Month: December 2020

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Politics

Pence Will Be Vaccinated on Dwell TV, Including to Administration’s Combined Virus Message

Pence Will Be Vaccinated on Live TV, Adding to Administration’s Mixed Virus Message

WASHINGTON — At 8 a.m. on Friday, Vice President Mike Pence will roll up his sleeve to receive the coronavirus vaccine, a televised symbol of reassurance for vaccine skeptics worried about its dangers. President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. is scheduled to receive his injection on camera next week.

Notably absent from any planned public proceedings is President Trump, who has said relatively little about the vaccine that may be seen as a singular achievement and has made it clear that he is not scheduled to take it himself.

The vaccine may provide a ray of hope at a time when the surging coronavirus is regularly killing around 3,000 Americans a day. But the message on the virus from the Trump administration’s highest officials remains muddled and often contradictory as they continue to toggle between facing reality and trying to dictate an alternate one.

Mr. Pence, who will receive his first vaccine shot and encourage Americans to follow suit almost six months to the day after he published an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal titled “There Isn’t a Coronavirus ‘Second Wave,’” hosted a holiday party at his residence this week where guests mingled in an outdoor tent and posed for pictures without masks, according to attendees.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was forced into quarantine after being exposed to someone who had tested positive for the coronavirus after hosting a string of large, indoor holiday parties at the State Department and attending a private party Saturday to watch the annual Army-Navy football game. Only one unofficial adviser in the president’s circle has performed a public mea culpa for his earlier disregard of public health guidelines: Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor, who on Wednesday released a television ad urging Americans who do not wear a mask to learn from his own harrowing medical experience and wear one.

The president, who recovered from his own bout with the virus after being treated with experimental drugs at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, is described by aides and allies as preoccupied with the election results he still refuses to accept, and has shown no interest in participating in any kind of public health message.

Even in private conversations, they said, Mr. Trump rarely even brings up the vaccine that the White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, described this week as a “medical miracle” that the president, “as the innovator,” deserved credit for.

Instead, Mr. Trump has been focused on his efforts to overturn the election results and consumed by his anger at Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, who this week finally congratulated Mr. Biden on his victory and said that “the Electoral College has spoken.” And he remains frustrated that the vaccine was not available before Election Day, people who have spoken to him said.

But the president is also aware that a large part of his political base is made up of supporters who refuse to wear masks and so-called anti-vaxxers suspicious of the Covid-19 vaccine. After months of positioning himself in opposition to public health experts, people familiar with his thinking said, Mr. Trump feels on some level as if he does not want to be seen as caving in the end to the advice of the same people he has disparaged.

Some supporters with large online followings have even criticized him in recent days for promoting the vaccine at all. “You know, Trump, probably 80 percent of your base does not want that vaccine,” DeAnna Lorraine, a QAnon conspiracy theorist with a large following on Infowars, said on her program last week. “I don’t care who takes it. I don’t care if Jesus takes it. I’m not taking the vaccine.”

As Mr. Trump hesitates, lawmakers and Supreme Court justices are expected to begin receiving vaccines in the coming days, though the doses will be limited. Dr. Brian P. Monahan, the Capitol physician, wrote to lawmakers on Thursday that he had been notified by the National Security Council that his office would receive a “specific number” of doses to “provide for continuity-of-government operations.” He told lawmakers they could begin scheduling appointments to be vaccinated and suggested eventually some “continuity-essential staff members” could also receive doses.

“My recommendation to you is absolutely unequivocal: There is no reason why you should defer receiving this vaccine,” Dr. Monahan wrote. “The benefit far exceeds any small risk.”

Covid-19 Vaccines ›

Answers to Your Vaccine Questions

With distribution of a coronavirus vaccine beginning in the U.S., here are answers to some questions you may be wondering about:

    • If I live in the U.S., when can I get the vaccine? While the exact order of vaccine recipients may vary by state, most will likely put medical workers and residents of long-term care facilities first. If you want to understand how this decision is getting made, this article will help.
    • When can I return to normal life after being vaccinated? Life will return to normal only when society as a whole gains enough protection against the coronavirus. Once countries authorize a vaccine, they’ll only be able to vaccinate a few percent of their citizens at most in the first couple months. The unvaccinated majority will still remain vulnerable to getting infected. A growing number of coronavirus vaccines are showing robust protection against becoming sick. But it’s also possible for people to spread the virus without even knowing they’re infected because they experience only mild symptoms or none at all. Scientists don’t yet know if the vaccines also block the transmission of the coronavirus. So for the time being, even vaccinated people will need to wear masks, avoid indoor crowds, and so on. Once enough people get vaccinated, it will become very difficult for the coronavirus to find vulnerable people to infect. Depending on how quickly we as a society achieve that goal, life might start approaching something like normal by the fall 2021.
    • If I’ve been vaccinated, do I still need to wear a mask? Yes, but not forever. Here’s why. The coronavirus vaccines are injected deep into the muscles and stimulate the immune system to produce antibodies. This appears to be enough protection to keep the vaccinated person from getting ill. But what’s not clear is whether it’s possible for the virus to bloom in the nose — and be sneezed or breathed out to infect others — even as antibodies elsewhere in the body have mobilized to prevent the vaccinated person from getting sick. The vaccine clinical trials were designed to determine whether vaccinated people are protected from illness — not to find out whether they could still spread the coronavirus. Based on studies of flu vaccine and even patients infected with Covid-19, researchers have reason to be hopeful that vaccinated people won’t spread the virus, but more research is needed. In the meantime, everyone — even vaccinated people — will need to think of themselves as possible silent spreaders and keep wearing a mask. Read more here.
    • Will it hurt? What are the side effects? The Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine is delivered as a shot in the arm, like other typical vaccines. The injection into your arm won’t feel different than any other vaccine, but the rate of short-lived side effects does appear higher than a flu shot. Tens of thousands of people have already received the vaccines, and none of them have reported any serious health problems. The side effects, which can resemble the symptoms of Covid-19, last about a day and appear more likely after the second dose. Early reports from vaccine trials suggest some people might need to take a day off from work because they feel lousy after receiving the second dose. In the Pfizer study, about half developed fatigue. Other side effects occurred in at least 25 to 33 percent of patients, sometimes more, including headaches, chills and muscle pain. While these experiences aren’t pleasant, they are a good sign that your own immune system is mounting a potent response to the vaccine that will provide long-lasting immunity.
    • Will mRNA vaccines change my genes? No. The vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer use a genetic molecule to prime the immune system. That molecule, known as mRNA, is eventually destroyed by the body. The mRNA is packaged in an oily bubble that can fuse to a cell, allowing the molecule to slip in. The cell uses the mRNA to make proteins from the coronavirus, which can stimulate the immune system. At any moment, each of our cells may contain hundreds of thousands of mRNA molecules, which they produce in order to make proteins of their own. Once those proteins are made, our cells then shred the mRNA with special enzymes. The mRNA molecules our cells make can only survive a matter of minutes. The mRNA in vaccines is engineered to withstand the cell’s enzymes a bit longer, so that the cells can make extra virus proteins and prompt a stronger immune response. But the mRNA can only last for a few days at most before they are destroyed.

