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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>Is Fostamatinib a possible drug for COVID-19? – A computational study</strong> -
<div>
COVID-19 has turned out to be a global pandemic within a very short period since its first origin in China in December 2019. With the gradual increase in the mortality rate all over the world, there is an urgent need for an effectual drug. Though no clinically approved vaccine or drug is available until now but scientists are trying hard to identify potential antivirals to this new coronavirus. Several drugs like hydroxychloroquine, remdesivir, azithromycin etc. are put under evaluation in more than 300 clinical trials for the treatment of COVID-19. Few of them already show encouraging results. The main agent of disease progression of COVID-19 is SARS-CoV2/nCoV, which is believed to have ~89% genetic resemblance with SARSCoV, a coronavirus responsible for the massive outbreak in 2003. With this hypothesis, a recently developed in silico Human-nCoV network and potential COVID-19 spreader proteins, have been derived from the Human-SARS-CoV protein interactions using SIS model and fuzzy thresholding, followed by a potential FDA drugs target based validation. We then perform a two-way analysis to identify the potential drug targets of COVID-19. In the first analysis, we identify the complete list of FDA drugs for the 37 level 1 and 4948 level 2 spreader proteins in this network followed by the application of a consensus strategy. In the second analysis, the same consensus strategy is applied but on a curated overlapping set of key genes identified from COVID-19 symptoms, risk factors and clinical outcome. The applied consensus strategy in both the analysis reveals that Fostamatinib, a FDA approved drug, has the highest drug consensus score both in level 1 and level 2. Further analysis reveals that Fostamatinib also targets CYP3A4, a level 2 spreader protein and the most common target for most of the potential COVID-19 drugs. A subsequent docking study also reveals that Fostamatinib has also the highest docking score with respect to 6LU7, the crystal structure of COVID-19 main protease in complex with an inhibitor N3, in comparison to other potential drugs like hydroxychloroquine, remdesivir, favipiravir and darunavir. Our computational study suggests that Fostamatinib may also be considered as one of the potential candidates for further clinical trials in pursuit to counter the spread of COVID-19.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/7hgpj/" target="_blank">Is Fostamatinib a possible drug for COVID-19? – A computational study</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Knowledge, attitude and practices related to COVID-19 among medical students in Pakistan: A web-based survey</strong> -
<div>
In the times of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is necessary for the medical students to have knowledge about the features of the disease, how the disease is transmitted, and protective measures to contain the COVID-19. This study was conducted to evaluate knowledge, attitude, and practices related to COVID-19 in Pakistani medical students. We conducted a web-based survey from March 29 to May 10, 2020, utilizing an online platform. Medical students from 1 st to 5th professional years in medical colleges across the country were requested to participate. The questionnaire consisting of 31 items were circulated online using different social media channels to collect the required information. Proportions for categorical variables were tested using the Chi-square test or Fisher’s exact tests. A total of 344 medical students responded, and their overall knowledge about COVID-19 was 88.86 %. Nearly 31.0% of participants were involved in awareness projects regarding COVID-19 in the community and 84.6% of participants were willing to volunteer in healthcare crises. The percentage of the medical students who opted lockdown/curfew to be a better solution for curbing disease transmission was 94.2% while 95.9% of them believed social distancing can prevent the transmission. The average rate of practicing correct preventive measures among the respondents was 93.25%. The study showed sufficient knowledge, the crucial practice of preventive measures regarding COVID-19, and unveiled a profoundly assertive attitude of the medical students of Pakistan toward the current health crises. More regular awareness and educational programs for medical students related to the COVID-19 can boost and update their current knowledge.
</div>
<div class="article- link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/fb8rj/" target="_blank">Knowledge, attitude and practices related to COVID-19 among medical students in Pakistan: A web-based survey</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Analysis of amino acid change dynamics reveals SARS-CoV-2 variant emergence</strong> -
<div>
Since its emergence in late 2019, the diffusion of SARS-CoV-2 is associated with the evolution of its viral genome. The co-occurrence of specific amino acid changes, collectively named ‘virus variant’, requires scrutiny (as variants may hugely impact the agent’s transmission, pathogenesis, or antigenicity); variant evolution is studied using phylogenetics. Yet, never has this problem been tackled by digging into data with ad hoc analysis techniques. Here we show that the emergence of variants can in fact be traced through data-driven methods, further capitalizing on the value of large collections of SARS-CoV-2 sequences. For all countries with sufficient data, we compute weekly counts of amino acid changes, unveil time-varying clusters of changes with similar - rapidly growing - dynamics, and then follow their evolution. Our method succeeds in timely associating clusters to variants of interest/concern, provided their change composition is well characterized. This allows us to detect variants’ emergence, rise, peak, and eventual decline under competitive pressure of another variant. Our early warning system, exclusively relying on deposited sequences, shows the power of big data in this context, and concurs to calling for the wide spreading of public SARS-CoV-2 genome sequencing for improved surveillance and control of the COVID-19 pandemic.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.12.452076v1" target="_blank">Analysis of amino acid change dynamics reveals SARS-CoV-2 variant emergence</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>A drug candidate for treating adverse reactions caused by pathogenic antibodies inducible by COVID-19 virus and vaccines</strong> -
<div>
In a previous study, we reported that certain anti-spike antibodies of COVID-19 and SARS-CoV viruses can have a pathogenic effect through binding to sick lung epithelium cells and misleading immune responses to attack self-cells. We termed this new pathogenic mechanism Antibody Dependent Auto-Attack (ADAA). This study explores a drug candidate for prevention and treatment of such ADAA-based diseases. The drug candidate is a formulation comprising N-acetylneuraminic acid methyl ester (NANA-Me), an analog of N-acetylneuraminic acid. NANA-Me acts through a unique mechanism of action (MOA) which is repairment of the missing sialic acid on sick lung epithelium cells. This MOA can block the antibody binding to sick cells, which are vulnerable to pathogenic antibodies. Our in vivo data showed that the formulation significantly reduced the sickness and deaths caused by pathogenic anti-spike antibodies. Therefore, the formulation has the potential to prevent and treat the serious conditions caused by pathogenic antibodies during a COVID-19 infection. In addition, the formulation has potential to prevent and treat the adverse reactions of COVID-19 vaccines because the vaccines can induce similar antibodies, including pathogenic antibodies. The formulation will be helpful in increasing the safety of the vaccines without reducing the vaccine efficacy. Compared to existing antiviral drugs, the formulation has a unique MOA of targeting receptors, broad spectrum of indications, excellent safety profile, resistance to mutations, and can be easily produced.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.13.452194v1" target="_blank">A drug candidate for treating adverse reactions caused by pathogenic antibodies inducible by COVID-19 virus and vaccines</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Development Of The Inactivated QazCovid-In Vaccine: Protective Efficacy Of The Vaccine In Syrian Hamsters</strong> -
<div>
In March 2020, the first cases of human coronavirus infection COVID-19 were registered in Kazakhstan. We isolated the SARS-CoV-2 virus from the clinical material from the patients. Subsequently, a whole virion inactivated candidate vaccine, QazCovid-in, was developed based on this virus. To obtain the vaccine, a virus grown in Vero cell culture was used, which was inactivated with formaldehyde, purified, concentrated, sterilized by filtration, and then sorbed on aluminum hydroxide gel particles. The formula virus and adjuvant in buffer saline solution was used as a vaccine. The safety and protective effectiveness of the developed vaccine was studied on Syrian hamsters. The results of the studies showed the absolute safety of the candidate vaccine on the Syrian hamsters. When studying the protective effectiveness, the developed vaccine with an immunizing dose of 5 mcg/dose of a specific antigen protected animals from wild virus at a dose of 104.5 TCID50/ml. The candidate vaccine formed virus-neutralizing antibodies in vaccinated hamsters in titers from 3.3 {+/-} 1.45 log2 to 7.25 {+/-} 0.78 log2, which were retained for 6 months (observation period) in the indicated titers. The candidate vaccine suppressed the replication of the wild virus in the body of vaccinated hamsters, protected against the development of acute pneumonia and ensured 100% survival of the animals. At the same time, no replicative virus was isolated from the lungs of vaccinated animals. At the same time, a virulent virus was isolated from the lungs of unvaccinated animals in relatively high titers, reaching 4.5 {+/-} 0.7 lg TCID50/ml. After challenge infection, 100% of unvaccinated hamsters became ill with clinical signs (stress state, passivity, tousled coat, decreased body temperature and body weight, and the development of acute pneumonia), of which 25 {+/-} 5% were fatal. The findings paved the way for testing the candidate vaccine in humans in clinical trials.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.13.452175v1" target="_blank">Development Of The Inactivated QazCovid-In Vaccine: Protective Efficacy Of The Vaccine In Syrian Hamsters</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Probing remdesivir nucleotide analogue insertion to SARS-CoV-2 RNA dependent RNA polymerase in viral replication</strong> -
<div>
Remdesivir (RDV) prodrug can be metabolized into a triphosphate form nucleotide analogue (RDV-TP) to bind and insert into the active site of viral RNA dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) to further interfere with the viral genome replication. In this work, we computationally studied how RDV-TP binds and inserts to the SARS-CoV-2 RdRp active site, in comparison with natural nucleotide substrate adenosine triphosphate (ATP). To do that, we first constructed atomic structural models of an initial binding complex (active site open) and a substrate insertion complex (active site closed), based on high-resolution cryo-EM structures determined recently for SARS-CoV-2 RdRp or non-structural protein (nsp) 12, in complex with accessory protein factors nsp7 and nsp8. By conducting all-atom molecular dynamics simulation with umbrella sampling strategies on the nucleotide insertion between the open and closed state RdRp complexes, our studies show that RDV-TP can bind comparatively stabilized to the viral RdRp active site, as it primarily forms base stacking with the template Uracil nucleotide (at +1), which is under freely fluctuations and supports a low free energy barrier of the RDV-TP insertion (~ 1.5 kcal/mol). In comparison, the corresponding natural substrate ATP binds to the RdRp active site in Watson-Crick base pairing with the template nt, and inserts into the active site with a medium low free energy barrier (~ 2.6 kcal/mol), when the fluctuations of the template nt are well quenched. The simulations also show that the initial base stacking of RDV-TP with the template can be particularly stabilized by motif B-N691, S682, and motif F-K500 with the sugar, base, and the template backbone, respectively. Although the RDV-TP insertion can be hindered by motif-F R555/R553 interaction with the triphosphate, the ATP insertion seems to be facilitated by such interactions. The inserted RDV-TP and ATP can be further distinguished by specific sugar interaction with motif B-T687 and motif-A D623, respectively.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.12.452099v1" target="_blank">Probing remdesivir nucleotide analogue insertion to SARS-CoV-2 RNA dependent RNA polymerase in viral replication</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Peter Chew “Logical Science” System For Epidemics(Covid-19)</strong> -
<div>
