-19 generally have less treatment options suitable for them than mild and moderate patients and that suitable and unsuitable treatment options are different for each patient. Our results show that the general approach of AI4CoV is useful during the early stage of a pandemic when the best treatments are still unknown.
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.29.20240614v2" target="_blank">AI4CoV: Matching COVID-19 Patients to Treatment Options Using Artificial Intelligence</a>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Convalescent Plasma for Treatment of COVID-19: An Open Randomised Controlled Trial</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: SARS-CoV-2 convalescent plasma;   Other: Standard of care<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Joakim Dillner;   Karolinska Institutet;   Danderyd Hospital;   Falu Hospital<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ivermectin for Severe COVID-19 Management</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: Ivermectin<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Afyonkarahisar Health Sciences University;   NeuTec Pharma<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>IFN-beta 1b and Remdesivir for COVID19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Interferon beta-1b;   Drug: Remdesivir<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   The University of Hong Kong<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>COVID-19 And Geko Evaluation: The CAGE Study</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Device: geko T3<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Lawson Health Research Institute<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Phase Ⅱ Clinical Trial of Recombinant Corona Virus Disease-19 (COVID-19) Vaccine (Sf9 Cells)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Low-dose Recombinant COVID-19 vaccine (Sf9 cells) (18-59 years) &amp; Two dose regimen;   Biological: Low-dose Recombinant COVID-19 vaccine (Sf9 cells) (18-59 years) &amp; Three dose regimen;   Biological: High-dose Recombinant COVID-19 vaccine (Sf9 cells) (18-59 years) &amp; Two dose regimen;   Biological: High-dose Recombinant COVID-19 vaccine (Sf9 cells) (18-59 years) &amp; Three dose regimen;   Biological: Low-dose Recombinant COVID-19 vaccine (Sf9 cells) (60-85 years) &amp; Two dose regimen;   Biological: Low-dose Recombinant COVID-19 vaccine (Sf9 cells) (60-85 years) &amp; Three dose regimen;   Biological: High-dose Recombinant COVID-19 vaccine (Sf9 cells) (60-85 years) &amp; Two dose regimen;   Biological: High-dose Recombinant COVID-19 vaccine (Sf9 cells) (60-85 years) &amp; Three dose regimen;   Biological: Low-dose placebo (18-59 years) &amp; Two dose regimen;   Biological: Low-dose placebo (18-59 years) &amp; Three dose regimen;   Biological: High-dose placebo (18-59 years) &amp; Two dose regimen;   Biological: High-dose placebo (18-59 years) &amp; Three dose regimen;   Biological: Low-dose placebo (60-85 years) &amp; Two dose regimen;   Biological: Low-dose placebo (60-85 years) &amp; Three dose regimen;   Biological: High-dose placebo (60-85 years) &amp; Two dose regimen;   Biological: High-dose placebo (60-85 years) &amp; Three dose regimen<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Jiangsu Province Centers for Disease Control and Prevention;   West China Hospital<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Resolving Inflammatory Storm in COVID-19 Patients by Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids -</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Omegaven®;   Drug: Sodium chloride<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Karolinska University Hospital<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>LYT-100 in Post-acute COVID-19 Respiratory Disease</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: LYT-100;   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   PureTech;   Clinipace Worldwide;   Novotech (Australia) Pty Limited<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>Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial 4 (ACTT-4)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Baricitinib;   Drug: Dexamethasone;   Other: Placebo;   Drug: Remdesivir<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)<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>Vitamin D and Zinc Supplementation for Improving Treatment Outcomes Among COVID-19 Patients in India</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Dietary Supplement: Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol);   Dietary Supplement: Zinc (zinc gluconate);   Dietary Supplement: Zinc (zinc gluconate) &amp; Vitamin D (cholecalciferol);   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Harvard School of Public Health;   Foundation for Medical Research;   University Health Network, Toronto<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>WHO COVID-19 Solidarity Trial for COVID-19 Treatments</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Remdesivir;   Drug: Acalabrutinib;   Drug: Interferon beta-1a;   Other: Standard of Care<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   The University of The West Indies<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>COVID-19 Thrombosis Prevention Trials: Post-hospital Thromboprophylaxis</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Apixaban 2.5 MG;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Thomas Ortel, M.D., Ph.D.;   National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)<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>Efficacy and Safety of Ovotransferrin in COVID-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Dietary Supplement: Ovotransferrin<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Policlinico Paolo Giaccone Palermo<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>Using Travelan to Boost Immune Response in Vitro to COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: Travelan OTC<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Hadassah Medical Organization<br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Single-Arm Safety and Feasibility Study of Defibrotide for the Treatment of Severe COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: Defibrotide<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Brigham and Women’s Hospital;   Jazz Pharmaceuticals<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Efficacy and Safety of SCTA01 in Hospitalized Patients With Severe COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: SCTA01;   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Sinocelltech Ltd.<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>Evolutionary and structural analysis of SARS-CoV-2 specific evasion of host immunity</strong> - The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is spreading fast worldwide. There is a pressing need to understand how the virus counteracts host innate immune responses. Deleterious clinical manifestations of coronaviruses have been associated with virus-induced direct dysregulation of innate immune responses occurring via viral macrodomains located within nonstructural protein-3 (Nsp3). However, no substantial…</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>Primidone blocks RIPK1-driven cell death and inflammation</strong> - The receptor-interacting serine/threonine protein kinase 1 (RIPK1) is a key mediator of regulated cell death and inflammation. Recent studies suggest that RIPK1 inhibition would fundamentally improve the therapy of RIPK1-dependent organ damage in stroke, myocardial infarction, kidney failure, and systemic inflammatory response syndrome. Additionally, it could ameliorate or prevent multi-organ failure induced by cytokine release in the context of hyperinflammation, as seen in COVID-19 patients….</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Non-Coding RNAs and SARS-Related Coronaviruses</strong> - The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 in 2019 has caused a major health and economic crisis around the globe. Gaining knowledge about its attributes and interactions with human host cells is crucial. Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) are involved in the host cells’ innate antiviral immune response. In RNA interference, microRNAs (miRNAs) may bind to complementary sequences of the viral RNA strand, forming an miRNA-induced silencing complex, which destroys the viral RNA, thereby inhibiting viral protein 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>Effects of Nitrite and Far-red Light on Coagulation</strong> - Nitric oxide, NO, has been explored as a therapeutic agent to treat thrombosis. In particular, NO has potential in treating mechanical device-associated thrombosis due to its ability to reduce platelet activation and due to the central role of platelet activation and adhesion in device thrombosis. Nitrite is a unique NO donor that reduces platelet activation in that it’s activity requires the presence of red blood cells whereas NO activity of other NO donors is blunted by red blood cells….</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>Investigation of beta-lactoglobulin derived bioactive peptides against SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19): in silico analysis</strong> - The coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which started in late 2019 in Wuhan, China spread to the whole world in a short period of time, and thousands of people have died due to this epidemic. Although scientists have been searching for methods to manage SARS-CoV-2, there is no specific medication against COVID-19 as of yet. Two main approaches should be followed in the treatment of SARS-CoV-2; one of which is to…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Anxiety responses to the unfolding COVID-19 crisis: Patterns of change in the experience of prolonged exposure to stressors</strong> - An immense amount of work has investigated how adverse situations affect anxiety using chronic (i.e., average) or episodic conceptualizations. However, less attention has been paid to circumstances that unfold continuously over time, inhibiting theoretical testing and leading to possible erroneous conclusions about how stressors are dynamically appraised across time. Because stressor novelty, predictability, and patterns are central components of appraisal theories, we use the COVID-19 crisis as…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Opposing activities of IFITM proteins in SARS-CoV-2 infection</strong> - Interferon-induced transmembrane proteins (IFITMs) restrict infections by many viruses, but a subset of IFITMs enhance infections by specific coronaviruses through currently unknown mechanisms. We show that SARS-CoV-2 Spike-pseudotyped virus and genuine SARS-CoV-2 infections are generally restricted by human and mouse IFITM1, IFITM2, and IFITM3, using gain- and loss-of-function approaches. Mechanistically, SARS-CoV-2 restriction occurred independently of IFITM3 S-palmitoylation, indicating a…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Could Artesunate Have a Positive Effect on the Neurological Complications Related to Infection When It Is Used in the Treatment of COVID-19?