++ABSTRACT Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), due to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), has been associated with a worldwide pandemic, with the United States (US) having the largest total number of cases and deaths (>7 million and >200,000, respectively) at this time. We assessed data as of September 1, 2020 from our combined laboratories and as reported for selected states and countries for case, death, and testing rates per 1 million in the population. Our goal was to elucidate potential causes for the large rate differences observed. SARS-CoV-2 naso-pharyngeal (NP) RNA swab testing in 985,219 US subjects referred to our laboratories by healthcare providers revealed an overall 10.1% positive rate, comparable to the 7.3% rate reported nationwide. In a small subset of 91 subjects, all of whom had been positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA in NP swabs 2-4 weeks earlier, NP swab testing was twice as likely to be positive (58.6%) as saliva samples (21.5%), based on paired sampling. Our positive rates per state agreed reasonably well with reported Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data (r=0.609, P<0.0001) based on 19,898 cases, 593 deaths, and 271,637 tests, all per 1 million in the US population. Louisiana had the highest case rate; New Jersey had the highest death rate; and Rhode Island had the highest testing rate. Of 47 countries, including all countries with populations >50 million, Qatar had the highest case rate; Peru had the highest death rate; and Israel had the highest testing rate for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Correlations between case rates and death rates as well as testing rates were 0.473 and 0.398 for US states and 0.473 and 0.476 for the various countries, respectively (all P<0.0001). In conclusion, outpatient saliva testing is not as sensitive as NP testing for SARS-CoV-2 RNA detection. While testing is important, without adequate public health measures, it is unlikely that we will get this pandemic under adequate control until vaccines become available. +
++We propose a variational model for computing the temporal effective reproduction number, R(t), of SARS-CoV-2 from the daily count of incident cases and the serial interval. The R(t) estimate is made through the minimization of a functional that enforces: (i) the ability to reproduce the incidence curve from R(t) through a renewal equation, (ii) the regularity of R(t) and (iii) the adjustment of the initial value to an initial estimate of R0 obtained from the initial exponential growth of the epidemic. The model does not assume any statistical distribution for R(t) and does not require truncating the serial interval when its distribution contains negative days. A comparative study of the solution is carried out with the standard EpiEstim method. For a particular choice of the parameters of the variational model, a good agreement is found between the estimate provided by the variational model and an estimate obtained by EpiEstim shiftef backward more than 8 days. This backward shift suggests that our model finds values for R(t) that are more than 8 days closer to present. We also examine how to extrapolate R(t) and the form of the incidence curve i(t) in the short term. An implementation and comparison of both methods, applied every day on each country, is available at www.ipol.im/ern. +
++Background Corona virus disease (covid-19) is an emerging highly infectious disease caused by novel corona virus (SARS-CoV-2). Several public health and social protective measures that may prevent or slow down the transmission of the COVID-19 were introduced. However, these measures are unfortunately neglected or deliberately ignored by some individuals. Objective To identify the factors influencing intention to adhere to precautionary measures againstCOVID-19 in Sudan. Methods and Design Cross sectional online based survey using virtual convenience sampling technique. Variables Measured Perceived threat of corona virus (perceived severity and perceived susceptibility), perceived benefits, perceived barriers, self-efficacy and intention to adhere to precautionary behavior towards COVID-19 Results The significant predictors of intention to adhere to the precautionary behavior against COVID-19 were: gender (β =3.34, P <0.001), self-efficacy (β= 0.476, P<0.001), perceived benefits (β= 0.349, P<0.001) and perceived severity (β= 0.113, P=0.005). These factors explained 43% of the variance in participants intention to adhere to the protective measures. Participants who were female, confident in their ability to adhere to the protective measures when available, believing in the benefits of the protective measures against COVID-19 and perceiving that the disease could have serious consequences were more likely to be willing to adhere to the protective measures. Conclusion Health Belief model is a useful framework for addressing factors influencing intention to adhere to precautionary behavior during COVID pandemic. +
++College campuses are highly vulnerable to infectious disease outbreaks, and there is a pressing need to develop better strategies to mitigate their size and duration, particularly as educational institutions around the world reopen to in-person instruction in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Towards addressing this need, we applied a stochastic compartmental model to quantify the impact of university-level responses to past mumps outbreaks in college campuses and used it to determine which control interventions are most effective. Mumps is a very relevant disease in such settings, given its airborne mode of transmission, high infectivity, and recurrence of outbreaks despite availability of a vaccine. Our model aims to simultaneously overcome three crucial issues: stochastic variation in small populations, missing or unobserved case data, and changes in disease transmission rates post-intervention. We tested the model and assessed various interventions using data from the 2014 and 2016 mumps outbreaks at Ohio State University and Harvard University, respectively. Our results suggest that in order to decrease infectious disease incidence on their campuses, universities should apply diagnostic protocols that address false negatives from molecular tests, stricter quarantine policies, and effective awareness campaigns among their students and staff. Our model can be applied to data from other outbreaks in college campuses and similar small-population settings. +
++Efforts to suppress transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in the UK have seen non-pharmaceutical interventions being invoked. The most severe measures to date include all restaurants, pubs and cafes being ordered to close on 20th March, followed by a stay at home order on the 23rd March and the closure of all non-essential retail outlets for an indefinite period. Government agencies are presently analysing how best to develop an exit strategy from these measures and to determine how the epidemic may progress once measures are lifted. Mathematical models are currently providing short and long term forecasts regarding the future course of the COVID-19 outbreak in the UK to support evidence-based policymaking. We present a deterministic, age-structured transmission model that uses real-time data on confirmed cases requiring hospital care and mortality to provide up-to-date predictions on epidemic spread in ten regions of the UK. The model captures a range of age-dependent heterogeneities, reduced transmission from asymptomatic infections and produces a good fit to the key epidemic features over time. We simulated a suite of scenarios to assess the impact of differing approaches to relaxing social distancing measures from 7th May 2020 on the estimated number of patients requiring inpatient and critical care treatment, and deaths. With regard to future epidemic outcomes, we investigated the impact of reducing compliance, ongoing shielding of elder age groups, reapplying stringent social distancing measures using region based triggers and the role of asymptomatic transmission. We find that significant relaxation of social distancing measures from 7th May onwards can lead to a rapid resurgence of COVID-19 disease and the health system being quickly overwhelmed by a sizeable, second epidemic wave. In all considered age-shielding based strategies, we projected serious demand on critical care resources during the course of the pandemic. The reintroduction and release of strict measures on a regional basis, based on ICU bed occupancy, results in a long epidemic tail, until the second half of 2021, but ensures that the health service is protected by reintroducing social distancing measures for all individuals in a region when required. Our work confirms the effectiveness of stringent non-pharmaceutical measures in March 2020 to suppress the epidemic. It also provides strong evidence to support the need for a cautious, measured approach to relaxation of lockdown measures, to protect the most vulnerable members of society and support the health service through subduing demand on hospital beds, in particular bed occupancy in intensive care units. +