Dr. Monahan began notifying lawmakers who were eligible for vaccines, and Mr. McConnell and Speaker Nancy Pelosi indicated they would be among the first vaccinated.

Public health officials said they were pleased that the vice president was going to be vaccinated in public, along with Surgeon General Jerome Adams, despite the president’s own lack of interest in sending a similar public health message.

“It’s the right thing to do,” said Dr. Vinay Gupta, an assistant professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine at the University of Washington. “The question is why don’t they do it together, six feet apart? It would be really powerful for the president, who has gotten exceptional treatment, to say that even in spite of getting the best care, it’s important that I get this vaccine.”

Mr. Trump’s decision, so far, to not get vaccinated, Dr. Gupta said, risked undermining any confidence that Mr. Pence might instill among skeptics who take their cues from the president alone.

“The fact that he is not getting it makes one wonder if he’s worried,” Dr. Gupta said. He also said the muddled messages from the administration — hailing the vaccine while hosting holiday parties — risked “giving false reassurances to the American people that the vaccine is here and vigilance is no longer required.”

White House officials have said Mr. Trump does not need to get vaccinated because he still has the protective effects of the monoclonal antibody cocktail that was used to treat him for the virus in October. But Dr. Gupta said that was a misinterpretation of the results and that there was “no scientific reason not to get vaccinated.”

The first lady, Melania Trump, who tested positive for the virus in October and credited her recovery to a regimen of “vitamins and healthy food,” also has no plans to receive the vaccine in public. A spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, declined to say whether Mrs. Trump would get vaccinated.

Mr. Trump said on Sunday that he would delay a plan for senior White House staff members to receive the coronavirus vaccine in the coming days, hours after The New York Times reported that the administration was planning to rapidly distribute the vaccine to its staff.

“I am not scheduled to take the vaccine,” Mr. Trump added, “but look forward to doing so at the appropriate time.”

But many White House officials are eager to receive the vaccine, even as the president has made it clear he wants them to wait.

Doctors from Walter Reed this week set up vaccine stations inside the Indian Treaty Room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. There, they began vaccinating staff considered critical to the functioning of government: That included Secret Service members, some medical staff and some other support staff who work near Mr. Trump.

But Mr. Trump made it clear he does not like the optics of West Wing aides receiving the vaccine, and the White House declined to detail who exactly was receiving it. The number of doses they had received, an official said, was classified.

“His priority is frontline workers, those in long-term care facilities, and he wants to make sure that the vulnerable get access first,” Ms. McEnany said this week. When it came to staff working in the West Wing, she added, “it will be a very limited group of people who have access to it, initially.”

Mr. Pence declined to get the vaccine on the first day it was available to him, despite pressure from aides who wanted him to do so quickly, publicly — and before Mr. Biden held his own public event. Mr. Pence, people familiar with his thinking said, was concerned about the optics of jumping the line, when he wanted the administration to receive credit for the distribution of an effective vaccine to frontline medical workers without any distractions.

Instead, Mr. Pence chose to delay his own vaccination until Friday, when his office has asked all of the television networks to carry him live.

Lara Jakes and Nicholas Fandos contributed reporting.

Categories
Health

HHS Secretary Azar says Pfizer retains U.S. at ‘arm’s size’ on manufacturing

HHS Secretary Azar says Pfizer keeps U.S. at 'arm's length' on manufacturing

Minister of Health and Human Services Alex Azar said Thursday he wanted “more insight” into how the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine is made. The US drug manufacturer kept the federal government on a “customary market basis” throughout the process.

Unlike other drug companies, Pfizer did not accept federal funding to develop or manufacture its vaccine. Pfizer has signed a contract with the United States to supply 100 million doses of its vaccine as part of Operation Warp Speed. This is enough to vaccinate 50 million Americans, as the vaccine takes two doses three weeks apart. Pfizer is also negotiating an additional 100 million doses with the US.

“You’re part of Operation Warp Speed, but … it’s a different relationship” than the government deals with Moderna and other federal drug companies that have received federal funding, Azar told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” during an interview Thursday. “We pull together, give [Pfizer] A guaranteed purchase that allows them to make capital investments has a predictable buyer, but we don’t have full visibility into their making because they kept this a bit more on-market. “

But Azar said he would like to see the federal government’s relationship with Pfizer change.

“We are working with Pfizer. We are very optimistic that we will be securing additional volumes in the second quarter, but they will need our help making them,” he said. Azar also noted that Pfizer originally said it would produce 100 million cans by the end of the year but “had to cut that in half to 50 million”.