Abstract Background: Lessons must be learned from the mistakes of the Covid pandemic. As we have seen, some countries are facing persistently high rates of covid-19 infection, but some countries such as China and South Korea can address the covid-19 problem when their country faces a surge in covid-19. This indicates that some countries facing persistently high infections may have used the wrong strategy, leaving them facing persistently high infections. The study will analyse what have been the main mistake since the Covid pandemic. Then create a system to solve the problem so that it can be used in future pandemic. Methods: Peter Chew’s “Logical Science” system focuses on logical review. The main purpose of the logical review part is to determine whether the guidelines are false. For non-medical treatment guidelines, if the logical review part determines that the guidelines are not false, real-world evidence is needed to determine whether the guidelines are correct. Similar to Mathematical Induction, The goal of the base case is to determine whether the statement (rule, formula, etc.) is false. If the sentence is not false, you need to continue to the second case, the inductive step determines whether the sentence (rule, formula, etc.) is true. Results: Using Peter Chew’s “Logical Science” system, we can find wrong guidelines earlier. It can prevent continued practice of wrong guidelines, leading to persistently high infections. As we have seen, Director-general of the Chinese Canter for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), George Gao said that in his view, a big mistake in the United States and Europe is that people do not wear masks. Therefore, early detection of wrong guidelines is important to reduce high infection rates. In fact, the important lesson we can learn from China’s response to the covid-19 surge is that China will not wait for study evidence to apply non-medical prevention, such as Wuhan compulsory wearing masks on January 22, 2020. Conclusions: Prevention is better than cure. Instead of creating new medical treatment or vaccine for viruses or mutant viruses, it is better to create a system to prevent the spread of pandemic viruses. As we have seen, China and South Korea managed to solve the covid-19 surge in their countries without using vaccines in 2020. Therefore, the epidemic prevention system must be able to detect any wrong guidelines faster to prevent the use of the wrong guidelines from causing widespread spread of the virus. For pandemics, waiting for research evidence to implement non-medical prevention strategies is a big mistake, because the prime time to reduce the spread of the virus has been missed. It takes time to generate research evidence, and follow-up peer review also takes time, so the process of peer review research evidence allows the virus to spread widely, and some mutations may occur, making virus prevention more difficult to deal with.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/2h865/" target="_blank">Peter Chew “Logical Science” System For Epidemics(Covid-19)</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Immunogenicity and pre-clinical efficacy of an OMV-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccine</strong> -
<div>
The vaccination campaign against SARS-CoV-2 relies on the world-wide availability of effective vaccines, with a potential need of 20 billion vaccine doses to fully vaccinate the world population. To reach this goal, the manufacturing and logistic processes should be affordable to all countries, irrespectively of economical and climatic conditions. Outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) are bacterial-derived vesicles that can be engineered to incorporate heterologous antigens. Given the inherent adjuvanticity, such modified OMVs can be used as vaccine to induce potent immune responses against the associated protein. Here we show that OMVs engineered to incorporate peptides derived from the receptor binding motif (RBM) of the spike protein from SARS-CoV-2 elicit an effective immune response in immunized mice, resulting in the production of neutralizing antibodies. The immunity induced by the vaccine is sufficient to protect K18-hACE2 transgenic mice from intranasal challenge with SARS-CoV-2, preventing both virus replication in the lungs and the pathology associated with virus infection. Furthermore, we show that OMVs can be effectively decorated with RBM peptides derived from a different genetic variant of SARS-CoV-2, inducing a similarly potent neutralization activity in vaccinated mice. Altogether, given the convenience associated with ease of engineering, production and distribution, our results demonstrate that OMV-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccines can be a crucial addition to the vaccines currently available.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.12.452027v1" target="_blank">Immunogenicity and pre-clinical efficacy of an OMV-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccine</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>TNF-α levels in respiratory samples are associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection.</strong> -
<div>
Purpose: Increased serum levels of IL-6 and TNF-alpha have been proposed as biomarkers for COVID-19 progression. However, the role and the implication of these cytokines in SARS-CoV-2 infection remain controversial. The aim of this study was to measure levels of IL-6 and TNF-alpha in swab samples from individuals with symptoms compatible with COVID-19 and analyze their association with SARS-CoV-2 presence. Methods: SARS-CoV-2 detection was performed using the CDC (USA) real-time RT-PCR primers, probes and protocols. Cytokine concentrations were measured using commercial reagents based on enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results: TNF-alpha median levels were greater in COVID19 (+) symptomatic group (5.88 (1.36 - 172.1) pg/ml) compared to COVID19 (-) symptomatic individuals (2.87 (1.45 - 69.9) pg/ml) (p=0.0003). No significant differences were shown in IL-6 median values between COVID-19 (+) and (-) symptomatic patients (5.40 (1.7 - 467) pg/ml and 6.07 (1.57 - 466.6) pg/ml respectively). In addition, increased TNF-alpha; levels (greater than 10 pg/ml), but not IL-6, were associated with SARS-CoV-2 presence (OR= 5.7; p=0.006; 95% CI= 1,551 to 19,11). Conclusions: IL-6 concentration showed high levels in swabs from some symptomatic patients, suggesting the presence of immune response at viral entry site. However, IL-6 levels were independent from SARS-CoV-2 presence and viral load, individual’s age and gender. On the contrary, TNF-alpha evaluation confirmed the presence of inflammatory response but mostly related to COVID-19. More studies are required in order to characterize the cytokine profile expressed at the site of infection of SARS-CoV-2 and its implications in disease outcomes.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.12.452071v1" target="_blank">TNF-α levels in respiratory samples are associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection.</a>
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<li><strong>Indications that Stockholm has reached herd immunity, given limited restrictions, against several variants of SARS- CoV-2</strong> -
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“When COVID-19 cases go up, public compliance with restrictions is poor, when cases go down, public compliance is good.” In this article, we question this explanation and show that relatively low levels of sero-prevalence helps to keep cases down. In other words, the herd-immunity threshold appears to be much lower than previously thought. We construct a mathematical model taking pre-immunity, antibody waning and more infectious variants of concern into consideration, thereby providing a theoretical framework in which the cases in Stockholm county can be fully predicted without relying on neither oscillations in restrictions (and public compliance thereof) nor vaccination roll-out. We also show that it is very difficult to match the data from Stockholm without including pre-immunity, or, which turns out to be equivalent, great variations in susceptibility.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.07.21260167v1" target="_blank">Indications that Stockholm has reached herd immunity, given limited restrictions, against several variants of SARS-CoV-2</a>
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<li><strong>Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 into and within immigrant households. Nation-wide registry-study from Norway</strong> -
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Background: Minority ethnic groups and immigrants have been hit disproportionally hard by COVID-19 in many developed countries, including Norway. Most transmissions of SARS-CoV-2 occur in households. Methods: Using individual- level registry data of all Norwegian residents we compared infections across all multi-person households. A household with at least one member born abroad was defined as an immigrant household. For the subset of households where at least one person tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 from August 1st 2020 to May 1st 2021, we calculated secondary attack rates (SARs) as the percent of other household members testing positive within 14 days after the first household member tested positive. Logistic regression model was used to adjust for sex, age, household composition and geography. Results: Among all multi-person households in Norway (n=1 421 642), immigrant households (n=341 604) comprised more members on average (3.2) than households with only Norwegian-born members (2.8). The share of immigrant households where at least one member had been tested, was 56% (vs 49% in the households with only Norwegian-born members), and the share where at least one member was infected was 3.7% (vs 1.4% in households with only Norwegian-born members). Secondary attack rates were higher in immigrant (32%) than Norwegian-born households (20%). Results differed considerably by country of birth, with secondary attack rates particularly high in households from Syria, Iraq, Turkey, and Pakistan, also after adjustment for sex, age, household composition and geography. Conclusion: SARS-CoV-2 is more frequently introduced into multi-person immigrant households than into households with only Norwegian-born members, and transmission within the household occurs more frequently in immigrant households. The results are likely related to living conditions, family composition or differences in social interaction, emphasizing the need to prevent introduction of SARS-CoV-2 into these vulnerable households.
</p>
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.09.21260253v1" target="_blank">Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 into and within immigrant households. Nation-wide registry-study from Norway</a>
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<li><strong>Mode of Presentation and Outcomes of COVID-19 Cases in a Tertiary Hospital in Nigeria</strong> -
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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread across the globe with its consequent human and economic challenges. To achieve effective control of the pandemic, efforts need to be holistic and global. Understanding patients demographics and clinical characteristics will assist in the control of the infection. However, there is a paucity of studies on the clinical presentation of COVID-19 patients from Nigeria and indeed Africa. Thus, this retrospective case series evaluated the medical records of COVID-19 patients admitted in a tertiary hospital in Nigeria. Patients demographics, and other clinical variables were assessed and presented. Data of 14 patients with complete records were included in the study. Most of the patients (78.6%) were males and the mean age of the study participants is 63.5 years (SD; 11.5). The commonest presenting symptoms were fever (93%), cough (71.4%), and dyspnoea (57.1%). At presentation, 13 patients had coexisting diseases while 8 (57.0%) patients had moderate disease and the remaining 6 (43.0%) had severe cases. After management, 1 patient died, two were referred and 11 recovered and were discharged alive. Thus, this study has identified advanced age, male gender, and comorbidity as increased risk factors for hospitalisation. The patient survival outcome in this study was also good.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.06.21260084v1" target="_blank">Mode of Presentation and Outcomes of COVID-19 Cases in a Tertiary Hospital in Nigeria</a>
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<li><strong>Pre-immunity: the Schrodinger’s cat of immunology</strong> -
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Early 2020, catastrophic consequences of COVID-19 was predicted in the do-nothing scenario, based on mathematical models for epidemiology. As data began to emerge, several scientists noted that growth did not seem exponential, as the models predicted, leading to speculations of pre-existing immunity or immunological dark matter to explain this pattern. On the other hand, reports of choir-rehearsals infecting most members seemed to refute this, and the topic remained inconclusive. We provide a mathematical theory in which both observations are true; on a population level, pre-immunity exists, on an individual level, it doesn9t. This theory demonstrates that established formulas relating e.g. R0 and the herdimmunity threshold are wrong. We derive new mathematical formulas, which applies to any virus whose transmission dynamics is associated with large individual variability in susceptibility to the infection. Contrary to great variability in infectivity, which we show has no bearing on the mathematical modeling, variability in susceptibility actually manifests itself as pre-immunity on a macroscopic scale, thus making pre-immunity a necessity for accurate mathematical modeling.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.08.21260175v1" target="_blank">Pre-immunity: the Schrodinger’s cat of immunology</a>
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<li><strong>Heterologous immunisation with vector vaccine as prime followed by mRNA vaccine as boost leads to humoral immune response against SARS-CoV-2, which is comparable to that according to a homologous mRNA vaccination scheme</strong> -
