Month: December 2020

Categories
World News

A Vaccine Is on Its Technique to Canada. Who Will Get It First?

A Vaccine Is on Its Way to Canada. Who Will Get It First?

When a polio vaccine was announced in 1953, the CBC reported that in Canada “the response was the same as at the end of a terrible war”. The 13,109 Canadians the Covid-19 has killed, the hundreds of thousands it has made sick, and the economic turmoil it has brought to the nation also appear to be the toll of battle. The vaccine approved by Canada this week also appeared to be a truce, if not a truce. The first shipment of the vaccine, made by the American company Pfizer and a German company, BioNTech, is expected to be on the way this weekend, and the first vaccinations could be given as early as Tuesday. Initial quantities will be small compared to the millions of cans expected to arrive in the New Year, making the first cans more of a starter than a rollout.

[Read: Canada Approves Vaccine and Could Start Shots Next Week]

Everything that has to do with the vaccine depends of course on who gets it and when. Or, as one journalist told officials during one of the vaccine approval press conferences, “How can you make sure this isn’t like The Hunger Games of vaccines?”

The province decides who gets the shots first. However, a federal body has drawn up a list of recommendations for selecting first recipients, a list of candidates, which limits officials to four groups: people over 80; Residents of nursing homes, a group that accounts for 71 percent of deaths so far, and the workers who serve them; Health care workers; and indigenous communities.

For the first few thousand cans that are on the way, plans vary by province. Quebec will focus on nursing homes while Saskatchewan will initially inject health care workers.

In the three areas – the Northwest Areas, Nunavut, and Yukon – no one will receive the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine anytime soon. Instead, governments in the far north have decided to wait for Moderna’s vaccine, which is nearing approval and will be easier to use, said Dr. Howard Njoo, the country’s deputy chief public health officer. It doesn’t require the extremely low temperatures that the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine provides.

Children also won’t get the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine right away. It is only approved for use by people aged 16 and over.

Dr. Njoo warned that decision-making would not end after officials determined which groups would receive them first. You may need to decide whether it makes sense to initially only vaccinate people who live in the cities where the 14 centers where the vaccine is delivered are located. Each province has at least one center, with two each in Ontario and Quebec, but none in rural areas.

“If you want to vaccinate health workers, where do you start?” Dr. Njoo asked at a press conference this week. “Could it be easier and more practical to do this in a facility in an urban setting? Not to say that health care workers who provide health care and direct health care in a remote or rural setting are not so important. “

Regardless of what decisions the provinces ultimately make, the plan is to only vaccinate people from the groups with the highest priority by the end of March. During this time, the federal government expects four million doses of Pfizer and, if approved, two million doses of Moderna’s vaccine. Until then, governments will have to figure out how to deal with the remaining 35 million Canadians.

It has been widely established that both the Pfizer BioNTech and Moderna vaccines use radically new technology. My colleagues Jonathan Corum and Carl Zimmer have prepared definitive guides to help understand both.

[Read: How the Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccine Works]

[Read: How Moderna’s Vaccine Works]

  • Fifty years have passed since the October Crisis was sparked by the kidnapping of UK Trade Commissioner James Cross and the kidnapping and murder of Quebec Deputy Prime Minister Pierre Laporte. Dan Bilefsky reports that a film made by the son of a leader of the FLQ, the violent extremist group that carried out the attacks, was a success and at the same time “underscores the sensitivity of the events of the time.”

  • On another grim anniversary, two years have passed since the Chinese government arrested Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. In their reporting, Javier C. Hernández and Dan noted that the two men “have now become symbols of the aftermath of Beijing’s increasingly aggressive foreign policy and that their fate is apparently intertwined with the future of China’s turbulent relations with Canada and the United States.” .

  • Catherine Porter reports that Christmas broke early in pandemic Canada and Christmas trees have become scarce in some communities.

  • After publishing an annual report on the Arctic, a climate specialist told Henry Fountain, who reports on climate problems for The Times, that “almost everything in the Arctic, from ice and snow to human activity, changes so rapidly that none.” there is reason to believe that in 30 years much will be as it is today. “

  • Lynn Marchessault set off from Georgia with her two children, two dogs, and a cat to reunite 6,000 kilometers with her husband, a US Army sergeant stationed in Fairbanks, Alaska. Snow turned the passage through western Canada into a nightmare. She was about to give up when Gary Bath, a Canadian veteran, came to the rescue.

  • A United States-appointed committee of 19 experts in medicine and other fields has concluded that the mysterious disease affecting American and Canadian diplomats known as Havana Syndrome is likely caused by “directional, pulsed radio frequency energy.” has been.

  • The Trump administration is on its way out, but is using the trade deal that NAFTA replaced to challenge Canada’s dairy supply management system, says Ana Swanson.

  • Fred Sasakamoose, who died at the age of 86, played only 11 games in the NHL but became a hero of the indigenous people and spent decades mentoring and encouraging young First Nations players.

  • As Pat Patterson, Montreal native Pierre Clermont played the villain in countless wrestling matches before becoming an executive in the wrestling world. In 2014, he announced that he was gay and breaking a barrier in that community. Mr. Patterson died last week at the age of 79.

Ian Austen is from Windsor, Ontario. He was trained in Toronto, lives in Ottawa and has been reporting on Canada for the New York Times for 16 years. Follow him on Twitter @ianrausten.

We look forward to your thoughts on this newsletter and on events in Canada in general. Please send them to nytcanada@nytimes.com.

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Categories
Entertainment

Othella Dallas, Keeper of Katherine Dunham’s Flame, Dies at 95

Othella Dallas, Keeper of Katherine Dunham’s Flame, Dies at 95

Ms. Dallas appeared on Broadway in 1946 in Bal Nègre, a Dunham-directed and choreographed revue, and toured Europe with the company. In Paris she met a Swiss engineer named Peter Wydler. When Dunham discovered that Ms. Dallas was about to get married, she was initially furious, but she served as Ms. Dallas’s witness and popped the champagne at the wedding in 1949. Eartha Kitt sang “C’est Si Bon”.

Ms. Dallas left the company later that year to stay with her husband in Switzerland. In the 1950s she taught the Dunham technique in Zurich, but soon left it to pursue a music career in America. In 1975, finally based in Europe, she opened her dance school in Basel.

“Yes, I was lucky,” she said in the documentary, reflecting on her improbable life. “I was fortunate enough to have so much. That is, what is happiness? “

Othella Dallas was born Othella Talmadge Strozier on September 26, 1925 in Memphis. Her father Frank was a pharmacist. Her mother, Thelma Lee, was a seamstress who also sang in the vaudeville. A grandmother ran a music school. Othella attended high school in St. Louis and aspired to be a doctor.

As a girl she suffered from rickets; Doctors suggested putting her legs back. Instead, as she told her, her grandmother took her to a voodoo priest, who prescribed that her legs be massaged in greasy dishwater while he recited an incantation.

After enough dips in the sink, he said she was cured.

“Make them dance,” he announced.

“Let them dance where?” asked her mother. “Those old filthy nightclubs?”

Categories
Business

F.D.A. Clears Pfizer Vaccine, and Tens of millions of Doses Will Be Shipped Proper Away

F.D.A. Clears Pfizer Vaccine, and Millions of Doses Will Be Shipped Right Away

Die Food and Drug Administration hat am Freitag den Covid-19-Impfstoff von Pfizer für den Notfall zugelassen und damit Millionen von stark gefährdeten Menschen den Weg frei gemacht, innerhalb weniger Tage mit dem Impfstoff zu beginnen.

