#on the other hand the stock of Covid vaccine is almost over in the state

[n7india]

झारखंड में बढ़ रहे Covid के केस, वैक्सीन का स्टॉक खत्म

Ranchi: झारखंड में जहां कोविड के केस बढ़ रहे हैं, वहीं दूसरी तरफ राज्य में कोविड वैक्सीन का स्टॉक लगभग खत्म हो गया है। राज्य में अप्रैल के पहले सप्ताह से ही कोविशील्ड, कोवैक्सीन और कोर्बिवैक्स टीका की उपलब्धता खत्म हो गई है। थोड़ा-बहुत टीकाकरण जिलों में बचे छिटपुट वैक्सीन से हो रही है। इस बीच राज्य सरकार ने केंद्र से 50 हजार कोविड वैक्सीन उपलब्ध कराने की मांग की है। राज्य के स्वास्थ्य मंत्री…

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#JharkhandNews #on the other hand the stock of Covid vaccine is almost over in the state #While the cases of Covid are increasing in Jharkhand

[tinyshe]

Story at-a-glance

Big Pharma and mainstream media are largely owned by two asset management firms: BlackRock and Vanguard

Drug companies are driving COVID-19 responses — all of which, so far, have endangered rather than optimized public health — and mainstream media have been willing accomplices in spreading their propaganda, a false official narrative that leads the public astray and fosters fear based on lies

Vanguard and BlackRock are the top two owners of Time Warner, Comcast, Disney and News Corp, four of the six media companies that control more than 90% of the U.S. media landscape

BlackRock and Vanguard form a secret monopoly that own just about everything else you can think of too. In all, they have ownership in 1,600 American firms, which in 2015 had combined revenues of $9.1 trillion. When you add in the third-largest global owner, State Street, their combined ownership encompasses nearly 90% of all S&P 500 firms

Vanguard is the largest shareholder of BlackRock. Vanguard itself, on the other hand, has a unique structure that makes its ownership more difficult to discern, but many of the oldest, richest families in the world can be linked to Vanguard funds

What does The New York Times and a majority of other legacy media have in common with Big Pharma? Answer: They’re largely owned by BlackRock and the Vanguard Group, the two largest asset management firms in the world. Moreover, it turns out these two companies form a secret monopoly that own just about everything else you can think of too. As reported in the featured video:1,2

“The stock of the world’s largest corporations are owned by the same institutional investors. They all own each other. This means that ‘competing’ brands, like Coke and Pepsi aren’t really competitors, at all, since their stock is owned by exactly the same investment companies, investment funds, insurance companies, banks and in some cases, governments.

The smaller investors are owned by larger investors. Those are owned by even bigger investors. The visible top of this pyramid shows only two companies whose names we have often seen …They are Vanguard and BlackRock.

The power of these two companies is beyond your imagination. Not only do they own a large part of the stocks of nearly all big companies but also the stocks of the investors in those companies. This gives them a complete monopoly.

A Bloomberg report states that both these companies in the year 2028, together will have investments in the amount of 20 trillion dollars. That means that they will own almost everything.’”

Who Are the Vanguard?

The word “vanguard” means “the foremost position in an army or fleet advancing into battle,” and/or “the leading position in a trend or movement.” Both are fitting descriptions of this global behemoth, owned by globalists pushing for a Great Reset, the core of which is the transfer of wealth and ownership from the hands of the many into the hands of the very few.

Interestingly, Vanguard is the largest shareholder of BlackRock, as of March 2021.3,4 Vanguard itself, on the other hand, has a “unique” corporate structure that makes its ownership more difficult to discern. It’s owned by its various funds, which in turn are owned by the shareholders. Aside from these shareholders, it has no outside investors and is not publicly traded.5 As reported in the featured video:6,7

“The elite who own Vanguard apparently do not like being in the spotlight but of course they cannot hide from who is willing to dig. Reports from Oxfam and Bloomberg say that 1% of the world, together owns more money than the other 99%. Even worse, Oxfam says that 82% of all earned money in 2017 went to this 1%.

In other words, these two investment companies, Vanguard and BlackRock hold a monopoly in all industries in the world and they, in turn are owned by the richest families in the world, some of whom are royalty and who have been very rich since before the Industrial Revolution.”

While it would take time to sift through all of Vanguard’s funds to identify individual shareholders, and therefore owners of Vanguard, a quick look-see suggests Rothschild Investment Corp.8 and the Edmond De Rothschild Holding are two such stakeholders.9 Keep the name Rothschild in your mind as you read on, as it will feature again later.

The video above also identifies the Italian Orsini family, the American Bush family, the British Royal family, the du Pont family, the Morgans, Vanderbilts and Rockefellers, as Vanguard owners.

BlackRock/Vanguard Own Big Pharma

According to Simply Wall Street, in February 2020, BlackRock and Vanguard were the two largest shareholders of GlaxoSmithKline, at 7% and 3.5% of shares respectively.10 At Pfizer, the ownership is reversed, with Vanguard being the top investor and BlackRock the second-largest stockholder.11

Keep in mind that stock ownership ratios can change at any time, since companies buy and sell on a regular basis, so don’t get hung up on percentages. The bottom line is that BlackRock and Vanguard, individually and combined, own enough shares at any given time that we can say they easily control both Big Pharma and the centralized legacy media — and then some.

Why does this matter? It matters because drug companies are driving COVID-19 responses — all of which, so far, have endangered rather than optimized public health — and mainstream media have been willing accomplices in spreading their propaganda, a false official narrative that has, and still is, leading the public astray and fosters fear based on lies.

To have any chance of righting this situation, we must understand who the central players are, where the harmful dictates are coming from, and why these false narratives are being created in the first place.

As noted in Global Justice Now’s December 2020 report12 “The Horrible History of Big Pharma,” we simply cannot allow drug companies — “which have a long track record of prioritizing corporate profit over people’s health” — to continue to dictate COVID-19 responses.

In it, they review the shameful history of the top seven drug companies in the world that are now developing and manufacturing drugs and gene-based “vaccines” against COVID-19, while mainstream media have helped suppress information about readily available older drugs that have been shown to have a high degree of efficacy against the infection.

BlackRock/Vanguard Own the Media

When it comes to The New York Times, as of May 2021, BlackRock is the second-largest stockholder at 7.43% of total shares, just after The Vanguard Group, which owns the largest portion (8.11%).13,14

In addition to The New York Times, Vanguard and BlackRock are also the top two owners of Time Warner, Comcast, Disney and News Corp, four of the six media companies that control more than 90% of the U.S. media landscape.15,16

Needless to say, if you have control of this many news outlets, you can control entire nations by way of carefully orchestrated and organized centralized propaganda disguised as journalism.

If your head is spinning already, you’re not alone. It’s difficult to describe circular and tightly interwoven relationships in a linear fashion. The world of corporate ownership is labyrinthine, where everyone seems to own everyone, to some degree.

However, the key take-home message is that two companies stand out head and neck above all others, and that’s BlackRock and Vanguard. Together, they form a hidden monopoly on global asset holdings, and through their influence over our centralized media, they have the power to manipulate and control a great deal of the world’s economy and events, and how the world views it all.

Considering BlackRock in 2018 announced that it has “social expectations” from the companies it invests in,17 its potential role as a central hub in the Great Reset and the “build back better” plan cannot be overlooked.

Add to this information showing it “undermines competition through owning shares in competing companies” and “blurs boundaries between private capital and government affairs by working closely with regulators,” and one would be hard-pressed to not see how BlackRock/Vanguard and their globalist owners might be able to facilitate the Great Reset and the so-called “green” revolution, both of which are part of the same wealth-theft scheme.

That assertion will become even clearer once you realize that this duo’s influence is not limited to Big Pharma and the media. Importantly, BlackRock also works closely with central banks around the world, including the U.S. Federal Reserve, which is a private entity, not a federal one.18,19 It lends money to the central bank, acts as an adviser to it, and develops the central bank’s software.20 

  “In all, BlackRock and Vanguard have ownership in some 1,600 American firms, which in 2015 had combined revenues of $9.1 trillion. When you add in the third-largest global owner, State Street, their combined ownership encompasses nearly 90% of all S&P 500 firms. “

BlackRock/Vanguard also own shares of long list of other companies, including Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Alphabet Inc.21 As illustrated in the graphic of BlackRock and Vanguard’s ownership network below,22 featured in the 2017 article “These Three Firms Own Corporate America” in The Conversation, it would be near-impossible to list them all.

In all, BlackRock and Vanguard have ownership in some 1,600 American firms, which in 2015 had combined revenues of $9.1 trillion. When you add in the third-largest global owner, State Street, their combined ownership encompasses nearly 90% of all S&P 500 firms.23

A Global Monopoly Few Know Anything About

To tease out the overarching influence of BlackRock and Vanguard in the global marketplace, be sure to watch the 45-minute-long video featured at the top of this article. It provides a wide-view summary of the hidden monopoly network of Vanguard- and BlackRock-owned corporations, and their role in the Great Reset. A second much shorter video (above) offers an additional review of this information.

How can we tie BlackRock/Vanguard — and the globalist families that own them — to the Great Reset? Barring a public confession, we have to look at the relationships between these behemoth globalist-owned corporations and consider the influence they can wield through those relationships. As noted by Lew Rockwell:24

“When Lynn Forester de Rothschild wants the United States to be a one-party country (like China) and doesn’t want voter ID laws passed in the U.S., so that more election fraud can be perpetrated to achieve that end, what does she do?

She holds a conference call with the world’s top 100 CEOs and tells them to publicly decry as ‘Jim Crow’ Georgia’s passing of an anti-corruption law and she orders her dutiful CEOs to boycott the State of Georgia, like we saw with Coca-Cola and Major League Baseball and even Hollywood star, Will Smith.

In this conference call, we see shades of the Great Reset, Agenda 2030, the New World Order. The UN wants to make sure, as does [World Economic Forum founder and executive chairman Klaus] Schwab that in 2030, poverty, hunger, pollution and disease no longer plague the Earth.

To achieve this, the UN wants taxes from Western countries to be split by the mega corporations of the elite to create a brand-new society. For this project, the UN says we need a world government — namely the UN, itself.”

As I’ve reviewed in many previous articles, it seems quite clear that the COVID-19 pandemic was orchestrated to bring about this New World Order — the Great Reset — and the 45-minute video featured at top of article does a good job of explaining how this was done. And at the heart of it all, the “heart” toward which all global wealth streams flow, we find BlackRock and Vanguard.

- Sources and References

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Capitalism's most credible defender is Mariana Mazzucato, an economist whose histories of - and vision for - a strong state that shapes and manages markets is today's most plausible vision for a future under capitalism.

Mazzucato has been warning that we can't afford to squander this crisis the way we did with the 2008 collapse, talking about a future of "climate lockdowns" if we don't make a change:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/23/overly-exuberant-youth/#mazzucato

In "Capitalism After the Pandemic" in Foreign Affairs, Mazzucato recounts how the current emergencies come from the ideological failures of neoliberalism, and lays out a program for "building back better."

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2020-10-02/capitalism-after-covid-19-pandemic

She lays out a vision for a post-disaster capitalism that's something like the post-War boom of pluralistic, shared prosperity, and something like the state-sponsored tech boom of the moonshot, in service to building a world that's safer and fairer.

After all, the current system isn't working. Congress and the Treasury made trillions available to prop up the economy during the crisis, and rather than going into the productive economy, almost all that money has been captured by the finance sector.

Now, if the finance sector was then allocating capital to the real economy, maybe we'd have something. But mostly what the finance sector invests in is...the finance sector. In the UK, only 10% of commercial lending goes to nonfinancial firms.

In the world's advanced economies, more than 60% of lending is real-estate based. The finance sector pumps money into the finance sector, creates bubbles, the bubbles burst, and we bail them out. Then they do it again. And again.

In the real economy, large firms are gnawing off their own limbs, buying back more than $3T in their own stocks over a decade. Money gets spent goosing share prices, rather than R&D, training, new capital or higher wages.

Thus do we lurch from crisis to crisis, and each time, the state intervenes to rescue the system, but not to change it. That's why, when the covid crisis struck, we had low-waged/gig workers who had no insurance and no sick leave.

The rhetoric of shrinking the state that has been with us since the Reagan years was never serious. Instead, the state has shifted to subsidizing large firms whose core message is that governments are incompetent, but who profiteer off government innovations.

Like Gilead, whose remdesivir drug came from $70.5m in federal R&D subsidy, costs $10/dose to produce, and sells in the USA for $3,120.

But it's not just pharma that reaps enormous windfalls from public spending!

Google's search algorithm was funded by the NSF. The US Navy developed GPS. DARPA created the internet, touchscreens, voice recognition and more.

The companies that commercialized these technologies get 'em for free, dodge their taxes, AND campaign against the very idea of government spending. They back a bizarre ideology that measures the economy with nonsensical measures like GDP.

Under GDP, public school teachers are a drain on the system, while the educated citizens they turn out are not accounted for at all.

And when Goldman Sachs got a $10b bailout, CEO Lloyd Blankfein was able to claim that his workers were "among the most productive in the world" because such a small number of people had generated $10b in income!