</strong> - Artesunate is a safe noncytotoxic drug with low side effects which is used in the treatment of chloroquine-resistant malaria. In addition to being an antimalarial drug, artesunate also has immunomodulatory, anticarcinogenic, and antiviral activity. There are in vivo and in vitro studies reporting that artesunate may have a positive effect on the treatment of COVID-19. Artesunate may be effective based on its effect on the anti-inflammatory activity, chloroquine-like endocytosis inhibition…</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 monoclonal antibody against staphylococcal enterotoxin B superantigen inhibits SARS-CoV-2 entry in vitro</strong> - We recently discovered a superantigen-like motif, similar to Staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB), near the S1/S2 cleavage site of SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein, which might explain the multisystem-inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C) observed in children and cytokine storm in severe COVID-19 patients. We show here that an anti-SEB monoclonal antibody (mAb), 6D3, can bind this viral motif, and in particular its PRRA insert, to inhibit infection by blocking the access of host cell proteases, TMPRSS2 or furin,…</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 Neutralizing Antibody-Conjugated Photothermal Nanoparticle Captures and Inactivates SARS-CoV-2</strong> - The outbreak of 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has resulted in a global pandemic. Despite intensive research including several clinical trials, currently there are no completely safe or effective therapeutics to cure the disease. Here we report a strategy incorporating neutralizing antibodies conjugated on the surface of a photothermal nanoparticle to actively capture and inactivate SARS-CoV-2. The photothermal…</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>Ipomoeassin-F inhibits the in vitro biogenesis of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and its host cell membrane receptor</strong> - In order to produce proteins essential for their propagation, many pathogenic human viruses, including SARS-CoV-2 the causative agent of COVID-19 respiratory disease, commandeer host biosynthetic machineries and mechanisms. Three major structural proteins, the spike, envelope and membrane proteins, are amongst several SARS-CoV-2 components synthesised at the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) of infected human cells prior to the assembly of new viral particles. Hence, the inhibition of membrane protein…</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>Research progress in nervous system damage caused by SARS-CoV-2</strong> - The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has become a major outbreak in the world. SARS-CoV-2 infection can not only involve in the respiratory system, but also cause severe nervous system damage. Studies have shown that SRAS-CoV-2 can invade the nervous system through hematogenous and transneuronal pathways, and may cause nervous system damage in patients with COVID-19 by inhibiting cellular immunity, hypoxemia, inflammation,…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The viral protein NSP1 acts as a ribosome gatekeeper for shutting down host translation and fostering SARS-CoV-2 translation</strong> - SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is responsible for Covid-19 pandemic. In the early phase of infection, the single-strand positive RNA genome is translated into non-structural proteins (NSP). One of the first proteins produced during viral infection, NSP1, binds to the host ribosome and blocks the mRNA entry channel. This triggers translation inhibition of cellular translation. In spite of the presence of NSP1 on the ribosome, viral translation proceeds however. The molecular mechanism of the so-called…</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>Recovering coronavirus from large volumes of water</strong> - The need for monitoring tools to better control the ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is extremely urgent and the contamination of water resources by excreted viral particles poses alarming questions to be answered. As a first step to overcome technical limitations in monitoring SARS-CoV-2 along the water cycle, we assessed the analytical performance of a dead end hollow fiber ultrafiltration coupled to different options for secondary concentrations to concentrate viral particles…</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>Remdesivir (GS-5734) in COVID-19 Therapy: The Fourth Chance</strong> - CONCLUSION: In this mini-review, we provide an overview of remdesivir’s journey, mechanism of action, pharmacokinetics, used in patients with COVID-19 under compassionate use principle and clinical trials to understand the effect of remdesivir in the treatment of patients with COVID-19.</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</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>AN EFFICIENT METHODOLOGY TO MANAGE THE ADMISSIONS IN HOSPITALS DURING THE PANDEMICS SUCH AS COVID 19</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>Antiinfektive Arzneiform zur Herstellung einer Nasenspülung gegen COVID-19</strong> -</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
</p><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Einzeldosierte, wasserlösliche oder wassermischbare Arzneiform, umfassend mindestens einen antiinfektiven Arzneistoff, zur Herstellung einer Nasenspülung und/oder zur Verwendung in der lokalen Behandlung des menschlichen Nasenraums.</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></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>Antiinfektive Arzneiform zur Herstellung einer Nasenspülung gegen COVID-19</strong> -</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
</p><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Einzeldosierte, wasserlösliche oder wassermischbare Arzneiform, umfassend mindestens einen antiinfektiven Arzneistoff, zur Herstellung einer Nasenspülung und/oder zur Verwendung in der lokalen Behandlung des menschlichen Nasenraums.</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></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 medicine for treating coronavirus-2 infection</strong> - The invention discloses a medicine for treating coronavirus-2 infection. The invention finds that T cells in COVID-19 patients is reduced and depleted finally, indicating that cytokines such as IL-10, IL-6, TNF-a may directly mediate reduction of T cells. Therefore, ICU patients need new treatment measures, and may even high-risk patients with low T cells count require early preventive treatment.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>疫情趋势预测方法、装置、电子设备及存储介质</strong> - 本申请实施例提供了一种疫情趋势预测方法、装置、电子设备及存储介质，应用于医疗科技领域，该电子设备包括处理器和存储器，存储器用于存储计算机程序，计算机程序包括程序指令，处理器被配置用于调用程序指令，执行以下步骤：获取目标地区的疫情序列数据；根据疫情序列数据构建疫情序列数据对应的目标特征矩阵；调用预训练的时间序列模型以根据目标特征矩阵进行疫情趋势预测，得到第一疫情趋势预测结果，第一疫情趋势预测结果包括预测的第二预设日期范围内各日期的新增病例的数量和/或新增死亡的人数。采用本申请，可以结合多维度特征来进行疫情趋势预测，可参考性更高。本申请涉及区块链技术，如可将第一疫情趋势预测结果写入区块链中。</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>SARS-CoV-2 예방을 위한 mRNA기반 항원보강제 혼합물 합성 방법</strong> - 본 발명은 SARS-CoV-2(코로나 바이러스) 예방을 위한 mRNA 항원보강제에 관한 것으로 코로나 바이러스에 대한 백신으로서 상기의 항원에 대한 예방을 목적으로 하고 있다. 아이디어에는 보강제에 해당하는 완전프로인트항원보강제(CFA)와 불완전프로인트항원보강제(IFA), 번역과 안정성의 최적화가 된 mRNA, mRNA 운반체, 양이온성 지질 나노입자(lipid nanoparticles)로 구성되며 기존의 백신에 비해 효율성과 안정성의 측면에서 더 향상된 효과를 가지고 있다.</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 PRIMER COMBINATION FOR DETECTING 2019NCOV BY LOOP-MEDIATED ISOTHERMAL AMPLIFICATION</strong> - The invention provides a primer combination for detecting 2019nCoV by loop mediated isothermal amplification. The primer combination comprises a forward external primer NCP-F3-2 shown in SEQ ID NO.1, a reverse external primer NCP-B3 2 shown in SEQ ID NO.2, a forward inner primer NCP-FIP-2 shown in SEQ ID NO.3, a reverse inner primer NCP-BIP-2 shown in SEQ ID NO.4 and a loop primer NCP-LB 2 shown in SEQ ID No.5. The method has the advantages of short detection time, high sensitivity and strong specificity for 2019nCoV, and the detection result can be observed by naked eyes, thereby greatly improving the detection efficiency of 2019nCoV.</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>Mittel zur Stärkung der Abwehrkräfte und Erhöhung der Immunität</strong> -</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
</p><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Mittel zur Stärkung der Abwehrkräfte und Erhöhung der Immunität, insbesondere gegen eine Covid19-Infektion aufgrund des Sars-CoV-2-Virus, mit folgender Wirkstoffkombination:</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Plasma oder Serum, gewonnen aus dem Blut eines an Covid19 erkrankten und genesenen Menschens oder Tieres,</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">zumindest einem zugelassenen Medikament oder einer Kombination von zugelassenen Medikamenten und</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">zugelassenen Vitaminen und Mineralstoffe.</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></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>Vorrichtung zum Reinigen und/oder Desinfizieren von Objekten</strong> -</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
</p><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Vorrichtung (1) zum Desinfizieren von Objekten mit einer Basiseinheit (2), mit einem Aufnahmebehälter (4) für Wasser, welcher an der Basiseinheit (2) montierbar und von der Basiseinheit demontierbar ist, mit einer Objekthalterung (6) zum Halten und/oder Stützen der Objekte (10), wobei diese Objekthalterung (6) in dem Aufnahmebehälter montierbar ist und mit einer elektrisch betriebenen Reinigungseinrichtung (8), welche in dem Wasser befindliche Objekte zumindest mittelbar reinigt oder desinfiziert, wobei diese Reinigungseinrichtung in der Basiseinheit befindliche Erzeugungsmittel zum Erzeugen einer elektrischen Spannung aufweist sowie einen Plasmagenerator und/oder eine Ultraschallerzeugungseinheit.</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Methods for treating Arenaviridae and Coronaviridae virus infections</strong> - Provided are methods for treating Arenaviridae and Coronaviridae virus infections by administering nucleosides and prodrugs thereof, of Formula I:</li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">wherein the ’ position of the nucleoside sugar is substituted. The compounds, compositions, and methods provided are particularly useful for the treatment of Lassa virus and Junin virus infections.</p>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Biggest Challenge Facing Joe Biden’s New Economic Team</strong> - The President-elect’s advisers are keenly aware that many of the Administration’s policy proposals will likely have to go through, or around, Mitch McConnell. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-biggest-challenge-facing-joe-bidens-new-economic-team">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Duelling Realities of the Coronavirus in Russia</strong> - People have learned to live with the pandemic, though not necessarily with all of its precautions and limitations. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-duelling-realities-of-the-coronavirus-in-russia">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Using the Homeless to Guard Empty Houses</strong> - As the pandemic makes an already terrible housing crisis worse, a new version of house-sitting signals a broken real-estate market. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/12/07/using-the-homeless-to-guard-empty-houses">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Atul Gawande on Coronavirus Vaccines and Prospects for Ending the Pandemic</strong> - The New Yorker staff writer, now a member of President-elect Biden’s COVID-19 advisory board, discusses when a vaccine might be ready for distribution, who should receive it, and whether eradicating the virus is possible. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-new-yorker-interview/atul-gawande-on-coronavirus-vaccines-and-prospects-for-ending-the-pandemic">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How the Fight Against COVID-19 Is Bringing About a Perilous Rise in Preventable Diseases in Poorer Nations</strong> - For many of the world’s poorest children, the death and devastation have only begun. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/how-the-fight-against-covid-19-is-bringing-about-a-perilous-rise-in-preventable-diseases-in-poorer-nations">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Mysterious monoliths are appearing across the world. Here’s what we know.</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/dKlPi99GHLQ3TJKfVyCKsLy_sak=/0x133:1066x933/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/68456275/monolith.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
The Utah monolith appeared with no warning. | Utah Department of Public Safety
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
We don’t know where the mysterious monoliths come from. But we do know they’re art.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="d5KvCR">
Into the fiery, plague-ridden nightmare-scape of 2020, like a gift from some benevolent higher being, has come a source of true wonder and delight: the wandering monoliths of Utah, Romania, and California.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yIFSVi">
The monoliths are long vertical slabs of metal, each 10 to 12 feet tall. They appear with no warning and disappear just as quickly: First, one in the Utah desert, which emerged on November 18 and vanished on November 27. Second, one outside the Romanian city of Piatra Neamt, which appeared on November 27 and disappeared on December 2. And most recently, one at the top of Pine Mountain in Atascadero, California, which appeared on December 2 and was taken down on December 3.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="29yofO">
They look like alien artifacts. In part, that’s because they are heavily reminiscent of the monoliths of Stanley Kubrick’s sci-fi classic <em>2001: A Space Odyssey</em>, where vast black monoliths are deposited by aliens to guide human beings from one stage of evolution to the next.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4R6Tel">
Kubrick or no Kubrick, all three of these real-life monoliths are eerie, solitary objects. No one knows whether another will suddenly appear, or whether it, too, will vanish into the night.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qVwFw1">
We know very little about these monoliths at all, in fact, and that seems to be part of their point. They are a beautifully inexplicable phenomenon, and proof that the world still contains marvels.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JqwDDl">
Here’s what we do know about the monoliths — and why we keep talking about them.
