Month: January 2021

Categories
Business

G.M. Announcement Shakes Up U.S. Automakers’ Transition to Electrical Automobiles

G.M. Announcement Shakes Up U.S. Automakers’ Transition to Electric Cars

China’s decision late last year to require that most of the vehicles sold there be electric by 2035 is also crucial, as GM sells more cars in that country than in the US through its joint ventures. Great Britain, Ireland and the Netherlands have announced that they will ban the sale of new gasoline and diesel vehicles from 2030.

GM has been talking about moving to zero-emission vehicles for about two years. In March last year, the modular battery technology was introduced, with which costs are to be reduced. A few months later, GM said it could reach a point where electric vehicles won’t cost more than gasoline-powered vehicles faster than previously expected.

Ms. Barra received support and input from an unexpected source – the Environmental Defense Fund, which had criticized GM in the past. The CEO shared a barbecue dinner with the group’s president, Fred Krupp, at a conference in 2015. Until last fall, they were in regular contact by phone and email.

“We were both optimistic that we could achieve common ground,” said Krupp.

In October, GM unveiled an electric Hummer pickup truck that had enough orders in one day to accommodate all of the trucks GM wanted to manufacture in the first year of the truck.

“That was another turning point,” said Parker, the chief sustainability officer. “It showed that consumers are really excited about owning electric vehicles.”

Just a few weeks later, Mr Biden was elected President-elect. And in December, GM met with its transition team, Parker said. “Our vision of an emission-free future fits very well with your vision and goals.”

At the same time, GM signed a pledge known as the Business Ambition for 1.5 Degrees to fight global warming. In early January, the company set the expected date for the electrical transition to be 2035, Parker said. On January 12th, Ms. Barra appeared at the Consumer Electronics Show explaining GM’s vision for a zero-exhaust future, but did not provide an exact date.

Categories
Politics

C.I.A. analyst Morgan Muir to run Biden’s every day briefings

C.I.A. analyst Morgan Muir to run Biden’s daily briefings

For her part, Ms. Sanner was instrumental in providing Ms. Haines with full information through the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and working on White House inquiries for new intelligence assessments. But Ms. Sanner plans to “complete her tour in May,” said Amanda Schoch, the bureau’s top spokeswoman.

“Beth Sanner is an exceptional professional intelligence officer who has served as Deputy Director of the National Intelligence Services for Mission Integration with honors,” said Ms. Schoch.

For nearly two years, Ms. Sanner, a CIA analyst, briefed Mr. Trump on an assignment that required her to endure the president’s digressions, abuse, and conspiracy theories about the 2016 and 2020 elections. After 20 months as president and top advisor to five directors of the national intelligence agency, Ms. Sanner is ready to end her current role, according to an intelligence officer who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Ms. Sanner could retire, but it is also possible that she may be offered another high-level intelligence position. Some presidential representatives have held senior positions in the CIA, while others have directed other intelligence agencies.

Ms. Sanner, like most intelligence officers, was uncomfortable with media attention to her role in the Trump administration, which her colleagues did not do well for the intelligence community.

When Mr Trump was attacked for dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, he blamed Ms Sanner, if not by name, for a newscast that he said underestimated the dangers of the virus, a report that her defense lawyers were very skeptical of .

While all presidents are known to create bad days for senior intelligence officials, intelligence officials say no shorter president has had a more challenging job than Ms. Sanner. Until the last few months leading up to the election, when Mr Trump spoke frequently to his National Intelligence Director, John Ratcliffe, Ms. Sanner held meetings for the President twice a week.

Categories
Entertainment

Robert Cohan, 95, Dies; Exported Up to date Dance to Britain

Robert Cohan, 95, Dies; Exported Contemporary Dance to Britain

Robert Cohan, a New York born dancer and choreographer who changed the course of British dance by helping found a renowned contemporary dance company and school in London in the late 1960s, died there on January 13th. He was 95 years old.

His nephew Roy Vestrich confirmed the death.

Mr. Cohan’s journey to running the London company began in 1954 when, as a key member of the Martha Graham Company, he met Robin Howard in New York, a wealthy grandson of former Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin and a great fan of Graham’s work.

Almost a decade later, Mr. Howard sponsored a company trip to the Edinburgh Festival and a subsequent season in London, and was so encouraged by the success of the visit that he suggested Ms. Graham set up a studio there.