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Background: The humoral immune response after primary immunisation with a SARS-CoV-2 vector vaccine (AstraZeneca AZD1222, ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, Vaxzevria) followed by an mRNA vaccine boost (BioNTech, BNT162b2; Moderna, m-1273) was examined and compared with the antibody response after homologous vaccination schemes (AZD1222/AZD1222 or BNT162b2/BNT162b2). Methods: Sera from 59 vaccinees were tested for SARS-CoV-2 immunoglobulin G (IgG) and virus- neutralising antibodies (VNA) with four IgG assays, a surrogate neutralisation test (sVNT) and a Vero cell-based neutralisation test (cVNT) before and after heterologous (n=31 and 42) or homologous booster vaccination (AZD1222/AZD1222, n=8/9; BNT162b2/BNT162b2, n=8/8). The strength of IgG binding to separate SARS-CoV-2 antigens was measured as avidity. Results: After the first vaccination, prevalence of IgGs antibodies directed against (trimeric) SARS-CoV-2 spike (S)- protein and its receptor-binding domain (RBD) varied from 55-95 % (AZD1222) to 100% (BNT162b2), depending on the vaccine used and the SARS-CoV-2 antigen used. The booster vaccination resulted in 100 percent seroconversion and appearance of highly avid IgG as well as VNA against a SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern (alpha; B.1.1.7) used as antigen in the cVNT. The results of the sVNT basically agree with those of our in-house cVNT, but the sVNT seems to overestimate non- and weakly virus-neutralizing titres. The mean IgG and VNA titres were higher after heterologous vaccination compared to the homologous AZD1222 scheme. Conclusions: The heterologous SARS-CoV-2 vaccination leads to a strong antibody response with anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG and VNA titres at a level comparable to that of a homologous BNT162b2 vaccination scheme. Irrespectively of the chosen immunisation regime, highly avid IgG antibodies can be detected just two weeks after the second vaccine dose indicating the development of a robust humoral immunity.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.09.21260251v1" target="_blank">Heterologous immunisation with vector vaccine as prime followed by mRNA vaccine as boost leads to humoral immune response against SARS-CoV-2, which is comparable to that according to a homologous mRNA vaccination scheme</a>
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<li><strong>T-cell mediated immunity after AZD1222 vaccination: A polyfunctional spike-specific Th1 response with a diverse TCR repertoire</strong> -
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AZD1222 (ChAdOx1 nCoV-19), a replication-deficient simian adenovirus-vectored vaccine, has demonstrated safety, efficacy, and immunogenicity against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in clinical trials and real-world studies. We characterized CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell responses induced by AZD1222 vaccination in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 280 unique vaccine recipients aged 18-85 years who enrolled in the phase 2/3 COV002 trial. Total spike-specific CD4+ T cell helper type 1 (Th1) and CD8+ T-cell responses were significantly increased in AZD1222-vaccinated adults of all ages following two doses of AZD1222. CD4+ Th2 responses following AZD1222 vaccination were not detected. Furthermore, AZD1222-specific Th1 and CD8+ T cells both displayed a high degree of polyfunctionality in all adult age groups. T-cell receptor (TCR) β ; sequences from vaccinated participants mapped against TCR sequences known to react to SARS-CoV-2 revealed substantial breadth and depth across the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein for the AZD1222-induced CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell responses. Overall, AZD1222 vaccination induced a robust, polyfunctional Th1-dominated T-cell response, with broad CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell coverage across the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.17.21259027v2" target="_blank">T-cell mediated immunity after AZD1222 vaccination: A polyfunctional spike-specific Th1 response with a diverse TCR repertoire</a>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>COVID-19 Vaccinations With a Sweepstakes</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: Philly Vax Sweepstakes<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:  <br/>
University of Pennsylvania;   Philadelphia Department of Public Health<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>Covid-19 Virtual Recovery Study</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Behavioral: Strength RMT;   Behavioral: Strength RMT and nasal breathing;   Behavioral: Endurance RMT;   Behavioral: Endurance RMT and nasal breathing;   Behavioral: Low dose RMT<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Mayo Clinic<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Study of PF-07321332/Ritonavir in Nonhospitalized High Risk Adult Participants With COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: PF-07321332;   Drug: Ritonavir;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Pfizer<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Study to Evaluate MVC-COV1901 Vaccine Against COVID-19 in Adolescents</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19 Vaccine<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: MVC-COV1901(S protein with adjuvant);   Biological: MVC-COV1901(Saline)<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp.<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>Study on Sequential Immunization of Inactivated COVID-19 Vaccine and Recombinant COVID-19 Vaccine (Ad5 Vector)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Recombinant SARS-CoV-2 Ad5 vectored vaccine;   Biological: Inactive SARS-CoV-2 vaccine (Vero cell)<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Jiangsu Province Centers for Disease Control and Prevention;   CanSino Biologics Inc.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Efficacy of Amantadine Treatment in COVID-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Patients With Moderate or Severe COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: Amantadine<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Noblewell;   Medical Research Agency (ABM);   Leszek Giec Upper-Silesian Medical Centre of the Silesian Medical University in Katowice<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Covid-19 Patients Management During Home Isolation</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Procedure: Oxygen therapy and physical therapy;   Device: Oxygen therapy<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Cairo University<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Different Use of The Aerosol Box in COVID-19 Patients; Internal Jugular Vein Cannulation</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Pneumonia<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Procedure: Internal jugular vein cannulation<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Bakirkoy Dr. Sadi Konuk Research and Training Hospital<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Reconditioning Exercise for COVID-19 Patients Experiencing Residual sYmptoms</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: Exercise Therapy<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:  <br/>
Wake Forest University Health Sciences<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>Lipid Emulsion Infusion and COVID-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: SMOFlipid;   Other: 0.9% saline<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Assiut University<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Short Term, High Dose Vitamin D Supplementation in Moderate to Severe COVID-19 Disease</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: cholecalciferol 6 lakh IU<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:  <br/>
Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research<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>Immunogenicity and Safety of an Inactivated COVID-19 Vaccine</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Inactivated COVID-19 Vaccine;   Biological: 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine;   Biological: Inactivated Hepatitis A Vaccine<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:  <br/>
Sinovac Research and Development Co., 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>Phase 1 Intranasal Parainfluenza Virus Type 5-SARS CoV-2 S Vaccine in Healthy Adults</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: CVXGA1 low dose;   Biological: CVXGA1 high dose<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   CyanVac LLC<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>Coenzyme Q10 as Treatment for Long Term COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Covid19;   Long Term Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Coenzyme Q10;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Aarhus University Hospital;   University of Aarhus;   Pharma Nord<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>Effect of Tumor Treating Fields (TTFields, 150 kHz) Concomitant With Best Standard of Care for the Treatment of Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients and Continued Treatment Following Discharge</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Device: NovoTTF-100L<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   NovoCure GmbH<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-pubmed">From PubMed</h1>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Drug repurposing against SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain using ensemble-based virtual screening and molecular dynamics simulations</strong> - Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused worldwide pandemic and is responsible for millions of worldwide deaths due to -a respiratory disease known as COVID-19. In the search for a cure of COVID-19, drug repurposing is a fast and cost-effective approach to identify anti-COVID-19 drugs from existing drugs. The receptor binding domain (RBD) of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein has been a main target for drug designs to block spike protein binding to ACE2 proteins. In this…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Reconfiguration and dedifferentiation of functional networks during cognitive control across the adult lifespan</strong> - Healthy aging is accompanied by reduced cognitive control and widespread alterations in the underlying brain networks; but the extent to which large-scale functional networks in older age show reduced specificity across different domains of cognitive control is unclear. Here we use cov-STATIS (a multi-table multivariate technique) to examine similarity of functional connectivity during different domains of cognitive control-inhibition, initiation, shifting, and working memory-across the adult…</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 possible interaction between favipiravir and methotrexate: Drug-induced hepatotoxicity in a patient with osteosarcoma</strong> - INTRODUCTION: Favipiravir is an antiviral agent that is recently used for SARS-CoV2 infection. The drug-drug interactions of favipiravir especially with chemotherapeutic agents in a patient with malignancy are not well known.</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>Autoimmune- and complement-mediated hematologic condition recrudescence following SARS-CoV-2 vaccination</strong> - A variety of autoimmune disorders have been reported after viral illnesses and specific vaccinations. Cases of de novo immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) have been reported after SARS-CoV-2 vaccination, although its effect on preexisting ITP has not been well characterized. In addition, although COVID-19 has been associated with complement dysregulation, the effect of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination on preexisting complementopathies is poorly understood. We sought to better understand SARS-CoV-2…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SSRIs: Applications in inflammatory lung disease and implications for COVID-19</strong> - Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) have anti-inflammatory properties that may have clinical utility in treating severe pulmonary manifestations of COVID-19. SSRIs exert anti-inflammatory effects at three mechanistic levels:</li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">inhibition of proinflammatory transcription factor activity, including NF-κB and STAT3; (b) downregulation of lung tissue damage and proinflammatory cell recruitment via inhibition of cytokines, including IL-6, IL-8, TNF-α, and IL-1β; and (c) direct…</li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Cationic Compounds with SARS-CoV-2 Antiviral Activity and their Interaction with OCT/MATE Secretory Transporters</strong> - In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, drug repurposing has been highlighted for rapid introduction of therapeutics. Proposed drugs with activity against SARS-CoV-2 include compounds with positive charges at physiological pH, making them potential targets for the organic cation (OC) secretory transporters of kidney and liver, i.e., the basolateral Organic Cation Transporters, OCT1 and OCT2; and the apical Multidrug And Toxin Extruders, MATE1 and MATE2-K. We selected several compounds proposed to…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>COVID-19 diagnosis and testing in pediatric heart transplant recipients</strong> - Pediatric heart transplant recipients have been expected to be at higher risk of adverse events from developing COVID-19 infection. COVID-19 RNA PCR and antibody testing has been performed in our cohort of patients since March 15, 2020 and outcomes were reviewed. COVID-19 infection in our population of pediatric heart transplant recipients is common (21%), despite recommendations to avoid contact with others. Asymptomatic COVID-19 infection is common as well (55%). Despite the frequency of…</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>Determination of camostat and its metabolites in human plasma - preservation of samples and quantification by a validated UHPLC-MS/MS method</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: A methodology was developed that preserves camostat and GBPA in plasma samples and provides accurate and sensitive quantification of camostat, GBPA and GBA by UHPLC-MS/MS.