Oxford Vaccine Trial and the Indian Press

News about the promising results from the vaccine against Covid-19 developed by Oxford university created some buzz in the India media. The news was flashed from July 20 evening after the university itself broke it. 

The study was published by the medical journal Lancet. The vaccine - called ChAdOx1 nCoV-19

The BBC said the vaccine produced antibodies and T-cells that can fight Coronavirus in the 1077 patients tested. It also added that the vaccine is made from a genetically engineered Chimpanzee virus that can cause infection similar to Coronavirus and can trigger antibodies and T-cells to counter the virus.

The Times of India added an Indian perspective and reported that the "Serum Institute would seek regulatory approval for clinical trials of the vaccine in India. 

The Indian Express as usual had an explainer that compared and listed the vaccines that were under development worldwide. 

Overall the Indian press looked bullish about the preliminary results of the Oxford vaccine trial and hoped that in 6-8 months the vaccine may offer the much needed succor to many. 

Big Win for Privacy as European Court of Justice Invalidates EU-US Data Shield

The European Court of Justice's order yesterday striking down the EU-US Data Protection Shield in the Schrems II case is a big win for European privacy activists.

The court, according to Techcrunch, ruled that the US surveillance laws and data protection supposed to be provided in the EU-US Data Protection Shield"...interference with the fundamental rights of persons whose data are transferred to that third country”. The portal also states that because of this ruling "more companies (may) switch to regional data processing for European users".

Austrian privacy activist and lawyer, Max Schrems, had approached the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) to suspend Facebook’s use of standard contractual clauses SCCs. The data regulator took him to court and later Irish judges referred the case to Europe’s Court of Justice, which delivered this order.

CNN reported that around "5000 US companies rely on for transferring information across borders" and they will be now affected with the ECJ order.

BBC said that "Affected companies will now have to sign standard contractual clauses, as per EU laws.

As privacy activists celebrate the ECJ ruling, can India learn anything from this?

Twitter's Blue Tick Bitcoin Hack Raises Alarms

I searched Facebook posts also when I heard that the Twitter accounts of several blue-ticked celebrities and the rich were hacked.

BBC reported that the Twitter accounts of "Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates are among many prominent US figures targeted by hackers in an apparent Bitcoin scam". A message was also posted seeking Cryptocurrency donations to these accounts.

In an explainer, The Indian Express reported that "the Bitcoin wallet promoted in the tweets received over $100,000 via at least 300 transactions."

The Hacker News carried a speculation that "that hackers grabbed control of a Twitter employee's administrative access to take over a prominent account and tweet on their behalf".

If this the method used, then it is a very disturbing news. And it also raises questions about at whose all behest can an employee 'take over' another account. Can authorized company personnel do it on the company's behalf or can a state agency make such a request?

Google Faces Lawsuit Over Data Privacy

A day after Google announced its big five-year plan to invest Rs 75,000 crore in India, most of the newspapers splashed stories on the latest suit against the search giant.

Google faces lawsuit over tracking in apps even when users opted out, was the headline in Indian Express. Its story talked about the latest data privacy violation suit slapped by the law firm Boies Schiller Flexner, against data collection even after users had turned off “Web & App Activity” tracking and when in Incognito mode. Looks like the same Reuters copy was published in leading news sites such as News18, Livemint and Times of India also.

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Interestingly, a piece in The Print tried to lay out why the tech giants are turning to India. From self-reliance to helping the battered banking sector and the ready mobile payments ecosystem, this piece provided hints on where the proposed investments may end up or prove beneficial. Let us keep our fingers crossed.

But it does not ponder over whether "...Information collection, analysis and distribution is exactly what the U.S. internet companies do best" could pose data privacy problems for digitally illiterate users in a nation where a data privacy law has not yet been passed. 

Google Announces Rs 10 Billion Fund in India

Google's plan to invest $10 billion in India has created lots of buzz in the tech, government, and industry sectors.

The Times of India says that Google will work in areas as diverse as 'affordable access to information in local languages', 'building products', 'digitizing businesses', and applying 'tech and AI' areas like 'health, education and agriculture'.