Mr. Cohan had taught at the Graham School although he had continued to dance with it, and both Mrs. Graham and Mr. Howard agreed that he should be the director of the London Outpost. In May 1966, in a studio on Berner’s Place near Oxford Street, Mr. Cohan began teaching Graham Technique – with an emphasis on weighted movements emanating from the spine and pelvis.

Over the next year, in a 2019 interview with The Guardian, Mr. Cohan said he and Mr. Howard spoke “every night with good wine” about expanding the company and finding a permanent home for it.

They settled in a former British Army drilling hall near Euston Station in central London and called it The Place to house both a school and a new company they founded, the London Contemporary Dance Group, later London Contemporary Dance Theater to accommodate.

The company debuted in 1969 at the Adeline Genée Theater in East Grinstead, Sussex, south of London, and received good critical reviews. Mr. Cohan, who commuted between New York and London while continuing to perform with the Graham Company, decided to devote himself exclusively to the British company.

The London company initially performed pieces from the works of Graham and other choreographers, but Mr. Cohan soon decided that in future they would only offer works that had been specially created for their dancers. As part of this new policy, The Place became a greenhouse for nurturing local talent and spawned major choreographers such as Richard Alston, Siobhan Davies, Darshan Singh Buller, Robert North and Aletta Collins.

The company toured the UK under Mr. Cohan, exposing audiences to contemporary dance for the first time in many cases.

“He started a school, founded a company, introduced the Graham technique in the UK, choreographed and bred a new generation of modern dance style choreographers, and promoted a contemporary dance boom in the 1970s,” said Debra Craine, chief executive officer Dancer critic of the London Times said in an interview. “Its importance and influence are almost incalculable.”

Handsome and charismatic, with long hair and the platform shoes that were trendy in the late 1960s and 1970s, Mr Cohan made The Place a creative hub not only for dancers and choreographers, but also for musicians, artists and filmmakers with common interests in dance. Composer Peter Maxwell Davies, photographer Anthony Crickmay and filmmaker Bob Lockyer, who recorded a number of Mr. Cohan’s dances for the BBC, were among the artists in Mr. Cohan’s circle.

Mr. Cohan was a prolific choreographer whose work was popular with audiences. Perhaps his most important piece was “Cell” (1969), which was created with two of his frequent collaborators, the designer Norbert Chiesa and the lighting designer John B. Read, and based on Richard Lloyd’s music. He encouraged his dancers to work on both experimental and mainstream creations.

The London Contemporary Dance Theater gave its first American tour in July 1977. “During the two-day debut engagement of this young British company at the American Dance Festival, there was never a dull moment,” wrote Anna Kisselgoff in the New York Times in her review from New London, Connecticut, in which Mr. Cohan as “the highly individual choreographer of unusual scope and depth “.

Allen Robertson and Donald Hutera wrote in their authoritative survey “The Dance Handbook” in 1989 that Mr. Cohan’s “pragmatic commitment to promoting dance and nurturing new talent in Britain was as important as the work of Ninette de Valois and Marie Rambert” , the founders of the Royal Ballet and Ballet Rambert.

Robert Paul Cohan was born in Manhattan on March 26, 1925. (Arrived just before midnight, he had an official birth date of March 27th, shared his family so he could later say he had two birthdays and was happy to celebrate both.) He was the eldest of three children from Walter and Billie (Osheyack) Cohan and grew up in Brooklyn. His mother worked for the US Postal Service and his father was a printer.

Robert took dance classes from a young age and was a fan of Fred Astaire, but he wasn’t seriously interested in dance until he was transferred to the UK to develop technical skills as part of the Army Specialized Training Program during World War II.

In London he saw Sadler’s Wells Ballet (the forerunner of the Royal Ballet) perform Robert Helpmann’s “Miracle in the Gorbals”. Inspired by this experience, he began his education at the Martha Graham School after leaving the army in 1946.

“I had this revelation,” he said in the Guardian interview, “that I would do it for the rest of my life.” His decision to turn down a job with the Veterans Administration and become a dancer sparked a two-year conflict with his family.

Within a few months, Graham had asked him to join their company, and he was soon one of their regular partners. Mr. Cohan’s appearance as Poetic Lover in Graham’s Deaths and Entrances “gave new meaning to the whole work,” wrote John Martin in a Times review. He added, “He dances admirably and acts with an engaging simplicity.”

