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<title>05 July, 2023</title>
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<title>Covid-19 Sentry</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="covid-19-sentry">Covid-19 Sentry</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-preprints">From Preprints</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-pubmed">From PubMed</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-patent-search">From Patent Search</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-preprints">From Preprints</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Evidence of prothrombotic factors associated with COVID-19 complications: a scoping review protocol</strong> -
<div>
Objective: Scope review of the literature to assess the involvement of organs and systems and the existence of an association of prothrombotic factors with the complications of individuals infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Introduction: The COVID-19 Syndrome in individuals who develop thromboembolic complications motivates this study. Understanding the phenotypic expression of these complications is motivating. The unknown cause-and-effect relationship of complications encourages the search for clarification through this literature scope review, hoping to find indicators of association between thromboembolic phenomena and complications in individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2. Inclusion criteria: Primary studies on complications of COVID-19 associated with thrombosis, published as of January 2020 in English, will be the primary focus. I am expressing impairment of organs and systems by clinical complications of those infected with SARS-CoV-2. Methods: The proposed scope review will be guided by the J.B.I. (Joana Brigs Institute) Methodology and PRISMA-ScR protocol. The database will be MEDLINE via PubMed, and the population of selected articles will be divided into 3 phases (screening, filtering, and sampling) of data extraction and stored in sequenced worksheets with sorted data. Electronic tools will contribute to referencing sources (Software_EndNote), data selection (Software_Rayyan), classification, and database (Software_Excel). The results presented by diagrams should demonstrate the primary methodologies used in the studies under analysis, the clinical complications of COVID, and evidence on risk factors from the cohort studies.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/dmuak/" target="_blank">Evidence of prothrombotic factors associated with COVID-19 complications: a scoping review protocol</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Gender and Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Undergraduate and Graduate Students’ Mental Health and Treatment Use amid the COVID-19 Pandemic</strong> -
<div>
Objective: To investigate gender and racial/ethnic disparities in mental health and treatment use in college and graduate students amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: Based on a large-scale online survey (N = 1,415) administered during the weeks following a pandemic-related university-wide campus closure in March 2020, we examined gender and racial disparities in current internalizing severity and treatment use with t-tests and logistic regression models. Results: Specifically, we found that students with marginalized gender (e.g., woman [p &lt; .001], non-binary gender [p &lt; .001]) or Hispanic/Latinx identity (p = .002) reported higher levels of internalizing problem severity compared to their privileged counterparts (e.g., man, non- Hispanic/Latinx White). Regarding treatment use, Asian (p &lt; .001) and multiracial students (p = .002) reported lower treatment use after controlling for internalizing problem severity. Internalizing severity was generally associated with higher treatment use (logit = 0.53, p = .001), indicating a match of objective needs with service use. However, this relationship was offset by a negative interaction between internalizing problem severity and Asian (logit = -0.49, p &lt; .001) or Black identity (logit = -0.57, p = .03) in predicting treatment use. Conclusion: The findings revealed unique mental health challenges faced by different demographic groups and served as a call that specific actions to enhance mental health equity, such as continued mental health support for students with marginalized gender identities, additional COVID-related mental and practical support for Hispanic/Latinx students, and promotion of mental health awareness and trust in Asian/Black students, are desperately needed.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/qhy5j/" target="_blank">Gender and Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Undergraduate and Graduate Students’ Mental Health and Treatment Use amid the COVID-19 Pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Vitamin S: Why is Social Contact, Even with Strangers, so Important to Well-Being?</strong> -
<div>
Even before COVID-19, it was well-known in psychological science that our well-being is strongly served by the quality of our close relationships. But is our well-being also served by social contact with people we know less well? In this article, we discuss three propositions to support the conclusion that the benefits of social contact also derive from interactions with acquaintances and even strangers. The propositions state that most interaction situations with strangers are benign (Proposition 1), that most strangers are benign (Proposition 2), and that most interactions with strangers enhance well-being (Proposition 3). These propositions are supported, first, by recent research designed to illuminate the primary features of interaction situations, showing that situations with strangers often represent low conflict of interest. Second, in our interactions with strangers, most people exhibit high levels of low-cost cooperation (social mindfulness) and high-cost helping if help to strangers is urgent. We close by sharing research examples which show that even very subtle interactions with strangers yield short-term happiness. Broader implications for COVID-19 and urbanization are discussed.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/jaxck/" target="_blank">Vitamin S: Why is Social Contact, Even with Strangers, so Important to Well-Being?</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Disparities in COVID-19-related trauma and internalizing symptoms across sexual orientation, race/ethnicity, and their intersection during the pandemic</strong> -
<div>
Sexual minority individuals face elevated risk for internalizing problems due to minority stress, and internalizing problems may have been exacerbated with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study examined sexual orientation- and race/ethnicity-related mental health disparities during the first four months of COVID-19 stay-at-home orders. We investigated disparities in COVID-19-related trauma (CRT) and internalizing symptoms (depression, anxiety) in a university community sample via surveys in March-April (Wave 1) and May-June 2020 (Wave 2) cross-sectionally using t-tests and longitudinally using residualized change score regressions. The analytic sample (N = 646; M age = 25.70, SD age = 10.16 at Wave 1) comprised 350 (54.2%) non-Hispanic White and 296 (45.8%) racial/ethnic minority participants; and 514 (79.6%) heterosexual and 132 (20.4%) sexual minority participants. Except for Wave 1 CRT, sexual minority individuals reported greater symptomatology than heterosexual individuals across all outcomes at each wave and racial/ethnic minority individuals reported no differences in outcomes compared to non-Hispanic White individuals. Longitudinally, sexual minority individuals reported less recovery from CRT compared to heterosexual individuals. No similar longitudinal disparities were identified across race/ethnicity. These findings build upon a growing body of literature of mental health disparities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results highlight the importance of examining CRT to understand the effects of the pandemic on minoritized populations, particularly sexual minority individuals. Further work is needed to elucidate the potential exacerbating effects of minority stress on these disparities.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/5jsz9/" target="_blank">Disparities in COVID-19-related trauma and internalizing symptoms across sexual orientation, race/ethnicity, and their intersection during the pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Loss of Mental Health Support Among College Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic</strong> -
<div>
Purpose. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated mental health concerns among college students. At the same time, pandemic response measures have made it more challenging for many students to access mental health support. However, little is known about the extent of mental health support loss among college students, or which students have lost support. This study investigated the scope of mental health support loss during the COVID-19 pandemic in a large university sample, as well as the factors associated with loss of support. Methods. Students completed an online questionnaire between March and May of 2020. Researchers examined the extent of mental health support loss in this sample and how support loss differed by a variety of demographic and mental health symptom variables. Methods were pre-registered at https://osf.io/m83hz. Results. Of n = 415 respondents, 62% reported loss of mental health support. Loss of support was associated with more severe depression symptoms (p &lt; .001), more severe anxiety symptoms (p &lt; .001), the presence of suicidal ideation (p &lt; .001), and sexual minority identity (p = .017). Conclusions. Colleges and universities should be aware that many students have lost access to mental health support during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that students with more severe mental health symptoms, as well as sexual minority students, may be particularly vulnerable. Colleges and universities should make efforts to connect these students with sources of mental health support.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/48q7p/" target="_blank">Loss of Mental Health Support Among College Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>College student interest in teletherapy and self-guided mental health supports during the COVID-19 pandemic</strong> -
<div>
Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened college students’ mental health while simultaneously creating new barriers to traditional in-person care. Teletherapy and online self-guided mental health supports are two potential avenues for addressing unmet mental health needs when face-to-face services are less accessible, but little is known about factors that shape interest in these supports. Participants: 1,224 U.S. undergraduate students (mean age=20.7; 72.5% female; 40.0% White) participated. Methods: Students completed an online questionnaire assessing interest in teletherapy and self-guided supports. Predictors included age, sex, ethnicity, sexual minority status, and anxiety and depression symptomatology. Results: Interest rates were 20% and 25% for at-cost supports and 70% and 72% for free supports. Older age, higher anxiety symptomatology, and identifying as Asian significantly predicted greater interest levels. Conclusions: Results may inform universities’ efforts to optimize students’ engagement with nontraditional, digital mental health supports, including teletherapy and self-guided programs.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/8unfx/" target="_blank">College student interest in teletherapy and self-guided mental health supports during the COVID-19 pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Honesty-Humility, beliefs, and prosocial behaviour: A test on stockpiling during the COVID-19 pandemic</strong> -
<div>
