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<title>14 February, 2024</title>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="covid-19-sentry">Covid-19 Sentry</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-preprints">From Preprints</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-pubmed">From PubMed</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-patent-search">From Patent Search</a></li>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-preprints">From Preprints</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Long-term cardiovascular safety of COVID-19 vaccination according to brand, dose and combinations: Cohort study of 46 million adults in England</strong> -
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Using longitudinal health records from 45.7 million adults in England followed for a year, our study compared the incidence of thrombotic and cardiovascular complications after first, second and booster doses of brands and combinations of COVID-19 vaccines used during the first two years of the UK vaccination program with the incidence before or without the corresponding vaccination. The incidence of common arterial thrombotic events (mainly acute myocardial infarction and ischaemic stroke) was generally lower after each vaccine dose, brand and combination. Similarly, the incidence of common venous thrombotic events, (mainly pulmonary embolism and lower limb deep venous thrombosis) was lower after vaccination. There was a higher incidence of previously reported rare harms after vaccination: vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia after first ChAdOx1 vaccination, and myocarditis and pericarditis after first, second and transiently after booster mRNA vaccination (BNT-162b2 and mRNA-1273) These findings support the wide uptake of future COVID-19 vaccination programs.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.12.24302698v1" target="_blank">Long-term cardiovascular safety of COVID-19 vaccination according to brand, dose and combinations: Cohort study of 46 million adults in England</a>
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<li><strong>Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices towards COVID-19 Infection and Prevention Measures among Medical Students</strong> -
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The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly led to an unprecedented health threat worldwide. During this time, disease prevention is considered to be the best way for general health protection. This is achieved through public health education by extending proper knowledge, promoting an optimistic attitude, and keeping the public compliant with preventive measures. As components of the healthcare system, medical students should also play a role in disease prevention more so in the Philippines where the Department of Health has called upon medical graduates to render services in response to the national emergency. In this study, the knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) of medical students from Cebu Institute of Medicine (CIM) towards COVID-19 infection and preventive measures were assessed. Demographic factors, their respective effect size on KAP, as well as the relationship between KAP variables were determined. The revised questionnaire, drafted based on qualitative and quantitative validity tests, was then used for the pilot study to generate the final questionnaire. Responses from participants underwent descriptive and correlational analysis. The results showed that the majority of the medical students of CIM have adequate knowledge (78.24%), positive attitude (80.68%), and good practices (94.38%) towards COVID-19 infection and prevention measures. Females have a significant association (p-value = 0.03) with better practices than male counterparts. Knowledge (p-value = 0.004) and attitude (p-value = 0.003) also showed significant correlation with practices, implying that knowledge and attitude play a role in shaping compliance to health practices. Therefore, health interventions should aim to disseminate accurate, evidence-based information and improve attitude towards the implemented precautionary measures in order to increase effectiveness of policies.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.12.24302741v1" target="_blank">Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices towards COVID-19 Infection and Prevention Measures among Medical Students</a>
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<li><strong>SARS-CoV-2 virus in Raw Wastewater from Student Residence Halls with concomitant 16S rRNA Bacterial Community Structure changes</strong> -
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The detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) RNA in sewage is well-established, but the concomitant changes in microbial compositions during the pandemic remain insufficiently explored. This study investigates the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 virus on microbial compositions in raw sewage, utilizing 16S rRNA sequencing to analyze wastewater samples collected from six dormitories over a one-year field trial at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The concentration of SARS-CoV-2 RNA was assessed using a reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Significant variations in bacterial composition were evident across the six dormitories, highlighting the importance of independently considering spatial differences when evaluating the raw wastewater microbiome. Positive samples for SARS-CoV-2 exhibited a prominent representation of exclusive species across all dormitories, coupled with significantly reduced bacterial diversity compared to negative samples. The correlation observed between the relative abundance of enteric pathogens and potential pathogens at sampling sites introduces a significant dimension to our understanding of COVID-19, especially the notable correlation observed in positive SARS-CoV-2 samples. Furthermore, the significant correlation in the relative abundance of potential pathogens between positive and negative SARS-CoV-2 raw sewage samples may be linked to the enduring effects of microbial dysbiosis observed during COVID-19 recovery. These findings provide valuable insights into the microbial dynamics in raw sewage during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.11.24302582v1" target="_blank">SARS-CoV-2 virus in Raw Wastewater from Student Residence Halls with concomitant 16S rRNA Bacterial Community Structure changes</a>
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<li><strong>Body mass index changes and their association with SARS-CoV-2 infection: a real-world analysis</strong> -
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Objective: To study body mass index (BMI) changes among individuals aged 18-99 years with and without SARS-CoV-2 infection. Subjects/Methods: Using real-world data from the OneFlorida+ Clinical Research Network of the National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network, we compared changes over time in BMI in an Exposed cohort (positive SARS-CoV-2 test between March 2020 - January 2022), to a contemporary Unexposed cohort (negative SARS-CoV-2 tests), and an age/sex-matched Historical control cohort (March 2018 - January 2020). Body mass index (kg/m2) was retrieved from objective measures of height and weight in electronic health records. We used target trial approaches to estimate BMI at baseline and change per 100 days of follow-up for Unexposed and Historical cohorts relative to the Exposed cohort by categories of sex, race-ethnicity, age, and hospitalization status. Results: The study sample consisted of 44,436 (Exposed cohort), 164,118 (Unexposed cohort), and 41,189 (Historical cohort). Cumulatively, 62% were women, 21.5% Non-Hispanic Black, 21.4% Hispanic and 5.6% Non-Hispanic Other. Patients had an average age of 51.9 years (SD: 18.9). At baseline, relative to the Exposed cohort (mean BMI: 29.3 kg/m2 [95%CI: 29.0, 29.7]), the Unexposed (-0.07 kg/m2 [95%CI; -0.12, -0.01]) and Historical controls (-0.27 kg/m2 [95%CI; -0.34, -0.20]) had lower BMI. Relative to no change in the Exposed over 100 days (0.00 kg/m2 [95%CI; -0.03,0.03]), the BMI of those Unexposed decreased (-0.04 kg/m2 [95%CI; -0.06, -0.01]) while the Historical cohort9s BMI increased (+0.03 kg/m2 [95%CI;0.00,0.06]). BMI changes were consistent between Exposed and Unexposed cohorts for most population groups, except at start of follow-up period among Males and those 65 years or older, and in changes over 100 days among Males and Hispanics. Conclusions: In a diverse real-world cohort of adults, mean BMI of those with and without SARS-CoV2 infection varied in their trajectories. The mechanisms and implications of weight retention following SARS-CoV-2 infection remain unclear.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.12.24302697v1" target="_blank">Body mass index changes and their association with SARS-CoV-2 infection: a real-world analysis</a>
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<li><strong>Association between altitude and death from COVID-19 in subjects with diabetes mellitus during the first wave: cross sectional study of the National Death Index</strong> -
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Background. In high Andean areas, there is greater insulin sensitivity which may be a protective factor against complications in subjects with diabetes mellitus.  Objective: Determine the association between altitude of residence and death from COVID-19 in deaths with diabetes mellitus in Peru during the first wave.. Methods: We carried out a cross-sectional analysis of deaths registered in the National Death System of Peru (SINADEF in Spanish). We selected Peruvians with diabetes mellitus identified by presenting the diagnosis in any of the six boxes on the certificate. The dependent variable was death from COVID-19 as the basic cause of death, located in last place among causes A, B, C and D according to the Pan American Health Organization. The independent variable was the altitude of residence, categorized as less than 1 500 m a.s.l, 1 500 to 2 499 m  a.s.l. and greater than 2 500 m a.sl. Through a multilevel analysis by geographic region and using a Poisson regression, we obtained the risk ratios of death from COVID-19 according to the altitude of residence. We adjusted by individual and contextual variables. Results: We included 16 406 deaths with diabetes mellitus between March-December 2020. 34.3% died from Covid19 and 9.7% came from areas above 2 500 m. The proportion of deaths from COVID-19 of those with residence altitude above 2 500 m  was 20% lower compared to residents below 1 500 m (RR: 0.80; 95% CI: 0.70 – 0.91; p&lt;0.001), adjusted for individual and socioeconomic factors. Its influence is also shown as the altitude changes every 100, 250, 500 and 1000 m a.s.l., through multilevel analysis. Conclusion: A higher altitude of residence is associated with a lower proportion of deaths from COVID-19 in people with diabetes mellitus during the first wave in Peru. The study contribute to expanding knowledge of the effects of altitude with respect to mortality in people with diabetes mellitus in a context of a highly contagious and virulent infectious disease.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.12.24302726v1" target="_blank">Association between altitude and death from COVID-19 in subjects with diabetes mellitus during the first wave: cross sectional study of the National Death Index</a>
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<li><strong>Mathematical assessment of the role of human behavior changes on SARS-CoV-2 transmission dynamics</strong> -
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The COVID-19 pandemic has not only presented a major global public health and socio-economic crisis, but has also significantly impacted human behavior towards adherence (or lack thereof) to public health intervention and mitigation measures implemented in communities worldwide. The dynamic nature of the pandemic has prompted extensive changes in individual and collective behaviors towards the pandemic. This study is based on the use of mathematical modeling approaches to assess the extent to which SARS-CoV-2 transmission dynamics is impacted by population-level changes of human behavior due to factors such as (a) the severity of transmission (such as disease-induced mortality and level of symptomatic transmission), (b) fatigue due to the implementation of mitigation interventions measures (e.g., lockdowns) over a long (extended) period of time, (c) social peer-pressure, among others. A novel behavior-epidemiology model, which takes the form of a deterministic system of nonlinear differential equations, is developed and fitted using observed cumulative SARS-CoV-2 mortality data during the first wave in the United States. Rigorous analysis of the model shows that its disease-free equilibrium is locally-asymptotically stable whenever a certain epidemiological threshold, known as the control reproduction number (denoted by R_C) is less than one, and the disease persists (i.e., causes significant outbreak or outbreaks) if the threshold exceeds one. The model fits the observed data, as well as makes a more accurate prediction of the observed daily SARS-CoV-2 mortality during the first wave (March 2020 -June 2020), in comparison to the equivalent model which does not explicitly account for changes in human behavior. Of the various metrics for human behavior changes during the pandemic considered in this study, it is shown that behavior changes due to the level of SARS-CoV-2 mortality and symptomatic transmission were more influential (while behavioral changes due to the level of fatigue to interventions in the community was of marginal impact). It is shown that an increase in the proportion of exposed individuals who become asymptomatically-infectious at the end of the exposed period (represented by a parameter r) can lead to an increase (decrease) in the control reproduction number (R_C) if the effective contact rate of asymptomatic individuals is higher (lower) than that of symptomatic individuals. The study identifies two threshold values of the parameter r that maximize the cumulative and daily SARS-CoV-2 mortality, respectively, during the first wave. Furthermore, it is shown that, as the value of the proportion r increases from 0 to 1, the rate at which susceptible non-adherent individuals change their behavior to strictly adhere to public health interventions decreases. Hence, this study suggests that, as more newly-infected individuals become asymptomatically-infectious, the level of positive behavior change, as well as disease severity, hospitalizations and disease-induced mortality in the community can be expected to significantly decrease (while new cases may rise, particularly if asymptomatic individuals have higher contact rate, in comparison to symptomatic individuals).
