Daily-Dose

Contents

• From New Yorker
• From Vox
• From The Hindu: Sports
• From The Hindu: National News
• From BBC: Europe
• From Ars Technica
• From Jokes Subreddit

From New Yorker

• The Mysterious Case of the COVID-19 Lab-Leak Theory - Did the virus spring from nature or from human error? - link

• The Return-to-Office Quandary - Ambiguous plans are good for executives but bad for other employees. - link

• When Will We Have the Last Oil Spill? - The latest incident comes as the fossil-fuel industry heads into a terminal decline. - link

• The Great Bridge Boycott - At a recent tournament, thirty teams refused to compete when faced with the prospect of playing against Fulvio Fantoni, a notorious Italian player who has been accused of cheating. - link

• The Singular Work of a California Photographer, Unearthed - The colors in many of Kali’s images seem to shimmer, as if pulsing with their own internal heartbeat. - link

From Vox

• Biden’s incoherent immigration policy -

  

  President Biden proposed humane immigration reforms but continued harsh, Trump- era enforcement policies at the border.

  There is a growing gulf between the progressive immigration values President Joe Biden professes and the enforcement policies he’s implementing at the border — and it’s led to confusion among immigration officials, uncertainty for migrants, and questions about whether the president has a coherent strategy on immigration at all.

  On the campaign trail, Biden promised a more humane approach to the southern border than former President Donald Trump, whom he described as launching an “unrelenting assault on our values and our history as a nation of immigrants” and “bullying legitimate asylum seekers.”

  But during his first year in office, Biden has leaned on his predecessor’s efforts to cut off access to the asylum system on the border more than he admits.

  The Biden administration has clung to pandemic-related border restrictions enacted by Trump, known as the Title 42 policy, under which the US has expelled hundreds of thousands of migrants without giving them access to their legal right to apply for asylum. And faced with a recent spike in Haitian migrants at the border, Biden forcibly returned thousands to Haiti despite an ongoing political and humanitarian crisis there.

  Win McNamee/Getty Images

  These enforcement actions create a stark contrast between how the president treats migrants who are trying to enter the US and those already living in the country for whom he has tried to provide a path to citizenship.

  And that inconsistency has become a source of strife within the administration. The US special envoy for Haiti recently resigned over the government’s “deeply flawed” Haiti policy. So did a senior State Department official who called the Title 42 policy “illegal,” “inhumane,” and “not worthy of this administration.” Current Department of Homeland Security officials have also described a general lack of direction on immigration.

  Biden has also become a target of criticism from both the right and the left. Republican immigration hawks accuse him of presiding over an out- of-control border, while Democrats and immigration activists decry his decision to deny Haitians and other migrants a safe haven.

  Biden has tried to please both sides by taking a generally strict approach to the border while trying to bring relief to undocumented immigrants in the US living under the threat of deportation. But in doing so, he has exacerbated inequities that already exist in the US immigration system.

  He has pursued policies designed to uplift immigrants who have put down roots in the US, many of whom have been able to attract public sympathy. But the migrants most Americans will never see are now the subject of his harshest enforcement initiatives. This approach has left Biden with a border policy not so different from the one he once decried.

  Biden made initial progress in dismantling Trump’s immigration policies, but it didn’t last

  During his early days in office, Biden seemed on track to dismantle the Trump administration’s most restrictive immigration policies. He ended the travel ban on people from mostly Muslim-majority countries, halted most new border wall construction, and reversed the “zero-tolerance policy” that enabled family separations and the “Remain in Mexico” program that kept asylum seekers waiting in Mexico for court hearings in the US. He also released an expansive reform proposal with a path to citizenship for the more than 10 million undocumented immigrants living in the US as its centerpiece.

  Then, within weeks of his inauguration, record numbers of unaccompanied migrant children began arriving from Central America, and Biden’s border policies came under scrutiny from both the left and the right.

  Gerardo Vieyra/NurPhoto via Getty Images

  Suddenly on the defensive, the administration’s posture shifted. It reopened temporary, jail-like facilities — the same “cages” that drew condemnation in 2019 under Trump — to house migrant children. On a June trip to Guatemala, in what would become a common refrain for US officials, Vice President Kamala Harris told migrants, “Don’t come.”

  In the past, Mayorkas has argued that the administration has had no choice but to take such measures, saying that they were virtually starting from scratch in creating a system to humanely process migrants at the border.

  “The entire system was gutted,” Mayorkas said during a briefing at the White House in March. “It takes time to build out of the depths of cruelty that the administration before us established.”

  But despite condemnations of Trump’s legacy on the border, Biden has actively preserved one of his predecessor’s key policies to keep migrants out.

  The Title 42 policy continues to be a stain on Biden’s immigration record

  Biden’s primary tool to manage the border has been a controversial policy that one ex-Trump official, referring to the architect of the former president’s restrictive immigration policy, called a “Stephen Miller special.”