Increasing evidence links personality to prosocial behaviour. HEXACO Honesty-Humility, in particular, has been linked to prosocial behaviour when it comes with a personal cost. Yet, evidence for such a link is mostly limited to the laboratory, although social dilemmas abound in daily life. Emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic pose salient conflicts of interests between individual and societal welfare. One example is the run on many basic goods in the anticipation of lockdowns. Such social dilemmas afford the expression of personality traits associated with individual differences in prosocial behaviour. Indeed, across two studies (N = 601), Honesty-Humility was positively, albeit weakly associated with refraining from stockpiling in the past and intentions to do so in the future. Causal mediation analysis shows that this was not due to differences in beliefs that others would refrain from stockpiling. Instead, results suggest that faced with a social dilemma, individuals high in Honesty-Humility may have been willing to forego individual benefit. This provides rare evidence on the relationship between Honesty-Humility and prosocial behaviour in a field setting.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/8e62v/" target="_blank">Honesty-Humility, beliefs, and prosocial behaviour: A test on stockpiling during the COVID-19 pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Real-time forecasting of COVID-19-related hospital strain in France using a non-Markovian mechanistic model</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background Projects such as the European Covid-19 Forecast Hub publish forecasts on the national level for new deaths, new cases, and hospital admissions, but not direct measurements of hospital strain like critical care bed occupancy at the sub-national level, which is of particular interest to health professionals for planning purposes. Methods We present a sub-national French framework for forecasting hospital strain based on a non-Markovian compartmental model, its associated online visualisation tool and a retrospective evaluation of the real-time forecasts it provided from January to December 2021 by comparing to three standard statistical forecasting methods (auto-regression, exponential smoothing, and ARIMA). Results For anticipating risk of critical care unit overload, our model performed worse than pure statistical methods at the one- and two-week horizons, but had better point forecasts at the four-week horizon for 8 of the 13 regions considered. Our model also suffered from over-confidence with respect to its prediction intervals. Conclusions Online visualisation tools and consideration of how metrics can be affected by distortion from non-pharmaceutical government interventions are essential in the assessment of forecasting models for hospital strain.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.21.23286228v2" target="_blank">Real-time forecasting of COVID-19-related hospital strain in France using a non-Markovian mechanistic model</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Is there an evolutionary advantage conferred by having a share of conspiracy theorists within a population?</strong> -
<div>
This article is a reflection proposing an ecologically plausible motive and an epigenetically-controlled mechanism to explain the otherwise unexplainable behaviour that leads remarkably consistent fractions of the population to choose totally irrational standpoints irrespective of their level of intelligence or education. It stems from three independent pieces of evidence, each of which is ascertained common knowledge, and which are hereby linked together: #1: A non-negligible rate of the members of every nation’s population takes and keeps positions that are against mainstream opinions, also when such choice turns out to be totally detrimental for their own social life, credibility, employment, and/or health. The massive anti-vaccination coming-out in response to Covid-19 emergency has uncovered the extent of these phenomena and put in evidence the absence of correlation with education level and intellective qualities of people, involving even rather successful and bright individuals as Nobel laureates disregarding their loss of reputation, or top sport players missing chances to win trophies and to maintain sponsored contracts. #2: In biology, a given rate of mutant phenotypes involving a minority of the population, is at the basis of the Darwinian selection process. Although some mutations could affect the fitness of the individuals bearing them, the process can ensure species survival in the unlikely circumstance that a temporally and spatially unpredictable event would occur, for which the mutant trait would result the right match to avoid negative consequences. It is as if, once in a thousand times, an otherwise weird and self-harming choice would result the winning one. And, in order to avoid that all the progeny descending from the survivor would carry the ‘crimpled’ phenotype, in evolved lineages, mutation mechanisms can use epigenetic instead of genetic circuitries, allowing clean genome reset at reproduction. #3: Epigenetics has nowadays been shown to occur also at behavioural level, regulating human neurological expression, affecting social conduct, impulsive actions and connected beliefs. Putting the pieces together, # 2 is the motive and #3 is the mechanism that explain #1.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/x3hej/" target="_blank">Is there an evolutionary advantage conferred by having a share of conspiracy theorists within a population?</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Production and performance assessment of a SARS-CoV-2 biomimetic in a verification program for pandemic readiness</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
During the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic in South Africa, one of many challenges included availability of control material proficiency testing programs. Control material utilising live SARS-CoV-2 or RNA extracted from cell culture was either biohazardous and costly, particularly in resource limited settings. Here, we report the development and application of a non-infectious SARS-CoV-2 biomimetic Mycobacterium smegmatis strain that mimics a positive result in the GeneXpert SARS-CoV-2 Xpert Xpress cartridge. Nucleotide sequences located in genes encoding the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, the nucleocapsid and the envelope proteins were used. The resulting biomimetic was prepared as a Quality Control specimen and distributed to laboratories in South Africa for validation prior to testing of clinical specimens. Between April 2020 and December 2020, a total of 151 instruments were validated to bring Covid-19 mass testing online. These instruments capacitated the country to perform tests in 2532 modules. False negative or false positive findings reflected issues such as workflow/technician error or other related technical issues. This non-infectious, easily scalable control material became available within two months after the start of the pandemic in South Africa and represents a useful approach to consider for other diseases and future pandemics.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.26.23291917v1" target="_blank">Production and performance assessment of a SARS-CoV-2 biomimetic in a verification program for pandemic readiness</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Complementary, Alternative, and Integrative Medicine-Specific COVID-19 Misinformation on Social Media: A Scoping Review</strong> -
<div>
Background: The sharing of health-related information has become increasingly popular on social media. Unregulated information sharing has led to the spread of misinformation, especially regarding complementary, alternative, and integrative medicine (CAIM). This scoping review synthesized evidence surrounding the spread of CAIM-related misinformation on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: This review was informed by a modified version of the Arksey and O’Malley scoping review framework. AMED, EMBASE, PsycINFO and MEDLINE databases were searched systematically from inception to January 2022. Eligible articles explored COVID-19 misinformation on social media and contained sufficient information on CAIM therapies. Common themes were identified using an inductive thematic analysis approach. Results: Twenty-eight articles were included. The following themes were synthesized: 1) misinformation prompts unsafe and harmful behaviours, 2) misinformation can be separated into different categories, 3) individuals are capable of identifying and refuting CAIM misinformation, 4) non-representative study samples have resulted in considerable generalizability issues, and 5) studies argue governments and social media companies have a responsibility to resolve the spread of COVID-19 misinformation. Conclusions: Misinformation can spread more easily when shared on social media. Our review suggests that misinformation about COVID-19 related to CAIM that is disseminated online contributes to unsafe health behaviours, however, this may be remedied via public education initiatives and stricter media guidelines. The results of this scoping review are crucial to understanding the behavioural impacts of the spread of COVID-19 misinformation about CAIM therapies, and can inform the development of public health policies to mitigate these issues.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/d2mkr/" target="_blank">Complementary, Alternative, and Integrative Medicine-Specific COVID-19 Misinformation on Social Media: A Scoping Review</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Alternative cell entry mechanisms for SARS-CoV-2 and multiple animal viruses</strong> -
<div>
The cell entry mechanism of SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of the COVID-19 pandemic, is not fully understood. Most animal viruses hijack cellular endocytic pathways as an entry route into the cell. Here, we show that in cells that do not express serine proteases such as TMPRSS2, genetic depletion of all dynamin isoforms blocked the uptake and strongly reduced infection with SARS-CoV-2 and its variant Delta. However, increasing the viral loads partially and dose-dependently restored infection via a thus far uncharacterized entry mechanism. Ultrastructural analysis by electron microscopy showed that this dynamin-independent endocytic processes appeared as 150-200 nm non-coated invaginations and was efficiently used by numerous mammalian viruses, including alphaviruses, influenza, vesicular stomatitis, bunya, adeno, vaccinia, and rhinovirus. Both the dynamin-dependent and dynamin-independent infection of SARS-CoV-2 required a functional actin cytoskeleton. In contrast, the alphavirus Semliki Forest virus, which is smaller in diameter, required actin only for the dynamin-independent entry. The presence of TMPRSS2 protease rescued SARS-CoV-2 infection in the absence of dynamins. Collectively, these results indicate that some viruses such as canine parvovirus and SARS-CoV-2 mainly rely on dynamin for endocytosis-dependent infection, while other viruses can efficiently bypass this requirement harnessing an alternative infection entry route dependent on actin.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.02.547368v1" target="_blank">Alternative cell entry mechanisms for SARS-CoV-2 and multiple animal viruses</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Lack of detection of SARS-CoV-2 in Wildlife from Kerala, India in 2020-21</strong> -
<div>
Spill over of SARs-CoV-2 into a variety of wild and domestic animals has been an ongoing feature of the human pandemic. The establishment of a new reservoir in white tailed deer in North America and increasing divergence of the viruses circulating in them from those circulating in the human population has highlighted the ongoing risk this poses for global health. Some parts of the world have seen more intensive monitoring of wildlife species for SARS-CoV-2 and related coronaviruses but there are still very large gaps in geographical and species-specific information. This paper reports negative results for SARS-CoV-2 PCR based testing using a pan coronavirus end point RDRP PCR and a Sarbecovirus specific E gene qPCR on lung and or gut tissue from wildlife from the Indian State of Kerala. These animals included: 121 Rhinolophus rouxii (Rufous Horsehoe Bat), 6 Rhinolophus bedommei (Lesser Woolly Horseshoe Bat), 15 Rossettus leschenaultii (Fulvous Fruit Bat), 47 Macaca radiata (Bonnet macaques), 35 Paradoxurus hermaphroditus (Common Palm Civet), 5 Viverricula indica (Small Indian Civet), 4 Herpestes edwardsii (Common Mongoose), 10 Panthera tigris (Bengal Tiger), 8 Panthera pardus fusca (Indian Leopard), 4 Prionailurus bengalensis (Leopard cats), 2 Felis chaus (Jungle cats), 2 Cuon alpinus (Wild dogs), and 1 Melursus ursinus (sloth bear).