Handing money out to companies with no strings attached doesn't improve the economy, it just lines the pockets of the finance sector. Congress's PPP loans cost $500b and saved 2.3m jobs - that's a cost of $500k per job!

The $7T in stimulus has not resulted in any real, structural change that will avert the looming crises on our horizon. We need to stop doing corporate handouts and start structuring markets to deliver public benefit.

Develop a "people's vaccine" that is patent-free and can be made accessible to the whole planet

Reform wages, health benefits, sick-pay and worker control over workplaces

Give preference to payroll support over unemployment support, the latter having thrown 30m Americans out of work

When companies go bust, don't just bail them out - require an equity for the public

Ban companies that receive assistance from issuing exec bonuses, issuing dividends, doing share buybacks, debt-loading, using tax-havens, spending public money on lobbying or price-gouging

Publicly subsidized pharma should be "narrowly patented and easily licensable"

Issue a "people's dividend" where "the government takes a percentage of the wealth created with government investments, puts that money in a fund, and then shares the proceeds with the people"

Since the 2010s, a lot of us have been wishing for a "return to normal."

Normal isn't good enough. It was never good enough. Normal got us into this mess.

We need to build back better: to create a moonshot for climate adaptation that uses a muscular, capable state to invest people and technologies.

A moonshot that structures the economy to produce the clean energy, infrastructure creation and retrofitting, transit, universal health care (and other forms of care), universal network access - a future fit for the human race.

Image: Molly Crabapple/Years of Repair https://theintercept.com/2020/10/01/naomi-klein-message-from-future-covid/

#pluralistic

[newstfionline]

Saturday, July 31, 2021

Biden to allow eviction moratorium to expire Saturday (AP) The Biden administration announced Thursday it will allow a nationwide ban on evictions to expire Saturday, arguing that its hands are tied after the Supreme Court signaled the moratorium would only be extended until the end of the month. The White House said President Joe Biden would have liked to extend the federal eviction moratorium due to spread of the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus. Instead, Biden called on “Congress to extend the eviction moratorium to protect such vulnerable renters and their families without delay.” By the end of March, 6.4 million American households were behind on their rent, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. As of July 5, roughly 3.6 million people in the U.S. said they faced eviction in the next two months, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey.

Evacuation flight brings 200 Afghans to US (AP) The first flight evacuating Afghans who worked alongside Americans in Afghanistan brought more than 200 people, including scores of children and babies in arms, to resettlement in the United States on Friday, and President Joe Biden welcomed them home. The evacuation flights, bringing out former interpreters and others who fear retaliation from Afghanistan’s Taliban for having worked with American service members and civilians, highlight American uncertainty about how Afghanistan’s government and military will fare after the last U.S. combat forces leave that country in the coming weeks. Family members are accompanying the interpreters, translators and others on the flights out. The commercial airliner carrying the 221 Afghans in the special visa program, including 57 children and 15 babies, according to an internal U.S. government document obtained by The Associated Press, touched down in Dulles, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C.

Not in control (NYT) Consider these Covid-19 mysteries: In India—where the Delta variant was first identified and caused a huge outbreak—cases have plunged over the past two months. A similar drop may now be underway in Britain. There is no clear explanation for these declines. / In the U.S., cases started falling rapidly in early January. The decline began before vaccination was widespread and did not follow any evident changes in Americans’ Covid attitudes. / In March and April, the Alpha variant helped cause a sharp rise in cases in the upper Midwest and Canada. That outbreak seemed poised to spread to the rest of North America—but did not. / This spring, caseloads were not consistently higher in parts of the U.S. that had relaxed masking and social distancing measures (like Florida and Texas) than in regions that remained vigilant. / Large parts of Africa and Asia still have not experienced outbreaks as big as those in Europe, North America and South America. / How do we solve these mysteries? Michael Osterholm, who runs an infectious disease research center at the University of Minnesota, suggests that people keep in mind one overriding idea: humility. “We’ve ascribed far too much human authority over the virus,” he told me.

Diasporas at the Olympics (Foreign Policy) Cuban athletes at the Tokyo Olympics are evidence of the exodus from the island over the years. By the Cuban sports journalist Francys Romero’s count, more than 20 athletes at the Olympics were born in Cuba but became naturalized in and are now playing for other countries. That’s a group almost one-third the size of Cuba’s own delegation.

Peru’s politics (Foreign Policy) Peru’s new President Pedro Castillo chose Guido Bellido, a congressman and fellow member of his Marxist Free Peru party, as his prime minister as part of a cabinet announcement on Thursday, setting up a tense confirmation battle with the country’s opposition-led Congress. Bellido courted controversy in a local media interview in April when he expressed sympathy for members of Shining Path—a Maoist guerilla group who fought a bloody insurgency during the 1980s and 1990s.

Death toll in Turkish wildfires rises to four, blazes rage on (Reuters) The death toll from wildfires on Turkey’s southern coast has risen to four and firefighters were battling blazes for a third day on Friday after the evacuation of dozens of villages and some hotels. More than 60 wildfires have broken out across 17 provinces on Turkey’s Aegean and Mediterranean coasts this week, officials have said. Villages and some hotels have been evacuated in areas popular with tourists, and TV footage had shown people fleeing across fields as they watched fires close in on their homes.

Three Jehovah’s Witnesses sentenced to six or more years in Russian prison for their faith (RNS) Three Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia were convicted and sentenced to prison for practicing their faith on Thursday (July 29). Vilen Avanesov, 68, was sentenced to six years, and his son Arsen Avanesov, 37, along with a third defendant, Aleksandr Parkov, 53, were both sentenced to six-and-a-half years. All three men have already spent more than two years in pretrial detention. “These men should never, ever have had to spend a minute in prison, and yet they’ve been locked up for two years,” said Rachel Denber, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia division. The three Jehovah’s Witnesses were detained in Rostov-on-Don in May 2019 and accused of continuing the operations of a Jehovah’s Witness organization that had been liquidated. All three were charged with organizing extremist activities. In January 2020, Arsen Avanesov was also accused of “financing extremist activities” by collecting donations to rent a room to meet with other Jehovah’s Witnesses. Near the trial’s conclusion, Arsen Avanesov spoke of his devotion to God: “I dedicated my life to him and did it sincerely. … I don’t want, I can’t and will not give up my promise.” The sentences for the three men are considered particularly harsh in a country where rape is punishable by three years in prison and kidnapping by five. The sentencing follows a 2017 ruling that categorizes the religious group as “extremist.”

Myanmar leaders ‘weaponizing’ COVID-19, residents say (AP) With coronavirus deaths rising in Myanmar, allegations are growing from residents and human rights activists that the military government, which seized control in February, is using the pandemic to consolidate power and crush opposition. Supplies of medical oxygen are running low, and the government has restricted its private sale in many places, saying it is trying to prevent hoarding. But that has led to widespread allegations that the stocks are being directed to government supporters and military-run hospitals. At the same time, medical workers have been targeted after spearheading a civil disobedience movement that urged professionals and civil servants not to cooperate with the government, known as the State Administrative Council. “They have stopped distributing personal protection equipment and masks, and they will not let civilians who they suspect are supporting the democracy movement be treated in hospitals, and they’re arresting doctors who support the civil disobedience movement,” said Yanghee Lee, the U.N.’s former Myanmar human rights expert and a founding member of the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar. “With the oxygen, they have banned sales to civilians or people who are not supported by the SAC, so they’re using something that can save the people against the people,” she said. “The military is weaponizing COVID.”

North Korea began the summer in a food crisis. A heat wave and drought could make it worse. (Washington Post) At the beginning of the summer, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un described the country’s food situation as “tense” after border closures caused by the coronavirus pandemic and crippling floods. By midsummer, a cycle of grinding heat and record-low rainfall could be a sign of a greater food crisis and hunger ahead. Temperatures in North Korea have climbed as high as 102 degrees in some areas this week—a shock in a country where temperatures do not often break 100 degrees. The heat wave has been compounded by a growing drought. North Korea had gotten 21.2 millimeters, or less than an inch, of rain as of mid-July. It is so hot that state media reports have been repeatedly warning residents about the dangers of dehydration and low sodium levels, especially for the elderly and those at risk of heart disease or stroke. They are urging residents to stay out of the sun, eat more fruits and vegetables, and drink more than two liters (about two quarts) of water per day, according to NK News, which monitors North Korea’s state media.

Hong Kong protester given 9-year term in 1st security case (AP) A pro-democracy protester was sentenced Friday to nine years in prison in the closely watched first prosecution under Hong Kong’s national security law as the ruling Communist Party tightens control over the territory. Tong Ying-kit, 24, was convicted of inciting secession and terrorism for driving his motorcycle into a group of police officers at a July 1, 2020, rally. He carried a flag bearing the banned slogan, “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times.” Tong’s sentence was longer than the three years requested by the prosecution. He faced a possible maximum of life in prison. Tong’s sentence is a “hammer blow to free speech” and shows the law is “a tool to instill terror” in government critics, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific regional director, Yamini Mishra, said in a statement. The law “lacks any exemption for legitimate expression or protest,” Mishra said. “The judgment at no point considered Tong’s rights to freedom of expression and protest.” Defense lawyers said Tong’s penalty should be light because the court hadn’t found the attack was deliberate, no one was injured, and the secession-related offense qualified as minor under the law.

New Zealand rated best place to survive global societal collapse (Guardian) New Zealand, Iceland, the UK, Tasmania and Ireland are the places best suited to survive a global collapse of society, according to a study. The researchers said human civilisation was “in a perilous state” due to the highly interconnected and energy-intensive society that had developed and the environmental damage this had caused. A collapse could arise from shocks, such as a severe financial crisis, the impacts of the climate crisis, destruction of nature, an even worse pandemic than Covid-19 or a combination of these, the scientists said. To assess which nations would be most resilient to such a collapse, countries were ranked according to their ability to grow food for their population, protect their borders from unwanted mass migration, and maintain an electrical grid and some manufacturing ability. Islands in temperate regions and mostly with low population densities came out on top.

Ethiopian roadblock (NYT) Aid workers in Ethiopia claim that an unofficial Ethiopian government blockade has cut off the only road into the conflict-torn region where millions of Ethiopians face the threat of mass starvation. A relief convoy headed for Tigray came under fire on the road on July 18, forcing it to turn around. On Tuesday, the World Food Program said 170 trucks loaded with relief aid were stranded in Semera, the capital of the neighboring Afar region, waiting for Ethiopian permission to make the trek into Tigray. The blockade is intensifying what some call the world’s worst humanitarian crisis in a decade. The crisis comes during an intensifying war, which has deepened ethnic tensions and stoked fears that Ethiopia will collapse. The United Nations estimates that 400,000 people there are living in famine-like conditions, and another 4.8 million need urgent help. The Ethiopian prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, who won the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, said last week that his government was providing “unfettered humanitarian access” and committed to “the safe delivery of critical supplies to its people in the Tigray region.” However, Mr. Abiy’s ministers have publicly accused aid workers of helping and even arming the Tigrayan fighters, leading to aid workers being attacked at airports, and even killed.

#headlines #news

[sciencespies]

Building a Mouse Squad Against COVID-19

https://sciencespies.com/nature/building-a-mouse-squad-against-covid-19/

Building a Mouse Squad Against COVID-19

Tucked away on Mount Desert Island off the coast of Maine, the Jackson Laboratory (JAX) may seem removed from the pandemic roiling the world. It’s anything but. The lab is busy breeding animals for studying the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and is at the forefront of efforts to minimize the disruption of research labs everywhere.

During normal times, the 91-year-old independent, nonprofit biomedical research institution serves as a leading supplier of research mice to labs around the world. It breeds, maintains and distributes more than 11,000 strains of genetically defined mice for research on a huge array of disorders: common diseases such as diabetes and cancer through to rare blood disorders such as aplastic anemia. Scientists studying aging can purchase elderly mice from JAX for their work; those researching disorders of balance can turn to mice with defects of the inner ear that cause the creatures to keep moving in circles.

But these are not normal times. The Covid-19 pandemic has skyrocketed the demand for new strains of mice to help scientists understand the progression of the disease, test existing drugs, find new therapeutic targets and develop vaccines. At the same time, with many universities scaling back employees on campus, the coronavirus crisis forced labs studying a broad range of topics to cull their research animals, many of which took years to breed and can take equally long to recoup.

JAX is responding to both concerns, having raced to collect and cryopreserve existing strains of lab mice and to start breeding new ones for CoV-2 research.

Overseeing these efforts is neuroscientist Cathleen “Cat” Lutz, director of the Mouse Repository and the Rare and Orphan Disease Center at JAX. Lutz spoke with Knowable Magazine about the lab’s current round-the-clock activity. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

When did you first hear about the new coronavirus?

We heard about it in early January, like everyone else. I have colleagues at the Jackson Laboratory facilities in China. One of them, a young man named Qiming Wang, contacted me on February 3. He is a researcher in our Shanghai office, but he takes the bullet train to Wuhan on the weekends to be back with his family. He was on lockdown in Wuhan. He began describing the situation in China. Police were patrolling the streets. There were a couple of people in his building who were diagnosed positive for Covid-19. It was an incredibly frightening time.

At the time, in the US we were not really thinking about the surge that was going to hit us. And here was a person who was living through it. He sent us a very heartfelt and touching email asking: What could JAX do?