</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>Accurate Bulk Quantitation of Droplet Digital Polymerase Chain Reaction</strong> - Droplet digital PCR provides superior accuracy for nucleic acid quantitation. The requirement of microfluidics to generate and analyze the emulsions, however, is a barrier to its adoption, particularly in low resource settings or clinical laboratories. Here, we report a novel method to prepare ddPCR droplets by vortexing and readout of the results by bulk analysis of recovered amplicons. We demonstrate the approach by accurately quantitating SARS-CoV-2 sequences using entirely bulk processing…</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>Strategies to target SARS-CoV-2 entry and infection using dual mechanisms of inhibition by acidification inhibitors</strong> - Many viruses utilize the host endo-lysosomal network for infection. Tracing the endocytic itinerary of SARS-CoV-2 can provide insights into viral trafficking and aid in designing new therapeutic strategies. Here, we demonstrate that the receptor binding domain (RBD) of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein is internalized via the pH-dependent CLIC/GEEC (CG) endocytic pathway in human gastric-adenocarcinoma (AGS) cells expressing undetectable levels of ACE2. Ectopic expression of ACE2 (AGS-ACE2) results in…</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>Role of L-Arginine in Nitric Oxide Synthesis and Health in Humans</strong> - As a functional amino acid (AA), L-arginine (Arg) serves not only as a building block of protein but also as an essential substrate for the synthesis of nitric oxide (NO), creatine, polyamines, homoarginine, and agmatine in mammals (including humans). NO (a major vasodilator) increases blood flow to tissues. Arg and its metabolites play important roles in metabolism and physiology. Arg is required to maintain the urea cycle in the active state to detoxify ammonia. This AA also activates cellular…</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>Simultaneous evaluation of antibodies that inhibit SARS-CoV-2 variants via multiplex assay</strong> - The SARS-CoV-2 Receptor Binding Domain (RBD) is both the principal target of neutralizing antibodies, and one of the most rapidly evolving domains, which can result in the emergence of immune escape mutations limiting the effectiveness of vaccines and antibody therapeutics. To facilitate surveillance, we developed a rapid, high-throughput, multiplex assay able to assess the inhibitory response of antibodies to 24 RBD natural variants simultaneously. We demonstrate how this assay can be…</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>Tocilizumab as a Treatment for ‘Cytokine Storm Syndrome’ in COVID-19: A Case Report</strong> - Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) which is caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), has been a problem worldwide, particularly due to the high rate of transmission and wide range of clinical manifestations. Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and multiorgan failure are the most common events observed in severe cases and can be fatal. Cytokine storm syndrome emerges as one of the possibilities for the development of ARDS and multiorgan failure in severe cases…</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>Catalytic Dyad Residues His41 and Cys145 Impact the Catalytic Activity and Overall Conformational Fold of the Main SARS-CoV-2 Protease 3-Chymotrypsin-Like Protease</strong> - Coronaviruses are responsible for multiple pandemics and millions of deaths globally, including the current pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Development of antivirals against coronaviruses, including the severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) responsible for COVID-19, is essential for containing the current and future coronavirus outbreaks. SARS-CoV-2 proteases represent important targets for the development of antivirals because of their role in 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>Pulmonary Covid Fibrosis a New Pharmaceutic Approach</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: This study proposes to inhibit phosphodiesterase by vasodilatation of the pulmonary vascular bed and the MUC1 over expression by interleukin6, the Sildenafil with the SGLT2 and N-Acetylcysteine.</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Advanced Machine Learning System combating COVID-19 virus Detection, Spread, Prevention and Medical Assistance.</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU329799475">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Differential detection kit for common SARS-CoV-2 variants in COVID-19 patients</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU328840861">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SARS-CoV-2 anti-viral therapeutic</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU327160071">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>一种基于联邦学习的多用户协同训练人流统计方法及系统</strong> - 本发明提供一种基于联邦学习的多用户协同训练人流统计方法，旨在利用联邦学习框架搭建一个新颖的人群计数模型，达到让多用户多设备同时训练的目的。各个客户端利用图像数据集对图像分类网络进行本地训练以获取本地模型；在各经过至少一次本地训练后，中心服务器从客户端获取本地模型的权值及附加层参数并进行聚合处理；中心服务器利用聚合处理后的权值及附加层参数更新全局模型，并将聚合处理后的权值参数及附加层参数返回给各个客户端；各个客户端利用中心服务器返回的权值以及ground truth值进行贝叶斯估计，计算loss值，并利用返回的权值参数及附加层参数更新本地模型；重复执行直至所有客户端的loss值均收敛，则完成人流统计全局模型和本地模型的训练。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN329978461">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A POLYHERBAL ALCOHOL FREE FORMULATION FOR ORAL CAVITY</strong> - The present invention generally relates to a herbal composition. Specifically, the present invention relates to a polyherbal alcohol free composition comprising of Glycyrrhiza glabra root extract, Ocimum sanctum leaf extract, Elettaria cardamomum fruit extract, Mentha spicata (Spearmint) oil and Tween 80 and method of preparation thereof. The polyherbal alcohol free composition of the present invention possesses excellent antimicrobial properties and useful for oral cavity. - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=IN325690740">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>新型冠状病毒B.1.351南非突变株RBD的基因及其应用</strong> - 本发明属于生物技术领域，具体涉及新型冠状病毒B.1.351南非突变株RBD的基因及其应用。本发明的新型冠状病毒B.1.351南非突变株RBD的基因，其核苷酸序列如SEQIDNO.1或SEQIDNO.6所示。本发明通过优化野生型新型冠状病毒南非B.1.351南非突变株RBD的基因序列，并结合筛选确定了相对最佳序列，优化后序列产生的克隆表达效率比野生型新型冠状病毒B.1.351南非突变株RBD序列表达效率大幅提高，从而，本发明的新型冠状病毒B.1.351南非突变株RBD的基因可以用于制备新型冠状病毒疫苗。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN328990628">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>检测新型冠状病毒中和抗体的试剂盒及其应用</strong> - 本发明涉及生物技术领域，具体而言，提供了一种检测新型冠状病毒中和抗体的试剂盒及其应用。本发明提供的检测新型冠状病毒中和抗体试剂盒，具体包括（a）或（b）两种方案：（a）示踪物标记的RBD三聚体抗原，包被在固体支持物上的ACE2，以及，含有0.2‑10mg/mL十二烷基二甲基甜菜碱的工作液；（b）示踪物标记的ACE2，包被在固体支持物上的RBD三聚体抗原，以及，含有0.2‑10mg/mL十二烷基二甲基甜菜碱的工作液；其中，RBD三聚体抗原利用二硫键将刺突蛋白的RBD与S2亚基完全交联得到。十二烷基二甲基甜菜碱会显著提高RBD三聚体抗原与新冠中和性抗体结合速度，提升阳性样本平均发光强度，缩短检测时间。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN328990376">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>一种检测SARS-CoV-2的引物组合物及其应用</strong> - 本发明涉及一种检测SARS‑CoV‑2的引物组合物及其应用。所述引物组合物包括SEQ ID NO:1~SEQ ID NO:12所示的核酸序列。本发明利用所述引物组合物进行逆转录巢式PCR，并结合Sanger测序，能够快速、准确地获取SARS‑CoV‑2基因信息，从而能够实现快速检测SARS‑CoV‑2以及判断SARS‑CoV‑2突变株，且具备良好的准确性、灵敏度、特异性以及重复性。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN328990422">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>基于多重荧光定量PCR技术的新冠病毒突变序列检测技术及其应用</strong> - 本发明提供一种基于多重荧光定量PCR技术的新冠病毒突变类型检测技术及其应用。本发明主要基于荧光定量PCR技术针对目前S基因重要突变类型，如序列位置23403，序列变化A&gt;G、序列位置23063，序列变化A&gt;T、序列位置22812‑22813，序列变化AG&gt;GA、序列位置23012，序列变化G&gt;A进行单管或多管多重检测。其试剂盒可以很好的鉴别目前流行的D614G、N501Y、K417N、E484K重要突变株且特异性好，对新冠病毒的突变监测具有十分积极的意义。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN329978220">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>基于荧光定量PCR技术的新冠病毒新型核酸突变检测技术及其应用</strong> - 本发明提供一种基于荧光定量PCR技术的新冠病毒新型核酸突变检测技术及其应用。本发明主要基于荧光定量PCR技术针对目前S基因新突变‑双重变异（E484Q和L452R突变）进行检测。本发明提供的试剂盒可以很好的鉴别E484Q和L452R突变，对新冠病毒的新突变快速监测具有十分积极的意义。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN329978219">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
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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’s Next for the Campaign to Break Up Big Tech?</strong> - A judge recently dismissed two antitrust cases against Facebook. But what appeared to be a setback for the effort may actually provide a road map for how it can succeed. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/whats-next-for-the-campaign-to-break-up-big-tech">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Biden’s Invisible Ideology</strong> - The President has deployed an exasperating but effective strategy to counter Trumpism. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/bidens-invisible-ideology">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Redefining Populism</strong> - A political philosopher offers a new way of looking at Donald Trump, Narendra Modi, Jair Bolsonaro, and other right-wing leaders. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/redefining-populism">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Who Owns Mike Disfarmer’s Photographs?</strong> - Strangers made his small-town portraits famous in the art world. Decades later, his heirs want control of the estate. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/us-journal/who-owns-mike-disfarmers-photographs">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Biden Antitrust Revolution</strong> - A new executive order calls for the federal government to work proactively to end monopolies that undermine economic fairness and American democracy. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-biden-antitrust-revolution">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>The five-day workweek is dead</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A woman checks her phone as people rush past her." src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/tIsSCw-p1hrTqDIXjn913i1lK4k=/1000x0:7000x4500/1310x983/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69577285/GettyImages_1226216285.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Long and unpredictable work hours leave many Americans with little time for anything but their jobs. | <a class="ql-link" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/search/photographer?family=creative&amp;photographer=d3sign" target="_blank">d3sign</a>/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
It’s time for something better.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8X001J">
The five-day workweek is so entrenched in American life that everything, from <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588&amp;xs=1&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.marriott.com%2Fhotel%2Fvacation-
packages%2Fcouples-getaway.mi&amp;referrer=vox.com&amp;sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2F22568452%2Fwork-workweek-five-
day-four-jobs-pandemic" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">vacation packages</a> to <a href="https://www.herecomestheguide.com/wedding-ideas/weekday-
weddings#:~:text=1.,to%20be%20the%20most%20expensive.">wedding prices</a> to <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Restart-
Weekend-Office-Plaque-Hanging/dp/B07DRHF9YS">novelty signs</a>, is built around it. When you live it every Monday through Friday, year in and year out, it can be hard to imagine any other way.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TOi0on">
But there’s nothing inevitable about working eight hours a day, five days a week (or more). This schedule only became a part of American labor law in the 1930s, after decades of striking by labor activists who were tired of working the 14-hour days demanded by some employers. Indeed, one of the biggest goals of the American labor movement beginning in the 19th century was “an attempt to gain time back,” Erik Loomis, a history professor at the University of Rhode Island, told Vox.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AZxUlc">
And now, more than 15 months into the pandemic, there’s a growing conversation about how American workers can take back more of their time. The trauma and disruption of the last year and a half have a lot of Americans reevaluating their relationships to work, whether it’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/22455058/jobs-restaurants-office-
employers-covid-pandemic-work">restaurant servers</a> tired of risking their safety for poverty-level wages or <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/21/technology/welcome-to-the-yolo-economy.html">office workers quitting</a> rather than giving up remote work. And part of that reevaluation is about the workweek, which many say is due for a reboot.<strong> </strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GZxmUC">
Over the past few decades,<strong> </strong>work for many salaried employees has ballooned far beyond 40 hours a week, thanks to a combination of weakened labor laws and <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90596603/work-all-day-or-work-every-day-why-the-five-day-workweek-is-
outdated">technology that allows bosses</a> to reach workers at any time of the day or night. At the same time, low-wage and hourly workers are frequently subject to unpredictable schedules that can change at a moment’s notice, and may not give them enough hours of paid work to live on. Today’s work schedules, with their combination of “overwork and then no work,” in many ways mirror the conditions that preceded the reforms of the 1930s, Loomis said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MgNVOC">
Then as now, the country may be ripe for a change. <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/06/post-covid-4-day-
workweek.html">Some employers</a> are testing out four-day workweeks. A recent study of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/07/06/iceland-four-day-work-week/">shorter workweeks in Iceland</a> was a big success, boosting worker well-being and even productivity. And workers themselves are pushing back against schedules that crowd out everything that isn’t work. During the pandemic, there’s a growing feeling that “we have one life — and are we working to live, or are we living to work?” Rachel Deutsch, director of worker justice campaigns at the Center for Popular Democracy, told Vox.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="whqYFu">
But to really make the workweek fair and humane for all Americans — and give us more time to do things that aren’t work — the country will need systemic changes to help workers take back their power. Otherwise, only the most privileged will benefit from the new interest in shorter workweeks — if anyone benefits at all.