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.03.547244v1" target="_blank">Lack of detection of SARS-CoV-2 in Wildlife from Kerala, India in 2020-21</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Antigenic cartography using variant-specific hamster sera reveals substantial antigenic variation among Omicron subvariants</strong> -
<div>
SARS-CoV-2 has developed substantial antigenic variability. As the majority of the population now has pre-existing immunity due to infection or vaccination, the use of experimentally generated animal immune sera can be valuable for measuring antigenic differences between virus variants. Here, we immunized Syrian hamsters by two successive infections with one of eight SARS-CoV-2 variants. Their sera were titrated against 14 SARS-CoV-2 variants and the resulting titers visualized using antigenic cartography. The antigenic map shows a condensed cluster containing all pre-Omicron variants (D614G, Alpha, Delta, Beta, Mu, and an engineered B.1+E484K variant), and a considerably more distributed positioning among a selected panel of Omicron subvariants (BA.1, BA.2, BA.4/5, the BA.5 descendants BF.7 and BQ.1.18; the BA.2.75 descendant BN.1.3.1; and the BA.2-derived recombinant XBB.2). Some Omicron subvariants were as antigenically distinct from each other as the wildtype is from the Omicron BA.1 variant. The results highlight the potential of using variant-specifically infected hamster sera for the continued antigenic characterisation of SARS-CoV-2.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.02.547076v1" target="_blank">Antigenic cartography using variant-specific hamster sera reveals substantial antigenic variation among Omicron subvariants</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Informing pandemic response in the face of uncertainty. An evaluation of the U.S. COVID-19 Scenario Modeling Hub</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Our ability to forecast epidemics more than a few weeks into the future is constrained by the complexity of disease systems, our limited ability to measure the current state of an epidemic, and uncertainties in how human action will affect transmission. Realistic longer-term projections (spanning more than a few weeks) may, however, be possible under defined scenarios that specify the future state of critical epidemic drivers, with the additional benefit that such scenarios can be used to anticipate the comparative effect of control measures. Since December 2020, the U.S. COVID-19 Scenario Modeling Hub (SMH) has convened multiple modeling teams to make 6-month ahead projections of the number of SARS-CoV-2 cases, hospitalizations and deaths. The SMH released nearly 1.8 million national and state-level projections between February 2021 and November 2022. SMH performance varied widely as a function of both scenario validity and model calibration. Scenario assumptions were periodically invalidated by the arrival of unanticipated SARS-CoV-2 variants, but SMH still provided projections on average 22 weeks before changes in assumptions (such as virus transmissibility) invalidated scenarios and their corresponding projections. During these periods, before emergence of a novel variant, a linear opinion pool ensemble of contributed models was consistently more reliable than any single model, and projection interval coverage was near target levels for the most plausible scenarios (e.g., 79% coverage for 95% projection interval). SMH projections were used operationally to guide planning and policy at different stages of the pandemic, illustrating the value of the hub approach for long-term scenario projections.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.28.23291998v1" target="_blank">Informing pandemic response in the face of uncertainty. An evaluation of the U.S. COVID-19 Scenario Modeling Hub</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>COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Counseling Intervention for Pharmacists</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Behavioral: Standard implementation webinar and online training;   Behavioral: Virtual facilitation<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill;   University of Arkansas;   University of South Carolina;   National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)<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>LUSZ Treatment Efficacy in Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Lopinavir / Ritonavir;   Drug: Remdesivir (RDV);   Drug: Tocilizumab;   Other: Corticosteroid Therapy-enhanced Standard Care (CTSC)<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Lebanese University;   Hospital Saydet Zgharta University Medical Center<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>Comprehensive Imaging Exam of Convalesced COVID-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   COVID Long-Haul<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Other: Magnetic Resonance Imaging;   Other: Ultra-High Resolution Computed Tomography (CT) Scan<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Johns Hopkins University;   Canon Medical Systems, USA<br/><b>Enrolling by invitation</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>UNAIR Inactivated COVID-19 Vaccine as Heterologue Booster (Immunobridging Study)</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19 Pandemic;   COVID-19 Vaccines<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Vaksin Merah Putih - UA SARS-CoV-2 (Vero Cell Inactivated) 5 µg;   Biological: CoronaVac Biofarma COVID-1 9 Vaccine 3 µg<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Dr. Soetomo General Hospital;   Indonesia-MoH;   Universitas Airlangga;   Biotis Pharmaceuticals, Indonesia<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>Immunogenicity and Safety Study of SCB-2023 Vaccine as a Booster in Adults</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: SCB-2023 vaccine (trivalent), a recombinant SARS-CoV-2 trimeric S-protein subunit vaccine for COVID-19; intramuscular injection;   Biological: SCB-2019 (monovalent), a recombinant SARS-CoV-2 trimeric S-protein subunit vaccine for COVID-19; intramuscular injection<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Clover Biopharmaceuticals AUS Pty Ltd<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Safety and Immunogenicity Following a Heterologous Booster Dose of Recombinant SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine LYB002</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: LYB002V14;   Biological: LYB002V14A;   Biological: LYB002CA<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Guangzhou Patronus Biotech Co., Ltd.;   Yantai Patronus Biotech Co., Ltd.;   Affiliated Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College<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>Evaluate the Safety and Immunogenicity of Different Booster Dose Levels of Monovalent and Bivalent SARS-CoV-2 rS Vaccines in Adults ≥ 50 Years</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: NVX-CoV2540 (5, 10, 25 μg);   Biological: NVX-CoV2373 (5 μg);   Biological: Bivalent BA.4/5 Omicron subvariant<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Novavax<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>Evaluating the Efficacy of Remdesivir for Long COVID Following a Confirmed COVID-19 Infection.</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   SARS-CoV-2 Infection;   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: Remdesivir<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of Derby;   University of Exeter;   Peninsula Clinical Trials Unit;   University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Immunogenicity and Safety Following a Heterologous Booster Dose of Recombinant SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine LYB001</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   Vaccine Reaction<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: LYB001;   Biological: CoronaVac<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Guangzhou Patronus Biotech Co., Ltd.;   Yantai Patronus Biotech Co., Ltd.;   Affiliated Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College<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>SAFETY AND EFFICACY OF ANAKINRA TREATMENT FOR PATIENTS WITH POST ACUTE COVID SYNDROME</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Placebo;   Drug: Anakinra 149 MG/ML Prefilled Syringe [Kineret]<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Hellenic Institute for the Study of Sepsis<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Effect of Smart Sensor Combined With APP for Individualized Precise Exercise Training in Long Covid-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Coronavirus Disease;   COVID-19;   Long Covid-19;   Telerehabilitation<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Device: KNEESUP smart knee assistive device + KNEESUP care APP;   Device: KNEESUP care APP;   Behavioral: Healthy consulation<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Shang-Lin Chiang<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>Study on the Remote Diagnosis and Treatment Strategy of New-onset Insomnia Under the COVID-19 Epidemic</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Insomnia;   CBT;   Depression;   Anxiety<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Device: CBTI online programe<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University<br/><b>Enrolling by invitation</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 Extension of Efgartigimod in Adults With Post-COVID-19 POTS</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Post-COVID Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: Efgartigimod<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   argenx;   Iqvia Pty Ltd<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>Digital Interventions to Understand and Mitigate Stress Response</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Distress, Emotional;   Stress Response Among Nursing Professionals During the COVID-19;   Stress Reaction; Acute<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: Digital Intervention Group<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Unity Health Toronto;   Toronto Metropolitan University;   University of Toronto;   University of Ontario Institute of Technology;   Boston University;   University of Ottawa;   Western University, Canada;   Centre for Addiction and Mental Health<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>PREPARE-iVAC Trial</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19 Vaccines;   Varicella Zoster Vaccine;   Vaccine Response;   Immunosuppression<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: COVID-19 vaccination<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University Medical Center Groningen;   Academisch Medisch Centrum - Universiteit van Amsterdam (AMC-UvA);   Radboud University Medical Center;   Erasmus Medical Center;   UMC Utrecht;   Leiden University Medical Center;   Maastricht University Medical Center;   ZonMw: The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development<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>The sesquiterpenes with the COVID-19 M<sup>pro</sup> inhibitory activity from the <em>Carpesium abrotanoides</em> L</strong> - The extract of the whole plant of Carpesium abrotanoides L. yielded four new sesquiterpenes including a novel skeleton (claroguaiane A, 1), two guaianolides (claroguaianes B-C, 2-3), and one eudesmanolide (claroeudesmane A, 4), together with three known sesquiterpenoids (5-7). The structures of the new compounds were elucidated by spectroscopic analysis especially 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy and HRESIMS data. Additionally, all the isolated compounds were preliminarily evaluated for the inhibitive…</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>Antimicrobial efficiency of chlorine dioxide and its potential use as anti-SARS-CoV-2 agent: mechanisms of action and interactions with gut microbiota</strong> - Chlorine dioxide (ClO2) is a disinfectant gas with strong antifungal, antibacterial, and antiviral activities. Applied on hard non-porous surfaces as an aqueous solution or gas, the ClO2 exerts antimicrobial activity through its interaction and destabilization of cell membrane proteins, as well as through DNA/RNA oxidation, triggering cell death. As for viruses, the ClO2 promotes protein denaturalization mechanisms preventing the union between the human cells and the viral envelope. Currently,…</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>MicroRNA 205-5p and COVID-19 adverse outcomes: Potential molecular biomarker and regulator of the immune response</strong> - Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an acute respiratory infection caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The uncontrolled systemic inflammatory response, resulting from the release of large amounts of pro-inflammatory cytokines, is the main mechanism behind severe acute respiratory syndrome and multiple organ failure, the two main causes of death in COVID-19. Epigenetic mechanisms, such as gene expression regulation by microRNAs (miRs), may be at the…</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>Cytokine Storm in Acute Viral Respiratory Injury: Role of Qing-Fei-Pai-Du Decoction in Inhibiting the Infiltration of Neutrophils and Macrophages through TAK1/IKK/NF-[Formula: see text]B Pathway</strong> - COVID-19 has posed unprecedented challenges to global public health since its outbreak. The Qing-Fei-Pai-Du decoction (QFPDD), a Chinese herbal formula, is widely used in China to treat COVID-19. It exerts an impressive therapeutic effect by inhibiting the progression from mild to critical disease in the clinic. However, the underlying mechanisms remain obscure. Both SARS-CoV-2 and influenza viruses elicit similar pathological processes. Their severe manifestations, such as acute respiratory…</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>ACE2-EGFR-MAPK signaling contributes to SARS-CoV-2 infection</strong> - SARS-CoV-2 triggered the most severe pandemic of recent times. To enter into a host cell, SARS-CoV-2 binds to the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). However, subsequent studies indicated that other cell membrane receptors may act as virus-binding partners. Among these receptors, the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) was hypothesized not only as a spike protein binder, but also to be activated in response to SARS-CoV-2. In our study, we aim at dissecting EGFR activation and its major…</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>ACP-Dnnel: anti-coronavirus peptides’ prediction based on deep neural network ensemble learning</strong> - The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has caused dramatic loss of human life. There is an urgent need for safe and efficient anti-coronavirus infection drugs. Anti-coronavirus peptides (ACovPs) can inhibit coronavirus infection. With high-efficiency, low-toxicity, and broad-spectrum inhibitory effects