  In March 2020, at the outset of the pandemic, Trump used a special legal authority called Title 42, a section of the Public Health Service Act that allows the US government to temporarily block noncitizens from entering the US in the interest of public health. Though Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) scientists initially opposed the policy, arguing that there was no legitimate public health rationale behind it, then-Vice President Mike Pence ordered them to implement it anyway.

  Under both Trump and Biden, the policy has allowed US immigration officials at the southern border to rapidly expel migrants more than 1.1 million times, without a hearing before an immigration judge. (The exact number of people expelled is unknown because many have been caught trying to cross the border multiple times.)

  Even when a federal judge recently blocked the policy from being used to expel families, the Biden administration chose to appeal the ruling, and has continued (with court permission) to enforce the policy while litigation continues.

  Biden has carved out some exemptions. Unaccompanied children and people subject to the “Remain in Mexico” policy under Trump are allowed to enter the US while their cases are adjudicated. The Mexican government has also refused to take back some Haitian and Central American families, who have been allowed to enter. But everyone else, including people facing real persecution and danger in their home countries or in Mexico, can be expelled.

  Sarah Silbiger/Bloomberg via Getty Images

  Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images

  The White House has maintained that there is a public health obligation to enforce Title 42, referring Vox to Mayorkas’s recent comments on CNN, in which he described the policy as a means “to protect migrants themselves, local communities, our personnel, and the American public.” White House press secretary Jen Psaki has said that the administration doesn’t view Title 42 as an immigration policy; it’s a CDC policy. The CDC announced on Monday that Title 42 “continues to be necessary” given continued high levels of Covid-19 transmission.

  However, many public health experts say that migrants can be safely processed at the border and that the policy represents an attempt to “unethically and illegally exploit the Covid-19 pandemic to expel, block, and return to danger asylum seekers and individuals seeking protection.” Anthony Fauci, the United States’ top federal infectious disease expert, recently said that “expelling [migrants] … is not the solution to an outbreak.”

  Though Title 42 has proved a convenient means for Biden to manage the border, he has other options. For years now, experts have been contemplating broad fixes to the asylum system to address migration surges, including building new processing centers and putting more power in the hands of asylum officers rather than border patrol agents.

  Biden’s insistence on maintaining Title 42 has driven away one of his own top immigration officials. Harold Koh, a senior State Department lawyer, resigned earlier this month after writing a scathing, 3,000-word legal memo arguing Title 42 runs afoul of US asylum law and longstanding international treaties, particularly in the way it is currently being used to return Haitians to dire humanitarian conditions in their home country.

  “[W]e all came into this Administration to give the American people a government as good as our national values,” the memo obtained by Politico reads. “I ask you to do everything in your power to revise this policy, especially as it affects Haitians, into one that is worthy of this nation we love.”

  The Biden administration has turned its back on its humanitarian obligations toward Haiti

  Haiti has been in a state of upheaval since at least July, when Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated and, amid the power vacuum, gang violence sharply escalated. When a 7.2-magnitude earthquake and tropical depression devastated Haiti in August, the country’s political crisis was compounded by a humanitarian one.

  About 30,000 Haitian migrants arrived in Del Rio, Texas, last month, setting up a temporary encampment under the international bridge that connects the US and Mexico. There has also been a dramatic increase in Haitians attempting to cross the Caribbean by boat to reach the US. More than 1,500 such migrants were intercepted by the US Coast Guard over the last year, up from about 400 in the previous year.

  Many of the Haitians seeking refuge in the US lived in Latin America for years after fleeing earlier crises in Haiti, including an even bigger 2010 earthquake. But the Covid-19 recession, racial discrimination in Latin America, the realization that going home was no longer an option, and the perception that the US would offer them humanitarian protection all played a role in their decision to move north.

  At first, the Biden administration did offer protection. Mayorkas decided to extend Temporary Protected Status — typically used to enable citizens of countries that have experienced violent conflict or natural disasters to live and work in the US — for Haitians who arrived in the US prior to July 29. This offer was designed to cover those who fled the country in the aftermath of the political crisis stemming from Moïse’s killing.

  At the time, Mayorkas said “serious security concerns, social unrest, an increase in human rights abuses, crippling poverty, and lack of basic resources, which are exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic” had made it dangerous for Haitians to return home.

  But the administration maintained a strict stance toward those arriving by boat. Mayorkas said in July that any migrants intercepted off US shores will be turned back or, if they express fear of returning home, repatriated to a third country.

  That policy isn’t new. Republican and Democratic administrations have employed this approach, known as interdiction, to prevent Caribbean migrants from reaching US shores. They argue it protects migrants from the very real dangers of that journey. In reality, however, it resulted in many Haitians being returned to certain peril in their home country; under the administrations of Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, migrants languished in what one federal judge called a “prison camp” at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

  Biden has been making contingency plans to detain migrants at Guantanamo again, hiring guards who speak Creole (though Biden administration officials insist that Haitians arriving at the border will not be sent there). No such promises have been made about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities inside the US, where the total detained population has ballooned to more than 21,000 on Biden’s watch — up from 13,500 as of late February but still well below the historic high of nearly 60,000 under Trump.