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.11.24302662v1" target="_blank">Mathematical assessment of the role of human behavior changes on SARS-CoV-2 transmission dynamics</a>
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<li><strong>Temporal variations in international air travel: implications for modelling the spread of infectious diseases</strong> -
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Background The international flight network creates multiple routes by which pathogens can quickly spread across the globe. In the early stages of infectious disease outbreaks, analyses using flight passenger data to identify countries at risk of importing the pathogen are common and can help inform disease control efforts. A challenge faced in this modelling is that the latest aviation statistics (referred to as contemporary data) are typically not immediately available. Therefore, flight patterns from a previous year are often used (referred to as historical data). We explored the suitability of historical data for predicting the spatial spread of emerging epidemics. Methods We analysed monthly flight passenger data from the International Air Transport Association to assess how baseline air travel patterns were affected in outbreaks of MERS, Zika, and SARS-CoV-2 over the past decade. We then used a stochastic discrete time SEIR metapopulation model to simulate global spread of different pathogens, comparing how epidemic dynamics differed in simulations based on historical and contemporary data. Results We observed local, short-term disruptions to air travel from South Korea and Brazil for the MERS and Zika outbreaks we studied, whereas global and longer-term flight disruption occurred during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. For outbreak events that were accompanied by local, small, and short-term changes in air travel, epidemic models using historical flight data gave similar projections of timing and locations of disease spread as when using contemporary flight data. However, historical data were less reliable to model the spread of an atypical outbreak such as SARS-CoV-2 in which there were durable and extensive levels of global travel disruption. Conclusions The use of historical flight data as a proxy in epidemic models is an acceptable practice except in rare, large epidemics that lead to substantial disruptions to international travel.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.12.24302682v1" target="_blank">Temporal variations in international air travel: implications for modelling the spread of infectious diseases</a>
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<li><strong>Host-Microbe Multiomic Profiling Reveals Age-Dependent COVID-19 Immunopathology</strong> -
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Age is a major risk factor for severe coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), yet the mechanisms responsible for this relationship have remained incompletely understood. To address this, we evaluated the impact of aging on host and viral dynamics in a prospective, multicenter cohort of 1,031 patients hospitalized for COVID-19, ranging from 18 to 96 years of age. We performed blood transcriptomics and nasal metatranscriptomics, and measured peripheral blood immune cell populations, inflammatory protein expression, anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, and anti- interferon (IFN) autoantibodies. We found that older age correlated with an increased SARS-CoV- 2 viral load at the time of admission, and with delayed viral clearance over 28 days. This contributed to an age-dependent increase in type I IFN gene expression in both the respiratory tract and blood. We also observed age-dependent transcriptional increases in peripheral blood IFN-gamma, neutrophil degranulation, and Toll like receptor (TLR) signaling pathways, and decreases in T cell receptor (TCR) and B cell receptor signaling pathways. Over time, older adults exhibited a remarkably sustained induction of proinflammatory genes (e.g., CXCL6) and serum chemokines (e.g., CXCL9) compared to younger individuals, highlighting a striking age-dependent impairment in inflammation resolution. Augmented inflammatory signaling also involved the upper airway, where aging was associated with upregulation of TLR, IL17, type I IFN and IL1 pathways, and downregulation TCR and PD-1 signaling pathways. Metatranscriptomics revealed that the oldest adults exhibited disproportionate reactivation of herpes simplex virus and cytomegalovirus in the upper airway following hospitalization. Mass cytometry demonstrated that aging correlated with reduced naïve T and B cell populations, and increased monocytes and exhausted natural killer cells. Transcriptional and protein biomarkers of disease severity markedly differed with age, with the oldest adults exhibiting greater expression of TLR and inflammasome signaling genes, as well as proinflammatory proteins (e.g., IL6, CXCL8), in severe COVID-19 compared to mild/moderate disease. Anti-IFN autoantibody prevalence correlated with both age and disease severity. Taken together, this work profiles both host and microbe in the blood and airway to provide fresh insights into aging-related immune changes in a large cohort of vaccine-naïve COVID-19 patients. We observed age-dependent immune dysregulation at the transcriptional, protein and cellular levels, manifesting in an imbalance of inflammatory responses over the course of hospitalization, and suggesting potential new therapeutic targets.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.11.24301704v1" target="_blank">Host-Microbe Multiomic Profiling Reveals Age-Dependent COVID-19 Immunopathology</a>
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<li><strong>Restrained memory CD8+ T cell responses favors viral persistence and elevated IgG responses in patients with severe Long COVID.</strong> -
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During the COVID-19 pandemic it was widely described that certain individuals infected by SARS-CoV-2 experience persistent disease signs and symptoms, Long COVID, which in some cases is very severe with life changing consequences. To maximize our chances of identifying the underpinnings of this illness, we have focused on 121 of the most severe cases from &gt;1000 patients screened in specialized clinics in Sweden and Belgium. We restricted this study to subjects with objective measures of organ damage or dysfunction, &gt;3 months following a verified, but mild- to-moderate SARS-CoV-2 infection. By performing systems-level immunological testing and comparisons to controls fully convalescent following a similar mild/moderate COVID-19 episode, we identify elevated serological responses to SARS-CoV-2 in severe Long COVID suggestive of chronic antigen stimulation. Persistent viral reservoirs have been proposed in Long COVID and using multiple orthogonal methods for detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA and protein in plasma we identify a subset of patients with detectable antigens, but with minimal overlap across assays, and no correlation to symptoms or immune measurements. Elevated serologic responses to SARS-CoV-2 on the other hand were inversely correlated with clonally expanded memory CD8+ T cells, indicating that restrained clonal expansion enables viral persistence, chronic antigen exposure and elevated IgG responses, even if antigen-detection in blood is not universally possible.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.11.24302636v1" target="_blank">Restrained memory CD8+ T cell responses favors viral persistence and elevated IgG responses in patients with severe Long COVID.</a>
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<li><strong>Analysis of signs and symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 virus infection considering different waves using Machine Learning</strong> -
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In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared a world pandemic of COVID-19, which can manifest in humans as a consequence of virus infection of SARS-CoV-2. On this context, this work uses Data Mining and Machine Learning techniques  or the infection diagnosis. A methodology was created to facilitate this task and can be applied in any outbreak or pandemic wave. Besides generating diagnosis models based only on signals and symptoms, the method can evaluate if there are differences in signals and symptoms between waves (or outbreaks) through explainable techniques of the machine learning models. Another aspect is identifying possible quality differences between exams, for example, Rapid Test (RT) and Reverse Transcription–Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR). The case study in this work is based on data from patients who sought care at Piquet Carneiro Polyclinic of the State University of Rio de Janeiro. In this work, the results obtained with the tests were used to diagnose symptomatic infection of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, based on related signals and symptoms, and the date of the initial of these signals and symptoms. Using the Random Forrest model, it was possible to achieve the result of up to 76% sensitivity, 86% specificity, and 79% accuracy in the results of tests in one contagion wave of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Moreover, differences were found in signals and symptoms between contagion waves, in addition to the observation that exams RT-PCR and RT Antigen tests are more reliable than RT antibody test.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.12.24302722v1" target="_blank">Analysis of signs and symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 virus infection considering different waves using Machine Learning</a>
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<li><strong>Spatial pattern of all cause excess mortality in Swiss districts during the pandemic years 1890, 1918 and 2020</strong> -
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Background: Every pandemic is embedded in specific spatial and temporal context. However, spatial patterns have almost always only been considered in the context of one individual pandemic. Until now, there has been limited consideration of spatial similarities or differences between pandemics. Objective: The aim of this study was to examine spatial pattern of excess mortality in Swiss districts during the pandemic years 1890, 1918 and 2020. In addition, determinants that could explain the difference between districts were analyzed. Methods: Excess mortality rate was estimated using a Bayesian spatial model for disease mapping. A robust linear regression was used to assess the association between ecological determinants and excess mortality. Results: The highest excess mortality rate in all districts occurred during the 1918 pandemic, the lowest excess mortality rate was seen for the 1890 pandemic. Moreover, this analysis revealed heterogeneous spatial patterns of excess mortality in each pandemic year. Different socio-demographic determinants, in each pandemic, might have favored excess mortality. While the age composition, cultural and area-based socio-economic position differences and the proximity to France and Italy were the main determinants of excess mortality during the Covid-19 pandemic, the mobility, preexisting health issues (i.e. TB) or the remoteness location in the mountains played crucial roles during the historical pandemics. Contribution: The analysis of spatial patterns in pandemics is important for public health interventions in future pandemics or outbreaks since it helps to identifying patterns of transmission. Identifying and understanding geographic hotspots informs precise interventions, aids in public health implementation, and contributes to tailored health policies for the region.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.13.24302701v1" target="_blank">Spatial pattern of all cause excess mortality in Swiss districts during the pandemic years 1890, 1918 and 2020</a>
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<li><strong>Pseudotyped virus infection of multiplexed ACE2 libraries reveals SARS-CoV-2 variant shifts in receptor usage</strong> -
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Pairwise compatibility between virus and host proteins can dictate the outcome of infection. During transmission, both inter- and intraspecies variabilities in receptor protein sequences can impact cell susceptibility. Many viruses possess mutable viral entry proteins and the patterns of host compatibility can shift as the viral protein sequence changes. This combinatorial sequence space between virus and host is poorly understood, as traditional experimental approaches lack the throughput to simultaneously test all possible combinations of protein sequences. Here, we created a pseudotyped virus infection assay where a multiplexed target-cell library of host receptor variants can be assayed simultaneously using a DNA barcode sequencing readout. We applied this assay to test a panel of 30 ACE2 orthologs or human sequence mutants for infectability by the original SARS-CoV-2 spike protein or the Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Omicron BA1 variant spikes. We compared these results to an analysis of the structural shifts that occurred for each variant spikes interface with human ACE2. Mutated residues were directly involved in the largest shifts, although there were also widespread indirect effects altering interface structure. The N501Y substitution in spike conferred a large structural shift for interaction with ACE2, which was partially recreated by indirect distal substitutions in Delta, which does not harbor N501Y. The structural shifts from N501Y greatly influenced the set of animal orthologs the variant spike was capable of interacting with. Out of the thirteen non-human orthologs, ten exhibited unique patterns of variant-specific compatibility, demonstrating that spike sequence changes during human transmission can toggle ACE2 compatibility and potential susceptibility of other animal species, and cumulatively increase overall compatibilities as new variants emerge. These experiments provide a blueprint for similar large-scale assessments of protein compatibility during entry by diverse viruses. This dataset demonstrates the complex compatibility relationships that occur between variable interacting host and virus proteins.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.13.580056v1" target="_blank">Pseudotyped virus infection of multiplexed ACE2 libraries reveals SARS-CoV-2 variant shifts in receptor usage</a>
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<li><strong>SARS-CoV-2 Omicron lineage XBB spike structures, conformations, antigenicity, and receptor recognition</strong> -
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A recombinant lineage of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, named XBB, appeared in late 2022 and evolved descendants that successively swept local and global populations. XBB lineage members were noted for their improved immune evasion and transmissibility. Here, we determine cryo-EM structures of XBB.1.5, XBB.1.16 and EG.5 spike (S) ectodomains to reveal enhanced occupancy of the receptor inaccessible closed state. Interprotomer receptor binding domain (RBD) interactions previously observed in BA.1 and BA.2 were retained to reinforce the 3-RBD-down state. Improved stability of XBB.1.5 and XBB.1.16 RBD compensated for loss of stability caused by early Omicron mutations, while the F456L substitution reduced EG.5 RBD stability. Long-range impacts of S1 subunit mutations affected conformation and epitope presentation in the S2 subunit. Taken together, our results feature a theme of iterative optimization of S protein stability as Omicron continues to evolve, while maintaining high affinity receptor binding and bolstering immune evasion.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.12.580004v1" target="_blank">SARS-CoV-2 Omicron lineage XBB spike structures, conformations, antigenicity, and receptor recognition</a>