Later on Thursday, Pfizer issued a statement saying the company “has no production issues with our COVID-19 vaccine and no shipments containing the vaccine will be put on hold or delayed”.

The company also “continuously” exchanged information on “all aspects of our production and sales capacities” in weekly meetings with HHS and Operation Warp Speed.

“They have visited our facilities, walked the production lines and were informed of our production planning as soon as information became available,” said Pfizer.

His emergency vaccine was approved by the Food and Drug Administration on Friday. The first doses of Pfizer’s vaccine were shipped to the United States over the weekend and the Americans received gunfire on Monday.

The initial doses of the Pfizer vaccine are limited as production begins. Officials predict it will be months before everyone in the US who wants to be vaccinated is vaccinated. The US shipped 2.9 million doses of the vaccine this week with an additional 2 million expected next week, General Gustave Perna, who oversees logistics for Operation Warp Speed, told reporters on Wednesday. The US hopes to vaccinate 20 million people by the end of the year.

Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported that Pfizer’s target for vaccine launch of 50 million doses worldwide by the end of the year was only half of what it originally planned. In a statement, Pfizer said there were several factors influencing the number of estimated doses, including increasing the size of a vaccine at an “unprecedented” pace.

When asked Thursday why Pfizer is unable to produce more cans, Azar said the US would offer “to help them get a higher yield if they are willing to enlist our help” .

He said the problem was not a cost issue, adding, “We’re working with them.”

“The discussions are very productive,” he said. “We will use the full power of the US government to support and maximize production, as we have always wanted. I am very optimistic that we will find a good place there.”

Categories
Business

Google’s Authorized Peril Grows in Face of Third Antitrust Swimsuit

Google’s Legal Peril Grows in Face of Third Antitrust Suit

More than 30 states contributed to Google’s growing legal troubles on Thursday, accusing the Silicon Valley titans of illegally arranging their search results in order to crowd out smaller competitors.

A day after 10 other states accused Google of abusing its advertising dominance and overwhelming publishers, and two months after the Justice Department announced that the company’s dealings with other tech giants were curbing competition, the bipartisan group shared Prosecutors in a lawsuit on Thursday alleged that Google downplayed websites where users can search for information in specialized areas like repair services and travel reports. Prosecutors also accused the company of entering into exclusive contracts with phone manufacturers like Apple to prioritize Google’s search service over rivals like Bing and DuckDuckGo.

This suppression, so the states in their lawsuit, has secured Google’s almost 90 percent dominance in search and has made it impossible for the smaller companies to develop into excellent competitors. Google has been trying to extend that dominance to new venues like home voice assistants, according to prosecutors from states like Colorado, Nebraska, New York, and Utah.

The cascade of lawsuits against Google that the company will fight in court hints at the mounting backlash against the biggest tech companies. This movement seems to be initiating increasingly big changes for some of the world’s most popular digital services.

Critics have argued for years that Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon built sprawling empires over trade, communication and culture and then abused their growing power. But just recently, federal or state regulators have filed major cases against them.

The Federal Trade Commission and 40 attorneys general last week accused Facebook of buying smaller competitors like Instagram and WhatsApp to maintain their dominance in a case that threatens to break up the company. Regulators in Washington and across the country are also investigating Amazon and Apple.

In addition, Democratic and Republican political leaders have taken far more aggressive stances towards the industry, including calling for changes to a once sacrosanct law that protects websites from liability for the content posted by their users.

“Our economy is more focused than ever and consumers are under pressure when they are deprived of their choice of valued products and services,” said Phil Weiser, Colorado attorney general. “Google’s anticompetitive measures have protected general search monopolies and excluded competitors, deprived consumers of the benefits of competitive choices, prevented innovation and undermined new entries or expansions.”

The prosecution filed the lawsuit in the US District Court of the District of Columbia, asking the court to combine it with a Justice Department lawsuit in October containing similar allegations. If the court combines the suits, it will expand the scope of the federal proceeding to include a much wider range of allegations about Google’s search business. The resolution of the multiple cases can take years.

Adam Cohen, director of economic policy at Google, said in a blog post that the lawsuit “seeks to redesign search so that Americans can no longer get helpful information and reduce the ability of companies to interact directly with customers. “

“We look forward to taking this case to court and continuing to focus on delivering a quality search experience to our users,” he said.

The company has long denied allegations of antitrust violations and is expected to use its global network of lawyers, economists, and lobbyists to combat the multiple allegations against the company. The company has a market value of $ 1.18 trillion and cash reserves of over $ 120 billion.

Taken together, the three lawsuits make Google a ruthless corporate giant deterring competition across a wide range of companies. It’s a far cry from how Google has portrayed itself in the past (made famous in a company-approved movie, “The Internship”): a good-natured and conscientious organization full of playful nerds.

Google has grown from a start-up in a garage to a technology conglomerate with 130,000 employees. The company that once stated that “Don’t Be Angry” was its corporate motto and was seen as a counterbalance to Microsoft and other industry bullies of the past is now seen as the dominant force of Silicon Valley and one of the companies that carve the tech landscape .

“Overall, this will be a comprehensive study of Google’s rise to power over the past 25 years,” said William Kovacic, former chairman of the Federal Trade Commission. “These are tremendous threats to the company.”

The Justice Department and attorneys general have inquired into how Google maintained its dominance in search and advertising technology by entering into deals with other tech heavyweights like Apple and Facebook to seal the markets off to competition.

The lawsuit filed on Thursday focuses on how Google has maintained online search. While Google has long strived to make a directory for the entire web, other companies over the years have developed search engines that specialize in a specific area. Yelp provides reviews for local businesses. Tripadvisor offers hotel reviews. Angie’s list directs users to reliable home repair services.