</p>
<h3 id="4NrQvQ">
The 40-hour workweek was a hard-won victory for labor activists
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NF1CRq">
In the 19th century, many factory and other low-wage workers were at work nearly all the time. The workweek was whatever your employer said it was, which “could be 14 hours a day, it could be six days a week, it could be seven days a week,” Loomis said. In “strike after strike after strike,” he explained, workers fought for a more livable schedule, a push exemplified by the <a href="https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=2&amp;psid=3192">1880s slogan</a>, “eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, eight hours for what we will.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kDCr09">
They won some victories — the Ford Motor Company, for example, reduced its workweek from 48 to 40 hours <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-
history/ford-factory-workers-get-40-hour-week">in 1926</a> (though that may have been more about Henry Ford’s conviction that fewer hours made workers more productive). But it wasn’t until the 1930s that the Great Depression and more mass strikes convinced President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and reformers in the federal government that something had to change.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eRLFGp">
The result was the Fair Labor Standards Act, passed in 1938, which — among other reforms — required overtime pay for many employees if they worked more than 40 hours a week. There were exceptions — <a href="https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/12-flsa-agriculture">farm workers</a>, for example, were not guaranteed overtime — but for millions of workers, the eight-hour day and five-day week became the law of the land.
</p></li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8FvfkQ">
Not everyone wanted to stop there. “There really were battles in the ’40s and ’50s over whether or not the eight-hour day was sufficient,” Loomis said. Pushes for a six-hour day or other ways of shortening the workweek continued in the 1960s, but rising unemployment in the 1970s had labor leaders focusing all their attention on trying to save jobs. The idea of a shorter workweek fell by the wayside.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9KpiJ2">
But since then, a lot of Americans’ work schedules have only gotten worse. For example, many salaried workers (as opposed to those paid an hourly wage) are exempt from the overtime requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act, and employers have taken advantage of this to require more and more hours of these workers. As of 2014, the average salaried worker worked 49 hours per week, <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/175286/hour-workweek-actually-longer-seven-hours.aspx">according to a Gallup survey</a>, with 25 percent working more than 60 hours — and working hours for many have actually <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/05/business/working-from-home-hours-pandemic-scli-intl-gbr/index.html">gone up, not down</a>, during the pandemic.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9Hjgwa">
Meanwhile, the rise of smartphones and laptops has broken down the barriers between work and home, allowing bosses to contact employees at any time of the day or night. As management professor Scott Dust <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90596603/work-all-day-or-work-every-day-why-the-five-day-
workweek-is-outdated">wrote at Fast Company</a> earlier this year, “thanks to technology, the eight-hour, ‘9-to-5’ workday is a mirage.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OQas7c">
Hourly workers, especially in low-wage service jobs, meanwhile, have faced a different problem: the rise of just-in-time scheduling, in which employers decide on worker schedules just days in advance, depending on factors like how busy a particular store is. That practice has led many large employers to keep most of their employees part-time, so they can be called in at a moment’s notice, and not paid when they aren’t needed. It’s a way of essentially “offloading all of the risk of your business model onto workers,” Deutsch said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7sfhlF">
For workers subject to just-in-time scheduling, long workweeks aren’t necessarily the problem: rather, one- third of retail and food-service workers in <a href="https://shift.hks.harvard.edu/files/2019/10/Its-About-Time-How-
Work-Schedule-Instability-Matters-for-Workers-Families-and-Racial-Inequality.pdf">one 2019 survey</a> said they were involuntarily working part-time, wanting more hours than their employer would give them. That can make it difficult or impossible for people to pay their bills, necessitating a second job — except that unpredictable schedules make juggling two or more jobs complex, to say the least. And a constantly changing work schedule can also make it hard to arrange for child care — the same survey found that unpredictable schedules for parents led to instability in children’s routines, as well as anxiety and behavior problems in kids.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PtdGKp">
A constantly changing schedule meant that Madison Nardy, a former beauty consultant at a Philadelphia-area Target, never knew how much money she’d be taking home each week, as she struggled to balance work with attending community college and caring for her mom, who has a disability. Though she was hired with the understanding that she would work 30 or 35 hours a week, soon “my hours began to dwindle down,” she told Vox. “One week I would have eight hours, the next week it would go up to 20, and then back down to 12.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tWUFeC">
The hours she did work could be punishing — sometimes she was scheduled to close the store at 1 am and come back the next morning at 7 or 8, a practice called “<a href="https://www.vox.com/future-
perfect/2019/10/15/20910297/fair-workweek-laws-unpredictable-scheduling-retail-restaurants">clopening</a>.” Her constantly fluctuating schedule left her so exhausted and stressed that there were days “where I would go in the bathroom and just cry,” Nardy said. “I was always running around like a chicken without a head.”
</p>
<h3 id="JwEaRM">
The pandemic could be paving the way for a new workweek revolution
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YZRCmV">
Nothing in the Fair Labor Standards Act prohibits the practices Nardy said she experienced — employers switching up workers’ schedules with little notice, or giving each employee too little work to live on. “The only protections that we have for hourly workers are from a time when overwork was the only problem,” Deutsch said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Xzkj44">
Recently, however, there’s been a growing push for workers’ rights in general, not just around scheduling. The Fight for $15, for example, has <a href="https://fightfor15.org/victory-illinois-wins-15/">won minimum-wage increases</a> in many states as well as drawing the attention of policymakers to issues facing hourly workers. “Labor reform is rising in the Democratic Party for the first time since the ’30s,” Loomis said, in part because “people are out in the streets demanding it.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bFxiXd">
And the pandemic has only intensified that push. <a href="https://www.vox.com/22545398/jobs-quitting-retail-
workers-pandemic-sales">Record numbers of Americans</a> across economic sectors are quitting their jobs, with nearly 4 million people handing in their notice in April alone. Whether it’s hourly retail workers frustrated with contingent schedules or more highly-paid salaried employees tired of working 60-hour weeks, there is “a broader consensus now that our work should sustain us,” Deutsch said. “Our whole life should not be at the mercy of a job that does not allow us to thrive.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tfqAFR">
More livable schedules have had success elsewhere in the world. Companies in <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/06/post-covid-4-day-workweek.html">Japan</a>, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/9/13/20862246/future-of-work-4-day-workweek">New Zealand</a>, and elsewhere have experimented with shorter workweeks in recent years, often reporting happier workers who are actually better at their jobs. But one of the largest and most high-profile recent experiments took place in Iceland, where local and federal authorities working with trade unions launched two trials of a shortened workweek, <a href="https://autonomy.work/wp-
content/uploads/2021/06/ICELAND_4DW.pdf">one in 2015 and one in 2017</a>. In the trials, workers shifted from a 40-hour work week to 35 or 36 hours, with no cut to their pay. It wasn’t just office workers who participated — the trials included day care workers, police officers, care workers for people with disabilities, and people in a variety of other occupations.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="K8eDpQ">
The results were impressive, <a href="https://autonomy.work/wp-
content/uploads/2021/06/ICELAND_4DW.pdf">according to a report</a> on the trials published in June by Autonomy, a UK- based think tank that helped analyze them. Workers reported better work-life balance, lower stress, and greater well- being. “My older children know that we have shorter hours and they often say something like, ‘Is it Tuesday today, dad? Do you finish early today? Can I come home directly after school?’” one father said, according to the report. “And I might reply ‘Of course.’ We then go and do something — we have nice quality time.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YiQRVp">
And perhaps counterintuitively, worker productivity generally stayed the same or actually increased during the trials. Workers and managers worked together to make changes like reorganizing shift changes and reducing meetings, Jack Kellam, an Autonomy researcher who co-wrote the report, told Vox. “These trials were not implemented top-down.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vTcEyX">
Just having more rest may have helped people be more productive — as the Autonomy researchers note, overwork can lead to fatigue, which actually lowers productivity.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5lb00Z">
Encouraged by the results of the trial, many Icelandic workplaces have embraced shorter hours, with 86 percent of the working population either working shorter hours already or on contracts that will phase in the reduction in the coming years. The Autonomy report has also generated global interest at a time when workers and companies alike are rethinking what jobs should look like. For example, the shift to remote work over the last 15 months has shown that “quite drastic changes in working practices can happen quite quickly,” Kellam said. Now his work on the Iceland trials has gotten news coverage in countries from Australia to Germany, and several companies have approached Autonomy for advice on implementing shorter hours for their employees.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="a3OsZj">
But making something like the Icelandic trials work in the United States would require major changes. For one thing, unions in Iceland, which represent <a href="https://wol.iza.org/articles/the-labor-market-
in-iceland/long#:~:text=Trade%20union%20density%20is%20high,have%20status%20equal%20to%20law.">90 percent of workers</a>, played a big role in negotiating both the trials and the long-term adoption of shorter hours that resulted. But union density is much lower in the United States, with <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/union2.pdf">just 10.8 percent</a> of workers represented.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0B2Nyu">
Making it easier to form unions would be a big step toward helping American workers negotiate better schedules, Loomis said. <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22307891/democrats-unions-pro-act-policy-
feedback">The PRO Act</a>, which would reverse years of anti-union legislation at the state level, would be a start — but so far, it appears unlikely to pass the Senate.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HYue79">
As for unpredictable schedules, years of worker activism have led to <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/10/15/20910297/fair-workweek-laws-unpredictable-
scheduling-retail-restaurants">fair workweek laws</a> in cities like New York and San Francisco, which typically require employers to provide adequate notice of schedules (often two weeks ahead of time) and compensation for last-minute changes, as well as banning “clopening.” Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) have introduced such a law at the federal level, called the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-
bill/5004/text">Schedules That Work Act</a> — but it, too, has gained little traction with Republicans in the Senate.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wZOUyn">
Such nationwide changes can seem far-off, and in a country <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/02/religion-workism-making-americans-miserable/583441/">as work- focused as the United States,</a> it can be hard to imagine reforms that would help (some) people work less. But some say the pandemic, along with growing worker activism in recent years, have created conditions similar to the 1930s, where big changes finally seem possible. The fact that labor law reform has close to universal support among Democrats in Congress — after decades of not being a priority for the party — is meaningful, Loomis said. And that happened in large part because workers demanded it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kpV8Ak">
Nardy is one of the workers agitating for change. She was part of a coalition that helped push Philadelphia to <a href="https://www.populardemocracy.org/blog/philadelphia-passes-
fair-workweek-policy-impacting-130000-workers">pass a fair workweek law</a> in 2018, and now she’s studying political science at Temple University, with the goal of running for city council. “There isn’t really somebody sitting in office that really, genuinely cares about workers’ rights,” she said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="p6F3lI">
But one day, that person might be her. And although workers in the United States don’t yet have the kind of bargaining power they wield in other countries, their voices are growing louder, and their discontent more palpable, by the day. At this point in the pandemic, many are saying, “maybe the life I was leading that seemed inevitable, and never-changing, maybe I don’t want that,” Loomis said. It’s a kind of “spontaneous realization by millions of people that they could do better.”
