Month: March 2021

Categories
Politics

Biden to signal $1.9 trillion reduction invoice

Biden to sign $1.9 trillion relief bill

President Joe Biden wears a protective mask during an event at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, the United States, on Wednesday, March 10, 2021.

Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images

President Joe Biden will sign the $ 1.9 trillion coronavirus aid package Thursday afternoon, while Washington plans to send new aid this month.

He had planned to sign the bill, his first priority as president, on Friday. Biden will also deliver a primetime address on Thursday describing how the country will tackle the virus a year after the World Health Organization announced the pandemic.

The plan provides direct payments of up to $ 1,400 to most Americans, extends the weekly unemployment insurance increase by $ 300 through September 6, and extends the child tax credit by one year. It also spends nearly $ 20 billion on Covid-19 vaccinations, $ 25 billion on rentals and utilities, and $ 350 billion on state, local and tribal aid.

Biden has said he anticipates stimulus checks to begin this month.

Democrats passed the bill in Congress without a Republican vote on budget reconciliation. The House approved the measure on Wednesday.

“This bill represents a historic-historical victory for the American people,” Biden said after it was passed on Wednesday, saying the spending “addresses a real need.”

Republicans called the proposal inappropriate for the moment as Covid-19 vaccinations spike and more states move towards reopening their economies. The GOP criticized what it called funding that was not needed to fight the pandemic.

“The American people have already built a parade headed for victory,” Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Said Thursday. “Democrats just want to sprint to the front of this parade and claim credit.”

Democrats have named the bill needed to sustain economic recovery and ease the pain caused by a year of economic restraints. More than 20 million people are still receiving some form of unemployment benefit, and millions of households are struggling to afford food and housing.

The party has also highlighted the potential of the Child Poverty Reduction Act.

The legislation will also increase the maximum benefit of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program by 15% through September and direct nearly $ 30 billion to restaurants. It will send more than $ 120 billion to K-12 schools.

The legislation will also improve regulations to make health care more affordable and expand tax credits to help companies keep their employees on payroll.

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Categories
Business

Wilhelmina Cole Holladay, Whose Artwork Museum Promoted Ladies, Dies at 98

Wilhelmina Cole Holladay, Whose Art Museum Promoted Women, Dies at 98

Wilhelmina Cole Holladay, who used her social relationships, organizational acumen, and personal collection of hundreds of works by women painters to build the country’s first museum dedicated to women in the arts, died Saturday at her Washington home. She was 98 years old.

Her death was confirmed by the National Museum of Women in the Arts, which she opened in 1987 and until recently chaired it and held weekly meetings with the museum’s director at her Georgetown home.

Ms. Holladay, known to her friends as Billie, was a skilled networker from Washington who understood how to use party invitations and nonprofit committee seats to create an agenda. But where others might have used those talents to solicit clients or gain power for their own sake, she had a different goal in mind: to include women in art history who she believed had ignored their contributions for too long .

A patrician with impeccable taste and sense of decency, she rubbed her shoulders with First Ladies, had lunch with Mellons and Gettys, and supported herself in the six years it took to open the museum, housed in a former Freemason , to those associations and others in Washington’s cultural establishment temple three blocks from the White House.

Under the direction of Ms. Holladay, the museum grew to include more than 5,500 works by more than 1,000 artists with an endowment of $ 66 million and a network of support committees in 13 states and 10 countries.

“No player in the art scene has a deeper understanding of power and money and how our system works,” wrote Paul Richard, Washington Post critic, when the museum opened. “Despite her white-gloved friendliness, hardworking Billie Holladay is a warrior and a winner.”

Wilhelmina Cole was born on October 2, 1922 in Elmira, New York State. Her father, Chauncey Cole, was a businessman; Her mother, Claire Elisabeth (Strong) Cole, was a housewife. She was particularly close to her maternal grandmother, who lived across the street and owned a print by French artist Rosa Bonheur.

She moved to Washington shortly after graduating from Elmira College in 1944. She got a job as a social secretary for the Chinese embassy; For a while she worked for Madame Chiang Kai-shek, China’s first lady, who had temporarily moved to the United States to campaign for international support against the Chinese communists.

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Ms. Holladay left the embassy after Wallace Jr. was born and shortly before the fall of the Chinese government. The family moved to the suburbs of McLean, Virginia and later to Georgetown.