Prosecutors said Google methodically downplayed these websites in its own search results, often prominently displaying its own competing reviews or services. This prevented any company from creating a broader grouping of specialized services that could challenge Google’s search engine.

More recently, the company has used illegal tactics to expand its dominance to new vehicles for online search, including connected cars and home voice assistants, prosecutors said.

Mr. Weiser said in an interview that they will not be intimidated by Google’s expected army of litigants and will stand up for their defense.

“We have done a thorough investigation and are confident about our case,” he said. At a press conference earlier in the day, he said it was “premature” to discuss certain outcomes for the case, such as how the company could be wound up.

States began their search investigation in late summer 2019, part of a tidal wave of new investigations into the power of big tech that has not been seen since the antitrust proceedings against Microsoft two decades ago.

The Google investigation progressed faster than the other investigations at Amazon and Apple, as rivals like Microsoft and Yelp made years of allegations of anti-competitive practices by Google and publishers like News Corp. European cases against Google and an FTC investigation into Google’s search practices ended in 2013 have created volumes of records and theories of harm. The agency’s investigation closed with no action.

States said they worked closely with the Justice Department in their investigation. They interviewed hundreds of witnesses from Google and other companies and collected more than 45,000 private documents as evidence.

Thursday’s announcement reflects the deep interest of regulators around the world in Google’s signature search product.

In Europe, regulators fined Google around $ 2.7 billion for privileging their own comparison shopping tool over those of independent websites. The European Union authorities also fined Google for bundling its services with its Android mobile operating system. Google has agreed that competing search engines may bid for the default place on some devices.

Gene Munster, longtime technology analyst and managing partner at Loup Ventures, a Minneapolis venture capital company, said he doesn’t expect consumers to give up Google products, but rather that the Google brand will thrive as a company.

“It’s a black eye for the public perception of Google. You are no longer able to present yourself as the company “Don’t be angry”, ”said Mr. Münster. “I think they’re right in the warehouse of a tech company that consumers are more suspicious of today than they were five years ago.”

Tom Miller, the Democratic attorney general of Iowa, who signed Thursday’s lawsuit, reflected the similarities of the case with the federal and state lawsuits against Microsoft. Mr. Miller was a prosecutor who led the states’ prosecution against Microsoft.

Although Microsoft settled the charges, years of litigation from the late 1980s to the early 1990s clearly forced the company to rectify its anti-competitive business practices. He said antitrust proceedings, which could stretch for years in court, could help encourage more competition, regardless of the outcome of litigation.

“Some people argue that if we hadn’t brought the case against Microsoft,” Miller said, “there wouldn’t have been Google.”

Categories
Business

EV start-up Canoo unveils new automobile forward of Nasdaq debut

EV start-up Canoo unveils new vehicle ahead of Nasdaq debut

Canoo’s van – known as a multi-purpose delivery vehicle (MPDV) due to its equipment options – is designed for commercial customers.

Canoo

Electric vehicle start-up Canoo unveiled a new van on Thursday ahead of its public debut on Nasdaq next week.

The futuristic-looking van, known as a multi-purpose delivery vehicle (MPDV) due to its equipment options, is designed for everything from last-mile deliveries to food trucks, according to the California company. It is expected to start at around $ 33,000.

“There are many use cases that this vehicle can perform,” said Tony Aquila, chairman of Canoo, a major investor in the company, during a video reveal of the MPDV. “We wanted it to look very chic and modern and at the same time be very affordable.”

Production of the vehicle is scheduled to begin in 2022 and start in 2023. The company did not disclose any specific production plans, but previously announced a strategic relationship with auto supplier and contract manufacturer Magna International.

Such commercial vehicles are expected to be a major driver of the sales of profitable electric vehicles for the automotive industry. It’s a segment that startups and older automakers want to get into quickly in the years to come. Ford Motor, which leads commercial vehicle sales, plans to release an electric vehicle in 2021, followed by an electric version of its F-150 pickup truck the following year.

Interior of the Canoo delivery van, also known as the multipurpose delivery vehicle or MPVD.

Canoo

Canoo said the MPDV will come in two sizes with different EV ranges and battery sizes. The company says the smaller van, known as MPDV1, is expected to range between 130 miles and 230 miles, while the larger van, MPDV2, is between 90 miles and 190 miles based on battery sizes. Canoo takes reservations and refundable deposits of USD 100 for the vehicles on its website.

Canoo is part of a wave of new speculative EV start-ups that are planning to enter the market through reverse mergers with special purpose vehicles, also known as blank check companies, after the IPO. The company announced its merger agreement with Hennessy Capital Acquisition Corp. in August. known.

Canoo is expected to be listed as “GOEV” on Tuesday after a general meeting on the Nasdaq to approve the merger on Monday. The deal is expected to provide Canoo with approximately $ 600 million to support the production and launch of electric vehicles.

Hennessy’s shares fell 10% to around $ 18 on Thursday lunchtime. The stock is still up around 69% since the deal with Canoo was announced on Aug. 18.

This is Canoo’s second planned vehicle. The first was a smaller, pill-shaped vehicle that was more intended for consumers. It is expected to be available via a company’s member-only vehicle service from 2022, according to Canoo.

During the vehicle reveal on Thursday, the company also teased a two-sheet car and pickup truck.

Correction: This story has been updated to take into account that Canoo’s expected ticker symbol is “GOEV”. The company had previously announced a ticker symbol for “CNOO”.

Categories
Health

Sacklers Deny Private Accountability for Opioid Epidemic in Home Listening to

Sacklers Deny Personal Responsibility for Opioid Epidemic in House Hearing

Members of Congress on Thursday threw withering comments and angry questions at two members of the Sackler billionaire family who own Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, in a rare public appearance to take personal responsibility for the deadly opioid epidemic for details over $ 10 billion showing the family withdrew from the company.