+Dendritic Cell Vaccine to Prevent COVID-19 - Condition: COVID-19
Intervention: Biological: AV-COVID-19
Sponsors: Indonesia-MoH; Aivita Biomedical, Inc.; PT AIVITA Biomedika Indonesia; National Institute of Health Research and Development, Ministry of Health Republic of Indonesia; RSUP Dr. Kariadi Semarang, indonesia; Faculty of Medicine University of Diponegoro, Indonesia
Recruiting
Effect of Dalcetrapib in Patients With Confirmed Mild to Moderate COVID-19 - Condition: Covid19
Interventions: Drug: Dalcetrapib; Other: Placebo
Sponsors: DalCor Pharmaceuticals; The Montreal Health Innovations Coordinating Center (MHICC); Covance
Not yet recruiting
suPAR-Guided Anakinra Treatment for Management of Severe Respiratory Failure by COVID-19 - Condition: Covid19
Interventions: Drug: Anakinra; Drug: Placebo
Sponsor: Hellenic Institute for the Study of Sepsis
Recruiting
Evaluating the Impact of EnteraGam In People With COVID-19 - Condition: Covid19
Interventions: Dietary Supplement: Bovine Plasma-Derived Immunoglobulin Concentrate; Other: Standard of care
Sponsors: Entera Health, Inc; Lemus Buhils, SL; Clinical Research Unit, IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute)
Not yet recruiting
Efficacy and Safety of Remdesivir and Tociluzumab for the Management of Severe COVID-19: A Randomized Controlled Trial - Conditions: Covid19; Covid-19 ARDS
Interventions: Drug: Remdesivir; Drug: Tocilizumab
Sponsors: M Abdur Rahim Medical College and Hospital; First affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaoting University
Recruiting
Inhaled Ivermectin and COVID-19 - Condition: COVID-19
Intervention: Drug: Ivermectin Powder
Sponsor: Mansoura University
Not yet recruiting
Effect of Tenofovir/Emtricitabine in Patients Recently Infected With SARS-COV2 (Covid-19) Discharged Home - Condition: Covid19
Intervention: Drug: tenofovir disoproxil and emtricitabine
Sponsor: University Hospital, Caen
Recruiting
Safety and Immunogenicity of Two Different Strengths of the Inactivated COVID 19 Vaccine ERUCOV-VAC - Condition: COVID-19 Vaccine
Interventions: Biological: ERUCOV-VAC; Other: Placebo Vaccine
Sponsors: Health Institutes of Turkey; TC Erciyes University
Recruiting
AZD1222 Vaccine in Combination With rAd26-S, Recombinant Adenovirus Type 26 Component of Gam-COVID-Vac Vaccine, for the Prevention of COVID-19 - Condition: COVID-19
Interventions: Biological: AZD1222; Biological: rAd26-S
Sponsors: AstraZeneca; R-Pharm
Not yet recruiting
Anti-COVID19 AKS-452 - ACT Study - Condition: Covid19
Intervention: Biological: AKS-452
Sponsors: University Medical Center Groningen; Akston Biosciences Corporation
Not yet recruiting
Study in Adults to Determine the Safety and Immunogenicity of AZD1222, a Non-replicating ChAdOx1 Vector Vaccine, Given in Combination With rAd26-S, Recombinant Adenovirus Type 26 Component of Gam-COVID-Vac Vaccine, for the Prevention of COVID-19. - Condition: COVID-19
Interventions: Biological: AZD1222; Biological: rAd26-S
Sponsors: R-Pharm; AstraZeneca
Not yet recruiting
Surgical Face Mask Effects in Patients With COVID-19 - Condition: Covid19
Intervention: Other: Sit-To-Stand test
Sponsor: Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc- Université Catholique de Louvain
Not yet recruiting
Dendritic Cell Vaccine, AV-COVID-19, to Prevent COVID-19 Infection - Condition: COVID-19
Interventions: Biological: AV-COVID-19; Other: GM-CSF
Sponsors: Aivita Biomedical, Inc.; PT AIVITA Biomedika Indonesia; Indonesia Ministry of Health; National Institute of Health Research and Development, Ministry of Health Republic of Indonesia
Recruiting
Efficacy and Safety of hzVSF-v13 in Patients With COVID-19 Pneumonia - Condition: COVID-19
Interventions: Drug: hzVSF-v13; Drug: Placebo (Normal saline solution)
Sponsor: ImmuneMed, Inc.
Recruiting
A Clinical Study to Assess the Efficacy and Safety of Amizon® Max in the Treatment of Moderate Covid-19 - Condition: Covid-19 Disease
Interventions: Drug: Enisamium Iodide; Drug: Placebo
Sponsor: Joint Stock Company "Farmak"
Recruiting
Human species D adenovirus hexon capsid protein mediates cell entry through a direct interaction with CD46 - Human adenovirus species D (HAdV-D) types are currently being explored as vaccine vectors for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and other severe infectious diseases. The efficacy of such vector-based vaccines depends on functional interactions with receptors on host cells. Adenoviruses of different species are assumed to enter host cells mainly by interactions between the knob domain of the protruding fiber capsid protein and cellular receptors. Using a cell-based receptor-screening assay, we...
A novel virtual screening procedure identifies Pralatrexate as inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2 RdRp and it reduces viral replication in vitro - The spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus poses serious threats to the global public health and leads to worldwide crisis. No effective drug or vaccine is readily available. The viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) is a promising therapeutic target. A hybrid drug screening procedure was proposed and applied to identify potential drug candidates targeting RdRp from 1906 approved drugs. Among the four selected market available drug candidates,...
MicroRNAs and SARS-CoV-2 life cycle, pathogenesis, and mutations: biomarkers or therapeutic agents? - To date, proposed therapies and antiviral drugs have been failed to cure coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients. However, at least two drug companies have applied for emergency use authorization with the United States Food and Drug Administration for their coronavirus vaccine candidates and several other vaccines are in various stages of development to determine safety and efficacy. Recently, some studies have shown the role of different human and severe acute respiratory syndrome...
Fisetin 8-C-glucoside as entry inhibitor in SARS CoV-2 infection: molecular modelling study - Coronaviruses are RNA viruses that infect varied species including humans. TMPRSS2 is gateway for SARS CoV-2 entry into the host cell. It causes proteolytic activation of spike protein and discharge of the peptide into host cell. The TMPRSS2 inhibition could be one of the approaches to stop the viral entry, therefore, interaction pattern and binding energies for Fisetin and TMPRSS2 have been explored in the present study. TMPRSS2 peptide was used for homology modelling and then for further...
A narrative review of hydrogen-oxygen mixture for medical purpose and the inhaler thereof - Recent development regarding mixture of H(2) (concentration of ~66%) with O(2) (concentration of ~34%) for medical purpose, such as treatment of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) patients, is introduced. Furthermore, the design principles of a hydrogen inhaler which generates mixture of hydrogen (~66%) with oxygen (~34%) for medical purpose are proposed. With the installation of the liquid blocking module and flame arresters, the air pathway of the hydrogen inhaler is divided by multiple...