She worked for a while in the National Gallery and later joined several museum and non-profit bodies. She and her husband also began collecting art: their first work was a painting they bought for $ 100 at a high school art fair.

On a trip to Europe in the 1970s, the Holladays were impressed by a still life by the Flemish artist Clara Peeters from the 17th century, which they experienced in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. They saw another Peeters in Madrid working at the Museo del Prado. But at home they couldn’t mention her in her many art-historical volumes.

“If Peeters was enough to hang in two of the greatest museums in the world, how was it that we didn’t know them?” Ms. Holladay wrote in her memoir “A Museum of Our Own” (2008).

She and her husband focused on female artists and ended up collecting 500 works by 150 painters and sculptors. But buying the works was one thing; What bothered Ms. Holladay was a general lack of awareness among women artists.

At dinner parties, she asked if anyone could name five female artists since the Renaissance. She would hear the names Frida Kahlo and Georgia O’Keeffe. Someone could mention Helen Frankenthaler. Nobody ever turned five.

Mrs. Holladay had planned to donate her collection to a museum. But one day at lunchtime, her friend Nancy Hanks, the first woman to run the National Foundation for the Arts, suggested going further. Not everyone had the skills and connections to open their own museum, Ms. Hanks said. But Mrs. Holladay did.

She turned out to be adept – and happy – at fundraising. Her neighbor was a granddaughter of J. Paul Getty; She gave $ 1 million. Ms. Holladay’s first gala in 1983 was directed by philanthropist Rachel Lambert Mellon, known as Bunny, and fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy. While she was working to save money on buying a building, she opened her home and collection to visitors, with her family and friends serving as lecturers.

“She was the master of the possible,” said Winton Holladay, her daughter-in-law, the museum’s vice-chairwoman. “She just had this incredible confidence, and her confidence permeated everyone else.”

For the location of the museum, Ms. Holladay chose the former national headquarters of the Masons, a looming neoclassical building on New York Avenue. The neighborhood was shabby; There was an adult bookstore next door. But she reveled in the irony: a “bastion of a male secret society,” she said of the Freemasons, would now be used to promote women in the arts.

The museum opened on April 7, 1987 in the presence of Barbara Bush, then the second lady. Despite the support of the Washington establishment, the institution was immediately criticized from all sides: feminists claimed that artists were being ghettoized, while conservatives claimed that the museum politicized art.

Mrs. Holladay was unmoved. When raising funds for the museum, she pointed out that only 2 percent of the art purchased by major museums was from women. By the mid-2010s, that number had only improved slightly to 11 percent. And as the museum’s collection expanded, criticism subsided.

“She had the guts of her beliefs and knew what she wanted to do,” said Susan Fisher Sterling, the museum’s longtime director. “She would say to people, ‘You are absolutely right. It would be wonderful if women artists were treated equally. But they are not. ‘”

Categories
Health

Vacuna covid: los efectos secundarios son peores en mujeres

Vacuna covid: los efectos secundarios son peores en mujeres

Sex hormones containing estrogens, progesterone and testosterone can stick to the surface of immune cells and affect how they work. For example, exposure to estrogens causes immune cells to produce more antibodies in response to the flu vaccine.

In addition, testosterone appears to be “very immunosuppressive,” according to Klein. The flu vaccine tends to be less protective in men with high levels of testosterone than in men with lower levels of the sex hormone. Among other things, testosterone inhibits the body’s production of immune chemicals known as cytokines.

It is also possible that genetic differences between men and women have some impact on immunity. There are many immunity-related genes on the X chromosome, of which women have two copies and men only one. Immunologists have always believed that only one X chromosome was turned on in women and the other was inactive. However, studies show that 15 percent of genes bypass this inactivation and are more strongly expressed in women.

These strong immune responses explain why 80 percent of autoimmune diseases affect women. “Women have greater immunity, either against themselves, against a vaccine antigen, or against a virus,” Klein said.

The amount in a vaccine dose can also be important. Some studies have shown that women absorb and metabolize drugs differently than men and that they almost always require fewer doses for them to work. However, until the 1990s, many drug and vaccine clinical trials excluded women. “In the past, recommended drug doses were based on clinical trials in which the participants were men,” said Morgan.

Current clinical studies already include women. According to Klein, however, the side effects were not sufficiently differentiated or analyzed by gender in the studies of the new Covid vaccines. Nor did they test whether a lower dose might be as effective for women and cause fewer side effects.

