💊 A Kable look at India's budget and what it means for the life sciences; The US hosts a whole raft of fungi; The WHO's new pandemic deal

#268 | Molnupiravir birthing Covid variants new; Stitches that glow blue; Wetlands need a revival, true

Hello, and welcome back to The Kable for the second loaded issue this week.

In what should serve as a bit of a wake-up call for consumers at least, US-based digihealth venture GoodRx, was fined for selling user data to Google and Facebook. The fine itself was a paltry amount but serves to highlight the pitfalls around data privacy. This incident happened in the US, which at least has a modicum of privacy and laws to protect it. In countries around Asia and Africa, consumers should know that in relying on digital providers, you run the risk of having your private data in the hands of all bidders.

Covid isn't going anywhere. Newer variants will continue to emerge, necessitating newer vaccines. The pan-coronavirus vaccines in development will soon become an imperative, thanks to climate change and habitat loss for a variety of living beings. In this light, Nature's illustrated guide to the next generation of coronavirus vaccines is a hopeful read.

In the Netherlands, Dutch authorities killed a cow. Because it had mad cow disease, the first such case in the country in over a decade. Moo. Moohoohoohoo.

In what we predict is the first of many such cases, people in Indonesia have filed a case against cement major Holcim in a Swiss court over climate change.

And finally, yesterday was the 6-year anniversary of the establishment of the Africa CDC. A look at how much water has flown under the bridge since then.