Die Genehmigung ist ein historischer Wendepunkt in einer Pandemie, bei der in den USA mehr als 290.000 Menschen ums Leben kamen. Mit der Entscheidung sind die Vereinigten Staaten neben Großbritannien, Bahrain, Kanada, Saudi-Arabien und Mexiko das sechste Land, das den Impfstoff freigibt. Weitere Genehmigungen, auch von der Europäischen Union, werden innerhalb von Wochen erwartet.

Die Entscheidung der FDA folgte einer außergewöhnlichen Abfolge von Ereignissen am Freitagmorgen, als der Stabschef des Weißen Hauses, Mark Meadows, dem FDA-Kommissar Dr. Stephen Hahn sagte, er solle überlegen, ob er seinen nächsten Job suchen könne, wenn er die Notfallgenehmigung nicht erhalten würde am Freitag nach Angaben eines hochrangigen Verwaltungsbeamten, der unter der Bedingung der Anonymität sprach, weil er nicht befugt war, die Angelegenheit zu erörtern. Dr. Hahn befahl daraufhin den Impfstoffaufsichtsbehörden der Agentur, dies bis zum Ende des Tages zu tun.

Die Genehmigung löste eine komplizierte Koordinierungsmaßnahme von Pfizer, privaten Schifffahrtsunternehmen, staatlichen und lokalen Gesundheitsbehörden, dem Militär, Krankenhäusern und Apothekenketten aus, um die erste Woche mit etwa drei Millionen Dosen so schnell wie möglich an Mitarbeiter des Gesundheitswesens und Pflegeheime zu bringen möglich, während der Impfstoff bei ultrakalten Temperaturen gehalten wird.

Pfizer hat mit der US-Regierung einen Vertrag über die Lieferung von 100 Millionen Dosen des Impfstoffs bis zum nächsten März abgeschlossen. Im Rahmen dieser Vereinbarung sind die Aufnahmen für die Öffentlichkeit kostenlos.

Jedes Bundesland hat zusammen mit sechs Großstädten der Bundesregierung eine Liste der Standorte – hauptsächlich Krankenhäuser – vorgelegt, an denen der Pfizer-Impfstoff zunächst versandt werden soll. Im bevölkerungsreichen Florida werden die ersten Empfänger fünf Krankenhäuser in Jacksonville, Miami, Orlando, Tampa und Hollywood sein. Im winzigen ländlichen Vermont werden nur das Medical Center der University of Vermont und ein staatliches Lagerhaus versorgt.

Die McKesson Corporation, ein riesiger medizinischer Zulieferer, sendet Kits mit Spritzen, Alkoholtupfern, Gesichtsschutz und anderen Verbrauchsmaterialien an dieselben Standorte, wo sie sich mit den Impfstoffen treffen, die Pfizer in speziellen, mit Trockeneis verpackten Kartons versendet Halten Sie sie bei minus 94 Grad Fahrenheit.

Die Pfizer-Verpackung enthält ein Gerät, das den Standort der Box verfolgt, sowie eine Wärmesonde, die sicherstellt, dass die Tiefkühlung während der gesamten Fahrt von den Vertriebsstandorten des Unternehmens in Michigan und Wisconsin aufrechterhalten wird.

Die Entscheidung ist ein Sieg für Pfizer und seinen deutschen Partner BioNTech, die vor 11 Monaten mit der Arbeit an dem Impfstoff begonnen haben. Die Entwicklung von Impfstoffen dauert in der Regel Jahre. Die späte klinische Studie der Unternehmen, an der fast 44.000 Personen teilnahmen, erwies sich als zu 95 Prozent wirksam.

Ein Expertengremium, das die FDA am Donnerstag beriet, genehmigte den Impfstoff von Pfizer für Personen ab 16 Jahren, und die Agentur plante, die formelle Zulassung am Samstag freizugeben. Diese Frist wurde um einen halben Tag verkürzt, nachdem Präsident Trump Dr. Hahn angegriffen hatte, weil er einen Impfstoff nicht schneller zugelassen hatte. Es wurde jedoch nicht erwartet, dass die beschleunigte Ankündigung die Lieferung von Impfstoffen im ganzen Land beschleunigen würde.

Herr Trump sagte Dr. Hahn am Freitagmorgen auf Twitter, er solle “aufhören, Spiele zu spielen und Leben retten !!!” Er nannte die FDA “eine große, alte, langsame Schildkröte”, die voller Geld ist, aber in Bürokratie versunken ist.

Herr Trump hat wiederholt die FDA und die Arzneimittelhersteller selbst beschuldigt, das Zulassungsverfahren nur langsam durchlaufen zu haben, um ihm politisch Schaden zuzufügen. Die Verbündeten von Dr. Hahn sind seit Wochen in Atem und erwarten, dass er jeden Tag gefeuert wird.

Der Präsident schrieb, dass die Regierung mit „meinem Drängen“ die Entwicklung von Impfstoffen um Jahre verkürzt habe. “Holen Sie die Dammimpfstoffe JETZT raus, Dr. Hahn”, schrieb er und schrieb den Spruch falsch.

Die Bedrohung für Dr. Hahns Arbeit wurde erstmals von der Washington Post gemeldet. In einer Erklärung bestritt Dr. Hahn, dass Herr Meadows ihm sagte, er solle in Betracht ziehen, einen anderen Job zu suchen, und nannte ihn “eine unwahre Darstellung des Telefonanrufs”. Stattdessen, so Dr. Hahn, wurde seine Agentur “ermutigt, zügig weiterzuarbeiten. ”

Obwohl die FDA den Pfizer-Impfstoff auf jeden Fall genehmigen würde, warnten einige Experten, dass der Der Druck des Weißen Hauses könnte das Vertrauen der Öffentlichkeit in die Entscheidungsfindung der Agentur untergraben.

“Dies kann tatsächlich mehr schaden als nützen, denn alles, was es tun wird, ist, mehr Politik in einen wissenschaftlichen Prozess einzubringen”, sagte Dr. Aaron S. Kesselheim, Professor am Brigham and Women’s Hospital und an der Harvard Medical School.

Ein ähnlicher Impfstoff, der von Moderna entwickelt wurde, wird derzeit von der FDA geprüft und könnte bald für den Notfall freigegeben werden. Am Freitag gab die Bundesregierung bekannt, dass sie weitere 100 Millionen Dosen bei Moderna bestellt habe, was diesen Sommer zu einer Vereinbarung über die Erstversorgung mit 100 Millionen Dosen beitrage. Andere Impfstoffe, einschließlich der von Johnson & Johnson und AstraZeneca entwickelten, befinden sich in späten Studien und könnten in den nächsten Monaten zugelassen werden.

In Erwartung der Ankunft des Impfstoffs im ganzen Land äußerten die Amerikaner sowohl Hoffnung als auch Besorgnis.