We started discussing the various ways that we could genetically engineer mice to better understand Covid-19. And that led us to mice that had been developed after the 2003 SARS outbreak, which was caused by a different coronavirus called SARS-CoV. There were mouse models made by various people, including infectious disease researcher Stanley Perlman at the University of Iowa, to study the SARS-CoV infection. It became clear to us that these mice would be very useful for studying SARS-CoV-2 and Covid-19.

We got on the phone to Stanley Perlman the next day.

What’s special about Perlman’s mice?

These mice, unlike normal mice, are susceptible to SARS.

In humans, the virus’ spike protein attaches to the ACE2 receptor on epithelial cells and enters the lungs. But coronaviruses like SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 don’t infect your normal laboratory mouse — or, if they do, it’s at a very low rate of infection and the virus doesn’t replicate readily. That’s because the virus’ spike protein doesn’t recognize the regular lab mouse’s ACE2 receptor. So the mice are relatively protected.

Perlman made the mice susceptible by introducing into them the gene for the human ACE2 receptor. So now, in addition to the mouse ACE2 receptor, you have the human ACE2 receptor being made in these mice, making it possible for the coronavirus to enter the lungs.

Cat Lutz (left) and colleagues at work in a lab at the Jackson Laboratory.

(Aaron Boothroyd / The Jackson Laboratory)

Perlman, in a 2007 paper about these mice, recognized that SARS wasn’t the first coronavirus, and it wasn’t going to be the last. The idea that we would be faced at some point with another potential coronavirus infection, and that these mice could possibly be useful, was like looking into a crystal ball.

How did Perlman respond to the JAX request?

It was an immediate yes. He had cryopreserved vials of sperm from these mice. One batch was kept at a backup facility. He immediately released the backup vials and sent us his entire stock — emptied his freezer and gave it to us. We had the sperm delivered to us within 48 hours from when Qiming contacted me.

What have you been doing with the sperm?

We start with C57BL/6 mice, the normal laboratory strain. We have thousands and thousands of them. We stimulate the females to superovulate and collect their eggs. And then, just like in an IVF clinic, we take the cryopreserved sperm from Perlman’s lab, thaw it very carefully, and then put the sperm in with the eggs and let them fertilize. Then we transplant the fertilized eggs into females that have been hormonally readied for pregnancy. The females accept the embryos that then gestate to term and, voila, we have Perlman’s mice. We can regenerate a thousand mice in one generation.

Have you made any changes to Perlman’s strain?

We haven’t made any changes. Our primary directive is to get these mice out to the community so that they can begin working with the antivirals and the vaccine therapies.

But these mice haven’t yet been infected with the new coronavirus. How do you know they’ll be useful?

We know that they were severely infected with SARS-CoV, and so we expect the response to be very severe with CoV-2. It’s not the same virus, but very similar. The spike protein is structurally nearly the same, so the method of entry into the lungs should be the same. If there’s any model out there that is capable of producing a response that would that would look like a severe disease, a Covid-19 infection, it’s these mice. We have every expectation that they’ll behave that way.

Have researchers been asking for these mice?

We’ve had over 250 individual requests for large numbers of mice. If you do the math, it’s quite a lot. We’ll be able to supply all of those mice within the first couple weeks of July. That’s how fast we got this up and going. It’s kind of hard to believe because, on one hand, you don’t have a single mouse to spare today, but in eight weeks, you’re going to have this embarrassment of riches.

How will researchers use these mice?

After talking with people, we learned that they don’t yet know how they are going to use them, because they don’t know how these mice are going to infect. This is Covid-19, not SARS, so it’s slightly different and they need to do some pilot experiments to understand the viral dose [the amount of the virus needed to make a mouse sick], the infectivity [how infectious the virus is in these mice], the viral replication, and so on. What’s the disease course going to be? Is it going to be multi-organ or multi-system? Is it going to be contained to the lungs? People just don’t know.

The researchers doing the infectivity experiments, which require solitary facilities and not everybody can do them, have said without hesitation: “As soon as we know how these mice respond, we’ll let you know.” They are not going to wait for their Cell publication or anything like that. They know it’s the right thing to do.

Scientist Margaret Dickie in a mouse room at JAX in 1951. Jax was founded in 1929 — today, it employs more than 2,200 people and has several United States facilities as well as one in Shanghai.

(The Jackson Laboratory)

Research labs around the country have shut down because of the pandemic and some had to euthanize their research animals. Was JAX able to help out in any way?

We were a little bit lucky in Maine because the infection rate was low. We joke that the social distancing here is more like six acres instead of six feet apart. We had time to prepare and plan for how we would reduce our research program, so that we can be ready for when we come back.

A lot of other universities around the country did not have that luxury. They had 24 hours to cull their mouse colonies. A lot of people realized that some of their mice weren’t cryopreserved. If they had to reduce their colonies, they would risk extinction of those mice. Anybody who’s invested their research and time into these mice doesn’t want that to happen.

So they called us and asked for help with cryopreservation of their mice. We have climate-controlled trucks that we use to deliver our mice. I call them limousines — they’re very comfortable. We were able to pick up their mice in these “rescue trucks” and cryopreserve their sperm and embryos here at JAX, so that when these labs do reopen, those mice can be regenerated. I think that’s very comforting to the researchers.

Did JAX have any prior experience like this, from having dealt with past crises?

Yes. But those have been natural disasters. Hurricane Sandy was one, Katrina was another. Vivariums in New York and Louisiana were flooding and people were losing their research animals. They were trying to preserve and protect anything that they could. So that was very similar.

JAX has also been involved in its own disasters. We had a fire in 1989. Before that, there was a fire in 1947 where almost the entire Mount Desert Island burned to the ground. We didn’t have cryopreservation in 1947. People ran into buildings, grabbing cages with mice, to rescue them. We are very conscientious because we’ve lived through it ourselves.

How have you been coping with the crisis?

It’s been probably the longest 12 weeks that I’ve had to deal with, waiting for these mice to be born and to breed. I’ve always known how important mice are for research, but you never know how critically important they are until you realize that they’re the only ones that are out there.

We wouldn’t have these mice if it weren’t for Stanley Perlman. And I think of my friend Qiming emailing me from his apartment in Wuhan, where he was going through this horrible situation that we’re living in now. Had it not been for him reaching out and us having these conversations and looking through the literature to see what we had, we probably wouldn’t have reached this stage as quickly as we have. Sometimes it just takes one person to really make a difference.

This article originally appeared in Knowable Magazine, an independent journalistic endeavor from Annual Reviews. Sign up for the newsletter.

#Nature

#Nature

[rajyog7493]

How Impacted COVID-19 on Cleaning Product ?

COVID-19 Impact on Cleaning Product in FMCG Industry

INTRODUCTTION

The COVID-19 pandemic has influenced the whole planet with its major impacts on the economy and businesses across the globe. The COVID-19 spread worldwide in unprecedented ways due to its high infectious and contagious nature and lack of availability of its vaccine. As a result, the greatest medical challenge in the 21st century is yet to be faced by physicians worldwide. Though the emergence of the virus can be traced back to Asia, many European countries along with the U.S. have been struck massively by the pandemic. The virus has spread across all regions ranging from North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East, and Africa up to South America. The COVID-19 has been declared as a pandemic by World Health Organization (WHO) due to its increased spread across the globe. After the declaration of the pandemic, various countries announced the complete lockdown such as India, China, and other Asian countries to decrease its spread. According to the latest situation report by World Health Organization (WHO) stated 175 million cases of the corona have been reported globally and 4 million patients are dead due to the coronavirus. On a slightly positive note, a total of 158 million people have recovered and total of 2 million vaccine doses have been administered as well.

Cleaning products are comprised with numerous types of materials including liquids, powder, sprays, or granules which are used to remove dirt including dust, stain, bad smells, and clutter on surfaces.

The main purpose of cleaning products is to maintain health and beauty, removing offensive smells, and avoiding the spread of contaminants to oneself and others. Many cleaning agents can kill bacteria such as kitchen room, as well as bacteria on worktops and other metallic surfaces and clean at the same time. Cleaning products are normally in the form of acids detergents, abrasives, and sanitizers. And others, called degreasers are cleaning agents containing chemical they are used to dissolve water-insoluble substances (such as grease or oil).

The sudden shutdown across the word due to COVID-19 pandemic brought daily life to standstill and disturbed all economic activities. It restricted movement of people, induced labor shortages, impacted factory operations, disrupted logistics, led to outlet closures for non-essential products and food service providers, triggered panic buying among consumers for staples and left retailers with stock-outs in few categories.

In the manufacturing sector of cleaning products, workers have been hit hard in some segments, such as workers are told to stay at home, factories have been closed, and global supply chains grind to a halt. Quarantine measures, closure of retail stores, canceled orders, and salary reductions are suppressing demand and supply of the product such as, personal protection equipment, hand sanitizers and delivery of safe food at home.

UPCOMING FUTURE OF PROTECTIVE FILMS MARKET

After COVID-19 people are more aware with cleanliness and changed their life style. Moreover, the technology and innovation are creating new cleaning products that consumers are demanding and cleaning companies can use. Additionally, consumers are increasingly more interested in environmentally friendly products. Technology has influenced how cleaning companies manage their business activities and also how they communicate with their customers.

In near future social media and innovation will prove important over the coming years. The government has also encouraging cleanness and manufacturers must keep up a constant advertising effort to promote cleanness image and reinforce market presence.

Additionally, companies must be quick to meet changing demand and keep up with shifting trends through product innovation and technological savvy. Extending manufacturing lines to include natural and eco-friendly product and packaging options is one way in which companies may need to evolve.

STRATEGIC DECISION FOR CLEANING PRODUCT MARKET AFTER COVID-19 TO GAIN COMPETITIVE MARKET SHARE

The spread of coronavirus has caused huge shortage of cleaning products and this shortage has driven price too high. Governments, medical sector staff, workers of other organizations and doctors have been encouraging to use alcohol based hand sanitizers which have had huge impacts on sanitizer market, and have tried their efforts to address and mitigate the challenges of COVID-19 and recover from the economic and social crises. Many country’s government have support packages and while these are not generally specific to the chemical industries.

The coronavirus has disrupted almost every industry but governments, medical sectors, workers of other organizations and doctors have encouraged social distancing and due to all these, factories had been shut down and workers were not going to work and have tried their efforts to address and mitigate the challenges of COVID-19 and recover from the economic and social crises.

IMPACT ON PRICE

The spread of coronavirus has caused huge shortage of cleaning products and due to this shortage, prices have been highly increased. Increases consumption of packaged, healthier, immunity boosting foods and beverages, and hygiene and cleaning products increase intake of OTC medicines to protect from viruses but on other side factories and all nations have gone shut down. These chaos has have had heavy impact on prices of cleaning products.

For instance,

The average daily sales and factory output have declined. Only few factories are operational in this time and maximum of those factories are in COVID-19 hotspot regions. Due to this condition the government hasn't permitted the distributors to operate, which thereby make sure the shortage of cleaning products and hence, the increased price.

IMPACT ON DEMAND

During the pandemic, high importance has been provided to cleanliness so as to avoid the spreading of infection. Cleaning is vital to reduce the impact of virus and thus, the demand of cleaning products has been huge. Due to this consumption of cleaning products have also been high and cleaning products are now out of stock.

By this contrast, COVID-19 is having a decidedly different effect on various product categories. In particular, the pandemic is elevating the status of household cleaning products. Cleanliness has always been important, but cleaning products are now part of consumer’s daily life.

The few months of lockdown changes in consumer behavior are being reflected in sales of product categories. Increased awareness about personal hygiene has led to a jump in demand for hand washes and sanitizers. Emphasis on immunity boosting has led to a surge in demand for healthier foods and preventive products. Some categories like grocery, food and home-essential products, are seeing a surge in consumption. Hence, the demand for cleaning products is on the rise which is further leading to growth of the market.

IMPACT ON SUPPLY CHAIN

COVID-19 has adversely affected the supply of inputs for many businesses with lockdown policies affecting the movement of people and business operations.

In China, people involuntarily sat idle as a result of COVID-19, which led to a diminishing global pipeline of parts and components exporting around the world.

Although no major problems have been observed in the supply chains of consumer goods such as sanitizers so far, it remains unclear in the face of an uncertain future. As a result, each country has to realize the severity of the situation and sometimes should tighten or loosen the measures according to the spread of the pandemic.

The supply chain also should be flexible enough to respond to the challenges in the supply chain of cleaning products.

CONCLUSION

Pandemic has taken a toll on every aspect of life, including the global economy. With the significant downfalls in many sectors, a collaborative effort of government, industry players, and consumers can win the fight against COVID-19.

It still continues to inflict the world with appalling economic and social dilemmas, capable enough to leave severe backlash on the economy for the next several years. The first wave had already inflicted severe blows to the population as well as the economy. The currently experiencing second wave is expected to be more disastrous not only to the masses but also to consumer goods markets.

As official authorities and WHO (World Health Organization) have been encouraging the use of sanitizers, drinking clean water, and hygiene in terms of food we consume and area we live in or washing our hands, the demand for cleaning products has been and will continue to see a significant growth.

