The great pandemic: A quick update
- Italy and France have done a U-turn on the Oxford vaccine—and plan to quickly resume their rollout plans.
- Belgium may start administering it to people over the age of 55, which marks a break as well.
- UK scientists have strongly defended the vaccine, as has Boris Johnson. And no, India has no plans to suspend its use. Experts say there is no evidence in the trial data that shows any of the vaccines causing blood clots.
- India has exported 58.4 million vaccines—twice the number administered at home.
- The final results for Novavax are in—and it is 96.4% effective. Just a single jab of the two-dose vaccine offers 83.4% protection. Point to note: Serum Institute plans to start phase 2 and 3 of its bridging studies in India—which indicates it will be one of the vaccines available to us. (We explained the Novavax vaccine here)
- Moderna, meanwhile, has started testing its vaccine on babies as young as six months.
- A new study soon to be published in Lancet suggests that maybe we need to stop torturing people with nasal or throat swabs to test them for Covid. The task can be just as easily achieved by swabbing areas rich in sebum such as the face, neck or back.
- Indian company Gland Pharma (who makes up these names?) is getting ready to manufacture 252 million doses of the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine.
- If you want to enter China, you will need to be inoculated by a ‘made in China’ vaccine. The new rule is a big problem for Indians since none of them are available in the country.
- Gujarat is imposing a night curfew on a number of major cities including Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara and Rajkot.
- India generates 146 tonnes of bio-medical waste per day due to Covid tests and treatment.
- A good related read: The Atlantic on ‘shot self consciousness’—or why people feel obliged to lie about getting the vaccine.
Beijing breaks up big tech
While the rest of the Western world is trying their hand at antitrust lawsuits, Beijing may just outright bully tech giant Alibaba to cut it down to size. The company has been ordered to shed a bunch of its media assets to ensure it does not exercise disproportionate influence. The big two everyone is looking at: the Chinese version of Twitter, Weibo and South China Morning Post. The second is especially significant given the stress on all Hong Kong media. (Wall Street Journal)
The Ambani case: latest update
Things just get weirder and weirder in this case (explained here). The National Investigation Agency’s report on the Mumbai top cop Sachin Vaze—who was recently arrested for his role in the gelatin stick-laden Scorpio parked next to Mukesh-bhai’s home—makes a series of bombshell allegations against him:
- He drove a white vehicle (likely the rumoured Innova) that escorted the SUV to the Ambani residence.
- CCTV footage identified Vaze—wearing a large kurta and covering his face—close to the SUV a few hours after it was parked outside the Ambani home.
- A black Mercedes owned by Vaze contained a fake number plate used for the Scorpio—plus clothes, Rs 5 lakh in cash, a currency counting machine and kerosene.
- There’s evidence Vaze met Mansukh Hiran—the murdered owner of the SUV—in South Mumbai, eight days before the incident. This is also the day that the car was reported stolen. Investigators think Hiran turned the car over to Vaze instead.
- Vaze may have parked the car at his home, which is why he apparently seized CCTV footage from his own residential building.
Four tech upgrades
Microsoft: has introduced an AI-driven noise cancellation tool to lure you away from Zoom and back to Skype. (Mashable)
Zoom Escaper: is a web widget that allows you to get out of Zoom meetings. You can now add an array of audio effects—including “barking dogs, construction noises, crying babies, or even subtler effects like choppy audio and unwanted echoes”—which offer excellent reason to end the meeting asap! (The Verge)
Clubhouse: has launched an accelerator program for content creators called “Clubhouse Creator First”—and is calling for applications for the first batch of twenty slots. (Mint)
Google Maps: has added a handy ‘road editing’ tool to add missing streets—and delete ones that exist only in its imagination. In other happy Google news: The company is halving the fees it collects from apps on its store from 30% to 15%—but only for the first $1 million in revenue.
Delhi tops most polluted list
Surprising no one, Delhi remains the most polluted capital city in the world. India is the third most polluted country in the world. The only other two countries doing worse than us: Bangladesh and Pakistan. But our numbers for concentration of particulate matter were better than 2019—thanks mostly to the lockdown. (The Hindu)
New Dead Sea scrolls!
Archaeologists have discovered dozens of new Dead Sea Scroll fragments—for the first time in 60 years! The roughly 80 pieces were found hidden in the ‘Cave of Horror’—named for the 40 human skeletons found there during excavations in the 1960s—and have been dated back to at least the 2nd century AD based on the writing style. (Associated Press)
Musk has been busy!
The Tesla CEO has got himself a new job title: ‘Technoking of Tesla’—which has been officially filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as opposed to just shared on a tweet. Also getting a naam karan: his CFO who is now called ‘Master of Coin’—because why pretend to be anything but an overgrown 13-year old. (Wall Street Journal)
In other Musk news: He also uploaded a music track about NFTs, and is now selling it as an NFT (which we explained in great length here). Because at this point, why not?
Three fun things
Dummy PIA planes: OK, paranoid spooks don’t be hating on us. But we think it’s hilarious that the border forces have now confiscated a second balloon shaped like a Pakistan International Airlines plane. And that’s the second time in one week!
An Ed Sheeran painting: The ginger-haired munchkin pop star sold a “colourful abstract artwork” called ‘Splash Planet’ for £51,000—to raise money for a cancer charity. Below is the artist at work:
Three: 58-year-old Paula Abdul still rocking in an ad for an arthritis pain gel. The kind of thing that makes you either feel inspired or old, or both:)
Dine With Data: All About Fashinza 👚👕
Editor’s Note: Here is DWD’s weekly installment of one cool, innovative or just plain quirky startup from around the world.
Company: Fashinza 👚👕
About: An end-to-end fashion supply marketplace, Fashinza supports brands by providing them with a full-stack apparel manufacturing setup.
The platform makes money by charging a commission from suppliers/manufacturers for providing them various services including technology, finance, and efficiency improvements.
In January, the company announced a $2.6M seed round led by Accel Partners and Elevation Capital. (YourStory)
Food For Thought: The founders want to help small-town women by creating employment opportunities for them. A significant percentage of artisans at Fashinza’s manufacturing partners are women. 🚺
DWD Take: Procuring fabrics, costing, sampling, production, quality check, and delivery—Fashion is a tough game. Fashinza wants to simplify each step of that. We can't wait to see how this goes!
About DWD: Dine With Data sends you a short summary on one new startup every day, delivered straight to your Whatsapp inbox!