Der Weg zu einem Coronavirus-Impfstoff ›

Antworten auf Ihre Impfstofffragen

Wenn sich der Coronavirus-Impfstoff der US-Zulassung nähert, sind hier einige Fragen, über die Sie sich möglicherweise wundern:

    • Wenn ich in den USA lebe, wann kann ich den Impfstoff bekommen? Während die genaue Reihenfolge der Impfstoffempfänger von Staat zu Staat unterschiedlich sein kann, werden die meisten Ärzte und Bewohner von Langzeitpflegeeinrichtungen an erster Stelle stehen. Wenn Sie verstehen möchten, wie diese Entscheidung getroffen wird, hilft dieser Artikel.
    • Wann kann ich nach der Impfung wieder zum normalen Leben zurückkehren? Das Leben wird erst wieder normal, wenn die Gesellschaft als Ganzes ausreichend Schutz gegen das Coronavirus erhält. Sobald die Länder einen Impfstoff zugelassen haben, können sie in den ersten Monaten höchstens einige Prozent ihrer Bürger impfen. Die nicht geimpfte Mehrheit bleibt weiterhin anfällig für Infektionen. Eine wachsende Anzahl von Coronavirus-Impfstoffen zeigt einen robusten Schutz vor Krankheit. Es ist aber auch möglich, dass Menschen das Virus verbreiten, ohne zu wissen, dass sie infiziert sind, weil sie nur leichte oder gar keine Symptome haben. Wissenschaftler wissen noch nicht, ob die Impfstoffe auch die Übertragung des Coronavirus blockieren. Selbst geimpfte Menschen müssen vorerst Masken tragen, Menschenmassen in Innenräumen meiden und so weiter. Sobald genügend Menschen geimpft sind, wird es für das Coronavirus sehr schwierig, gefährdete Personen zu finden, die infiziert werden können. Je nachdem, wie schnell wir als Gesellschaft dieses Ziel erreichen, könnte sich das Leben im Herbst 2021 einem normalen Zustand nähern.
    • Muss ich nach der Impfung noch eine Maske tragen? Ja, aber nicht für immer. Die beiden Impfstoffe, die möglicherweise in diesem Monat zugelassen werden, schützen die Menschen eindeutig vor einer Krankheit mit Covid-19. Die klinischen Studien, die diese Ergebnisse lieferten, waren jedoch nicht darauf ausgelegt, festzustellen, ob geimpfte Personen das Coronavirus noch verbreiten können, ohne Symptome zu entwickeln. Das bleibt eine Möglichkeit. Wir wissen, dass Menschen, die von Natur aus mit dem Coronavirus infiziert sind, es verbreiten können, ohne Husten oder andere Symptome zu haben. Die Forscher werden diese Frage bei der Einführung der Impfstoffe intensiv untersuchen. In der Zwischenzeit müssen sich selbst geimpfte Menschen als mögliche Spreizer vorstellen.
    • Wird es wehtun? Was sind die Nebenwirkungen? Der Impfstoff gegen Pfizer und BioNTech wird wie andere typische Impfstoffe als Schuss in den Arm abgegeben. Die Injektion unterscheidet sich nicht von denen, die Sie zuvor erhalten haben. Zehntausende Menschen haben die Impfstoffe bereits erhalten, und keiner von ihnen hat ernsthafte gesundheitliche Probleme gemeldet. Einige von ihnen haben jedoch kurzlebige Beschwerden verspürt, darunter Schmerzen und grippeähnliche Symptome, die normalerweise einen Tag anhalten. Es ist möglich, dass die Leute planen müssen, nach dem zweiten Schuss einen Tag frei zu nehmen oder zur Schule zu gehen. Obwohl diese Erfahrungen nicht angenehm sind, sind sie ein gutes Zeichen: Sie sind das Ergebnis der Begegnung Ihres eigenen Immunsystems mit dem Impfstoff und einer starken Reaktion, die eine dauerhafte Immunität gewährleistet.
    • Werden mRNA-Impfstoffe meine Gene verändern? Nein. Die Impfstoffe von Moderna und Pfizer verwenden ein genetisches Molekül, um das Immunsystem zu stärken. Dieses als mRNA bekannte Molekül wird schließlich vom Körper zerstört. Die mRNA ist in einer öligen Blase verpackt, die mit einer Zelle verschmelzen kann, so dass das Molekül hineinrutschen kann. Die Zelle verwendet die mRNA, um Proteine ​​aus dem Coronavirus herzustellen, die das Immunsystem stimulieren können. Zu jedem Zeitpunkt kann jede unserer Zellen Hunderttausende von mRNA-Molekülen enthalten, die sie produzieren, um eigene Proteine ​​herzustellen. Sobald diese Proteine ​​hergestellt sind, zerkleinern unsere Zellen die mRNA mit speziellen Enzymen. Die mRNA-Moleküle, die unsere Zellen herstellen, können nur wenige Minuten überleben. Die mRNA in Impfstoffen ist so konstruiert, dass sie den Enzymen der Zelle etwas länger standhält, sodass die Zellen zusätzliche Virusproteine ​​bilden und eine stärkere Immunantwort auslösen können. Die mRNA kann jedoch höchstens einige Tage halten, bevor sie zerstört wird.

Dr. Samu Queen, eine Ärztin in Portland, Oregon, sagte, ihre geriatrischen Patienten seien besonders gespannt auf den Impfstoff. “Sie sind alle sehr besorgt”, sagte sie. “So ziemlich jeder ist bei jedem Termin bereit, es zu bekommen.”

Dr. Queen sagte, sie habe genau beobachtet, wie die ersten Probanden in Großbritannien reagierten. Sie beschrieb sich selbst als “etwas besorgt darüber, wie sicher es ist, im Gegensatz zu nicht”.

Joshua Ball, stellvertretender Geschäftsführer von Shaping Our Appalachian Region, einer Wirtschaftsförderungsgruppe im Osten von Kentucky, war ein Hauptbetreuer seines Vaters, der Anfang dieses Jahres einen Schlaganfall hatte und andere gesundheitliche Probleme hat. Während der Pandemie musste er versuchen, so viel wie möglich aus der Ferne zu helfen.

Ein Impfstoff könnte das ändern. Es könnte ihm auch ermöglichen, in die Kirche zurückzukehren und an den saisonalen Festen teilzunehmen, die für viele kleine Städte in seiner Region ein kulturelles Grundnahrungsmittel sind.

“Ich vermisse die Gemeinschaft, Hände zu schütteln, Menschen zu sehen, Geburtstage, kirchliche Mahlzeiten und eine Ferienbibelschule zu feiern”, sagte er.

Dennoch sind die staatlichen Gesundheitsbehörden nach wie vor zutiefst besorgt darüber, was sie als unzureichende Finanzierung für die größte Impfkampagne bezeichnen, die das Land jemals gestartet hat. Staatliche Gesundheitsbeamte haben den Kongress um mindestens 8,4 Milliarden US-Dollar gebeten, um die Arbeit gut zu machen. Bisher haben sie jedoch nur etwa 350 Millionen US-Dollar von den Zentren für die Kontrolle und Prävention von Krankheiten für die Verteilung und Verabreichung von Impfstoffen erhalten. Zu diesen Aufgaben gehört die Erweiterung der Online-Systeme, um Informationen darüber zu verfolgen und auszutauschen, wer geimpft wurde. Rekrutierung und Ausbildung von Ärzten, Krankenschwestern und Apothekern zur Verwaltung der Aufnahmen; und die Öffentlichkeit davon zu überzeugen, wie wichtig es ist, geimpft zu werden.

Die ausreichende Zufuhr des Impfstoffs hat sich auch als Herausforderung ohne klare Lösung erwiesen. Pfizer musste frühere Schätzungen aufgrund von Rückschlägen bei der Herstellung zurückfahren und hat angekündigt, bis Ende des Jahres bis zu 25 Millionen Dosen und bis März insgesamt 100 Millionen Impfstoffe liefern zu können.

Diese Woche sagten Bundesbeamte, dass die Regierung drei Wochen nach ihrer ersten Impfung nicht alle 6,4 Millionen Dosen verwendet, die die Regierung ursprünglich von Pfizer zur Impfung von Menschen bestellt hatte, sondern die Hälfte des Angebots für einen Auffrischungsschuss an die Empfänger zurückhält. Obwohl in der ersten Woche nur etwa drei Millionen Menschen einen Impfstoff erhalten werden, haben die Beamten ihre Schätzung bestätigt, dass sie zwischen den Impfstoffen von Pfizer und Moderna, für die jeweils zwei Schüsse erforderlich sind, hoffen, mindestens 20 Millionen Menschen ihren ersten Impfstoff zu geben Dosis eines Impfstoffs bis Ende des Jahres.