  The Biden administration also worked quickly last month to empty out the camp in Del Rio. At one point, US Border Patrol agents on horseback used whip-like cords on Haitians to prevent them from returning to the camp after buying supplies on the Mexican side of the border. Following public outcry over the images, Biden halted the use of horses in the area, saying that it’s “simply not who we are.”

  John Moore/Getty Images

  John Moore/Getty Images

  Paul Ratje/AFP via Getty Images

  Most of the Haitians who were staying in the camp have since been expelled. The US has sent 7,000 back to Haiti since September 19 through the Title 42 policy, despite continued turmoil on the ground. Others voluntarily returned to Mexico to avoid being sent back to Haiti or were allowed to enter the US, at least temporarily.

  It’s not clear how US authorities determined which Haitians were to be expelled and which permitted to stay. Some 12,000 Haitians are currently facing deportation proceedings in which they will be able to make their case before an immigration judge for why they should be allowed to remain in the US, via asylum or other humanitarian avenues.

  Over the last three years, less than 5 percent of Haitians who sought asylum were ultimately successful — the lowest recorded rate amongst 83 nationalities. Those abysmal outcomes, immigrant advocates say, are rooted in racism; barring any major changes to the way judges review their asylum claims, it’s likely that many Haitians arriving at the border will be sent back home eventually, if not immediately.

  When asked to respond to advocates’ concerns about Haitians being returned to dire conditions in their home country, the White House directed Vox to Mayorkas’s recent comments on CNN, where he explained that the decision to resume repatriation flights was made after studying on-the-ground conditions.

  “[W]e made a determination based upon the facts that in fact, individuals could be safely returned to Haiti. We worked closely with the Haitian government and we have provided $5.5 million in humanitarian aid to assist in their humanitarian and safe return,” he told CNN.

  Immigrant advocates argue that the conditions in Haiti remain grim, and as of October 4, US aid for those returned to Haiti had yet to arrive. And despite Mayorkas’s claims that all is well, US officials in the country have had to stay in secure compounds due to the threat of gang violence. The political situation is far from settled, with US-backed Prime Minister Ariel Henry under investigation for his ties to the men who assassinated Moïse.

  The Biden administration did not have to return Haitians to such instability.

  “The administration’s hands were not tied,” said Karen Musalo, founding director of the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies and the Refugee and Human Rights Clinic at UC Hastings College of the Law. “The administration was not forced to treat Haitians in this way. This is an affirmative decision that the administration is making, which is unlawful, it’s racist, it’s deplorable.”

  Biden’s border policies don’t align with his other priorities on immigration

  Wealthy countries have long struggled with calibrating migration policy to treat vulnerable populations humanely while also respecting national borders. But the Biden administration’s border policies, which have had the effect of excluding migrants from legal protections to which they may be entitled, haven’t balanced those priorities effectively. Rather, they have suppressed a group of migrants that already have very little visibility.

  That approach contrasts with the administration’s efforts to improve the lives of undocumented immigrants already living in the US.

  Biden has sought to provide legal status to at least some portion of America’s more than 10 million undocumented immigrants.

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

  <figcaption>An immigration activist participates in a rally near the White House on October 7.</figcaption>

He backed Democrats’ latest but so far unsuccessful attempt to include a pathway to citizenship for certain categories of immigrants — including Dreamers who came to the US as children, TPS recipients, farmworkers, and essential workers — in a budget reconciliation bill. His administration also recently published a proposed regulation seeking to codify protections for Dreamers who have been allowed to live and work in the US under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which is meant to guard against ongoing legal challenges.

Biden has also attempted to expand legal aid resources for immigrants and limit the reach of immigration enforcement inside the US. The administration recently launched an initiative to provide unaccompanied children facing deportation with a government-funded lawyer in eight cities across the US, and has also sought to narrow the categories of undocumented immigrants who should be prioritized for arrest, issuing new US ICE guidance meant to focus resources on those who pose public safety threats. And on Tuesday, the administration ended mass worksite raids, which the Trump administration used to arrest hundreds of undocumented immigrants at once.

Such policies, Psaki said during a September 20 briefing, show that Biden remains “absolutely committed” to “putting in place long-overdue measures to fix our immigration system — to make it more moral, humane, and workable.”

But his actions on the border have told a different story: a push to improve the lives of only certain immigrants who are already integrated into American society, while keeping others out of sight and out of mind — even if that means embracing policies designed by the Trump administration.

• Startups are betting on a psychedelic gold rush -

  

  A startup called Field Trip is opening clinics where they administer ketamine treatments. Other psychedelics, like MDMA and psilocybin, may follow.

  For a long time, Chase Chewning had wanted to try a new type of psychotherapy that uses ketamine, a dissociative anesthetic that’s shown promise as a mental health treatment. Chewning, a veteran who has had several recreational experiences with MDMA and psilocybin, hoped the drug could help him with his PTSD, so he made an appointment at a Los Angeles ketamine therapy clinic operated by Field Trip Health. Having now completed two ketamine sessions, Chewning says his experience at Field Trip has indeed helped him make progress.