The hearing before the House Oversight Committee provided the public with an extremely unusual opportunity to hear directly from some family members whose company is accused in thousands of federal and state lawsuits for misleading marketing of OxyContin, the pain reliever seen as initiating a wave of opioid addiction, which resulted in the deaths of more than 450,000 Americans. Eight family members were individually named in many state cases.

The uniqueness of the Sacklers’ appearance on Thursday was underscored by the likelihood that they will never testify in court, as the ongoing bankruptcy proceedings and statewide litigation can be settled in settlements rather than legal proceedings. Despite the millions of dollars in legal costs incurred by plaintiffs and Purdue alike – and the subsequent Chapter 11 filing for bankruptcy protection in September 2019 – one obstacle to resolution remains: the Sacklers refusal to face personal or criminal accountability and appeal over substantial parts of their property.

During the tense, nearly four-hour hearing, 40-year-old David Sackler and his cousin Dr. Kathe Sackler (72), who both worked for years on the company’s board of directors, testified from a distance and largely avoided the possible booby-traps and diverted the blame for “management” and independent, non-family board members.

Or, as Mr Sackler said, “That is a question for the lawyers.”

Repeatedly, committee members pitted harsh statistics on the destruction from the epidemic against pictures of the family’s simultaneous gains, including a $ 22.5 million mansion in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles paid in cash in 2018 – which David did Sackler called an investment in which he had not spent a single night.

Throughout the session, both Sacklers expressed regret over OxyContin’s role in the epidemic, but not about their own actions over the years when the company aggressively promoted the pain reliever, with the oversight and encouragement of the board of directors.

In fact, Dr. Sackler embarrassed about patient welfare. “I thought Purdue was acting responsibly to reduce the incidence of abuse and overdose while continuing to serve those in need of pain relief,” she said.

“I was trying to find out, was there anything I could have done differently? Know what I knew then – not what I know now? “Said Dr. Sackler, who served on the board from 1990 to 2018. “There is nothing that I could find otherwise, depending on what I believed and understood at the time.”

She said what she later learned from management and reported to the board was “extremely distressing.”

Mr. Sackler, who served on the board from 2012 to 2018, was similarly sensitive: “I believe I behaved legally and ethically, and I believe the full record will show that I still feel absolutely awful that a product created to help so many people “is linked to death and addiction, he said.

Deeply skeptical committee members asked the Sacklers whether they actually subscribed to newspapers or had access to cable television.

Speaking to the Sacklers, Representative Jim Cooper, Democrat of Tennessee, said, “When I see you testify, my blood boils. I don’t know of any family in America worse than yours. “

West Virginia Republican Carol Miller asked Mr. Sackler if he had ever visited Appalachia to see firsthand the effects of the crisis.

“Yes,” he replied, but not for the express purpose of establishing the facts.

“I was on vacation with my wife,” he said.

In the absence of a direct sense of responsibility by the Sacklers – or by Dr. Craig Landau, Purdue’s chief executive officer since 2017, who also testified – the committee members used their questions to explain the most egregious actions of the company and Dr. Sackler’s father, Dr. Richard Sackler, a practical manager during the height of the epidemic.

In particular, they examined the measures resulting from a nearly $ 635 million fine in 2007 paid by the company and three senior executives after pleading guilty of “misbranding”. The settlement did not include any assumption of liability by one of the Sacklers.

The committee chairman, Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, Democrat of New York, asked Mr. Sackler if the family was concerned about a government investigation following the company’s federal settlement in 2008. Mr. Sackler denied knowing that the investigation had increased.

But then Ms. Maloney read from an email exchange between Mr. Sackler and other relatives in 2007, just a week after that settlement. Regarding courtroom activities, he wrote, “We are rich? For how long? Until what suits reach the family? “

Then she asked Mr. Sackler, “Have you tried to cash out winnings so opioid victims can’t claim them for future losses?”

He replied: “No, I don’t think that’s what I meant then.”

The committee was able to require the Sacklers to submit a list of the companies Ms. Maloney referred to as “offshore shell companies”. According to court records, the family withdrew approximately $ 10 billion from Purdue Pharma between 2008 and 2017.

Mr Sackler said Thursday that the family paid about half of those taxes.

Dr. Landau said that during his tenure the company stopped promoting opioids and focused on developing drugs that reverse overdoses.

Three generations of family members have overseen Purdue since the 1950s when three brothers – including Raymond (David’s grandfather) and Mortimer (Kather’s father) – started it. (A third brother, Dr. Arthur Sackler, sold his stock long before OxyContin was launched.) During the opioid epidemic, family members served on Purdue’s board of directors, often pushing the sales department to rave about – prescribing doctors and downplaying its addictive properties of the drug according to extensive court documents.

Last month, Purdue pleaded guilty to three crimes of setbacks and fraud related to advertising its opioid and failing to report abnormal sales. The Justice Department has agreed with the company $ 8.3 billion in criminal and civil penalties and family members with $ 225 million in civil penalties. The Sacklers did not admit any wrongdoing. The amount they paid is roughly 2 percent of the family’s net worth.

Maura Healey, the attorney general of Massachusetts, the first state to name individual Sacklers in litigation, said the Sacklers want “special treatment.” In a letter to the House Committee, she wrote, “If we let powerful people cover up the facts, avoid accountability, or start a government sponsored OxyContin business – it is no justice. This time we have to get it right. “

In 2019, Congressman Elijah E Cummings, the late committee chairman, opened an investigation into the company and the family to see if their actions should lead to possible policy or legislation changes. In October, the committee released a plethora of documents that underscored how individual Sacklers asked the company to increase sales. The committee tried to get numerous Sacklers to testify, which they opposed through their lawyers, saying that the appearances would hamper the ongoing bankruptcy process.

The committee’s lawyers threatened to summon them. After considerable disputes, the Sacklers agreed to introduce two of the four family members originally requested.