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<li><strong>Identification of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro inhibitors through deep reinforcement learning for de novo drug design and computational chemistry approaches</strong> -
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Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused a global pandemic of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) since its emergence in December 2019. As of January 2024, there has been over 774 million reported cases and 7 million deaths worldwide. While vaccination efforts have been successful in reducing the severity of the disease and decreasing the transmission rate, the development of effective therapeutics against SARS-CoV-2 remains a critical need. The main protease (Mpro) of SARS-CoV-2 is an essential enzyme required for viral replication and has been identified as a promising target for drug development. In this study, we report the identification of novel Mpro inhibitors, using a combination of deep reinforcement learning for de novo drug design with 3D pharmacophore/shape-based alignment and privileged fragment match count scoring components followed by hit expansions and molecular docking approaches. Our experimentally validated results show that 3 novel series exhibit potent inhibitory activity against SARS-CoV-2 Mpro, with IC50 values ranging from 1.3 uM to 2.3 uM and a high degree of selectivity. These findings represent promising starting points for the development of new antiviral therapies against COVID-19.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.12.579977v1" target="_blank">Identification of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro inhibitors through deep reinforcement learning for de novo drug design and computational chemistry approaches</a>
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<li><strong>Infer metabolic directions and magnitudes from moment differences of mass-weighted intensity distributions</strong> -
<div>
Metabolic pathways are fundamental maps in biochemistry that detail how molecules are transformed through various reactions. Metabolomics refers to the large-scale study of small molecules. High-throughput, untargeted, mass spectrometry-based metabolomics experiments typically depend on libraries for structural annotation, which is necessary for pathway analysis. However, only a small fraction of spectra can be matched to known structures in these libraries and only a portion of annotated metabolites can be associated with specific pathways, considering that numerous pathways are yet to be discovered. The complexity of metabolic pathways, where a single compound can play a part in multiple pathways, poses an additional challenge. This study introduces a different concept: mass spectra distribution, which is the empirical distribution of the intensities times their associated m/z values. Analysis of solarization, COVID-19, and mouse brain datasets shows that by estimating the differences of the point estimations of these distributions, it becomes possible to infer the metabolic directions and magnitudes without requiring knowledge of the exact chemical structures of these compounds and their related pathways. The overall metabolic vector map, named as vectome, has the potential to bypass the current bottleneck and provide fresh insights into metabolomics studies. This brief report thus provides a mathematical framing for a classic biological concept.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.12.579906v1" target="_blank">Infer metabolic directions and magnitudes from moment differences of mass-weighted intensity distributions</a>
</div></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Safety and Immunogenicity of a Sub-unit Protein CD40.RBDv Bivalent COVID-19 Vaccine, Adjuvanted or Not, as a Booster in Volunteers.</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: CD40.RBDv vaccin (SARS-Cov2 Vaccin) <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: ANRS, Emerging Infectious Diseases; LinKinVax; Vaccine Research Institute (VRI), France <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>ADJUVANT TREATMENT TO REDUCE CARDIOVASCULAR RISK IN PATIENTS WITH LONG COVID: HIGH-DEFINITION TRANSCRANIAL DIRECT CURRENT STIMULATION (HD-TDCS) AND CHLORELLA PYREINOIDOSA</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Cardiovascular Diseases; Long Covid19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Other: High Definition-transcranial Direct Current Stimulation; Dietary Supplement: Chlorella Pyreinodosa <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Federal University of Paraíba; City University of New York <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>SGB for COVID-induced Parosmia</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19-Induced Parosmia <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: Stellate Ganglion Block; Drug: Placebo Sham Injection <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Washington University School of Medicine <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>Investigating the Effectiveness of Vimida</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Long COVID; Post COVID-19 Condition <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: vimida <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Gaia AG; Medical School Hamburg; Institut Long-Covid Rostock <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>Effects of Physiotherapy Via Video Calls on Cardiopulmonary Functions, Physical Function, Cognitive Function, Activity Daily Livings, and Quality of Life in Patients With COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19; Long COVID-19; Cardiopulmonary Function; Physical Function <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Exercise training <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Chulabhorn Hospital <br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Acute Cardiovascular Responses to a Single Exercise Session in Patients With Post-COVID-19 Syndrome</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Exercise session; Behavioral: Control session <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: University of Nove de Julho <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>Reducing Respiratory Virus Transmission in Bangladeshi Classrooms</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: SARS-CoV2 Infection; Influenza Viral Infections; Respiratory Viral Infection <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Device: Box Fan; Device: UV Germicidal Irradiation Lamp Unit; Device: Combined: Box Fan and UV Germicidal Irradiation Lamp Units <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Stanford University; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh <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>SMILE: Clinical Trial to Evaluate Mindfulness as Intervention for Racial and Ethnic Populations During COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Anxiety; COVID-19 Pandemic <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Mindfulness <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD); RTI International <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Study to Learn About a Combined COVID-19 and Influenza Shot in Healthy Adults</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Influenza, Human; SARS-CoV-2 Infection; COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: BNT162b2 (Omi XBB.1.5)/RIV; Biological: BNT162b2 (Omi XBB.1.5); Biological: RIV; Other: Normal saline placebo <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Pfizer <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>The Effects of Nutritional Intervention on Health Parameters in Participants With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Diabetes Mellitus Type 2; Diabetes Mellitus Type 2 in Obese; Diabetes; Diabetes Mellitus Non-insulin-dependent; Hypertension; Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Nutritional Intervention <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Sao Jose do Rio Preto Medical School; Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo <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>The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Orthopedic Trauma Management</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Trauma; COVID-19 Pandemic <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Other: epidemyolojical <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Bakirkoy Dr. Sadi Konuk Research and Training Hospital <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>Open-label, Multi-centre, Non-Inferiority Study of Safety and Immunogenicity of BIMERVAX for the Prevention of COVID-19 in Adolescents From 12 Years to Less Than 18 Years of Age.</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: SARS CoV 2 Infection <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: BIMERVAX <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Hipra Scientific, S.L.U; Veristat, Inc.; VHIR; Asphalion <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>A Study of Amantadine for Cognitive Dysfunction in Patients With Long-Covid</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Long COVID; Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: Amantadine; Other: Physical, Occupational, Speech Therapy; Other: Provider Counseling; Other: Medications for symptoms management <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center <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>An isothermal calorimetry assay for determining steady state kinetic and enzyme inhibition parameters for SARS-CoV-2 3CL-protease</strong> - This manuscript describes the application of Isothermal Titration Calorimetry (ITC) to characterize the kinetics of 3CL ^(pro) from the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoronaVirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) and its inhibition by Ensitrelvir, a known non-covalent inhibitor. 3CL ^(pro) is the main protease that plays a crucial role of producing the whole array of proteins necessary for the viral infection that caused the spread of COVID-19, responsible for millions of deaths worldwide as well as global…</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>Identification of new pharmacophore against SARS-CoV-2 spike protein by multi-fold computational and biochemical techniques</strong> - COVID-19 appeared as a highly contagious disease after its outbreak in December 2019 by the virus, named SARS-CoV-2. The threat, which originated in Wuhan, China, swiftly became an international emergency. Among different genomic products, spike protein of virus plays a crucial role in the initiation of the infection by binding to the human lung cells, therefore, SARS-CoV-2’s spike protein is a promising therapeutic target. Using a combination of a structure-based virtual screening and…</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>Calpain-2 mediates SARS-CoV-2 entry via regulating ACE2 levels</strong> - Since the beginning of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, much effort has been dedicated to identifying effective antivirals against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). A number of calpain inhibitors show excellent antiviral activities against SARS-CoV-2 by targeting the viral main protease (M^(pro)), which plays an essential role in processing viral polyproteins. In this study, we found that calpain inhibitors potently inhibited the infection of 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>Combination of Polygonatum Rhizoma and Scutellaria baicalensis triggers apoptosis through downregulation of PON<sub>3</sub> -induced mitochondrial damage and endoplasmic reticulum stress in A549 cells</strong> - CONCLUSION: SP inhibits proliferation of lung cancer A549 cells by downregulating PON(3) -induced apoptosis in the mitochondrial and ER pathways.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Omicron BA.4/5 neutralization and cell-mediated immune responses in relation to baseline immune status and breakthrough infection among PLWH: A follow-up cohort study</strong> - There is a paucity of data on hybrid immunity (vaccination plus breakthrough infection [BI]), especially cell-mediated responses to Omicron among immunosuppressed patients. We aim to investigate humoral and cellular responses to Omicron BA.4/5 among people living with HIV (PLWH) with/without BIs, the most prevalent variant of concern after the reopening of China. Based on our previous study, we enrolled 77 PLWH with baseline immune status of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Low pre-existing endemic human coronavirus (HCoV-NL63)-specific T cell frequencies are associated with impaired SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell responses in people living with HIV</strong> - CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that the decrease in SARS-CoV-2 specific T cell responses in PLWH may be attributable to reduced frequencies of pre-existing cross-reactive responses. However, HIV infection minimally affected the quality and magnitude of humoral responses, and this could explain why the risk of severe COVID-19 in PLWH is highly heterogeneous.</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>Nebulized pH-Responsive Nanospray Combined with Pentoxifylline and Edaravone to Lungs for Efficient Treatments of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome</strong> - The COVID-19 pandemic has become an unprecedented global medical emergency, resulting in more than 5 million deaths. Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) caused by COVID-19, characterized by the release of a large number of pro-inflammatory cytokines and the production of excessive toxic ROS, is the most common serious complication leading to death. To develop new strategies for treating ARDS caused by COVID-19, a mouse model of ARDS was established by using lipopolysaccharide (LPS)….</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>Influenza vaccination during the 2021/22 season: A data-linkage test-negative case-control study of effectiveness against influenza requiring emergency care in England and serological analysis of primary care patients</strong> - We present England 2021/22 end-of-season adjusted vaccine effectiveness (aVE) against laboratory confirmed influenza related emergency care use in children aged 1-17 and in adults aged 50+, and serological findings in vaccinated vs unvaccinated adults by hemagglutination inhibition assay. Influenza vaccination has been routinely offered to all children aged 2-10 years and adults aged 65 years + in England. In 2021/22, the offer was extended to children to age 15 years, and adults aged 50-64…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Evaluation of molecular mechanisms of riboflavin anti-COVID-19 action reveals anti-inflammatory efficacy rather than antiviral activity</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: It is concluded that riboflavin reveals anti-inflammatory rather than antiviral activity for SARS-CoV-2 infection.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>An enhanced broad-spectrum peptide inhibits Omicron variants in vivo</strong> - The continual emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants of concern (VOCs) poses a major challenge to vaccines and antiviral therapeutics due to their extensive evasion of immunity. Aiming to develop potent and broad-spectrum anticoronavirus inhibitors, we generated A1-(GGGGS)7-HR2m (A1L35HR2m) by introducing an angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2)-derived peptide A1 to the N terminus of the viral HR2-derived peptide HR2m through a long flexible linker,…</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>Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) as a therapeutic agent of inflammatory disease and infectious COVID-19 virus: live or dead mesenchymal?