Until she does, Klein said health professionals should talk to women about the side effects of vaccines so they don’t panic if they get them. “I think it’s useful to make women aware that they may have more side effects,” she said. “This is normal and probably reflects that his immune system is working.”

Categories
Business

Beeple NFT is most costly ever bought at public sale, tops $60 million

Beeple NFT is most expensive ever sold at auction, tops $60 million

A virtual work of art called “Everydays: The First 5000 Days”. It was designed by digital artist Beeple and is the first NFT-based artwork to be auctioned at Christie’s.

Christie’s

A non-fungible token by artist Beeple sold for over $ 60 million at Christie’s, making it the most expensive NFT ever sold at auction.

The final sale price could shift as the final bids are processed and auction fees are added, bringing the total to more than $ 69 million. However, the sale closed two weeks of frenzied online bidding and ushered in a new era in collectibles, with prices for blockchain-based digital images now competing with prices for Picassos and Monets. While the future of NFT pricing and its longer-term role in the art world remains an open question and many view it as a speculative fad, the eight-figure price tag for the Beeple has suddenly taken notice of the art world.

“As soon as I saw it, I saw it as having this enormous potential as a platform for digitally owning a variety of things, not just art,” artist Mike Winkelmann, better known as Beeple, told CNBC. “I think this will be an alternative form of asset class going forward.”

The record work “The First 5,000 Days” was the first to be sold in a major auction house.

In 2007, Winkelmann set out to publish a new digital work of art every day for the rest of his life and never missed a single day. The first 5,000 of these works, which he calls “Everydays”, were put together to “The First 5,000 Days”.

NFTs, which are digital assets whose owners are recorded on a blockchain, have grown into a $ 400 million market – much of it in the past month. Jack Dorsey turned the first tweet from 2006 into an NFT with a maximum bid of $ 2.5 million. NBA Top Shots, NFTs of NBA highlight videos, have become increasingly popular, with sales exceeding $ 200 million and a LeBron James video for $ 208,000. Musician and artist Grimes has sold more than $ 6 million in videos and music.

By the time it was sold by Christie’s, the most expensive NFT ever sold was a Beeple movement that was flipped over by its owner for $ 6.6 million.

It is unclear whether large art auction houses will follow suit. Sotheby’s said it made no announcements of future NFT sales and Phillips said there are no “NFT messages to share” at the moment.

Categories
World News

Baidu Hong Kong itemizing to boost not less than $Three billion

Baidu Hong Kong listing to raise at least $3 billion

Robin Li, General Manager of Baidu.

Nelson Ching | Bloomberg | Getty Images

GUANGZHOU, China – Baidu will raise $ 3.6 billion in an upcoming Hong Kong secondary listing if stocks are valued at the high end of their range.

On Thursday, the Nasdaq-listed Chinese technology giant published its prospectus for the Hong Kong listing. Baidu will issue 95,000,000 Class A common shares at a price not exceeding 295 Hong Kong dollars or US $ 38.05.

At that high end, Baidu’s net proceeds from the offering will be Hong Kong $ 27.6 billion, or $ 3.6 billion.

The banks that subscribe to the listing also have the option to purchase up to 14,250,000 additional shares. That would bring the net proceeds from the deal to Hong Kong $ 31.8 billion, or $ 4.1 billion.

The final price for the shares will be determined in part by the price of the US-listed Baidu shares on the last trading day prior to the price of the global offering, which is expected to occur on or about March 17, the company said.

Earlier in the day, CNBC reported that Baidu will raise at least $ 3 billion, citing two people familiar with the matter.

The listing will be completed before the end of the month, they said.

The book-making process could begin as early as Friday with final stock pricing, which will be announced late next week. This was announced by the person on CNBC, who spoke on condition of anonymity as the details of the deal are not yet public.

Baidu declined to comment when contacted by CNBC.

Diversification plans

Baidu could also benefit from a huge 128% surge in its shares over the past 12 months to raise capital.

While Baidu is traditionally known for its search and advertising business, more recently it has looked to diversify.

The company has focused on its autonomous auto business and is creating independent companies. CNBC reported in February that Baidu plans to raise money for an artificial intelligence semiconductor company.

Baidu has also built a standalone electric vehicle business with automaker Geely and is raising money for a biotechnology company.

The company said it will use the proceeds from the Hong Kong listing to invest in technology and commercialize its artificial intelligence products, improve monetization and diversify, and for general corporate purposes.