Cleaning products and services are an essential part of preventing and protecting human health during infectious disease outbreaks, including the current COVID-19 pandemic. One of the most cost-effective strategies for increasing pandemic is preparedness, especially in resource-constrained settings, is investing in core public health infrastructure, including water and sanitation systems.

#Cleaning Product Market Analysis . #Cleaning Product Market Forcast #Cleaning Product Market Size #Cleaning Product Market Future Innovation #COVID-19 Impact on Cleaning Product #FMCG Industry

[stephenmccull]

A Health Care Giant Sold Off Dozens of Hospitals — But Continued Suing Patients

Tennova Healthcare-Lebanon doesn’t exist anymore as a hospital. But it still sued Hope Cantwell.

A knock came on the door of Cantwell’s Nashville, Tennessee, apartment early this year. She said she hadn’t been vaccinated against covid-19 yet and wasn’t answering the door to strangers. So she didn’t.

But then several more attempts came over the course of a week. Eventually she masked up and opened. A legal assistant served her a lawsuit; she was summoned to appear in court.

“I couldn’t believe someone — someone? a corporation? a company? — was doing this during a pandemic,” Cantwell said.

It started with a hospital visit in May 2019.

Cantwell was admitted for a short stay at Tennova Healthcare-Lebanon, owned at the time by Community Health Systems, a publicly traded company headquartered in Franklin, Tennessee. Her insurance covered most of the stay, but it still left her with $2,700 to pay.

Nearly a year later, she was in a financial position to start chipping away at the bill. She went online to pay but couldn’t find the hospital or its payment portal.

Cantwell did a little Googling and noticed Vanderbilt University Medical Center bought the 245-bed facility around the time of her stay. It’s called Vanderbilt Wilson County Hospital now.

Then the pandemic hit. She was furloughed from work for three months. And soon after, a letter arrived. A law firm representing the former hospital owner demanded payment and threatened to take her to court. She wasn’t sure what to do, since she couldn’t come up with all the cash. She was in a holding pattern until the knock on the door from the legal assistant.

Pandemic Push

A WPLN News investigation found Tennova Healthcare-Lebanon sued more than 1,000 patients, including Cantwell, over the past two years across multiple counties after striking a deal to be sold. And hundreds of those suits were filed during the pandemic, at a time when many companies have backed away from taking patients to court over unpaid medical debt. The state of New York banned the practice.

Community Health Systems is on the tail end of a corporate downsizing that shrank the company from more than 200 hospitals to 84. The sell-off helped stabilize the company after it took on massive debt during a period of rapid growth that briefly gave Community Health Systems more hospitals than any other chain in the country.

But now many of those institutions are like zombie hospitals — little more than a legal entity still taking patients to court even after being sold to new owners that don’t sue over medical bills.

When her summons arrived, panic set in for Cantwell.

“My mind went immediately to the stimulus payments,” she said. “‘At least I have a way to take care of this now.'”

When her final pandemic stimulus money dropped into her bank account, Cantwell said, she sent it straight to the company that had sued her, even though she almost felt like the victim of a scam. She wondered if she really owed all the money or if she qualified for financial assistance since she lost income during the pandemic.

But lawsuits are a rich man’s game. She couldn’t justify trying to find an attorney or fighting a big for-profit company that would pursue her for $2,700.

“I don’t have the resources and emotional and mental capacity to handle anything more than just kind of rolling over and handing over whatever amount of money they would be happy with,” she said.

Community Health Systems’ Debt Problem

Court records indicate Community Health Systems stepped up filing lawsuits against patients in 2015 at the same time its stock price plummeted over concerns about its outsize corporate debt.

Aside from a hospital fire sale, Community Health Systems also aggressively went after patients. And the company didn’t let the pandemic slow that plan, even though it received more than $700 million from the federal government in covid relief money.

A spokesperson for HCA Healthcare, the largest for-profit hospital chain in the country, said its hospitals do not sue patients over unpaid medical debt — during the pandemic or otherwise. The Nashville-based corporation returned all its covid relief funds.

An investigation by CNN found Community Health Systems sued at least 19,000 patients during the pandemic, though the number is likely an undercount given the lawsuits filed on behalf of its former hospitals.

Like Tennova Healthcare-Lebanon, two other Community Health Systems hospitals in Tennessee also continued taking patients to court after selling to Vanderbilt more recently. Community Health Systems held on to its debt in the deals with Vanderbilt and continues to pursue patients who owe it money.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center spokesperson John Howser said Vanderbilt does not sue patients to collect on medical debt.

“Community Health Systems and its subsidiary Tennova Healthcare is a private company that is not owned or operated by Vanderbilt University Medical Center,” Howser wrote in a statement. “As such, VUMC is not involved in these lawsuits.”

Vanderbilt University Medical Center does help run a Community Health Systems-owned hospital in Clarksville, Tennessee, that continues to sue patients, but Howser noted Community Health Systems has the controlling interest.

“The thing is, these aren’t rich people who don’t want to pay their bills,” said Christi Walsh, a nurse practitioner who directs clinical research at Johns Hopkins University. Her team focuses on hospitals suing patients and pressures them to stop. “I’ve been on the ground in the courthouses. These are people who don’t have the money to pay it.”

In Wilson County, Tennessee, a husband and wife were both sued by Tennova Healthcare-Lebanon. He works in a distribution center that shut down for months during the pandemic. She cared for their foster kids and delivered meals with DoorDash, telling WPLN News they were too busy to make their court date.

The problem is, not showing up to face a debt in court can allow a company to take a cut of someone’s paycheck. It also wrecks a person’s financial credit, and the stress can lead to health problems.

‘It Threatens the Public Trust’

Walsh’s team researched the most litigious hospitals in Texas from 2018 to 2020. The top five were all affiliated with Community Health Systems. And the most lawsuits were filed by South Texas Regional Medical Center, which was sold to HCA in 2017. But South Texas Regional Medical Center continued to sue patients.

Marty Makary, a surgeon at Johns Hopkins who wrote a book about health care billing called “The Price We Pay,” said most hospitals have changed tactics. Suing their patients doesn’t make them tons of money after attorney and court fees, and it hurts their brand. But he said Community Health Systems has not expressed such concern.

“Community Health Systems, in all of our research of hospital pricing and billing practices, stands out as an aggressive institution that uniformly, across the country, engages in very aggressive predatory billing — suing patients in court to garnish their wages,” he said.

Even if Community Health Systems is willing to take a hit to its reputation, Makary said, patients think of the health system as a whole. And they’ll think twice next time they need to go to the doctor.

“It threatens the public trust in our community institutions. And medical institutions are supposed to be above those games,” he said.

In a statement to WPLN News, a Community Health Systems spokesperson said the company used its covid relief money to pay for pandemic expenses and make up for lost revenue. In January, the company said it will take patients to court only if they make at least twice the federal poverty level — or about $53,000 annually for a family of four.

“We continually evaluate modifications to our collection practices to support patients who struggle to pay their hospital bills,” spokesperson Rebecca Pitt said.

The policy change is meant to be retroactive. The company will withdraw litigation for anyone who qualifies, Pitt said. Patients who owe Community Health Systems and its former hospitals money are being made aware of the new policy in legal correspondence and can call 800-755-5152 to begin the process to drop a lawsuit, she said.

This story is from a reporting partnership that includes WPLN, NPR and KHN.

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

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This story can be republished for free (details).

A Health Care Giant Sold Off Dozens of Hospitals — But Continued Suing Patients published first on https://smartdrinkingweb.weebly.com/

[newstfionline]

Monday, January 11, 2021

The workers hit hardest during Covid-19’s first wave are getting pummeled again (Yahoo Finance) Since the beginning of the pandemic, one group of workers has been hurt far more than others: those working in the service industries, specifically in leisure and hospitality jobs. And in December after some progress, that industry lost jobs once again. “The most recent surge in coronavirus cases is once again battering the US labor market,” Indeed’s economic research director Nick Bunker wrote in a note. “The economic fallout from this wave of cases is hitting the industries and workers pummeled hardest by the initial damage before they fully bounced back from that first hit.” The latest hit isn’t as bad as the spring, as vaccines are rolling out and certain measures are in place, but restaurants, bars, and other jobs that depend on people interacting still cannot do business in a pandemic environment.

Squelched by Twitter, Trump seeks new online megaphone (AP) One Twitter wag joked about lights flickering on and off at the White House being Donald Trump signaling to his followers in Morse code after Twitter and Facebook squelched the president for inciting rebellion. Though deprived of his big online megaphones, Trump does have alternative options of much smaller reach. The far right-friendly Parler may be the leading candidate, though Google and Apple have both removed it from their app stores and Amazon decided to boot it off its web hosting service. Trump may launch his own platform. But that won’t happen overnight, and free speech experts anticipate growing pressure on all social media platforms to curb incendiary speech as Americans take stock of Wednesday’s violent takeover of the U.S. Capitol. Facebook and Instagram have suspended Trump at least until Inauguration Day. Twitch and Snapchat also have disabled Trump’s accounts, while Shopify took down online stores affiliated with the president and Reddit removed a Trump subgroup. Twitter also banned Trump loyalists including former national security advisor Michael Flynn in a sweeping purge of accounts promoting the QAnon conspiracy theory and the Capitol insurrection. Some had hundreds of thousands of followers.

Navy’s Priciest Carrier Ever Struggles to Get Jets On, Off Deck (Bloomberg) Aircraft takeoff and landing systems on the USS Gerald R. Ford remain unreliable and break down too often more than three years after the $13.2 billion carrier was delivered, according to the Pentagon’s top tester. The latest assessment of the costliest warship ever built “remains consistent” with previous years, director of testing Robert Behler said in his new summary of the program obtained by Bloomberg News before its release in an annual report. The Ford’s new systems—which propel planes off the deck and into the sky and then snag them on landing—are crucial to justifying the expense of what’s now a four-vessel, $57 billion program intended to replace the current Nimitz class of aircraft carriers. The continuing reliability woes with the carrier systems built by General Atomics of San Diego are separate from another continuing challenge: the installation and certification of elevators needed to lift munitions from below deck. As of November, six of 11 “advanced weapons elevators” that should have been installed when the ship was delivered in May 2017 are now operational.

In Central America, tensions rise as soldiers aim to stop migrants (Reuters) Guatemalan and Honduran soldiers will be deployed to prevent new U.S.-bound migrant caravans from advancing, military officials said, amid growing desperation among those seeking to cross and signs that some groups will depart later this month. Two devastating hurricanes late last year along with severe economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic have pushed millions of people in the already-poor region closer to hunger, leading to a steady rise in U.S.-bound migration through Mexico. In online forums, many Honduras have indicated they plan to leave next weekend in a new caravan, which has caught the attention of U.S. officials who have called on the region’s governments to stop them. Many migrants in recent years have chosen to travel by caravan because being part of a large group offers protection from criminals who might prey on them, even though traveling alone is often faster.

Johnson under fire as UK again faces onslaught of COVID-19 (AP) The crisis facing Britain this winter is depressingly familiar: Stay-at-home orders and empty streets. Hospitals overflowing. A daily toll of many hundreds of coronavirus deaths. The U.K. is the epicenter of Europe’s COVID-19 outbreak once more, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative government is facing questions, and anger, as people demand to know how the country has ended up here—again. Many countries are enduring new waves of the virus, but Britain’s is among the worst, and it comes after a horrendous 2020. More than 3 million people in the U.K. have tested positive for the coronavirus and 81,000 have died—30,000 in just the last 30 days. The economy has shrunk by 8%, more than 800,000 jobs have been lost and hundreds of thousands more furloughed workers are in limbo. Even with the new lockdown, London Mayor Sadiq Khan said Friday that the situation in the capital was “critical,” with one in every 30 people infected. “The stark reality is that we will run out of beds for patients in the next couple of weeks unless the spread of the virus slows down drastically,” he said.

In the Cold and Rain, India’s Farmers Press Their Stand Against Modi (NYT) Under a rain-slick tarpaulin, half a dozen elderly women bake roti on a wood-fired griddle—flattening dough, flipping browned bread from dawn until the sun retreats into Delhi’s evening smoke. Anyone who walks in gets served rice and cooked vegetables and, to wash it down, a cumin-flavored yogurt drink. Across the road, Jagjeet Singh, a burly man with a large fanny pack and a light purple turban, churns a hefty pot of milk coffee from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. The scenes stretching for miles around the Indian capital don’t come from a fair. They make up one of the largest sustained protests the country has seen in decades, persisting through steady rains and dozens of deaths that farmers and the Indian media have attributed to the weather, illness or suicide. For six weeks now, tens of thousands of farmers have choked the city’s four main entry points. They are challenging Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has crushed all other opposition and stands as the country’s dominant political force, over his effort to reshape how farming in India has been done for decades. “They sold everything else. Only the farmers are left,” said 18-year old Ajay Veer Singh, who has been at the protest with his 67-year-old grandfather since it began in November. “Now they want to sell the farmers to their corporate friends too.”