</p>
<h3 id="j6bYbD">
A monolith timeline
</h3>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/TGlmz2bGQveDcv8caUsJ5BdAdL8=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22144679/headshots_1607096517981.jpg"/> <cite>Luke Phillips/Twitter; Utah Department of Public Safety; Andrei Carabelea/Facebook</cite>
<figcaption>
From left: The California monolith, the Utah monolith, and the Romanian monolith.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kUMhnA">
The first monolith was discovered in November in a remote desert canyon in Utah’s Red Rock Country. A helicopter crew counting bighorn sheep noticed<strong> </strong>a flash of metal looming up from the ground and flew down to investigate, and there it was: deeply embedded in the red rock of the canyon floor, an enormous smooth metal triangular prism, just standing there.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VSrYZW">
“What the heck is that?” one of the workers mutters in a <a href="https://dpsnews.utah.gov/dps-aero-bureau-encounters-monolith-in-red-rock-country/">video released by the Utah Department of Public safety</a>. “Okay, the intrepid explorers go down to investigate the alien life form,” another cracks.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BfVnaI">
The canyon is remote and inaccessible without a helicopter, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/24/us/Utah-monolith-red-rock-country.html?searchResultPosition=2">Utah’s Division of Wildlife Services told the New York Times</a>. “It’s a tough place to get to on vehicle and on foot,” a spokesperson said. Officials for the Department of Public Safety added that they had no idea how long the monolith had been there, although <a href="https://www.indy100.com/offbeat/utah-monolith-sculpture-google-maps-b1763902">Reddit sleuths used Google Maps Earth View</a> to work out that it was installed sometime between August 2015 and October 2016.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VAtXYs">
The Utah Department of Public Safety <a href="https://www.facebook.com/UtahHighwayPatrol/posts/3659293077455981">announced the “unusual find” on Facebook</a>, with a cheeky alien emoji appended, and the story took off inexorably from there. A mysterious artifact that is an art project but also maybe from aliens, discovered out of nowhere in the middle of the desert, here in the grinding misery of a plague year — what’s not to love about that?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CxNLsb">
Plenty, argued BASE jumper Andy L. Lewis and adventure guide Sylvan Christensen, <a href="https://gritdaily.com/utah-monolith-removed/">who filmed themselves removing the monolith from the desert on November 27</a>. They say they did so for environmental reasons. “This land wasn’t physically prepared for the population shift,” <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CIQ-CErDstp/?utm_source=ig_embed">they declared in a joint statement</a>. The statement goes on to say that the rapid descent of masses of monolith-gawkers into the pristine desert landscape, with no infrastructure set up to support them, caused permanent damage to the delicate ecosystem.
</p>
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CIQ-CErDstp/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">A post shared by Sylvan Christensen (<span class="citation" data-cites="sylvanslacks">@sylvanslacks</span>)</a>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="w8Gpw0">
“Let’s be clear: The dismantling of the Utah Monolith is tragic — and if you think we’re proud— we’re not,” they wrote. “We’re disappointed. Furthermore, we were too late.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W5EbeX">
But the very day the Utah monolith would disappear, a new monolith surfaced. On November 27, <a href="https://www.ziarpiatraneamt.ro/alta-ciudatenie-a-anului-2020-monolit-metalic-aparut-in-mod-misterios-pe-platoul-de-la-batca-doamnei">Romanian newspapers reported finding another monolith</a> outside the city of Piatra Neamt, on the plateau of Bâtca Doamnei, near an archaeological site.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="c8V66c">
Like the Utah monolith, the Romanian monolith is a vast triangular prism, 10 to 12 feet tall. But where the Utah monolith had a flat, reflective surface, the Romanian monolith is covered in looping lines, and there’s a welded seam near its base.
</p>
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Universul a ales: Zilele acestea orașul nostru este din nou în atenția lumii, și de data aceasta nu e nimic de…
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Posted by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/1703771913236960">Andrei Carabelea</a> on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/A.Carabelea/photos/a.1783845818562902/2817142501899890/?type=3">Saturday, November 28, 2020</a>
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/A.Carabelea/photos/a.1783845818562902/2817142501899890">In a statement published to Facebook</a>, Piatra Neamt Mayor Andrei Carabelea quipped, “My guess is that some alien, cheeky and terrible teenagers left home with their parents’ UFO and started planting metal monoliths around the world. First in Utah and then at Piatra Neamt. I am honored that they chose our city.” (<a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/monolith-romania-utah-batca-doamnei-hill-b1764327.html">The English translation is courtesy of the Independent</a>.)
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9dg5t4">
But unlike Lewis and Christensen, Carabelea did not seem to harbor any worries about what monolith-based tourism would do to the natural landscape of the area. On the contrary; he said he hopes the monolith will attract more tourists.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VNvS7e">
But four days after it arrived, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-romania-monolith-idUKKBN28B4UB">the Romanian monolith vanished overnight</a>. Its disappearance so far remains a mystery.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pcYNn7">
And on the same day the Romanian monolith vanished, a new monolith appeared in California, at the top of a mountain off a hiking path. <a href="https://atascaderonews.com/news/mystery-obelisk-appears-on-pine-mountain/">According to local news reports</a>, the California monolith is another triangular prism, 10 feet tall and about 18 inches wide: around the same height as the Utah and Romanian monoliths, but a little narrower. Like the Utah monolith, it has a smooth surface. It appears to be made out of stainless steel. Unlike the Utah monolith, it hasn’t been embedded into the ground. A hard push could topple it over.
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BREAKING NEWS <br/><br/>There is currently a monolith at the top of Pine Mountain in Atascadero!!<br/><br/>(Photos by <a href="https://twitter.com/Atownreporter?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"><span class="citation" data-cites="Atownreporter">@Atownreporter</span></a>) <a href="https://t.co/0vPhEWYkeY">pic.twitter.com/0vPhEWYkeY</a>
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— Connor Allen (<span class="citation" data-cites="ConnorCAllen">@ConnorCAllen</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/ConnorCAllen/status/1334255906305921026?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 2, 2020</a>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1yGTNM">
On December 3, it got that push. A group of young men who apparently drove five hours from San Luis Obispo County <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/qjpjk7/mysterious-monolith-update-racists-destroy-california-monolith-proclaim-christs-superiority-to-space-aliens">livestreamed themselves destroying the monolith on the blockchain site DLive</a>. Dressed in camo gear, night-vision goggles, and Trump paraphernalia, the group chanted “America First” and “Christ is king” as they rocked the monolith back and forth.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1Z6B9X">
“Christ is king in this country. We don’t want illegal aliens from Mexico or outer space,” a man in the video says. “So let’s tear this bitch down.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yHAcnJ">
Once they’d brought the monolith to the ground, they put up a wooden cross in its place, and then dragged the monolith down the mountain. “It was fine, because it was funny,” a man says toward the end of the stream.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tilRn3">
The wooden cross, too, has now been taken down.
</p>
<h3 id="qR3Xr6">
There are a lot of theories about the monoliths. Here are the big ones.
</h3>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/qBtiIQR2igGp3kffjXm3naYSlh0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/7597163/episode_01_1920.jpg"/> <cite>HBO</cite>
<figcaption>
HBO’s <em>Westworld</em> shoots on a desert landscape remarkably similar to the landscape where the Utah monolith was found.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aLXJBN">
So where are all these monoliths coming from?
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qcA8Kv">
It’s not clear that they’re all from the same source. The building style and materials used vary sharply between locations, and a possible explanation would be that the Romanian and Californian monoliths are the work of copycats following in the example of whoever made the Utah monolith.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VeYkKv">
Are they some sort of cynical guerrilla ad campaign? Considering that the Utah monolith dates back to 2015, that seems unlikely: It would be a hell of a slow burn of a marketing push.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lZLKmx">
<a href="https://gizmodo.com/utahs-mystery-monolith-appeared-around-2016-near-site-o-1845753839">One popular theory</a> notes that the Utah monolith site is close to some of the 2015 shooting locations for the HBO drama <a href="https://www.vox.com/westworld"><em>Westworld</em></a>, and suggests that it might be a leftover prop, or a prank by a member of the <em>Westworld</em> crew.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xl7iVN">
Another theory suggests that the monoliths are an anonymous art installation or series of installations, created either by the same team or by an original artist in Utah and then copycats.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7skVvf">
And in that case, the most pressing question becomes: Who is the artist?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sVm524">
A strong early contender was the minimalist sculptor John McCracken, who died in 2011. McCracken’s signature works were his “planks”: freestanding slabs of metal he would lean against a wall. McCracken himself used to say <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/11/arts/design/john-mccracken-sculptor-of-geometric-forms-dies-at-76.html">he believed his planks influenced the designer of the monoliths in <em>2001: A Space Odyssey</em></a>. He believed in aliens, and he wanted his work to resemble alien artifacts. “Even before I did concerted studies of U.F.O.s,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/11/arts/design/john-mccracken-sculptor-of-geometric-forms-dies-at-76.html">he once said</a>, “it helped me maintain my focus to think I was trying to do the kind of work that could have been brought here by a U.F.O.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MEgbEZ">
Art Newspaper noted shortly after the Utah monolith appeared that <a href="https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/sent-from-above-mysterious-monolith-discovered-in-the-utah-desert">it bore a striking resemblance to one of McCracken’s planks</a>. And McCracken’s son Patrick McCracken <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/27/arts/design/john-mccracken-utah-monolith.html">told the New York Times</a> that his father had once envisioned setting up art installations in remote places for viewers to stumble upon in the wild.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NT6Vsl">
“He was inspired by the idea of alien visitors leaving objects that resembled his work, or that his work resembled,” Patrick said. “This discovery of a monolith piece — that’s very much in line with his artistic vision.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="isyc5s">
Finally, David Zwirner, owner of the David Zwirner Gallery, which represents McCracken’s estate, told the New York Times he believed the Utah monolith to be a genuine McCracken. Everything seemed to be lining up to indicate that John McCracken sculpted the Utah monolith, at the very least, and maybe the Romanian monolith, too, and left secret instructions to a team to reveal them after his death.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3zOlTA">
But the tide has turned against the McCracken theory. Upon reviewing photos of the Utah monolith more closely, Zwirner has retracted his original statement to the Times and concluded that McCracken, who preferred to make his sculptures by hand, would not have built the machine-made Utah monolith.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PR5wCG">
“I love the idea of this being John’s work, but when you look closely at the photos of the Utah monolith, you will see rivets and screws that are not consistent with how John wanted his work to be constructed. He was a perfectionist,” Zwirner said in an emailed statement to Vox. “While I know that this is not John’s work, I also know that he would have enjoyed the Utah location and would have greatly appreciated the mystery surrounding this work. We all think it is a wonderful homage.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fkcg03">
Evidence seems to be mounting now that the monoliths are the work of one or more artists heavily inspired by the work of John McCracken. But who could the mystery artist(s) be?
</p>
<h3 id="4JW9jv">
The monoliths might be the work of an art wizard. If not, it is still fun to think about art wizardry.