</strong> - The COVID-19 infection is a worldwide disease that causes numerous immune-inflammatory disorders, tissue damage, and lung dysfunction. COVID-19 vaccines, including those from Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Sinopharm, are available globally as effective interventions for combating the disease. The severity of COVID-19 can be most effectively reduced by mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) because they possess anti-inflammatory activity and can reverse lung dysfunction. MSCs can be harvested from various…</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>Genetic justification of COVID-19 patient outcomes using DERGA, a novel data ensemble refinement greedy algorithm</strong> - Complement inhibition has shown promise in various disorders, including COVID-19. A prediction tool including complement genetic variants is vital. This study aims to identify crucial complement-related variants and determine an optimal pattern for accurate disease outcome prediction. Genetic data from 204 COVID-19 patients hospitalized between April 2020 and April 2021 at three referral centres were analysed using an artificial intelligence-based algorithm to predict disease outcome (ICU vs….</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>Milk Antiviral Proteins and Derived Peptides against Zoonoses</strong> - Milk is renowned for its nutritional richness but also serves as a remarkable reservoir of bioactive compounds, particularly milk proteins and their derived peptides. Recent studies have showcased several robust antiviral activities of these proteins, evidencing promising potential within zoonotic viral diseases. While several publications focus on milk’s bioactivities, antiviral peptides remain largely neglected in reviews. This knowledge is critical for identifying novel research directions…</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 Inhibition of Serine Proteases by Serpins Is Augmented by Negatively Charged Heparin: A Concise Review of Some Clinically Relevant Interactions</strong> - Serine proteases are members of a large family of hydrolytic enzymes in which a particular serine residue in the active site performs an essential role as a nucleophile, which is required for their proteolytic cleavage function. The array of functions performed by serine proteases is vast and includes, among others, the following: (i) the ability to fight infections; (ii) the activation of blood coagulation or blood clot lysis systems; (iii) the activation of digestive enzymes; and (iv)…</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 Narrative Review: The Role of NETs in Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome/Acute Lung Injury</strong> - Nowadays, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) still has a high mortality rate, and the alleviation and treatment of ARDS remains a major research focus. There are various causes of ARDS, among which pneumonia and non-pulmonary sepsis are the most common. Trauma and blood transfusion can also cause ARDS. In ARDS, the aggregation and infiltration of neutrophils in the lungs have a great influence on the development of the disease. Neutrophils regulate inflammatory responses through various…</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Tangled Fates of Fani Willis and Her Biggest Case</strong> - Will the Fulton County D.A.’s “clandestine” relationship derail her effort to prosecute Trump? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-south/the-tangled-fates-of-fani-willis-and-her-biggest-case">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Is the Media Prepared for an Extinction-Level Event?</strong> - Ads are scarce, search and social traffic is dying, and readers are burned out. The future will require fundamentally rethinking the press’s relationship to its audience. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-weekend-essay/is-the-media-prepared-for-an-extinction-level-event">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Friendship Challenge</strong> - How envy destroyed the perfect connection between two teen-age girls. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/02/12/the-friendship-challenge">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Art World Before and After Thelma Golden, by Calvin Tomkins</strong> - When Golden was a young curator in the nineties, her shows, centering Black artists, were unprecedented. Today, those artists are the stars of the art market. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/02/12/the-art-world-before-and-after-thelma-golden">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Teen’s Fatal Plunge Into the London Underworld</strong> - After Zac Brettler mysteriously plummeted into the Thames, his grieving parents were shocked to learn that he’d been posing as an oligarch’s son. Would the police help them solve the puzzle of his death? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/02/12/a-teens-fatal-plunge-into-the-london-underworld">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Why the marriage rate is falling faster for some</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A photo of a woman wearing a 70s-era bridal gown and veil. A crying eye and a happy Black family within a lavender teardrop shape are collaged on top of the woman’s image." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/BW-pT8dl7IQ9le7Po50OFMaQygg=/243x0:1683x1080/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73138361/Vox_BlackLoveMarraige_BrittanyHollowayBrown_Final.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Brittany Holloway-Brown for Vox
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
How America has made it harder for Black people to marry.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XyJQTN">
Romantic relationships are in a weird place right now.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iQi4Rs">
Sure, I have anecdotal evidence; I could open my phone and see a dating app horror story in any one of my group chats.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UXFMj9">
But I don’t have to take you through the dating woes of DC 30-somethings because data supports this too. Statistically, things are shifting. <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/06/28/a-record-high-share-of-40-year-olds-in-the-us-have-never-been-married/">According to Pew Research</a>, back in 1980 about 6 percent of Americans aged 40 and over had never been married. Now that number sits around 25 percent. If you’ve looked at the op-ed pages of any major newspaper, you’ve probably seen the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/17/opinion/marriage-happiness-career.html">hand-wringing</a> about this <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/11/22/marriage-polarization-dating-trump/">falling</a> marriage <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/for-long-term-health-and-happiness-marriage-still-matters-86114ced">rate</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HQ3qCk">
If you are or know a single person, this probably doesn’t come as too much of a <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@superkeara/video/7291838261268450602">surprise</a>. But as I was looking at the numbers, one thing did surprise me: just how much lower the rate is for Black people. It’s always been lower, but the gap is now huge.
</p>
<aside id="ddjn6w">
<div>
</div>
</aside>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="v79DuL">
Back in the ’70s, a little over 20 percent of Black women had never been married. Now it’s nearly <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2022/07/marriage-prevalence-for-black-adults-varies-by-state.html">48 percent</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qQUpDZ">
Why do Black people get married less, and why does it matter?
</p>
<h3 id="27AF9F">
Forbidden love
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OuZwIJ">
To answer that question for today’s episode of <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-weeds/id1042433083"><em>The Weeds</em></a> — the latest in our “Black Women And …” series that looks at how <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy">policies</a> are impacting Black women in particular — I spoke with Dianne Stewart, the author of <em>Black Women, Black Love: America’s War on African American Marriage</em>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IkZVBP">
She argues that policy has made partnering especially difficult for Black people. Her answer centers around this idea that, for a long time, Black love in this country was forbidden — and that it still is.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cA2B10">
It’s a statement that may feel provocative on its face, but Stewart argues that marriage is a civil right Black people were initially denied in America, and policy hasn’t done enough to catch up.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jkeEJk">
Though enslaved people often had informal marriages (there’s a reason it’s called <a href="https://www.brides.com/jumping-the-broom-5071336">jumping the broom</a>), their unions weren’t legally recognized. Slave owners often separated families through sales, and would choose partners for enslaved people at will. This changed in 1865 with the end of slavery and the passage of the 13th Amendment, but after Emancipation, many families struggled to reunite. As late as the early 20th century, formerly enslaved people were <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/09/07/my-mother-was-sold-from-me-after-slavery-the-desperate-search-for-loved-ones-in-last-seen-ads/">putting out notices</a> to find family members they had been separated from.
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Barriers to partnership continued into the early 20th century. Until 1968, welfare operated with “<a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/392/309/#tab-opinion-1947507">man in the house</a>” policies: If a woman was partnered with — or even dating — an able-bodied man, a family could no longer receive benefits. The thought process was that if a man was living in the house, then he should be able to fully provide for his family.
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This disincentivized cohabitation and marriage for lower-income couples — a reality that disproportionately impacted Black families because many didn’t have wealth to begin with. The practice ended in 1968 with <em>King v. Smith</em>, when the <a href="https://www.vox.com/scotus">Supreme Court</a> ruled that the practice was unconstitutional.
</p>
<h3 id="pjoRFh">
How this plays out today
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nzMYgs">
While many of these archaic policies no longer exist, their impacts are still felt today, and new policies have contributed as well.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uWEK9c">
The racism entrenched by slavery, for instance, plays a role. Take colorism, the phenomenon of discriminating against darker-skinned people that has its roots in colonialism and slavery. Historically, lighter-skinned people have been privileged because they’re closer to whiteness. That continues today, within larger <a href="https://qz.com/1724590/colorism-influences-probability-of-going-to-jail-new-study-finds">institutions</a>, and also <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/apr/09/colorism-racism-why-black-people-discriminate-among-ourselves">within Black communities</a>. In 2009, a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167268109001577">study</a> found that for women under 30, lighter-skinned Black women were married at twice the rate of their darker-skinned counterparts and 17 percent more than Black women with medium complexions.
</p>
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For those seeking out relationships with Black men, there are also just fewer of those men in the dating pool. In 2021, Black men were incarcerated at <a href="https://19thnews.org/2023/10/black-men-women-incarceration-rates-criminal-justice-reform/">over five times</a> the rate of their white counterparts. Across race, women are earning college degrees at a <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/09/26/women-now-outnumber-men-in-the-u-s-college-educated-labor-force/">higher rate</a> than men, making it difficult for women who partner with men to find partners with the same educational background and economic status. Black women make up <a href="https://www.essence.com/news/new-study-black-women-most-educated/">66 percent</a> of all African American bachelor’s degree holders, and those with degrees are <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/black-women-are-earning-more-college-degrees-but-that-alone-wont-close-race-gaps/">more likely</a> to marry someone with less education. College doesn’t equate to more wealth. The median <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/college-was-supposed-to-close-the-wealth-gap-for-black-americans-the-opposite-happened-11628328602">net worth</a> for college-educated Black households is $8,200; it’s $138,000 for white households with the same education.
</p>
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This problem is exacerbated for Black people when you take into account what Stewart calls “wealth spread”: Black people who accumulate wealth are <a href="https://crr.bc.edu/black-americans-generous-to-relatives/">more likely</a> to spend that money helping family members with less income. I call it the <a href="https://www.themarysue.com/soul-food-teri/">Teri Joseph effect</a>. This makes a difference now that many consider marriage a <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/03/incredible-everlasting-institution-marriage/555320/">capstone of adulthood rather than a cornerstone of it</a>; Marriage is no longer that act that launches you into adulthood, but something you do when you feel emotionally and financially ready.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OuaEDt">
The statistics might not seem great if marriage is something you desire. But if you’re looking for love, all is not lost! Sure, the marriage rate is down, but that also means it was up at one point: Numbers are ever-evolving.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uN08yT">
There are policies and solutions that could help change all this. For more on that — and a defense of the institution of marriage — <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-weeds/id1042433083">check out my full conversation with Stewart</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VCmOJL">
<em>This story appeared originally in </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/today-explained-podcast"><em><strong>Today, Explained</strong></em></a><em>, Vox’s flagship daily newsletter. </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/pages/today-explained-newsletter-signup"><em><strong>Sign up here for future editions</strong></em></a><em>.</em>
</p></li>
<li><strong>What the 5 love languages get right, and what they get very wrong</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Two silhouetted heads cut out of paper lie on a pink background, facing away from each other and overlapping at the center. The left head is orange and the right head is white. In the center where they overlap, there is a red heart cutout." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/yNKWuY9eZbOBNl0hdAjGuad1cBs=/312x0:5304x3744/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73138324/GettyImages_1394759452.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Carol Yepes via Getty Images
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Don’t think of love as a language. Experts say to think of love as a balanced diet instead.