  “In two sessions, I am profoundly closer to my work on my PTSD,” Chewning told Recode. “And [the treatment] left me with a lot of responsibility on some new work, but very, very exciting things, because I know I’m moving in the right direction, towards better mental health.”

  Field Trip, a Canadian startup, is betting others could have similar experiences. In fact, the company is so confident in the promise of these drugs that it’s building 75 centers for psychedelic therapy over the next three years.

  Although ketamine is legal if prescribed by a doctor, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) lists psychedelics like psilocybin and MDMA in schedule 1 of the Controlled Substance Act, which says they have no medical value and a high potential for abuse. But there’s also growing evidence that psychedelics could lead to game-changing medications and, when combined with conventional therapy, may help people who aren’t seeing results through currently available treatments. Several US cities have already decriminalized psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is overseeing clinical trials into using psychedelics to treat PTSD and depression.

  This potentially revolutionary approach to mental health also represents a tremendous commercial opportunity for health care and pharmaceutical companies. But despite promising, privately funded studies into psychedelics, current government regulations prevent the wider availability of psychedelic therapy.

  Field Trip currently offers ketamine treatments at six clinics in major US cities, including New York and Atlanta. The actual ketamine therapy session — Field Trip calls this a “psychedelic exploration session” — involves a patient receiving one or two shots of ketamine into their arm muscles, initiating a 45- to 90-minute hallucinogenic journey that’s supposed to help people disconnect from their normal selves. As the drug sets in, patients cover their eyes and listen to music as they’re coached by a therapist. The next day, patients return for a follow-up appointment called an “integration session” to reflect on the treatment.

  “Whatever comes up in your session — new insights, perspectives — that can be fleeting if you don’t work to integrate that into your life,” Emily Hackenburg, Field Trip’s clinical director, told Recode. “Regardless of what psychedelic you’re using, preparation, journey, integration, that’s going to be the same.”

  Field Trip says most patients undergo the ketamine program four to six times. The initial treatment, which includes a medical screening, an exploration session, and an integration session, costs $750. Because ketamine isn’t specifically approved for mental health applications by the FDA, the medication itself isn’t typically covered by insurance, though customers can try to get other aspects of the therapy reimbursed.

  Though its treatments are expensive, Field Trip is growing quickly. In July, the company went public through a direct listing on Nasdaq and plans to offer ketamine treatments at 20 clinics in the US by early next year. Along the way, Field Trip is also setting itself up to be a huge player in an industry that largely doesn’t exist yet. While Field Trip’s US locations are currently limited to ketamine, the company hopes to offer more psychedelics, including MDMA, when the government approves their use. Field Trip is even developing its own psychedelic that’s meant to have similar effects as psilocybin, but with a much shorter trip.

  The future of psychedelic therapy is also uncertain. While it seems likely that at least some psychedelic drugs will be approved for certain medical conditions in the years to come, it’s also possible that recreational use could be widely decriminalized or legalized. The status quo could also stay in place.

  The US government has only recently begun to support and review research into psychedelics’ potential mental health benefits. But that slow approach means that just a few prominent companies and nonprofits are shaping much of the narrative surrounding the emerging psychedelics industry.

  “This is really the most promising development in mental health care to come along, literally, in many decades. And that’s one reason why you don’t want a few companies controlling it,” says Mason Marks, a project lead at Harvard Law’s Petrie-Flom Center who focuses on psychedelics regulation.

Of course, not everyone is pleased that these startups could make psychedelics more mainstream. Some think these companies are capitalizing on a medical pathway for psychedelics that could ultimately exclude recreational users and make psychedelics more expensive and inaccessible. Others believe that psychedelics are being marketed as a cure-all that current research doesn’t support.

“Our experience with so-called pain clinics peddling untold amounts of opioids should be a cautionary tale,” Kevin Sabet, a former White House drug policy adviser who opposed legalizing cannabis, told Recode. “The psychedelics fad has reached a fever pitch far above and beyond what science tells us. We cannot forget the harmful potential and opportunity for manipulation by massive corporate interests.”

Nevertheless, it seems clear that the movement to make psychedelic therapy an accepted mental health treatment is gaining momentum.

A psychedelics renaissance could be coming

The origins of the government’s apprehensive approach to psychedelic-based mental health treatment stretch back decades. In the 1950s and ’60s, the federal government invested heavily into researching drugs like LSD and psilocybin. But after the Controlled Substances Act of 1972, federal funding into the possible benefits of psychedelics quickly evaporated.

That stance may be changing. In September, researchers at Johns Hopkins University received funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to investigate whether psilocybin could help people quit cigarettes. it appears to be the first federally funded direct study in decades of the mental health benefits of a traditional psychedelic drug. At the same time, the DEA, which keeps tight caps on how much psychedelics are available to US researchers, recently proposed increasing the nationwide availability of psilocybin from 30 grams to 1,500 grams.