Es bleiben auch Fragen offen, wie schnell ein Impfstoff für jeden verfügbar sein wird, der einen möchte. Bundesbeamte haben angekündigt, dass sie voraussichtlich Mitte nächsten Jahres den Großteil der US-Bevölkerung impfen können, aber die jüngsten Rückschläge haben diese Schätzungen in Frage gestellt. Pfizer hat der Bundesregierung mitgeteilt, dass sie aufgrund von Vereinbarungen mit anderen Ländern möglicherweise nicht in der Lage ist, den Vereinigten Staaten vor Mitte nächsten Jahres zusätzliche 100 Millionen Dosen zuzuführen. Drei weitere experimentelle Impfstoffe, die von Novavax, Sanofi und AstraZeneca entwickelt wurden, mussten Verzögerungen bei ihren klinischen Studien hinnehmen.

Ellen Barry und Will Wright haben zur Berichterstattung beigetragen.

Categories
Politics

Supreme Courtroom rejects Trump backed lawsuit that sought to overturn Biden election victory

Supreme Court rejects Trump backed lawsuit that sought to overturn Biden election victory

United States President Donald Trump looks on during a ceremony to present wrestler Dan Gable with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on December 7, 2020.

Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images

The United States Supreme Court on Friday rejected an offer tabled by Texas and backed by President Donald Trump in an attempt to undo Joe Biden’s election victories in key swing states of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

The ruling dealt a death blow to Trump’s desperate and unsuccessful efforts to undo Biden’s planned victory at the electoral college. It took three days for voters to cast their ballots in their respective states and for Biden’s victory to be finalized.

Suffrage experts said from the start that the lawsuit is unlikely to succeed. But Trump, who himself had applied to intervene in the case, had hyped Paxton’s lawsuit as “the big one”.

The court on Friday denied Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s attempt to file the lawsuit against the four battlefield states. The judges said Paxton didn’t have reasons to sue the other states over changes they made to their voting procedures amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“The Texas state’s application for permission to file a notice of appeal is denied due to a lack of standing under Article III of the Constitution,” the court said.

“Texas has shown no judicial interest in the way any other state conducts its elections. All other pending motions are dismissed as in dispute.”

Trump, who appointed three judges to the nine-member court, had said ahead of the November 3rd election that he believed the Supreme Court would ultimately decide the race.

“I think it is very important that we have nine judges,” Trump said shortly after the death of the liberal judiciary Ruth Bader Ginsburg in September.

Biden spokesman Mike Gwin said in a statement on Friday evening that the court had “decided and quickly rejected the recent attack by Donald Trump and his allies on the democratic process.”

“This is no surprise – dozens of judges, election officials from both parties and Trump’s own attorney general have rejected his baseless attempts to deny that he lost the election,” said Gwin. “The clear and authoritative victory of President-elect Biden will be confirmed by the electoral college on Monday and sworn in on January 20th.”

The Texas lawsuit asked the Supreme Court to invalidate the election results of the four battlefield states by stating that their votes “cannot be counted” in the electoral college.

Biden’s victories in the four states, which together had 62 votes, had brought him over the 270-vote threshold required to secure the presidency. Biden is expected to win 306 votes, compared to 232 for Trump.

If Texas had won the lawsuit, it would have canceled Biden’s victory.

Two of the most conservative Supreme Court justices, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, said in brief disagreement that they allowed Paxton’s lawsuit to be filed, but added that they would “grant no other relief” requested in the case .

“In my view, there is no discretion to refuse to file a notice of appeal in a case that falls within our original jurisdiction,” Alito wrote in a statement backed by Thomas. “I would therefore grant the request to file the notice of appeal, but would not grant any other relief, and I do not express an opinion on any other subject.”

More than a dozen states in which Trump won the referendum filed briefs in support of Texas’s action. More than 120 Republican members of Congress, including House Minority Chairman Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Filed similar Friend of the Court letters shortly thereafter.

But about two dozen states and territories that Biden had won filed their own pleadings against the Texas appeal.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., In a damning letter from her dear colleague on Friday afternoon, accused the Republicans of supporting the case of “electoral subversion that threatens our democracy”.

“This lawsuit is an act of GOP desperation that violates the principles enshrined in our American democracy,” wrote Pelosi.

“As members of Congress, we take a solemn oath to support and defend the Constitution,” her letter said. “The Republicans are undermining the Constitution through their ruthless and fruitless assault on our democracy, which threatens to seriously undermine public confidence in our most sacred democratic institutions and slow our progress on the urgent challenges ahead.”

Rudy Giuliani, the attorney who spearheaded Trump’s efforts to reverse Biden’s victory through legal proceedings, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Senator Ben Sasse, a Republican from Nebraska who has clashed with Trump, said in a statement that the Supreme Court has finally “closed the book on the nonsense.”

“Since election night, a lot of people have puzzled voters by turning the Kenyan birther guy. ‘Chavez carved the election out of the grave conspiracy theories,’ but any rule of law American should take comfort that the Colonel The court – including all three tips from President Trump – closed the book on the nonsense, “he said.

Michigan attorney general Dana Nessel, who represented her state against Paxton’s lawsuit, said the ruling was “an important reminder that we are a nation of laws, and while some may bow to the wishes of a single person, they will.” Courts don’t do this. “

NBC News legal analyst Benjamin Wittes noted that while Alito and Thomas opposed the decision, they likely would have opposed it on the matter.

Categories
Health

Trump Administration Handed on Probability to Safe Extra of Pfizer Vaccine

Trump Administration Passed on Chance to Secure More of Pfizer Vaccine

michael barbaro

Hey, it’s Michael. We know that 2020 has been a difficult year. But it’s also been a year of small victories, personal milestones, and moments of joy. If something good happened to you, we want to hear about it. So write us an email or better yet, send us a voice memo to thedaily@nytimes.com— that’s thedaily@nytimes.com— and tell us your story of good news this year, large or small. And thank you. From The New York Times, I’m Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily.

[music]

Today: From the start of the pandemic, the Trump administration said it was committed to ordering and stockpiling enough vaccine to end the pandemic as quickly as possible. But new reporting from The Times raises questions about whether it has actually done that. I spoke with my colleague, Sharon LaFraniere.

It’s Thursday, December 10.

So Sharon, tell me about this tip that you got.

sharon lafraniere

So it was on Saturday. I think I was playing bridge on my phone with the robots, which is how we spend Saturday nights now, right?

michael barbaro

Right.

sharon lafraniere

And I got a call from another New York Times reporter, mutual friend of ours, saying, I have heard this about Pfizer. You need to call this guy. Here’s his name. Here’s his number. Tell him you know me. And so I called the guy, and basically the tip was that the administration had muffed a chance to buy more of Pfizer’s vaccine, and now it couldn’t get it until, like, the middle of next year.

michael barbaro

Hm, that’s a very big tip.

sharon lafraniere

It’s a big tip because Pfizer’s vaccine has been shown to be 95 percent effective, and it’s the first one out of the gate, right? The Brits are already inoculating people with it. The Americans want it. And if we somehow missed out a chance to get twice as many doses as we had locked in, that would be a big deal.

michael barbaro

And I wonder what you thought when you heard this tip. I mean, it’s one of those things you hear, you’re sort of like, wait, could that be right?

sharon lafraniere

My reaction was, if this is right, it’s a big story.

michael barbaro

Mhm. And so what did you do?

sharon lafraniere

So I called my editors and my colleagues and said, we need to chase this as hard as we can. And so all Sunday we were calling everybody, and we’re getting like, sorry, can’t help you on this. Or, I never heard about this. Or, try some other people. And then finally on Monday afternoon, early Monday afternoon, we’re able to confirm it, that in fact Pfizer had tried to get the US government to lock in a hundred million extra doses but the government had turned them down.