Developing multiplex ddPCR assays for SARS-CoV-2 detection based on probe mix and amplitude based multiplexing - Introduction: With the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, different articles have been published highlighting the superiority of droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) over the gold-standard reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) in SARS-CoV-2 detection. However, few studies have been reported on developing multiplex ddPCR assays for SARS-CoV-2 detection and their performance. This study shows steps on how to develop different ddPCR SAR-CoV-2 assays including higher order multiplex assays for SARS-CoV-2 detection...
Tocilizumab combined with favipiravir in the treatment of COVID-19: A multicenter trial in a small sample size - CONCLUSION: Tocilizumab combined with or without favipiravir can effectively improve the pulmonary inflammation of COVID-19 patients and inhibit the deterioration of the disease.
Therapeutic approaches against coronaviruses acute respiratory syndrome - Coronaviruses represent global health threat. In this century, they have already caused two epidemics and one serious pandemic. Although, at present, there are no approved drugs and therapies for the treatment and prevention of human coronaviruses, several agents, FDA-approved, and preclinical, have shown in vitro and/or in vivo antiviral activity. An in-depth analysis of the current situation leads to the identification of several potential drugs that could have an impact on the fight against...
The British variant of the new coronavirus-19 (Sars-Cov-2) should not create a vaccine problem - Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a highly contagious virus that infects humans and a number of animal species causing coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19), a respiratory distress syndrome which has provoked a global pandemic and a serious health crisis in most countries across our planet. COVID-19 inflammation is mediated by IL-1, a disease that can cause symptoms such as fever, cough, lung inflammation, thrombosis, stroke, renal failure and headache, to name a few....
Hydroxychloroquine Inhibits the Trained Innate Immune Response to Interferons - Hydroxychloroquine is being investigated for a potential prophylactic effect in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, but its mechanism of action is poorly understood. Circulating leukocytes from the blood of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients show increased responses to Toll-like receptor ligands, suggestive of trained immunity. By analyzing interferon responses of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from healthy donors conditioned with heat-killed...
Lycorine, a non-nucleoside RNA dependent RNA polymerase inhibitor, as potential treatment for emerging coronavirus infections - CONCLUSIONS: Lycorine is a potent non-nucleoside direct-acting antiviral against emerging coronavirus infections and acts by inhibiting viral RdRp activity; therefore, lycorine may be a candidate against the current COVID-19 pandemic.
The PIKfyve Inhibitor Apilimod: A Double-Edged Sword against COVID-19 - The PIKfyve inhibitor apilimod is currently undergoing clinical trials for treatment of COVID-19. However, although apilimod might prevent viral invasion by inhibiting host cell proteases, the same proteases are critical for antigen presentation leading to T cell activation and there is good evidence from both in vitro studies and the clinic that apilimod blocks antiviral immune responses. We therefore warn that the immunosuppression observed in many COVID-19 patients might be aggravated by...
Blocking Effect of Demethylzeylasteral on the Interaction between Human ACE2 Protein and SARS-CoV-2 RBD Protein Discovered Using SPR Technology - The novel coronavirus disease (2019-nCoV) has been affecting global health since the end of 2019, and there is no sign that the epidemic is abating. Targeting the interaction between the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spike protein and the human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor is a promising therapeutic strategy. In this study, surface plasmon resonance (SPR) was used as the primary method to screen a library of 960 compounds. A compound 02B05...
Fucoidan and Lung Function: Value in Viral Infection - Compromised lung function is a feature of both infection driven and non-infective pathologies. Viral infections-including the current pandemic strain SARS-CoV-2-that affect lung function can cause both acute and long-term chronic damage. SARS-CoV-2 infection suppresses innate immunity and promotes an inflammatory response. Targeting these aspects of SARS-CoV-2 is important as the pandemic affects greater proportions of the population. In clinical and animal studies, fucoidans have been shown to...
Conus venom fractions inhibit the adhesion of Plasmodium falciparum erythrocyte membrane protein 1 domains to the host vascular receptors - Using high-throughput BioPlex assays, we determined that six fractions from the venom of Conus nux inhibit the adhesion of various recombinant PfEMP-1 protein domains (PF08_0106 CIDR1α3.1, PF11_0521 DBL2β3, and PFL0030c DBL3X and DBL5e) to their corresponding receptors (CD36, ICAM-1, and CSA, respectively). The protein domain-receptor interactions permit P. falciparum-infected erythrocytes (IE) to evade elimination in the spleen by adhering to the microvasculature in various organs including the...
Covid 19 - Chewing Gum - - link
A traditional Chinese medicine composition for COVID-19 and/or influenza and preparation method thereof - - link
STOCHASTIC MODEL METHOD TO DETERMINE THE PROBABILITY OF TRANSMISSION OF NOVEL COVID-19 - The present invention is directed to a stochastic model method to assess the risk of spreading the disease and determine the probability of transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). - link
The use of human serum albumin (HSA) and Cannabigerol (CBG) as active ingredients in a composition for use in the treatment of Coronavirus (Covid-19) and its symptoms - - link
The use of human serum albumin (HSA) and Cannabigerol (CBG) as active ingredients in a composition for use in the treatment of Coronavirus (Covid-19) and its symptoms - - link
"AYURVEDIC PROPRIETARY MEDICINE FOR TREATMENT OF SEVERWE ACUTE RESPIRATORY SYNDROME CORONAVIRUS 2 (SARS-COV-2." - AbstractAyurvedic Proprietary Medicine for treatment of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV-2)In one of the aspect of the present invention it is provided that Polyherbal combinations called Coufex (syrup) is prepared as Ayurvedic Proprietary Medicine , Aqueous Extracts Mixing with Sugar Syrup form the following herbal aqueous extract coriandrum sativum was used for the formulation of protek.Further another Polyherbal combination protek as syrup is prepared by the combining an aqueous extract of the medicinal herbs including Emblica officinalis, Terminalia chebula, Terminalia belerica, Aegle marmelos, Zingiber officinale, Ocimum sanctum, Adatoda zeylanica, Piper lingum, Andrographis panivulata, Coriandrum sativum, Tinospora cordiofolia, cuminum cyminum,piper nigrum was used for the formulation of Coufex. - link
제2형 중증급성호흡기증후군 코로나바이러스 감염 질환의 예방 또는 치료용 조성물 - 본 발명은 화학식 1로 표시되는 화합물, 또는 이의 약학적으로 허용가능한 염; 및 글루카곤 수용체 작용제(glucagon receptor agonist), 위 억제 펩타이드(gastric inhibitory peptide, GIP), 글루카곤-유사 펩타이드 1(glucagon-like peptide 1, GLP-1) 및 글루카곤 수용체/위 억제 펩타이드/글루카곤-유사 펩타이드 1(Glucagon/GIP/GLP-1) 삼중 완전 작용제(glucagon receptors, gastric inhibitory peptide and glucagon-like peptide 1 (Glucagon/GIP/GLP-1) triple full agonist)로 이루어진 군으로부터 선택된 1종 이상;을 포함하는 제2형 중증급성호흡기증후군 코로나바이러스 감염 질환 예방 또는 치료용 약학적 조성물을 제공한다. - link