Cole Burston/AFP via Getty Images

There is also a growing number of efforts to make psychedelics more widely available not only to researchers but also to patients. In the last few years, Denver, Oakland, and Washington, DC, have decriminalized psilocybin, and in 2023, supervised psilocybin-based therapy will become legal in Oregon. Meanwhile, a psilocybin regimen for depression is in phase 2 trials, and an MDMA-assisted treatment for people with severe PTSD is currently in phase 3 clinical trials. The FDA has also already approved a Johnson & Johnson drug called Spravato, a nasal spray that’s derived from ketamine, to treat depression.

In anticipation of looser regulations, there’s a burgeoning psychedelic health care industry made up of companies that want to offer psychedelic treatments or develop new drugs based on psychedelic compounds. In addition to Field Trip, there are 31 publicly traded firms focused on psychedelics, and at least 18 more that are still private, according to the psychedelics industry tracker Psilocybin Alpha. Inspired by promising but limited research showing that psychedelics can help treat not only treatment-resistant depression but also addiction and end-of-life anxiety, venture capitalists, including Peter Thiel, have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into these companies.

“There’s a lot of enthusiasm. And that makes sense because there are many people who have suffered for many years for whom this has brought relief,” Sharmin Ghaznavi, an associate director of Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for the Neuroscience of Psychedelics, told Recode. “But we have a lot that we need to learn, and we owe that to our patients.”

The government has been slow to support research into the potential benefits of psychedelics. That means philanthropies and private companies have funded almost all of the recent studies into the medical applications of drugs like MDMA and psilocybin. Many of those studies come with important caveats, including small sample sizes and unrepresentative patient pools. One 2018 analysis of 18 psychedelics studies found that 82 percent of the participants were white.

But even as research into psychedelics continues, companies are already developing everything from apps for guided trips and mushroom-facilitated retreats to psychedelic-assisted virtual reality experiences. After all, as with any big pharmaceutical breakthrough, the future of psychedelics could be extremely profitable.

How Field Trip plans to get ahead

Field Trip is well on its way to being a major player in the psychedelic health care industry. A centerpiece of Field Trip’s plan is the design of its clinics. The idea, the company says, is that psychedelics will need a brand new environment for medical care. Doctors’ offices are too sterile, and therapists’ offices don’t have the medical staff, time, or equipment to monitor patients. After all, trips on more intense psychedelic drugs require several hours and lots of supervision.

That’s why, at Field Trip’s New York location, there are serene rooms with reclining chairs and headphones for patients to use during their exploration sessions. Because ketamine can increase blood pressure, there are blood pressure monitors on-site, too. There are also rooms for post-trip reflection, where there are soft fur rugs, easels for drawing, and a gong. The space also includes a wall covered in live moss, a bubble-blowing machine, and several copies of Michael Pollan’s influential book about psychedelics, How to Change Your Mind.

“There’s lots of shoe companies out there, but Nike has a very prominent voice in that conversation,” Field Trip CEO Ronan Levy told Recode. “I want Field Trip to do that for psychedelics.”

    <img alt="The interior of a Field Trip clinic featuring floor cushions and a live moss wall." 

While the company had about $100 million on hand at the end of June, Field Trip is currently making less than $1 million on patient services, according to its most recent quarterly report. One of the biggest challenges for Field Trip is that most people don’t have several thousand dollars lying around to spend on ketamine therapy. But if the FDA were to approve a psychedelic drug for a mental health condition, insurance companies may start to cover more Field Trip treatments, bringing them a huge new customer base.

There are certain conditions, like a history of psychosis or a ketamine allergy, that rule out Field Trip’s offering for some patients. Levy says the safety of ketamine has been well established and that Field Trip hasn’t had any medical issues. But others believe there is a litany of open questions.

Jeffrey Lieberman, a Columbia psychiatry professor, says the enthusiasm about psychedelics is outpacing the science, and he worries that mishaps could lead to backlash and a return to restrictions. If MDMA is approved for PTSD, for example, companies could end up prescribing the drug for other conditions that it hasn’t been approved for. That practice, which is sometimes called off-label prescribing, is already in place for ketamine. Lieberman added that we don’t fully understand the long- term safety of ketamine. There is also evidence ketamine clinics throughout the US are overhyping the drug’s abilities and not properly screening patients, acccording to a 2018 investigation by STAT.

There are other objections. A significant number of people oppose even the monitored use of psychedelics, including the 44 percent of Oregon residents who voted against the state’s recent measure to legalize a supervised psilocybin therapy model much like Field Trip’s. There are also psychedelic advocates who believe that allowing companies like Field Trip to do business will end up medicalizing and driving up the cost of psychedelics, which they think should be freely available.

The companies and people hoping to make psychedelic-based mental health care mainstream say this trend is about far more than just the drugs themselves.