on coronaviruses, they are promising candidates to be developed into a new type of anti-coronavirus drug. Experiment is the traditional way of ACovPs’ identification, which is less efficient and more…</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>Cell surface nucleocapsid protein expression: A betacoronavirus immunomodulatory strategy</strong> - We recently reported that SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid (N) protein is abundantly expressed on the surface of both infected and neighboring uninfected cells, where it enables activation of Fc receptor-bearing immune cells with anti-N antibodies (Abs) and inhibits leukocyte chemotaxis by binding chemokines (CHKs). Here, we extend these findings to N from the common cold human coronavirus (HCoV)-OC43, which is also robustly expressed on the surface of infected and noninfected cells by binding heparan…</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>AI-guided pipeline for protein-protein interaction drug discovery identifies a SARS-CoV-2 inhibitor</strong> - Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) offer great opportunities to expand the druggable proteome and therapeutically tackle various diseases, but remain challenging targets for drug discovery. Here, we provide a comprehensive pipeline that combines experimental and computational tools to identify and validate PPI targets and perform early-stage drug discovery. We have developed a machine learning approach that prioritizes interactions by analyzing quantitative data from binary PPI assays 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>A single polymorphic residue in humans underlies species-specific restriction of HSV-1 by the antiviral protein MxB</strong> - Myxovirus resistance proteins (MxA and MxB) are interferon-induced proteins that exert antiviral activity against a diverse range of RNA and DNA viruses. In primates, MxA has been shown to inhibit myxoviruses, bunyaviruses, and hepatitis B virus, whereas MxB restricts retroviruses and herpesviruses. As a result of their conflicts with viruses, both genes have been undergoing diversifying selection during primate evolution. Here, we investigate how MxB evolution in primates has affected its…</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>PARP12 is required to repress the replication of a Mac1 mutant coronavirus in a cell and tissue specific manner</strong> - ADP-ribosyltransferases (ARTs) mediate the transfer of ADP-ribose from NAD ^(+) to protein or nucleic acid substrates. This modification can be removed by several different types of proteins, including macrodomains. Several ARTs, also known as PARPs, are stimulated by interferon, indicating ADP-ribosylation is an important aspect of the innate immune response. All coronaviruses (CoVs) encode for a highly conserved macrodomain (Mac1) that is critical for CoVs to replicate and cause disease,…</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>IgM N-glycosylation correlates with COVID-19 severity and rate of complement deposition</strong> - The glycosylation of IgG plays a critical role during human SARS-CoV-2, activating immune cells and inducing cytokine production. However, the role of IgM N-glycosylation has not been studied during acute viral infection in humans. In vitro evidence suggests that the glycosylation of IgM inhibits T cell proliferation and alters complement activation rates. The analysis of IgM N-glycosylation from healthy controls and hospitalized COVID-19 patients reveals that mannosylation and sialyation levels…</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>Involvement of a serotonin/GLP-1 circuit in adolescent isolation-induced diabetes</strong> - In 2020, stay-at-home orders were implemented to stem the spread of SARS-CoV-2 worldwide. Social isolation can be particularly harmful to children and adolescents-during the pandemic, the prevalence of obesity increased by ∼37% in persons aged 2-19. Obesity is often comorbid with type 2 diabetes, which was not assessed in this human pandemic cohort. Here, we investigated whether male mice isolated throughout adolescence develop type 2 diabetes in a manner consistent with human obesity-induced…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Universal features of Nsp1-mediated translational shutdown by coronaviruses</strong> - Nonstructural protein 1 (Nsp1) produced by coronaviruses shuts down host protein synthesis in infected cells. The C-terminal domain of SARS-CoV-2 Nsp1 was shown to bind to the small ribosomal subunit to inhibit translation, but it is not clear whether this mechanism is broadly used by coronaviruses, whether the N-terminal domain of Nsp1 binds the ribosome, or how Nsp1 specifically permits translation of viral mRNAs. Here, we investigated Nsp1 from three representative Betacoronaviruses -…</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>Saline nasal irrigation and gargling in COVID-19: a multidisciplinary review of effects on viral load, mucosal dynamics, and patient outcomes</strong> - With unrelenting SARS-CoV-2 variants, additional COVID-19 mitigation strategies are needed. Oral and nasal saline irrigation (SI) is a traditional approach for respiratory infections/diseases. As a multidisciplinary network with expertise/experience with saline, we conducted a narrative review to examine mechanisms of action and clinical outcomes associated with nasal SI, gargling, spray, or nebulization in COVID-19. SI was found to reduce SARS-CoV-2 nasopharyngeal loads and hasten viral…</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>Design, Synthesis and Structure-Activity Relationship Studies of Protein Kinase CK2 Inhibitors Containing a Purine Scaffold</strong> - Protein kinase CK2 (CK2) is involved in the suppression of gene expression, protein synthesis, cell proliferation, and apoptosis, thus making it a target protein for the development of therapeutics toward cancer, nephritis, and coronavirus disease 2019. Using the solvent dipole ordering-based method for virtual screening, we identified and designed new candidate CK2α inhibitors containing purine scaffolds. Virtual docking experiments supported by experimental structure-activity relationship…</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>What Does California’s Homeless Population Actually Look Like?</strong> - Politicians and commentators spend a disproportionate amount of time talking about a small subset of the homeless population. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/what-does-californias-homeless-population-actually-look-like">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Next Targets in the Fight Against Affirmative Action</strong> - It won’t be admissions offices at selective schools but institutions and programs that use race as a plus factor in making decisions about who gets contracts, jobs, scholarships, and awards. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-next-targets-in-the-fight-against-affirmative-action">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Titan Submersible Implosion Was “an Accident Waiting to Happen”</strong> - Interviews and e-mails with expedition leaders and employees reveal how OceanGate ignored desperate warnings from inside and outside the company. “It’s a lemon,” one wrote. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/a-reporter-at-large/the-titan-submersible-was-an-accident-waiting-to-happen">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Could Putin Lose Power?</strong> - Regime stability is a funny thing. One day it’s there; the next day, poof—it’s gone. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-weekend-essay/could-putin-lose-power">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Why the Champions of Affirmative Action Had to Leave Asian Americans Behind</strong> - The original concept in pursuit of diversity was vital and righteous. The way it was practiced was hard to defend. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/why-the-champions-of-affirmative-action-had-to-leave-asian-americans-behind">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>TikTok is confusing by design</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="An illustration of a young woman with her head on her creased arms looking at a blank phone lying on the table in front of her. There is a question mark over her head." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/bJRTWid8bS3mgrnwGnXvYXGl2iY=/405x0:7074x5002/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72426461/GettyImages_1458847097.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Aleksei Morozov/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
TikTok isn’t the way I want the internet to work, but it’s where the internet is going.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dDM9R2">
I was trying to find a <a href="https://www.vox.com/tiktok">TikTok</a> video to show my mom when the realization hit me: I am becoming her.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="azIyAj">
That is to say, I’ve aged out of the intended and desired audience for popular new apps. They’re no longer made with me in mind, and there’s a steeper learning curve that I’m less willing to overcome. Apps used to be intuitive to me and gave me the experience I wanted and expected. TikTok does not. At first, I assumed it’s because I’m past whatever the age threshold is for learning new things, like the boomers singled out in a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/pleaseshowtojimhaha/">popular Facebook group</a> for making basic posting mistakes. This sort of thing is suddenly less funny to me.
</p>
<aside id="z0CgP7">
<div>
</div>
</aside>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IdNkuu">
But maybe it’s not so much that I’m old, but rather I’m old<em> </em>school. TikTok is the ultimate example of how our digital world is shifting from seemingly limitless possibilities and choice — the internet of my formative years — into a controlled experience that’s optimized to know or decide what we want and then deliver it to us. And TikTok is one of the best examples of this change.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aKPy4I">
TikTok is also one of the most popular apps in the world, so, to be absolutely clear, this is more of a me problem than it is a TikTok one. Younger people are TikTok’s core user base, but the app is not exclusive to them. People of all ages use TikTok just fine. Some find it even easier to use than other social media apps, and they like it more, too. You don’t have to be a digital mobile app native to get TikTok. But I bet that helps a lot.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YgubIs">
“I just turned 44,” Aya Karpinska, a Parsons School of Design professor who teaches about the history of the interface, told me. “It’s going to be a bit of a struggle for me to really become fluent in TikTok. I can look at things, but I have not been able to produce the kind of fantastic videos that I see. The media that I grew up with, the way that I was shaped is not responding somehow to TikTok in the way that younger people do. Maybe you feel the same way.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sCbS3f">
I pretty much do because my attempt to search for a <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@tanaradoublechocolate?_t=8dY5R91kKXT&amp;_r=1">specific creator</a>’s video resulted in staring at a grid with tiny thumbnails of half-second previews and view counts but no titles, dates, or descriptions. There weren’t any familiar clues that could serve as a guide to finding the information I sought. After several minutes of guess-tapping through them, I gave up.
</p>
<h3 id="3OnyCV">
The passive appeal of TikTok
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zR6JI1">
TikTok is designed around discovering content for you, not giving you a platform to find it for yourself. You open the app to the “For You” page — the stream of videos that TikTok thinks you’ll like — which automatically plays a full-screen vertical video. There’s no way to disable the autoplay. There are your typical engagement icons so you can “like,” bookmark, share, and comment on the video. You can also follow the account it came from. All those options are superimposed onto the video itself, as are the name of the creator and any description of the video they included. When the video ends, it plays again from the beginning.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZpzbBa">
If you want to see another video, you swipe up and something new appears. You don’t get to choose from a list of related content, nor is there any real order to whatever you’ll get. The videos can be fairly new or months old. But you won’t know either way, because there aren’t any dates on them. If you prefer to be a more active participant in what you watch, you probably won’t get it. But the appeal of TikTok for so many people — and what makes it so addicting — is that unending stream of “for you” content.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MbofRY">
While this feels like a relatively new way of using the internet, it’s not a new way of experiencing content.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VY1Fv0">
“When I was growing up, there was an eight o’clock show once a week on the TV … and we all watched this particular show at this particular time, and we had to wait a week until the next one,” Karpinska said. Networks chose what we watched and when, and then we got <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/01/the-court-case-that-almost-made-it-illegal-to-tape-tv-shows/251107/">VCRs</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/08/business/new-economy-cable-is-offering-more-viewing-on-demand.html">on-demand</a> and, finally, streaming and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/06/fashion/post-binge-watching-blues.html">binge-watching</a>. TikTok feels a little bit like pre-streaming <a href="https://www.vox.com/tv">television</a>, albeit an extremely granular version of it. Instead of, say, CBS airing one show it hopes will appeal to millions of people, TikTok is picking a video to appeal to one user, billions of times over.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Lfmper">
“We have information overload and choice overload, and this is a response to that,” said Alec Pollak, EVP of engagement strategy at Area 23, an IPG Health company. “It’s a comfortable space to be in when you don’t have to make choices.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="k8fwPY">
But if that shift continues, I wonder what the digital (and physical) world will look like when we’re all <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/06/technology/personaltech/apple-vision-pro-headset-try.html">wearing headsets</a> and our <a href="https://www.vox.com/augmented-reality">augmented reality</a> is being chosen for us, using <a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/4/28/23702644/artificial-intelligence-machine-learning-technology">AI</a> and algorithms that are even more advanced than what TikTok does now.