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As Meyers-Briggs quizzes are to corporate bonding retreats, love languages are to Hinge profiles. They show up again and again on dating sites, and on <a href="https://www.vox.com/relationships">relationship advice</a> forums and social media <a href="https://www.vox.com/internet-culture">memes</a> and debunking podcasts. There is something about the idea of love languages that seems to make people feel very passionately: <em>My love language is words of affirmation. My love language is clean sheets. My boyfriend says he doesn’t have a love language, and I don’t know how to express my love to him. Love languages are bull crap. My love language is hating on love languages</em>.
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These agents of provocation emerged from the mind of Baptist pastor Gary Chapman, author of the 1992 book <a href="https://5lovelanguages.com/store/the-5-love-languages"><em>The 5 Love Languages</em></a>. Chapman developed his theory of love languages while he was offering pastoral care to couples who came to his church looking for support in their marriages. As Chapman sees it, the reason married people fight is that they are each trying to express their love in ways the other person doesn’t understand. It is as if, he explains, they are speaking different languages.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Gm2aMN">
Chapman’s initial modest offering has developed into a full-fledged media universe: <a href="https://5lovelanguages.com/store/the-5-love-languages-of-children"><em>The 5 Love Languages of Children</em></a>, <a href="https://5lovelanguages.com/store/the-5-love-languages-singles-edition"><em>The 5 Love Languages Singles Edition</em></a>, <a href="https://5lovelanguages.com/store/the-5-love-languages-for-men"><em>The 5 Love Languages for Men</em></a>, <a href="https://5lovelanguages.com/store/the-5-love-languages-of-teenagers-2"><em>The 5 Love Languages of Teenagers</em></a>, <a href="https://5lovelanguages.com/store/the-5-love-languages-military-edition"><em>The 5 Love Languages Military Edition</em></a>. <a href="https://5lovelanguages.com/resources/app">There is an app</a>. There are <a href="https://5lovelanguages.com/resources/podcasts">Chapman-hosted podcasts</a>.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yh5PRy">
The basic premise of the Chapman universe, however, has a pleasing Hogwarts house-style simplicity. Chapman cataloged five love languages, which he says are all the same for everybody: quality time, physical touch, receiving gifts, acts of service, and words of affirmation. You get one love language as your primary and another as your secondary, like being on the cusp in astrology. You aren’t allowed to have more than that. Ideally, you and your partner should have at least one in common. To pick your language, you take the personality quiz at the back of the book, <a href="https://5lovelanguages.com/quizzes/love-language">now available online</a>.
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For true believers, the love languages are the key to relationship communication. Say one person feels loved when they’re cuddling (physical touch), while their partner considers cleaning the house (acts of service) to be the ultimate expression of their affection. Both of them might feel as though they’re putting in all the work for the relationship and as though the other person is neglecting them. Chapman’s love language concept gives both parties a way of talking about what they’re missing from one another without accusations.
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Critics, however, point to Chapman’s rigid and conservative gender politics (most prominent in the earliest editions of the book) and the lack of scientific basis for his theories. Love languages, they warn, can be too inflexible to be practical.
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“If someone identifies their primary love language as ‘gifts,’ they might unconsciously downplay the significance of spending quality time, being physically affectionate, engaging in deep conversations, and so on,” says Gideon Park, a co-author of <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09637214231217663">a recent psychology paper</a> examining the academic research on love languages. “This could create a narrow understanding of what constitutes love, hindering the richness and diversity of emotional connections.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tGndHI">
In the name of richness and diversity, let’s take a close look at the concept of love languages. Here’s what they get right, and what they get very wrong.
</p>
<h3 id="VF4nae">
The scientific research into love languages is mixed at best
</h3>
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<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09637214231217663">The paper Park worked on under lead author Emily Impett</a> lays out three foundational tenets of <em>The 5 Love Languages</em>, which the researchers then checked against existing relationship science research. The three tenets are the basis of Chapman’s argument: There are exactly five love languages, everyone has exactly one primary love language, and when you match languages with your partner, you’re happier. According to the literature review from Impett et al., there does not seem to be empirical evidence for any of these three principles.
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The paper finds few consistent results between studies about how people experience love. Still, when researchers ask people about what makes them feel loved, the reasons they list don’t necessarily have to do with ideas like “words of affirmation” or “acts of service.” <a href="https://www.psychinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Vol18-2.pdf#page=50">One study in 2013 found</a> that their subjects listed acts that sorted themselves into categories of sacrificial, intimate, quality time, supportive, and comforting love. <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0265407510378125">Another study in 2010</a> found that subjects thought it was important when their partners made an effort to get to know their friends and talked about the best ways to deal with fights.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="awjICj">
Impett et al. argue that it’s a losing battle to try to fit the way people love into preexisting categories. “A more comprehensive understanding of how people communicate love,” they write, “would require a bottom-up approach.” A good researcher would let people tell them what they thought love languages looked like, rather than imposing their own categories on their subjects.
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When researchers do work with Chapman’s five categories, they tend to find that people aren’t willing to confine themselves to one primary love language. When people are asked to rate the importance of each love language on a scale of 1 to 5, they tend to give all 4s and 5s. If you try to force their hand by designing a test that makes them choose one, the same person will end up with a different answer depending on how you administer the test.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VlnTgP">
Finally, researchers consistently find that there’s no correlation between matching love languages with your partner and reporting higher relationship satisfaction. It simply doesn’t seem to matter whether you and your partner are native speakers of the same love language.
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What does seem to matter is whether you and your partners are willing to learn each other’s languages. Two <a href="https://openurl.ebsco.com/EPDB%3Agcd%3A1%3A12682337/detailv2?sid=ebsco%3Aplink%3Ascholar&amp;id=ebsco%3Agcd%3A146388322&amp;crl=c">different</a> <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0269429">studies</a> have found that when you perceive your partner as speaking your love language well, your relationship satisfaction goes up. Although Impett et al. critique the methodology of those studies, they seem to point to a pretty basic conclusion: If you and your partner have thought about how to express affection for one another, and you do it on a regular basis, you’re likely to be pretty happy. Used well, Chapman’s love languages can be an effective tool for getting there.
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<h3 id="JAB1uE">
Chapman’s gender and sexual politics are pretty worrisome
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ePRKx0">
Chapman has never claimed that the love languages are based on any kind of scientifically rigorous process. They have always been an impressionistic tool that comes from the observations he made during his time as a pastor, counseling couples at his Baptist church in North Carolina in the ’80s and ’90s. That’s a specific political and cultural context, and it informs the way the theory of the love languages developed.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="R0k0s8">
In the 1992 edition of <em>The 5 Love Languages</em>, Chapman is explicit about the demographics of the couples he worked with. They are white, heterosexual, conservative Christian couples. The book is structured under the assumption that the wife will stay at home and care for the house and children while the husband goes to work to provide for her. It is a thoroughly heterosexual, monogamous book that chooses not to acknowledge the existence of queer people, to say nothing of poly or <a href="https://www.vox.com/lgbtq">trans</a> people.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dhGmOB">
As the debunking podcast <a href="https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/if-books-could-kill/the-5-love-languages-_ldDXkQjS4i/#transcript"><em>If Books Could Kill</em></a> laid out in April 2023, most of the couple fights Chapman uses as examples tend to involve wives nagging their husbands to take care of chores. In one case, Chapman explains to a henpecked husband that while he thinks the best way to express love is through sex (physical touch), his wife only experiences love if he helps her with vacuuming (acts of service). If the husband would just help out with vacuuming once in a while, Chapman goes on, the wife will feel just as loved as the husband does when they have sex. The idea that the wife might be interested in sex but can’t focus on it while never-ending housework piles up all around her is not one Chapman engages with.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5fBnni">
The most infamous of these examples comes with the case study of Ann, who goes to Chapman for guidance in dealing with her husband’s cruelty. “Is it possible to love someone you hate?” she asks Chapman. In response, he gives her Bible passages about loving one’s enemies and tells her that her husband’s love language is probably physical touch. In order to save the marriage, he advises her, she should stop all complaints about her husband and start initiating sex at least twice a week.
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Ann tells Chapman that sex with her husband is difficult for her because she feels so estranged from her husband. When they’re intimate, she says, she feels “used rather than loved.” Lots of women feel this way, Chapman tells her. Her Christian faith will help her through it. Ann does as Chapman tells her to, and the marriage is saved.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8hiAb7">
In later editions, Chapman revised this case study. (<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2024/01/15/love-languages-lack-of-research/">He told the Washington Post that</a> “physical abuse today is far more evident and apparent than it was when I wrote the book.”) In the new version, Chapman tells Ann to be more physically affectionate with her husband — ruffle his hair, kiss him on the cheek — and perhaps consider working her way up to initiating sex when their relationship has recovered some.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CXYLBA">
The new advice is less blatantly misogynistic than the advice of the first edition, but both contain the same underlying logic: If a woman’s husband is emotionally abusive toward her, it is her responsibility to coddle him and mollify him until he decides to treat her better. In real life, however, the only person who can control the behavior of an abuser is the abuser themselves.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iG68lq">
Some of this ideology has made its way into the structure of the love language model. In their paper, Impett et al. note that some studies associate high relationship satisfaction with high respect for each other’s autonomy and personal goals outside of the relationship. Such egalitarian goals do not appear anywhere in Chapman’s models.
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<h3 id="htHvJD">
Instead of the love languages, consider aiming for a love diet
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WYyjJJ">
The love languages might be a flawed concept, but they speak deeply to thousands of people. Partly, that’s because people love a personality quiz, and the love languages come with one. But Chapman also had a key insight that he was able to express with the straightforward and intuitive metaphor of different languages: <em>The way that you express and experience love might be different from the way your partner expresses and experiences love</em>. That’s a valuable idea.
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“If I had to pick one reason why I think many couples find Chapman’s book to be helpful,” says Park, “it is not because they learned their own or their partner’s love language but because it gets people to identify any currently unmet needs in their relationship and opens up lines of communication to address those needs.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4uwiwK">
Still, the research suggests that adhering rigidly to the love language model won’t serve you well over time, in large part because it doesn’t match how human relationships work. We love in many ways, not just one.
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“It is very likely that in one situation, someone might need a certain type of love or support,” says Park. “Perhaps after losing out on a promotion, you just need your partner to listen and provide you with words of affirmation. Maybe on an anniversary dinner, affection makes you feel special. Or during a particularly stressful time at work, having a partner take on extra household tasks is the best way to support you.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xGlkFV">
In their paper, Impett et al. suggest replacing the metaphor of the love languages with a new one: the love diet.
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“People should make sure they have a nutritionally balanced relationship,” they argue.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="viWdgx">
Under this metaphor, choosing one primary love language is something like a crash diet where you eat nothing but fruit, even though your body also needs carbs and fats and proteins to survive. For Impett et al., healthy relationships should prioritize quality time <em>and</em> physical touch, compliments <em>and</em> presents <em>and</em> helping each other out, plus all the other categories of love that don’t fit into Chapman’s model. “If they feel that something is missing,” the paper continues, “they could discuss that imbalance (unmet need) with their partner.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="v6W3Tk">
Gary Chapman’s five love languages taught a lot of people how to start talking about their needs. It might be time for the conversation to evolve — perhaps over dinner.