China sees growing outbreak south of Beijing (AP) More than 360 people have tested positive in a growing coronavirus outbreak south of Beijing in neighboring Hebei province. The outbreak has raised particular concern because of Hebei’s proximity to the nation’s capital. Travel between the two has been restricted, with workers from Hebei having to show proof of employment in Beijing to enter the city. Almost all of the cases are in Shijuazhuang, the provincial capital, which is about 260 kilometers (160 miles) southwest of Beijing. A handful have also been found in Xingtai city, 110 kilometers (68 miles) farther south. Both cities have conducted mass testing of millions of residents, suspended public transportation and restricted residents to their communities or villages for one week.

Pompeo voids restrictions on diplomatic contacts with Taiwan (AP) Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Saturday that the State Department is voiding longstanding restrictions on how U.S. diplomats and others have contact with their counterparts in Taiwan, another move that is expected to upset China as the Trump administration winds to an end. The Trump administration has sought to strengthen bilateral relations with Taiwan. It announced Thursday that U.N Ambassador Kelly Craft would go to Taiwan, a move that sparked sharp criticism from Beijing and a warning that the U.S. would pay a heavy price. In August, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar became the first Cabinet member to visit Taiwan since 2014. Pompeo said that the State Department has created complex restrictions when it comes to contacts between the two parties. He said those actions were taken to appease the Communist regime in Beijing. “No more,” Pompeo declared in a statement. “Today I am announcing that I am lifting all of these self-imposed restrictions.” The Chinese government maintains that mainland China and Taiwan are parts of “one China.” China has been stepping up its threats to bring the self-governing island under its control by military force with frequent war games and aerial patrols. It has been using its diplomatic clout to stop Taiwan from joining any organizations that require statehood for membership.

Japanese pray for end to pandemic in annual ice bath ritual at Tokyo shrine (Reuters) Men wearing traditional loin clothes and women dressed in white robes clapped and chanted before going into an ice water bath during a Shinto ritual at a Tokyo shrine on Sunday to purify the soul and pray for the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. Only a dozen people took part in the annual event at Teppou-zu Inari Shrine, scaled down this year due to the health crisis, compared to over a hundred in early 2020. After doing warming-up exercises and chanting under a clear sky with outside temperatures at 5.1 degree Celsius (41.18 Fahrenheit), the nine male and three female participants went into a bath filled with cold water and large ice blocks. Fewer participants at the Shinto ritual made the water extra cold, participant Naoaki Yamaguchi told Reuters. “Normally we have more participants and it makes the water temperature a little bit warmer. But this year, there were just twelve people, so it (the cold) was crazy,” the 47-year-old said.

Indonesian divers find parts of plane wreckage in Java Sea (AP) Indonesian divers on Sunday located parts of the wreckage of a Boeing 737-500 at a depth of 23 meters (75 feet) in the Java Sea, a day after the aircraft with 62 people onboard crashed shortly after takeoff from Jakarta. Earlier, rescuers pulled out body parts, pieces of clothing and scraps of metal from the surface. It’s still unclear what caused the crash. There was no sign of survivors. Fishermen in the area between Lancang and Laki islands, part of an archipelago around Thousand Islands north of Jakarta’s coast, reported hearing an explosion around 2:30 p.m. Saturday.

At a Yemen hospital wracked by U.S. funding cuts, children are dying of hunger (Washington Post) Her infant son, weakened by hunger, needed a better-equipped hospital in the capital, Sanaa, roughly 30 miles away. But Hanan Saleh could no longer afford even the $30 taxi fare. Before, she depended on a Western aid organization, Save the Children, for funds, drawn from money donated by the United States, to cover the travel costs, said employees of the organization and hospital officials. But last year, the United States slashed its funding to United Nations groups and others such as Save the Children. So Saleh had to raise money to treat her son, Mohammed, in Sanaa until those funds ran out, too. Her last option was a small hospital in this northern Yemen market town, a 15-minute walk from their home. The staff tried to build up his skeletal, malnourished 9-month-old body. “He died two months ago,” Saleh recalled in November, breaking down in tears. Aid cuts by the Trump administration and other Western countries, intended to prevent Yemen’s Houthi rebels from diverting or blocking funds, are worsening the country’s humanitarian crisis, already considered the most severe in the world. Last year’s pledges totaling $1.61 billion were less than half of 2019’s funding, and hundreds of millions of dollars committed by donors have not yet been paid, according to the U.N.’s humanitarian office for Yemen. At least 15 of the U.N.’s 41 major programs have been scaled back or closed, and additional programs could shutter in the months to come, if more funds are not received, U.N. officials say.

The Tiny Satellites That Will Connect Cows, Cars and Shipping Containers to the Internet (WSJ) Scientists who track the health of Adélie penguins on the ice-covered wastes of Antarctica are managing their cameras from thousands of miles away—via tiny satellites orbiting above our heads. Energy companies are exploring using the same technology for monitoring hard-to-reach wind farms; logistics companies for tracking shipping containers; and agribusiness companies for minding cattle. It even helped National Geographic track a discarded plastic bottle from Bangladesh to the Indian Ocean. In the near future, it isn’t unreasonable to imagine this evolving satellite technology could put a distress beacon in every automobile, allow remote monitoring of wildlife in any environment on earth, and track your Amazon shipment—not just when it’s on a truck, but backward, all the way to the factory that produced it. And it could be done at a fraction of the cost of earlier satellite tracking systems. These novel networks of nanosats—aka cubesats—are a result of a number of factors. First, the satellites themselves are smaller, cheaper and more capable than ever. Just as important, there’s the rollout and adoption of new long-distance, low-power wireless communication standards that can work just as well in outer space as they do on the ground. In the next year, hundreds of satellites from more than a dozen companies are set to launch.

#headlines #news

[opedguy]

GOP Opposes Biden’s Infrastructure Plan

LOS ANGELES (OnlineColumnist.com), April 5, 2021.--President Joe Biden, 78, has the GOP exactly where he wants them, it total submission to Democrat policies now pushing for a $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan only weeks after Democrat passed the $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill.  Spending money like a drunken sailor is precisely what the public wants, handing Biden 73% approval ratings for his handling to the Covid-19 crisis.  Whether Republicans admit it or not, they’re a minority party, with the majority of voters going Democratic.  Biden’s overall approval rating is a whopping 53,8%, almost 20% above Trump’s average in the days leading up to the election.  Biden has a strong wind at his back to pass his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan, even if it doesn’t come with one Republican vote.  Former Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) vowed to fight Biden’s plan but the plain truth is he can’t stop Democrats from going to a simple majority.     

        Biden’s big election win over former President Donald Trump [306-232] in the Electoral College and over 5 million more popular votes giving him the mandate to pass whatever he wants.  As long as the economy continues what now looks like a V-shaped post Covid-19 recovery, Biden will continue to maintain high approval ratings but, more importantly, keep the GOP from winning back a House of Senate majority.  As it stands right now, there’s zero evidence that Republicans will have momentum to resume control of the House and Senate in 2022.  If the economy continues to recover, Democrats, if anything, will continue to pad their majorities in both Houses.  “They know we need it,” Biden said with respect to his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan, that he claims could create 19 million middle class jobs.  With Trump out of the picture, the GOP finds itself politically deflated.       

       Biden said while he’ll considers GOP objections, he said that infrastructure spending is being done all over the world.  “Everybody around the world is investing in billions and billions of dollars in infrastructure, and we’re going to do it here,” Biden said.  Republicans have no real way to resist Biden’s $2.3 trillion plan, unless the stock market sells off and the economy starts heading south.  All indications point to expanding equity markets and a V-shaped economic recovery.  Only geopolitical events could derail the current economic juggernaut that looks to continue improving.  If Russian President Vladimir Putin invades eastern Ukraine, then markets could sell off.  Other than that, the economy looks to regain the momentum it had before the pandemic, something that looks like it heading in the rear view mirror.  It’s ironic that Trump predicted a V-shaped recovery in 2021, the biggest year for growth ever.      

       As more American’s get vaccinated, it seems directly correlated with economic recovery.  Funny that during the 2020 campaign Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris told voters not to trust Trump’s rosy predictions on vaccines.  Biden and Harris not only told voters not to trust Trump’s vaccines, they told them they wouldn’t be ready until well into 2021.  Once Biden and Harris won the Nov. 3 election, Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna announced that the FDA has approved their vaccines, exactly on the same schedule Trump promised.  But more importantly, Trump correctly predicted that the vaccines would serve like “rocket fuel” to the struggling economy, making 2021 one of the biggest economic growth years in U.S. history.  So far, Trump’s forecasts have proved true, with Biden and Harris reaping the benefits. As long as the economy continues to hum along, GOP won’t derail Biden’s $2.3 infrastructure bill.     

        When it comes to domestic policy, there’s only good news on the horizon for Biden’s domestic programs.  When it comes to foreign policy, it’s the only thing now that can derail U.S. economic progress.  Since taking office, Biden has sent U.S.-Russian relations spiraling into Cold War lows.  No one believed during the post WW II Cold War period, that the U.S. and former Soviet Union would get into a shooting war.  With Biden calling Putin a “soulless killer” March 16, the prospects for a shooting war, most likely in eastern Ukraine, have dramatically increased.  Biden and his 58-year-old Secretary of State Tony Blinken have pushed relations with Russia and China to the brink. Blinken accused China of “genocide” against the Muslim Uyghurs in Western China’s Xinjaing province, something not supported by facts.  While China mistreats the Uyghurs, there’s no genocide taking place.       

      Republicans led by McConnell  and Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) don’t have a prayer to stop Biden from pushing for the lion’s share of $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan.  McConnell and Blunt simply don’t have the political capital or votes needed to stop Biden from advancing his plan.  Biden vowed to “push as hard as I can” to pass his plan that has popular support.  Unlike Trump, when you have the media behind you and approval ratings at 53.8%, there’s little real resistance ahead.  Republicans simply don’t have the votes or popular opposition to Biden’s infrastructure plan.  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has already set in motion the steps needed to pass Biden’s plan with a simple majority.  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) estimates a House vote by July 4.  Republicans are kidding themselves that the can stop Biden from passing his plan.

 About the Author 

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.  Reply  Reply All  Forward

[differentnutpeace]

How To Sign Up For A COVID-19 Vaccine In Your State

The COVID-19 vaccines are here, but if it's your turn to get vaccinated, how are you supposed to sign up? หวย บอล เกมส์ คาสิโนออนไลน์

The answers vary by place, so NPR created a tool to help you understand how things work in your state and connect you with local resources. And we're sharing guiding principles and advice for navigating the process below.

Search for your state below. (There are a few large cities with their own immunization plans that you'll find on our list as well.)

Please note that the information in this tool is subject to change, as states roll out new processes and new providers get the vaccine. Always check with your state health department for the latest guidance.

Advice for navigating a patchwork system

It helps to understand how the system works as you set out to get the vaccine. Here are some tips to keep in mind as you proceed.

1. First, understand the big picture. As you try to navigate the vaccine system in your state, be aware that there are multiple points of entry for those seeking a vaccine. Although the federal government pays for and distributes the vaccines, it's up to state and local health departments and the private sector — hospitals, clinics and pharmacies — to actually schedule and give out the shots.

In many states, the different systems don't talk to one another. So when it's your turn to get signed up for a shot, you may need to look for available appointments in all three of these separate streams, depending on your state.

2. Keep an eye on pharmacies. In addition to sending vaccines to states, the government is sending vaccines directly to chain pharmacies through the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program, which launched in early February.

Find out which pharmacies in your area are giving out vaccines by using the CDC's VaccineFinder tool, which launched Feb. 24. VaccineFinder is designed to show up-to-date information about which local pharmacies have doses in stock, and you may be able to book an appointment online, directly with the pharmacy, if you're eligible in your state.

In most states, this tool only shows pharmacies that get vaccine directly from the federal government so there may be additional pharmacies with vaccine — check your state in our tool for ways to search for those. In Alaska, Indiana, Iowa and Tennessee, you can see the complete list of providers using VaccineFinder, and more states are expected to include complete lists in the coming weeks.

3. Remember the vaccine is free. You can get it if you don't have insurance. If you are insured, your insurance is required to cover the costs of administering the shot. Make sure to have your health insurance info handy in case when looking for an available slot in case that information is needed to register.

4. Be patient and persistent. There are not enough doses available right now for people who are currently eligible and demand is generally high, so you might have to persevere.

It can certainly be frustrating: Hotlines can be jammed. Sign-ups can fill up the minute they open. Providers don't always schedule second doses, leaving people who succeeded in getting an initial appointment to scramble to set up their second dose within the recommended window.

Even insiders are struggling with the chaotic system. Claire Hannan, who runs the Association of Immunization Managers, could barely figure out how to get a shot for her dad in Maryland. "He's on the pre-registered waiting list for our county since Jan. 15, and we haven't heard one thing," she says. "Who could possibly be ahead of him? He's 95!" (She was ultimately able to get him vaccinated in another county.)

If you're feeling exasperated, remember that because of the patchwork nature of the system, local health departments don't have all the answers.

"They don't universally have access to the systems that tell you where vaccine is within their jurisdiction," explains Adriane Casalotti, chief of government and public affairs at the National Association of County and City Health Officials.

5. Look for local advice. Some tips that can help you find a slot are specific to a local area or state. You can find local guides from the media or places like AARP and GoodRx. Follow your state and local government on social media for specific tips where you live and maybe news about mass vaccination sites opening up with available slots.