</p>
<h3 id="dYHGCv">
Digital UI/UX design goes from mimicking the familiar to being weird
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="maKZOu">
When computers entered the mass market and our homes, their user interfaces had to be designed so that an average person who probably never used a computer before would be able to figure it out quickly, Karpinska explained. Typing commands in computer language was not that. But a graphical user interface, with virtual versions of real objects and functions, was. As the devices and technology have evolved or changed, the interfaces have, too. You used to use a peripheral mouse to place a virtual pointer on an item and select it by clicking a button. With touchscreens, that peripheral can be your actual finger.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CnHnex">
When widespread internet access arrived, you had a whole new virtual world within your computer. You could go anywhere, look up anything, and talk to anyone (who had an internet connection). Seemingly limitless choice was part of the internet’s novelty and its appeal, and this was present as soon as you clicked on the browser icon to open your <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/10/technology/q-a-a-change-of-page.html">specifically chosen</a> start page.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Gf2SuA">
And when the iPhone came along, the internet became a much more mobile experience, and developers soon figured out how to take full advantage of the device’s capabilities and integrate them into apps. The fact that people carried their phones everywhere, constantly connected to the internet, meant tons more data about them was being generated. Apps could know their users better than ever, which meant they could send them content they were more likely to be interested in. Knowing who people were connected to — thanks to social media — allowed these insights to be even more accurate. Apps also developed a standard look, <a href="https://developer.apple.com/design/">thanks</a> in <a href="https://developer.android.com/design">part</a> to the platforms that hosted them.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sibjxL">
Then TikTok came along and blew a lot of that up. As Wired explained in this article from <a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/tiktok-snapchat-app-design">way back in 2019</a>, TikTok (and Snapchat) “are harder — or at least <em>weirder</em> to use than other apps.” Four years later and with their competitors doing <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/04/why-every-app-now-feels-like-tiktok-but-worse.html">everything possible to mimic them</a>, TikTok’s approach has become the new standard. Part of that standard is aggressively pushing content at you that the app has decided you want to see.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kc7Gqy">
TikTok is classified as a social media app, but it isn’t designed around the social network you’ve curated for yourself. The social side of it is there, sure, but it’s peripheral. TikTok’s center is choosing content for you and featuring that by default. You can “<a href="https://www.theverge.com/22574404/tiktok-videos-for-you-page-curate-algorithm-discover-how-to">curate</a>” that content to a degree by feeding TikTok as much information as possible about you through your interactions with the app to get the best algorithmically driven For You page possible.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BLxCEy">
And while TikTok’s not designed to be a search engine, some members of Gen Z <a href="https://www.adweek.com/social-marketing/move-over-google-tiktok-is-the-go-to-search-engine-for-gen-z/">apparently</a> have a lot of success using it as one. A 22-year-old <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/16/technology/gen-z-tiktok-search-engine.html">told the New York Times</a> that during a recent visit from her family, she found things for them to do in “seconds,” while her fusty old parents waded through “pages of <a href="https://www.vox.com/google">Google</a> search results.” Results may vary, though; as Pollak points out, searching TikTok probably yields better results when TikTok knows more about you.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sqw9Kx">
“It’s a very satisfying search for people who are in it all the time,” he said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bTQKSF">
But platforms wouldn’t be doing this if the strategy weren’t so successful. This is the experience users want, or at least they’ve become convinced it’s what they want. It’s been decades since internet access was introduced to the mass market, and the novelty of endless choice has worn off. There’s something to be said for having something or someone else pick what you see and do. Which is how things used to work before the internet, of course, just not with the granularity that’s possible now.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fOR0SR">
“TikTok’s design appeals to me because it removes decision fatigue,” Angela Zhou, a user experience designer who’s been chronicling her journey into the field <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@angzho">on TikTok</a>, said. “You open an app, and you’re immediately given content. You don’t have to make any decisions, other than swiping to reach the next video. I think that appeals a ton to people who are on their phones to unplug.” This includes Zhou, who says she’s increasingly replacing her YouTube and TV diet with TikToks.
</p>
<h3 id="Bt8as9">
Who has control of the devices and apps of the future?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0WvpuT">
So what will all this look like in the augmented reality future tech companies seem to think we’re heading for, where we wear headsets all the time instead of carrying phones? That possibility may have seemed far off and even ridiculous when it was Mark Zuckerberg’s grand plan, but Apple’s Vision Pro <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/5/23750003/apple-vision-pro-hands-on-the-best-headset-demo-ever">headset</a> <a href="https://www.cnet.com/tech/computing/apple-vision-pro-hands-on-far-better-than-i-was-ready-for/">reviews</a> <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/05/first-impressions-yes-apple-vision-pro-works-and-yes-its-good/">were</a> <a href="https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/apple-vision-pro">very</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/06/technology/personaltech/apple-vision-pro-headset-try.html">positive</a>, with many saying it far exceeded their expectations of what was possible. There are still a lot of questions about use cases, affordability, and size that might prevent it from achieving mainstream adoption, but those are also things that can be fixed over time. If so, we’ll have a whole new interface to learn how to use — and probably a new generation that gets it faster than the rest of us — and another design shift to navigate. And, surely, a cultural one.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="als5Ri">
“Who gets to control what you are seeing of reality? Are you determining it? How much does the person you’re looking at, the house you’re walking past, the person’s desk you’re walking by? Who owns how something is represented?” said Judith Donath, a faculty associate at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet &amp; Society. And there’s no guarantee it will be the user at all, the way things are going.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UUUbSL">
Pollak is thinking of a near future in which generative AI plays a larger role in figuring out and giving users what they want.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GtGkXZ">
“The idea of a static UI may start to shift in and of itself; if more and more the [user’s] intent is understood, you don’t even have to find where the button is,” he said. “If it knows what you want, it’ll put a big button in front of you.” Those headsets, of course, already know exactly where your eyes are, what they’re looking at, and <a href="https://appleinsider.com/articles/23/06/06/early-apple-vision-pro-neurological-research-helps-it-predict-when-youll-click">possibly even</a> how you feel about it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XS4KDN">
Maybe generative AI will create a user experience and an interface that adjusts to each user with the same granularity of the content it sends them. It could give everyone what they want, presented the way they understand it best. And then I’ll finally find that TikTok video.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="s1oy42">
<em>A version of this story was also published in the Vox technology newsletter. </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/pages/newsletters"><em><strong>Sign up here</strong></em></a><em> so you don’t miss the next one!</em>
</p></li>
<li><strong>What a landmark new study on homelessness tells us</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A young woman sits outside a makeshift tent created out of a blue plastic tarp and cardboard boxes, among other homeless people camped near an overpass in San Diego, on March 24, 2023. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Tp31XGRiGV8YJ4XIFCWbXIjZcew=/334x0:5667x4000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72426418/1252222592.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
About 30 percent of the US’s homeless population lives in California. A recent large study describes their lives. | Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
How homeless people in California lost their homes, and how they cope.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GWBpMe">
While unsheltered homelessness in the US <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy/2023/3/8/23618237/homelessness-tent-encampments-housing-affordable">has grown conspicuously worse</a> over the last decade, understanding the experiences of those living without housing remains logistically difficult. So much of what researchers know about the daily lives of the non-homeless population is through household research, like the <a href="https://www.census.gov/data/experimental-data-products/household-pulse-survey.html">Census Household Pulse</a> or the <a href="https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs">American Community Survey</a>. A lack of clear data on those without housing makes it harder to understand how they lost their shelter, how they survive — or don’t survive — and easier for half-baked theories and myths to spread about homeless individuals themselves.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BEvtpp">
That’s what makes an ambitious<strong> </strong>new study out of California — where 30 percent of the nation’s homeless population lives — so significant. Led by the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative (BHHI) at the University of California San Francisco, researchers sought to reflect the experiences of all people ages 18 and older experiencing homelessness in the state.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gpm8nL">
Their final report, the California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness, or <a href="https://homelessness.ucsf.edu/our-impact/our-studies/california-statewide-study-people-experiencing-homelessness">CASPEH</a>, includes nearly 3,200 administered questionnaires and 365 in-depth interviews collected between October 2021 and November 2022, including from urban, rural, and suburban areas.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="r9Gmd6">
“It’s incredibly difficult to do representative studies of people experiencing homelessness, so the fact that this study was able to obtain a large and representative sample of adults experiencing homelessness in California is impressive,” Elizabeth Bowen, an associate professor at the University of Buffalo who studies unhoused people, told Vox. The last large representative study of homelessness in the US was conducted <a href="https://www.huduser.gov/portal/publications/pdf/home_tech/tchap-02.pdf">nearly 30 years ago</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="agfAEK">
The CASPEH research provides firmer evidence for some things long associated with homeless individuals — namely, that lacking housing serves as a meaningful barrier to health care and income benefits, and is a key driver of discrimination in one’s daily life.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MT7w1K">
A quarter of participants reported an inability to access prescription medications for physical health conditions, and almost half reported their overall health as poor or fair. Nearly two-thirds had at least one chronic health condition.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bqGdh1">
The study also provided clarity on other experiences for those living without housing. Almost half reported symptoms of depression or anxiety, and 12 percent reported experiencing hallucinations. Participants cited frequent interactions with the police, with one-third of respondents spending at least one night in jail during their current episode of homelessness. Over a third reported losing belongings to confiscations in the prior six months, including important personal documents and medication.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="naygrN">
One of the most staggering findings, even to experts on homelessness, was just how little notice most people said they had before they lost their housing, and precisely how low their incomes were at that point. In the six months prior to their homelessness, the median monthly household income of respondents was just $960. Leaseholders — meaning those who had a rental lease or a mortgage — reported a median of just 10 days notice that they were going to lose their housing. Non-leaseholders — referring to those living with family or friends — reported a median notice of just one day.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wuzmYo">
Most CASPEH respondents said they believed a monthly rental subsidy of $300 to $500 would have prevented their homelessness for a sustained period, or a one-time payment of $5,000 to $10,000. Nine in 10 respondents believed a housing voucher would also<strong> </strong>have staved off their slide into homelessness.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5QDHWD">
“I was really surprised by how little people thought it would have taken to prevent their homelessness,” Margot Kushel, the principal investigator of the study, told Vox. “Do we know if people are overly optimistic? Sure, they might be. But I sort of believe people are experts in their own lives and people really felt that, had they interrupted that cycle, they could have hung on, but once they became homeless everything else fell apart. Once they lost their housing, then their job opportunities declined and they got to a hole they couldn’t pull out of.”
</p>
<h3 id="it0I2K">
What researchers learned about the demographics of<strong> </strong>homelessness in California
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KAfbf8">
CASPEH interviewed people between the ages of 18 and 89, with a median age of 47. Researchers found an aging homeless population in California: 44 percent of those surveyed<strong> </strong>were 50 and older, which is <a href="https://calmatters.org/health/2023/02/california-homeless-seniors/">consistent with separate state data</a> that found between 2017 and 2021, the number of people 55 and older who sought homelessness services increased significantly — more than any other age group.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IaB5AE">
Compared to the overall California population, researchers found non-white groups overrepresented among the homeless, with 26 percent of participants identifying as Black and 12 percent identifying as Native American or Indigenous. Thirty-five percent identified Latino/x as their sole racial identity or<strong> </strong>one of their racial identities.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cgPqyR">
The vast majority of those homeless in California (nine out of 10) had been living in the state before losing their homes — bucking the idea that maybe people are flocking to the sunny West Coast to live outside in the nicer weather. Seventy-five percent of those homeless adults, in fact, live in the same California county as their last stint in housing.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tRJy85">
Many of those experiencing homelessness had been homeless before. Only 39<strong> </strong>percent said this was their first episode, and the median length of all respondents’ current bout of homelessness was 22 months. More than a third met the federal criteria for being chronically homeless.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XCGRY0">
In terms of gender and sexuality, most respondents (69 percent) identified as cisgender men, and 30 percent identified as cisgender women. One percent identified as nonbinary, transgender, or gender nonconforming, though that rate was higher (6 percent) for participants ages 18-24.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hZ3xWk">
Researchers also learned that prior experiences of violence and substance use were common among the homeless: Nearly three-quarters reported past experiences of physical violence, and 24 percent said they had experienced sexual violence. Sixty-five percent reported having had a period in their life in which they regularly used illicit drugs, and 62 percent reported having had a period in their life with heavy drinking.