</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>For women, remote work is a blessing and a curse</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A woman in a yoga pose in her home with her two children and partner visible in the frame." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/hvRgdQ7snZprKhiPuX2-xtF0bAw=/0x0:4924x3693/1310x983/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69576632/GettyImages_1211427486t.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Paulina Mansz, a group fitness instructor, records a workout session for her clients from home in April 2020. | Andrew Caballero- Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Despite stress, depression, and overwork, women still want to work from home.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tmbn9F">
Women may be <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588&amp;xs=1&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.flexjobs.com%2Fblog%2Fpost%2Fmen-
women-experience-remote-work-
survey%2F&amp;referrer=vox.com&amp;sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Frecode%2F22568635%2Fwomen-remote-work-home" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">more likely</a> to want to work from home than men. They’ve also had a harder time doing so, reporting higher rates of stress, <a href="https://www.kff.org/policy-watch/both-remote-and-on-
site-workers-are-grappling-with-serious-mental-health-consequences-of-covid-19/">depression</a>, and sheer hours worked — especially if they have kids. This paradox is a result of women trying to do the best thing for their careers while also navigating an unfair role in society and at home. In other words, women need more flexible work arrangements, because women have more to do.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dsqd0Z">
While the ability to work from home has been a godsend for working parents who were able to keep their children and jobs safe during the pandemic, it’s also exacerbated deeply ingrained gender inequality. Too often a crying toddler makes a cameo on a mother’s Zoom call and not a father’s. In a spare moment, women turn over the laundry while men don’t. Day-to-day scheduling, schooling, as well as decisions about their family’s health amid a global health crisis disproportionately fall to women.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="T1FWG8">
And that’s only talking about women fortunate enough to be able to work from home — typically knowledge workers, whose relatively high-paying jobs have also afforded them a measure of physical safety. For many women, working from home isn’t an option at all. Women who have to work outside the home and care for children, especially without a partner at home, have to face a whole different set of challenging, and dangerous, circumstances.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="afokhG">
Even before the pandemic, women were doing what sociologists describe as the “second shift,” where they complete an inordinate amount of household and caregiving chores after they’ve finished their paid labor. The pandemic has made things even worse, since much of the infrastructure that helps alleviate those tasks — schools, day care, elder care, cleaning services — has been off- limits. While women and men alike have worked from home, employed women are <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/08912432211001301">three times more likely than men</a> to be their children’s main caregiver during this period. Additionally, telecommuting moms significantly increased the amount of housework they did while working from home (<a href="https://contemporaryfamilies.org/covid-19-telecommuting-work-
family-conflict-and-gender-equality/">men didn’t</a>).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YDfj0N">
“They literally were not having the same experience,” Alexis Krivkovich, a senior partner in McKinsey &amp; Company’s Bay Area office and co-author of “<a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/women-in-the-workplace">Women in the Workplace</a>,” a report about the female corporate workforce in 2020, told Recode. “The double shift turned into the double double.”
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/EJscBH3Jm8N6owveMfPGWOKB7TY=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22713348/GettyImages_1207811290t.jpg"/> <cite>Matthew J. Lee/The Boston Globe/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
A mother checks on her daughter’s homework while working from their home in Massachusetts in March 2020.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kmmQm6">
The result is that women are more likely to feel <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/women-in-the-workplace">burned out</a> than men, and that has negatively affected their experience working from home. Some 79 percent of men said they have had a positive work-from-home experience during the pandemic, compared with just 37 percent of women, <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/covid-19-and-the-employee-experience-how-
leaders-can-seize-the-moment">according to McKinsey</a>. In turn, one in four women and one in three mothers said they were thinking about downshifting their careers or stepping out of the workforce entirely. “They couldn’t juggle the added responsibility that was coming on the household front at the same time they were trying to maintain the job front,” Krivkovich said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tJ92lI">
Indeed, women have been leaving the workforce at much higher rates than men — a move that could affect their careers and earning power if and when they return. Some fear that with the rise of remote work, these issues will continue, even after the pandemic’s most acute effects subside.
</p>
<h3 id="Vzs8Rt">
Why women are having a worse time
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Leagc2">
Despite massive strides in education and workforce participation, caregiving and household work are still considered women’s duties. That message is reinforced by a combination of cultural norms and economic structures.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="S1gMvT">
A lot of American work culture is based on a “traditional,” 1950s ideal: Men work outside the house, women stay at home with the kids. But this was never the reality for many working-class families, or families of color, across American history. And today, it’s economically necessary for both parents to do paid work for a living, even in middle-class households.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2uuGd0">
The burden of domestic labor, however, is not being shared equally among heterosexual couples.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kk26hq">
“What we see is this drastic change in women’s behavior by entering paid work,” Caitlyn Collins, an assistant professor of sociology at Washington University in St. Louis, said of women’s movement into the workforce since the mid-1900s. “But we have not seen a similar drastic change in men’s uptake of domestic labor.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H1WPng">
Many antiquated ideas of women’s place in society persist. Women are more likely to be held responsible for household chores and child care, while men get to prioritize their work — despite the fact that both men and women are working.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SCGW6M">
During the pandemic, mothers have been twice as likely as fathers in a dual-career couple to do an extra five hours of domestic chores per day, according to <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/women-in-the-
workplace">McKinsey</a>, which looked at the issue from June to August of 2020. Yale research shows that even in cases where both parents worked from home, <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/tdf8c/">women have done more household and </a><a href="https://news.yale.edu/2020/07/17/study-reveals-gender-inequality-telecommuting">child care work</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QBZujN">
“A lot of women, we grow up in this environment, so we internalize these kind of norms,” said Emma Zang, a Yale assistant professor in sociology who co-authored the study. “So if you have to sacrifice a little bit from family for work, then women may feel more stressed, more frustrated compared to men, because they view that taking care of family is more of their responsibility.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RxGLeR">
Even at senior levels, the situation is inequitable. An unpublished McKinsey survey found that while two-thirds of men in top management positions had a partner who stayed at home or who didn’t work full time, two-thirds of women in those positions had a partner who was working full time. In other words, executive women are less likely to have domestic help from their spouse.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/cXHhG3yHnWnGFem50hV4BRDEysI=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22713371/GettyImages_1322081392t.jpg"/> <cite>Lea Suzuki/The San Francisco Chronicle/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
A mother vacuums crackers spilled by her son while she works from home in San Francisco in 2013.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wmQUaO">
There’s also evidence that, since the pandemic began, US attitudes about gender roles have become more conservative. While people are now more likely to say women should make money than they were pre-pandemic, they’re also more likely to think women should parent young children and stay at home, according to <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/23780231211013128">research published in the American Sociological Association’s journal</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZrLtwR">
In addition to these cultural norms, women must also deal with economic precedents.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cJzp6i">
Employers don’t compensate women as highly as men — even in <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22443656/diversity-race-tech-pay-inequality">high-skill fields</a>. If women make less than men, it’s easier for a couple to decide that the woman’s job is less important. That can lead to the woman cutting down or relinquishing her career to take care of domestic duties. Frequently it means taking on domestic duties in addition to paid labor.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cwJcU5">
“Many of the moms that we talked to, for example, were already earning less than their husbands or partners before the pandemic,” Jessica Calarco, an associate professor of sociology at Indiana University, told Recode. “And so when the pandemic hit, it seemed practical for them to be the ones to care for their children at home.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wrFbOs">
Even when domestic tasks are done as paid labor, they’re dominated by women — and the <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/21432940/child-care-bailout-covid-economy-work-parents-great-rebuild">pay is paltry</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UIqzv4">
“The reason we don’t pay caregivers well is because we don’t value caregiving, and think of it as an unskilled task, because it’s associated with femininity,” Collins said. “Secondly, we don’t think of it as skilled labor like construction. There is a belief in US society that caregiving is something you don’t have to learn how to do.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DmVTIp">
As Calarco put it, “The labor that women are doing as caregivers has been undervalued in a way that systematically benefits men in the workplace, and allows men to better compete in their careers.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1V7ofA">
In other words, both cultural and structural systems are stacked against women. And though remote work can in some ways seem detrimental to women, women ultimately view its flexibility as a positive development and a way to achieve equality at work.
</p>
<h3 id="8YZgU9">
Flexible work can be good for women
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GTBGP2">
Even before the pandemic, women were clamoring for remote work, according to data from McKinsey. Generally they think its pros — giving them the ability to perform domestic tasks they do anyway and allowing them to sidestep an office-centric model more likely to benefit men — outweigh its cons. And as more people in general work remotely, lingering misgivings about remote work will likely dissolve.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mOt6KU">
The second shift existed before the pandemic, and it will exist after it, too. Remote work is an acquiescence to what is a reality for many women: doing more.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="A9YbPu">
“If women feel disproportionately responsible for the household activities and for parenting, working remotely makes life a whole lot more flexible,” Jerry Jacobs, a sociology professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xliP5p">
Child care and other domestic work have been more obviously demanding during the pandemic, but they’ve always been demanding. Remote work just makes an untenable situation more possible.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EKZ2cR">
“Remote work is central to allowing people with caregiving responsibilities the flexibility and control over their schedules that they need to provide that care,” Collins said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ti2oBf">
It’s also important to remember that the office has never been particularly hospitable to women. That’s in part because office culture rewarded long hours as well as hours after work fraternizing with bosses while a partner helped out at home. It’s a situation that usually benefited men, not women.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9Bm15y">
“We need to reimagine that,” Krivkovich said. “Most women are not living that reality.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eOeLh2">
Women were left out of conversations in the physical office, <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/women-in-the-workplace">demeaned</a>, or made to feel like they didn’t belong. Women in senior-level positions, especially Black women, are frequently the only person of their sex or race in the room, which can result in pressure to work more or feelings of otherness.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="R9Sw9V">
“Particularly women of color really want remote work, because it allows them to avoid some of the microaggressions that they would experience on a daily basis,” said Tara Van Bommel, director and statistician at Catalyst, a nonprofit advocating for women in the workplace.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Lqxuqa">
That’s not to mention dangers like sexual harassment, which can be more acute in a physical setting.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sklHj1">
Mothers, especially, have faced stigma in the office.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IXrTSp">
“Mothers are treated differently in the workplace than fathers,” Gayle Kaufman, a professor of sociology at Davidson College, said. “For fathers, my research suggests that they’re not even seen as fathers.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hf1VOJ">
When women become mothers, they’re expected to cut back on paid work, and it adversely affects perceptions of their career prospects. When men have kids, it’s a different story.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wtbfqP">
“If it affects them, it’s going to affect them in a good way, because they’re going to want to provide for their family,” Kaufman said, describing how men are perceived.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/8OkBY4bgLbSGPmjnerUthejz--k=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22713406/GettyImages_1232831147t.jpg"/> <cite>Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
A father takes a break while working from home while his wife plays with their young daughter, in May 2021.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EkFkvJ">
All in all, the office could be a bit of a boys’ club. With this in mind, women’s experience of working from home can be better than working in the office.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oOYNha">
“We find that remote work access diminishes burnout across three different types of burnout. And it does that for everyone, not just for women,” Van Bommel said. Employees with access to remote work had <a href="https://www.catalyst.org/reports/remote-work-burnout-productivity/">lower rates of burnout</a> in regard to work, their personal life, and Covid-19, according to her research with Catalyst.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fdRQac">
Remote work is, at least, more likely to keep women in the workforce.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DLR9Zx">
Catalyst also found that working from home could help keep women with kids in the workforce. Women with child care responsibilities who could work remotely were <a href="https://www.catalyst.org/reports/remote-work-burnout-productivity/">32 percent less likely</a> to say they’re going to leave their job in the next year compared to those who couldn’t work from home. A <a href="https://www.catalyst.org/research/the-great-debate-flexibility-vs-face-time-busting-the-myths-behind-flexible-
work-arrangements/">2013 Catalyst study</a> of people in MBA programs found that when women didn’t have access to flexible work arrangements, they were more than twice as likely as men to downsize their career aspirations.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Wv6o1z">
Some fear that remote working could hinder women’s careers since bosses might equate face time with actual work, or that it could dampen women’s likelihood of promotion since working from a distance could make them seem less involved. That’s less likely to be the case as more and more people continue working remotely.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jooKYs">
“Working from home is going to become more common, and people will be less judgmental towards men or women who work from home,” Zang said. “If you’re less likely to be judged, then we would suppose that they will be less likely to face career consequences if they want to work from home.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Yk2lVu">
All in all, it’s certainly possible that remote work could be a good thing for women. However, it might take some effort to get it there.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ukD3HT">
“Remote work absolutely can work for women,” Krivkovich said. “What we need is to make sure that the support that allows working women to equally focus on work as their male peers is there.”