Livemint says the proposed fund will be raised through a 'mix of equity investments, partnerships, operations, infrastructure and ecosystem investments'. The announced projects include tie-ups with CBSE, Prasar Bharti and a 1 million grant to Kaivalya Foundation.

The Indian Express added that the proposed investments will also be made through projects such as Internet Saathi and the AI-based flood forecasting system. A Techcrunch report details the education projects Google already have in India.

Overall, the reporting was bullish about the proposed investment by the tech giant in India. But, both the Times of India and The Hindu Business Line raised questions about data privacy and data collection by global tech giants such as Google, as India is yet to enact a strong data protection and data privacy law. Times of India also raised concerns about 'digital monopoly quoting Mohandas Pai.

It remains to be seen how the Indian state governments and the start-up ecosystem respond to Google's forays into sectors such as education and blended learning. Also of interest will be how the anti-trust laws against Google elsewhere will have an impact in India and how the legal system will respond to similar suits in India.

Also, the entry of big tech cos into controversial sectors like health, education and agriculture might face some opposition from social activists and farmer's unions.

Meanwhile, the press reports did not have much to say on Google's plans in the health and agriculture sectors.

Oh! It is Coronavirus, not Cronavirus

A missing vowel, O, creates a new virus in Times of India, Bengaluru, story titled Disinfection: Businessmen in Bengaluru make killing amid scare.

PM2.5 and Air Pollution in Bengaluru

A report in Bengaluru's Deccan Herald today says that "...Air pollution in Bengaluru dropped by an average 28% during the Covid-19 lockdown".The report cites a study on PM 2.5 levels that decreased during the lockdown as an indicator of air quality improvement.

It is not scientific to conclude that a decrease in one air quality indicator (AQI) results in overall air quality improvement or reduction in air pollution. This is because PM2.5 is just one AQI parameter used to measure the air quality level in India. Other pollutant levels need to be tracked to know whether their levels have decreased or not. This include Ozone, oxides of Nitrogen, Sulphur Dioxide, PM 10, and Ammonia. 

A report by the Centre for Science and Environment says that Ozone levels saw a spike in many cities that were supposedly clean during the lockdown. The same report states that Bengaluru had an average PM2.5 level of 45% during the lockdown and NOx level have increased by 38%. This further casts doubts on the data quoted by Deccan Herald. 

The Deccan Herald report also does not state the pre-lockdown level of PM2.5 in Bengaluru and the new reduced levels. 

Most importantly, there was a partial lockdown in Bengaluru from March 13, whereas the data is quoted from March 23 when a full lockdown was imposed in the city. That, I feel. can lead to erroneous data. 

3 Things to Think About the Environment Today

It’s is yet another World Environment Day and the world is in lockdown because of Covid-19. While all of us care about the environment, there are three issues that are worth pondering over today.

Governance: Some say that the main beneficiary of Covid-19 pandemic has been the environment. During the period of complete lockdown in India, the air quality was better and the noise levels were less. Social media users posted pictures of how they could see faraway mountains from their terraces, as the thick brown haze disappeared from the skies.

But still things are not that rosy. We are still unhappy that despite nearly 30 years after the famous Rio Summit, our rivers remain polluted, forests are being destroyed, wild animals are being killed, and life in cities and villages are becoming difficult. Why is this so?

What we are missing is strong and scientific Environmental Governance. Just like the anti-corruption charade, environmental protection has now become annual one-day affair. Our legacy governance systems remain the same and awareness has not transitioned to action. This is not to say that there have been no improvements so far, but the record has been patchy and non-uniform.

Lack of transparency and accountability still leads to knee-jerk reactions and damage control operations at times of crisis. Decisions based on scientific logic and expert advice seem to be lacking even now.

A kite perched on top of a tree in Bengaluru

Dichotomy: A small and influential section of our population still consider environment and development as opposites. This has resulted in environmental rules and regulations and the spirit of environmental protection as yet another hurdle in project clearance. The bureaucracy and pollution control boards don’t have the time to enforce environmental protection rules, but as mere departments to approve or reject project proposals. 