</p>
<h3 id="Fr84ku">
What it’s like to<strong> </strong>be homeless in California today
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fTpm3A">
Among those experiencing homelessness, 78 percent said they spent the majority of<strong> </strong>the previous six months unsheltered — meaning living on the streets, in cars, in abandoned buildings, or anywhere not meant for humans to live. Ninety percent said they had spent at least one night in the past six months unsheltered. Forty-one percent said there had been a time when they wanted a homeless shelter but couldn’t access it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tIXSES">
One of the more astounding findings was how many women of reproductive age — 26 percent — reported experiencing pregnancy during their current bout of homelessness, including 8 percent at the time they were interviewed. “I have to admit to you that when those numbers came in I was so shocked,” Kushel told Vox.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XGj2Ri">
To cope with homelessness, many respondents used drugs, and particularly methamphetamine (31 percent). While 6 percent of participants reported receiving any current drug or alcohol treatment, 20<strong> </strong>percent said they wanted treatment but were unable to receive it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YVYt2O">
“People talked to us really plainly about how they couldn’t possibly stop using drugs until they were housed,” Kushel said. “Many were using drugs to stay awake, because they were scared of violence if they fell asleep, or their stuff being taken away again. And if you can’t fall asleep and you’re hungry, then yeah, meth can help you.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OsnUBO">
Few people experiencing homelessness were working, though many were looking for work. Just 18 percent reported income from jobs, and 70 percent reported it had been at least two years since they had worked 20 hours or more weekly. Nearly all participants expressed interest in obtaining formal housing, though fewer than half had received <a href="https://files.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/COVID-19-Homeless-System-Response-Housing-Navigation.pdf">any formal assistance</a> to do so. Just 26 percent received assistance monthly or more frequently in the six months before they were interviewed.
</p>
<h3 id="IrvWot">
What BHHI researchers recommend as a<strong> </strong>policy response
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="w1WyzE">
While the research was requested by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s secretary of health and human services, the study was not funded by the state, giving BHHI, as Kushel put it, “the autonomy to say what we wanted.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gZgBBP">
Based on their findings, the researchers say California should increase access to housing for those with extremely low incomes by boosting production, expanding rental subsidies, bolstering housing navigation services, and enforcing anti-discrimination laws.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4bEa5G">
Researchers also encourage more federal and state investment, not only in assistance to those experiencing homelessness, but also in homelessness prevention — such as financial and legal aid targeting<strong> </strong>social service agencies, domestic violence clinics, community organizations, and health care settings, where vulnerable people are most likely to go. Given how little notice people report having before they lost their housing, finding ways to provide aid faster should be a priority.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nOOGsk">
To support those dealing with mental health and substance use issues, the researchers recommend expanding low-barrier treatment options for those experiencing homelessness, and for those who transition into permanent supportive housing.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ADMwv5">
Dr. Mark Ghaly, the secretary of California’s Health and Human Services Agency, said <a href="https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2023/06/425646/california-statewide-study-investigates-causes-and-impacts-homelessness">in a statement</a> that “this study reinforces the importance of comprehensive and integrated supports,” though <a href="https://calmatters.org/commentary/2023/06/study-california-homelessness-crisis/">as CalMatters reported</a>, Newsom has <a href="https://calmatters.org/housing/2022/11/california-homeless-newsom-funding-reversal/">criticized local governments’ efforts</a> to address homelessness as lacking urgency, and has yet to make<strong> </strong>long-term funding commitments to them.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="21WiE3">
Kushel told Vox that ultimately, there needs to be more housing in California to address the acute statewide shortage and bring down the high prices. But even if California does build more housing<strong> </strong>generally, Kushel says that, to address the state’s homelessness crisis, there needs to be more subsidized housing specifically provided for people with extremely low incomes. “I do not believe the market is going to solve for this given how incredibly poor everyone was,” she said.
</p></li>
<li><strong>The impossible paradox of car ownership</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A woman sitting in the driver’s seat of a silver sedan parked beside a chainlink fence." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/khGqc5_-USP6WOk6W1S6xB4Ht40=/0x48:1920x1488/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72426340/JohnFrancisPeters_05.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Shala Waines uses her 2015 Hyundai Elantra to run her small business, to supplement her income making UberEats and DoorDash deliveries, and to get herself and her daughter to school, the store, and appointments. “It’s everything,” she says.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
For many working-class Americans, cars are a burden and a necessity.
</p>
<p class="p--has-dropcap" data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="u2pES9">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8obRQx">
It was the third Saturday of the month, which meant that Shala Waines was up early. In a few hours, she had to set up for the <a href="https://sdsoulswapmeet.com/">Soul Swapmeet</a>, a monthly open-air market she founded in 2018 for Black entrepreneurs. To get to the swap meet that morning, Shala had to transport herself, her 17-year-old daughter, Damiyah, and Damiyah’s two friends, plus a large, A-frame plastic sign advertising the event, and a tent for her DJs. Shala drives a silver 2015 Hyundai Elantra, and fitting the kids and supplies in a compact four-door requires some creativity. She made it work by asking the teens to hold the tent in their laps.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="prnuI6">
To look at Shala’s car is to get a sense of the woman who drives it: a small business owner, a single mom, and the type of person who volunteers to bring all of the food for a friend’s lakeside birthday bash. There are the empty cups her teenager and friends left in the back seat right after she cleaned it; boxes and bags rolling around in the trunk. There’s a “minding my Black-owned business” sticker, and some scrapes and dents on the driver’s side doors and bumper that Shala hates but can’t afford to fix right now.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="w4A8LS">
The Elantra has meant a lot to her. It’s how she’s built her business, driving around San Diego to meet with potential vendors and city officials, scouting locations for the swap meet, loading it up with supplies. It’s how she makes UberEats and DoorDash deliveries to supplement her income, making food deliveries and supermarket runs for other people. It’s how she transports her daughter to school, gets her groceries, and makes it to doctor’s appointments. It’s her constant companion as she hustles, creates opportunities for herself and her clients, and cares for her daughter. In other words, her car is her ticket to participating in American life. “It’s everything,” Shala says.
</p>
<div class="c-wide-block">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Shala Waines opens the trunk of her car. Behind her on a grassy expanse are tents with merchandise." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/1jZYJDldpp10WOqHDFtCVgb181U=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24759419/JohnFrancisPeters_07.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Shala is pictured with her car at the Soul Swapmeet in San Diego in May 2023. She founded the event five years ago.
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</figure>
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<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="WReniU"/>
<p class="p--has-dropcap" data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EtdiHD">
It feels almost too obvious to say that for most people living in the United States, owning a car or having access to one is a necessity. Even after the pandemic <a href="https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2022/people-working-from-home.html">tripled the number of Americans who primarily work from home</a>, the vast majority of American workers — 68 percent — still drive to their <a href="https://www.vox.com/labor-jobs">jobs</a>. Eighty-eight percent of households <a href="https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/what-if-more-people-bought-groceries-online-instead-driving-store">use cars to shop for food</a>, according to one survey, and having a car or a ride can factor significantly into whether someone is able to get <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4265215/">health care</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zUZlWf">
For people who don’t need a car to get around, the convenience of owning one is so overwhelming that few who can afford to have a vehicle — outside of transit-rich cities like New York and Washington, DC — choose to go without. As of 2021, <a href="https://data.census.gov/table?tid=ACSDP5Y2021.DP04&amp;hidePreview=true">91.7 percent of American households had at least one car</a>, according to Census data, and only 8.3 percent had none. In ways large and small, the ability to drive dictates how adults in the US earn a living, see friends, care for family, and visit the world outside their neighborhoods.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JXHwe4">
Anyone who has ever struggled to afford a car, or lived without one, knows how complicated life can get without access to a vehicle. Car ownership has always been expensive, but recent trends suggest that it is getting worse. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/05/07/new-car-market-high-interest-rates/">New car prices have risen so much</a> that purchasing one is quickly becoming out of reach for many buyers: A new car cost about $48,000 in May 2023, <a href="https://www.kbb.com/car-advice/when-will-car-prices-drop/">roughly 25 percent more</a> than one cost in May 2020. Because of a microchip shortage and auto manufacturers <a href="https://apnews.com/article/used-cars-prices-new-vehicles-supply-522266dc94e089859f6eb393a4a786e1">using their limited supply on luxury vehicles</a> that cost more money, consumers are increasingly turning to the used car market, driving up those prices, too. Over almost the same time period, the price of an average used car <a href="https://www.consumerreports.org/buying-a-car/when-to-buy-a-used-car-a6584238157/">rose about 50 percent</a>. Plus, there’s the cost of gas, emergency repair, regular maintenance, and insurance, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/05/your-money/car-insurance-rates.html">which also has been rising</a>.
</p>
<div>
<div class="c-image-grid">
<div class="c-image-grid__item">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Shala Waines walks along a row of tents selling merchandise on a grassy field." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/0qSd2YFp1-JqdbQJK2LgLdNvVzw=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24759404/JohnFrancisPeters_02.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Shala walks the grounds of the Soul Swapmeet in May.
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</figure>
</div>
<div class="c-image-grid__item">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A photo showing a dent on the rear quarter panel of a silver Hyundai Elantra." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/vJK4R8iX1ZS1XpI5IpPkw6cUCwE=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24759402/JohnFrancisPeters_01.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
The 2015 silver Hyundai Elantra that Shala has owned since 2018 has some scratches and dents.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4rYYds">
The burdens of vehicle dependency fall disproportionately on marginalized people, especially those who are low-income and those who are Black. Car insurance costs more for people <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/minority-neighborhoods-higher-car-insurance-premiums-white-areas-same-risk">living in majority-minority zip codes</a>. Minorities are <a href="https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/cfpb_mayer_racial-discrimination-in-the-auto-loan-market.pdf">more likely to be denied car loans</a> than white people with the same credit scores and incomes, and pay higher interest rates when they’re approved. People with low credit scores are vulnerable <a href="https://www.consumerreports.org/money/car-financing/the-big-business-of-bad-car-loans-a2181686536/">to predatory lenders</a> who can trap them further in debt. Those living in low-income communities <a href="https://www.vox.com/23178764/florida-us19-deadliest-pedestrian-fatality-crisis">are more likely to live near dangerous roads</a>, putting them at <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/04/26/opinion/road-deaths-racial-gap.html">increased risk of death</a>. And Black drivers are more likely to <a href="https://www.vox.com/23735896/racism-car-ownership-driving-violence-traffic-violations">be pulled over by the police</a>, an experience with a range of possible negative outcomes, including ticketing, arrest, and violence.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ejv5yy">
There is also the major toll cars take on the environment. Researchers calculated gas consumption from vehicles from 1949 to present and found that if American-owned vehicles were their own country, they’d be the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/13/climate/car-emissions.html">sixth largest emitter of carbon dioxide on Earth</a>. For all of these reasons, environmentalists and urban planning experts and advocates focus on reducing auto dependency, highlighting the importance of providing more equitable and environmentally sustainable alternatives, like public transit.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="I2M6Si">
At the same time, a small but growing body of research shows that while reducing car use overall ought to remain a priority for policymakers, there’s a segment of the population that would benefit greatly by increasing access to and ownership of cars: low-income people, especially working-class mothers. They argue that increasing vehicle availability is an important step toward reducing economic inequality.
