Vaccines vs. Omicron

Image: Jessica Olah/Verywell Health

🇿🇦 South Africa: Researchers studied the blood of a dozen people who had received two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and found their antibodies were less potent against Omicron than other variants.

• Most of the people in the experiment retained at least some ability to kill the virus, meaning their risk of hospitalization due to the variant is still likely low.

🇩🇪 Germany: Scientists looked at the strength of patients’ antibodies both 15 days and three months after receiving a third booster shot from either Pfizer or Moderna.

• In the short term, booster shots appeared to increase protection against Omicron. But after three months, most people's antibodies had declined to the same level as those who hadn’t received a third booster.

💉 Pfizer/BioNTech: The two companies released a statement yesterday saying research indicates a third booster shot is effective at fighting the variant, while their initial two-dose vaccination series offers much less protection (but likely still prevents severe disease). In case more protection is needed, the company says an Omicron-specific booster could be available by March 2022.

🧐 Word to the wise… Experts caution against reading too much into these early reports since they’re based on small numbers of patients and have yet to be peer-reviewed. It’ll still take some time before Omicron’s true profile comes into focus.

🎁 Co-viewing platform Scener anointed David Baron, an almost 14-year Hulu exec, as its new CEO yesterday. The three-year old startup also announced the addition of some notable investors and advisors, including filmmaker J.J. Abrams.

“This Year, It’ll Be Different”

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Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri testifying before the Senate; Image: NYT

Mosseri is the highest-ranking official from Meta to testify after whistle-blower Frances Haugen leaked internal research revealing Instagram had a toxic effect on some teenagers, especially girls.

• During the hearing, he ​​proposed a new industry panel to set safety standards for social-media platforms – which received a chilly response from lawmakers – and said Insta is working on an algorithm-free version of its feed that would show users' posts in chronological order (so exactly like it used to be?...).

🤿 A deeper dive… Mosseri's testimony came one day after Instagram announced a set of tools intended to protect the safety of teens on their app, including pop-up reminders to "take a break" after a certain amount of time. Other new features:

• Parents and guardians will be able to monitor – and limit – how much time their teens spend on the app.
• Teens will be 'nudged' towards different topics if they've been dwelling on a single one for too long.
• All users will be able to delete posts in bulk and can no longer tag or mention teens who don't follow them.

Some of these changes are already live, while others will be available in January.

📸 The big picture: According to a recent Piper Sandler survey, U.S. teens spend an average of 4.2 hours per day on social media. Insta consistently ranks as one of the most popular social media apps among Gen Z – along with Snap, TikTok, and YouTube – and that's not a happy accident.

• The company has spent nearly all of its advertising budget targeting teens since 2018, per the NYT (though Mosseri yesterday characterized that report as inaccurate).

A Covid Glow Up

A Covid sample glowing on a face mask filter; Image: Kyoto Prefectural University/Kyodo

🥚 How it works: The researchers created a fluorescent dye using antibodies extracted from ostrich eggs and then developed a special filter to be placed inside their new face mask.

• After wearing the masks, the filters are taken out and sprayed with the fluorescent dye. If Covid is present, the filter will glow when shone under ultraviolet light.

😷 Watch out for me… When the team conducted experiments with 32 people infected with Covid, they found all of their filters glowed under UV light, which faded as time passed and the viral load decreased.

• The research team’s leader, university President Yasuhiro Tsukamoto, discovered he was Covid-positive after wearing one of the experimental masks and finding it glowed when checked. (His status was later confirmed via PCR test.)

👁 Looking ahead… "We can mass-produce antibodies from ostriches at a low cost. In the future, I want to make this into an easy testing kit that anyone can use," said Tsukamoto.

Image: The Human Library

If you had the opportunity to hold a deep conversation with a stranger radically different than yourself – would you?

📚 By the book: The Human Library is allowing folks around the world to do just that, with volunteers acting as “books” that visitors can “check out” for an hour or two.

• The human books have all faced some sort of challenge in their lives. From immigrants, to sex workers to ex-soldiers, they’re there to remind people not judge a book by it’s cover.

“There is a great book hidden in all of us, and most of us would be bestsellers,” shared Human Library founder Ronni Abergel.

Who was the first and only U.S. president to resign from office?

A) Andrew Jackson
B) Gerald Ford
C) George Washington
D) Richard Nixon

(keep scrolling for the answer)

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D) Richard Nixon

Nixon resigned in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal when it became clear Congress was planning to impeach and remove him from office. He was succeeded by his vice president, Gerald Ford.