[music]michael barbaro

So Sharon, what did you find out was the thinking behind this decision— which feels like a real head-scratcher on paper— not buying extra doses of a very effective vaccine from Pfizer?

sharon lafraniere

So to answer that, we really have to go back to the start of the administration’s whole crash program to develop vaccines, all the way back to March when it starts this initiative called Operation Warp Speed and comes up with a strategy to develop vaccines in record-breaking time.

michael barbaro

Right.

sharon lafraniere

So the initial strategy was that the government would pick three different technologies. And each technology would be pursued by a pair of companies, so six companies all together— six horses. They actually called them horses. And the idea of having a pair of companies is if one company fails, then you’ve still got one company standing to go after that technology. But nobody had any idea which of those vaccine technologies would work. So the government’s strategy was, we’ll back all six, and we’re going to pay this money even before we know whether the vaccines work or not.

But Pfizer was alone among the group in saying, we don’t want your money. And there’s really three reasons for that. So the C.E.O., Albert Bourla, told us, number one, it doesn’t need the money. Number two, it doesn’t want the government oversight. I mean, he actually felt that having government oversight over the vaccine project would not speed them up but it would slow them down. And number three, he was fearful about getting involved in the whole political drama that was starting to unfold with the White House pressuring the health agencies to act in one way or another. He just wanted to stay out of the political fray. And he thought if he takes the money, the money will come with strings attached, and he doesn’t want to be dragged into this.

michael barbaro

Got it. So what exactly is the arrangement with Pfizer? Because it sounds very different from the other five. What’s the eventual terms of it?

sharon lafraniere

So the contract called for Pfizer to deliver a hundred million doses to the U.S. government at a cost of $19.50 per dose by the end of the first quarter of 2021, but the U.S. government didn’t pay any money up front. In other words, only if this vaccine clears all the hurdles, gets approved by the F.D.A., and Pfizer’s able to manufacture it— only in that case will the US government have to actually pay the bill.

michael barbaro

Hm. So in some ways, this arrangement with Pfizer is better for the U.S. government than its arrangement with the five other companies. Doesn’t have to put any money down, and it seems like Pfizer is assuming most, if not all, of the risk.

sharon lafraniere

Exactly.

michael barbaro

This is a very good deal if you’re the United States government.

sharon lafraniere

Right. You get to lock in a hundred million doses, and you don’t have to pay up front.

michael barbaro

And so the U.S. takes that deal.

sharon lafraniere

Right.

michael barbaro

And when exactly was this?

sharon lafraniere

So the contract is signed in late July. But even at that time, we’re told, Pfizer is asking Operation Warp Speed officials, don’t you want more? Like, don’t you want to lock in an extra 100 million doses or 200 million doses? Because you don’t have to pay for them unless it works. And the answer was, no, we’re hedging our bets. We’ve got six candidates here. We’re not playing favorites among any of them. And Pfizer’s saying basically, yeah, but with us, it’s a free bet. But the government is saying, no, we’re sticking with our strategy. They don’t want to bet too heavily on any one of the six, even if the bet is free.

michael barbaro

And Sharon, as the U.S. government is turning down this offer from Pfizer, what does it actually know about Pfizer’s vaccine and how effective it may actually be?

sharon lafraniere

Well, remember this is July, and at this point, the government really doesn’t know very much, if anything, about which of these vaccines is going to work. But as time went on, it looks like suddenly that Pfizer is going to be the first over the finish line. But the problem is, a lot of other countries were also getting interested in Pfizer’s vaccine. They have a vaccine that is attracting so much attention that their executives are getting messages over LinkedIn from other countries, like, we want some. Can we lock this in?

And in early October, the U.S. government also gets interested in some extra doses and talks resume. But it’s no longer the same situation, because while the U.S. was hesitating, other countries were moving in. So in October, they don’t actually come to any agreement on a second contract because the U.S. is like, we need it sooner than it sounds like you’re delivering it. Or, you’re not promising us that we’re going to get it in time. Anyway, the talks are inconclusive. And then comes the big day of November 8.

archived recording

This is CNN breaking news. Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer reportedly making an enormous breakthrough with its Covid-19 vaccine, announcing today—

sharon lafraniere

Pfizer gets the interim results of its clinical trials.

archived recording

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer just announced moments ago that its coronavirus vaccine is 95 percent effective. 95 percent effective— 95 percent effective, and they say with no serious side effects.

sharon lafraniere

And they are amazing.

archived recording

Pfizer’s C.E.O. is calling it, quote, “the greatest medical advancement in the last 100 years.” We will speak with—

michael barbaro

I remember that, Sharon. The results were stunning. And it suggested that this vaccine was going to be a blockbuster. But the U.S. still hasn’t ordered extra doses at this point?

sharon lafraniere

Right. And according to Scott Gottlieb, who is a member of Pfizer’s board and the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, Pfizer was still offering— after the results came out— more doses, but the U.S. did not seal a deal then.

michael barbaro

Hm. So the Trump administration, the U.S. government, having missed this first chance back in July to lock in this deal for extra doses of this vaccine at no cost, is then told in October, and it sounds like even in November, we can’t offer you the exact same timeline. I mean, because months have gone by here. We’ve gotten other orders. And so as a result, despite how promising this vaccine turns out to be, the U.S. still decides not to order more. I just want to be clear.

sharon lafraniere

That seems to be the situation, yes. And then on November 11, which is basically two days after Pfizer has announced these amazing results, it announces that it has a deal to sell 200 million doses to the European Union. That was a contract that had been in negotiation for weeks and weeks. Nonetheless, the European Union has locked in 200 million doses, and the U.S. has locked in a hundred million doses.

michael barbaro

So it very much looks like the European Union got 200 million doses of the vaccine that could have gone to the United States if the United States had wanted them.

sharon lafraniere

Yes, that’s what it looks like.

michael barbaro

Sharon, do we know who exactly in the U.S. government made this decision repeatedly not to buy these vaccines?

sharon lafraniere

We’re not sure. We know that Pfizer was dealing with the guy who is the scientific leader of Operation Warp Speed. His name is Dr. Moncef Slaoui. But whether Dr. Slaoui was the one who was the final decision-maker or it was Alex Azar, the Health and Human Services secretary, or whether the White House was involved or not, we really don’t know now.

michael barbaro

So Sharon, if you could summarize it, what are the consequences of how the U.S. has approached these offers from Pfizer?

sharon lafraniere

So the consequence is that the U.S. might have to wait longer for as much supply of the Pfizer vaccine as it wants and needs. Because the state of play is that Pfizer is right on the brink of getting emergency approval from the Food and Drug Administration. It’s going to be the first vaccine to get that in the U.S. And the US government has locked in a commitment for a hundred million doses, enough to cover 50 million people, and it wants more. But it looks very unlikely that it can get it as soon as it wants it.

michael barbaro

So how much time have we lost here when it comes to the Pfizer vaccine orders that we never placed?

sharon lafraniere

So what we’re being told is that the U.S. government has now asked Pfizer for a hundred million doses, and they want them starting in March. But Pfizer is saying, sorry, we cannot guarantee you these doses until June. So if that’s how it all plays out, the way it’s looking now, then we would have lost three months.

michael barbaro

Three months. Three months of not having tens of millions of doses that the U.S. could have had.

sharon lafraniere

If it works out that way, that would be three months in which the U.S. is waiting for a Pfizer vaccine because it didn’t lock in more doses earlier.