When the Graham Company was not performing, Mr. Cohan danced on Broadway in the musicals “Shangri-La” and “Can-Can” and in 1957 worked in cabaret in Cuba with Jack Cole’s jazz dance company. (He described the experience as dancing “in a G-string for the mafia. ”)

Mr. Cohan began choreographing in the early 1950s and made his debut at the American Dance Festival with the solo “Perchance to Dream”. He wanted to teach and choreograph independently and left the Graham company in 1957, which infuriated Graham. According to one report, she scratched his back with her nails when they parted; Not a weakling, he should have scratched her back.

In 1962 he returned to the company, although in the same year he founded his own small troupe and from 1961 to 1965 headed the dance department of the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.

In 1966, Mr. Cohan became co-director of the Martha Graham Dance Company, and he continued to dance with it until he officially left in 1969 when he dedicated himself to his role as director of the school and company at The Place.

In the next two decades he created more than 30 works for the London Contemporary Dance Theater, including “Stages” (1971), “Stabat Mater” (1975), Nympheas (1976) and “The Phantasmagoria” (1987) working for the dance companies Batsheva and Bat-Dor in Israel.

However, its success in generating a new contemporary dance audience in the UK, as well as new groups of choreographers, dancers and companies in the genre, meant that the London Contemporary Dance Theater now had to compete for funding in a far more diverse and crowded sector, as well the International Dance Umbrella Festival in London.

Mr. Cohan resigned from the company in 1989, returned to head the company in 1992 and left the company in 1994 in a dispute with the British Arts Council, the company’s main funding agency. The company was later wound up and a new downsized force from Mr. Alston took its place.

Mr. Cohan retired to a farmhouse in the Cevennes region in south-central France and restored it and shared it with his colleague, Mr. Chiesa. He continued to choreograph for the Scottish Ballet and the Yorke Dance Project, for which he created a series of solos via Zoom last year during the pandemic.

He became a British citizen in 1989 and knighted in 2019

In addition to Mr. Vestrich, his nephew, his nieces Lee and Lesley Vestrich and their children and grandchildren, Mr. Cohan, survive.

When asked in 2019 if he wanted to continue choreographing, Mr. Cohan replied: “Absolutely. That’s what I live for. “

Categories
Health

Which Covid Vaccine Ought to You Get? Specialists Weigh the Impact Towards Extreme Illness

Which Covid Vaccine Should You Get? Experts Weigh the Effect Against Severe Disease

At first glance, the results reported on Friday of the long-awaited study of Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine may have been disappointing. Overall effectiveness – the ability to prevent moderate and severe illnesses – was reported at 72 percent in the United States, 66 percent in Latin American countries, and 57 percent in South Africa.

These numbers are well below the high bar set by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, the first two emergency vaccines approved in the United States, which had an overall effectiveness of 94 to 95 percent.

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert and now President Biden’s leading medical advisor on the coronavirus pandemic, acknowledged the remarkable difference at a briefing Friday.

“If you woke up and say, ‘Well, go to the left door and you get 94 or 95 percent, go to the right door and you get 72 percent. ‘Which door do you want to go to? ”He asked.

Dr. However, Fauci said the most important measure is the ability to prevent serious illness, which means keeping people out of the hospital and preventing deaths. For Johnson & Johnson, that result was 85 percent in all of the countries it was tested in, including South Africa, where a rapidly spreading variant of the virus had shown some ability to evade vaccines.

More important than preventing “some pain and a sore throat,” said Dr. Fauci, is the defense against serious illnesses, especially in people with underlying diseases and in older adults who are more likely to become seriously ill and die of Covid. 19th

“If you can prevent serious illness in a high percentage of people, it will soothe the stress of human suffering and death in this epidemic that we are seeing it right now,” said Dr. Fauci, “As we know, over the past few weeks our healthcare system has been burdened by the number of people requiring hospitalization and intensive care.”

Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, compared the ability to prevent serious illness to the effects of flu vaccinations, which may not always prevent influenza completely, but make it less severe.

“The same seems to be true here, in circumstances where this variant clearly makes it a little harder to get the most forceful response you want,” said Dr. Collins. “But it still looks very good for serious illnesses.”

