The great pandemic: A quick update
- India added 133,953 new cases and 2,897 deaths on Wednesday.
- 2,382 personnel of Uttarakhand's police force tested positive in the second wave. More importantly: 93% had taken both doses of the vaccine. Five died—of which two had been vaccinated but had underlying health conditions. Indian Express has more details.
- Also this: five Air India pilots died due to Covid in May. The reason: the drive to vaccinate crew has been slowed by shortages. Point to note: All of them had flown Vande Bharat repatriation flights.
- Another unhappy data point: 9,346 Indian children have “either lost both parents, one parent or were abandoned.” Of them, 5,226 or 56% were aged just 4-13.
- The Supreme Court is not impressed with the government’s vaccination strategy, and is calling it “prima facie arbitrary and irrational.”
- The government appears to have granted all demands made by Moderna and Pfizer—and offered them legal protection against any lawsuits triggered by the use of their vaccines. Also waived: other requirements for foreign vaccines, including clinical trials and batch-by-batch testing.
- The Times of India reports on the ETA of Pfizer in India (likely July/August). Mint reports on the earlier arrival of Sputnik V—which will be available in all Apollo hospitals starting mid-June.
- The US health authorities will study whether mixing vaccines can boost immunity by testing booster shots on already vaccinated participants.
- A new study confirms that previous exposure to coronaviruses that cause the common cold offers greater immunity against Covid.
- Bloomberg News (via NDTV) reports on a new post-lockdown workplace trend: people are choosing to quit rather than give up working from home.
- Another post-lockdown trend: increased number of drunk and unruly passengers on US airlines.
In related news: An AI technology startup asked two questions of Indians in six big Hindi belt states about Covid deaths. One, have you lost anyone close to you; and two, whom do you blame. The results: 17% of those surveyed had lost someone they knew well to Covid, and 42% of them blamed the government. OTOH, 39% believed it was in their destiny. (The Print)
Nestlé is bad for you
The world’s largest food company—which owns everything from Maggi to Kit Kat to Nescafé—has admitted that more than 60% of its products do not meet the “recognised definition of health.” Also this: “some of our categories and products will never be ‘healthy’ no matter how much we renovate.” This isn’t exactly news to anyone who’s eaten a bowl of instant noodles but it is a problem because of stuff like this:
“Separately, Nestlé’s strawberry-flavoured Nesquik, which is sold in the US, contains 14g of sugar in a 14g serving alongside small amounts of colouring and flavouring, though it is designed to be mixed with milk. It is described as ‘perfect at breakfast to get kids ready for the day’.”
The exclusive Financial Times story is paywalled, but you can read a curation in Down To Earth.
Tennis authorities vs Naomi Osaka
After initially taking a tough line on the tennis ace’s decision to stop doing press conferences, the leaders of the four Grand Slams have now pledged to address her concerns:
“Mental health is a very challenging issue, which deserves our utmost attention. It is both complex and personal, as what affects one individual does not necessarily affect another. We commend Naomi for sharing in her own words the pressures and anxieties she is feeling and we empathize with the unique pressures tennis players may face.”
Three discoveries of note
One: A new study found that if you sleep just one hour earlier, you can cut your risk of depression by 23%. Fox News (don’t hate us) has the details.
Two: The Emden Deep is an oceanic trench that goes down 10,540 metres below sea level off the coast of the Philippines. Two researchers decided to become the first to plumb its depths. And sadly, this is what they found:
"There was one funny scene when we were exploring the area. There was one white material floating around… I was saying, 'Victor, that's a jellyfish.' We went there and approached, and it was just plastic. The only unusual thing there was the garbage. There was a lot of garbage in the trench. There were a lot of plastics, a pair of pants, a shirt, a teddy bear, packaging and a lot of plastic bags. Even me, I did not expect that, and I do research on plastics."
Three: Brains and testicles are alarmingly similar. Scientists compared proteins across 33 tissue types—including the heart, intestine, cervix, ovaries and placenta—and found that testes and brains share 13,442 proteins in common. One reason why:
“[T]he brain and testes are both greedy for energy to fuel highly demanding processes like thinking and the production of several million little sperms per day. So both organs have specialized cells to support the hard-working neurons in the brain and germ cells in the testes—to keep them well fed and physically comfortable.”
A wtf US story about death penalty
We didn’t know how else to headline this insane bit of news that Arizona plans to kill inmates on death row—using the exact same method used to kill Jews during the Holocaust! Here’s The Guardian’s description of the big plan:
“Documents obtained by the Guardian reveal that Arizona’s department of corrections has spent more than $2,000 in procuring the ingredients to make cyanide gas. The department bought a solid brick of potassium cyanide in December for $1,530. It also purchased sodium hydroxide pellets and sulfuric acid which are intended to be used to generate the deadly gas. The gas chamber itself, built 1949 and disused for 22 years, has been dusted off and, according to the department, ‘refurbished’.”
A wtf story about a killer drone
A new UN report suggests that a killer drone called STM Kargu-2 was used during the raging civil war in Libya—by government forces to hunt down rebels. The incident marks the first wartime debut of military-grade autonomous drones—which “can fly themselves to a specific location, pick their own targets and kill without the assistance of a remote human operator.” According to the report:
"The lethal autonomous weapons systems were programmed to attack targets without requiring data connectivity between the operator and the munition: in effect, a true 'fire, forget and find' capability."
Now, we don’t know yet if these drones killed anyone in Libya—if so, experts say it would mark a “historic” event. (NPR)
Mexico is mad at Zara et al
The government has accused the world’s biggest fashion brands—Zara, Anthropologie and Patowl—of cultural appropriation of its indigenous culture:
“In a series of letters written to the brands, Mexico's Ministry of Culture asked for a ‘public explanation.’ It also called for ‘benefits’ to be ‘given back to the creative communities’ that it believes invented the embroidery techniques and design motifs… They pinpoint several items of clothing from the three brands alongside corresponding examples of garments created by indigenous craftspeople from the Oaxaca region.”
CNN has the story. Here are some of the examples it offered:
Four things to look at
One: So the ‘sky pool’ in London is the world’s first free-standing floating pool—an 82 feet long “swimming-pool bridge” between two insanely expensive apartment buildings—that is suspended 100 feet above the ground. Apparently it has been mildly warm in recent days in London—leading to multiple news reports of rich folks frolicking in its environs. Please feel free to check them out. Or read The Guardian’s critical take on this uber-luxury perk for very rich people.
Two: A 17-year-old fought a bear to save her puppies. She just pushed the mama bear! Buzzfeed News and Washington Post have the story (yeah, this one went everywhere). And the video is below:
Three: Malala Yousafzai is on the cover of British Vogue—which she tweeted out, saying: “I know the power that a young girl carries in her heart when she has a vision and a mission—and I hope that every girl who sees this cover will know that she can change the world.” Read the cover story here.
Four: Princess Diana’s wedding dress is now on display at the Kensington Palace—as part of an exhibition that will include original sketches, fabric swatches and handwritten notes used by designers. What we want to know: when will it be okay to say this is kinda prissy and ugly?
In our gratitude jar...
During our birthday month, we are marking each day by thanking those who have done the most to help us survive and thrive. We want to say a big thank you to Sanjeev NC and Amith Prabhu—who have helped us greatly by sharing their referral links far and wide. And we also want to acknowledge a fresh list of our earliest founding members who funded our launch: Khyati Dodhia, Dineet Dadu, Vivita Relan, Riddhi Jain, Tanya Agrawal, Rav Singh, Shrinivas SG, Aashika Ravi, Mayuri Kunigiri and Pooja Pillai. We are truly grateful for your support!