Categories
Business

Jobless Claims Drop, Fueling Optimism in an Financial Rebound: Reside Updates

Diners at a Minneapolis restaurant. Business restrictions across the country have begun to lift and vaccinations have picked up, fueling hopes of an economic resurgence.

Here’s what you need to know:

Credit…Liam Doyle for The New York Times

New claims for unemployment dropped last week, the government reported on Thursday, fueling renewed optimism in the staying power of the economic rebound.

A total of 709,000 workers filed first-time claims for state unemployment benefits in the week that ended March 6, 47,000 lower than the week before, the Labor Department said. In addition, there were 478,000 new claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, a federal program covering freelancers, part-timers and others who do not routinely qualify for state benefits, an increase of 42,000.

Neither figure is seasonally adjusted. On a seasonally adjusted basis, new state claims totaled 712,000.

New claims for state unemployment benefits had been drifting lower in recent weeks, as restrictions across the country have begun to lift — a trend that many economists expect will continue.

“The pieces are falling into place for a more substantial improvement in the labor market,” said Sarah House, a senior economist at Wells Fargo.

The Labor Department reported last week that employers added 379,000 jobs in February, an unexpectedly robust number that reinforced confidence in the strength of the economic recovery roughly one year into the pandemic-induced downturn. The gains came largely in the hard-hit leisure and hospitality industries.

Although initial jobless claims have fallen significantly since last spring, the economy has a long way to go until it reaches pre-pandemic levels. All told, there are about 9.5 million fewer jobs than there were a year ago. More than four million people have dropped out of the labor force, a group not included in the most widely cited unemployment rate.

“We’re still not yet at the phase of the recovery where we’re seeing the floodgates open up,” said Daniel Zhao, senior economist with the career site Glassdoor. “I don’t think it’s quite fair to call what we’ve done so far ‘reopening’ because there’s still a lot of people who are out of work and a lot of businesses that are closed.”

But as vaccination rates climb, the weather warms up and more government help arrives, via President Biden’s $1.9 trillion relief plan, many economists expect a vibrant economic resurgence.

“We’re seeing a huge pickup in hiring,” said Julia Pollak, a labor economist with the employment site ZipRecruiter. “I think for many employers, it’s becoming real, and for many job seekers it is as well.”

A tram near the euro sculpture in Frankfurt, Germany. The European Central Bank said it would ramp up its purchases of bonds in the coming months.Credit…Michael Probst/Associated Press

The European Central Bank said Thursday it would step up its purchases of government and corporate bonds in the months to come in an effort to make sure that credit in the eurozone remained cheap.

The bank’s Governing Council said that it would not raise the total size of the purchases above the amount already planned, but it would buy bonds “at a significantly higher pace than during the first months of this year.”

The bank had earlier allocated 1.85 billion euros, or $2.2 billion, to fight the effects of the pandemic and keep borrowing costs low. That sum remains unchanged, but the bank will now spend the money at a faster pace.

The action announced on Thursday sends a strong signal to financial markets, which have been testing the central bank’s commitment to keep lending costs low in the eurozone while governments, corporations and individuals struggle through the pandemic.

Interest rates have been rising because investors, worried that inflation could pick up as economies around the world recover, have been less willing to buy bonds at the same exceptionally low rates as before.

Soon after the announcement, yields on 10-year German government bonds fell four basis points, from about minus 0.32 percent to minus 0.36 percent. That is still higher than earlier this year, when they were minus 0.6 percent.

Christine Lagarde, the bank’s president, promised in January to maintain favorable lending conditions. Easy credit, she said, “will support consumer spending, it will support investment spending, and ultimately it will help achieve our mandate of price stability.”

Bond yields feed into the broader economy because they set a benchmark for the rates that businesses pay for commercial loans and that individuals pay for mortgages and car loans.

“Yields in real or nominal terms were never lower than they are today before mid-2019,” Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics in Stony Field, N.Y., said in a note ahead of Thursday’s decision. “By any conceivable metric, interest rates are indeed supporting bank lending and economic recovery, and that will continue to be the case for a while.”

Senator Amy Klobuchar is the chairwoman of the Senate antitrust subcommittee, which will examine modernizing century-old antitrust laws.Credit…Pool photo by Greg Nash

Congress will take up antitrust issues in full force this week, holding the first in a series of hearings about the power of Big Tech and corporate concentration across the economy.