The Moderna vaccine also showed high 100 percent effectiveness against serious illnesses. The Pfizer BioNTech appeared to be too, but the total number of severe cases in the study was too few to be certain.

However, the researchers caution that trying to compare effectiveness between new and previous studies can be misleading because the virus is developing quickly and the studies have to some extent examined different pathogens.

“You have to realize that Pfizer and Moderna had an advantage,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University, in an interview. “They did their clinical studies before the variant strains became very clear. Johnson & Johnson not only tested their vaccine against the standard strain, but they also had the variants. “

The best way to stop the spread of mutants and prevent new ones from emerging is to vaccinate as many people as you can as soon as possible, says Dr. Fauci and other researchers. Viruses can’t mutate if they can’t replicate, and they can’t replicate if they can’t get into cells. Keeping them away from people by immunizing them can kill the process.

In addition to the Pfizer BioNTech and Moderna vaccines already in use in the US, three more may soon be available: those made by Novavax, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca. AstraZeneca’s vaccine has already been approved in the UK and other countries.

Globally, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is expected to play an important role, especially in low- and middle-income countries, as it works after just one shot, is relatively inexpensive, and is easier to store and distribute than Pfizer-BioNTech’s manufactured vaccines and Moderna, as it does not share their strict requirements for freezing and chilling.

People waiting to be vaccinated may wonder if they will be able to choose vaccines and if they should hold out and wait until the one that looks best to them becomes available.

Covid19 vaccinations>

Answers to your vaccine questions

Am I eligible for the Covid vaccine in my state?

Currently more than 150 million people – almost half of the population – can be vaccinated. But each state makes the final decision on who goes first. The country’s 21 million healthcare workers and three million long-term care residents were the first to qualify. In mid-January, federal officials asked all states to open eligibility to anyone over the age of 65 and adults of any age with medical conditions that are at high risk of becoming seriously ill or dying of Covid-19. Adults in the general population are at the end of the line. If federal and state health authorities can remove bottlenecks in the distribution of vaccines, everyone over the age of 16 is eligible as early as spring or early summer. The vaccine has not been approved in children, although studies are ongoing. It can take months before a vaccine is available to anyone under the age of 16. For the latest information on vaccination guidelines in your area, see your state health website

Is the Vaccine Free?

You shouldn’t have to pay anything out of pocket to get the vaccine, despite being asked for insurance information. If you don’t have insurance, you should still get the vaccine for free. Congress passed law this spring banning insurers from applying cost-sharing such as a co-payment or deductible. It consisted of additional safeguards prohibiting pharmacies, doctors, and hospitals from charging patients, including uninsured patients. Even so, health experts fear that patients will end up in loopholes that make them prone to surprise bills. This could be the case for people who are charged a doctor’s visit fee with their vaccine or for Americans who have certain types of health insurance that are not covered by the new regulations. If you received your vaccine from a doctor’s office or emergency clinic, talk to them about possible hidden costs. To make sure you don’t get a surprise invoice, it is best to get your vaccine at a Department of Health vaccination center or local pharmacy as soon as the shots become more widely available.

Can I choose which vaccine to get?How long does the vaccine last? Do I need another next year?

That is to be determined. It is possible that Covid-19 vaccinations will become an annual event just like the flu vaccination. Or the vaccine may last longer than a year. We’ll have to wait and see how durable the protection from the vaccines is. To determine this, researchers will track down vaccinated people to look for “breakthrough cases” – those people who get Covid-19 despite being vaccinated. This is a sign of a weakening of protection and gives researchers an indication of how long the vaccine will last. They will also monitor the levels of antibodies and T cells in the blood of people who have been vaccinated to see if and when a booster shot might be needed. It is conceivable that people might need boosters every few months, once a year, or just every few years. It’s just a matter of waiting for the data.

Does my employer need vaccinations?Where can I find out more?

Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccines expert at Philadelphia Children’s Hospital, told CNN that Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines would be his first choice when they were abundant because of their higher overall effectiveness.

But right now there aren’t enough of these vaccines.

If he couldn’t get the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine or the Moderna vaccine, he would do the Johnson & Johnson shot, said Dr. Offit – as long as the data the company will submit to the Food and Drug Administration looks as good as the company reported on Friday.

He said Johnson & Johnson’s Serious Disease Reduction Report was a strong selling point.

“That’s what you want,” said Dr. Offit. “You want to stay out of the hospital and out of the morgue.”

