The great pandemic: A quick update
- First, the numbers: India added 46,315 new cases and 947 deaths (of which 262 are previously unreported deaths from Maharashtra).
- New research has uncovered “concerning” clusters of infections among already infected hospital workers exposed to the Delta variant in Delhi hospitals. The Telegraph has that story.
- The WHO warned even fully vaccinated folks to continue to wear masks and maintain social distancing. The reason: they may still help spread the highly contagious Delta variant (explained here).
- In a bizarre move, European authorities will not issue the ‘green pass’—created to make it easier to travel within the EU—to people who received the Covishield vaccine. But those who got identical AstraZeneca vaccines under a different name—i.e. Vaxzevria—in Europe or the UK are just fine.
- Singapore is taking a dramatically different approach to the pandemic—that is aimed at teaching its citizens how to “live with Covid”: “There will be no goals of zero transmission. Quarantine will be dumped for travellers and close contact of cases will not have to isolate. It also plans to no longer announce daily case numbers.”
- A new vaccine manufactured by Zydus Cadila will soon be available for kids between the ages of 12 and 18.
- A related good read: The Atlantic takes a closer look at the Novovax vaccine—which is highly promising, but has received very little attention. Reminder: Serum Institute will be manufacturing it for the Indian market under the name Covovax.
- Also a must read: Mint’s take on the new threat of fake vaccines and BBC News on the massive migrant crisis triggered by Dhaka’s impending full lockdown.
Britain’s big sex scandal
Brit politicians have a well-established reputation for getting into trouble for extramarital shenanigans. And Health Secretary Matt Hancock is the latest to get into trouble for an affair with his adviser, Gina Coladangelo—who is also a pal from his uni days. First, when there were only tabloid pics, he tried to brazen it out with the support of PM Boris Johnson (hardly a stranger to a turbulent personal life). But then this video clip released by Sun started making the rounds:
Hancock has since quit both his job and—reportedly—his marriage. Apparently, the political deal-breaker wasn’t the breaking of marital vows but of social distancing rules. The clip was recorded in May when cross-household contact was still banned. Watch him resign below:
Mean memes are here. And if you need reminding of Hancock’s not-very-bright rep, here’s a clip of him wishing everyone on Eid:
Three sports things
One: Deepika Kumari struck gold at the Archery World Cup in Paris—where she won three top medals. And she may be named as #1 in the world in soon-to-be-released rankings. All fingers crossed for the Olympics competition ahead. NDTV has the story. See the winning moment below:
Two: Speaking of the Olympics, Srihari Nataraj and Sajan Prakash—have automatically qualified for the games. This is the first-ever achievement for Indian swimmers. ESPN has more.
Three: It just wasn’t Ronaldo’s day. Belgium beat Portugal 1-0 to enter the quarter finals of Euro 2020 thanks to Thorgan Hazard. The Czech scored over Netherlands in a wild match that included a red card against Matthijs de Ligt. The greatly beloved Danes also stayed the course—keeping the fairytale alive—while Italy beat Austria 2-1. Coming up next: a cracker of a match in England vs Germany. CNN has more on that historic rivalry.
India is a Tier 3 cyber power
A new report put out by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) rates the cyber power of 15 countries. The only country in Tier 1: The United States. The second tier includes most other Western countries, including Australia, the UK, France, Canada—and of course, China. We are at the bottom alongside Japan, Iran, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and North Korea. Indian Express has more on the criteria used for these ratings—and why India falls short.
Google tries to do good
Under pressure over its search algorithm—which often throws up misinformation—Google has announced a new fix: A notification that lets users know when its results are unreliable—usually for new trending topics. The warning will read: “it looks like these results are changing quickly...if this topic is new, it can sometimes take time for results to be added by reliable sources.”
But, but, but: It will do little to address problems faced by the likes of Hristo Georgiev—a Swiss engineer who googled himself only to find his photo attached to the description of a Bulgarian serial killer who happens to have the same name! As Futurism notes:
“It’s not the first time Google’s search info box, or ‘knowledge panel,’ has spat out misleading information—in fact, it’s a well-documented phenomenon. For instance, Canadian actor Paul Campbell was listed as having died in 2015, despite being very much alive. UK-based consultant Martin John Bryant I also was linked to a mass murderer back in 2019.”
Wanna dump Google? You can check out Brave Search launched by cryptocurrency-powered Brave browser. It will independently index the web—instead of pulling results from other search engines as others do—and “doesn’t track users, their searches, or their clicks." Check it out here. (Forbes)
In other big tech news: A key ruling in the Texas Supreme Court could have a huge impact on social media. Three victims of sex trafficking sued Facebook for allegedly failing to stop child predators from using its messaging services to recruit them. Facebook moved to block the lawsuit, arguing that it is not liable for content shared on its platform. However, there is an exception: This protection doesn’t apply to civil and criminal charges of sex trafficking or to conduct that “promotes or facilitates prostitution.” So the court ruled in favour of the plaintiffs and greenlit their suit. A legal expert says:
“If Facebook is more vulnerable to being sued, it will make its products safer to avoid lawsuits… just as carmakers and baby crib makers have done: ‘Because there’s major financial consequences’ for losing.”
South Africa’s ‘Draupadi’ law
The government is planning to legalise polyandry—and the right of a woman to have multiple husbands. The reason: polygamy for men is already recognised under South African law, and the move is designed to promote gender equity. Of course, leading male commentators—who have multiple wives—are outraged:
"This will destroy African culture. What about the children of those people? How will they know their identity?...The woman cannot now take the role of the man. It's unheard of. Will the woman now pay lobola [bride price] for the man. Will the man be expected to take her surname?"
BBC News has more on this bold policy.
Two fun things
The ‘Super Strawberry Moon’: The final supermoon of 2021 showed its pretty face over Thursday/Friday. And many photos were taken and widely shared. BBC News and LA Times have a lovely collection. Our fave is the one taken in Ankara below:
Penguin boots: 30-year-old Enrique is slowing down, and has an arthritis problem—along with thick calluses on the soles of his feet. So his caretakers at the St Louis Zoo got him a pair of custom-made boots. See them below. (St Louis Post-Dispatch)
In our gratitude jar…
As our birthday month winds down, we still have many, many people to thank—not the least our founding members Rameet Arora, Aakash Rana, Kaleroy Zervos, Koreel Lahiri, Shivani Rege, Smarinita Shetty, Arpit Arora, Shilpa Raghunathan, Yogesh Lohani and Siddharth Mishra.
A very big shout out: to our newest founding member Nikita Taniparti who astonished us with her generosity, supporting us at the Rs 100,000 level. We’re a little speechless!