Also search for Facebook groups — like this one in South Florida or this one in Oklahoma — and other local volunteer efforts that have sprung up to try to help folks navigate all of this.

Some states, like California, are hosting mass vaccination sites. In addition, state and local health departments, as well as select medical centers and pharmacies, are giving out shots in many places.

Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty ImagesIs a better system coming?

From the current state of affairs, it seems obvious that health officials should have realized that once vaccines were out, they were going to need an effective and equitable way to bring people in to get their shots. But immunization managers across the country had their hands full getting ready to mobilize quickly for the coming vaccines, says Hannan.

The vaccine distribution patchwork is not easy to fix because it's a reflection of the patchwork health care system, a mix of public providers like health departments and private providers like hospitals and clinics that don't always play nice together.

"I can't tell you how complicated it is to have a federally financed vaccine being distributed through a state-based system, with a health care system that's private-sector based," Hannan says. "These three things are completely separate and operate in their own kingdoms. So, trying to marry all of this and to track it in real time with data connections? It's incredible that we are where we are."

SHOTS - HEALTH NEWS

How Is The COVID-19 Vaccination Campaign Going In Your State?

A central promise of the Biden administration was to offer more assertive federal leadership over the COVID-19 public health response. Recently, officials have acknowledged the confusion and promised they're "looking at various options" for something more clear and centralized.

The launch of the CDC-backed VaccineFinder to help people find providers near them with vaccine in stock is helpful, but doesn't solve the sign-up problem — people still need to reach out to each clinic or pharmacy individually to try to book an appointment.

In all likelihood, the patchwork of public and private sign-up systems will continue. "At this point, it's probably too late in the game to set up a system to connect everything," Hannan says. "So it's really almost better to just communicate to people: 'Here's where the vaccine's going and here's what you need to do.' [Right now,] we're not even doing a great job of that."

It is worth noting: the patchwork might not be pretty, but people are getting vaccinated — more than 66 million doses have gotten into people's arms so far. More than a million shots are given on average every day across the country.

And more and more vaccine is coming. "I feel like we're turning a corner," Hannan says. With a promising production outlook and "potentially another vaccine coming on, I feel like we're in a good place — I do."

Audrey Carlsen designed and developed this lookup tool; Rhitu Chatterjee, Deborah Franklin, Maria Godoy, Richard Harris, Pien Huang, Kristen Kendrick, Rosemary Misdary, Yuki Noguchi, Akilah Wise, Julia Wohl, and Carmel Wroth contributed research and reporting.

[wiseguyreportresearch]

COVID-19 Impact on Global IT Training Market Statistics, CAGR, Outlook, and Covid-19 Impact 2026

IT training refers to the professional training offered by universities, enterprises, and non-formal professional institutes that comprise of B2C (business-to-consumer), B2G (business-to-government), and B2B (business-to-business) training. More number of institution have begun to offer informal and social learning platforms to teach IT, which has changed the learning landscape over the past decade. Major producers in the industry include QA, Tedu, Global Knowledge, etc. Their 2019 revenue accounts for 5.4%, 5.29% and 4.51% respectively. By region, Europe had the highest share of income in 2019, at 30.44%

ALSO READ :  https://www.openpr.com/news/2097827/global-it-training-market-2020-technology-share-demand

Since the COVID-19 virus outbreak in December 2019, the disease has spread to almost 100 countries around the globe with the World Health Organization declaring it a public health emergency. The global impacts of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are already starting to be felt, and will significantly affect the IT Training market in 2020. COVID-19 can affect the global economy in three main ways: by directly affecting production and demand, by creating supply chain and market disruption, and by its financial impact on firms and financial markets. The outbreak of COVID-19 has brought effects on many aspects, like flight cancellations; travel bans and quarantines; restaurants closed; all indoor events restricted; over forty countries state of emergency declared; massive slowing of the supply chain; stock market volatility; falling business confidence, growing panic among the population, and uncertainty about future.

ALSO READ :  https://icrowdnewswire.com/2020/04/03/childrens-furniture-market-2020-global-industry-leading-players-market-volume-trends-opportunities-market-study-and-foresight-to-2026/

This report also analyses the impact of Coronavirus COVID-19 on the IT Training industry. Based on our recent survey, we have several different scenarios about the IT Training YoY growth rate for 2020. The probable scenario is expected to grow by a xx% in 2020 and the revenue will be xx in 2020 from US$ 6876.8 million in 2019. The market size of IT Training will reach xx in 2026, with a CAGR of xx% from 2020 to 2026.

ALSO READ :  http://www.marketwatch.com/story/flaked-cereals-market-analysis-report-2021-by-supply-demand-components-trends-size-share-and-more-2021-01-07

With industry-standard accuracy in analysis and high data integrity, the report makes a brilliant attempt to unveil key opportunities available in the global IT Training market to help players in achieving a strong market position. Buyers of the report can access verified and reliable market forecasts, including those for the overall size of the global IT Training market in terms of revenue. Players, stakeholders, and other participants in the global IT Training market will be able to gain the upper hand as they use the report as a powerful resource. For this version of the report, the segmental analysis focuses on revenue and forecast by each application segment in terms of revenue and forecast by each type segment in terms of revenue for the period 2015-2026. Regional and Country-level Analysis The report offers an exhaustive geographical analysis of the global IT Training market, covering important regions, viz, United States, Europe, China and India. It also covers key countries (regions), viz, U.S., Canada, Germany, France, U.K., Italy, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, Mexico, Brazil, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, UAE, etc. The report includes country-wise and region-wise market size for the period 2015-2026. It also includes market size and forecast by each application segment in terms of revenue for the period 2015-2026. Competition Analysis

ALSO READ :  http://www.marketwatch.com/story/global-telco-data-monetization-market-projection-by-industry-size-share-movements-by-trend-analysis-growth-status-revenue-expectation-to-2026-2021-01-12

In the competitive analysis section of the report, leading as well as prominent players of the global IT Training market are broadly studied on the basis of key factors. The report offers comprehensive analysis and accurate statistics on revenue by the player for the period 2015-2020. It also offers detailed analysis supported by reliable statistics on price and revenue (global level) by player for the period 2015-2020. On the whole, the report proves to be an effective tool that players can use to gain a competitive edge over their competitors and ensure lasting success in the global IT Training market. All of the findings, data, and information provided in the report are validated and revalidated with the help of trustworthy sources. The analysts who have authored the report took a unique and industry-best research and analysis approach for an in-depth study of the global IT Training market. The following players are covered in this report: CGS Firebrand Global Knowledge New Horizon Tech Data Corpex Dell EMC ExecuTrain Fast Lane GP Strategies Progility (ILX Group) Infosec Institute ITpreneurs Koenig Solutions Learning Tree International NetCom Learning NIIT Onlc Training Centers QA SkillSoft TTA LearnQuest Tedu Itcast IT Training Breakdown Data by Type Infrastructure Development Data and AI Security Others Infrastructure holds a larger share in global market, which accounts for about 37.65% in 2019. IT Training Breakdown Data by Application Individuals SMEs Large Enterprises Government Military and Others Individual IT training holds an important share in terms of applications, and accounts for over 53% of the revenue share in 2019.

ALSO READ : http://www.marketwatch.com/story/poliovirus-vaccine-market-global-industry-analysis-size-share-growth-trends-and-forecast-2020---2026-2021-01-13

[orbemnews]

Millions Are Skipping Their Second Doses of Covid Vaccines Millions of Americans are not getting the second doses of their Covid-19 vaccines, and their ranks are growing. More than five million people, or nearly 8 percent of those who got a first shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, have missed their second doses, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That is more than double the rate among people who got inoculated in the first several weeks of the nationwide vaccine campaign. Even as the country wrestles with the problem of millions of people who are wary about getting vaccinated at all, local health authorities are confronting an emerging challenge of ensuring that those who do get inoculated are doing so fully. The reasons vary for why people are missing their second shots. In interviews, some said they feared the side effects, which can include flulike symptoms. Others said they felt that they were sufficiently protected with a single shot. Those attitudes were expected, but another hurdle has been surprisingly prevalent. A number of vaccine providers have canceled second-dose appointments because they ran out of supply or didn’t have the right brand in stock. Walgreens, one of the biggest vaccine providers, sent some people who got a first shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine to get their second doses at pharmacies that only had the other vaccine on hand. Several Walgreens customers said in interviews that they scrambled, in some cases with help from pharmacy staff, to find somewhere to get the correct second dose. Others, presumably, simply gave up. From the outset, public health experts worried that it would be difficult to get everyone to return for a second shot three or four weeks after the first dose. It is no surprise that, as vaccines are rolled out more broadly, the numbers of those skipping their second dose have gone up. But the trend is nonetheless troubling some state officials, who are rushing to keep the numbers of only partly vaccinated people from swelling. In Arkansas and Illinois, health officials have directed teams to call, text or send letters to people to remind them to get their second shots. In Pennsylvania, officials are trying to ensure that college students can get their second shots after they leave campus for the summer. South Carolina has allocated several thousand doses specifically for people who are overdue for their second shot. Mounting evidence collected in trials and from real-world immunization campaigns points to the peril of people skipping their second doses. Compared with the two-dose regimen, a single shot triggers a weaker immune response and may leave recipients more susceptible to dangerous virus variants. And even though a single dose provides partial protection against Covid, it’s not clear how long that protection will last. “I’m very worried, because you need that second dose,” said Dr. Paul Offit, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and a member of the Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisory panel. What You Need to Know About the Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Pause in the U.S. On April 23, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention panel of advisers voted to recommend lifting a pause on the Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccine and adding a label about an exceedingly uncommon but potentially dangerous blood clotting disorder. Federal health officials are expected to formally recommend that states lift the pause. Administration of the vaccine ground to a halt recently after reports emerged of a rare blood clotting disorder in six women who had received the vaccine. The overall risk of developing the disorder is extremely low. Women between 30 and 39 appear to be at greatest risk, with 11.8 cases per million doses given. There have been seven cases per million doses among women between 18 and 49. Nearly eight million doses of the vaccine have now been administered. Among men and women who are 50 or over, there has been less than one case per million doses. Johnson & Johnson had also decided to delay the rollout of its vaccine in Europe amid similar concerns, but it later decided to resume its campaign after the European Union’s drug regulator said a warning label should be added. South Africa, devastated by a more contagious virus variant that emerged there, also suspended use of the vaccine but later moved forward with it. The stakes are high because there is only one vaccine authorized in the United States that is given as a single shot. The use of that vaccine, made by Johnson & Johnson, was paused this month after it was linked to a very rare but serious side effect involving blood clotting. Federal health officials on Friday recommended restarting use of the vaccine, but the combination of the safety scare and ongoing production problems is likely to make that vaccine a viable option for fewer people. The C.D.C.’s count of missed second doses is through April 9. It covers only people who got a first Moderna dose by March 7 or a first Pfizer dose by March 14. While millions of people have missed their second shots, the overall rates of follow-through, with some 92 percent getting fully vaccinated, are strong by historical standards. Roughly three-quarters of adults come back for their second dose of the vaccine that protects against shingles. In some cases, problems with shipments or scheduling may be playing a role in people missing their second doses. Some vaccine providers have had to cancel appointments because they did not receive expected vaccine deliveries. People have also reported having their second-dose appointments canceled or showing up only to find out that there were no doses available of the brand they needed. Some people can be flexible about being rebooked. But that’s harder for people who lack access to reliable transportation or who have jobs with strictly scheduled hours, said Elena Cyrus, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Central Florida. Updated  April 24, 2021, 10:42 p.m. ET Walgreens booked some customers for their second appointments at places that didn’t have the same vaccine that they had received for their initial doses. The company said it fixed the problem in late March. Susan Ruel, 67, was scheduled to get her two vaccine doses at different Walgreens stores in Manhattan. She said she got her first Pfizer dose without incident in February, but when she arrived for her second appointment, she was told that the store only had Moderna doses in stock. A Walgreens pharmacist told Ms. Ruel that there was another Walgreens pharmacy less than two miles away with Pfizer doses in stock. While Ms. Ruel was waiting for the subway to take her there, she got a phone call: That Walgreens store had run out of Pfizer doses, too. Ms. Ruel managed to get the Pfizer dose at yet another Walgreens the next day. But she said many people in her situation probably wouldn’t have tried so hard. “All you need is hassles like this,” she said. In the Chicago area, for example, pharmacists at two Walgreens locations said the problem was causing headaches. They said that Walgreens’ appointment system was sending each pharmacy anywhere from 10 to 20 customers a week who need a second Pfizer shot, even though both pharmacies stock only the Moderna vaccine. It is not clear how widespread the Walgreens dose-matching problem has been or how many people have missed their second doses because of it. Jim Cohn, a spokesman for Walgreens, said that the problem affected “a small percentage” of people who had booked their appointments online and that the company contacted them to reschedule “in alignment with our vaccine availability.” He said that nearly 95 percent of people who got their first shot at Walgreens have also received their second shots from the company. Walgreens has also come under fire for, until recently, scheduling second doses of the Pfizer vaccine four weeks after the first shot, rather than the three-week gap recommended by the C.D.C. Pharmacists have been besieged by customers complaining, including about their inability to book vaccine appointments online. In other cases, though, access to vaccines is not the sole barrier; people’s attitudes contribute, too. Basith Syed, a 24-year-old consultant in Chicago, nabbed a leftover Moderna vaccine at a Walgreens in mid-February. But when the time came for his second shot, he was busy at work and preparing for his wedding. After the first shot, he had spent two days feeling drained. He didn’t want to risk a repeat, and he felt confident that a single dose would protect him. “I didn’t really feel the urgency to get that second dose,” Mr. Syed said. By early April, his schedule had calmed down a little, and he went looking for a second Moderna shot. But by then, the Walgreens where he had gotten his first shot was only offering Pfizer shots. He couldn’t find slots at other Walgreens stores. Mr. Syed is no longer actively looking for a second shot, though he still hopes to eventually get one. . The C.D.C. says there is limited data on the vaccine’s effectiveness when shots are separated by more than six weeks, although some countries, including Britain and Canada, are giving shots with a gap of up to three or four months. Mr. Syed’s experience is part of a broader shift in Illinois. When vaccines were mostly being given to health care workers, residents of long-term care facilities and people over 65, almost everyone was getting their second shots. In recent weeks, though, the number dipped below 90 percent, though it has since rebounded slightly, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. In Arkansas, about 84,000 people have missed their second shots, representing 11 percent of those eligible for those shots, said Dr. Jennifer Dillaha, the state epidemiologist. Workers recently began calling people who are due or overdue for their second shots. College students pose a particular challenge. Many recently became eligible to be vaccinated and are getting their first shots, but they will have left campus by the time they are due for their second doses. In Pennsylvania, health officials have instructed vaccine providers to give second doses to college students even if they did not receive their first doses from that location. Some vaccine providers have put on special clinics for people who need a second dose. In South Carolina, the health system Tidelands Health started a program specifically for people who received their first Pfizer doses more than 23 days earlier but hadn’t been able to find a second shot. The state health department sent the health system 2,340 doses for the effort. Demand has been strong, and Tidelands only has a few hundred doses left. The majority of takers have been people who “were having difficulty navigating all the various scheduling systems and providers,” said Gayle Resetar, the health system’s chief operating officer. In many cases, vaccine providers had canceled second-dose appointments because of bad winter weather. “It was up to the individual to reschedule themselves on a web portal or web platform, and that just became difficult for people,” Ms. Resetar said. There are rare cases in which people are supposed to forgo the second shot, such as if they had an allergic reaction after their first shot. Zvi Ish-Shalom, a religious studies professor from Boulder, Colo., had planned to get fully vaccinated. Then, an hour after his first shot of the Moderna vaccine, he developed a headache that hasn’t gone away more than a month later. There is no way to know for sure whether the vaccine triggered the headache. But after weighing what he saw as the risks and benefits of a second dose, Dr. Ish-Shalom reached a decision about how to proceed. “At this point in time, I feel very clear and very comfortable, given all the various elements of this equation, to forgo the second shot,” he said. Source link Orbem News #Covid #Doses #Millions #skipping #Vaccines