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Arizona State University Professor David King and two colleagues, Michael Manville at UCLA and Michael Smart at Rutgers, decided to <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0739456X18823252">look at the falling socioeconomic status of carless people</a> in the United States. In a paper published in 2019, they found that the poverty rate among carless families rose between 1960 and 2014, at the same time the number of poor people with a car increased 20 percent. The way a car unlocks access to almost everything ensures that most people will, despite the costs, do whatever they can to obtain one.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Tfeywp">
What surprised King was how pronounced the income gap between car owners and the carless was in much of the country. The disparity between an auto-owning household and a carless household was about as large as it is between a homeowner and renter. “We were really surprised that the relationship is as stark as it is,” King said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mHSDeF">
Another study in <a href="https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/22461/413078-Driving-to-Opportunity-Understanding-the-Links-among-Transportation-Access-Residential-Outcomes-and-Economic-Opportunity-for-Housing-Voucher-Recipients.PDF">2014</a> of low-income families who received housing vouchers through the Department of Housing and Urban Development found that recipients who had cars fared better than those who did not. “Housing voucher recipients with cars tended to live and remain in higher-opportunity neighborhoods — places with lower poverty rates, higher social status, stronger housing markets, and lower health risks,” wrote Rolf Pendall, <a href="https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/many-low-income-families-cars-may-be-key-greater-opportunity">one of the study’s authors</a> and a professor of urban and regional planning at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JrVVdd">
Among one group of voucher recipients, “those with cars were twice as likely to find a job and four times as likely to remain employed,” he wrote. “The importance of automobiles arises not due to the inherent superiority of driving, but because public transit systems in most metropolitan areas are slow, inconvenient, and lack sufficient metropolitan-wide coverage to rival the automobile.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="N0cJXt">
In 2018, Cornell University professor Nicholas Klein <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0739456X20950428">interviewed 30 people who</a> received cars through a program called <a href="https://www.vehiclesforchange.org/">Vehicles For Change</a>, which provides automobiles to people who need them in Maryland and northern Virginia. Klein was looking for specific examples hidden in the data indicating that car access improves job opportunities and can have other benefits for families.
</p>
<div class="c-wide-block">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Shala Waines watches the display of a gas pumping station, leaning against her Elantra." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/p8_t1ni1DNZuvh3hWl54WmLBViU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24759426/JohnFrancisPeters_11.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Shala fills up her tank at a San Diego-area gas station. Owning a car costs far more than its purchase price — insurance, interest rates, maintenance, and gas all make the expense more burdensome, particularly for those with lower incomes.
</figcaption>
</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SsgCNV">
“The part I didn’t expect, that came up organically in interviews, was that low-income people were already buying cars and struggling to own and maintain cars. I think many people, including myself, had naively assumed that subsidizing a car for someone meant that they’d go from taking the bus or biking or walking to all of a sudden driving,” he says. “It’s not that most lower-income people are not able to own a car. It’s that they’re not able to hold onto those cars, and the used car market is incredibly fraught.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="o3Qjhb">
Klein also realized that conversations about cars, and the struggles of getting, keeping, and maintaining them, were often much deeper and more emotionally weighted than they initially seemed. As he spoke with recipients, Klein started to understand why. “Losing a car is often caught up with another crisis or challenge,” he says. “It can be caught up in housing insecurity, or losing a job. Sometimes, it’s people talking about domestic abuse or addiction or incarceration.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uu4x7Y">
The conversations were, on the surface, about getting a car. In reality, they were about so much more than that. They were stories about what it means to survive in the United States.
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="DsPYCP"/>
<p class="p--has-dropcap" data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bWdve0">
Shala knows how hard it can be to hold on to a car. Growing up in Southern California, she had memories of family road trips to Disneyland, Las Vegas, and the beach. “I had an amazing upbringing until I turned 17,” she says. “From there, everything went downhill.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mx43QB">
In 2001, Shala’s mom broke her ankle. Soon after, she developed a blood clot and died suddenly. Shala was just on the cusp of adulthood; her mom was 35. “It hit us really hard,” Shala says. A few months later, Shala and her siblings moved across the country with their stepdad, to Virginia to be closer to his relatives. Shala struggled with her grief. By 17, she was pregnant with her first child.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mPwyD6">
She stayed in Roanoke after high school, raising her son and working, and by 31, she was a mother of two employed by a large insurance agency. She hated the way her work dictated the time she was able to spend with her children, and felt that there weren’t good opportunities for her if she stayed in Virginia. She dreamed of returning to California and someday starting her own business. So she made contact with her biological dad, who was still living in California. He offered to help her find a job and a place to live if she came home.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yqoHos">
Shala took the Chevrolet Impala she’d been paying off and drove it from Roanoke to San Diego over the course of a weekend. When she got there, she realized that her dad wasn’t actually in a position to help. First, he put her up in the house of a relative who wasn’t able to accommodate her and her daughter. Then, he paid for a night in a motel room where the front door didn’t lock and everything was so unclean that Shala didn’t want to lie down on the bed. Her daughter Damiyah, then 7 years old, was with her at the time (her son stayed with his father in Virginia). The two of them felt so afraid of staying the night that they fled the room and slept in their car.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VAKd7N">
After several weeks, Shala got a job and secured an apartment. They didn’t have any furniture, so each night Shala inflated a twin-sized mattress for her and Damiyah to sleep on. “In the morning it was flat,” she says. She made omelets for every breakfast, trying to keep grocery costs low and save as much as she could.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="asxwFF">
While she was struggling to get back on her feet, she fell behind on the payments for the Impala. Soon, she started worrying that it would be repossessed. She stayed up late at night, listening to the sounds of traffic, fearing a tow truck would come and take the car. “One night, it really was the truck,” she says, starting to cry at the memory. “They took my car, and I was all alone. I didn’t have anybody. I was like, what am I going to do?”
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="ufz4Mf"/>
<p class="p--has-dropcap" data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PkcpxO">
“Getting a car is a great step toward independence, but it’s not the final step. We need to do better as a society to provide a better standard of living,” says Marla Stuart, director of the Contra Costa County Employment and Human Services Department. The county’s <a href="https://ehsd.org/benefits/calworks-welfare-to-work-program/transportation/">KEYS Auto Loan program</a> provides affordable, low-interest car loans to qualified participants in CalWORKs, a California public assistance program.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wxFDuN">
KEYS and other loan programs can help people who might otherwise be subject to predatory lenders pushing deals they know recipients can’t afford to pay. But they also help address the inequity <a href="https://www.vox.com/23735896/racism-car-ownership-driving-violence-traffic-violations">applicants face on the market</a>. Minority applicants, according to research by Southern Methodist University professor Erik Mayer and colleagues, are 1.5 percentage points less likely to get a loan compared to their white peers, even after factoring in income and credit scores. Those who receive loans are charged interest rates that are 0.7 percent APR higher than similar white buyers. “Minorities are treated as if their credit score is roughly 30 points lower than it actually is. But then when we look at default rates on auto loans, we do not find any evidence that this is justified in economic terms,” Mayer tells Vox.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KTF1kr">
Across the United States, there are more than 120 nonprofit organizations that help provide cars to people who need them, according to <a href="https://www.workingcarsforworkingfamilies.org/">Working Cars for Working Families</a>, a program run by the National Consumer Law Center. Some operate as offshoots of county or state social services departments, others as charities. Freddy Pacheco, who helps run the loan program <a href="https://www.peninsulafamilyservice.org/our-programs/financial-empowerment/">DriveForward for the Peninsula Family Service</a>, in San Mateo, California, sees a range of people with moderate and low incomes, but, he says, “I would say around 80 percent of them are single mothers and minorities. A lot of them are people that came from domestic violence relationships or they’re not getting support with their kids.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CBFupB">
Davine Snead is the vice president of development at Vehicles For Change, the organization that connected Klein to car recipients for his research. But 15 years ago, she was a mother of three young kids, going through a divorce. Her sister told her about Vehicles For Change, and Snead made a connection with the organization through a referral agency. Vehicles for Change got her a minivan. In turn, Snead was able to take a job that required her to commute a little farther each day, but which put her on the path to financial sustainability. It also allowed her to give her kids the experiences she’d always wanted them to have — regular trips to museums and the public library, and family days at the beach. “I get choked up, because that minivan was literally the keys to my independence and my freedom that I needed to restart my life,” Snead says. “It was just a real game changer.”
</p>
<div class="c-float-left c-float-hang">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A closeup of Shala Waines’s keys, with include a Soul Swapmeet lanyard and a cat keychain." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/dMB5Jbz3_uxLiYKRJee0VWMWbNw=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24759434/JohnFrancisPeters_06.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Shala shows off her keys.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KTHdKY">
Because car access programs are limited, and the number of people who need cars and struggle to afford them is immense, people who struggle to afford a car often end up with bad loans or unreliable vehicles. Others make arrangements with family and friends, doing whatever they can to get by.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nkopRY">
While Shala was trying to figure out how she was going to get to work without the Impala, her neighbor’s mom made an offer: The woman would pay to get Shala’s car out of the lot, but she’d keep it for herself. In return, the woman would let Shala rent the Toyota Prius she owned, while Shala saved money to buy another car. Shala accepted the offer because she needed to get to work to keep her job, and taking the bus would add hours to her commute. But she later came to regret the terms of the deal. “I was paying her $200 a week for that car,” she says — far more than the average used car loan, <a href="https://www.bankrate.com/loans/auto-loans/average-monthly-car-payment/#:~:text=the%20best%20deal.-,Car%20payment%20statistics,for%20used%20cars%20is%20%24526">which is currently around $526 a month</a>. At the time, she felt like she had no other choice. “When your back is against the wall, you have to say yes.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BEY2Om">
Eventually, she saved up enough money to get a used Volkswagen Jetta, but the car started malfunctioning shortly after she bought it, and soon it was in the shop more than on the street. She found a lawyer and successfully sued the dealership that sold it to her. In 2016, she was hired to be the office manager at a fledgling insurance company for $25 an hour and bought a 2015 Kia Optima. The new business struggled, and she soon was laid off. She started falling behind on payments for the Kia, too. She needed to figure something out before the car was repossessed.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="x2NEUJ">
Both Shala’s and Snead’s experiences echo what Evelyn Blumenberg, a professor at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs, found when reviewing data about what car access means for women — especially working-class mothers. In a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308665756_Why_low-income_women_in_the_US_still_need_automobiles">2016 piece</a> in <em>The Town Planning Review</em>, Blumenberg demonstrated the increasing importance of cars for women with limited means, due to the <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/book/confronting-suburban-poverty-in-america/">suburbanization of poverty</a>, women’s participation in the workforce, and their unique household responsibilities. After reviewing the wide range of positive outcomes associated with cars, Blumenberg wrote: “If automobiles are essential to women’s livelihoods, policies ought to balance the need for automobiles with broader efforts to reduce their negative environmental impacts.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="erLUSh">
King also feels strongly about increasing car availability for low-income people. Cars are harmful to the environment, expensive, and loaded with negative externalities. But the individual benefits to low-income people are too great to ignore. “Just because too much driving is bad,” he says, “doesn’t mean we should punish people who’d be better off by driving more.”