</h3>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Zardulu with beaver and prosthetic leg" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ZkpkqootflYUo78lUaHESwNOI54=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/8156041/Zardulu_beaver_leg_2.jpg"/> <cite>Zardulu</cite>
<figcaption>
The art wizard Zardulu.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FpVFUt">
The performance artist <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/4/24/14912316/zardulu-viral-videos-mythmaking-surrealism-pedro-lasch">Zardulu</a> describes herself as a wizard, and her work as modern mythmaking. Zardulu likes to stage stunts and happenings that seem to exist right at the edge of our sense of what is plausible, and that then take off as viral news stories: <a href="http://gothamist.com/2015/11/08/video_man_claims_he_caught_three-ey.php">a three-eyed fish in the Gowanus Canal</a>; <a href="http://www.wftv.com/news/local/man-snaps-unique-picture-raccoon-top-gator-ocala-n/69362565">a raccoon riding an alligator in Florida</a>. She’s also claimed credit for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPXUG8q4jKU">New York’s iconic Pizza Rat</a>. She has a savvy sense of what a watching news audience is likely to find overwhelmingly delightful, and her goal is to weave unexpected pockets of wonder and delight into the fabric of everyday life.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rvaBVB">
“I take my fantasy and present it as reality to an unknowing audience,” <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/4/24/14912316/zardulu-viral-videos-mythmaking-surrealism-pedro-lasch">she told me when I interviewed her in 2017</a>. “Thus creating a true surreality.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cuQKBI">
I DMed Zardulu on Twitter to get her take on the monoliths, because she seemed likely to have thoughts on how they function as modern myths.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lWkKGN">
“I think they’ll find that the Utah one was installed at the height of my productivity, in late 2015,” she wrote back immediately. She added, “If you look back, you’ll notice we talked a lot about my work in Romania, Bulgaria and Macedonia.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yXD43R">
I asked her if she was taking credit for the monoliths.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3mIfkT">
“No,” she said. Shortly afterward, she elaborated, “Most of my projects aren’t intended to have an immediate effect. I often leave things as objects to be found. Sometimes it’s faux documentation in the research section of a library, sometimes it’s an installation waiting for an unknowing audience. Sometimes that takes days, sometimes it takes five years.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="37YjEb">
It is in a sense Zardulu’s life’s work to plant false stories in the press, so I would take the suggestion that she is responsible for the monoliths with a hefty heaping of salt. Nonetheless, it remains true that Zardulu was extremely active in 2015 (that was the Pizza Rat year), and that Reddit sleuths seem to have dated the monolith’s arrival in Utah to sometime between April 2015 and October 2016.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cvAGTl">
It is also true that in 2017, Zardulu sent me a link to a story about <a href="http://mkd-news.com/makedonija-zemja-na-vrkolatsi-vistina-ili-bugarska-propaganda/">the discovery of a werewolf-like skull</a> in Macedonia with the note, “Was just reminiscing about my trip to Eastern Europe ;)” (The skull was a coyote, she says.)
</p>
<h3 id="ZCnzBA">
The monoliths might not be intentional art. They still matter.
</h3>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/iYTklH_LFBee67dV6zN0z1bkYIo=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22144712/1024289484.jpg"/> <cite>Adam Gray/Barcroft Media via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Like the monoliths, Robert Smithson’s “Spiral Jetty” incorporates a surrounding natural landscape into a work of art. Great Salt Lake, Utah, August 2018.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1dWUD7">
Regardless of who created and installed the monoliths and why, they matter now. They’ve reiterated themselves across our landscape like a living meme. They are all over the internet. They are a myth. They are maybe, no matter who made them, art.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="v4ZXpD">
“The phenomenon of public interest in the object is more important to me than whether we call it art or not,” says Pedro Lasch, an artist, Duke professor, and creator of the public art course <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588&amp;xs=1&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.coursera.org%2Flearn%2Fpublic-art-pedagogy&amp;referrer=vox.com&amp;sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Fculture%2F22062796%2Fmonoliths-utah-california-romania" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">ART of the MOOC: Public Art &amp; Pedagogy</a>. “People can end up going down a rabbit hole in these discussions of whether something is art or not, but ultimately I think they can distract us from a conversation about why we find something so fascinating.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6WJwZz">
Lasch notes that the monoliths reiterate many existing tropes in both minimalism and land art, especially the work of Robert Smithson, who incorporated natural landscapes into works like “<a href="https://www.diaart.org/visit/visit-our-locations-sites/robert-smithson-spiral-jetty">Spiral Jetty</a>” and who was fascinated by aliens and science fiction. The design and characteristics of the monoliths aren’t particularly new, he says — but the way they have traveled across social media suggests they speak to this moment.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="C2wQ0s">
“Part of me wonders whether it’s related to how desperately we need social media and news that have nothing to do with the drastic state of our political affairs,” he says. “And minimalism and a shiny metal surface is as far as it gets.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sk30AC">
The monoliths may or may not be genuine Zardulu works, but they strike me as Zardulist in spirit as much as they are clearly inspired by both McCracken and Smithson: a piece of something otherworldly and strange, dropped into this exhausting and mundane world. Something to take us out of our day-to-day lives in a year defined by quarantine and strife, and into a realm where eerie and uncanny things can happen without explanation. Something we can use to think through our largest preoccupations — what we’re doing to the environment, how we welcome immigrants, or whether we are alone in the universe.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="umxRoQ">
The monoliths are works of art doing the purest thing that art can do, which is to push us beyond the boundaries of our selves.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BxUGyR">
Or maybe it was aliens!
</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>The pandemic was great for Zoom. What happens when there’s a vaccine?</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/YnrhBh_GoJav9JI6zSXgQumLPn0=/0x65:4499x3439/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/68456121/1262107527.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
After a year of Zoom weddings — even in Vegas — what’s next for the video conferencing company? (Above, an Elvis impersonator appears over Zoom at a vow renewal ceremony in Las Vegas in July.) | Ethan Miller/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A look at what’s in store for Zoom in a post-pandemic world.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FzUaAn">
If 2020 was the year Zoom rode the pandemic to skyrocketing success, 2021 could be the year the video conferencing company comes back down to Earth.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vY4fTi">
Zoom started trading on the stock market in April 2019. At the time, it was known for being a rarity: a newly public tech company that actually turned a profit. One year later, the world was on lockdown for the coronavirus pandemic, and Zoom went from being a niche business software popular among tech companies to the way people did just about everything.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wn2amN">
Not only did that mean a sharp rise in Zoom meetings for the millions newly working from home, but also Zoom birthdays and baby showers for everyone else. For many, it became an indispensable lifeline to the outside world, with a free option that limited calls to 40 minutes and an unlimited paid option that enabled people to do many of the things they used to do in person. As people joked at the time: Having a corporate Zoom account was the new having a car.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dFeiTg">
It was one of several video conferencing options already out there, but it captured the public imagination and market share more than most. Zoom became a verb. The reason? It just worked.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TZBeT2">
Zoom has grown years in just months. At this time last year, Zoom had on average 10 million daily meeting participants. It now has 350 million. Zoom was the <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2020/12/02/zoom-apple-top-iphone-ipad-app-2020/3785601001/">most-downloaded</a> iPhone and iPad app of the year, beating perennial favorites like Instagram and YouTube. The company’s revenue is four times what it was in 2019.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="L3Ljq9">
Now, as we close in on two years since Zoom’s public debut, numerous headwinds make the company’s future less certain. Giant software companies like Microsoft, Cisco, and Google have mostly caught up on video chat technology, offering vastly better products than they did before Zoom entered the scene. What’s more, businesses that are cutting costs amid a recession are less amenable to additional spending on software when they can lean on the contracts they already have. Microsoft Teams, which has a Zoom-like video conferencing feature, is essentially free for companies paying for Microsoft’s Office suite. Slack, another best-of-breed workplace app that was <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/salesforce-confirms-deal-to-buy-slack-for-27-7-billion-11606857925">acquired by Salesforce this week</a>, also comes with a video component.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gLi90M">
Perhaps most pressing, with multiple viable coronavirus vaccines likely to start distribution, we might not need to video chat so much next year. Zoom’s stock <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/09/zoom-and-other-stay-at-home-stocks-are-getting-crushed-on-the-positive-vaccine-news.html">dropped nearly 20 percent</a> in November after the news that Pfizer’s vaccine was highly effective in late-stage trials. It’s still up nearly 500 percent from this time last year, and Zoom has <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/30/21750431/zoom-q3-fy2021-earnings-quadruple-revenue-pandemic-video-calling">more than quadrupled sales</a> year over year.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ShXsav">
Zoom, for its part, says it welcomes a vaccine, despite the stock dips.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HzeRn5">
“Hopefully we provide a good enough service — and it’s my true intention that we provide a good enough service — that people want to use us, calamity or not,” Aparna Bawa, Zoom’s chief operating officer, told Recode.
</p>
<h3 id="qIdcqz">
Zoom’s customer base is in transition
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qR644q">
Just nine years ago, disaffected Webex engineer Eric Yuan left Cisco to found Zoom. Now, Zoom is not only more popular than Webex, a video conferencing service that’s been around since the 1990s, Zoom appears more popular than all of its competitors. But that enthusiasm among users hasn’t translated to sales at the same scale.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="J3W58k">
US traffic to Zoom’s website is nearly 30 times what it was in the beginning of the year, according to data from online analytics firm <a href="https://www.similarweb.com/">SimilarWeb</a>. In October, monthly visits to Zoom were three times higher than visits to Google’s Meet and Hangouts combined, according to the firm, which can’t track web visits to Microsoft Teams because it doesn’t have its own domain distinct from <a href="https://click.linksynergy.com/deeplink?id=nOD%2FrLJHOac&amp;mid=24542&amp;u1=vox&amp;murl=http%3A%2F%2Fmicrosoft.com" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">microsoft.com</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nRUBZX">
Zoom had double the number of app downloads in October as Google Hangouts, and four times as many as Microsoft Teams or Google Meet. But Zoom downloads have slowed from highs earlier in the pandemic.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nTGdOu">
“Customers are still using the platform, you’re just not seeing the volume of new customers coming on as it was in the past six months,” Charlie Rogers, a software research analyst at 7Park Data, told Recode. “A lot of customers who would buy Zoom have already got it.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wJfdFI">
In other words, Zoom might be nearing market saturation because so many people already have an account.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Z5x8oy">
And being popular with the masses doesn’t necessarily lead to more income, especially since Zoom has a popular free tier with a 40-minute call limit as well as <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588&amp;xs=1&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fzoom.us%2Feducation&amp;referrer=vox.com&amp;sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Frecode%2F21726260%2Fzoom-microsoft-teams-video-conferencing-post-pandemic-coronavirus" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">free unlimited usage for students K-12</a>. Corporate users are more likely to have the paid version — and they’re less likely to turn off their service, when, say, a vaccine makes it possible to meet people in person.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/KdQkYKxO9yN7F8gak2ABhb9fTUI=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22144673/1288087928.jpg"/> <cite>Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Even Santa is on Zoom. (Above, Santa Claus and his elf Pipkin talk to children on Zoom on November 27 in Newquay, England, for a hospital event.)