He noted that the company was also investigating a two-shot regimen that could increase its effectiveness.

People taking the Johnson & Johnson vaccine should be able to safely get a Pfizer BioNTech or Moderna vaccine later if a booster shot is needed, he said.

Dr. Schaffner said he had just attended a meeting with other public health experts and they asked each other what they would say to their spouses or partners if they could get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine tomorrow or had to wait three weeks Pfizer- BioNTech’s or Moderna’s.

“We all said, ‘Get it tomorrow,” said Dr. Schaffner. “The virus is bad. You risk another three weeks of exposure instead of receiving protection tomorrow.”

He said the 85 percent effectiveness of Johnson & Johnson against serious illnesses is a little less than that reported by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, “but it’s still damn high.”

It is not yet known whether it is safe to take a different type of vaccine every now and then, said Dr. Schaffner, adding, “We haven’t investigated this.”

Categories
Business

EU locations export controls on coronavirus vaccines

EU places export controls on coronavirus vaccines

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, speaks to the media in Berlaymont, the seat of the EU Commission.

Thierry Monasse

LONDON – The European Union temporarily controlled the export of block-made coronavirus vaccines on Friday after the UK pharmaceutical company spat at AstraZeneca and other supply issues.

Pfizer recently received two massive blows stating that production should be temporarily reduced while production capacity at the Belgian facility is improved. Last week, AstraZeneca also said it would ship far fewer cans to the EU than originally expected this spring due to production problems at its plants in the Netherlands and Belgium.

After the EU pressured AstraZeneca this week to meet its commitments and then asked the company to move UK-made vaccines to the block, the EU confirmed on Friday that temporary controls will be in place.

“Protecting the health of our citizens remains our top priority and we must take the necessary measures to achieve this,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Friday.

“This transparency and approval mechanism is temporary and we will of course continue to honor our commitments to low and middle income countries.”

The controls are expected to last until the end of March. The bloc also triggered Article 16 of its Brexit deal with the UK, which means that exports cannot be sent to Northern Ireland, which could potentially serve as a back door to the rest of the country.

“This time-limited and targeted system only covers those Covid-19 vaccines that have been agreed with the EU under Advanced Purchase Agreements,” said Valdis Dombrovskis, Executive Vice President and Commissioner for Trade of the EU.

“This mechanism includes a wide range of exemptions to fully meet our humanitarian commitments and protect the delivery of vaccines to our neighborhood and to countries in need covered by the COVAX facility.”

EU approves AstraZeneca vaccine

The European Union has been under pressure from what critics are calling the slow adoption of Covid vaccines. The European Commission, the body that runs the sales contracts, has been accused of not securing enough vaccines and the region’s medical agency has been criticized for taking too long to approve vaccinations that have given the go-ahead elsewhere have received.

On Friday, the European Medicines Agency approved the AstraZeneca vaccine for emergency use in the EU, about a month after it first received the green light in the UK, which recently left the block.

Speaking to CNBC on Friday, Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin denied that this spit between Brussels and a British pharmaceutical company had turned into another “Brexit fight”.

“Overall, I think the European Commission has behaved well and effectively when it comes to vaccine procurement,” he said. “There is a lot of tension out there … a lot of pressure on the Commission from the Member States, from the Prime Ministers. Why? Because the people are under pressure, the people are under pressure.”

Categories
World News

Tesla service now contains collision repairs

Tesla service now includes collision repairs

Jerome Guillen, Vice President of the US electric car manufacturer Tesla, poses on the last press day on October 3, 2014 at the Paris Motor Show. The Paris Motor Show will open to the public on Saturday.

Eric Piermont | AFP | Getty Images

Elon Musk’s electric car company told customers on Friday that Tesla Service Centers are now offering collision repairs, which the company has been talking about since 2018.

In a customer message titled “Collision Repair is Here”, the company pointed out its ability to repair everything from dents and scratches to “suspension and axle damage” in its own service centers as an “alternative option to a body shop.” ” to repair.

Services, including collision repairs, are likely to represent a larger segment of revenue for Tesla over time as the warranty on its cars expires and the company ships more of them globally. While Tesla reported $ 678 million from a combined services and other segment in the fourth quarter of 2020, the company does not split service revenue separately. Overall, this segment grew 17% from $ 580 million in the prior year quarter.