[music]michael barbaro

We’ll be right back.

Sharon, having made this decision, which in retrospect feels like a pretty strange and bad decision, what does the United States now do to correct for this? Could we just beg Pfizer to make extra doses for us?

sharon lafraniere

No, because it’s not that Pfizer is not willing to make more doses for Americans. It’s making every dose that it can possibly make right now. It doesn’t have empty factories somewhere where it can go in and just flip on the lights and suddenly there’s lots more doses. It has legal commitments to other countries to provide supply. And those countries want it too. It’s not a matter of begging Pfizer to make more. If they had more to give the Americans, they would give it to them. Pfizer has a very big motivation to put the U.S. first, because Pfizer, number one, it’s an American company.

michael barbaro

Right.

sharon lafraniere

Number two, most of its customers are in the U.S. They do not want to be in this situation where their customers think, what, you’re making deals to save the lives of Europeans and you’re leaving Americans here waiting for lifesaving vaccines? They don’t want a consumer backlash.

michael barbaro

Could the U.S.— and here I’m just kind of exhausting American curiosity. Could the U.S. kind of forcefully take vaccine from Pfizer if it wanted to be extremely nationalistic and say, nobody gets doses outside the U.S. before we get doses?

sharon lafraniere

I mean, that seems highly unlikely that the U.S. government is going to move into Pfizer’s factories and rip up all its contracts and commandeer its doses. President Trump signed an executive order this week saying that Americans would get vaccine supplies first, but it seems pretty meaningless. It’s hard to imagine what the government could do to force Pfizer to redirect vaccine that it’s committed to other countries to Americans. I mean, some people have speculated, maybe could Pfizer team up with another pharmaceutical company like Merck? And then could there be some kind of partnership there that would allow it to increase production? But it cannot itself, now, just turn on a dime and create more production.

michael barbaro

OK, so with no great options for securing more doses from Pfizer right away, what can the U.S. do instead? How do we make up for those missing doses? I have to imagine the answer lies with these other companies that the U.S. has invested in.

sharon lafraniere

Exactly. Moderna is right behind Pfizer with a very similar vaccine that is proven to be equally effective. It’s likely to win emergency approval from the F.D.A. maybe a week after Pfizer does later this month. It too has committed to provide the U.S. with a hundred million doses. Like Pfizer, it has to deliver those doses by the end of the first quarter of next year. It’s easier to store than Pfizer’s, and it might be easier to ship. It’s a much smaller company than Pfizer, right? It spent 10 years without bringing a product successfully to market, but it’s done extremely well with this vaccine. So there’s the Moderna option.

michael barbaro

So if I’m keeping count correctly, 50 million Americans would be inoculated through Pfizer’s vaccine.

sharon lafraniere

Right.

michael barbaro

50 million Americans would be inoculated through Moderna’s vaccine. That still leaves a lot of Americans. So what about these other companies?

sharon lafraniere

So of the other four companies, two of them are sort of off the table right now because they haven’t even started their phase 3 clinical trials. Another one, AstraZeneca, which has developed its vaccine with University of Oxford researchers, is about halfway enrolled in its clinical trial here. And there are some questions about its data, its transparency. It’s had somewhat rocky relations with the F.D.A. And its early results have shown basically that for the full two-dose regime, it was shown to be about 62 percent effective. So you have to ask yourself, are Americans going to want to take a vaccine that’s 62 percent effective when they have two vaccines out there that are 95 percent effective?

michael barbaro

Right. And I think we all know the answer to that is probably no, not really. So it’s really kind of “Moderna and Pfizer or bust” for the moment.

sharon lafraniere

Well, there’s also Johnson & Johnson, and it expects to have clinical trial results early next year. But we don’t know if that vaccine worked or not. If it works, that gives us a third. But at the moment, the U.S. government has got, as you said, commitments for 200 million doses, which will cover a hundred million Americans. And the question is, what is going to happen at the end of March? Are we going to fall off some kind of vaccine cliff here? Or, is there going to be an interval in which people are not being vaccinated? Or, are there going to be enough doses to fill in the gap?

michael barbaro

Mhm. So what happens if we reach and go over a vaccine cliff?

sharon lafraniere

So the worst case scenario is that there is an interval in which Americans are waiting and that there’s some sort of break in the inoculation program. But we don’t know that’s true. We don’t know for sure that that’s going to happen. Moderna could fill in some of the gap. And at the moment, all we can say is that it kind of raises the anxiety level that we have two successful vaccines, and so far, we have not locked in enough doses to cover more than a hundred million Americans.

michael barbaro

Right. So no matter how you slice it, the chances of us going over a vaccine cliff, of suddenly having some period of some unknown duration where Americans are not being inoculated, which is not what we want, the chances of that are higher— correct me if I’m wrong— because the United States did not order more of these doses from Pfizer. Is that right?

sharon lafraniere

I think that’s right. The administration says that is not going to happen. We’re not going over this cliff. That there’s going to be enough vaccine for everybody, that there are more supplies coming in, that there are negotiations going all the time. That they feel confident that they are going to have enough vaccine doses for every single American who wants it by spring or the middle of next year.

michael barbaro

Mhm. But the government can’t assure that.

sharon lafraniere

Not yet.

michael barbaro

Sharon, it feels like the consequence of what the U.S. government, of what the Trump administration has done here, is time. You said that the decision-making here may have delayed this acquisition of vaccines by something like three months. Time is a very precious resource in this pandemic. Time is how we measure the number of people who get exposed to this virus, who get infected by it, who get killed by it. And so every single day matters. And so three months, 90 days, that really matters, right? It means more people are likely to get this virus and potentially to die from it.

sharon lafraniere

I mean, I really, really hope that’s not so. Well, the whole story is such a roller coaster, right? We get these amazing results from Pfizer and Moderna, and everybody is just ecstatic. And then we learn, whoa, we don’t have enough. And are we going to get enough? And everybody would feel much more comfortable if we had all these doses in the bank.

michael barbaro

Mhm. I mean, what makes this feel especially confounding is that vaccines have been the U.S. government’s approach to this pandemic, right? I mean, the Trump administration has not issued national lockdowns. It has not issued a national mask mandate. What it has said is that what will get us out of this pandemic is a vaccine. We are going all in on vaccines. It’s pretty much our only solution to the pandemic. So to have not done everything conceivably possible to get as many doses of the vaccine as we could, knowing that this is our solution, just becomes extremely hard to understand or explain.

sharon lafraniere

So in hindsight, some administration officials will say privately they wish that they had locked in more doses earlier. That this has exposed a kind of flaw in their strategy. And that now they’re scrambling to figure out how can they compensate for it. And that is weighing heavily on them.

michael barbaro

Sharon, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

sharon lafraniere

Thank you, Michael.

[music]michael barbaro

On Wednesday afternoon, Canada became the latest country to approve Pfizer’s vaccine, meaning that its citizens may start to receive it beginning next week. A few hours later, The Times reported that the United States had passed a grim new milestone on Wednesday— 3,000 deaths from the coronavirus in a single day. We’ll be right back.