Haptens, hapten conjugates, compositions thereof and method for their preparation and use - A method for performing a multiplexed diagnostic assay, such as for two or more different targets in a sample, is described. One embodiment comprised contacting the sample with two or more specific binding moieties that bind specifically to two or more different targets. The two or more specific binding moieties are conjugated to different haptens, and at least one of the haptens is an oxazole, a pyrazole, a thiazole, a nitroaryl compound other than dinitrophenyl, a benzofurazan, a triterpene, a urea, a thiourea, a rotenoid, a coumarin, a cyclolignan, a heterobiaryl, an azo aryl, or a benzodiazepine. The sample is contacted with two or more different anti-hapten antibodies that can be detected separately. The two or more different anti-hapten antibodies may be conjugated to different detectable labels. - link
SARS-CoV-2 RBD共轭纳米颗粒疫苗 - 本发明涉及免疫医学领域，具体而言，涉及一种SARS‑CoV‑2 RBD共轭纳米颗粒疫苗。该疫苗包含免疫原性复合物，所述免疫原性复合物包含：a）与SpyCatcher融合表达的载体蛋白自组装得到的纳米颗粒载体；b）与SpyTag融合表达的SARS‑CoV‑2病毒的RBD抗原；所述载体蛋白选自Ferritin、mi3和I53‑50；所述载体蛋白与所述抗原之间通过SpyCatcher‑SpyTag共价连接。 - link
Устройство электронного контроля и дистанционного управления аппарата искусственной вентиляции легких - Полезная модель относится к медицинской технике, а именно к устройствам для воздействия на дыхательную систему пациента смесью различных газов, в частности, к устройствам для проведения искусственной вентиляции легких (ИВЛ). Технический результат предлагаемой полезной модели заключается в решении технической проблемы, состоящей в необходимости расширения арсенала технических средств, предназначенных для электронного контроля и управления ИВЛ, путем реализации возможности дистанционного управления аппаратами ИВЛ в медицинских учреждениях, не оборудованных кабельными вычислительными сетями. Указанный технический результат достигается благодаря тому, что в известное устройство электронного контроля и дистанционного управления аппарата ИВЛ, содержащее центральный микроконтроллер, а также программно-аппаратные средства управления функциями доставки воздушной смеси пациенту и многоуровневой тревожной сигнализации об отклонениях от нормативных условий и технических неполадках в аппарате ИВЛ, введены связанные друг с другом микроконтроллер связи и дистанционного управления и радиомодем, выполненный с возможностью связи с точками доступа радиканальной сети, при этом центральный микроконтроллер устройства выполнен с дополнительными входом/выходом, которые связаны с управляющими выходом/входом микроконтроллера связи и дистанционного управления, а, в зависимости от типа применяемой в медицинском учреждении радиоканальной сети связи и передачи данных, радиомодем может быть выполнен в виде интерфейсного аудиомодуля Bluetooth 4.0 BLE, приемопередающего модуля Wi-Fi либо устройства "малого радиуса действия", работающего по технологии LoRa на нелицензируемых частотах мегагерцового диапазона, например, в диапазоне 868 МГц. 3 з.п. ф-лы, 1 ил. - link
The Real Republican Radicals - The Trump movement was long understood as a populist one. But, since the election, the people at the barricades have been politicians and their lawyers. - link
Deconstructing the 2020 Latino Vote - The political preferences of white working-class voters and soccer moms have been dissected in detail—and now strategists are applying the same level of focus to Latino voters. - link
The Trümperdämmerung Is a Fitting End to 2020 - The President is careening through his final days in office with reckless disdain—for everything. - link
The Next Big Challenge: Trump-Proofing the Presidency - Trump’s departure will prompt cries of relief in many parts of the country, but there is now vital work to be done. - link
The Deep Origins of Latino Support for Trump - The leaders of the Hispanic Republican movement today haven’t felt such momentum for twenty years. - link
++2020 was a hard, hard year. Here are the stories of people who lived through it. +
++Life in 2020 has been dominated by big stories. The Covid-19 pandemic. Protests against multiple centuries of systemic racism and injustice. An impeachment. A presidential election. Murder hornets. +
++But beneath every one of these big stories is a long list of smaller personal ones. Everyone’s experience of 2020 has been different, and everyone’s story has something worth hearing. I went looking for those stories, in hopes of understanding the events of this year from the ground level. +
++What I found was remarkable. I talked to a woman who nursed an injured baby pig back to health. I talked to a sex worker who very quickly had to figure out how to make his business Covid-19-safe. I discussed opening up a marriage — at a time when nobody can see anybody in person — with someone who did just that. I talked to a woman who fell in love with her mailman, and a postal carrier who grew distressed at how little her rural community seemed to be taking Covid-19 seriously. +
++I’ll be sharing 14 of those stories over the next few weeks. I think they all underline the fact that no matter how dramatic or mundane your year was, it was that much more fascinating or difficult or compelling because of the times in which it took place. +
++This year is almost over, and another will follow. I’m so glad we all got through it together. +
++We’ve lost so much in 2020. But we’ve found some things, too. +
+ <img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/-tIfsrHO2-BW7csyZlulgu3BnoE=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22173468/emily_wed.jpg" />
+ <cite>Amanda Northrop/Vox</cite>+“It’s easier to believe everything is holy lying under the stars with friends and a pig sleeping in the crook of your arm.” +
+ <img alt="An illustration of a white baby pig inside a yellow circle, against a black background." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/0UOy7Jz0OgxnbmRcvrwaaANNZkU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22176320/piglet_.jpg" />
+ <cite>Amanda Northrop/Vox</cite>+“As soon as I started taking non-monogamy seriously, it was like any other coming out.” +
+ <img alt="An illustration of a hand holding a smartphone against a background filled with hearts." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/cH_lkKmxXZ9RbKbOsz6AjQqAiI0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22180911/hearts.jpg" />
+ <cite>Amanda Northrop/Vox</cite>+“In America, we say everything we do is for our child, but we spend a lot of time working and accumulating money and stuff that we don’t need.” +
+ <img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/VXg_QLt8-hdRsFK8HJdfotZIx9M=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22183648/reading.jpg" />
+ <cite>Amanda Northrop/Vox</cite>+“I can’t do any of my old standup comedy. And I don’t want to do it. I literally am starting over from scratch.” +
+ <img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/HgLHWKB_9XZ1Y7utJhrr4-s1x24=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22185209/comingout.jpg" />
+ <cite>Amanda Northrop/Vox</cite>+“The first couple weeks, I sucked at life. I sucked at everything.” +
+ <img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/tzbQMfbFRIYYU9qrc7e_RQPX3vg=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22185806/blm.jpg" />
+ <cite>Amanda Northrop/Vox</cite>+“Online sex work has amplified the loneliness for some customers. I’m talking to them because they’re paying.” +
+ <img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Pcf5uy9xaO2fAeQq12VZ5iFi_28=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22188712/sexwork01.jpg" />
+ <cite>Amanda Northrop/Vox</cite>+“That day, for the first time, I saw myself. And I knew I was trans. Holy shit.” +
+ <img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/_yzVanAJ2dsEUkvMjOZknLNrDZw=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22189167/dress.jpg" />
+ <cite>Amanda Northrop/Vox</cite>+“I asked him, ‘How’s everything going? How can we help?’ And I accidentally told him that I loved him.” +
+ <img alt="A drawing of a delivery person carrying a clipboard and a box." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Yn60-2kgAjJTdE_d1DPMxL0J4v4=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22190970/mailman.jpg" />
+ <cite>Amanda Northrop/Vox</cite>+“There are certain ways — and maybe it’s not cool to say this — in which quarantine has been helpful.” +
+ <img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/m_2tJGGrdmw1Px6pNh9XeWum-Dk=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22189317/hearts02.jpg" />