[newstfionline]

Tuesday, March 2, 2021

Global defense spending, led by US and China, hits new high (Stars & Stripes) The U.S. and China led the growth in global defense spending, which hit a new high in 2020 despite the economic stress brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, a report said Thursday. In its annual report on military power, the International Institute for Strategic Studies said total military expenditures added up to $1.83 trillion in 2020, a 3.9% increase over the previous year. “This came despite the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent contraction in global economic output,” the London-based think tank said in a statement. The United States remained the top spender, accounting for 40.3% of global spending. But China and other Asian powers concerned about Beijing’s rise also spent more, albeit at a somewhat slower pace than in 2019 because of the pandemic, IISS said in its “Military Balance” report. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute pegged Chinese defense spending at $261 billion in 2019.

Almost a fifth of ALL US dollars were created this year (City A.M./UK) About 20 per cent of all US dollars were created this year. The Federal Reserve has printed unprecedented amounts of money to support the coronavirus-stricken economy. It has sparked debates about inflation and helped asset prices soar. Data from the Fed shows that a broad measure of the stock of dollars, known as M2, rose from $15.34 trillion (£11.87 trillion) at the start of the year to $18.72 trillion in September. The increase of $3.38 trillion equates to 18 per cent of the total supply of dollars. It means almost one in five dollars was created in 2020. The huge growth in the stock of dollars reflects the massive interventions in the economy by the Fed, which is in control of the US’s money supply. Although it is often described as printing money, the Fed in practice creates digital dollars to buy up government bonds and other securities in the secondary market. The policy, known as quantitative easing (QE), aims to flood the markets with cash to keep borrowing cheap. Banks also create money when they lend. Most money in the economy is created this way. Only about $2 trillion are in circulation as physical currency.

Countries call on drug companies to share vaccine know-how (AP) In an industrial neighborhood on the outskirts of Bangladesh’s largest city lies a factory with gleaming new equipment imported from Germany, its immaculate hallways lined with hermetically sealed rooms. It is operating at just a quarter of its capacity. It is one of three factories that The Associated Press found on three continents whose owners say they could start producing hundreds of millions of COVID-19 vaccines on short notice if only they had the blueprints and technical know-how. But that knowledge belongs to the large pharmaceutical companies who produce the first three vaccines authorized by countries including Britain, the European Union and the U.S.—Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca. The factories are all still awaiting responses. Across Africa and Southeast Asia, governments and aid groups, as well as the WHO, are calling on pharmaceutical companies to share their patent information more broadly to meet a yawning global shortfall in a pandemic that already has claimed nearly 2.5 million lives. Pharmaceutical companies that took taxpayer money from the U.S. or Europe to develop inoculations at unprecedented speed say they are negotiating contracts and exclusive licensing deals with producers on a case-by-case basis because they need to protect their intellectual property and ensure safety. Critics say this piecemeal approach is just too slow at a time of urgent need to stop the virus before it mutates into even deadlier forms.

As School Closures Near First Anniversary, a Diverse Parent Movement Demands Action (NYT) Aquené Tyler, a mother and hair stylist in North Philadelphia, has been disappointed in her neighborhood’s public schools for many years. There were too few books and computers. Even before the pandemic, some schools were shuttered for asbestos removal. Now, her 9-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter have been learning online for nearly a year, even as masked children gather boisterously at local private schools. Ms. Tyler’s children are lonely, and Mya, who is in eighth grade, seems depressed and overwhelmed by her class work. She has begun seeing a counselor remotely. So Ms. Tyler is planning a radical change: moving her family to Florida, where the Republican-controlled state government has mandated that all districts provide in-person learning five days per week. A niece there is attending traditional public school in Sarasota, complete with sports, arts and music. A year into the pandemic, less than half of students nationwide are attending public schools that offer traditional, full-time schedules. Now many parents are beginning to rebel, frustrated with the pace of reopening and determined to take matters into their own hands. Some are making contingency plans to relocate, home-school or retreat to private education if their children’s routines continue to be disrupted this fall—a real possibility. Other parents are filing lawsuits, agitating at public meetings, creating political action committees, or running for school board seats.

Prince Philip moved to specialized London heart hospital (AP) Prince Philip was transferred Monday to a specialized London heart hospital to undergo testing and observation for a pre-existing heart condition as he continues to be treated for an unspecified infection, Buckingham Palace said. The 99-year-old husband of Queen Elizabeth II was moved from King Edward VII’s Hospital, where he has been treated since Feb. 17, to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, which specializes in cardiac care. The palace says Philip “remains comfortable and is responding to treatment but is expected to remain in hospital until at least the end of the week.” Philip married the then-Princess Elizabeth in 1947 and is the longest-serving royal consort in British history. He and the queen have four children, eight grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

France’s Sarkozy convicted of corruption, sentenced to jail (AP) A Paris court on Monday found French former President Nicolas Sarkozy guilty of corruption and influence peddling and sentenced him to one year in prison and a two-year suspended sentence. The 66-year-old politician, who was president from 2007 to 2012, was convicted for having tried to illegally obtain information from a senior magistrate in 2014 about a legal action in which he was involved. The court said Sarkozy is entitled to request to be detained at home with an electronic bracelet. This is the first time in France’s modern history that a former president has been convicted of corruption.

China Appears to Warn India: Push Too Hard and the Lights Could Go Out (NYT) Early last summer, Chinese and Indian troops clashed in a surprise border battle in the remote Galwan Valley, bashing each other to death with rocks and clubs. Four months later and more than 1,500 miles away in Mumbai, India, trains shut down and the stock market closed as the power went out in a city of 20 million people. Hospitals had to switch to emergency generators to keep ventilators running amid a coronavirus outbreak that was among India’s worst. Now, a new study lends weight to the idea that those two events may well have been connected—as part of a broad Chinese cybercampaign against India’s power grid, timed to send a message that if India pressed its claims too hard, the lights could go out across the country. The study shows that as the standoff continued in the Himalayas, taking at least two dozen lives, Chinese malware was flowing into the control systems that manage electric supply across India, along with a high-voltage transmission substation and a coal-fired power plant. The discovery raises the question about whether an outage that struck on Oct. 13 in Mumbai, one of the country’s busiest business hubs, was meant as a message from Beijing about what might happen if India pushed its border claims too vigorously.

Rogue ATMs (Nikkei Asia) Fully 2,956 ATMs out of 5,395 machines operated by Mizuho Bank in Japan have gone rogue, with the machines unable to dispense cash and devouring cards. The bug is related to an issue that popped up when the bank was updating its data, and 55 percent of Mizuho’s branches have been forced to shut down.

Pope’s risky trip to Iraq defies sceptics (Reuters) Rockets have hit Iraqi cities and COVID-19 has flared, yet, barring last-minute changes, Pope Francis will embark on a whirlwind four-day trip starting on Friday to show solidarity with the country’s devastated Christian community. Keen to get on the road again after the pandemic put paid to several planned trips, he convinced some perplexed Vatican aides that it is worth the risk and that, in any case, his mind was made up, three Vatican sources said. The March 5-8 trip will be Francis’ first outside Italy since November 2019, when he visited Thailand and Japan. Four trips planned for 2020 were cancelled because of COVID-19. “He really feels that need to reach out to people on their home ground,” said a Vatican prelate who is familiar with Iraq and who spoke on condition of anonymity. “The pope knows where he is going. He is deliberately coming to an area marked by war and violence to bring a message of peace,” Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil told reporters on a recent conference call.

Iran insists U.S. lift sanctions first to revive nuclear deal talks (Reuters) Iran said on Monday the United States should lift sanctions first if it wants to hold talks with Tehran to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers that former President Donald Trump abandoned. President Joe Biden has said Washington is ready for talks about both nations resuming compliance with the pact, under which Tehran secured an easing of sanctions by limiting its nuclear work. But each side wants the other to move first. The West fears Iran wants to build nuclear weapons, while Tehran says that has never been its goal.

Netanyahu accuses Iran of attacking Israeli-owned cargo ship (AP) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday accused Iran of attacking an Israeli-owned ship in the Gulf of Oman last week, a mysterious explosion that further spiked security concerns in the region. Without offering any evidence to his claim, Netanyahu told Israeli public broadcaster Kan that “it was indeed an act by Iran, that’s clear.” “Iran is the greatest enemy of Israel, I am determined to halt it. We are hitting it in the entire region,” Netanyahu said. The blast struck the Israeli-owned MV Helios Ray, a Bahamian-flagged roll-on, roll-off vehicle cargo ship, as it was sailing out of the Middle East on its way to Singapore on Friday. The crew was unharmed, but the vessel sustained two holes on its port side and two on its starboard side just above the waterline, according to American defense officials. It remains unclear what caused Friday’s blast on the Helios Ray. Iran responded to Netanyahu’s statement saying it “strongly rejected” the claim that it was behind the attack. In a press briefing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said Netanyahu was “suffering from an obsession with Iran” and described his charges as “fear-mongering.”

Thousands flee rebel violence in Central African Republic (AP) Monique Moukidje fled her home in Central African Republic’s town of Bangassou in January when rebels attacked with heavy weapons, the fighting killing more than a dozen people. “I ran away because the bullets have no eyes,” the 34-year-old said sitting in the shade while waiting for water purification tablets, a tarp, and other supplies to help her in Mbangui-Ngoro, a village where she and hundreds of other displaced people are sheltering. She is among an estimated 240,000 people displaced in the country since mid-December, according to U.N. relief workers, when rebels calling themselves the Coalition of Patriots for Change launched attacks, first to disrupt the Dec. 27 elections and then to destabilize the newly-elected government of President Faustin Archange Touadera. The rebels’ fighting has enveloped the country and caused a humanitarian crisis in the already unstable nation. Hundreds of thousands of people are also left without basic food or health care, and with the main roads between Central African Republic and Cameroon closed for almost two months, prices have skyrocketed leaving families unable to afford food.

Nigerian governor says 279 kidnapped schoolgirls are freed (AP) Hundreds of Nigerian schoolgirls abducted last week from a boarding school in the northwestern Zamfara state have been released, the state’s governor said Tuesday. Zamfara state governor Bello Matawalle announced that 279 girls have been freed. The government last week said 317 had been kidnapped. Gunmen abducted the girls from the Government Girls Junior Secondary School in Jangebe town on Friday, in the latest in a series of mass kidnappings of students in the West African nation.