</p></li>
<li><strong>Carmakers pumped the brakes on hybrid cars too soon</strong> -
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<img alt="The tailgate of a Ford Maverick hybrid pickup truck at the Washington Auto Show in 2024." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/JANsfUQ2HPJ8n5yqri0Tn0FmVVc=/0x0:4843x3632/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73138206/DSC01258.0.jpeg"/>
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The Ford’s Maverick Hybrid pickup truck saw a huge jump in sales last year. | Umair Irfan/Vox
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
In the age of electric vehicles, the hybrid is still a contender.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZZf4ps">
Are <a href="https://www.vox.com/electric-vehicles">electric vehicles</a> hitting a pothole?
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Ford announced last month that it was <a href="https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/news/2024/01/19/ford-adds-third-crew-to-meet-demand-for-bronco-and-ranger--reduc.html">cutting production</a> of its F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck. <a href="https://qz.com/gm-is-slowing-ev-production-amid-labor-strikes-and-evo-1850954588">General Motors</a> and <a href="https://www.automotivedive.com/news/volkswagen-layoffs-ev-transition-no-longer-competitive-vw/700969/">Volkswagen</a> last year said they would reduce electric vehicle manufacturing. All-electric and plug-in hybrid carmakers are struggling too, with layoffs or slowing assembly lines at companies like <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/byd-reduces-shifts-two-ev-assembly-plants-china-sources-2023-03-21/">BYD</a>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/lucid-cuts-full-year-production-forecast-2023-11-07/">Lucid</a>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/electric-vehicle-maker-polestar-cut-around-450-jobs-globally-2024-01-26/">Polestar</a>, and <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2023/12/01/ev-startup-fisker-cut-its-2023-production-target-for-the-fourth-time/">Fisker</a>. <a href="https://www.vox.com/tesla">Tesla</a>, the world’s <a href="https://money.usnews.com/investing/articles/the-10-most-valuable-auto-companies-in-the-world">most valuable car company</a>, lost <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-tumbles-after-ceo-elon-musk-warns-slower-growth-2024-2024-01-25/">$80 billion in value</a> in January — 12 percent of its market capitalization — after CEO <a href="https://www.vox.com/elon-musk">Elon Musk</a> projected lower sales this year.
</p>
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Meanwhile, EV users are running into some of the harsh realities of living on electrons. Car rental company Hertz last month said that it was <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2024/01/11/hertz-sell-evs-tesla-fleet-gm-polestar-gas/">selling off 20,000 electric cars</a> — one-third of its electric fleet — and replacing them with gasoline-powered vehicles, blaming low demand and high operating costs. Hertz is having trouble finding buyers and expects to take a $245 million hit.
</p>
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Drivers around the United States have also run into some unexpected problems. Some EV owners have experienced <a href="https://www.popsci.com/technology/ev-software-bugs/">software glitches</a>, and manufacturers have had to delay deliveries to squash bugs. Public EV charging stations continue to suffer from <a href="https://www.vox.com/climate/23589785/ev-dc-fast-charging-station-battery-electric-tesla-rivian">reliability problems</a>, which recent extreme weather has made impossible to ignore: A sudden <a href="https://www.weather.gov/ict/2024_cold">Arctic cold blast</a> across the country in January left EV drivers <a href="https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/electric-vehicle-owners-face-huge-challenges-amid-chicago-cold-snap/3328085/">waiting hours at charging stations</a> as the frigid temperatures reduced battery capacities and caused chargers to malfunction.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mt19e8">
However, the numbers show that electrification is nonetheless charging ahead. Americans bought <a href="https://www.coxautoinc.com/market-insights/q4-2023-ev-sales/">almost 1.2 million EVs</a> last year — below <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-12/electric-vehicles-look-poised-for-slower-sales-growth-this-year">some forecasts</a>, but still a record high. They now make up 7.6 percent of the US vehicle market.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A Tesla Cybertruck sits on the show floor at the Washington Auto Show." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/j-xyKTfjo-kikex5D4qoEmVIwrw=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25283912/PXL_20240125_224503341.jpeg"/> <cite>Umair Irfan/Vox</cite>
<figcaption>
The electric Tesla Cybertruck began deliveries in 2023.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qTf34S">
So Americans aren’t slamming the brakes on electric cars so much as letting up on the gas pedal, and the market could pick up some speed again this year. Ford noted that it’s still expecting growth in EV sales around the world in 2024 and is developing new electric models.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qbfWVF">
Manufacturers are waging a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/tesla-electric-vehicle-sales-2023-97648bc3624cfd2df3080e9a6dde8b1d">price war</a>, so new electrics are getting cheaper. While they’re still pricier than their gasoline equivalents, there are lots of used EVs available — many still under warranty. Hertz is currently selling its used <a href="https://www.hertzcarsales.com/rent2buy-inventory/index.htm?geoZip=20008&amp;geoRadius=0&amp;search=Tesla&amp;sortBy=internetPrice%20asc">Tesla Model 3s for less than $23,000</a>, and you could get one for thousands of dollars less if you qualify for <a href="https://www.vox.com/climate/23762849/electric-vehicle-ev-used-battery-tax-credit-tesla-ford">EV tax credits and rebates</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ofPspG">
Still, electric cars aren’t on pace for what is ostensibly their ultimate goal: mitigating <a href="https://www.vox.com/climate">climate change</a>. Global greenhouse gas emissions reached a <a href="https://sustainability.stanford.edu/news/global-carbon-emissions-fossil-fuels-reached-record-high-2023">record high last year</a>. In the US, <a href="https://www.vox.com/transportation">transportation</a> is their <a href="https://rhg.com/research/us-greenhouse-gas-emissions-2023/">largest source</a>, accounting for 29 percent of overall emissions. Light-duty vehicles — sedans, crossovers, SUVs, pickup trucks — make up 17 percent of total emissions. The US has committed to cutting its carbon pollution by about <a href="https://www.vox.com/22397364/earth-day-us-climate-change-summit-biden-john-kerry-commitment-2030-zero-emissions">38 percent below current levels</a> by 2030. Nine states now have deadlines for <a href="https://money.com/states-banning-gas-powered-cars/">banning sales of new fossil fuel-powered cars</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kwNIfU">
Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency <a href="https://www.vox.com/climate/23680273/epa-emissions-rule-electric-vehicles-ev-pollution-climate-regulation-fuel-economy">proposed rules</a> that would effectively require two-thirds of cars sold in the US to produce zero emissions. Electrifying cars is an important step, but many drivers have real and perceived concerns about giving up on gasoline entirely: price, performance, range anxiety, reliability, and charging infrastructure.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tSHjJe">
So it’s no surprise that hybrid cars — models that blend electric and gasoline power — are more popular than ever, even as some manufacturers have begun pulling them from their lineups. “The number of hybrid model offerings declined in 2023, but sales increased significantly across existing models,” according to the <a href="https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=61344">Energy Information Administration</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Z39v30">
Americans are <a href="https://www.anl.gov/sites/www/files/2024-01/Total%20Sales%20for%20Website_December%202023.pdf">buying around as many hybrid</a> cars as fully electric vehicles, and demand is growing.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Graph showing light-duty vehicle sales in the US. In 2023, 84% were nonhybrid internal combustion and 16% were EV and hybrid, of which hybrid and battery electric were each around 7% and plug-in hybrid were about 2%." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/HJ130SP3yDuaj6uT5hhWQ4OYX7E=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25283867/Screen_Shot_2024_02_13_at_11.25.10_AM.png"/> <cite><a class="ql-link" href="https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=61344" target="_blank">Energy Information Administration</a></cite>
<figcaption>
Hybrid cars are about as popular as EVs in the US.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Exg6ky">
The appeal of a hybrid is intuitive. But whether hybrids get us to our goals or become a time-wasting detour depends on how technology advances, how policies evolve, and how the market changes.
</p>
<h3 id="mu43S3">
Electric vehicles did break some promises — and some hearts
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FAujRq">
EVs hold a lot of promise. A fully electric car operates at <a href="https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/atv-ev.shtml">77 percent</a> efficiency, whereas only <a href="https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/atv.shtml">12 to 30 percent</a> of the energy from gasoline actually goes toward moving the car, with the rest mostly wasted as heat. Though it’s only as clean as the grid that powers it, an EV charged up by a coal power plant <a href="https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/electric-vehicle-myths">still emits less carbon dioxide</a> on balance than an internal combustion engine. And its lifetime climate impact is smaller, even accounting for manufacturing.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IdxDjG">
In theory, EVs offer many practical advantages too. Electric drivetrains are usually simpler, with fewer moving parts that can wear out, increasing reliability and reducing maintenance. Driving ranges are increasing all the time, charging times are getting shorter, charging stations are blooming everywhere, and while they tend to be more expensive now, EVs could close the gap with fossil fuel-powered vehicles as they achieve economies of scale.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qHb1tP">
The real world tells a different story.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aq1Nez">
Hertz found that <a href="https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/01/hertz-is-selling-20000-used-evs-due-to-high-repair-costs/">EVs in general</a> and <a href="https://jalopnik.com/advisor/auto-warranty/tesla-maintenance-cost/">Teslas in particular</a> had higher repair costs, about double those of their gasoline counterparts. The company also observed that its customers were <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/27/23934691/hertz-tesla-uber-ev-plans-damage-repair-price-cuts">more likely to damage Teslas</a>, often because they were using them for ride-sharing services.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cMqZDd">
Though EVs tend to have robust warranties — often eight years or more — and fewer components, those parts can be very expensive to replace once out of warranty or when damaged in a collision. A battery pack can cost up to half the price of an electric car, but there aren’t that many mechanics that can fix them, and parts are <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/ev-repair-batteries-expensive-insurance/">hard to find</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xp2XgM">
That means <a href="https://www.vox.com/batteries">batteries</a> are often replaced rather than repaired, and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/scratched-ev-battery-your-insurer-may-have-junk-whole-car-2023-03-20/">insurers often end up totaling EVs</a> that have sustained seemingly minor damage. That raises insurance rates for all EV owners. Meanwhile, some car dealers — which can make as much as <a href="https://www.edmunds.com/car-buying/where-does-the-car-dealer-make-money.html">half of their profits</a> from repairs and maintenance — are <a href="https://www.vox.com/technology/23713040/ev-car-dealer-dealership-electric-sales-gm-ford-tesla-rivian">reluctant to stock EVs</a> on their lots.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BClWty">
Chilly weather has proven to be another challenge. While gasoline-powered cars can lose almost a quarter of their range in the winter, the cold can take a <a href="https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/fuel-economy-cold-weather">41 percent bite</a> out of an EV’s mileage. Even in warm weather, many EVs aren’t living up to their window stickers. Consumer Reports found that half of the 22 EVs they tested <a href="https://www.consumerreports.org/media-room/press-releases/2023/12/consumer-reports-nearly-half-of-evs-in-our-highway-only-range-test-fell-short-of-their-epa-estimates/">fell short of their range estimates</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dBA1eK">
Charging infrastructure isn’t where it needs to be either. In frigid conditions, chargers struggle to pump electrons. Many EV owners top up at home, but those who have tried to reenergize on the road have sometimes found chargers to be scarce, inoperable, or slow. Some EV owners have had their cars <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-owner-stranded-christmas-eve-car-wouldnt-charge-in-cold-2022-12">rendered unusable</a> at public charging stations.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="paCDQx">
And while manufacturers have been cutting EV prices in recent months, they’re still costly. <a href="https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=61004">More than three-quarters of EVs</a> sold last year were classified as luxury vehicles. Many of them were too expensive to qualify for tax breaks and incentives.