+ <cite>Amanda Northrop/Vox</cite>+“I love just looking at his face when he sees there are other people in the world!” +
+ <img alt="A drawing of a woman cradling a baby in her arms." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/mxt5hDBosuXUWZ7JruMR7Lnx5WQ=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22184870/aus.jpg" />
+ <cite>Amanda Northrop/Vox</cite>+“I haven’t contracted Covid yet. I’ve been lucky, because my bubble is probably huge.” +
+ <img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/YY5zIMSVvVIX0vqx8Qua8HSe3dw=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22191479/lips.jpg" />
+ <cite>Amanda Northrop/Vox</cite>+“It feels like I’ve never stopped playing Russian roulette because I never stopped working.” +
+ <img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/7V9lJVhUvmeWG6eosKtiIF9LFYo=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22191804/mail03.jpg" />
+ <cite>Illustration by Amanda Northrop/Vox</cite>+“It’s been a lifeline. I don’t have very big classes but when we meet up [over Zoom], we check in with each other. We see how we’re doing.” +
+ <img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/b94xHdGRuJPCbtPQEXHBXdZF3WY=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22193236/exercisezoom.jpg" />
+ <cite>Illustration by Amanda Northrop/Vox</cite>+Coming Friday, January 1 +
+
++The US started 2020 by “flattening the curve” — and never came up with a plan for what comes next. +
++In the spring of 2020, as Covid-19 was beginning to take its awful toll in the United States, three words offered a glimmer of hope: flatten the curve. +
++That phrase and charts illustrating the concept were everywhere in mid-March, shortly before the New York City outbreak exploded. The city would see 10,000 cases and nearly 1,000 deaths every day by early April. +
++Covid-19 cases were spiking, and hospital systems risked being overwhelmed by patients with life-threatening symptoms. If hospitals ran out of beds or ICU units, nurses or doctors, people would die unnecessarily — from Covid-19 and other causes. The way to prevent such a tragedy was to lock down. Flattening the epidemiological curve would keep the caseload manageable for our health system. +
++“If you look at the curves of outbreaks, they go big peaks, and then come down,” Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said on March 10. “What we need to do is flatten that down.” +
++Vox wrote an explainer on the idea. Barack Obama shared it with his tens of millions of Twitter followers. “Flatten the curve” became a public health meme — there was even a Fauci bobblehead that incorporated it — but it was also an urgent call to action. +
+ <img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Kmvo3NNUh1EKI6fRJh68mughOAk=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22177620/flattening_the_curve_final.jpg" />
+ <cite>Christina Animashaun/Vox</cite>+The US did succeed at flattening the curve — at least at first. Businesses closed and most states issued stay-at-home orders, and later research concluded those lockdown measures helped prevent tens of millions of Covid-19 cases. +
++But America failed to take advantage of that window to ramp up its testing-and-tracing capabilities, and states quickly faced intense pressure to relax their policies to alleviate the economic costs of the shutdowns. Reopening began earlier than public health experts believed it should. The political will to impose new lockdowns had evaporated by the time cases spiked again. +
++At the end of 2020, with nearly 20 million Covid-19 cases and more than 340,000 deaths in the US, it is evident that trying to flatten the curve was not sufficient to end the pandemic. That doesn’t mean it failed entirely. Slowing the spread of Covid-19 was meant to buy time to figure out what came next. But the US never did. +
+ <img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/cPeCkZ-gDL7i-roSt_0NLbbZNd4=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22203457/GettyImages_1210650493t.jpg" />
+ <cite>Misha Friedman/Getty Images</cite>
+ <figcaption>A medical worker puts on PPE at the beginning of their shift an the emergency field hospital in Central Park on April 16 in New York City.</figcaption>+America’s political leaders did not establish clear, shared goals for managing the outbreak. And eventually the Covid-19 response became politicized, driving Americans apart on the value of wearing masks or social distancing rather than maintaining the solidarity necessary to stamp out a highly infectious virus. +
++Flattening the curve became an abstraction with no real meaning. +
++“The value of ‘flatten that curve’ was in the context of that first surge,” Albert Ko, who leads the epidemiology department at the Yale School of Public Health, told me, “and then it lost its value.” +
++Flattening the curve was already a well-understood concept in public health circles. But the Covid-19 pandemic presented the first real opportunity to put it to the test. +
++“Initially, it really hit home for people when they saw the images of overcrowded hospitals,” Leana Wen, the former Baltimore city health commissioner, told me. “The ‘flattening the curve’ concept made sense when people realized it was about making sure hospitals didn’t get too crowded.” +
++“There are many millions of Americans who made profound sacrifices, and continue to do it to this day,” she continued. “But it was inconsistently applied.” +
++It may be difficult to remember now, but back in March, Americans were mostly unified in embracing the strategies necessary to flatten the curve. The vast majority of states closed businesses and schools. Polling showed that people were willing to take social distancing measures. +
++New York faced plenty of challenges (the virus was likely spreading for weeks in the NYC area before it was detected) and made its share of mistakes (sending infected patients back to nursing homes). But the proof of the strategy’s success was in the curves. Until the recent winter surge, they were flat. +
+ <img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/9cvex_vpTlPopyVJsSDloq1gl0s=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22204574/Screen_Shot_2020_12_30_at_11.16.45_AM.png" />
+ <cite>Covid Tracking Project</cite>
+ <figcaption>Daily cases and hospitalizations in New York state.</figcaption>+Multiple studies have found that mitigation measures suppressed the virus’s spread and likely prevented millions of cases and with them many deaths. A study published in Health Affairs in May found that social distancing policies, particularly stay-at-home orders as well as closing bars and restaurants, had staved off as many as 35 million cases in the US by the end of April. More recent research published in Science concluded that closing schools and businesses, as well as limiting the size of private gatherings, reduced spread considerably. +
++“NYC flattened the curve. Other places delayed it,” William Hanage, an epidemiologist at Harvard University, told me. “But that ought to provide an opportunity to ramp up testing and health care and prepare people for the long haul. You know that did not happen.” +
++Experts came up with roadmaps for how to proceed once the initial curve was flattened. A proposal from the American Enterprise Institute set specific thresholds for case numbers, hospital capacity, and testing that were designed to allow states to safely begin relaxing their lockdown measures once the virus had been sufficiently suppressed and the health system’s capacity had been expanded. +
++But the Trump administration never embraced those plans. Instead, the president often said that the cure (lockdowns) could not be worse than the disease (Covid-19). The White House eventually settled on a message that the US would need to learn to live with the virus. +
+ <img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Zhj_4JlbuY4Dojq7MZNs9_hM2zM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22203446/GettyImages_1212801527t.jpg" />
+ <cite>Win McNamee/Getty Images</cite>