Development and environment are not polar opposites. Both are inextricably linked to each other and it’s time that alternative developmental paradigms are considered and implemented.
Time for Nature: I don’t think that we can go back to a pre-history life wandering in the forests. But we must understand that it is Nature that has provided human beings with the optimum conditions to thrive and flourish.

We still seem to not comprehend our deeper connections and continuity with the self-organizing natural system. It’s time that we embed Nature at the centre of our mind, and remove our egos. It’s time for us to understand and act responsibly, and desist from thinking that we have an unquestionable right to plunder and devastate the environment.

Online Classes, Tragedy, Misogyny

Kerala's schools reopened with much glee as the classes were to be conducted online.

On June 2, the newspapers reported this: A class 10 student of Irumbiliyam GHSS, Devika took her life by setting herself ablaze, according to her parents, said a Mathrubhumi report.

The student's death created a huge furore.

Kerala police registered a case on offensive remarks in social media platforms against the teachers who led online classes.

This is another instance of the deep-rooted misogyny in Kerala society.

Bengaluru Sonic Boom, Data Sharing, App Development

It did rattle all of us on a hot afternoon on May 20. There was a loud sound, like a thunder, and the doors rattled. I was waiting it to repeat, but nothing happened after the first boom.

On checking, there were messages galore on Twitter. I was sceptical of posting a tweet, but then I retweeted one of them that reported the mysterious boom 16-20 km away.

It was later confirmed by IAF that there was a sonic boom. It was caused by a routine IAF Test Flight involving a supersonic aircarft, said NDTV. "The sonic boom was probably heard while the aircraft was decelerating from supersonic to subsonic speed between 36,000 and 40000 feet altitude", said the NDTV report.

After months of political row, Kerala government cancelled the agreement with US-based firm Sprinklr for collection and analytics of Covid-19 patient data, including those quarantined in the state. According to a report, the state government, through an affidavit submitted to the Kerala high court, said that the state-run Centre for Development of Imaging Technology (C-DIT) would now manage the Covid-19 patient data. The state also said that data would be collected after obtaining the informed consent of citizens.

Meanwhile the affidavit did not quite answer many allegations the opposition had raised including the selection process, the privacy of the data already shared, and what exactly was the benefit of sharing this data with the company and in Covid-19 management. Later, the company informed the court that all 'backup data' has been destroyed, as per a report in The Hindu.

Another controversy erupted in the state when an app to buy liquor was yet to be released by the state government fuelling speculation. The New Indian Express reported the opposition had "alleged major corruption in developing the app, named BevQ, for sale of liquor, citing the contract was awarded to a CPM sympathiser."

The Left in India had always questioned violations of privacy and data sharing by various apps. But it looks like the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. 

Pangolins Never Mind Coronavirus

Pangolins tolerate and survive a coronavirs infection, as they lack two key genes that detect the entry of viruses and then activate a series of immune responses to such an attack. According to a recent study,  published in Frontiers in Immunology, Pangolins lack (IFIH1), also known as MDA5, which is a intracellular RNA sensor. It also lacks Z-DNA-binding protein (ZBP1),

This essentially means mammals like Pangolins can tolerate viral infections, instead of resisting or mounting a hyper immune response to such infections. At times. such responses affect the host's survival.

The way Pangolins can tolerate viral infections can also explain why mammals like bats can carry or host a number of viruses without themselves getting affected seriously. But these animals can pass on the infections to human beings.

The study concludes that "...pharmaceutical suppression of IFIH1/MDA5 and ZBP1-dependent signaling may be beneficial for human patients with overreactions to viral nucleic acids."

Covid 19 - Glossary

Analyte: In the blood or fluid samples collected and tested in the lab, this is the chemical that is used to identify the Covid-19 virus. See Assay also.

Assay: A test conducted in a laboratory to diagnose the presence of an analyte. See Analyte also.

Asymptomatic cases: Refers to people who are infected with Covid-19 virus, but do not show any symptoms of the infection. It is reported that asymptomatic people can transmit the disease to others even before being tested positive. See Symptomatic also.