</p>
<div id="RXcDKp">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
In December 2023, 77% of BEV sales were categorized as luxury, according to Wards Intelligence. While the precise definition of “luxury” is debatable, luxury vehicle prices clearly skew to the higher end of the market. <a href="https://t.co/avJ0WYDPJD">pic.twitter.com/avJ0WYDPJD</a>
</p>
— Joe DeCarolis (<span class="citation" data-cites="EIA_One">@EIA_One</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/EIA_One/status/1754882962871439409?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 6, 2024</a>
</blockquote></div></li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nOHm60">
Some of this is just growing pains for an industry trying to find its footing in a rapidly changing market, and many of the technical issues are solvable. However, because of these issues, most EV owners haven’t fully committed to electrification: Roughly <a href="https://www.wardsauto.com/dealers/most-ev-buyers-keep-ice-vehicles">85 percent</a> still have a gasoline-powered vehicle as well. <a href="https://energyathaas.wordpress.com/2021/09/20/three-facts-about-evs-and-multi-vehicle-households/">Two-thirds of these households</a> drive the gas-powered car more.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YUPjbE">
And while many prospective buyers say they’re interested in buying an EV, most change course when the time comes to sign the paperwork. A <a href="https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/hybrids-evs/interest-in-electric-vehicles-and-low-carbon-fuels-survey-a8457332578/">2022 survey</a> from Consumer Reports found that 36 percent of Americans were planning or seriously considering buying an electric car, but just <a href="https://cleantechnica.com/2023/02/25/us-electric-car-sales-increased-65-in-2022/">5.7 percent</a> of new cars sold in 2022 and <a href="https://www.coxautoinc.com/market-insights/q4-2023-ev-sales/">7.6 percent in 2023</a> were electric.
</p>
<h3 id="606kyE">
The continuing case for hybrids, explained
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="X0EpPJ">
Hybrid cars and trucks appear to overcome many of the practical challenges that fully electric vehicles currently face. And when it comes to balancing scarce resources, limited public money, and the need to contain climate change, hybrids might be the best way to optimize for all three.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="S1cmC4">
<a href="https://clje.law.harvard.edu/team/ashley-nunes/">Ashley Nunes</a>, a researcher at Harvard Law School who studies technology and economics, explained that if you’re thinking about climate change, you have to consider what kinds of cars you’re subtracting from the market as much as the cars you’re adding. If an electric car replaces an older, dirtier car, then it’s a gain for the climate.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QhSNS0">
But if subsidies and incentives encourage someone to buy an EV as a second car when they wouldn’t otherwise, then that <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-022-00862-3">could be a loss for the environment</a>. With so many new models of EVs targeted at the luxury market and few in more affordable segments, many drivers may choose to hang on to their gasoline cars for longer.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GjLsRt">
“Just because an electric vehicle is cleaner than an internal combustion engine-powered vehicle doesn’t mean that it is better to adopt the electric car,” Nunes said. “Is the goal of the policy to buy electric cars, or is the goal of the policy to reduce emissions?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vVqJNe">
With that in mind, hybrid cars stand a better chance at replacing conventional carbon-spewing vehicles because their barriers to adoption are much lower than full EVs. Hybrids don’t require chargers and drive like conventional cars. More than <a href="https://www.vox.com/climate/23762849/electric-vehicle-ev-used-battery-tax-credit-tesla-ford">two-thirds of cars sold in the US</a> are used, and since hybrids have been on the road for decades, there are plenty of cheap secondhand models for sale.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2plorR">
Hybrid cars come in three main varieties: <a href="https://www.toyota.ie/electrified/hybrid-electric/hybrid-vs-mild-hybrid">mild, full, and plug-in</a>. Mild hybrids have a conventional powertrain and an electric drive system but never run fully electric.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nIQpkY">
A full hybrid (a.k.a. strong hybrid) can run in battery-only mode. Since they still burn some gasoline, one can think of these hybrids as highly efficient gasoline cars rather than EVs, but that’s still an extremely useful trait. Since model year 2004, fuel <a href="https://www.vox.com/economy">economy</a> in the US has increased by 6.7 miles per gallon per car on average and carbon dioxide emissions have fallen by 27 percent, according to the EPA’s latest <a href="https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2023-12/420r23033.pdf">Automotive Trends Report</a>. So until electric vehicles become the dominant form of transportation, <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/23141629/electric-car-ev-gas-mileage-fuel-price-economy-epa-california">increasing fuel efficiency</a> is one of the best ways to reduce carbon dioxide pollution.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="The engine bay of a blue Ford Maverick hybrid truck." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/rqUvDiPnlBHx3lYjgcSwP8yMd8Y=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25283894/DSC01268.jpeg"/> <cite>Umair Irfan/Vox</cite>
<figcaption>
The Ford Maverick hybrid has a conventional gasoline engine under the hood.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="O535fD">
Plug-in hybrids might be the best of all worlds. They can function as fully electric for <a href="https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/hybrids-evs/is-a-plug-in-hybrid-vehicle-right-for-you-a9339147016/">20 to 40 miles</a> at a time. While that’s a fraction of the range of most full EVs, it’s enough to cover the vast majority of car journeys — almost <a href="https://www.energy.gov/eere/vehicles/articles/fotw-1230-march-21-2022-more-half-all-daily-trips-were-less-three-miles-2021">80 percent of daily car trips</a> in the US are less than 10 miles, and fewer than 2 percent are more than 50 miles. Plug-ins also qualify for many of the same tax breaks and incentives as EVs.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ci72nu">
Another factor to consider is that there’s intense <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/29/a-worldwide-lithium-shortage-could-come-as-soon-as-2025.html#:~:text=A%20worldwide%20shortage%20for%20lithium,a%20Fitch%20Solutions%20research%20unit.">competition for the materials</a> to make lithium batteries, which power most electric cars and trucks but also electric bicycles, scooters, and mobile devices. That’s <a href="https://about.bnef.com/blog/lithium-ion-battery-pack-prices-rise-for-first-time-to-an-average-of-151-kwh/">led to some price increases</a> for battery packs and could start to make EVs less affordable if more cells don’t hit the market.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3GFL0O">
Hybrid cars could also yield more carbon reductions per lithium ion cell. Ten plug-in hybrids with a 30-mile range battery could in theory displace more gasoline miles than one 300-mile range EV. Batteries are heavy too, and larger batteries can have diminishing returns on range.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3ydBoc">
On the other hand, the average car in the US has been on the road for <a href="https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a43903366/average-car-age-12-years/">12.5 years</a>, with many reaching <a href="https://fortune.com/2023/05/15/average-age-of-cars-on-u-s-roads-hits-a-record-high-as-soaring-prices-means-people-cant-afford-to-replace-them/">two decades of operation</a>. “It’s not like five years from now we decide EVs are now fine, all those [hybrids] will just disappear off the roads,” said <a href="https://seas.umich.edu/research/faculty/parth-vaishnav">Parth Vaishnav</a>, an assistant professor of sustainable systems at the University of Michigan studying electrification.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Hx1OZt">
So to address climate change and ratchet down emissions as fast as possible, it might still make more sense to invest in full EVs now.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Co6Lc9">
“If you’re optimizing for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, you electrify,” said <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/people/samantha-gross/">Samantha Gross</a>, director of the Energy Security and Climate Initiative at the Brookings Institution. Policymakers thus need to do more to bolster supply chains, deploy reliable chargers, and create incentives to make and sell electrics, not just leave it up to the whims of the market. “It’s a systems question, not just a ‘should we build a vehicle or not’ question,” Gross said.
</p>
<h3 id="VslEDK">
Automakers are taking different routes
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UfrqLw">
While carmakers can build as many EVs and hybrids as they like, it’s still up to customers to buy them. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/28/business/gm-zero-emission-vehicles.html">General Motors</a> committed to going all-electric, but the company announced this year that it is bringing back <a href="https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eenews/2024/01/31/gms-all-in-electric-future-now-includes-gasoline-00138624">plug-in hybrids</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4qgdYt">
“Let me be clear: GM remains committed to eliminating tailpipe emissions from our light-duty vehicles by 2035,” said GM CEO Mary Barra <a href="https://www.edmunds.com/car-news/gm-will-add-phevs-to-lineup.html">during an earnings call</a> last month. “But in the interim, deploying plug-in technology in strategic segments will deliver some of the environmental benefits of EVs as the nation continues to build its charging infrastructure.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3rAq7t">
The persistent interest in hybrids has been a validation for Toyota, which has a long history with hybrids but has been <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/toyotas-chief-says-electric-vehicles-are-overhyped-11608196665">more reluctant</a> than other automakers to <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/13/why-toyota-the-worlds-largest-automaker-isnt-all-in-on-evs.html">invest in EVs</a>. In contrast to Tesla, Toyota’s stock price has <a href="https://www.axios.com/2024/02/07/toyota-shares-soar-hybrid-vehicles">risen almost 50 percent</a> over the past year.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2oF3wF">
Joseph Moses, a spokesperson for Toyota, noted that adoption for new drivetrains takes time but can accelerate quickly. It took the company 10 years to sell its <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/toyota-prius/toyota-prius-sales-hit-1-million-worldwide-idUKNOA52830720080527/">first million Prius hybrids</a> and <a href="https://www.autoblog.com/2010/10/08/worldwide-toyota-prius-sales-crack-2-million-mark-10-year-annive/">two years to reach its second million</a>.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A yellow and black Prius 2.0L plug-in hybrid electric vehicle prototype." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/OoPl6DW-PTQVZZKYzopbY5NxRVw=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25283930/GettyImages_1441866593.jpeg"/> <cite>Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Toyota now offers its popular Prius model with a plug-in hybrid powertrain.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yJidvM">
And while the company is keeping its options open, it has made the leap to cleaner models when it deems the market warrants it, Moses said. Toyota now only offers a hybrid drivetrain for its <a href="https://gearjunkie.com/motors/2022-toyota-sienna-minivan-review">Sienna minivan</a> and is planning to go hybrid only for its <a href="https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a45805477/2025-toyota-camry-revealed/">Camry sedan</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YUyvmD">
Ford is also leaning into hybrids as it cuts back production on some of its EV lines. The company will no longer offer hybrid versions of its <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-02-01/updated-ford-explorer-suv-lacks-hybrid-version-for-retail-buyers">Explorer SUV</a>, but it expects to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/fords-hybrids-take-off-pushing-3q-sales-up-7-7-b78aa396">quadruple its hybrid sales</a> over the next five years. The company has seen hybrid sales rise <a href="https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/ford/2024/02/02/ford-maverick-hybrid-pickup-sales/72448996007/">43 percent</a> over the past year, led by the hybrid Maverick pickup truck, which saw a 118 percent jump.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JJG4xj">
Those cars will help smooth the shift toward full EVs, though the company hasn’t set a goal for going fully electric. “Research shows that customers that get hybrids are more open to buying an electric vehicle at some point in the future,” said Mike Levine, a spokesperson for Ford.