+ <figcaption>A reporter wearing a latex glove raises his hand to ask President Donald Trump a question during a coronavirus briefing at the White House on March 16.</figcaption>+America’s failures to establish an effective test-trace-isolate program are well documented. Some experts question whether contact tracing could have been as effective in a country like the US as it has been in somewhere like South Korea, which is much smaller and has laws that allow government authorities to intrude on personal privacy in the name of public health. But everybody I spoke to agreed the United States had not made the best use of the time afforded by flattening the initial Covid-19 curve. +
++Instead, many US states that had avoided the worst of Covid-19 in the spring saw the lack of an outbreak as a sign that they could push ahead with reopening. Once the curve was flat, the political will to keep it that way began to crumble. +
++America wasn’t the only place to struggle to figure out how to move out of its spring lockdown; many European countries saw their own second waves over the summer. But the missed opportunity still set the course for the rest of the pandemic. +
++“We never really came up with a plan to transition,” Caitlin Rivers, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security who co-authored the AEI roadmap back in March, told me. +
++In some ways, flattening the curve did work as intended. +
++Hospitals have not — yet — been overwhelmed, as they were in the dire situation in Lombardo, Italy, in the spring. But today, with cases and hospitalizations still rising, US hospitals warn they are again nearing a breaking point. +
++Slowing the spread of the disease in the spring also gave scientists a chance to learn more and more about the virus. +
++Among other things, they learned that people were the most infectious before they showed symptoms. They figured out the virus primarily spread through respiratory droplets, not through touch or surfaces. The elevated fatality risk to the elderly became more apparent. Researchers quickly began to figure out which treatments worked (putting patients in a prone position, administering remdesivir and dexamethasone) and which ones didn’t (the Trump-favored hydroxychloroquine). +
++With this information, the US could have used the time it bought by flattening the curve to figure out whether more targeted interventions would work better than lockdowns, as the Science study suggested, and whether individual cities or counties could best manage their own outbreaks. +
++“Do we need strong interventions rather than calibrated? Do you have to have regional interventions in order to really make a dent?” Ko said. “I think we’ve been in that kind of limbo. Europe couldn’t calibrate that. They had to go into lockdown.” +
++The cost of that failure has not been paid equally. The pandemic underscored the many inequities in American life, starting with who contracts the virus and who dies from it. Black and Hispanic Americans have been disproportionately affected by Covid-19, both in terms of health and the toll of the year’s economic downturn. +
++When the curve didn’t stay flattened, the people who had to go into work, who live in intergenerational households, and who have higher rates of chronic disease were the most at risk. +
++“I don’t think we ever fully appreciated how the messaging around flattening the curve, how the challenges we as a nation face, would affect the most vulnerable,” Utibe Essien, a professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, said. “The people who didn’t have the same access to staying at home, masking up, who didn’t have the same opportunities to do jobs that didn’t increase their exposure.” +
+ <img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/xd8m3wInmafVwk53PnINHshElWw=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22203504/GettyImages_1208283536t.jpg" />
+ <cite>Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images</cite>
+ <figcaption>A taxi driver wears a face mask and gloves as they drive through Times Square in New York City on March 26.</figcaption>+And in other ways, flattening the curve still failed to accomplish its goal of preserving health care access. While hospitals have not yet been completely overwhelmed, some people aren’t getting the care they need. ProPublica reported that over the summer in Houston, medical examiners saw a spike in the number of people found dead in their homes. Some of those deaths were from Covid-19; some were from heart attacks, strokes and other conditions. Either way, the news of the virus’s rapid spread in the area may have kept people from seeking medical assistance, with deadly consequences. +
++Throughout the year, with cases staying stubbornly high, doctors warned about the consequences of non-Covid-19 patients were postponing care for chronic or emergent conditions. Research showed that visits to primary care doctors and specialists dropped precipitously in the spring and summer. +
++Health care experts fear that patients who may have been experiencing an onset of diabetes or heart disease will face setbacks if they delayed seeing a doctor to get an initial diagnosis. It will take years to fully understand those long-term effects. +
++“It’s like a lost year of care,” Essien, a practicing physician, told me. +
++Now, with 2020 coming to an end and the US reporting 180,000 new cases and more than 2,000 new deaths on average every day, there is no more hope for flattening the curve. +
++Luckily, vaccine development has been speedy and people are already being vaccinated against the coronavirus. But public health leaders still expect tens of thousands more deaths in the months between now and widespread protection among the population. +
++As a public health message, despite the initial success, “flatten the curve” has lost its force and America’s public health leadership failed to adapt and find a new message that would resonate with people. +
++David Rehkopf, a social epidemiologist at Stanford University, drew a comparison to the anti-smoking campaign. Putting a surgeon general warning on cigarette boxes did have a quick and dramatic effect on smoking rates, but not everybody stopped smoking. Public health leaders had to pivot to new strategies to keep making progress. +
++“With Covid-19, all of this was compacted into less than a year, not decades,” he said. “Adapting that quickly is tough, but from past public health campaigns, we should have anticipated the need to do this.” +
++When I reported on Melbourne, Australia’s success in eradicating Covid-19, I learned that the policy experts there worried that slogans like “flatten the curve” or “slow the spread” were too vague. The public health authorities there instead came up with a detailed step-by-step guide for how they would, eventually, get Covid-19 cases down to zero. +
++Specific thresholds were set: Once we reach X number of cases per day, then we can reopen Y. That strategy, despite some controversy, has been a success. +
++But in the US, many states, under pressure from businesses losing weeks of revenue and from anxious constituents who saw no immediate emergency in their daily lives, began to quickly lift their social distancing policies in the spring, once the curve seemed to flatten. Texas, which put a fairly toothless stay-at-home order into place at the start of April, lifted it a month later. By the end of June, its number of daily cases had increased 600 percent. +
++There was not one voice communicating to the public what mitigation measures were necessary, why, and what outcome we were working toward. (New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who held daily briefings in the spring with handy slide presentations to convey the current state of the outbreak and what would be coming next, was largely an exception among his peers.) The CDC was sidelined by the Trump administration throughout the year. +
++Instead, 330 million Americans were left to make their own risk assessments — or not. +