[music]

Here’s what else you need to know today:

archived recording

No company should have this much unchecked power over our personal information and our social interactions.

michael barbaro

In a lawsuit filed on Wednesday, the Federal Trade Commission and attorneys general from 48 states called for breaking up Facebook.

archived recording

And that’s why we are taking action today and standing up for the millions of consumers and many small businesses that have been harmed by Facebook’s illegal behavior.

michael barbaro

The lawsuit accused the company of purchasing its rivals, including Instagram and WhatsApp, in order to eliminate potential competition and in the process, acting as an unlawful monopoly. In response, Facebook said that it would vigorously defend itself during what is expected to be a long and expensive legal battle.

[music]

That’s it for The Daily. I’m Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow.

Categories
Business

Gov. Greg Abbott on Oracle, corporations transferring headquarters to Texas

Gov. Greg Abbott on Oracle, companies moving headquarters to Texas

Texas governor Greg Abbott told CNBC on Friday that the number of companies relocating their headquarters to the Lone Star State has accelerated in part due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Republican governor’s comments came shortly after it was reported that software giant Oracle was moving its corporate headquarters from Redwood City, California, in Silicon Valley, to Austin, Texas. Hewlett Packard Enterprise announced earlier this month that it is moving its headquarters from San Jose, California to Houston. Real estate giant CBRE officially relocated its headquarters from Los Angeles to Dallas in early fall.

“I’ve been on the phone with CEOs across the country weekly, and it’s not just California,” Abbott told Fast Money, referring to his meeting with Nasdaq officials last month. “We’re working across the board because the times of Covid revealed a lot. They revealed … that, for example, you really don’t have to be in Manhattan to be involved in the trading business or the investment business.”

In addition to the pandemic demonstrating the feasibility of more widespread remote working, Abbott said there are other characteristics that are pulling businesses to Texas. “Business costs mean a lot. No income tax means a lot, but the freedom to operate without the strict hand of regulation also means a lot,” he said.

“This has become an absolute tidal wave,” added Abbott, while many companies like Oracle were in Texas prior to their official announcements. “They are looking for a state that gives them the independence, the autonomy and the freedom to set their own course.”

Abbott also cited Texas’s relationship with Elon Musk, the executive director of electric vehicle maker Tesla and SpaceX, as evidence of the state’s growing appeal to business leaders.

Musk personally moved to Texas from California, and earlier this year Tesla announced that it had selected a location near Austin to build its next U.S. factory. SpaceX also has a growing facility in Boca Chica, Texas, on the Gulf Coast. “Elon is delighted to be here,” said Abbott, adding that the two men “talk to each other practically weekly.”

Categories
Business

A High Home Democrat Prods Biden to Reopen E.U. Commerce Talks

A Top House Democrat Prods Biden to Reopen E.U. Trade Talks

WASHINGTON – The chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee called on the new administration to renew trade negotiations with the European Union and contradicted President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s pledge to postpone new trade talks until the U.S. has made major domestic deals Investments made.

The statement by Massachusetts Democrat Richard E. Neal on Friday raises the question of whether congressional pressure could induce the Biden administration to become more aggressive in trade negotiations with close allies.

Mr Biden downplayed expectations of new trade negotiations early in his tenure, saying he would first take control of the pandemic and make significant investments in American industries such as energy, biotechnology and artificial intelligence.

“I’m not going to sign a new trade deal with anyone until we’ve made big investments here in our homes and in our workers,” Biden said in an interview with the New York Times last week.

However, since the opposition in Congress would be one of the main obstacles to a new trade deal, the support of key Democrats could be a strong motivation for starting talks.

In an interview, Mr Neal suggested that reaching a trade deal with the European Union would help tackle the increasing economic threat posed by China, which has used hefty subsidies, state-owned companies and other practices to dominate the industry and trade rules long to question embraced in the west.

Mr. Neal called Mr. Biden’s approach “good and fair” but argued that continuing the EU trade negotiations “is part of a foreign policy challenge related to China’s expansionist activities”.

“I think we should prepare now to do justice to China’s aggressive nature in the world,” he added.

Mr Biden would need the help of Mr Neal and others to cement such a deal. The so-called Trade Promotion Agency, a law that lays down guidelines for the executive branch to negotiate trade deals and streamline the approval process, expires in July. Business then submitted to Congress could find a more difficult path to ratification. It is not yet clear whether the Biden administration will petition Congress to renew authority.

Despite deep historical ties, the United States and Europe have not always had an easy trading relationship. Governments have fought over tariffs, farm subsidies, and food safety standards for decades, and efforts to achieve a comprehensive trade pact under both the Obama and Trump administrations have ultimately ceased.

But Mr Biden has spoken many times about the importance of strengthening American alliances, and he and his advisors have been eager to eradicate ties with Europe that have been weighed down by President Trump’s confrontational approach to trade. They also see many similarities with the European Union on issues such as climate change, labor standards and consumer protection, as well as against China’s growing geopolitical power and trade practices.

Economy & Economy

Updated

Apr 11, 2020 at 12:33 am ET

Both governments seem eager to make progress on trade issues that have stalled under the Trump administration, including Spats over subsidies to the aircraft industry and plans by European countries to tax American tech giants.

These discussions would be chaired by Mr Biden’s sales representative, Katherine Tai, whom the president-elect presented as his candidate for office on Friday. Ms. Tai is an associate of Mr. Neal as Chief Commercial Attorney on the Ways and Means Committee.

Mr. Neal declined to enter into discussions with Ms. Tai about trade deals with the European Union, but said, “I think we largely agree on the nature of the challenge.”

Mr Neal referred to the US-Mexico-Canada agreement as a “blueprint” for new trade pacts. The deal, the successor to the North American Free Trade Agreement, was negotiated by Mr. Trump and revised by Congressional Democrats, including Mr. Neal and Ms. Tai, before it went into effect this year.

“What we’ve been able to do with USMCA on the environment, labor standards and enforcement – I think we have some momentum,” said Neal. He said he was continuing to work to raise support for using a European trade agreement to counter China’s influence around the world.

In his statement on Friday, Mr Neal said a trade deal with the European Union was a “strategically sound choice” as the United States sought to compete economically with China and rebuild its economy after the pandemic recession.

He called on the Biden government to work with allies in Europe and elsewhere to “formulate a strategic, far-reaching, forward-looking and robust package of programs and investments to defend against anti-competitive, anti-democratic influences in Chinese politics.”

Categories
Health

Black well being leaders attempt to construct belief within the Covid vaccine amongst African People

Black health leaders try to build trust in the Covid vaccine among African Americans

A researcher works at a laboratory operated by Moderna Inc that said in an undated still image from a video on November 16, 2020 that his experimental vaccine was 94.5% effective in preventing COVID-19, based on interim data from one late clinical trial.

Modern | via Reuters

Dr. Lou Edje participated in the Moderna vaccine study in her healthcare system in Cincinnati, Ohio after three of her relatives died from the coronavirus earlier this year. This led her to do more to instill trust in her community and get vaccinated.

“I felt like I might be able to make a believable impact on the patients I care for every day who look just like me,” said Edje, Black and Associate Dean for Medical Education at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.

Although she wasn’t told if she received the actual vaccine during the trial, she had a slight swelling in her arm after the booster shot – which leads her to believe she did. This helps when patients ask what to expect.

“Some of the side effects were a little more robust the second time around, so I’m trying to tell them exactly what I went through,” she explained.

It can take months before the public are vaccinated with new vaccines once they are approved. The Food and Drug Administration is expected to quickly clear Pfizer’s vaccine for emergency use after an advisory panel overwhelmingly approved the shots on Thursday. Starting doses have been set for frontline health workers and the elderly in long-term care facilities such as nursing homes.