</p>
<h3 id="fTT9DR">
How do we make working from home more fair to women?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aCvaSn">
It’s not that remote work itself is inequitable to women. Rather, the situation in which we’re performing remote work is unjust. To ameliorate it, experts say there are a number of things the government and employers can do:
</p>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pSFDcf">
<strong>Paid parental leave</strong>. Giving men and women paid parental leave would make it so that both sexes would learn how to care for their children, so that the burden doesn’t fall as unfairly on women. It’s also important that the amount paid parental leave compensates parents is near to all of the wages they would lose out on, to make sure both parents take it. Men, like women, have to learn how to care for children. “My research shows once they’re spending time with their kids at an early age, right off the bat, they want to be involved,” Kaufman said. “That affects how they approach their life, including work, so they start making decisions about work based on their family lives, just as mothers have done.”
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wc5bBe"></li>
</ul>
<strong>Subsidized child care.</strong> Child care, especially for young children, exists in a patchwork fashion in the US. Affordable and accessible child care is necessary to keep women from doing a disproportionate amount of it themselves while they work.
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iNkcWc">
<strong>Compensate women equally.</strong> If women were paid as much as men, their work would be less likely to play second fiddle to men’s.
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gyAPYy">
<strong>Focus on productivity, not hours logged. </strong>To make sure women aren’t punished for remote work, employers must measure work by the work itself — not how long they spend doing it. “We’re still measuring productivity in terms of inputs, not outputs, meaning we’re overly fixated on ‘can you get in a car and drive and sit at this desk where I can watch you work’ as opposed to focusing on great output of work,” Krivkovich said. “What you see with women, in part because of the pressures they feel around all the other responsibilities they hold outside of the workplace, is that breaking that assumption is just hugely valuable to them.”
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ygRUnV">
<strong>Promote people who work from home equally. </strong>Make sure there’s not a two-tier system that preferences those who can show up in the office more. As Van Bommel put it, “Tracking who’s getting advancement opportunities, who’s getting promotions, sponsorship, stretch assignments, to ensure that there’s equity regardless of people’s location, is really critical to countering that bias towards face time.”
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4SycXX">
<strong>Be clear about remote work expectations. </strong>If working from home is going to work for women, it’s important that there are clear boundaries around how and when employees are expected to communicate, lest the flexibility of remote work simply result in more work. “I think if it’s clear that you’re not supposed to work at night, not supposed to work on weekends, any more than you were before,” Jacobs said, “that’s going to disproportionately benefit women.”
</li>
</ul>
<div class="c-wide-block">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/XP9Ba3uK5HJ2EoOOrbc87zt2UiQ=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22713424/GettyImages_1210450418tt.jpg"/> <cite>Brent Stirton/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
A working ER nurse plays with her children at home in April 2020 in California.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pfo9Ye">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="r0F9n5">
</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Ask a book critic: What’s a good summer read with a Wonder Years feel?</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Ask a Book Critic" src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/uuDUWfiztT2GALlrM5XteEqu7Xo=/367x0:4634x3200/1310x983/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69576295/ask_bookcritic.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Amanda Northrop/Vox
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Our book critic recommends good summer reading and more.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zKsNy9">
Welcome to the latest installment of Vox’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/ask-a-book-critic"><strong>Ask a Book Critic</strong></a>, in which I, Vox book critic Constance Grady, provide book recommendations to suit your very specific mood: either how you’re feeling right now or how you’d like to be feeling instead.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qSQZwK">
If you prefer your recommendations in audio form, you can listen to <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/vox-quick-
hits/id1549029999"><em><strong>Ask a Book Critic</strong></em></a>, part of <a href="https://www.vox.com/22219152/vox-
quick-hits-short-form-podcasts"><strong>Vox Quick Hits</strong></a>. Hear a new episode of <em>Ask a Book Critic</em> every two weeks wherever you listen to podcasts, including <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/vox-quick-
hits/id1549029999"><strong>Apple Podcasts</strong></a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vVk1QMzM5MzU0NjAwMQ"><strong>Google Podcasts</strong></a>, and <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/1f0Iedxo7ITTKo0SnSK3jI?si=7hODSL6ZS7ia9mdtZB5Qyg"><strong>Spotify</strong></a>.
</p></li>
</ul>
<div id="ELoViR">
<div>
<div style="width: 100%; height: 175px;">
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VOBUUf">
Now let’s get started.
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="EeOw1d"/>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pE1L9E">
<em>I’m 19 years old and I’m lost. Like totally lost. I lost the love of my life a year ago and still can’t get over that. I’m lost, confused, don’t know what to do with myself. Everything is falling apart. I need a way out, I’m tired of being like this. Please suggest me a book that can help me through this rough time.</em>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="a2xboj">
I think you need a book that brings joy to your life, so I’m going to recommend <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588&amp;xs=1&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fbookshop.org%2Fbooks%2Fthe-
inimitable-
jeeves-9781433272110%2F9781789505412&amp;referrer=vox.com&amp;sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Fculture%2F22573789%2Fask-
a-book-critic-were-all-adults-here-summer-sisters-american-marriage-helen-oyeyemi" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">P.G. Wodehouse’s Jeeves and Wooster stories</a>. They’re early 20th-century novels about a hapless young man about town who is constantly getting rescued by his valet, and they’re some of the funniest books ever written. I hope they help you feel better!
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="7KZYCO"/>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nnXdNX">
<em>I’m a newly minted public defender and I’m wondering if you have any recommendations for work about humans navigating the criminal justice system or just generally the population I work with. I’m looking for narrative-driven books that are still nuanced and well- observed, basically not sensational or bang-you-over-the-head preachy in style. Fiction or nonfiction welcome. </em>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FLGCjx">
Congrats on your new job! <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588&amp;xs=1&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fbookshop.org%2Fbooks%2Famerican-
prison-a-reporter-s-undercover-journey-into-the-business-of-
punishment%2F9780735223608&amp;referrer=vox.com&amp;sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Fculture%2F22573789%2Fask-a-book-
critic-were-all-adults-here-summer-sisters-american-marriage-helen-oyeyemi" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em>American Prison</em></a> by Shane Bauer is probably a good option for you in the nonfiction spectrum — it’s by an investigative reporter who got an entry-level job as a guard in a private prison, with lots of history of how the for-profit prison industry came together.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GdLdRw">
For fiction, you might try <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588&amp;xs=1&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fbookshop.org%2Fbooks%2Fan-american-
marriage-e410b80b-02f0-4eb5-bb38-5346a1bbd89f%2F9781432861308&amp;referrer=vox.com&amp;sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Fculture%2F22573789%2Fask-
a-book-critic-were-all-adults-here-summer-sisters-american-marriage-helen-oyeyemi" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em>American Marriage</em></a> by Tayari Jones. It’s about a young Black couple who find themselves upended when the husband is incarcerated for a crime he didn’t commit, and the story traces how what comes next ends up shaping their lives. It’s a really nuanced and thoughtful book that won a million awards when it came out in 2018, and it’s especially trenchant on the responsibilities forced on to the families of incarcerated people.
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<em>My friend and I are looking for some books to read that are not new, as we get them from the library. We are looking for books that take place in the summer that are light and fun. My friend puts it as “something with a </em>Wonder Years<em> feel.”</em>
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Last summer’s release <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588&amp;xs=1&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fbookshop.org%2Fbooks%2Fall-adults-
here%2F9781594634697&amp;referrer=vox.com&amp;sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Fculture%2F22573789%2Fask-a-book-critic-
were-all-adults-here-summer-sisters-american-marriage-helen-oyeyemi" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em>We’re All Adults Here</em></a> is a really lovely and nostalgic summer read that takes place in a small village on the Hudson, and I think it has the vibe you’re looking for. For something a little older, an undying summer classic is Judy Blume’s adult novel <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588&amp;xs=1&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fbookshop.org%2Fbooks%2Fsummer-
sisters%2F9780385337663&amp;referrer=vox.com&amp;sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Fculture%2F22573789%2Fask-a-book-
critic-were-all-adults-here-summer-sisters-american-marriage-helen-oyeyemi" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em>Summer Sisters</em></a>. It’s about two girls who are best friends as teens and then start to grow apart as they grow up, and reading it just feels like you’re sitting in a beach house rental that has kind of a weird smell (Judy Blume is committed to the physical reality of adolescence, odors and all), you just ate lunch, and you’re counting down the minutes until you can go jump in the water again.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9k3qmb">
<em>I’m a big fan of Kazuo Ishiguro, especially </em>The Remains of the Day<em>. The storyline is important, but it is the ambience that is so entrancing, sort of like an impressionist painting. Any recommendations?</em>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="F3SZ0J">
Love an <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/10/5/16430050/kazuo-ishiguro-nobel-prize-best-works">Ishiguro</a> request! I think you might like Helen Oyeyemi. She writes very beautiful, very eerie novels, often built out of a mishmash of references that come together to create a fragmented portrait of a mind. Her latest, <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588&amp;xs=1&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fbookshop.org%2Fbooks%2Fpeaces-9780593192337%2F9780593192337&amp;referrer=vox.com&amp;sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Fculture%2F22573789%2Fask-
a-book-critic-were-all-adults-here-summer-sisters-american-marriage-helen-oyeyemi" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em>Peaces</em></a>, is so bizarre that as I came out of it I thought, “Oh, I think she’s hit her <em>Unconsoled</em> phase.” Which means we’re just 10 years out from her <em>Never Let Me Go</em> phase!