++Given the research that shows a small percentage of infected people account for a very large share of the transmission, that was a recipe for disaster. And rather than take proactive measures as infection rates first ticked up, which public health experts say are most important given the pre-symptomatic spread of Covid-19 and its slow gestation, governors seemed to be paralyzed and waited to act until the crisis was already upon them. +
++“Every American’s personal definition of Covid-caution is completely unique, with some holed up at home for weeks at a time and others traveling the country to visit friends,” Kumi Smith, an epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota, told me over email. “While the institutional level measures may seem extreme, if they had been more uniformly implemented around the country for longer, we might have been able to achieve low enough community transmission to the point that a careful reopening coupled with other measures like contact tracing and widespread testing and isolation would have been possible.” +
+ <img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/YIx19DfMIzOTBhJsWLzNqxk8H_U=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22203509/GettyImages_1219613666t.jpg" />
+ <cite>Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images</cite>
+ <figcaption>A waiter at Raku, an Asian restaurant in Bethesda, Maryland, wears a protective face mask as they serve customers outdoors amid the coronavirus pandemic on June 12.</figcaption>+The paradoxical lesson of flattening the Covid-19 curve is that the concept proved its worth but it may be more difficult in the future to sell the public on such a strategy. +
++Nobody disputes the value of slowing transmission in order to relieve pressure on the health system. But it had an expiration date as a motivational tool. +
++“We know it works. We’ve seen that again and again in this pandemic,” Jen Kates, director of global health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, told me. “This will be a standard part of pandemic preparedness and response going forward.” +
++“An open question, though, will be to what extent has the concept been poisoned by the political discourse?” she added. “How successfully can it be used in the future?” +
+
++Housebound’s surly protagonist is fed up with her house arrest from day one. It’s the perfect 2020 mood. +
++One Good Thing is Vox’s recommendations feature. In each edition, find one more thing from the world of culture that we highly recommend. +
++Recently, someone reminded me of the 2014 New Zealand horror comedy Housebound. It’s a shoestring budget indie about a bratty young woman whose house arrest leads to some very unexpected scares. The film has long flown under the mainstream radar, despite winning a cult following from horror fans. +
++When I first saw it about five years ago, I loved it — but I haven’t thought about it much since except as a little-known backburner title whenever anyone asks me for horror movie recs. But now, remembering it in 2020, I immediately wanted to see how it held up in a post-pandemic atmosphere. +
++My hunch was that Housebound, with its fixation on forced intimacy and confinement in too-familiar spaces, would be the perfect aperitif after eight-plus months in quarantine. And I was right: Housebound still slaps — and today, it plays like a wry grace note to a year of living safely. +
++Housebound is writer-director Gerard Johnstone’s only feature film, but its unique tone has the confidence of an established, more experienced screenwriter. It’s one of those films that takes a while to figure out; it’s not immediately clear what the stakes are, how one should watch the movie, or even who to root for. But once you settle into it, like the spooky house at its center, Housebound is full of surprises. +
++The action kicks off when our impudent main character, a former addict named Kylie, gets sentenced to eight months of house arrest after a failed attempt to rob an ATM. Sent back to live with her mother and stepdad in their creepy rural manse, Kylie is fed up with her forced confinement from day one. Morgana O’Reilly is unforgettably and delightfully unlikeable as Kylie: She’s rebellious and sullen, rude, occasionally violent, and perpetually exasperated. She’s totally over everything and everyone around her. In other words, she’s a walking 2020 mood. +
++And so is the house around her. An oppressively dark, cluttered, unnavigable wood-paneled disaster, Kylie’s childhood home feels labyrinthine and suffocating, even though it’s hardly the Overlook Hotel. It’s just a dilapidated former bed and breakfast, or so her mom tells her. +
++It doesn’t help that Kylie’s mother, played by Rima Te Wiata with pitch-perfect comedic timing and well-meaning befuddlement, has always believed the house is haunted. Years ago, she swears that she saw a figure in a sheet. It moved. What’s more, she’s certain that Kylie saw it too. But Kylie no longer remembers what she saw; all Kylie, who’s been living apart from her family for some time, can say for certain is that the moment she moves back home, strange things start happening. Since she’s come home, things go bump in the night, food goes missing, and a demonic Teddy Ruxpin bear keeps activating itself. +
+ <img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/1zYazElB4OCgCOOxJQq7-XDOMXM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22204908/MV5BNGNlMGZlZjAtMDllZS00MDAzLWE2MWUtNGNlZWZjM2IzMjQ3XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyODEwMTc2ODQ_._V1_FMjpg_UX1280_.jpg" />
+ <cite>Alameda Entertainment</cite>
+ <figcaption>Relatable.</figcaption>+While the house may or may not be teeming with ghosts, it is teeming with secrets — secrets that Kylie is only just now starting to learn. With the help of her house arrest officer, Amos, she begins to explore her family secrets, and it doesn’t take long for her to stumble across a big one: the alleged bed and breakfast is actually a former residential asylum, once home to a wayward girl much like herself, whose brutal murder has never been solved. +
++Is Kylie’s house actually haunted by the murder victim’s spirit? Is the horror all in her head? Or is she experiencing terror from a much more corporeal source? +
++It’s tempting to spoil more details — particularly to tell you about all the real-life horror stories upon which Housebound draws its wildest twist — but you should experience the story as it unfolds for yourself. +
++Housebound begins like a fairly straightforward ghost story, but then takes a few turns that keep it tonally interesting. It’s usually billed as a horror comedy or a comedy thriller, but those labels undersell how tense and dark the film gets. What We Do in the Shadows also debuted in 2014, and its ascendence as the reigning New Zealand horror comedy might have both overshadowed Housebound and dictated how audiences approached it. But for me, the movie is a bit too tense, and a bit too serious, to approach as a parody. It’s frequently tongue in cheek, yes, but it takes its terror seriously. +
++Furthermore, Housebound is serious about the ways in which its surly anti-heroine is subtly undermined by most of the people around her and even her situation itself. If an entire house could gaslight you, Kylie’s house would be doing exactly that, and that makes the movie a perversely relatable treat for anyone feeling like their prolonged confinement is driving them a bit mad. +
+ <img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/VCGoJCgdlQZL0bye5C880IoYlbw=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22204914/MV5BZTRiNGY0YWMtNGFlMC00NDFmLTk0MmItYzM2N2M2N2I2MWI4XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNzc5NjM0NA__._V1_FMjpg_UX1280_.jpg" />
+ <cite>Alameda Entertainment</cite>
+ <figcaption>Accurate representation of me after a year of self-quarantining.</figcaption>+Kylie’s time under house arrest soon grows quite eventful, but it starts out with the palpable slow slog of eternity. Kylie seethes under her punishment the way all of us, at some point during a year of retreat from Covid-19, probably have. +