#headlines #news

[mildredjizquierdo]

Five pandemic predictions five months later. Was I right?

Looking back

In April, with the pandemic raging, lockdowns underway in the Northeast and West, and widespread panic about what the immediate future would bring, I tried to look over the horizon to see where we were heading. My 4 predictions for the next phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and Prediction 5: The end of immigration, distilled what I was seeing in Boston plus what I was hearing from healthcare and life sciences clients and physician and scientist friends in US hotspots and around the world. I didn’t put a timeframe on when this “next phase” would be, but with the summer behind us and a new school year getting going, now seems like a good time to take stock.

Judge for yourself, but overall I think I did well. Let’s review:

#1: Treatment, not testing will be key to reopening the economy Grade: B

I was right that testing wouldn’t be our savior, but also overestimated how quickly treatment would improve.

In April, everyone was talking about the need for millions of rapid turnaround tests to get things moving again. Other countries, like Germany and Singapore had deployed testing on a massive scale. But when I looked at what was going on in the US I was unimpressed. There were lots of announcements about capacity but little follow through.

Sadly, we’re still doing poorly. Recent estimates suggest the need for 193 million tests per day; we’re only doing 21 million. In Massachusetts (one of the leaders in testing) it’s still hard to get a test if you’re not symptomatic. Test results elsewhere can take a week or even longer, if you can get tested at all. Bill Gates recently criticized the current state of US testing: too few, too slow to return results, wrong swabs.

The absence of rapid turnaround testing at scale and weak contact tracking has hampered the ability of scientists to inform policy makers and the public about what works and what doesn’t. This failure contributed to the rapid spread of disease in early hot spots. It also fed public confusion and undermined support for guidelines, which seemed vague, random and contradictory.

Remdesivir was already showing promise in April, and non-drug adjustments such as optimization of mechanical ventilation and turning patients on their sides were being tried. Intriguing stories of cardiovascular impacts and cytokine storms were emerging. I expected we’d have a bunch of drugs and other innovations that would make COVID-19 a manageable disease by now. The death rate is down, but treatment improvements have been incremental and some early hopes fizzled. Dexamethasone, an old steroid is the only drug beyond remdesivir with widespread evidence of effectiveness.

There are new possibilities ahead. Olumiant (baricitinib) appears to help patients on remdesivir recover faster and may gain emergency approval by the time you read this. And researchers are looking at new mechanisms, such as bradykinin storms to understand how COVID-19 does its damage and how to stop it. There are several other treatments under evaluation, too.

Bottom line: fatigue, denial and surrender were bigger factors in reopening decisions than I expected. The economy still isn’t fully reopened and we may need to wait for a vaccine to move back toward normalcy.

#2: Hybridization (virtual/in-person mix) will be the new reality Grade: A+

I’m proud of this prediction. At the time I made it, the consensus was that everyone would return to the office by summer and get back to school in September. That hasn’t happened. Instead, as spaces reopen, hybrid models are emerging everywhere to reduce density and decrease risk. You see it with schools, businesses, physician offices and clinical trials. Remote work and school are still happening, but work from home is no panacea.

I expect hybridization to outlive the pandemic as individuals and organizations learn that a mix of in-person and remote is best for most activities. But patients may have to assert themselves to receive the full benefits of hybrid care, because healthcare organizations have a tendency to revert to what works for them rather than what’s most convenient and affordable for patients. Telehealth was used for almost 70 percent of total visits in April before dropping to around 20 percent in the summer. Some patient-centric leaders, such as Boston Children’s Hospital have maintained rates at close to 50 percent.

#3: Public health post-COVID-19 will be like security post-9/11 Grade: B

When I started traveling again soon after 9/11, the sudden jump in security at airports, office buildings and public spaces was staggering. In the following months and years, security became a huge industry and an obsession.

In April, I wrote:

“Now that COVID-19 has struck, we can expect public health to be similarly elevated. It will become a pervasive part of our economy and society. Expect temperature –and maybe face mask and hand washing– checks at the office, school, and any public venue.  Contact tracers may call or visit our homes or scrutinize our cellphone records. Event managers and employers will need to hire a health team and devise a health/safety plan to prevent outbreaks and provide confidence.”

I’ve certainly seen this in the private sector. For example, many private schools require daily health attestations, temperature checks, masks, outdoor eating, etc. Stores announce, “no mask, no service” policies in their windows. Some states and counties have good contact tracing programs, but unlike 9/11 there is no nationwide approach, and no Homeland Security equivalent.

As more venues reopen I expect that this trend will continue. What’s not yet clear is whether public health will receive additional funding and just how central it will be to our future. Much depends on how quickly and completely the current pandemic is brought under control, whether new health threats emerge soon, and who occupies the White House in 2021.

#4: Federal government will grow even more powerful relative to everything else Grade: A-

This prediction was paradoxical. Those I reviewed it with at the time found it novel and counter-intuitive. After all, the feds failed to prepare for the pandemic and threw everything onto the states. The CDC embarrassed itself with its testing approach and then was sidelined.

But the federal government has essentially unlimited spending power, which it used to prop up the economy with the $2+ Trillion CARES Act, and the stock market (via the Federal Reserve). Meanwhile, states had to come begging –quite literally—to the president for help, and our world-leading universities and colleges found themselves in desperate straits and unable to reopen.

In short, the federal government’s failures have weakened the rest of US society much more than the federal government itself has been weakened.

The reason I give myself an A- instead of an A is that I didn’t address what would happen relative to the rest of the world. The US federal government has lost international standing during the pandemic with its poor response. The country was rated as the most prepared for a pandemic –but botched things anyway. The withdrawal from the WHO weakened our hand, and our slow economic recovery means we’re losing ground on China and others.

#5: The end of immigration Grade: A

Crises present major opportunities for governments to enact policies they wouldn’t be able to get away with in normal times. The current Administration has made no secret of its disdain for immigration.  It had taken some dramatic steps before the pandemic, such as curtailing the H1-B program for highly skilled workers and attempting to build a wall along the Mexican border.

In April, the president tweeted his intention to suspend all immigration. That’s about as dramatic as it gets and would have drawn much more fire even a month or two earlier. But with lockdowns and travel bans throughout the world, and a virus floating in the air, it was harder to argue against. Consider some of the additional actions taken against immigration during the pandemic, including bans on asylum seekers and refugee resettlement, a ban on international students coming to the US if their classes were not in person (rescinded after pushback), and more restrictions on H-1B lottery winners.

The pandemic has also made the US a less attractive destination for would-be immigrants, even without all of the explicit actions. That won’t be reversed quickly.

What’s next?

There are big questions for the next few months and years, including:

When will vaccination make a decisive difference? This includes when vaccines are approved, how quickly and rationally they are distributed, how well they work and for how long, and what the uptake is.

What will the economy of the early 2020s look like? Will travel and leisure return? Education at all levels? Office work? What new industries will emerge?

What will be the US’s role in the world? Much of this hinges on the results of the 2020 election and its aftermath.

I’ll offer my commentary on these topics as the situation continues to unfold. Check the Health Business Blog and HealthBiz podcast for updates.

In recent months, my strategy consulting firm, Health Business Group has helped our healthcare and life sciences clients factor the implications of the pandemic into their growth and M&A strategies. Would you like to discuss your own organization’s plans and how Health Business Group can help? If so, please email me: [email protected].

The post Five pandemic predictions five months later. Was I right? appeared first on Health Business Group.

[pennsylvaniaprelawland-blog]

Moderna Loses Patent Case Against Arbutus Biopharma, Potentially Hindering Their COVID-19 Vaccine Progress

By Raevin Dunson, University Of Pennsylvania Class of 2020

July 30, 2020

Moderna, an American biotechnology company, recently lost a lawsuit that was brought to invalidate a patent owned by Arbutus Biopharma [9]. An administrative court of the United States Patent and Trademark Office sided with Arbutus and concluded that Moderna did not adequately demonstrate that the patent, also known as the ‘069 patent,described obvious concepts, which would have made the patent ineligible [10]. The ‘069 patent deals with the use of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), which are molecules that many messenger RNA (mRNA) specialists use in their medicines [7]. Moderna brought this case in January 2019, and the case has some apparent implications for the company as they develop an experimental COVID-19 vaccine known as mRNA-1273 [7].

Moderna has been heavily involved in pharmaceutical development of medicine with modified mRNA[5]. They have been granted over 100 patents for their inventions in mRNA therapeutics and have licenses to discoveries from the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University [5]. Moderna began working on a vaccine for COVID-19 on January 13th, and they are currently in Phase III clinical trials ofmRNA-1273 in collaboration with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) [6]. The vaccine uses messenger RNA to build the spike protein of the coronavirus and allow the immune system to respond [3]. During Phase I of clinical trials, they conducted a study with 45 healthy adult volunteers, and the results indicated that the vaccine led patients to produce a significant level of antibodies to neutralize the coronavirus with minor side effects such as fatigue and headaches [1]. The results received praise from Moderna CEO, Stephane Bancel; Anthony Fauci, the director of National Institute for Allergy   and Infectious Diseases; and Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, who all found the results to be encouraging and an important step forward in dealing with the coronavirus [2].

Moderna released a statement that the formula it has developed for the COVID-19 vaccine was not covered under any Arbutus patents [4]. However, there has been heavy concern that Arbutus might have a claim to royalties for the coronavirus vaccine [10]. LNP technology has been essential to the efforts that Moderna has been taking to developing the mRNA-1273 vaccine [10]. However, Moderna claims that this patent issue occurred long before COVID-19 and that the technology used currently has been developed well beyond the technology that is described in the patent [7]. This is the third court decision in several cases that Moderna has brought against Arbutus, with two of the rulings happening last year [8]. Patent disputes are generally settled through court injunctions to stop infringement or royalties to get rights to intellectual property [8]. Moderna has had other issues with patent technology since around 2016, when the company licensed technology from Acuitas Therapeutics, a subsidiary of Arbutus [9].

When the court released their decision to reject the patent lawsuit, Moderna’s stock price fell by 9% [9]. On the other hand, shares for Arbutus almost doubled in price after the ruling [7]. However, Moderna quickly began to recover, especially as they have announced significant progress in their COVID-19 vaccine [4]. Any action that Arbutus may be legally justified to take against Moderna will likely be faced with backlash should it interfere with the development of mRNA-1273 given the urgency of the COVID-19 pandemic [9].

________________________________________________________________

Raevin Dunson is a Class of 2020 graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with concentrations in Legal Studies & Business Ethics and Healthcare Management & Policy. Raevin is currently pursuing a career in law and enjoys learning about legal systems in the United States and around the world. _______________________________________________________________

[1] “Experimental COVID-19 Vaccine Safe, Generates Immune Response.” National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 14 July 2020, www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/experimental-covid-19-vaccine-safe-generates-immune-response.

[2] Herper, Matthew, and Damian Garde. “First Data for Moderna Covid-19 Vaccine Show It Spurs an Immune Response.” STAT, STAT, 14 July 2020, www.statnews.com/2020/07/14/moderna-covid19-vaccine-first-data-show-spurs-immune-response/.

[3] Kane, Andrea. “The First Phase 3 Coronavirus Vaccine Trial in the US Is Expected to Begin next Week. Here's How the Vaccine Works.” CNN, Cable News Network, 25 July 2020, www.cnn.com/2020/07/24/health/moderna-vaccine-barney-graham-gupta/index.html.

[4] “Moderna Says Patent Ruling Not to Affect COVID-19 Vaccine Development.” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 24 July 2020, www.reuters.com/article/us-moderna-patent-vaccine/moderna-says-patent-ruling-not-to-affect-covid-19-vaccine-development-idUSKCN24P2LJ.

[5] “Moderna's Intellectual Property.” Moderna, Moderna, Inc., 2020, www.modernatx.com/mrna-technology/modernas-intellectual-property.

[6] “Moderna's Work on a COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate.” Moderna, Moderna, Inc., 27 July 2020, www.modernatx.com/modernas-work-potential-vaccine-against-covid-19.

[7] Nathan-Kazis, Josh. “Moderna Lost a Patent Case and the Stock Is Slipping.” Barron's, Barrons, 24 July 2020, www.barrons.com/articles/moderna-lost-a-patent-case-and-the-stock-is-stumbling-51595596274.

[8] Taylor, Nick Paul. “Moderna Stock Sinks as Patent Case Spurs Concern for COVID-19 Vaccine.” FierceBiotech, Questex, 24 July 2020, www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/moderna-stock-sinks-as-patent-case-spurs-concern-for-covid-19-vaccine.

[9] Terry, Mark. “Moderna's Vaccine Technology Continues to Be Tangled in Patent Challenges.” BioSpace, BioSpace, 24 July 2020, www.biospace.com/article/moderna-loses-patent-challenge-with-arbutus-on-vaccine-technology/.

[10] Wolfe, Jan. “Moderna Loses Challenge to Arbutus Patent on Vaccine Technology.” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 23 July 2020, www.reuters.com/article/us-moderna-patent/moderna-loses-challenge-to-arbutus-patent-on-vaccine-technology-idUSKCN24O2XY.