</p>
<h3 id="y9Hq2L">
Where do cars go from here?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EZHeVK">
Though EVs haven’t begun to nudge greenhouse gas emissions down just yet, they have helped slow the rate of increase, displacing 1.5 million barrels of oil out of 102 million consumed every day, according to <a href="https://about.bnef.com/blog/electric-cars-have-dented-fuel-demand-by-2040-theyll-slash-it/">BloombergNEF</a>. That displacement is poised to grow to 20 million barrels per day by 2040.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8mEotz">
To speed this up, the federal government is offering up to $7,500 in <a href="https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/credits-for-new-clean-vehicles-purchased-in-2023-or-after">tax credits</a> for new and used EVs, plug-in hybrids, and fuel cell electric vehicles. Many states and local utility companies offer their own additional incentives.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MEiFKj">
But the US needs vastly more infrastructure to support EVs. The <a href="https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy23osti/85654.pdf">National Renewable Energy Laboratory</a> estimated that the country would need nearly 27 million charging ports and 182,000 public fast charging stations to support the 33 million plug-in vehicles forecast to be on the road by 2030. That poses immense <a href="https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/ev-charging/the-grid-isnt-ready-for-the-ev-boom-can-better-data-fix-that">challenges to the power grid</a>, which isn’t equipped to handle so many vehicles soaking up so much juice in much of the country.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="An artist paints images of a car, a lightbulb, and a mountain scene on an electric SUV." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/jxx6LYse0z_2EaaTv5Cp4vMgocE=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25283890/PXL_20240125_221503377.jpeg"/> <cite>Umair Irfan/Vox</cite>
<figcaption>
Artist Shawn Perkins (<span class="citation" data-cites="sptheplug">@sptheplug</span>) paints an electric Nissan Ariya at the Washington Auto Show.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hhj4U6">
Another issue is that <a href="https://www.motortrend.com/news/best-selling-cars-trucks-suvs-in-america-2023/">SUVs now outsell cars</a>, undermining some of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/oct/16/suvs-emit-more-climate-damaging-gas-than-older-cars-do-study-finds">forward progress</a> made by increasing fuel efficiency and electrification. SUVs were the <a href="https://www.iea.org/commentaries/growing-preference-for-suvs-challenges-emissions-reductions-in-passenger-car-market">second-largest contributor</a> to the increase in global emissions between 2010 and 2018, behind the power sector. Automakers say they are merely responding to what their customers want, but larger, thirstier cars <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/a26b66ba-2c2f-11e7-bc4b-5528796fe35c">generate higher profit margins</a>, creating an incentive for car companies to sell more of them. Some environmental activists are now calling for <a href="https://davidsuzuki.org/story/its-time-to-regulate-ads-for-suvs-trucks-and-gas-fuelled-cars/">regulating</a> or <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg25433851-200-it-worked-with-cigarettes-lets-ban-ads-for-climate-wrecking-products/">banning</a> ads for gas chuggers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Weja6g">
Again, the goal here is not to increase the number of EVs but to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emitted from transportation. One of the simplest ways to accomplish this is to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/28/climate/one-thing-we-can-do-drive-less.html">reduce driving</a> overall. That comes down to individual decisions but also requires more thoughtful policies around urban planning, more robust public transportation, and safer, easier routes for alternatives like cycling and walking.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tVC9EM">
So there’s still a long highway ahead for decarbonizing transportation. Costs need to drop further and reliability needs to increase before most drivers will shift EVs from their backup option to their first-choice ride.
</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>Australia wicketkeeper Alex Carey equals international record of 8 catches in an innings</strong> - Carey held eight catches for South Australia State in a limited-overs win over Queensland</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ind vs Eng Test | England are not difficult to beat, they just play differently: Jadeja</strong> - The all-rounder said he is expecting a flat pitch for the third Test in Rajkot</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>Beth Mooney to captain Gujarat Giants in WPL Season 2</strong> - Mooney was named captain for the inaugural season as well but got injured after the first game</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>Brazilian football’s crisis deepens after missing out on Paris Olympics</strong> - Brazil is only in sixth place in South American qualifying for the 2026 World Cup</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>‘Dad’s Army’ Australia Test side looks jaded: Vaughan</strong> - Michael Vaughan feels apart from inducting fresh faces, Australia also need to rotate their bowling line-up.</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>YSRCP, despite having 31 MPs, has failed to get Special Category Status for Andhra Pradesh, says Nara Lokesh</strong> - Key promises made to the State on railway zone and Polavaram project remain unfulfilled, says the TDP national general secretary</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>Minister Saji Cherian to inaugurate fishing twine factory in Alappuzha</strong> - The unit will supply twine to Matsyafed’s three fishing net factories at Kochi, Kannur, and Thiruvananthapuram</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>Delhi Excise policy case | ED issues 6th summons to Arvind Kejriwal in money laundering case</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>Two Assam Congress MLAs declare support for BJP-led State government</strong> - Five Congress legislators had similarly supported the National People’s Party-led government in Meghalaya two years ago</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>Over 50 nations which hosts 45% of global population votes in 2024: Data</strong> - Many countries have a low score on the index that measures free and fair polls; India ranks somewhere in the middle</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine claims sinking of Russian ship off Crimea</strong> - The landing ship Caesar Kunikov is hit in the Black Sea, according to Ukraine’s armed forces.</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>Resignations leave Hungary’s Orban in biggest crisis yet</strong> - Hungary is shaken by the resignations of the two most successful women in the PM’s ruling Fidesz party.</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>CCTV captures massive landslide in Turkey</strong> - Nine people are believed to be missing after a landslide hit a gold mine in eastern Turkey on Tuesday.</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>Four Armenians killed in new border flare-up</strong> - The attack is the deadliest since Armenia and Azerbaijan began discussing a peace deal.</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 unveils measures to tackle far-right surge</strong> - The interior minister said recent mass protests against extremism spurred the government to take action.</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>Can you manage your house with a local, no-cloud voice assistant? Mostly, yes.</strong> - If you’re tired of Alexa and Google listening, local voice is a real thing now. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=2000574">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Broadcom-owned VMware kills the free version of ESXi virtualization software</strong> - Software’s free version was a good fit for tinkerers and hobbyists. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=2003094">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Scientists found a Stone Age megastructure submerged in the Baltic Sea</strong> - “Blinkerwall” may have been a “desert kite,” used to channel and hunt reindeer. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=2002955">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>OpenAI experiments with giving ChatGPT a long-term conversation memory</strong> - AI chatbot “memory” will recall facts from previous conversations when enabled. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=2003078">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>CDC to update its COVID isolation guidance, ditching 5-day rule: Report</strong> - The agency is reportedly moving from the fixed time to a symptom-based isolation period. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=2003150">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 woman walks up to a bus stop to wait for a bus.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A woman walks up to a bus stop to wait for a bus. The only other person waiting there is a guy wearing a ballerina outfit, full clown makeup and has an orange traffic cone on his head.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The woman tries to keep quiet but after a few minutes she can’t resist and asks the guy, “Hey, um…what’s with the outfit?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“What do you mean?” he responds.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Well, you’re wearing a tutu, clown makeup and you have a traffic cone on your head,” she says.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Yeah,” he says casually. “It’s Wednesday. I always wear my ballerina outfit with my clown makeup and cone hat on Wednesdays.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
She replies, “It’s actually Tuesday today.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“It’s Tuesday?!” the guy says. “Oh man…I must look like a fucking idiot.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/CatVideoFest"> /u/CatVideoFest </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1aqdhc0/a_woman_walks_up_to_a_bus_stop_to_wait_for_a_bus/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1aqdhc0/a_woman_walks_up_to_a_bus_stop_to_wait_for_a_bus/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A big city lawyer went duck hunting in rural North Cowra.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
He shot and dropped a bird, but it fell into a farmer’s field on the other side of a fence.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
As the lawyer climbed over the fence, an elderly farmer drove up on his tractor and asked him what he was doing.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The litigator responded, “I shot a duck and it fell in this field, and now I’m going to retrieve it.”The old farmer Peter replied, “This is my property, and you are not coming over here.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The indignant lawyer said, “I am one of the best trial lawyers in Australia and, if you don’t let me get that duck, I’ll sue you and take everything you own.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The old farmer smiled and said, “Apparently, you don’t know how we settle disputes in North Cowra. We settle small disagreements like this with the ‘Three Kick Rule’.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The lawyer asked, “What is the ‘Three Kick Rule’?”The farmer replied, “Well, because the dispute occurs on my land, I get to go first. I kick you three times and then you kick me three times and so on back and forth until someone gives up.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
​
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The lawyer quickly thought about the proposed contest and decided that he could easily take the old codger. He agreed to abide by the local custom.The old farmer slowly climbed down from the tractor and walked up to the attorney.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
His first kick planted the toe of his heavy steel-toed work boot into the lawyer’s groin and dropped him to his knees !
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
His second kick to the midriff sent the lawyer’s last meal gushing from his mouth.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The lawyer was on all fours when the farmer’s third kick to his rear end, sent him face-first into a fresh cow pie. Summoning every bit of his will and remaining strength the lawyer very slowly managed to get to his feet. Wiping his face with the arm of his jacket, he said, “Okay, you old fart. Now it’s my turn.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The old farmer smiled and said, “Nah, I give up. You can have the duck.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/fap_fap_fap_fapper"> /u/fap_fap_fap_fapper </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1aqdxil/a_big_city_lawyer_went_duck_hunting_in_rural/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1aqdxil/a_big_city_lawyer_went_duck_hunting_in_rural/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>An ecologist is giving a speech and says, “If we continue on our current course all life on earth will be gone in 50 years.” A man in the audience stands up and hysterically asks, “What?! What did you say?!”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
He repeats, “If humanity stays on its current course every living thing on earth will be gone in 50 years.”<br/> The man is relieved and sits down saying, “Whew. I thought you said FIFTEEN years.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/douglerner"> /u/douglerner </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1aqbee8/an_ecologist_is_giving_a_speech_and_says_if_we/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1aqbee8/an_ecologist_is_giving_a_speech_and_says_if_we/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Magician.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
My girlfriend has been working as a magician’s assistant for a few years now and she’s picked up a few tricks.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
I came home from work the other day to find her dressed in her magician’s assistant’s little sexy outfit.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
She said ‘Abracadabra!’ and my mate Dave came out of the wardrobe stark bollock naked.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Poor Dave must’ve wondered what the fuck was going on.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Buddy2269"> /u/Buddy2269 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1aq6mdh/magician/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1aq6mdh/magician/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Jimmy’s mom visits his school one day.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
She meets Jimmy’s teacher, and the teacher says he is the dumbest kid in the school. He scores the lowest in the class and is not interested in anything. His mother was so disappointed that she took Jimmy out of the school.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
25 years later the teacher got very sick, and needed to be operated. She had a low chance of surviving the operation, but miraculously she survived, because of the doctors skills. Wanting to thank the doctor she asked to meet him
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The doctor came to see her and smiled. The teacher started to say something, but suddenly gasped, turned blue raised her hands wanting to tell him something and died.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The doctor was shocked, still trying to understand what happened when he saw our olf friend Jimmy, who was now a cleaner at the hospital take out the plug for the oxygen machine and put his phone for charging.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Don’t tell me you thought that Jimmy had become a Doctor.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/OzBeyondHorizon"> /u/OzBeyondHorizon </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1aqjq31/jimmys_mom_visits_his_school_one_day/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1aqjq31/jimmys_mom_visits_his_school_one_day/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
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