India vaccines put on hold
Developers of three vaccines—AstraZeneca, Bharat Biotech, and Pfizer—have applied for emergency authorization. And the Drug Controller General of India held a meeting to review their trial data.
- Pfizer didn’t show up, asking for more time to bring in experts.
- Serum Institute—which is manufacturing the Oxford vaccine—was asked to come back with: safety data on its phase two and three trials in India, UK and India data on its ability to trigger an immune response, and the conclusions of British authorities who reviewed the vaccine.
- Bharat Biotech only presented data from its Phase 1 and 2 trials—which isn’t enough for authorisation.
- The overall takeaway: “Were any of these [other] countries’ regulators to approve, we would consider favourably for approving it [the vaccine] in India. But now, we have neither this nor convincing India-specific data.”
In other pandemic-related news:
- The Oxford vaccine may be 70% effective in protecting a person against infection. But it does a poor job of preventing a vaccinated person from spreading the virus. And that’s a real obstacle in reaching ‘herd immunity’ via vaccination.
- Chinese Sinopharm vaccine was tested in human trials in the UAE—which now announced that it is 85% effective. But also this: “Chinese government officials and Sinopharm, the state-owned maker of the vaccine, were silent on Wednesday about the Emirati announcement. Scientists noted that the announcement was lacking in data and other critical details.”
- 90% of people living in 70 low-income countries will not receive the vaccine in 2021. The reason: The rich countries—which represent 14% of the world’s population—have prebooked 53% of available doses. Point to note: five of these countries—Kenya, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan and Ukraine—account for nearly 1.5 million cases. Guardian has more.
- Asian countries may move to banning entry of passengers who are not vaccinated—or so predict airline experts.
- ‘Cruises to nowhere’—where you sail for days without going ashore—were supposed to be a Covid-safe approach to travel. Now, one of them in Singapore has returned to port after a passenger tested positive—leaving nearly 1,700 guests stuck in their cabins for more than 16 hours.
- Bad news for vodka-loving Russians: Anyone who receives the Sputnik vaccine has to give up booze for two weeks before getting the first jab, and then for another 42 days.
Related good news: The team that brought us the Oxford vaccine is working on a jab for malaria. Early trials look good, and it will be tested on 4,800 children in Africa next year. Why this is a big deal: More than 400,000 people a year die of the disease. It is the largest killer of children, and one child dies of malaria every 30 seconds. Also: Ten times as many people in Africa will die of malaria this year compared to Covid. (Sky News)
US government sues Facebook
Months after filing a lawsuit against Google, the government has turned its sights on Facebook. The US Federal Trade Commission and attorneys general from more than 40 states have filed an antitrust lawsuit against Facebook:
"The attorneys general allege that the deals for Instagram and WhatsApp broke competition law. They are asking a federal court to intervene by possibly forcing a sale or spinoff of those apps. Their lawsuit also asks the court to crack down on Facebook's ability to continue its allegedly anti-competitive behavior, and to immediately prevent the company from making any acquisitions worth more than $10 million while the case proceeds."
They are describing this as a ‘buy or bury’ strategy. NPR has more.
Also making the wrong kind of news: An internal document accessed by the Washington Post shows that Chinese giant Huawei has developed facial recognition tools that will help the government detect Uighurs. Basically, surveillance cameras will be able to send ‘Uighur alarms’:
“The test report also said the system was able to take real-time snapshots of pedestrians, analyze video files and replay the 10 seconds of footage before and after any Uighur face is detected.”
Why this matters: The Chinese government has been rounding up millions of Uighur Muslims and putting them in detention camps. Washington Post has a detailed story.
Three points of data
One: Indians are spending far less time on video-sharing apps thanks to the disappearance of TikTok. Since June, the time spent has nosedived from 165 billion minutes per month to 80 billion minutes in October. What this means: India-made apps have not been able to fill the hole left by TikTok. Quartz has more numbers.
Two: For the first time ever, the sheer weight of man-made materials is heavier than all natural life on the planet. One reason is that we have been constructing roads, buildings etc at an escalating pace. A related reason: We have been destroying trees, plants, animals to do so. Straits Times has more on the new study.
Three: A new survey of marginalised Indians shows that they are far poorer and hungrier due to the pandemic:
- 62% said their income had fallen compared to the pre-lockdown period, while 25% said it had fallen by 50%.
- 53% have reduced their consumption of rice or wheat, 64% have reduced their consumption of dal, 73% have reduced the amount of green vegetables.
- One in seven have had to skip meals often or sometimes.
Pornhub has a child sex abuse problem
A few days ago, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristoff took aim at the world’s biggest amateur porn platform:
“Its site is infested with rape videos. It monetizes child rapes, revenge pornography, spy cam videos of women showering, racist and misogynist content, and footage of women being asphyxiated in plastic bags. A search for ‘girls under18’ (no space) or ‘14yo’ leads in each case to more than 100,000 videos.”
Among the examples: Cali who was trafficked since the age of nine—and whose videos still appear on the platform. After years of ignoring complaints from activists and survivors, the platform is scrambling to fix its PR problem. The solution: stopping unverified users from uploading videos. So only individuals who submit a government ID or a content partner vetted by Pornhub will be allowed to share videos. Gizmodo has more.
How do you pronounce that?
The US Captioning Company—which captions and subtitles real-time events on TV and in courtrooms—has released its 2020 list of the most mispronounced words. People whose names are most commonly mangled: Anthony Fauci, Leonardo da Vinci and, of course, Kamala Harris. Oddly, people also have a hard time with Yosemite and Nevada. (Associated Press)
Also struggling to get it right: UK PM Boris Johnson. Asked to comment on the farmer protests, he said this:
Elephants bring glad tidings
The Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is a very dangerous place. The perils include not just run-of-the-mill poachers but also rebel militia groups—who killed four civilians and 13 staff members in April. And over the years, they have systematically slaughtered elephants for ivory. By early 2020, there were only about 120 in the sanctuary. Then the park swung into urgent action—hiring armed guards, erecting walls and partnering with local communities.
The result: a massive herd of 580 elephants wandered in from neighbouring Uganda. And their presence has restored the ecological balance almost overnight:
“Creatures including buffalo, Ugandan kob, warthogs, and topi—none of which had been seen in the previous two decades in the park—have made a comeback. Park officials even recently spotted two lions, which also haven’t been seen in decades.”
Moral of this story: conservation works! Also: if you haven’t watched it yet, the documentary on the park ‘Virunga’ is fantastic and available on Netflix.
Two (not) sex objects
One: Apple’s new AirPods Max look more like a normal set of headphones—and seem happily far less likely to fall off and disappear into unreachable parts of furniture. But what is really catching everyone’s attention: The storage case which “resembles a handbag that looks like titties crammed into a dress. Possibly one made of crinoline.” Or just a very uncomfortable bra?
Two: A phallic object has returned (Will this ever end?). Long before there were appearing/ disappearing monoliths, a giant phallic wooden object was deposited on a German hillside. It recently disappeared (of course, it did!). Now, it has mysteriously reappeared… well, a reboot version has reappeared. This one is far larger but appears to need a little extra support to stay upright. The Viagra edition, then. New York Times has the story. Photo below.