“Taking a gram of mushrooms recreationally with your friends sitting around and giggling at YouTube music videos … it’s harmless,” Sanjay Singhal, a tech entrepreneur who directs the Nikean Foundation, a nonprofit that funds psychedelics research, told Recode. “But it’s completely different from taking five grams, knocking you out in the presence of a therapist for five hours while your brain processes whatever trauma, anxiety, emotional issues you might have.”

We’re bound to hear more about psychedelic therapy in the months to come. But even if psychedelics’ legal status remains the same, it’s clear to some patients that there’s a place for psychedelic therapy — even if it’s just the existing ketamine treatments — in our health care system. To Chewning, the veteran, these startups are addressing the demand for better mental health care and providing a new option for people who haven’t had success with traditional medications and therapy.

“I just look at what they’ve done for me personally, I look at what they have done for people I know,” he said. “We’re being put on a path toward a higher quality of life in the near future.”

• Why Merck’s Covid-19 pill molnupiravir could be so important -

  

The pharma giant said its new antiviral drug cut hospitalizations in half for at-risk Covid-19 patients.

The Food and Drug Administration may soon authorize the first pill to treat Covid-19 after the pharmaceutical giant Merck reported strong results from its antiviral drug molnupiravir earlier this month. On Monday, Merck filed for an emergency use authorization from the FDA, which would allow doctors to begin prescribing the drug. Based on the approval timeline for past Covid-19 drugs, the FDA could make a decision within days or weeks.

Clinical trials showed that the drug reduced the risk of hospitalization and death in at-risk patients by 50 percent, according to the company’s interim analysis.

“The extraordinary impact of this pandemic demands that we move with unprecedented urgency, and that is what our teams have done by submitting this application for molnupiravir to the FDA within 10 days of receiving the data,” said Robert M. Davis, CEO and president of Merck, in a statement.

A new and effective Covid-19 treatment — if approved by health regulators — could be a versatile tool for doctors to treat Covid-19 patients and could ultimately save lives. While there are a number of treatments for Covid-19 on the market, many of them are expensive, difficult to administer, not widely available, or only marginally effective. Meanwhile, treatments that have little evidence behind them, like the antiparasitic drug ivermectin and the anti- malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, have gained traction in some circles.

Molnupiravir, originally developed to treat influenza, could solve many of these challenges. It’s administered as a twice-a-day pill for five days, compared to other Covid-19 treatments that require expensive intravenous transfusions, such as monoclonal antibodies and convalescent plasma. The antiviral drug remdesivir, currently the only drug with full Food and Drug Administration approval to treat Covid-19, also has to be delivered into the bloodstream.

A drug like molnupiravir (the name is a reference to Thor’s hammer, Mjölnir) could also help compensate for persistent gaps in Covid-19 vaccination coverage, both in the United States and abroad.

However, the results were announced in a company press release, which carries less scientific weight than a peer-reviewed paper or even a pre-print article that lays out the data for outside scientists to examine. Merck’s findings did come from a randomized phase 3 clinical trial of 775 adult Covid-19 patients. The participants had mild to moderate disease and were deemed to be at-risk but not hospitalized when the trial began in early August.

By day 29 of the trial, 7.3 percent of patients who received molnupiravir had died or were hospitalized, compared to 14.1 percent of patients who were in the placebo group (meaning they did not receive the drug). Merck says molnupiravir was also effective against coronavirus variants, including gamma, delta, and mu. The trial was halted, with the approval of regulators, once these results showed the drug’s effectiveness.

“With these compelling results, we are optimistic that molnupiravir can become an important medicine as part of the global effort to fight the pandemic and will add to Merck’s unique legacy of bringing forward breakthroughs in infectious diseases when they are needed most,” said Davis.

The federal government is already planning for its potential approval: It has committed to buying 1.7 million courses of molnupiravir treatments for $1.2 billion (about $700 per course), and production of the drug has already begun. Ridgeback Biotherapeutics and Merck expect to make 10 million courses of the drug by the end of the year.

It could still be weeks or months before most people will have access to the little brown pill. And even when it is available, there may still be holdouts resistant to getting treated for the disease.

How Merck’s new antiviral drug molnupiravir works

Viruses are tricky beasts to corner. They are passive parasites and can’t reproduce without hijacking the machinery of a host cell. That makes it really difficult to come up with a drug that can interfere with a virus’s life cycle without also causing collateral damage to healthy human cells. And because viruses mutate so quickly, an effective treatment can become less so over time.

Compare that to bacteria, which contain all the biological hardware they need to make copies of themselves. Their machinery is different enough from human cells that the class of drugs known as antibiotics can kill off many bacteria with minimal damage to humans.

Molnupiravir works a lot like the antiviral drug remdesivir (-vir is a suffix commonly used for antiviral drugs). The SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19, makes copies of itself by encoding instructions on RNA, which is made up of “base” molecules identified by the letters A, C, U, and G. While remdesivir imitates A (adenosine), molnupiravir can mimic U (uracil) or C (cytosine).