Tesla operates 140 service centers in North America. The company plans to open more stores, including 46 in the first half of 2021, Tesla President Jerome Guillen announced on Wednesday.

Service has been a sore spot for many Tesla customers over the past few months, to the point where investors asked executives on the fourth quarter 2020 earnings call, “What is Tesla doing to improve the service experience? Tesla had a reputation for being a great one Customer service. Now this is impossible. ” even call a service center and appointments are scheduled weeks later. ”

Guillen replied: “For us, the best service is not service. That is why we have made great efforts to improve the quality and reliability of our cars. In the last two years, the frequency of service visits has decreased by a third, so customers have less often put into service, which is actually the goal, no service. “

He stressed that Tesla also offers a “mobile service,” where a Tesla service vehicle and an auto mechanic go to a customer’s car to fix the problem. Mobile visits now account for 40% of all service visits in North America, and according to Guillen, Tesla plans to increase that number to 50% by 2021.

However, not all repairs can be carried out on a mobile visit. For example, the panoramic glass roof of a Tesla vehicle needs to be replaced in a shop.

Guillen also said that Tesla is pushing all customer communications about the service through the Tesla app – meaning Tesla service centers now prefer not to take calls or simply not to take them.

“The app is way better than the phone,” explained Guillen. “It can recognize warnings right from the car and make a service appointment. There is a written record of all communication between the customer and the service team. You can have pictures in it. You can take care of your payment without entering the credit card and all that to do. You will receive updates through the service. “

Guillen predicted that most other automakers will follow suit.

Here is the full communication with customers:

Collision repair is here

January 28, 2021

Fix minor dents, scratches, and more at your local Tesla Service Center as an alternative to a body shop. Our streamlined repair flow allows for a quick and seamless experience when you need it most.

Collision repair services may include: suspension and axle damage, front and rear bumpers, hoods, tailgates and side mirror caps, and doors, wheels, and all glass repairs.

To make an appointment, select the “Collision and Glass Repair” option in the “Service” menu in your Tesla app and track your service experience with step-by-step notifications.

Categories
Business

The whole lot’s a Joke Till It’s Not

Everything’s a Joke Until It’s Not

At first glance, Reddit is a huge collection of forums run by a single private company. It’s in a gray area between small, intimate communities with shared expectations and norms and the mega-platforms that tend to obliterate things like that. Its job is to get people together for free, generate communities and content, and then assign a value to that content so that it can be sorted and shown to millions more people, some of whom are seeing ads.

You might find interesting links on Reddit and watch fun videos. Maybe it’s a place to hang out with a small group of friends or post to a community of millions. More likely, it’s a place you’ve heard of and maybe visited before, where you know people do a lot of things, most of which don’t affect you until they do. Like other social platforms, Reddit has grappled with harassment, hate speech, and abuse, and sometimes banned communities whose influence affected them.

For people studying social platforms like Reddit, WallStreetBets – a clear example of an island Reddit community pushing into the bigger site and beyond – recalled one particular recent precedent: The_Donald, the subreddit that has been around for a few years was long. the venue and central organizational platform for supporters of Donald J. Trump.

To be clear, these precedents aren’t necessarily about ideology or broad style. Some commentators have suggested that the activities advocated by WallStreetBets and Trumpism are part of the same anti-elite populist phenomenon, but if Trumpism is educational here at all, it is a reminder that self-described anti-elite movements can turn out to be found out that this is much more complicated.

WallStreetBets may look like a wall of slang, memes, jargon, and inside jokes that is largely male populated, and it is. But it’s also a financial forum that subscribers share with other, simpler financial forums. (All of the top 20 subreddits WallStreetBets subscribers share stocks with are for stocks, finance, betting, or cryptocurrency. The first one that isn’t between PersonalFinanceCanada and poker is a community called FrugalMaleFashion.) There is a long and complicated series rules that go beyond the rules enforced by Reddit itself, some broad (no market manipulation) and some narrow and exclusive (screenshots of your “positions” must be “equity or losses greater than $ 2,500 or $ 10,000 for options or stocks ” demonstrate).

Categories
Health

There can be sufficient Covid vaccines for the ‘complete U.S. grownup inhabitants by June,’ physician says

J&J plans to have 100 million vaccines for Americans by spring, board member says

Dr. Johnson & Johnson board member Mark McClellan told CNBC Friday that there could be enough vaccinations for the entire US adult population by the summer.