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JWDs32">
Zoom’s largest revenue segment — 62 percent — comes from companies with more than 10 employees, but customers with 10 or fewer employees are growing much faster, making up 38 percent of the company’s revenue, up from 20 percent at the end of last year. That segment of customers has grown as more individuals have adopted the paid service, but it’s also a more volatile segment, because smaller customers can switch to a service offered by one of Zoom’s competitors more easily.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ixqqa6">
Last quarter, 18 percent of total revenue came from customers spending $100,000 or more, down from 33 percent at the end of last year.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sw4IHU">
“The real jewel isn’t about consumer or SMBs [small and medium-sized businesses], the real gold is to win enterprise,” Ryan Koontz, senior research analyst at Rosenblatt Securities, told Recode. That’s because each contract means numerous paid licenses within an organization as well as longer-term subscriptions. As Koontz put it, for enterprises, “The cost of change is very high.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mWzDgT">
Put differently, Zoom competitors with an existing enterprise customer base have an advantage because those customers are more likely to stick with the same provider.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RiTjqA">
About half of companies surveyed by <a href="https://etr.plus/">Enterprise Technology Research</a> (ETR) have Zoom while 75 percent currently have Teams (many companies pay for multiple software subscriptions). Thirty percent have Cisco’s Webex, after a recent decline.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eLyezM">
These numbers are still up for both products, since the pandemic began. And when narrowing the data to bigger Fortune 500 companies, the market share for Teams and Webex rose this quarter, while Zoom’s declined.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HxLSOi">
Additionally, many companies that have Zoom are spending less on it. Microsoft Teams is the main reason company chief information officers cited for leaving or spending less with Zoom, according to ETR. (A number of CIOs cited security as another reason for leaving the service.) Many of those companies already pay for Microsoft’s Office 365, which has business staples like Excel and Word. Included in the cost of the software suite is access to Microsoft Teams and its video conferencing features, making Teams a no-brainer for companies trying to cut costs.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0HbphP">
This is an argument Zoom is used to.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FiLPqm">
“When Eric [Yuan] founded this company, video conferencing was then thought of as a saturated market. There were lots of very large legacy providers including Microsoft that continued to bundle different services,” Bawa said. “And Zoom still has done pretty darn well.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XSqHTh">
Zoom still has plenty of enterprise users, and it’s also popular among small businesses. While this smaller, fast-growing segment isn’t as profitable as big companies, these customers are still important for Zoom’s future.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wGI1kb">
“Don’t underestimate the number of small- and medium-sized businesses,” Wayne Kurtzman, research director of social and collaboration at market research firm IDC, said. “The market has room for multiple leaders.”
</p>
<h3 id="mNcuZv">
The video conference feature war
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pxLcC1">
While Zoom earned popularity because of its dependability and ease-of-use, its competitors have gotten a lot better in these respects by simplifying their services and bulking up the quality of their video calls. Now, the baseline service that Zoom and its competitors offer is pretty similar. They all have video conferences that are pretty easy to join, work pretty well, and are pretty secure. So all these companies are currently fighting to differentiate themselves with new and better products.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2Yrno4">
This year, Zoom had to fix security concerns to bring its service more in line with its competitors. A series of high-profile security mishaps — including Zoombombing, a <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/8/20687014/zoom-security-flaw-video-conference-websites-hijack-mac-cameras">vulnerability that let websites hijack Mac cameras</a>, and Zoom routing calls through China — eventually led Zoom to bulk up its security. In addition to fixing the issues that led to the mishaps, Zoom hired former Facebook security executive Alex Stamos as an outside consultant and began <a href="https://investors.zoom.us/news-releases/news-release-details/zoom-launches-end-end-encryption-free-and-paid-users-globally">offering end-to-end encryption</a> in October.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aYzp3X">
“Zoom is catching up at a really quick rate to those like Teams and Webex,” Frank Dickson, program vice president within IDC’s cybersecurity products research practice, told Recode.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="f0lj0h">
Bawa said Zoom’s enterprise customers are a testament to the bolstered security.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rcvcUB">
“The validation is that we have a significant number of our large enterprise customers that go through multiple rounds of security review in financial services, in the government sector, defense — you name it — retail, et cetera,” Bawa said. “And we have passed them and continue flourishing in those accounts, expanding our footprint.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5ddJpv">
So now, the competitive battleground for video conferencing software is all about new features. Both Microsoft Teams and Cisco’s Webex have added at least 100 new features since the pandemic. They’ve added noise cancellation software to deal with the sounds of working from home: babies crying, dogs barking, neighbors mowing their lawns. They also started offering live transcription. Microsoft also introduced Together Mode, which places conference attendees against a shared digital background to give them the feeling of being in the same room. To accommodate its governmental customers, Webex even added a new feature that allows legislators to emulate voting on laws.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wRpMM0">
“A direct outcome of the pandemic was, hey, our innovation velocity has to increase because this has become a far more strategic technology today than it was five years ago,” Jeetu Patel, senior vice president of security and apps at Webex, told Recode.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cutLSz">
Meanwhile, Facebook realized early in the pandemic that people were using its Portal video chat service more for group events than one-on-one conversations, so it made that easier with link sharing and call scheduling.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XrYLmz">
All of the platforms have enabled fun backgrounds and Snapchat-like augmented reality filters.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CVr51t">
In addition to many of the same features as its competitors, Zoom has been rolling out new potential revenue streams. After launching <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588&amp;xs=1&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fzoom.us%2Fzoomrooms&amp;referrer=vox.com&amp;sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Frecode%2F21726260%2Fzoom-microsoft-teams-video-conferencing-post-pandemic-coronavirus" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Zoom Rooms</a> and <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588&amp;xs=1&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fzoom.us%2Fphonesystem&amp;referrer=vox.com&amp;sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Frecode%2F21726260%2Fzoom-microsoft-teams-video-conferencing-post-pandemic-coronavirus" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Zoom Phone</a> last year, Zoom also announced more new products in October: OnZoom, a video events platform that will allow people to sell tickets, and Zoom Apps, which lets people navigate to other workplace apps like Dropbox and Slack within Zoom. Zoom sees these new products as common-sense additions to its core tool, which it says could still get better.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TD3gza">
But taken together, all of these moves could be a sign of weakness.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gAqATc">
“Anytime an enterprise tech company that’s a one-trick pony announces new product, it’s because the current product is maxed out,” said market researcher Thomas DelVecchio.
</p>
<h3 id="NowWL5">
What comes after a vaccine
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="s2UXDH">
The end of the pandemic does not signify the end of video calls. It will certainly mean less video usage, but video will likely forevermore be a component of meetings, if not a dire necessity.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qFXaZ7">
After the pandemic, the <a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2020-07-14-gartner-survey-reveals-82-percent-of-company-leaders-plan-to-allow-employees-to-work-remotely-some-of-the-time">vast majority</a> of office employers plan to use on a <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/21515690/work-from-home-office-coronavirus-covid">hybrid work model</a>, wherein some of their workforce works remotely at least some of the time. As large as it was this year — $7.9 billion — the video conferencing market is expected to grow next year to an estimated $9.7 billion with 90 percent of North American businesses likely to spend more on it, according to IDC.
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<aside id="MSDhir">
<q>“Video conferencing in seven years will seem unrecognizable”</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="C5M1qE">
The video conferencing companies, in turn, are all looking forward to a time when meetings will happen naturally in person <em>and</em><strong> </strong>remotely. They’ll also have to make it natural for those physically present to communicate effectively with their remote counterparts, without one feeling disadvantaged. Inevitably, video calls need to be more useful.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6Hlqbn">
“It needs to be more than a meeting,” said IDC’s Kurtzman. “It needs to add more value.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="thLHSv">
That will include using augmented reality to make meetings more engaging and viewing data together as a group more useful. It will also require setting up video calls to become even simpler and more seamless than they are now.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KbVKCn">
“Video conferencing in seven years will seem unrecognizable from the video conferencing we have today,” Kurtzman said. “The features and ways of engaging many people would classify as science fiction today.”
</p>
<aside id="aFSgOa">
<div>
</div>
</aside>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LcFHHZ">
Companies are approaching the future from varying angles. Going forward, Microsoft is investing heavily in features that contribute to employees’ sense of wellbeing, as their research shows working during the pandemic has had deleterious effects on employees, including an increased number of meetings and longer hours. Cisco is soon launching a feature meant to guarantee that everyone in a meeting feels they can participate, by allotting each participant time to speak in which the others are muted. Facebook expects video to become an additive element to regular life.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hEg1mE">
“I can see every wedding happening going forward having a Portal device in the front row,” Micah Collins, director of product management for Facebook’s Portal, said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tfoSF1">
And now that these legacy software companies are paying such close attention to the video conference space, it will be difficult for Zoom to keep up and continue to differentiate itself. Its founder has suggested that Zoom could be the center of a more human communications system.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MKkOsm">
“Eric at one point said, ‘I want you to be able to reach through Zoom and shake someone’s hand or give each other a hug over Zoom,’” Bawa said. “We view ourselves as the conduit to providing human to human connection in any context in a very intimate and personal way.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lz4v5f">
If Zoom can pull it off, that could be the difference between a company on the rise and one crashing back to Earth.
</p></li>
<li><strong>The scariest thing about global warming (and Covid-19)</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/tS8nzi1U_Rp9a1UGeJy9-VlpYI0=/167x0:2834x2000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/67025403/australia_fires_002.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
The afternoon sky glows red from bushfires <a class="ql-link" href="https://www.vox.com/2020/1/15/21065557/australia-fires-climate-change-weather-extreme-heat-drought-flood" target="_blank">exacerbated by climate change</a> near Nowra in the Australian state of New South Wales on December 31, 2019. | Saeed Khan/AFP via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Shifting baselines syndrome” means we could quickly get used to climate chaos.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yGW2xF">
On Thursday, <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2020-12-03/us-records-highest-daily-coronavirus-death-toll-yet-as-it-tops-14-million-cases">2,800 Americans died from Covid-19</a>. That is more than died on September 11, 2001 in a horrific attack that sparked a national convulsion and two wars that are still ongoing.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hWCEOc">
If an accident or attack had violently killed this many US citizens in January of this year, there would have been a reckoning, a demand that authorities bring the full might of the country to bear on finding and addressing the causes. It would have been experienced as an unbearable collective tragedy. The names of the dead would have been carved into a new national monument.
</p>
<aside id="JJVbV3">
<div>
</div>
</aside>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0BUmRc">
But that’s not what happened. Instead, infections started slowly and grew. There was no line crossed, no sudden trauma that shook us awake, just a creeping death toll spread out over to which we have been incrementally adjusting for nine months.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UNvLgD">
But now there’s a 9/11 happening every day, and there’s still no real national mobilization. We can’t even get everyone to wear masks. <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/11/23/938096720/millions-of-americans-traveling-for-thanksgiving-ignoring-cdc-advice">Millions of people</a> traveled for the Thanksgiving holidays, despite expert warnings that the Covid surge is ongoing.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iLhEQR">
Because the virus crept up on us, we adjusted to it, like we’re adjusting to climate change, like we adjust to everything. It’s called “shifting baselines syndrome” and it’s the theme of a piece I first published back in July. It is, unfortunately, at relevant as ever.