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<em>I’m looking for a book like </em><a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588&amp;xs=1&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fbookshop.org%2Fbooks%2Fthe-
secret-
history-9781400031702%2F9781400031702&amp;referrer=vox.com&amp;sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Fculture%2F22573789%2Fask-
a-book-critic-were-all-adults-here-summer-sisters-american-marriage-helen-oyeyemi" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">The Secret History</a><em> by Donna Tartt. It’s one of my favorite books of all time — everyone I know who has read it loves it as well. So I want to read something that’s in a similar mold: really well-written, intriguing, mysterious, centered on young people, maybe (but not necessarily) with a death or murder. </em>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="84MPbs">
Ha, this is one of my most frequent requests. Here are a few different directions you can go:
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<li id="tMlxW7">
Basically <em>The Secret History</em> but the serial numbers are filed off: <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588&amp;xs=1&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fbookshop.org%2Fbooks%2Fif-we-were-
villains%2F9781250095299&amp;referrer=vox.com&amp;sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Fculture%2F22573789%2Fask-a-book-
critic-were-all-adults-here-summer-sisters-american-marriage-helen-oyeyemi" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em>If We Were Villains</em></a> by M. L. Rio; <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588&amp;xs=1&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fbookshop.org%2Fbooks%2Fthe-
likeness-9789573325932%2F9780143115625&amp;referrer=vox.com&amp;sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Fculture%2F22573789%2Fask-
a-book-critic-were-all-adults-here-summer-sisters-american-marriage-helen-oyeyemi" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em>The Likeness</em></a> by <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/11/27/20978200/tana-french-
dublin-murder-series">Tana French</a>. If you only read one of these make it <em>The Likeness</em>: French has her own murder mystery style going on, but <em>If We Were Villains</em> is so close to <em>The Secret History</em> that it can feel a little disorienting, like, why am I not just reading <em>The Secret History</em>?
</li>
<li id="l4MzzJ">
Still dark academia with a similar vibe, but also there is magic: Leigh Bardugo’s <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588&amp;xs=1&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fbookshop.org%2Fbooks%2Fninth-
house%2F9781250751362&amp;referrer=vox.com&amp;sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Fculture%2F22573789%2Fask-a-book-critic-
were-all-adults-here-summer-sisters-american-marriage-helen-oyeyemi" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em>Ninth House</em></a>, Pamela Dean’s <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588&amp;xs=1&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fbookshop.org%2Fbooks%2Ftam-
lin-9780142406526%2F9780142406526&amp;referrer=vox.com&amp;sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Fculture%2F22573789%2Fask-a-
book-critic-were-all-adults-here-summer-sisters-american-marriage-helen-oyeyemi" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em>Tam Lin</em></a>. <em>Tam Lin</em> is a little bit nerdier, <em>Ninth House</em> a little bit sexier.
</li>
<li id="lvt18a">
In general for gothics with young people and beautiful writing, go forth and seek out Joyce Carol Oates (<a href="https://lithub.com/is-joyce-carol-oates-trolling-us/">bad at Twitter</a>,<strong> </strong>good at novels), Gillian Flynn (more than just <em>Gone Girl</em>!), and Shirley Jackson.
</li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="T6FY2q">
You can also check out our <a href="https://www.vox.com/vox-book-club">Vox Book Club</a> <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2020/5/8/21250613/vox-book-club-the-secret-history-donna-tartt-week-1">coverage of <em>The Secret History</em></a> for more discussion. Enjoy!
</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IZgaA9">
<em>If you’d like me to recommend a book for you, email me at constance.grady@vox.com with the subject line “Ask a Book Critic.” The more specific your mood, the better!</em>
</p>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Olympic athletes to put on own medals at Tokyo ceremonies</strong> - The “very significant change” to traditional medal ceremonies in the 339 events was revealed on Wednesday by International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach</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>Tokyo Olympics 2020 | Physio John Gloster says ban on spectators could work to India’s advantage</strong> - Gloster, who has been working with 11 elite Indian athletes, says COVID-19 has given the chance to work more on the mental side of the game</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>ICC confirms new WTC points system: 12 for win, 4 for draw, 6 for tie</strong> - “We received feedback that the previous points system needed to be simplified.”</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>My idea as a leader is to keep everyone together, happy: Dhawan</strong> - “It is a big achievement for me that I have become the captain of the Indian side.”</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>Hockey: Varun, Simranjeet late inclusions in indian men’s Olympic side; Reena, Namita in women’s team</strong> - Hockey India, which had originally named 16-member men’s and women’s squads for the upcoming Games, have now added two players each in both the teams</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>Record 99.47% pass in SSLC exam</strong> - Number of students having A+ in all subjects touches a high at 1,21,318</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>Whoever tries to shoot at police will get an answer, says Assam CM</strong> - Those who defend drug dealers should train them not to escape from custody, he 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>Cabinet nod for subsidy scheme to boost merchant ships</strong> - It will also increase training opportunities and employment for seafarers.</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>Army truck falls in gorge in Arunachal Pradesh; 1 jawan dead, many injured</strong> - ‘Critically injured jawans were evacuated by an army chopper’</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>Piyush Goyal appointed Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha</strong> - Currently he holds the textiles and commerce portfolio</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>EU unveils sweeping climate change plan</strong> - It proposes taxing jet fuel and effectively banning the sale of petrol cars within 20 years.</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 EU countries ‘pushing back’ asylum seekers at sea</strong> - Human rights groups allege that thousands of people seeking asylum in Europe have been pushed back from Greece to Turkey before being given a chance to apply for asylum.</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>Lithuania votes to curb influx of migrants from Belarus</strong> - The strict legislation allows the mass detention of migrants, as hundreds arrive from Belarus.</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>Russian-linked ransomware websites disappear</strong> - The REvil group has been blamed for cyber-attacks on hundreds of businesses worldwide.</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>Islamic State children in Syria face a lifetime in prison</strong> - A BBC investigation found that children, whose parents supported IS, are caught in a conveyor belt of incarceration.</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>We’re getting a Wheel of Time prequel film trilogy to augment Amazon series</strong> - Films will focus on history of Robert Jordan’s fictional world before events of books. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1780002">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SolarWinds 0-day gave Chinese hackers privileged access to customer servers</strong> - Hackers IDed as DEV-0322 have a fondness for defense contractors and software-makers. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1780067">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Museum obtains rare demo of id Software’s Super Mario Bros. 3 PC port</strong> - 1990 demo was rejected by Nintendo but led to id’s own <em>Commander Keen</em>. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1780015">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Tennessee has gone “anti-vaccine,” state vaccine chief says after being fired</strong> - Vaccine chief says she was fired for noting state’s 34-year-old policy for vaccinating teens. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1779998">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How much do you pay your ISP? Consumer Reports wants to see your bill</strong> - Your bill and a speed test can help Consumer Reports analyze Internet prices. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1779990">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
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<li><strong>An older woman, well past child-bearing years went to a walk-in clinic where she was seen by a young, new doctor. After about 3 minutes in the exam room, the doctor told her she was pregnant. She burst out the door, screaming as she ran down the hall.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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An older doctor stopped her and asked her what the problem was, and she told him what had happened. After hearing her out, he sat her down in another exam room and marched back to where the first doctor was and demanded, “what is the matter with you? That lady is over 60 years old, has four grown children and several grand children! And you told her she was pregnant?”
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The young doctor continued to write on his clipboard, and without looking up, he asked, “Does she still have the hiccups?”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Briancrc"> /u/Briancrc </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ojtnvj/an_older_woman_well_past_childbearing_years_went/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ojtnvj/an_older_woman_well_past_childbearing_years_went/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>As the Kardashians celebrate their 20th and final season…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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I would LOVE to congratulate myself for never watching a single episode.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/VERBERD"> /u/VERBERD </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ojlmhc/as_the_kardashians_celebrate_their_20th_and_final/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ojlmhc/as_the_kardashians_celebrate_their_20th_and_final/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>A male whale and a female whale were swimming off the coast of Japan when they noticed a whaling ship.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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The male whale recognized it as the same ship that had harpooned his father many years earlier. He said to the female whale, “Lets both swim under the ship and blow out of our air holes at the same time and it should cause the ship to turn over and sink.”
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They tried it and sure enough, the ship turned over and quickly sank. Soon however, the whales realized the sailors had jumped overboard and were swimming to the safety of shore. The male was enraged that they were going to get away and told the female, “Let’s swim after them and gobble them up before they reach the shore.” At this point, he realized the female was becoming reluctant to follow him.
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“Look,” she said, “I went along with the blow job, but I absolutely refuse to swallow the seamen.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/WhiteGuyInPI"> /u/WhiteGuyInPI </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ojnplf/a_male_whale_and_a_female_whale_were_swimming_off/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ojnplf/a_male_whale_and_a_female_whale_were_swimming_off/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>A wife was in bed, naked with her lover when she heard her husband’s key in the door. “Stay where you are,” she said. “He’s so drunk he won’t even notice you’re in bed with me.”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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The husband lurched into the bed, but a few minutes later, through a drunken haze, he saw six feet sticking out at the end of the bed.
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He turned to his wife: “Hey, there are six feet in this bed. There should only be four. What’s going on?”
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“You’re so drunk you miscounted,” said the wife. “Get out of bed and try again. You can see better from over there”
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The husband climbed out of bed and counted. “One, two, three, four. Damn, you’re right”
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A few minutes later, the wife got horny and asked her lover to continue.
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The man was too scared so the woman said, " He is so messed up I’ll pull out one of his butt hairs and he won’t move a bit".
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So she did - The husband didn’t move an inch, so they continued to make passionate love with the husband right beside them.
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A couple of hours later, she repeats the process - the husband is still passed out - they get busy and messy once again.
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Then Just before dawn the wife wants one more ride. So she reaches over and plucks a third ass hair! Whereupon the husband looks at the lover and says ," I don’t mind you screwing my wife but do you have to keep score on my ass??
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/littleboy_xxxx"> /u/littleboy_xxxx </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ojyp45/a_wife_was_in_bed_naked_with_her_lover_when_she/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ojyp45/a_wife_was_in_bed_naked_with_her_lover_when_she/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>An injured American soldier is boarding a train to the hospital, but the train is full because a woman and her dog took up the last two seats.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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The man says to the woman, “would you please mind taking up only one seat? You don’t need two separate seats for you and your dog.” But the woman refuses. Then the man tells the woman that he is exhausted from the war and is injured, the last seat on the train isn’t too much to ask for, yet the woman still refuses.
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The man gets extremely angry and forcefully picks up the woman’s dog, throws it out the window, and sits down at the last seat.
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A British man sitting next to him starts getting angry and starts yelling at the American solider, “You Americans have terrible manners and drive me crazy! Americans like you drive on the wrong side of the road, use the wrong measuring system, write dates in the wrong order, and most importantly, you threw the wrong bitch out the window!”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Yt_GamingwithCharlie"> /u/Yt_GamingwithCharlie </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ojs9ly/an_injured_american_soldier_is_boarding_a_train/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ojs9ly/an_injured_american_soldier_is_boarding_a_train/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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