When the virus incorporates remdesivir into its RNA, the drug causes its reproductive cycle to stall. Molnupiravir works a little differently, causing genetic mutations that hamper the virus.

Crucially, these drugs can fool the virus, but they don’t fool human cells, so they have a targeted effect and for the most part leave the human cells alone.

Merck didn’t note any specific side effects from molnupiravir in its press release and said the rate of complications was similar between the placebo group and the treatment group in the clinical trial. Unspecified side effects occurred in 35 percent of molnupiravir recipients but occurred in 40 percent of the placebo group.

Molnupiravir faced some of controversy in earlier stages of development. Several researchers previously raised concerns that molnupiravir’s mechanism could lead to some unanticipated problems. Rick Bright, the former head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, alleged in a whistleblower complaint last year that his agency was pressured into funding the manufacture of the drug (then known as EIDD-2801) before they received adequate safety data. The FDA tends to pay close attention to safety concerns as it evaluates drugs for emergency use.

Molnupiravir fills in a crucial gap in the response to Covid-19

While the US has multiple highly effective vaccines that help our immune systems fight Covid-19, the vaccination rate has slowed and many holdouts remain. At the same time, many other countries still don’t have access to enough vaccines. The unvaccinated continue to make up the majority of hospitalizations and deaths, with fatalities currently around 2,000 per day in the US alone.

Treatments for Covid-19, therefore, remain a vital component of the response to the pandemic. But developing new drugs to treat an illness is expensive and time-consuming, which is why researchers have been eager to find off-the-shelf therapies that have already been deemed safe to use against other ailments. Some have proven fruitful, like the corticosteroid dexamethasone. Scientists have also seen promise in the antidepressant drug fluvoxamine as a therapy.

New drugs like molnupiravir require more testing and review, but they offer the possibility of a stronger, more targeted approach. A drug like molnupiravir could be especially useful because it is administered in the early stages of the disease. Since it’s just a pill, it may spare the patient a trip to a clinic for a transfusion for treatments like monoclonal antibodies. That reduces the chances of an infected patient transmitting the virus to medical staff, and it averts potential complications associated with transfusions.

And while $700 for a course of molnupiravir isn’t exactly cheap, a transfusion setup alone can cost $1,000, and that’s on top of the cost of the drugs delivered intravenously. A course of monoclonal antibodies can cost $2,100, while remdesivir can cost $3,100.

Pills are also much easier to store and transport than transfused drugs, so they can reach more remote areas with fewer resources.

That’s why some of the biggest effects of molnupiravir could occur in other countries, particularly in places where Covid-19 vaccines have yet to gain much of a foothold. Merck said it is setting up tiered pricing for molnupiravir, meaning that it could cost less in other countries, and is licensing its production to five generic drug manufacturers in India to build up its supplies.

Treatments do help people get better — but it’s important to remember that vaccination remains the most effective tactic for controlling the pandemic. Vaccination can prevent sickness in the first place, and even the most expensive vaccines are dirt cheap compared to most therapies for the disease. The initial two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and the Moderna vaccine cost about $50.

Other measures beyond drugs remain critical too. Wearing masks, social distancing, and testing for Covid-19 are still effective, and the arrival of an effective drug won’t be a reason to let our guard down. The existing pillars of pandemic response will remain crucial to keeping this deadly disease in check.

From The Hindu: Sports

• Ladida, Aira and Petronia please - Ladida, Aira and Petronia pleased when the horses were exercised here on Wednesday (Oct. 13) morning.Sand track: 600m: Fassbinder (Zervan) 41. Easy.

• Shardul Thakur replaces Axar Patel in India’s main squad for T20 World Cup - With pace all-rounder Hardik Pandya, who plays for Mumbai Indians, not bowling during the IPL because of fitness issues, the selectors wanted a cover for him.

• BCCI extends deadline for purchasing tender document for new IPL teams - It has now been extended till October 20

• Fan-inspired Indian team jersey for T20 World Cup unveiled - The new shirt, called the ‘Billion Cheers Jersey’, carries their chants and cheers from iconic past matches, transformed into unique soundwave patterns

• Sprinter Hima Das tests positive for COVID-19 - “I look forward to utilising this time to recover and come back stronger than before,” she said in a tweet.

From The Hindu: National News

• Jairam Ramesh, Owaisi attack Rajnath Singh for his ‘Gandhi-Savarkar comment’ - Opposition leaders allege the Defence Minister of “trying to rewrite history”

• Kerala High Court orders Kochi City Commissioner to investigate allegations of ransom against police - A suo motu case was initiated on basis of newspaper report and Justice Devan Ramachandran has directed the Commissioner to inquire into all aspects mentioned in the media report and file a report in a sealed cover before the court

• People friendly administration in J-K, prime objective of central govt: Union minister Balyan - Immediately after his arrival in Samba, Balyan visited Zero Line village Barota of Ramgarh and far-flung hilly village Goran of Sumb block and assured the people that mobile animal clinics would be opened in each block to felicitate issues through on-call services.