Still, African-American health professionals and community health groups across the country have already started reaching out in black communities hard hit by the coronavirus. According to a poll by Pew Research last month, seven out of ten African Americans know someone who was hospitalized or died of Covid. However, there is great skepticism about vaccines. Only 42% of blacks surveyed say they have been vaccinated, compared with more than 60% of Americans as a whole.

“They want to know, and have real reasons to trust. They want to know that the trial will be fair, that they are not guinea pigs for a system that is turned against them,” explained Dr. Reed Tuckson, co-founder of the Black Coalition Against Covid and former Washington, DC Commissioner for Health

The speed at which the Covid vaccine was being developed was one of the issues that many Americans have concerns about being in the first wave to get the shot. But for African Americans, the skepticism is also based in part on history. As part of the infamous Tuskegee study of syphilis, African American men were treated with placebo drugs instead of antibiotics, which they could cure, so officials could follow the disease over the years.

The Coalition on Covid has brought together major African American medical groups, including the National Medical Association and the National Black Nurses Association, as well as heads of four historically black medical schools, including Howard University and Morehouse College, to advocate for African American patients.

In the clinical arena, they have urged federal and local government officials to prioritize access for color communities where the prevalence of pre-existing conditions like high blood pressure and diabetes has increased people’s vulnerability to the virus.

“We shouldn’t let the proliferation of a life-saving vaccine worsen health inequalities. In fact, it should help narrow them down,” said Tuckson.

In terms of reach, they’ve held a number of informative town halls online with government leaders including Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s foremost infectious disease expert, to address specific concerns among African Americans.

They also work with community health groups, local churches, and stakeholders who can reach out to the grassroots personally from a place of trust.

“Fifty percent of one neighborhood must have the vaccine to burn out the virus in the other 50 percent,” explained Edje. “We really need to ensure that every neighborhood has some immunity so that we can make a global impact.”

The fact that it will take time for the public to gain access to the vaccine could prove to be a silver lining. Health officials say it will show people how the first wave of those who get the shot react, which can help fight skepticism and fear.

Categories
World News

White Home threatens to fireplace FDA chief until Covid vaccine OKed Friday: experiences

White House threatens to fire FDA chief unless Covid vaccine OKed Friday: reports

US President Donald Trump and Stephen Hahn, Director of the Food and Drug Administration, attend the daily meeting of the coronavirus task force at the White House in Washington, DC on April 24, 2020.

Drew Angerer | Getty Images

White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, has urged the head of the Food and Drug Administration to resign if the agency does not clear Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine for emergency use by the end of the day, the Washington Post reported on Friday.

The warning prompted FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn and the agency to accelerate their schedule for the release of America’s first Covid-19 vaccine from Saturday morning to late Friday, according to the Post, citing anonymous sources.

The New York Times, Axios, and Reuters also reported that Meadows urged Hahn to resign if he wasn’t quick enough to remove the vaccine.

In a statement, Hahn called the Post’s report “an untrue account”.

“This is an untrue representation of the telephone conversation with the chief of staff,” Hahn told CNBC on Friday afternoon. “The FDA has been encouraged to continue working swiftly on Pfizer-BioNTech’s EEA request. The FDA is committed to swiftly granting this approval, as we noted in our statement this morning.”

The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

The reports come a day after a key FDA advisory body voted 17-4, with one abstention, to recommend the vaccine, which Pfizer partnered with BioNTech, for emergency approval. The FDA typically follows the recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Related Biological Products. After the overwhelming vote, the FDA should release the vaccine on Friday.

Hahn said earlier that day the agency was “working fast” to clear Pfizer’s emergency vaccine. “The agency has also notified the US Centers for Disease Control, Prevention and Operation Warp Speed ​​so they can implement their plans for timely vaccine distribution,” Hahn said in a joint statement with Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.

Shortly after Hahn ’s remarks, President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly urged the FDA to speed up the vaccine development process, tweeted the agency,” Get the dam vaccines out NOW. “

“Stop playing and save lives !!!”

FDA approval would mark a record-breaking timeframe for a process that typically takes about a decade. The fastest vaccine development to date against mumps took more than four years and was licensed in 1967. Pfizer and BioNTech announced plans to develop a coronavirus vaccine in March and filed an emergency clearance application with the FDA in November.

An emergency permit, or EEA, is not the same as a full permit, which can typically take months. Pfizer has only submitted safety data for two months, but it typically takes the agency six months for full approval.

– CNBC’s Amanda Macias contributed to this report.

Categories
Business

New York Metropolis will shut indoor eating beginning Monday, Gov. Cuomo says

New York City will shut indoor dining starting Monday, Gov. Cuomo says

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Friday that New York City restaurants will have to close indoor restaurants as new daily coronavirus cases across the state for the first time since spring and hospital stays in Covid-19 10,000 have dwarfed.

The Democratic governor said restaurants will continue to have al fresco dining areas and offer take-out and delivery from Monday. Cuomo warned earlier this week that the state could shut down indoor dining if the city’s hospitalization rate didn’t stabilize.

“You will see a bad December, a bad January. How bad is the question,” Cuomo said at a press conference.

He said the outbreak will not “end” until the vaccine is widely available, which could be June or September. “It’s a long six months between today and June,” he said.

Cuomo cited additional warnings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, issued last week, warning of “exposures in non-essential indoor and overcrowded outdoor areas.” According to a slide presented at the briefing, they presented an “avoidable risk for all participants”.

“In New York City, you have taken the CDC caution when eating indoors, along with the rate of transmission and the density and crowding, which is a bad situation. New York City hospital stays have continued to increase,” Cuomo said.

The move marks a notable reversal of the state’s reopening plans as New York City returned to dining at 25% indoor capacity on September 30th. The restaurants in the Big Apple have had to stay afloat and eat-out by eating al fresco in recent months, even as falls declined in summer and early fall. Cuomo and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio postponed the return of indoor dining in early July as other states in the US reported worsening outbreaks.

However, the Empire State governor urged the schools to stay open, saying they were much safer. He said the rate of positivity, or the percentage of Covid-19 tests that came back positive, “tends to be lower” in schools compared to the surrounding community.

“My point is, if it is safer for the children to be in school, then you have the children in school. If it is safer for the teacher to be in school, then you have the teacher in school “said Cuomo.

The state is now concerned about what Cuomo calls “living room sprawl”. Almost 74% of new Covid-19 cases come from households and social gatherings, according to Cuomo. Restaurants and bars accounted for 1.43% of new cases, while gyms accounted for less than 1%.

“We may see the end of the Thanksgiving wave, if you will, but we are about to get into the Hanukkah wave and the Christmas tide and the Christmas week and the Kwanzaa wave and New Years Eve and New Years Anniversary,” Cuomo said, adding added that the health authorities hope for a “stabilization” by mid to late January.

Source: New York State

According to a CNBC analysis of data from the COVID Tracking Project, an independent volunteer organization started by journalists from The Atlantic, New York reports an average of around 4,653 people hospitalized with Covid-19. This corresponds to an increase of 30% compared to a week ago.

However, “the situation in the hospitals is better than in the past,” said Cuomo. Compared to the spring when the virus first swept through New York and overwhelmed its hospital systems, there are now 30% fewer people in the state’s intensive care units and 50% fewer people intubated, Cuomo said. The mean hospital stay has also fallen from 11 days in the spring to five days now.

New York expects 170,000 doses of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine on Sunday or Monday, Cuomo said. The doses could be issued as emergency clearance by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration at any time after a key panel overwhelmingly approved the recordings Thursday night.

Another highly anticipated vaccine from Moderna could get the green light in the coming weeks. Cuomo said the state expects 346,000 doses of this vaccine by the week of December 21st.

“The vaccine is coming and we are ready to give it,” said Cuomo.