Case Fatality Rate (CFR): This is the proportion of people from among the positive cases who will die from Covid-19 infection.

Community Spread: Merriam Webster dictionary defines it as “the spread of a contagious disease to individuals in a particular geographic location who have no known contact with other infected individuals or who have not recently traveled to an area where the disease has any documented cases.

Contact Tracing: WHO defines contact tracing as “…the process of identifying, assessing, and managing people who have been exposed to a disease to prevent onward transmission.” This is a strategy used to identify those who were in close contact with a Covid-19 positive person. Since these people are at high risk of infection, they need to be traced and closely monitored so that the spread of the disease is reduced.

Convalescent Plasma: This is the liquid component collected from the blood samples of people who have recovered from COVID-19. It is believed that healthcare workers and patients can be treated with antibodies in the plasma.

Coronavirus: Viruses belonging to the family of viruses called Coronaviridae with a crown-like envelope on their surface. This crown is only visible when viewed under a microscope.

COVID-19: This is the term for the disease caused by the novel Coronavirus or SARS-CoV2.

Epidemic: Epidemic is disease that suddenly increases in numbers in a particular area at a level that is above normal. See Pandemic also.

Flattening the Curve: This is a curve that plots the number of infected people over time. Flattening means a reduction in the number of people who are tested positive after an initial surge.

Incubation Period: The time before the appearance of actual symptoms of an infectious disease.

Isolation: Separating presumptive or people tested positive from the general population so that the spread of the disease is contained. The movement of such people will be severely restricted.

Outbreak: Outbreak is an epidemic that is limited within a particular area.

Pandemic: A pandemic is an epidemic that has spread across several continents and has affected a large number of people globally. See Epidemic also.

RO or Reproductive Rate: The average number of new infections that an existing Covid-19 positive patient can generate at a given point in time. This is an indicator for transmissibility and contagious nature of an infection.

Positive Case: A person tested positive for Covid-19.

PPE: Abbreviation for Personnel Protective Equipment. Garments worn by healthcare workers to protect themselves and others from getting infected.

Presumptive case: Persons showing only symptoms of Covid-19 but have not yet been tested positive or confirmed positive with laboratory tests.

Quarantine: Separating healthy people from exposing to the infection from others. They will not have any symptoms.

Retrovirus: Viruses with a single-stranded RNA (ssRNA) genome.

RT-PCR Test: Short term for real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction Test. This is used to confirm whether a person is positive for Covid-19 or not.

SARI: Short term for Severe Acute Respiratory Infection.

SARS-Cov2: The name of the novel coronavirus that causes the COVID-19 disease.

Secondary Attack Rate: The proportion of those exposed to a confirmed Covid-19 person that can develop an infection at a later stage.

Self-quarantine: During a pandemic or an epidemic, the practice of people staying at home and away from others as much as possible after exposure.

Social Distancing: This is keeping a safe distance or a physical distance between you and others so that you are less susceptible to get an infection.

Spike Protein: The proteins or the triangular knob-like structures that the virus uses to attach itself to cells in the human body.

Super-spreader: An infected person who transmits the disease to an unusually large number of people.

Symptomatic: Refers to people who are showing symptoms of the Covid-19 disease. See Asymptomatic cases also.

Virus: A submicroscopic life form that requires another biological cell to divide and complete its life cycle. They carry either DNA or RNA as their hereditary material. The Coronavirus is an RNA virus and needs to attach to the genetic material of another cell called Host to divide or replicate using the infected cell’s machinery.

Zoonotic Disease: A disease that can be transmitted from animals to humans.

References:

WHO
The Lancet 
British Medical Journal
CDC

There's Something About Coronavirus

Along with Covid-19 virus, there is no end to the misinformation circulating around about the virus, immunity, and how the virus can be stopped. The following content is just an attempt to write basic content about viruses, Covid-19, and immunity.

A virus is a microorganism that requires another biological system to survive. These biological systems are plants, animals or bacteria.

Viruses use DNA or RNA to replicate inside another biological system called Host. DNA replication is a process by which a daughter strand of the double helix is formed from the parent strand.