Categories
Business

Unemployment Claims Present Influence of Layoffs as Virus Surges

Unemployment Claims Show Impact of Layoffs as Virus Surges

The surge in coronavirus cases is rippling through the economy, forcing employers to lay off workers with an extraordinarily high layoff rate, even as new vaccines and the possibility of further government aid offer hope for the next year.

The number of Americans filing initial unemployment insurance claims remained high last week, the Department of Labor reported Thursday. After falling earlier in the fall, claims have risen, dwarfing the pace of past recessions.

Consumer caution, coupled with new restrictions on business activities such as indoor restaurants, has hit the hotel, lodging, airline and other service industries. The debut of a coronavirus vaccine offers some prospect of relief, but until mass vaccination begins next year the economy will remain under pressure.

“Companies are closing, and as a result, job losses are increasing – and that is exactly what we feared we were going into the winter,” said Rubeela Farooqi, US chief economist at High Frequency Economics. “It will definitely be a challenging couple of months.”

The pace of retail sales has already slowed, as has overall economic growth. Few expect coronavirus cases to subside this winter and further drag on economic activity, but advances on a new relief law on Capitol Hill could ease the blow.

935,000 new state benefit claims were made last week, compared to 956,000 the previous week. Adjusted for seasonal fluctuations, last week’s value was 885,000, an increase of 23,000.

There have been 455,000 new applications for assistance from Pandemic Unemployment, a government-funded program for part-time workers, the self-employed, and other people who are normally not eligible for unemployment benefits. This sum, which was not seasonally adjusted, increased by 40,000 compared to the previous week.

The move to limit business and consumer activities by government agencies was evident in the new data. In Illinois, where indoor eating was banned on November 20, claims rose by over 35,000. In California, where restrictions went into effect December 3, new registrations rose by nearly 24,000.

As of late November, more than 20 million workers were receiving unemployment benefits under state or federal programs, according to data from the Department of Labor. Although the unemployment rate fell from 14.7 percent in April to 6.7 percent in November, the ongoing layoffs underscore the economic fragility of many Americans.

Economy & Economy

Updated

Apr. 17, 2020, 4:35 pm ET

“We’re not going in the right direction,” said Gregory Daco, chief US economist at Oxford Economics. “With the services expiring, it’s even more worrying.”

The pain in the labor market is particularly acute for the less skilled, whose jobs and finances are far more affected than those of wealthier Americans.

The S&P 500, the Dow Jones Industrials and the Nasdaq Composite Index closed at record highs on Thursday and have completed a strong rally in recent weeks. The IPO was hot news and shaped thousands of paper millionaires in Silicon Valley and elsewhere.

The housing market has also been resilient, fueled by low interest rates that make mortgages more affordable as city dwellers flee to the suburbs.

Total wages and salaries have returned to pre-pandemic levels at $ 9.6 trillion a month after falling below $ 8.7 trillion in the depths of the spring recession. But the American share of the labor force remains well below a year ago, underscoring the deep hole the economy is slowly working its way out of.

Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress resumed talks Thursday on another pandemic relief bill that economists have warned is overdue. With no action taken, two key unemployed programs will expire this month – Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation, which provide extra weeks of assistance after government benefits expire and cut payments to millions.

In addition to extending these programs, the $ 900 billion package is expected to include $ 600 stimulus payments to individuals, a $ 300 weekly unemployment benefit allowance, and rent and food aid.

The $ 2.2 trillion CARES bill, passed in March, has been credited with helping the economy weather the depths of lockdowns in many parts of the country last spring. But partisan battles in Washington have held up renewed federal support for months.

Economists have warned that without a new aid package from Washington, economic growth could stay flat in the first quarter of 2021. In addition, the abrupt end of unemployment benefits for millions could further weigh on consumer spending.

Data released on Wednesday showed retail sales declined 1.1 percent in November, a disappointing start to the crucial Christmas season. Gus Faucher, chief economist at PNC Financial Services, expects economic growth to be weak for the next several months before accelerating later in 2021.

“Until we vaccinate many people, the economy will face a difficult test,” he said. “I don’t know if there will be a total decline or loss of jobs, but the pace of improvement will slow significantly.”

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World News

Extra Than 300 Kidnapped College students Launched in Nigeria, Governor Says

More Than 300 Abducted Students Released in Nigeria, Governor Says

DAKAR, Senegal – For six days, parents held a vigil at the school in northwestern Nigeria, where their boys, more than 300 of them, were taken away by armed men at night.

The armed men’s attack on their town of Kankara was a painful replica of the kidnapping of 276 school girls in Chibok in 2014 by the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram of the Chibok girls were not registered years later.

Families gathered at Government Science Secondary School, praying, and fearing the worst.

“We do not know whether he has eaten, whether he is sick, dead or alive,” said Abdulkadir Musbau, whose son Abdullahi was among the abductees.

But just as suddenly, when the families’ ordeal began, it seemed to end, and with the best possible news: late Thursday night, the governor of their state announced that all of the kidnapped boys had been released and would be reunited with their parents the next day.

It was unclear under what conditions the boys’ freedom had been secured. Governor Aminu Bello Masari told a Deutsche Welle television reporter that the government had not paid a ransom and that negotiations had been conducted with a group of men he described as “bandits” rather than Boko Haram.

Boko Haram had claimed the kidnappings from the start, but the group’s level of involvement was murky. Kankara is in northwest Nigeria, where the group was not known. Among terrorist experts, this opened up the possibility that the group might want to expand by making common cause with militant and criminal groups already established in the region.

The group seemed to confirm this idea when they posted a video showing some of the kidnapped boys. A boy who said he was from Kankara is shown asking the government to call the army, disband support groups and close schools. “We were caught by a gang from Abu Shekau,” he said, referring to the Boko Haram chief. “Some of us were killed.”