• Kashmir will remain part of India even if I am killed: Farooq Abdullah - Speaking at a condolence meeting for Supinder Kaur at a gurdwara in Srinagar, Farooq Abdullah said the people of Kashmir have to be courageous and fight the killers together.

• ‘PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan to enhance competitiveness, promote manufacturing’ - Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday launched a ₹100-lakh-crore PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan for multi-modal connectivity in the country.

From BBC: Europe

• Brexit: EU to offer fewer Northern Ireland border checks on British goods - The UK says current rules impose too many barriers to the sale of chilled meats and other products.

• Huge blackmail and corruption trial opens in Spain - In the dock is a notorious ex-police chief who is at the centre of a web of scandal and intrigue.

• Energy prices: EU unveils plan to ease Europe’s gas crisis - The approval of tax cuts and a plan to buy fuel collectively were put forward as energy prices soar.

• Dutch crown princess could marry woman and be queen - Rutte - A hypothetical same-sex marriage for Princess Amalia would not be a legal problem, says Mark Rutte.

• Shoppers told to plan ahead for Christmas amid port delays - The UK’s biggest commercial port Felixstowe says it currently has 50,000 containers waiting to be collected.

From Ars Technica

• Free next-gen Quake upgrade brings 4K gibs at 120 fps to PS5 and Xbox - PS5 and Xbox Series X/S get 120 fps support; DualSense support a bonus for PS players. - link

• Battlefield 2042 beta impressions: Strong ideas buried in a buggy mess - With just over a month until launch, DICE’s latest shooter still needs a lot of work. - link

• China’s solar power has reached price parity with coal - Adding storage could allow solar to produce nearly half of China’s electricity. - link

• Drop’s new mechanical keyboards go up to $500 - Drop drops new ready-to-buy keyboards at steep prices. - link

• The 2022 BMW i4 is the electric BMW sedan you’ve been waiting for - The 536-hp electric sedan is more powerful than an M3. - link

From Jokes Subreddit

• Sex is like golf, -

  Playing every hole is the goal.

  submitted by /u/pightlysitiful
  [link] [comments]

• The old king was suspicious of the young queen cheating on him. -

  So, with the help of a witch, he placed an invisible blade in the Queen’s Hoo-Haw.

  3 days later, the King summoned all the men he suspected and ordered them to take of their pants.

  To the King’s surprise, he found that all their penises had cuts in them from the blade, except for the minister’s penis.

  The king immediately ordered the execution of the men .

  He then turned to the minister and said

  “Of all the men close to me, you are the only one loyal”.

  " You are not just my minister, but my closest friend as well".

  The minister was elated and replied with tears in his eyes.

  “Slankyou my lord”.

  submitted by /u/rhshi14
  [link] [comments]

• After 20 years of marriage, a couple was lying in bed one evening…. -

  when the wife felt her husband begin to touch her in ways he hadn’t in quite some time. It almost tickled as his fingers started at her neck, and then began moving down past the small of her back. He then slid his hand across her shoulders and neck, slowly worked it down one side, then the other, stopping just over her lower stomach. He then proceeded to place his hand on her left inner arm, caressed downward again, working down her side, passed gently over and then in between her buttock and down her leg to her calf. Then, he proceeded up her inner thigh, stopping just at the uppermost portion of her leg. He continued in the same manner on her right side, then suddenly stopped, rolled over and became silent.

  As she had become quite aroused by this caressing, she asked in a loving voice, “That was wonderful. Why did you stop?”

  “I found the remote,” he said.

  submitted by /u/crazyfortaco
  [link] [comments]

• As a boy, I was made to believe that earwigs lived in ears -

  Henceforth, I was terrified of cockroaches

  submitted by /u/Saber101
  [link] [comments]

• Joke: Creation -

  Seems God was just about done creating the universe, but He had two extra things left in his bag of creations, so He decided to split them between Adam and Eve. He told the couple that one of the things He had to give away was the ability to stand up while urinating.

  “It’s a very handy thing,” God told the couple, “I was wondering if either one of you wanted the ability.”

  Adam jumped up and blurted, “Oh, give that to me! I’d love to oh please, oh please, oh please, let me have that ability. It’d be so great! When I’m working in the garden or naming the animals. I could just stand there and let it fly. It’d be so cool, I could write my name in the sand. Oh please God, let it be me who You give that gift to, let me stand and pee, oh please…”

  On and on he went like an excited little boy who had to pee. Eve just smiled and told God that if Adam really wanted that so badly, that he should have it. It seemed to be the sort of thing that would make him happy and she really wouldn’t mind if Adam were the one given this ability. And so Adam was given the ability to control the direction of his misdirection while in a vertical position. And so, he was happy and did celebrate by wetting down the bark on the tree nearest him, laughing with delight all the while. And it was good.

  “Fine,” God said, looking back into His bag of leftover gifts, “What’s left here? Oh yes, Multiple orgasms…”

  submitted by /u/reddit_4_info
  [link] [comments]