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="DAHISe"/>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Uw3Myd">
For as long as I’ve followed global warming, advocates and activists have shared a certain faith: When the impacts get really bad, people will act.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3JZVRr">
Maybe it will be an especially destructive hurricane, heat wave, or flood. Maybe it will be multiple disasters at once. But at some point, the severity of the problem will become self-evident, sweeping away any remaining doubt or hesitation and prompting a wave of action.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aEO4m8">
From this perspective, the scary possibility is that the moment of reckoning will come too late. There’s a time lag in climate change — the effects being felt now trace back to gases emitted decades ago. By the time things get bad enough, many further devastating and irreversible changes will already be “baked in” by past emissions. We might not wake up in time.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8pLN8O">
That is indeed a scary possibility. But there is a scarier possibility, in many ways more plausible: We never really wake up at all.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iMn50j">
No moment of reckoning arrives. The atmosphere becomes progressively more unstable, but it never does so fast enough, dramatically enough, to command the sustained attention of any particular generation of human beings. Instead, it is treated as rising background noise.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="le0UOJ">
The youth climate movement continues agitating, some of the more progressive countries are roused to (<a href="https://climatestrategies.wordpress.com/2020/06/11/even-climate-progressive-nations-fall-far-short-of-adopting-paris-compliant-pathways/">inadequate</a>) action, and eventually, all political parties are forced to at least acknowledge the problem — all outcomes that are foreseeable on our current trajectory — but the necessary global about-face never comes. We continue to take slow, inadequate steps to address the problem and suffer immeasurably as a result.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/H27vpLw18tt_WHUHhI7jNZFzI_A=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/20070433/GettyImages_1224910344.jpg"/> <cite>NurPhoto via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
A Palestinian girl fills plastic bottles with drinking water from a public tap during a heat wave in Gaza City on July 6, 2020.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W6J2dv">
David Wallace-Wells, author of the popular and terrifying climate change book <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588&amp;xs=1&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.penguinrandomhouse.com%2Fbooks%2F586541%2Fthe-uninhabitable-earth-by-david-wallace-wells%2F&amp;referrer=vox.com&amp;sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Fenergy-and-environment%2F2020%2F7%2F7%2F21311027%2Fcovid-19-climate-change-global-warming-shifting-baselines" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em>The Uninhabitable Earth</em></a>, discussed this possibility in <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/12/new-south-wales-fires-in-australia-the-worlds-response.html">a New York Magazine piece</a> written during the <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2020/1/8/21055228/australia-fires-map-animals-koalas-wildlife-smoke-donate">apocalyptic fires</a> late last year in Australia. One might have thought that fires consuming hundreds of millions of acres and killing more than a billion animals would be a wake-up call, but instead, Wallace-Wells writes, “a climate disaster of unimaginable horror has been unfolding for almost two full months, and the rest of the world is hardly paying attention.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Af4QBf">
Maybe climate chaos, a rising chorus of alarm signals from around the world, will simply become our new normal. Hell, maybe income inequality, political dysfunction, and successive waves of a deadly virus will become our new normal. Maybe we’ll just get used to [waves hands] all this.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pLp6ty">
Humans often don’t remember what we’ve lost or demand that it be restored. Rather, we adjust to what we’ve got.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uyLXOT">
Concepts developed in sociology and psychology can help us understand why it happens — and why it is such a danger in an age of accelerating, interlocking crises. Tackling climate change, pandemics, or any of a range of modern global problems means keeping our attention on what’s being lost, not just over our lifetimes, but over generations.
</p>
<h3 id="STPToa">
Shifting baselines are a form of generational amnesia
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jAm6SA">
In 1995, fisheries scientist Daniel Pauly published a one-page article in the journal <em>Trends in Ecology &amp; Evolution</em> titled <a href="http://legacy.seaaroundus.s3.amazonaws.com/doc/Researcher+Publications/dpauly/PDF/1995/Journal+Articles/Anecdotes%26ShiftingBaselineSyndromeFisheries.pdf">“Anecdotes and the shifting baseline syndrome in fisheries.”</a> It contained no original experiments, no numbers or equations, but it went on to be the most cited and widely discussed thing he ever wrote.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tUyW0f">
Pauly had something particular in mind about the transition from pre-scientific (anecdotal) to scientific data, but the conceptual architecture of shifting baselines also proved to be incredibly fruitful in other contexts and went on to be “<a href="https://jenniferjacquet.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/jacksonjacquet.pdf">revolutionary for the field of ecology</a>,” write Jeremy Jackson (an emeritus professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography) and Jennifer Jacquet (an environmental studies professor at New York University). The notion was later introduced to the public by filmmaker Randy Olsen in a <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-nov-17-op-olson17-story.html">2002 LA Times piece</a> and has since become a subject of much popular discussion.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JpVlbX">
So what are shifting baselines? Consider a species of fish that is fished to extinction in a region over, say, 100 years. A given generation of fishers becomes conscious of the fish at a particular level of abundance. When those fishers retire, the level is lower. To the generation that enters after them, that diminished level is the new normal, the new baseline. They rarely know the baseline used by the previous generation; it holds little emotional salience relative to their personal experience.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nBT78i">
And so it goes, each new generation shifting the baseline downward. By the end, the fishers are operating in a radically degraded ecosystem, but it does not seem that way to them, because their baselines were set at an already low level.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="s1KVJs">
Over time, the fish goes extinct — an enormous, tragic loss — but no fisher experiences the full transition from abundance to desolation. No generation experiences the totality of the loss. It is doled out in portions, over time, no portion quite large enough to spur preventative action. By the time the fish go extinct, the fishers barely notice, because they no longer valued the fish anyway.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="u3Pfvt">
“An animal that is very abundant, before it gets extinct, it becomes rare,” says Pauly in his <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_pauly_the_ocean_s_shifting_baseline#t-522416">TED talk</a> on shifting baselines. “So you don’t lose abundant animals. You always lose rare animals. And therefore, they’re not perceived as a big loss.”
</p>
<div id="na3JNz">
<div style="width: 100%; height: 0; padding-bottom: 56.25%;">
</div>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HEeYUD">
The same phenomenon is sometimes called “generational amnesia,” the tendency of each generation to disregard what has come before and benchmark its own experience of nature as normal.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xaUXyd">
A <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1755-263X.2009.00049.x">2009 study from researchers at the Imperial College London</a> examined a series of case studies, from “hunters’ perceptions of change in prey species populations in two villages in central Gabon” to “perceptions of bird population trends of 50 participants in a rural village in Yorkshire, UK.” Sure enough, they found evidence of generational amnesia, “where knowledge extinction occurs because younger generations are not aware of past biological conditions.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zT4eTy">
It’s easy to see the same thing happening on a larger scale with climate change. Few people are aware, in a conscious way, of how many hot summer days were normal for their parents’ or grandparents’ generation. Recent research shows that “extremely hot summers” are <a href="http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2020/20200706_ShiftingBellCurvesUpdated.pdf">200 times more likely than they were 50 years ago</a>. Did you know that? Do you feel it?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2rg97V">
It’s not just intergenerationally that we forget, either. The Imperial College researchers also demonstrated the existence of another form of shifting baselines syndrome: personal amnesia, “where knowledge extinction occurs as individuals forget their own experience.”
</p>
<h3 id="YQeNGv">
Just as generations forget about ecological loss, so do individuals
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7vlmnU">
It turns out that, over the course of their lives, individuals do just what generations do — periodically reset and readjust to new baselines.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="P5SWV2">
“There is a tremendous amount of research showing that we tend to adapt to circumstances if they are constant over time, even if they are gradually worsening,” says George Loewenstein, a professor of economics and psychology at Carnegie Mellon. He cites the London Blitz (during World War II, when bombs were falling on London for months on end) and the intifada (the Palestinian terror campaign in Israel), during which people slowly adjusted to unthinkable circumstances.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SRA8rd">
“Fear tends to diminish over time when a risk remains constant,” he says, “You can only respond for so long. After a while, it recedes to the background, seemingly no matter how bad it is.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="71PlW0">
He notes that big events, or “teachable moments,” can momentarily shock us into willingness to make big changes, but “a teachable moment is only a moment,” he says. “Once the fear is gone, the willingness to take measures is also gone.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TjAYTP">
Even those big personal moments fade quickly. One of the most robust findings in modern psychology — <a href="http://www.danielgilbert.com/Gilbert%20et%20al%20%28IMMUNE%20NEGLECT%29.pdf">made famous by Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert</a> — is that we have an incredibly robust “psychological immune system.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AJKveN">
We tend to dramatically overestimate the effect that large events, good or bad, will have on our happiness. We think the death of a family member will make us enduringly less happy, or winning the lottery will make us enduringly happier. In fact, what psychologists find again and again is that we quickly return to our personal happiness equilibrium. A soldier who loses a leg and a soldier who returns home safe to a new baby will generally, a year or two later, be roughly as happy as they were before those events. It’s called “<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0047272708000066?casa_token=Quxr_W3KHqoAAAAA:w6faVU3UrqTBHa5xAr4ZgTvbZKq9EmyqCQcvtz3EeRGTX5b-sPnOz1D-3HAVtB9yaXraz00#!">hedonic adaptation</a>.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1wFag4">
Just as we adjust emotionally, we adjust cognitively. We forget what came before; we simply don’t think about it. For the most part, only our recent experience is salient in defining our baselines, our sense of normal.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="XKCD" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/kQHtFYlW3OO6veB9h-zy5zP_LQw=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/20067539/cold.png"/> <cite><a class="ql-link" href="https://xkcd.com/1321/" target="_blank">XKCD</a></cite>
<figcaption>
XKCD on shifting baselines.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NKJX5C">
The process of forgetting, of resetting, is almost impossible to resist, even for those acutely aware of it. In 2013, author JB MacKinnon released a book called <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B0SCFG8/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&amp;btkr=1" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em>The Once and Future World</em></a>, about the extinction crisis and the abundant natural world that Americans are barely aware is draining away.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hPUcix">
“Even though I spent several years writing a book about things disappearing from the natural world,” MacKinnon says, “I can’t hold it in my head. I have to go back and reread it in order to refresh my eyes so that when I go out into the natural world, I think, ‘there are things missing here’. Otherwise, I’m just gonna go, ‘What a beautiful day’.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ongfmh">
“I mean, who remembers what the price of coffee was 10 years ago?” he asks.