Coronaviruses are RNA viruses (retrovirus) that use the biological machinery in a host cell to replicate or create more copies of itself. This is very important because of something called the central dogma of genetics or molecular biology: DNA > messenger RNA (mRNA) > Proteins.

Retroviruses use an enzyme called reverse transcriptase (RT) to convert RNA to DNA in host cells and get latched on to the DNA genome of the host cell.

So when a retrovirus infects a host cell, it converts the singe stranded RNA (transcribed) to double-stranded DNA copy called Provirus. This Provirus is integrated into the host cell DNA genome by a viral integrase enzyme.

Covid-19 virus enters a human cell by attaching itself to a protein on cell surface called ACE-2. The Spike protein is "a multifunctional molecular machine that mediates coronavirus entry into host cells". The Spike protein is important as it helps in developing a vaccine against the Covid-19 virus.

Viruses like Influenza Virus and Coronavirus enters through the nasal or oro-mucosal route. It destroys the epithelial cells, which function at a limited level as the first line of defence against such viruses. The virus then uncoats inside human cells, replicates inside host cells and force the infected host cells to release Virions.

Since Coronavirus is a new virus strain, human body will not have antibodies against such an infection. In general the following cells of our inmate immune system are involved in countering such virus infections:

• Phagocytes
• Natural killer cells (NK cells)
• Mast cells and Basophils
• Dendritic cells
• NKT cells

Also, natural immunity against viruses are associated with Interferons, because they 'interfere' with viral replication. For example, in Polio prevention, IgG and IgE work as protective antibodies.

Eradication of viruses involve destroying the infected host cells. So, another type of cells called CD8-T cells are involved in destroying infected cells, along with NK cells and NKT cells, Destroying infected host cells prevents viral replication and in the end the elimination of the virus. 

Ipad, i-pads, iPads

I've seen several ways in which people write the word, iPad.

This is but very innovative. This is from an English news channel based in Bengaluru.

Another indication of murdering English on a daily basis. 

Some Enchanted Evening - Ruth Padel

It is the hope of a better home that drives migration, said acclaimed poet and writer, Ruth Padel, in an evening session on Poetry, Nature and a Changing World, at the Bangalore International Centre, Bengaluru.

It was such an enthralling evening when the poet, who is the great-great-grandchild of Charles Darwin, talked about poetry, migration, conservation, climate change, Darwin, and so on. She also read a few selected poems, old and new. And I manged to get a few books signed by the distinguished poet. 

The evening started with the poet reading an excerpt from her book, Where the Serpent Lives, and then the conversation went to Tiger conservation. On her many trips to forests in India, the poet said, that in a forest, we see so many things like leaves, squirrels, otters; but they are all related to the Tiger in one way or the other. And the Tiger is the meaning or at the heart of a forest. 

In a similar vein, whether it is a book or a poem, we see and read so many things with many valid experiences, but there is a central theme to each poem, she added.

About wildlife and their relationship to the landscape, she said that conserving a Tiger meant that you conserve the entire landscape for the animals and the humans’ dependent on that landscape. Referring to Greta Thurnberg, Ruth Padel said that the whole world had woken up to the changes to the environment and the battle between the environment and humans were going to happen everywhere very rapidly. She added that climate change will result in more and more climate refugees and it is going to be very scary.

On the variance between human and animal migration, she said that humans migrated to stay or ‘colonize’ (even though there is internal migration to cities for work) while birds migrate miles and then return to their homes. She did read a poem, The Choice, (about a Robin in her garden. It is the female Robins that migrate while the male birds stay), which was about the difficulty of deciding whether and when to leave a place.The choice to stay or not is a difficult one.

Terming Charles Darwin, her great great grandfather as a ‘careful’ person. Ruth Padel narrated an incident told to her by his biographer when one of his friends asked him about ‘where’ he had felt the ‘presence of the sublime’, Darwin initially said it was in the Andes, but later in the night he had a change of mind and informed his friend at midnight that it was in the forests of Brazil that he had felt the presence of the sublime the most. He had a very conscientious mind, attention to details, she added. Darwin had read Alexander Von Humboldt before he started his voyages.  