“You have to send them the money,” he added.

A dozen smaller boys crowded around him and added their voices. “Help us,” they called into the camera.

An audio message from a representative of Boko Haram was pinned to the end, implying some kind of collaboration between the kidnappers and the militant Islamists.

In a BBC interview that was taped before news of the release, Mr Masari said the kidnappers had contacted the father of one of the boys and asked the government to send them money.

“We have an idea where they are, but we try to make sure there is no collateral damage, that the children are brought back safely,” he said. “That’s why we step forward carefully and quietly.”

President Muhammadu Buhari won the 2015 election and pledged to take action against Boko Haram and other militant and bandit groups in northern Nigeria. And he has repeatedly promised to take every chibok student home.

“The Chibok girls are still fresh in our minds,” said Bulama Bukarti, an expert on extremist groups in Africa at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. “The difference now is that Boko Haram has fighters from outside the Northeast, they have people from the Northwest.”

The abductions have remarkable similarities. As in the Chibok attack, armed men stormed the boarding school at night, took hundreds of children, in this case all boys, and took them to hiding in the country. They were then divided into groups, according to students questioned by local media outlets who managed to escape their captors, making it difficult for security forces to conduct a rescue operation.

Mr Musbau said he was out shopping for pasta for his children’s Saturday breakfast when heavy gunfire broke out. People were running in all directions around him, so he sprinted home, passing police officers and guards on the way.

When he heard that their children’s boarding school was the focus of the attack, he and other parents ran there at dawn.

When he got to school, “I saw his neatly made bed and his box and hat over it,” said Mr. Musbau. “But not him.”

Mr. Musbau was delighted when Abdullahi, the oldest of his six children, got a place at the state science school. In elementary school he had reached the top of his class and was hoping to become a doctor when he got older.

“The reality became clear to us that our children were indeed abducted,” he said in a school phone interview he had barely left since the attack. “Everyone was hysterical. Nobody thought the bandits could do this. You have never done anything like this before. “

The attack in Kankara was the third mass kidnapping by a Nigerian school in six years: in 2018, more than 100 girls were kidnapped in the rural community of Dapchi, a northeastern town, although most of them returned home after a few days.

The kidnapping was significant both because it took place outside the known sphere of influence of Boko Haram and because it took place in the president’s home state, Katsina, when he arrived on a week-long visit.

Mr Buhari released a statement late Thursday evening welcoming the kidnapped students’ return and the cooperation between the security forces and the government of Katsina and Zamfara states.

In the statement, Mr. Buhari urged patience with his administration as they tried to clean up security incidents across the country and reiterated his promise to lobby for the release of other detainees.

Many northern Nigerians voted for Mr Buhari in 2015, thinking he would use his credentials as a former general and one-time dictator to encourage discipline and bring peace to Africa’s most populous nation.

Despite government claims, Boko Haram and other militant groups still pose a grave threat. And these recent attacks, following a nationwide uprising against police violence, insecurity and bad governance, have exposed the growing public dissatisfaction with a Nigerian government that cannot protect its people.

In the northeast, the government has pursued a strategy of building heavily protected garrison towns and largely leaving the land to the militants. More than 70 farmers trapped between the government and the extremists were killed there last month.

In Kankara, a local official said the government was aware of the worsening situation but had done nothing to resolve it.

“These bandits are well known, as are their families,” said the official, who asked for anonymity because he had been instructed not to speak to journalists. “Why were they treated with children’s gloves until they were monstrous and difficult to contain?”

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Politics

Biden hints at a more durable stance towards state sponsors of cyberattacks

Biden hints at a tougher stance against state sponsors of cyberattacks

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden speaks to reporters as he announces additional candidates and candidates during a press conference at his interim headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware on December 11, 2020.

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WASHINGTON – President-elect Joe Biden said Thursday that the United States, under his leadership, would join forces with allies to “incur” significant costs “to opponents of cyberattacks such as the massive breach of US government agencies and corporations revealed earlier this month to impose.

“A good defense is not enough. We must first stop our opponents from carrying out significant cyber attacks,” said Biden in a statement from his transition team.

“We will do this by, among other things, imposing substantial costs on those responsible for such malicious attacks, also in coordination with our allies and partners. Our opponents should know that I, as President, will not remain idle cyber attacks on our nation.”

The statement is Biden’s first formal response as President-elect to news of the month-long cyber attack, which experts say bears the hallmarks of a state-sponsored Russian operation.

It also signals a possible shift towards a tougher stance on Russian cyberwar tactics than that of the current Trump administration.

Biden noted that his in-depth national security team had been briefed on the attacks by career officials at relevant government agencies.

On Wednesday evening, the three lead agencies responsible for investigating the attack and protecting the nation from cyber threats, the FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, announced the formation of a joint venture Command to respond to what is known as a “major and ongoing cybersecurity campaign” against the United States.

“This is an evolving situation, and as we continue to work to understand the full scope of this campaign, we know that this compromise has affected networks within the federal government,” the agencies said in a joint statement.

Both government agencies and private companies affected by the attack are striving to gain a clearer picture of the full extent of the breach and the potential damage to US cyber infrastructure and critical information systems.

The initial investigation revealed that the breach was malicious code hidden in a software update from widely used IT management company SolarWinds. Russia has denied any involvement in the attack.

In a briefing with Congress officials earlier this week, CISA officials warned that the perpetrator of this attack was sophisticated and that it would take weeks, if not months, to determine the total number of agencies affected by the attack and the extent of sensitive data and information possibly compromised. “

The CISA warning was revealed in a letter the Democratic Committee Chairs in the House of Representatives sent Thursday to senior officials at the FBI, CISA and ODNI for more details about the attack.

This timeline suggests that it will be Biden, not the outgoing President Donald Trump, who will ultimately be responsible for determining what retaliation, if any, is warranted against those behind the attacks. Biden will take office on January 20th.