“Assuming that accurate verification of the J&J data is no longer possible, we will have the capacity between Moderna, Pfizer and J&J to have enough vaccines available for the entire US adult population by June “said McClellan, a former FDA commissioner, said on” The News with Shepard Smith. ”

The US plans to buy 200 million doses of Covid vaccine from Moderna and Pfizer. The Department of Health and Human Services will increase its vaccine supply to states from 8.6 million to at least 10 million doses per week. To date, states have received more than 49 million doses, but only about half of those actually landed in people’s arms, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency reports that the US fires just over a million shots every day.

McClellan that the US should significantly increase the number of shots given per day and “should bring our ability to vaccinate closer to 3 million doses per day.”

The US has ordered 100 million doses of the J&J vaccine, which the company plans to deliver by June. J&J plans to apply for an emergency permit next week. If J & J’s vaccine is FDA approved, it will be the third emergency approved vaccine in the U.S. Pfizer’s vaccine was approved by the FDA on December 11th, and Moderna’s was approved a week later.

The efficacy numbers for J&J vaccines were lower than for Pfizer and Moderna. Pfizer’s vaccine was found to be 95% effective against Covid-19, while Moderna’s vaccine was about 94% effective. J & J’s vaccine was found to be 66% overall effective in preventing moderate to severe Covid.

Host Shepard Smith asked McClellan about the lower efficacy numbers compared to Pfizer and Moderna, explaining to Smith, “We are fighting a different virus today than three months ago when previous studies were done.”

In addition, J&J conducted its test on three continents, and the level of protection varied depending on the region. The vaccine showed an overall effectiveness of 72% in the US and 66% in Latin America. In South Africa, where the dangerous B.1.351 strain of Covid caused spikes in some cases, the J&J vaccine showed 57% effectiveness.

“Unfortunately, in three months’ time, we’ll likely be fighting another virus. The most important thing to winning this fight is getting as many people as possible vaccinated,” said McClellan. “The faster we shoot in the arms, the more people will be vaccinated here in this country and around the world, the better we can contain this further spread and further damage from Covid.”

Categories
Politics

Lawmakers, activists name for elimination from Congress

Lawmakers, activists call for removal from Congress

Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), wearing a mask that reads “Trump won,” speaks to a colleague on the opening day of the 117th Congress on the opening day of the 117th Congress at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 3. 2021.

Bill O’Leary | Reuters

Lawmakers and activists are calling for newcomer GOP Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to be removed from the House Education Committee and from Congress.

Recently, videos and social media activity from 2018 and 2019 have resurfaced depicting Greene harassing a Parkland, Florida survivor, falsely indicating that several fatal school and mass shootings were carried out, suggesting the Pointing out support for the execution of prominent Democrats and expressing approval from afar -right conspiracy theories.

“It is absolutely appalling, and I think the focus must be on the Republican leadership of this House of Representatives if they disregard the deaths of these children,” House spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi said at a weekly news conference Thursday.

Democratic MP Jahana Hayes distributed a letter Thursday urging the Republican leadership of the House to remove Greene from her appointment on the House Committee on Education and Labor. Hayes represents Connecticut’s 5th district, including Newtown, where the 2012 deadly mass shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School took place.

California Democratic MP Jimmy Gomez announced Thursday that he would introduce a resolution to expel Greene from Congress, which would require a two-thirds majority to pass.

House Ethics Committee Chairman Ted Deutch also expressed support for Greene’s removal from Congress. Parkland belongs to the Florida district of the Democrat, where the fatal shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School took place in 2018.

The Georgia chapter of the youth-led gun safety organization March For Our Lives held a demonstration outside Greene’s office in Rome, Georgia, Friday morning. The group organized the event in response to a resurfaced video of Greene panting David Hogg, a survivor of the Parkland shootout and co-founder of March For Our Lives, in 2019.

Activists called for the immediate resignation or expulsion of the congressmen. A petition calling for Greene’s resignation by March For Our Lives received more than 100,000 signatures in 24 hours.

“We’re tired of them shaming our region,” said Omar Rodriguez, organizer of the Northwest Georgia Justice Coalition and voter in Greene’s district, at the demonstration. “Greene is not one of us.”