</p>
<h3 id="v6EMWr">
Humans view the world through the lens of recent experience
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4v69R4">
UC-Davis environmental economist Frances Moore thought of a clever way to test this phenomenon of short-term salience in the context of weather.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uSQvJs">
How many times must unusual temperatures be repeated before they cease to be experienced by individuals as unusual? How fast do unusual temperatures become unremarkable? To find out, Moore and colleagues turned to Twitter. In a <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/116/11/4905">study published last year</a>, they analyzed Twitter’s massive US database to correlate unusual heat or cold events with chatter about the weather. In this way, they tried to track the “remarkability” of temperature anomalies.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bkmn7x">
“Something crazy happens, and then the same crazy thing happens the next year, and people are able to realize, ‘Oh, it’s two crazy things’,” Moore says. “Then it starts happening again, and people start to think, ‘I guess this isn’t so notable anymore.” Accordingly, tweets about the weather decline.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aNJwZ2">
How quickly does the effect take hold? “The reference point for normal conditions appears to be based on weather experienced between 2 and 8 years ago,” the study concluded.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gvgGhO">
“It’s a powerful phenomenon, this normalization or <a href="https://www.behavioraleconomics.com/resources/mini-encyclopedia-of-be/reference-dependence/">reference-dependent utility</a>,” Moore says. “It’s not super-rational behavior.”
</p>
<aside id="NNK16q">
<div>
</div>
</aside>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Zg3WAH">
The study’s conclusion about what this portends for climate change is unsettling: “This rapidly shifting normal baseline means warming noticed by the general public may not be clearly distinguishable from zero over the 21st century.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WQCw1S">
Let that sink in. Even though atmospheric temperatures are, on a geological time scale, changing at a headlong pace, on a <em>human</em> time scale, they are still changing too slowly to be perceptually or emotionally salient. Put more bluntly: The public may never notice that it’s getting warmer.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cGm0AU">
Research based on social media in a single country has obvious limitations, and Moore is reticent to speculate about how long the window of salience might be for other kinds of weather, or in other places.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UHzv4c">
But it stands to reason that something like the same window applies to other natural or even social phenomena. It may be just as likely that the public never notices the increasing intensity of storms or frequency of flooding or regularity of crop failures. However rapidly those phenomena might change, they rarely change fast enough to be dramatically different from conditions two to eight years ago.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uYIBmo">
The window of experience that humans find emotionally and cognitively salient is simply too narrow to take in long-term changes in ecological systems. What was unthinkable to previous generations — say, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2019/08/08/analysis-sea-level-rise-is-combining-with-other-factors-regularly-flood-miami/">regular nuisance flooding in southern Florida</a> — is normal now. What seems unthinkable to us now — say, stay-at-home orders in large swathes of the US Southwest for several weeks a year due to dangerous heat — will be, by the time it rolls around, not that much worse than what came just before it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yusQUB">
We adjust; we can’t help it. If we wait for ecological change to thrust itself into the consciousness of ordinary Americans, we may be waiting forever.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Global Warming, Full Moon, High Tide Cause Flooding In Miami Beach" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/igHPZ1kdFEe_ixjWqWgcv41VZ1w=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/20070311/490535380.jpg.jpg"/> <cite>Joe Raedle/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Walking through a daylight flood in Miami Beach, Florida, on September 29, 2015.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h3 id="u4lI07">
Shifting baselines apply to several other social problems
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uTARiB">
Once you start thinking in terms of shifting baselines, you start seeing them everywhere, not just in ecology.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CT6ETx">
What is the unending <a href="https://www.vox.com/2017/12/21/16806676/strikethrough-how-trump-overton-window-extreme-normal">debate over the “normalization” of Trump</a> but a debate over shifting baselines? President Trump has degraded and discarded longstanding norms of presidential behavior with astonishing speed and recklessness, but it has proven incredibly difficult for the press and the public to assess his record based on pre-Trump baselines. This is why people are always asking, “What if Obama did this?” They are trying to ask, “Why have we shifted our moral and political baselines so quickly?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zaptBR">
Similarly, the US is busy normalizing the grim reality that college graduates will enter a world of high debt, expensive housing, and parlous job prospects. The post-war expectation of a middle-class life with a family-supporting job and a reliable pension might as well be ancient history.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IUZqwP">
Shifting baselines are evident in the steady erosion of unions, the militarization of police, and the infusion of US politics with dark money. They are even evident, as we’ll discuss in a moment, in our experience with Covid-19.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rLhAIy">
For the generation of Americans coming of age today, Trump, gridlocked politics, and a rapidly warming planet have become normal. Can the incoming Biden administration convince them that they should expect, and demand, something better?
</p>
<h3 id="cGqrco">
How to fight shifting baselines and personal amnesia
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BOCcVm">
The human propensity to rapidly adapt is part of our evolved cognitive and emotional machinery. But our ability to heed and remember the past is also shaped by culture.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="drqudL">
“I looked at Native Hawaiian culture,” MacKinnon says. “They had individuals within communities who were assigned to have a social relationship with species that were never even given names in English.” North America’s indigenous cultures still carry an enormous amount of accumulated knowledge that can help reveal what’s been lost.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jxEpNq">
That kind of historical consciousness — a day-to-day awareness of the obligations that come with being a good ancestor — has faded. And modern consumer capitalism might as well be designed to erase it, to lock everyone into an eternal present wherein satisfying the next material desire is the only horizon.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cQQ3xA">
One answer is for journalism and the arts to pull the lens back and try to recenter a richer historical perspective. One ambitious effort to do that is journalist John Sutter’s <a href="https://www.baselinefilm.com/">Baseline 2020</a> project. He and his team have picked four locations around the world that are particularly vulnerable to climate change — Alaska, Utah, Puerto Rico, and the Marshall Islands — and will visit them every five years until 2050, documenting the changes facing the people who live there. (It is modeled on director <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Up-Seven-Plus-21-28/dp/B0002S64SC" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Michael Apted’s “Up” documentaries</a>, which check in on the same group of Brits every seven years.)
</p>
<div id="uWhPId">
<div style="width: 100%; height: 0; padding-bottom: 56.25%;">
</div>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PurbPh">
“Change is invisible in any one moment,” Sutter says. He notes that scientists often do studies that last for years or decades, but “that longitudinal approach just doesn’t happen in journalism.” Taking the long view is one way to make changing conditions salient and emotionally impactful.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MCu7Te">
In a similar spirit, artist Jonathon Keats has designed a special camera to take a 1,000-year exposure of Lake Tahoe. He <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/43ee9m/this-camera-will-take-a-1000-year-photo-to-document-climate-change?utm_source=vicefbuk">calls it</a> a “sort of cognitive prosthesis, a mechanism for us to be able to see ourselves from that far-future perspective.” The <a href="http://longnow.org/">Long Now Foundation</a>, established by Stewart Brand in 1996, has been hosting seminars to spur long-term thinking for decades.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H7ToNT">
“Culture will hang on to knowledge of things that are changing or gone longer,” MacKinnon says, “if those things are the kinds of things that they pay attention to.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VfGNrm">
It’s not just about documenting decline, either. There have been long-term victories, too — reductions in poverty, increases in the number of educated young girls, declines in air pollution, and so forth. These also happen incrementally, often beneath our notice. We adjust our baselines upward and do not register what, over time, can be substantial victories. Making those victories more visible can help show that decline is not inevitable.
</p>
<h3 id="yRIxfb">
There is no substitute for leadership and responsive governance
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="X0ZZMi">
It can not ultimately fall to ordinary people to hold baselines stable. On these matters, as on much else, they take their cues from their leaders. Studying and understanding the long arc of history, considering the experience of previous generations and the welfare of coming generations, making decisions with the long view — those are things leaders are supposed to do.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wcSdck">
The most reliable way to stop baselines from shifting is to encode the public’s values and aspirations into law and practice, through politics. They can’t be held steady through acts of collective will. They have to be hardwired into social infrastructure.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="txm9aE">
Unfortunately, US politics has become almost completely unresponsive, which reinforces rather than ameliorates our slipping baselines. One crucial part of registering a crisis as a crisis is a sense of agency, and Americans increasingly feel that they have no ability to shape national policy.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="42EYYs">
Negative changes “are normalized more quickly if you feel like there’s nothing you can do about it,” says Moore. “That might be what’s going on with the coronavirus — people don’t feel like they have agency on a collective level, because the government is not doing anything, so their response is to say, ‘well, I gotta live my life’.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="M7tf7M">
On top of that, it’s just tiring to feel anxious for so long. “The combination of adaptation and fatigue is absolutely deadly in terms of our ability to respond to the virus at this point,” says Loewenstein.
</p>
<div id="6OOgZy">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
“White House officials also hope Americans will grow numb to the escalating death toll and learn to accept tens of thousands of new cases a day, according to three people familiar with the White House’s thinking” <a href="https://t.co/mqD6oB1reE">https://t.co/mqD6oB1reE</a> <a href="https://t.co/J4nTAepM1M">pic.twitter.com/J4nTAepM1M</a>
</p>
— Mark Berman (<span class="citation" data-cites="markberman">@markberman</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/markberman/status/1280125225271734277?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 6, 2020</a>
</blockquote></div></li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eNFtGg">
What if Americans simply accommodate themselves to thousands of coronavirus deaths a day? As writer Charlie Warzel noted in a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/05/opinion/coronavirus-deaths.html">recent column</a>, it’s not that different from the numbness they now feel in the face of gun violence. “Unsure how — or perhaps unable — to process tragedy at scale,” he writes, “we get used to it.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9CUZwb">
Biodiversity loss, deforestation, and climate change may make pandemics <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/climate-infectious-diseases">more common</a>. It is not difficult to imagine Americans forgetting a time when mingling freely was taken for granted. When being in public did not mean constant low-level exposure anxiety. When there weren’t regular waves of infection and death.
