💊 Africa CDC makes a digital play; Torrent says new year, same old day; Study says nasal drug delivery is the new way

#262 | Log on to Prime, pop a pill; Getting old? We may have new tech, just chill; Bees? Not yet over the hill.

Hello, and welcome back to The Kable. We have lots to unpack today but first, a replay, this time featuring the US FDA and India's Torrent Pharma, whose plant in Gujarat, which received a Form 483 last September, has now received an 'official action' letter from the US FDA.

Last year, a "mystery respiratory illness" resulted in lockdowns and mass testings in North Korea. Now, a "mystery respiratory illness" is causing a repeat of the same. No official word on whether this year's great "mystery" is different from last.

Last year, dozens of children died in The Gambia, Indonesia, and Uzbekistan after consuming cough syrups. In each instance, regulatory authorities warned of excessive levels of diethylene glycol or ethylene glycol. The WHO is now investigating whether there might be a link between these deaths.

At a farm in Spain, a bird flu outbreak led to the mass culling of non-human farm inhabitants. Ordinarily, this would be yet another instance of flock culling due to bird flu that we've been witness to since the second quarter of 2022. What is different in this case is that it was a mink farm. First of all, we're surprised to learn that any minks survived the mass cullings across Europe in the wake of Covid. And we share concerns with authorities about the fact that mammals have contracted bird flu in large numbers.

And finally, we may not have to worry about a bird flu epidemic or cough syrup consuming our future generations for much longer. We may not even have to worry about climate change and melting glaciers and polluted air and water, and depleting resources. Why? Because every dark cloud has a silver lining. And the silver lining today is that the world's Doomsday Clock has moved up to 90 seconds to midnight, moving us closer to midnight than ever before. Yay!