About her research on Beethoven, she dwelt on the difficult city of Vienna (she termed the city as 'monster in a labyrinth'), his (and Schubert’s) reading of Hindu mystics and Shakuntala. Terming Oral Poetry as the beginning of poetry, she said that poets do respond quickly to things happening around and touched upon the ‘Poetry of Witness’, a term coined by Polish poet and Nobel laureate, Czeslaw Milosz, and especially his poem, A Poor Christian Looks At The Ghetto.

Other gems from the session:

• Reading is a mysterious alchemy.
• Science and poetry are so similar…both live in the particulars and get to the bigger Universal thing: small things, concrete, and the big. Both say the same things, but in different words.
• Shakespeare answers about how self-serving enablers enable tyrants to persuade the populace to put him (tyrant) on the throne against their wishes.
• Poets have the responsibility to speak the truth.
• On many occasions, the poet does not know what they are telling. 
• You (poets) write to discover.

LinkedIn Typos

Yet another typo on LinkedIn's pages. I do notice such mistakes daily on newspapers, emails and websites. But when it is on Linkedin, I can't stop writing a blog post.

 On such an topical conversation, this was pure laziness.

So, there goes my first post of 2020. Let it be a nice year!

How Journalism becomes Powerless!

A report on the Deccan Herald daily said that in Kengeri area of Bengaluru, power supply was disrupted after a 40-year-old tree fell on a couple of electric poles.

In the last paragraph of the story, it says, "The electricity poles were expected to be replaced and power restored by late Saturday afternoon.".

I was reading this report on Sunday morning. That is, nearly two days after the incident happened. So, was there was no one in the newspaper who could confirm whether the power supply was restored on Saturday evening?

Would it have been better if the reporter had verified this and asked the desk to update the story? How difficult was this verification?

What does this silly lapse say about Indian journalism? Irresponsible or shoddy?

Read more at: https://www.deccanherald.com/city/bengaluru-infrastructure/a-dark-night-for-parts-of-kengeri-after-tree-fall-783655.html

The real state of Bengaluru parks

Bengaluru was known as 'Garden City' because of its greenery, tree-lined avenues and parks. Officially there are 1247 parks and many 'undeveloped' parks.

There is a park right opposite to my house. There are trees with bushy crowns, small trees, benches, and play area for children. In the mornings, I can see people of all ages walking, running, jogging. In the corners, lovers cuddle, pinch, squeeze, kiss and hug their emotions. In the evening the park gets noisy as children go wild, as expected like an unknown script.

But the nights are dangerous. As the yellow streetlights are switched on, lumpen youth get in. in the dark corners, they scream, smoke and drink and smash the liquor bottles. Youth gone wild.

The bottles, cans, and plastic covers are thrown around the trees and benches. A few are thrown out directed at someone's cars or bikes outside. Some are really creative: they throw the bottles under parked cars. Planting or destroying evidence.

The residents know. The tenants know. All have complained to the relevant authorities. No use.

There are dark areas in the park and anybody can do anything in there.

Typos in Job Ads?

Typos are everywhere. You know it better than me.

But typos in job portals? How can a well-known company justify it?

This one is from the lord of job networking, Linkedin:

This one is from a list in another job portal:

It is laziness that is 'written' over typos and not lack of knowledge. It does affect your brand. It is not a 'small thing' as developers and QA say. It is serious.

Is there a right to generate waste in our cities?

One of the reasons why garbage disposal remains chaotic, inefficient and unscuccessful in India is the fact that the people think they have a right to generate waste.

Once we create waste, we then decide to dump it on public spaces and wait for the municipal authorities to dispose it.

The following waste appeared one fine day right opposite to my house. Why did someone dump it here?

It took three weeks, multiple calls to BBMP, and then political help to remove the waste, as the corrupt garbage collector refused to remove it. If the responsible citizen had done some due diligence, should this tree waste could have been avoided?

Citizens get the garbage disposal they deserve. They should understand that they have absolutely no right to create waste, dump that waste onto the roads, and lament that the municipal authorities did not remove it.