</p>
<aside id="ptNxGn">
<div>
</div>
</aside>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AXdaCT">
“If we keep getting zoonotic disease pandemics, then we’ll just say, ‘well, here comes the winter one, catch you on Zoom until June’,” says MacKinnon. “Our baseline could shift to the point that we don’t remember there was a time when people went most of their lives without hearing the word <em>pandemic</em>.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8tA760">
Our extraordinary ability to adapt, to get on with it, to not dwell in the past, was enormously useful in our evolutionary history. But it is making it difficult for us to keep our attention focused on how much is being lost — and thus difficult for us to rally around efforts to stem those losses.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xn7wdT">
And so, little by little, a hotter, more chaotic, and more dangerous world is becoming normal to us, as we sleepwalk toward more tragedies.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yr0HzL">
</p>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>ISL | Chhetri seals it in BFC’s favour</strong> - Cashes in on a penalty to help his side beat Chennaiyin FC</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>Under-fire Zidane refuses to give up</strong> - Reports link Pochettino and Raul as his likely replacements</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>Olympics to cost extra $2.4 billion: organisers</strong> - The costs could rise further, with Tokyo 2020 saying it will release an additional $250 million in “contingency” funds to help cover the expenses.</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>Radhakrishnan is new National chief coach</strong> - “We are happy we will be able to maintain continuity of our planning since Radhakrishnan has been the deputy chief coach for seven years now,” said AFI president Adille Sumariwalla.</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>Not practical to ban switch-hit: Taufel</strong> - Former ICC Elite Panel umpire Simon Taufel feels it will not be practical to outlaw the switch-hit shot, adding that it’s “impossible” for the on-fiel</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>SC adjourns hearing of SNC Lavalin case to January 7</strong> - Solicitor General says the case required a detailed hearing and will require some time.</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>Another FIR lodged in U.P. under new unlawful conversion ordinance</strong> - Complainant in Mau accuses local man of abducting his daughter on the eve of her wedding</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>Polls will change course of State politics: Thushar</strong> - ‘Alliance with BDJS has helped BJP a lot’</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>Farm laws will destroy agriculture sector, says Haryana Congress chief</strong> - JJP delegation asks Haryana Home Minister to withdraw cases against farmers immediately.</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>Voters should sanitise hands before, after polling</strong> - No sale of liquor for 48 hours from Tuesday, on counting day</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>Denmark set to end all new oil and gas exploration</strong> - The European Union’s largest oil producer plans to stop extracting fossil fuels by 2050.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>French Thalys train attacker ‘tried to kill me three times’</strong> - American Spencer Stone tells a French court how he tackled the gunman on the Thalys train in 2015.</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>Germany to wipe Nazi traces from phonetic alphabet</strong> - The Nazis removed Jewish names from the German phonetic alphabet - now a reform is coming.</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>Brexit: Time running out as Brexit trade talks restart</strong> - The UK warns chances of a breakthrough are “receding”, as it negotiates with the EU over business rules.</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>Coronavirus: Irish shutdown eases with hospitality reopening</strong> - Restaurants, cafes and some pubs in the Republic of Ireland are opening after six weeks of lockdown.</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>Here’s what happens when a bee stings you directly in your eyeball</strong> - You think 2020 is pretty horrible, but it could always be worse. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1727462">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Google parts with top AI researcher after blocking paper, faces blowback</strong> - Timnit Gebru’s exit reignites debate over diversity and free speech at tech group. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1727632">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Rocket Report: Billionaire backs Scottish spaceport, Relativity bags a bundle</strong> - “Fatigue fracture surfaces were confirmed in the apertural area.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1727581">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Win laptops, smartwatches, and more in the 2020 Ars Technica Charity Drive</strong> - Help yourself to prizes by helping us raise money for good causes. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1725036">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Android apps with millions of downloads are vulnerable to serious attacks</strong> - Flaw allows malicious apps to steal credentials, private messages, and much more. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1727577">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 Chinese doctor cant find a job in a hospital in America, so he opens a clinic and puts a sign outside that reads “GET TREATMENT FOR $20 - IF NOT CURED GET BACK $100.”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
An American lawyer thinks this is a great opportunity to earn $100 and goes to the clinic.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Lawyer: “I have lost my sense of taste.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Chinese: “Nurse, bring medicine from box No. 14 and put 3 drops in patient’s mouth.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Lawyer: “Ugh. this is kerosene.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Chinese: “Congrats, your sense of taste is restored. Give me my $20.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The annoyed lawyer goes back after a few days to try to recover his money.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Lawyer: “I have lost my memory. I can’t remember anything.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Chinese: “Nurse, bring medicine from box no. 14 and put 3 drops in his mouth.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Lawyer (annoyed): “This is kerosene. You gave this to me last time for restoring my taste.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Chinese: “Congrats. You got your memory back. Give me $20.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The fuming lawyer pays him, then comes back a week later determined to get back $100.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Lawyer: “My eyesight has become very weak I cannot see at all.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Chinese: “Well, I don’t have any medicine for that, so take this $100.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Lawyer (staring at the note): “But this is $20, not $100!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Chinese: “Congrats, your eyesight is restored. Give me $20”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Ev0On"> /u/Ev0On </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/k6gl5l/a_chinese_doctor_cant_find_a_job_in_a_hospital_in/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/k6gl5l/a_chinese_doctor_cant_find_a_job_in_a_hospital_in/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>I asked my masseuse if it was normal to get an erection during my massage</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
He said it was perfectly normal. I said, “Ok, but could you at least stop bumping it into me?”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/windmillninja"> /u/windmillninja </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/k64l4v/i_asked_my_masseuse_if_it_was_normal_to_get_an/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/k64l4v/i_asked_my_masseuse_if_it_was_normal_to_get_an/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Old lady gets into a Merzedes-Benz taxi cab</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
As she hops in, the driver asks her where she’s going. She gives him an adress, as she’s just arrived to town to visit family.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
They keep going for a bit, when the old lady notices the very characteristic Mercedes-Benz ornament emblem mounted on the hood.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“So what is that thing for?” she asks the driver.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The driver sees this as a chance to prank the old woman for some laughs.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
-“That’s a sight that I had installed so I can aim my targets better” he answers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
-“What do you mean by <em>targets</em>?” she asks
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
-“Well, you see that cyclist over there cycling along the road? Well I hate those cyclists so I’m going to run over him!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
As the woman gasps, he proceeds to accelerate and drive directly towards the unaware cyclist, but in the last moment he turns the wheel to dodge the cyclist. But there’s a loud sound that surprises the driver.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“What was that sound??” he asks.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Well, you can say whatever you want about that fancy sight of yours, but if I hadn’t opened the car’s door, we wouldn’t have hit that goddamm cyclist!”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Basque_Pirate"> /u/Basque_Pirate </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/k6heqt/old_lady_gets_into_a_merzedesbenz_taxi_cab/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/k6heqt/old_lady_gets_into_a_merzedesbenz_taxi_cab/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Your mom is so slow</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
It took her nine months to make a joke
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Anal_beadsoup"> /u/Anal_beadsoup </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/k6kpya/your_mom_is_so_slow/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/k6kpya/your_mom_is_so_slow/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A woman goes into a pharmacy and asks for cyanide…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A woman goes into a pharmacy and asks for cyanide. The pharmacist is shocked and said “what do you need cyanide for?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“I plan to poison my husband”, she tells him. “I’m sorry, but there’s absolutely no way I can give you cyanide for that” the pharmacist says angrily.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The woman reaches into her purse and takes out a hidden camera photo of her own husband sleeping with the pharmacists wife.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Sorry, I didn’t realize you had a prescription”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/ImJokingNoImNot"> /u/ImJokingNoImNot </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/k6jhuf/a_woman_goes_into_a_pharmacy_and_asks_for_cyanide/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/k6jhuf/a_woman_goes_into_a_pharmacy_and_asks_for_cyanide/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
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@ -13,9 +13,9 @@ Archive | Daily Reports
<li> <a href="#covid-19">Covid-19</a>
</li></li></ul>
<h2 id="daily-dose">Daily Dose</h2>
<ul id="daily-dose-list"><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/03 December, 2020.html">03 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/02 December, 2020.html">02 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/01 December, 2020.html">01 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/30 November, 2020.html">30 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/29 November, 2020.html">29 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/28 November, 2020.html">28 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/27 November, 2020.html">27 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/26 November, 2020.html">26 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/25 November, 2020.html">25 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/24 November, 2020.html">24 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/23 November, 2020.html">23 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/22 November, 2020.html">22 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/21 November, 2020.html">21 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/20 November, 2020.html">20 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/19 November, 2020.html">19 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/18 November, 2020.html">18 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/17 November, 2020.html">17 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/16 November, 2020.html">16 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/15 November, 2020.html">15 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/14 November, 2020.html">14 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/13 November, 2020.html">13 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/12 November, 2020.html">12 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/11 November, 2020.html">11 November, 2020</a></li>
<ul id="daily-dose-list"><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/04 December, 2020.html">04 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/03 December, 2020.html">03 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/02 December, 2020.html">02 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/01 December, 2020.html">01 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/30 November, 2020.html">30 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/29 November, 2020.html">29 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/28 November, 2020.html">28 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/27 November, 2020.html">27 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/26 November, 2020.html">26 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/25 November, 2020.html">25 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/24 November, 2020.html">24 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/23 November, 2020.html">23 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/22 November, 2020.html">22 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/21 November, 2020.html">21 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/20 November, 2020.html">20 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/19 November, 2020.html">19 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/18 November, 2020.html">18 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/17 November, 2020.html">17 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/16 November, 2020.html">16 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/15 November, 2020.html">15 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/14 November, 2020.html">14 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/13 November, 2020.html">13 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/12 November, 2020.html">12 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-daily-dose/11 November, 2020.html">11 November, 2020</a></li>
</ul>
<h2 id="covid-19">Covid-19</h2>
<ul id="covid-19-list"><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/03 December, 2020.html">03 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/02 December, 2020.html">02 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/01 December, 2020.html">01 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/30 November, 2020.html">30 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/29 November, 2020.html">29 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/28 November, 2020.html">28 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/27 November, 2020.html">27 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/26 November, 2020.html">26 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/25 November, 2020.html">25 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/24 November, 2020.html">24 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/23 November, 2020.html">23 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/22 November, 2020.html">22 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/21 November, 2020.html">21 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/20 November, 2020.html">20 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/19 November, 2020.html">19 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/18 November, 2020.html">18 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/17 November, 2020.html">17 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/16 November, 2020.html">16 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/15 November, 2020.html">15 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/14 November, 2020.html">14 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/13 November, 2020.html">13 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/12 November, 2020.html">12 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/11 November, 2020.html">11 November, 2020</a></li>
<ul id="covid-19-list"><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/04 December, 2020.html">04 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/03 December, 2020.html">03 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/02 December, 2020.html">02 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/01 December, 2020.html">01 December, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/30 November, 2020.html">30 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/29 November, 2020.html">29 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/28 November, 2020.html">28 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/27 November, 2020.html">27 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/26 November, 2020.html">26 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/25 November, 2020.html">25 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/24 November, 2020.html">24 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/23 November, 2020.html">23 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/22 November, 2020.html">22 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/21 November, 2020.html">21 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/20 November, 2020.html">20 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/19 November, 2020.html">19 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/18 November, 2020.html">18 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/17 November, 2020.html">17 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/16 November, 2020.html">16 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/15 November, 2020.html">15 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/14 November, 2020.html">14 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/13 November, 2020.html">13 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/12 November, 2020.html">12 November, 2020</a></li><li><a href="./archive-covid-19/11 November, 2020.html">11 November, 2020</a></li>
</ul>
</body></html>