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="eXSYsJ"/>
<p class="p--has-dropcap" data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZGWorn">
In 2018, Shala discovered Hand Up Cars. A program offered by the <a href="https://www.jfssd.org/our-services/loans-scholarships/hand-up-cars/">Jewish Family Service of San Diego</a>, Hand Up Cars provides financing for working parents with low-to-moderate incomes and challenged credit histories, and it comes with required financial workshops and coaching. Shala applied to be a part of the program, attended financial literacy classes, and qualified for a loan. She picked out the Elantra. It wasn’t her dream car, but it had almost everything she was looking for.
</p>
<div class="c-wide-block">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Shala Waines leans on the open driver’s side door of her Elantra, smiling. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/r_mb8UTjX3Rxu6sfJ2lodLEN1wc=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24759428/JohnFrancisPeters_09.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Shala bought her car after struggling to maintain payments on previous vehicles. Hand Up Cars, a program run by San Diego’s Jewish Family Service, helped her purchase the Elantra, and also offered financial coaching. She now feels more stable than she has in years.
</figcaption>
</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NQolXu">
Her Kia was eventually repossessed, but this time, she wasn’t stuck without a vehicle. The relief, she says, was immeasurable. “Helpful is not even the word — it’s been a lifesaver,” she says. The program’s coordinator, Nina Vaysburd, kept in touch with her, checking in to make sure she was keeping up with her payments and dropping off gift cards for Shala and her daughter at Christmas. In Vaysburd, Shala felt like she’d found someone who was on her side.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XxVsop">
When her transmission died in 2020, Hand Up Cars helped pay for it to be replaced. Five years after getting her car, Shala is almost done paying off the loan. She still thinks of herself as working her way toward the middle class, but she’s in a much more stable situation, and she knows the car played a major part. She feels much closer to making it than she did 10 years ago, when she and her daughter sometimes had to sleep in the Impala.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BcJmSE">
The Elantra is still her ticket to everything: On the Thursday after the meet, she drove with her daughter Damiyah to the bank to cash a check, then turned on the UberEats app and made a few deliveries.
</p>
<div class="c-wide-block">
<div class="c-image-grid">
<div class="c-image-grid__item">
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<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/yIYXBI2kX-xhnekqdNP0LXGdY4Q=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24759406/JohnFrancisPeters_04.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Shala and her 17-year-old daughter, Damiyah, left, shop for groceries for an UberEats delivery run.
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<div class="c-image-grid__item">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Shala in the driver’s seat looks at her phone, which shows a map for grocery delivery. Her daughter, Damiyah, is in the passenger seat." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/AFZmXIbJBh6sUZmV8cItXk8PIFY=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24759410/JohnFrancisPeters_03.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Having the Elantra has allowed Shala to take on extra work delivering for UberEats and Doordash.
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</div>
</div>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NzYOvX">
Damiyah is now the same age Shala was when she lost her mom. It’s something Shala thinks about a lot. Because of what happened, Shala worries about what would happen to Damiyah if Shala died at a young age. It’s important to her to do everything she can to prepare her daughter for being an adult. “I don’t want my baby to be without what she needs when I’m gone,” she says.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0vX20M">
When she pays off the Elantra, Shala hopes to get another car so she can give this one to Damiyah. Shala’s mom never got a chance to give her driving lessons; for her own daughter, it’s different. Shala and Damiyah have just switched seats. Shala is teaching her daughter how to drive.
</p>
<div>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Damiyah is in the driver’s seat, smiling at her mother, who is in the passenger’s seat making a driving motion with her hands." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/T45U4aYZQBlK4VVkCikYICb1s5Y=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24759437/JohnFrancisPeters_10.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Shala is also using the Elantra for one special task: teaching Damiyah to drive.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Man United sign Mason Mount from Chelsea for reported $70 million transfer fee</strong> - Mason Mount would be Manchester United’s first signing of the close season as manager Erik ten Hag seeks to strengthen his squad before the EPL side’s return to the Champions League</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>BCCI names Ajit Agarkar India’s new chairman of selectors</strong> - Ajit Agarkar, who joins Shiv Sundar Das, Subroto Banerjee, Salil Ankola and Sridharan Sharath on the selection committee, was made chairperson based on seniority which considers the total number of Test matches played.</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>Mental preparation and skill execution key to success: Brathwaite ahead of India series</strong> - Despite bowing out of the World Cup Qualifiers, Brathwaite and company are eager to look ahead and start the new ICC World Test Championship cycle with the series against India</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>Argentine World Cup winner Emiliano Martinez gets a grand reception in Kolkata</strong> - The goalkeeper was visibly elated at the overwhelming reception, spreading his arms in acknowledgement before saying “I love you Kolkata.”</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>Andy Murray gets a win at rainy Wimbledon and a thumbs-up from Roger Federer</strong> - Rain disrupts Wimbledon matches as Roger Federer receives standing ovation, and Andy Murray gives it all despite hip injuries. Carlos Alcaraz shines in his match.</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>Entries invited for Kerala Institutional Ranking Framework</strong> - Further details can be obtained by contacting the KSHEC by mailing kirf@kshec.org or by dialling 0471-2301292, 9446531005 or 7561018708</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>New V-C in-charge for Kufos</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>Himachal CM accuses previous BJP Government of neglecting State’s interests</strong> - Congress is ensuring balanced development, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu says</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>Arrest warrant issued against absconding accused in Udhagamandalam</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>Tomatoes worth ₹2.7 lakh stolen in Karnataka’s Hassan</strong> - The complainant has estimated the value of the stolen fruits at ₹2.70 lakh, considering the current rate in the wholesale market. In the retail market, tomatoes are selling at ₹100 per kg</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>France riots: ‘For the politicians we are nothing’</strong> - In one of Marseille’s most deprived neighbourhoods, residents say local despair fuels riots.</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>Ruins found of Munich synagogue destroyed by Hitler</strong> - Columns and a stone tablet showing the Ten Commandments are discovered at a weir in the River Isar.</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>Netherlands: Phone ban announced to stop school disruptions</strong> - Secondary schools are being asked to restrict devices to try and improve students’ learning.</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>Crippling fuel crisis turns Cuba to old friend Russia</strong> - Crippling fuel shortages on the Caribbean island present opportunities for Russian companies.</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>NCA helping police identify Slieve League body</strong> - They are trying to ascertain whether the body is that of a man due to go on trial for drug smuggling.</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>One shot of a kidney protein gave monkeys a brain boost</strong> - An early experiment suggests that an injection of klotho improves working memory. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1951617">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Our Solar System possibly survived a supernova because of how the Sun formed</strong> - The gas that produce stars also cushion them from the blast of nearby supernovae. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1951550">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The 2024 Rolls-Royce Spectre proves EVs make the best luxury cars</strong> - We drive Rolls-Royce’s first electric car, which was 123 years in the making. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1951525">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>336,000 servers remain unpatched against critical Fortigate vulnerability</strong> - 69 percent of devices have yet to receive patch for flaw allowing remote code execution. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1951654">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>AMAs are the latest casualty in Reddit’s API war</strong> - “Will this undermine most of what makes IAmA special? Probably.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1951523">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>I see that in the US they’re complaining about halal meat. They want their meat to be killed the American way…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
….but, honestly, what are the chances of a cow enrolling in high school and being shot by a classmate?
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/danl66713"> /u/danl66713 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/14r4xoq/i_see_that_in_the_us_theyre_complaining_about/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/14r4xoq/i_see_that_in_the_us_theyre_complaining_about/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Why condoms come in packs of 3, 6 and 12!</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A man walks into the pharmacy with his 8-year old son.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
They happen to walk by the condom display, and the boy asks, “What are these, Dad?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
To which the man matter-of-factly replies, “Those are called Condoms son. Men use them to have safe sex.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Oh I see,” replied the boy pensively. “Yes, I’ve heard of that in health class at school.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
He looks over the display and picks up a package of 3 and asks, “Why are there 3 in this package?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The dad replies, “Those are for high school boys, one For Friday, one for Saturday, and one for Sunday.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Cool” says the boy. He notices a 6 pack and asks, “Then who are these for?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Those are for college men,” the dad answers, “two For Friday, two for Saturday, and two for Sunday.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“WOW!” exclaimed the boy, “then who uses THESE?” he asks, picking up a 12 pack. With a sigh and a tear in his eye, the dad replies.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Those are for married men, son. One for January, one for February, one for March…”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/HelpingHandsUs"> /u/HelpingHandsUs </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/14qh0to/why_condoms_come_in_packs_of_3_6_and_12/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/14qh0to/why_condoms_come_in_packs_of_3_6_and_12/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>When I was in college, my roommate used to clean my room and I used to clean his.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
We were maid for each other.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/porichoygupto"> /u/porichoygupto </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/14qzxbr/when_i_was_in_college_my_roommate_used_to_clean/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/14qzxbr/when_i_was_in_college_my_roommate_used_to_clean/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What’s the difference between potential and reality?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A boy asks his dad, “What’s the difference between potential and reality?” The dad tells him to go ask the rest of his family if they’d sleep with Brad Pitt for a million dollars, and then he’d tell him the answer. The boy goes up to his mom and asks her. She responds, “A million dollars is a lot of money sweetheart. I could send you, your sister, and your brother to great colleges, so sure, I would!” He then goes and asks his sister to which she replies, “Brad Pitt? Hell ya, he’s the hottest guy ever!” Next, the boy asks his brother who replies, “A million dollars? Hell yes I would. I’d be rich!” When the boy excitedly returns to his dad with the family’s responses, the dad says, “Well son, potentially, we have three million dollars. Realistically, we have two sluts and a queer.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Henry95-"> /u/Henry95- </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/14qx240/whats_the_difference_between_potential_and_reality/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/14qx240/whats_the_difference_between_potential_and_reality/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What is the difference between Americans and the British?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Americans think 200 years is a long history, while the British think 200 miles is a long trip.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/ilikecake81"> /u/ilikecake81 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/14qpbgq/what_is_the_difference_between_americans_and_the/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/14qpbgq/what_is_the_difference_between_americans_and_the/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
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