Trump has yet to respond personally to the latest attack. White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said Tuesday that the government is “looking at this closely”.

But Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney, a frequent Trump critic, described the White House’s lukewarm response to the attack as “inexcusable.”

Trump has had an unusually cordial relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin during his four-year tenure, despite repeated attempts by the Kremlin to undermine US elections and democratic processes and its cyberwar campaign.

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Health

Hospital CEOs see skeptical workers ultimately taking it

Side effects are signs shot is building protection, says ex-FDA chief

Some health care workers are reluctant to get the coronavirus vaccination, but the hospital’s CEOs told CNBC on Thursday that attitudes will change after a larger percentage of employees are vaccinated.

“I think everyone will want to attend soon,” Will Ferniany, CEO of UAB Alabama Health System, told Squawk on the Street. “About 60% are eager to take it and want to know as soon as they can,” he said, referring to a staff survey. “Twenty percent want to take it, but are careful, and 20 percent are very skeptical about it.”

UAB hospital was due to offer shots to health care workers starting Thursday after receiving 10,725 doses of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine earlier this week. The first vaccinations in the U.S. outside of clinical trials came on Monday, just days after the Food and Drug Administration granted emergency approval.

Ferniany said some employees’ reluctance to take the vaccine was not surprising. “But I think when you see what happens to your friends and when this comes out – and the vaccine has been introduced very smoothly in Alabama – I think almost everyone wants to get the footage,” he said.

The multi-hospital system in Birmingham, Alabama, cannot make Covid-19 vaccination mandatory because the vaccine has only received government approval in an emergency, Ferniany said. However, he said employees need to be vaccinated against the seasonal flu. Last year, about 52% of Americans who were six months or older got the flu vaccine.

“But we’ve given our staff a considerable amount of information, FAQs, and Zoom forums for everyone. I believe if they get training they will,” Ferniany said of the Covid vaccine.

Dr. Marc Boom, CEO of Houston Methodist in Texas, told CNBC that more than 11,000 of its employees have signed up for the vaccination. “There’s a large percentage of our population headed for it,” he said, adding that it brings comfort to health workers who have witnessed the ravages of the pandemic up close. “There was so much relief and so much hope from the vaccine,” he said on Squawk on the Street.

However, Boom said, “There’s an entirely different group that is waiting” in the eight-hospital system that is also part of the sprawling Texas Medical Center.

As Ferniany said, Boom said that additional training and experience from other employees should help more workers get the new vaccine comfortably. “We’ve been mandating a flu vaccine for over 15 years, so we always get a full shot. We’ll get there at some point,” even if it takes a while, Boom said.

The Covid vaccine launch this week comes at a critical time in the U.S. coronavirus epidemic. The seven-day average of new infections in the US is at an all-time high of 215,729, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Daily deaths are also at a record 2,570, based on a seven-day average.

In Texas, where hospital stays have stabilized over the past week, more rural parts of the state are now harder hit than they were earlier this summer, according to Boom.

Hospital stays for Covid patients in Alabama are at a record high, according to the COVID Tracking Project run by journalists in the Atlantic. While complimenting the state governor, Republican Kay Ivey, for extending his mask mandate, Ferniany said coronavirus cases are increasing “rapidly”. “Some of our rural hospitals that we manage, nearly 50% of their hospital are now with Covid patients,” Ferniany said.

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Business

Biden to choose North Carolina environmental regulator to run EPA

Biden to pick North Carolina environmental regulator to run EPA

Michael Regan listens as North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper announces that Regan will lead the North Carolina Environmental Quality Department at Executive Manson in Raleigh, NC on January 3, 2017.

Chuck Liddy | AP

President-elect Joe Biden will select Michael Regan, secretary for the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, to head the Environmental Protection Agency, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC.

Regan, 44, was Biden’s front runner and, if confirmed, will be the first black to head the agency.

Regan previously worked at the EPA for the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations and was the national program manager responsible for developing programs to improve energy efficiency, air quality and reduce air pollution.

Regan later worked at the Environmental Defense Fund, where he made efforts to contain the effects of climate change and air pollution.

He will play a crucial role in supporting Biden’s aggressive plan to combat global warming and transform the US economy from fossil fuels to clean energy. Regan is also expected to be heavily involved in environmental racism.

“Regan has dedicated his career to environmental work, promoting clean energy, combating climate change and tackling coal ash pollution,” said Abigail Dillen, president of Earthjustice, an environmental law nonprofit. “As the EPA administrator, Regan will play a key role in solving the climate crisis and protecting the health of all communities.”

Biden also intends to appoint Rep. Deb Haaland, DN.M., as his Home Secretary. If this were confirmed, Haaland would be the first Native American to be appointed cabinet secretary. She would oversee the management and conservation of the land’s public land and natural resources, as well as the restoration of land that the Trump administration had opened up for drilling and other construction.

Read more from CNBC environment:
Joe Biden’s climate protection agenda faces an uncertain future in the Senate
Biden will rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement. Here’s what happens next

Biden has vowed to reintroduce the U.S. to the Paris Agreement and bring the country to net zero emissions by 2050, though his climate agenda will face immense constraints if Republicans retain control of the Senate.

In the past four years, the Trump administration has dismantled more than 70 key environmental regulations, with nearly 30 in the works.

“Regan will take over the helm of the EPA at perhaps the most critical moment in the agency’s history, and he has to do a lot more than just clean up the toxic mess Trump left behind,” said Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biodiversity.

If the GOP retains control of the Senate and hinders climate legislation, Biden’s plans will depend on the EPA to implement regulations to reduce fossil fuel emissions from sites and automobiles.

The Biden government is already planning to put restrictions on oil and gas drilling on public properties, block pipelines across the country and withdraw many of Trump’s executive orders for energy.