Gun violence prevention groups Everytown for Gun Safety, Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action also called for Greene to step down.

The Republican Jewish Coalition released a statement Friday that the group “never endorsed or supported Marjorie Taylor Greene. We are offended and appalled by her comments and actions.”

“It is way outside of the mainstream Republican Party and the RJC is working closely with the Republican leadership of the House on the next steps in this matter,” the group said.

A spokesman for Republican House Leader Kevin McCarthy said in a statement that Greene’s comments were “deeply troubling” and “Leader McCarthy plans to have a conversation with Congressman about it.”

In a Thursday interview on CNN, Hogg had a message to McCarthy: “If you say this is not your party, actually call them out and hold them accountable because Republicans always pretend they are the party of decency and respect. “

“But would the Party of Decency and Respect ask whether or not school shootings took place? Would they harass the survivors of those shootings for having different opinions than they did?” Asked Hogg.

Greene’s office did not respond to CNBC’s requests for comment. The Congresswoman released a defiant statement on Friday in response to mounting criticism and tried to draw attention to next year’s midterm elections.

Rep. Cori Bush, a Missouri Democrat, said Friday she was moving her office from Greene after the Georgia Congresswoman “cursed” her.

Regarding the deadly January 6 uprising in the Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump, Bush noted that she had “called for the expulsion of members who instigated the uprising from day one.” Greene supported efforts to overturn Joe Biden’s presidential win and was one of 147 Republican lawmakers who voted against the election results after the Capitol attack.

A news crew from NBC subsidiary WRCB was reportedly removed from an event at City Hall on Wednesday and threatened with arrest after trying to ask Greene a question.

Ahead of her November 2020 election, Greene fueled the QAnon conspiracy theory, whose supporters believe a cabal of satanic, pedophile Democrats and other institutional figures control the government and intend to undermine former President Trump.

Prominent QAnon supporters were among the pro-Trump extremists who stormed the Capitol during the uprising that killed five people.

The new lawmaker began her Congressional candidacy in the 6th district of Georgia and then decided to run in the 14th district when incumbent Tom Graves announced that he would not seek re-election. Her Democratic opponent was eliminated and Greene won her seat in the Northern Georgia district by almost 50 percentage points.

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Moderna asks FDA to authorize 5 further doses per Covid vaccine vial to hurry distribution, supply tells CNBC

Moderna asks FDA to authorize 5 additional doses per Covid vaccine vial to speed distribution, source tells CNBC

A health care worker holds a vial of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at a pop-up vaccination station operated by SOMOS Community Care during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in New York on January 29, 2021 .

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Moderna has asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for permission to fill their Covid-19 vaccine bottles with up to five additional doses to help clear a manufacturing bottleneck, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The change would allow Moderna to fill 15 cans into vials of the same size, now cleared for 10, which eases the pressure on the manufacturing process known as filling / finishing, said the person who refused to named because the application is not public yet.

The availability of Covid-19 vaccines has caused frustration since their approval in the US in mid-December. While the pace of administration has increased to an average of more than 1 million a day, the limited supply has hampered states’ ability to operate mass vaccination centers. By Friday, the US had distributed 49.2 million doses and 27.9 million had been given, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We have problems making these mRNA vaccines,” said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center and a physician at Philadelphia Children’s Hospital. “We have up to 1.2 million doses a day when we need 3 million doses a day.”

The FDA declined to comment and asked questions to the company. Moderna did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The move from Moderna came after Pfizer requested and received a change in emergency approval from the FDA to specify that the Covid-19 vaccine bottles contain six doses instead of five after pharmacists determined that it had a bonus dose the correct syringes could be extracted. Pfizer then said it would ship fewer vials to the US, but the same number of doses specified in its contracts.

Moderna vials have also been found to contain a bonus dose, but a policy change is being sought to add volume to the vials.

The bottleneck is not the vials themselves, but the manufacturing capacity to fill the vials. The manufacturing filling / finishing process must be performed under aseptic conditions to ensure contamination does not occur and the capacity is high.

Companies have begun to form manufacturing partnerships that focus on this step in the process to increase production. Novartis announced on Friday that it has signed an initial vial fill agreement for BioNTech, Pfizer’s partner in Europe, for the Covid-19 vaccine.

“We expect this to be the first in a series of such agreements,” said Steffen Lang, head of technical operations at Novartis.