The signals behind the FDA "you are not a cow" warning, the continuing global microchip shortage, and more...

Dear Reader,

While the world is in complete disarray, we’re back again this week with signals that will help you cut through the noise. Here are this week’s key inflection points:

1. “You are not a cow” 🐮💊

The chatter around "ivermectin" hit an Impact Score of 100 over the past week. Interestingly, NWO.AI predicted multiple inflection points signaling a rising interest in the drug as early as January this year when Facebook posts touting ivermectin as a miracle cure for Covid started spreading in Brazil, France, South Africa, and South Korea. In March, the WHO published a statement that the drug should only be used to treat Covid within clinical trials and the evidence of the drug’s efficacy against Covid is inconclusive.  As Covid cases continue to surge, people are resorting to desperate measures. Mississippi, which reportedly has the lowest vaccination rate and the highest per capita infection rate, recently experienced a spike in ivermectin poisoning. Haven’t heard of the drug before? That’s because it’s used to treat parasitic worms, primarily in livestock. The FDA’s serious but hilarious “you are not a cow” warning has sparked huge chatter around the drug on Social.

2. An update on the global chip shortage crisis 📱🚗

In parallel, with pressing concerns about the ongoing global chip shortage, NWO.AI registered a 5,816% growth in its Impact Score. The chip shortage affects more than 169 industries including video game consoles, graphics cards, and electrical devices. As one of the largest sectors hit, the global auto industry will see a drop in manufacturing of approximately 7.1 million vehicles. To make matters worse, assembly equipment needs chips too. However, the wafer fabrication market has grown due to the increased use of consumer electronics during lockdowns. According to this forecast, the wafer fab market segment “is projected to surge 34% to a new industry record of $81.7 billion in 2021, followed by a 6% increase in 2022 to more than $86 billion.”

3. Fungus is beefing up the alt-protein industry 🍄

Chatter around protein fungus reached a peak Impact Score of 100 recently as Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Al Gore backed Nature’s Fynd, a food tech start-up that develops meatless products with fungus as the primary ingredient. While mycoprotein has been approved for food use since 1985, Nature’s Fynd grows its fungi in heated chambers as opposed to commonly used large bioreactors. The company’s low-carbon footprint way of growing fungi resonates with a growing number of climate activists and ethical vegans. In July, the company completed a $347 million funding round, making it the most well-funded mycoprotein startup of late. Our forecast suggests that interest in protein fungus will remain high in 2022.

4. No jab, no job 💉

Since the vaccination drive in January, NWO.AI has registered several inflection points in the “job vaccination requirement”, which has seen a 20,684% growth in Impact Score. Major companies in the U.S. have begun implementing vaccination mandates for employees returning to the office, including Facebook, Cisco, DoorDash, Google, and Tyson, among others. Pfizer’s FDA approval has triggered new vaccine mandates as several states require full vaccination for state and healthcare workers. While mandatory vaccination won’t be a problem for those willing to get vaccinated, it could be a self-inflicted issue for anti-vaxxers. The mandates could also impact the job security of people who don’t have access to vaccines or can’t get vaccinated due to allergies.

5. What you should know about air purifiers 💨

There’s been an uptick in demand for air purifiers over the past few months as media outlets have published articles about the best air purifiers to buy in 2021. While there’s no proof that air purifiers can stop the spread of Covid, a High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filter is designed to capture 99.97% of airborne particles and indoor air pollutants such as smoke, dust mites, and pollen. According to a CDC study in July, “the use of HEPA air cleaners in a conference room significantly reduced the exposure of nearby participants and a speaker to airborne particles produced by a simulated infected participant.” The U.S. residential air purifier market is expected to grow by $632.39 million during 2021-2025. NWO.AI suggests a sustained interest in air purifiers over the next 6 months.

One Cheesy Bonus: Does ice cream get any cheddar than this?🧀🍦

Ice cream company Van Leeuwen unveiled its Kraft Mac & Cheese flavored ice cream on National Mac & Cheese Day on July 14, which sold out in a few hours, correlating with our platform’s signal peak after a series of inflection points. Of course, those who weren’t able to get their hands on a tub were curious and interest in cheese ice cream skyrocketed. However, Van Leeuwen and Kraft didn’t invent cheese ice cream -- the Philippines did. Queso cheese ice cream is one of the most common traditional ice cream flavors in the Philippines, but Kraft and Van Leeuwen’s Mac & Cheese ice cream is shining the spotlight on this flavor while American consumers wait for new supply to hit the stores.

Edited by Cindy Tan, Sarah Gupta

About NWO.AI
NWO.AI's predictive platform enables leading Fortune 500 companies and government agencies to anticipate and track global cultural shifts by aggregating, analyzing, and producing actionable reports on human-generated data. We are leveraging petabytes of external, noisy, and unstructured data from various sources - including search, social media, blogs, news, patent databases, SEC filings and we are continuously adding more sources. Our mission is to answer the what, when, and most importantly 'why' behind a consumer trend and enable our customers to detect these shifts as early as possible.

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