++Although we don’t get much backstory on Kylie’s relationship with her mom and stepdad, the tension they greet each other with upon her return home lingers for most of the movie. What’s sweet about this, if a movie whose main character once punched her mother in the face can be called sweet, is that Housebound always frames both Kylie and her mother as vulnerable to one another’s unwitting slights and microaggressions. A flatter script could have easily made Kylie the hard-edged instigator of most of the conflict between her and her mother, but O’Reilly always lets us see how much Kylie cares about her family beneath her ongoing frustration with her confinement. +
++The movie also never lets us forget that Kylie is a recovering addict, and that this one fact frequently defines her to most of society. I rewatched Housebound directly after refreshing myself on a true-crime case in which police repeatedly refused to take a sex worker’s claims seriously because her profession diminished her credibility. So I was particularly attuned to the amount of time that Kylie spends in Housebound fighting to be heard and taken seriously, only to receive the repeated message that her word matters less because of her status as an addict and as a repeat offender. +
++But if Kylie starts out thoroughly unlikeable, Housebound makes the argument that a rough, rude, defiant, violent 20-something is a good person to have around in a crisis. And sometimes, the film suggests, having to ride out a period of sequestering with your relatives is just the kind of thing that builds character. Well, that and getting the ultimate validation of finding out that everyone who undermined you was wrong all along. +
++There’s a certain narrative about the pandemic that’s become dominant. It’s one centered on all the plucky bread-makers and Zoom-partiers and amateur interior designers and newfound plant lovers who made the most of a shitty time spent social distancing from most of their communities. But for the rest of us, we who’ve been stuck in a stuffy, claustrophobic environment with people we frequently can’t stand, Housebound is a permanent mood. Kylie wanders through most of the film the way I wandered through most of 2020 — glassy-eyed, openly horrified at everyone else’s bullshit, and desperate to go outside. +
++At one point her mom scolds Kylie for still being in bed well into the afternoon. “Oh, no, I’m late!” Kylie gasps. +
++“For what?” the mom asks. +
++“For nothing,” Kylie retorts, rolling over and going back to sleep. +
++Yep. That’s 2020 in a nutshell. +
++Housebound is available to stream on Amazon Prime and Tubi. +
+England squad clears COVID-19 test, set to travel to Sri Lanka for Test series - On arrival, the contingent will spend 10 days in a bio-secure bubble in Hambantota
Bumrah has mastered the art we Pakistanis used to have once, says Akhtar - The Pakistani fast bowler calls Bumrah India’s first fast bowler who checks the wind speed and wind direction rather than how much grass has been left on the track.
Aus vs Ind Test series | Rohit Sharma replaces Pujara as vice-captain - Rohit has started training from Thursday and the full fledged session of the Indian contingent after new year break will start from Saturday.
Aus vs Ind Test series | Natarajan replaces Umesh in squad, Shardul in place of Shami - Both Shami and Umesh Yadav will head to the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru for further rehabilitation of their injuries.
Labuschagne doffs hat to Ashwin - Says the off-spinner has come prepared and with a definite game-plan
Maharashtra mulls setting up modern jails - Plan for housing for police personnel is also on, says Home Minister Anil Deshmukh.
Assam Cong. plans ‘one family, one job’ scheme - Party also announces roll out of NYAY payouts for BPL families ahead of Assembly polls
Naveen Patnaik pitches for international airport at Puri - Odisha CM cites annual Rath Yatra, pristine beaches as hub for tourism
Rashtrapati Bhavan museum to reopen from January 5 - Visitors will not be able to make bookings on the spot. They will have to book their slots in advance
Tahawwur Rana’s extradition hearing delayed again - The next hearing has been set for April 22, 2021
Brexit: New era for UK as it completes separation from European Union - Boris Johnson celebrates the "freedom in our hands" as the long Brexit process comes to a conclusion.
Norway landslide: Swedes join search for 10 missing in Ask ravine - A risky ground search is starting for 10 missing after a landslide swept homes into a chasm.
Covid pandemic dampens New Year celebrations around the world - As the virus continues to spread in many countries, governments crack down on revellers.
Brexit: 'We welcomed the trade deal like a Christmas present' - Europeans in the UK, and British people around Europe, explain what Brexit will mean for them.
Brexit: New Irish Sea trade border begins operating - The trade border means most commercial goods entering NI from GB now require a customs declaration.
30 years since the Human Genome Project began, what’s next? - Genomics institute head looks back on how far the field has come, ahead to future. - link
How the humble slime mold helped physicists map the cosmic web - Despite similarities, "We don't think the universe was created by a giant slime mold." - link
New battery chemistry results in first rechargeable zinc-air battery - Zinc is very cheap and abundant; battery tech could be great for power grids. - link
Activist hedge fund advises Intel to outsource CPU manufacturing - Third Point fund, led by Daniel Loeb, demands strategy shake up - link
Basking shark families go on road trips in search of fine dining - Genetic tagging offers insight into the secret lives of basking sharks. - link
+In preparation for their arrival, a huge celebration and welcoming ceremony is planned, and all the Christian sects of the world miraculously come together to receive them. +
++The first of the aliens' ships touches down, and one alien walks down to greet everyone. The Pope comes out first to shake one of their hands to greet them. The Pope says, "We are forever grateful to learn we are not alone in being Children of God, but that we may also join together as one in order to praise our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ." +
++And the alien replies, "Yep. The first time he stopped by we threw him a big party and we gave him a fruit basket before he left. What'd you guys do?" +
++ +
++ +
++EDIT: turns out I might've taken a bit of inspiration (i.e. lifted) from this comic I think I saw a few years back, credit where credit is due +
+ + submitted by /u/DUDEVSTHEWORLD
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+Kill Bill. +
+ submitted by /u/cursedaf69
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+Please, for the love of God don't up vote, I've seen the size of her strap on! +
+ submitted by /u/thingie2
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+CDC studies have shown they provide no defense +
+ submitted by /u/LUAM47
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+The Americans and the Japanese decided to engage in a competitive boat race. Both teams practiced rowing hard and long to reach their peak performance. On the big day the Japanese won by a mile. +
++The American team was discouraged by the loss. Morale sagged. Corporate management decided that the reason for the crushing defeat had to be found, so a consulting firm was hired to investigate the problem and recommend corrective action. +
++The consultant's finding: The Japanese team had eight people rowing and one person steering; the American team had one person rowing and eight people steering. +
++After a year of study and millions spent analyzing the problem, the American team's management structure was completely reorganized. +
++The new structure: four steering managers, three area steering managers, and a new performance review system for the person rowing the boat to provide work incentive. +
++The next year, the Japanese won by two miles! +
++Humiliated, the American corporation laid off the rower for poor performance and gave the managers a bonus for discovering the problem. +
+ submitted by /u/Heterophylla
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