At 10 a.m. on Thursday, the Senate antitrust subcommittee will examine modernizing century-old antitrust laws. Senator Amy Klobuchar, the Minnesota Democrat and chairwoman of the subcommittee, is expected to start with a broad survey of economic problems. The committee has called witnesses from academia, a corporate law firm and nonprofit think tanks.

“I want to start big and talk about consolidation across so many industries,” Ms. Klobuchar said in an interview. She said she also planned to outline specific problems, including the behavior of tech companies like Google and Facebook, which have gobbled up competition and have also threatened to leave Australia because of regulations that would force them to pay publishers more for their content.

“Tech competition disrupts things and we don’t want less disruption, we want more disruption and disrupters,” Ms. Klobuchar said.

On Friday, the House antitrust subcommittee will hold a hearing on how online platforms have harmed journalism and newsrooms. Witnesses in that hearing will include leading lobbyists for the broadcast and newspaper industries as well as Brad Smith, the president of Microsoft.

Representative David Cicilline, the Democratic chairman of the committee, and Representative Ken Buck, the Republican ranking member, joined numerous other lawmakers on Wednesday in introducing a bill called the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act. The bill would allow small news organizations to band together to collectively bargain for fees from online platforms that host their news. A similar law in Australia recently set off a battle between the Australian government and Google and Facebook.

Mr. Smith of Microsoft has recently come to support publishers who want to negotiate as a group. He said recently that the spate of disinformation around the U.S. election and subsequent Capitol riots highlighted the importance of preserving news organizations — particularly local news — while misinformation is spread via online platforms like Facebook and Google.

A prototype of General Electric’s Haliade-X wind turbine in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Its blades will be manufactured in England, the company said.Credit…Ilvy Njiokiktjien for The New York Times

General Electric said it planned to build the football-field-long blades for its new offshore wind turbines at a plant in northeastern England.

The new factory will be in the Teesside region, an area that was recently named by the British government as a so-called freeport, with tax benefits and other business incentives. The plant will open in 2023 and create 750 jobs, according to a statement from G.E. late Wednesday.

Ben Houchen, the Tees Valley mayor, is working to rejuvenate the region by attracting investment in clean energy, including offshore wind power and a carbon-capture development. The new plant will produce blades for a large wind farm called Dogger Bank offshore in the North Sea.

Although Britain has become the world’s largest market for offshore wind turbines, some critics point out that most of the turbines are manufactured elsewhere, including Denmark and Germany. Blade factories are eagerly sought by local authorities, because they employ large numbers of people.

The blades, which will be about 350 feet long, will go on top of G.E.’s Haliade-X turbines, a prototype of which is being tested in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The new turbine has already set off a race among manufacturers to build bigger machines.

Adam Aron, AMC’s chief, said the distribution of vaccines would be the company’s “real salvation.”Credit…Cristobal Herrera-Ulashkevich/EPA, via Shutterstock

Adam Aron, the chief executive and president of AMC Entertainment, the world’s largest theater chain, called the past year “the most challenging market conditions in the 100-year history of the company,” when presenting year-end earnings on Wednesday that included the loss of $4.6 billion.

Yet Mr. Aron struck an optimistic note about his company’s outlook for the year ahead based on the reduction in coronavirus cases, the reopening of theaters and the slate of blockbuster movies set to arrive beginning in May. He pointed specifically to Disney’s “Black Widow,” Universal’s “F9” and Paramount’s “Top Gun: Maverick.”

He added that “the real salvation” of AMC would be the jump in vaccinations both domestically and around the world.

“The most important person in the entire movie business,” Mr. Aron said, is not employed by “a studio nor any movie theater circuit,” but is Albert Bourla, the chief executive of Pfizer.

“He and his colleagues and those of Moderna and J&J have given us our newfound fortitude,” he added.

AMC lost $946 million in the quarter ending Dec. 31, even as theaters started to open back up after being closed for months.

At year’s end, 78 percent of the company’s U.S. operations had reopened with limited seating capacity. Internationally, 90 percent of the company’s theaters resumed operating in October, only to have to close again in the fourth quarter owing to a resurgence of the virus.

AMC said it shut down 60 low-performing theaters in 2020: 48 in the United States and 12 internationally. It also spent the year renegotiating its terms with studios, specifically Universal and Warner Bros., as they sent more films to their streaming platforms with theaters closed.

“Over the past several years, AMC has indicated that it is willing to be the most experimental movie circuit around with respect to window strategies,” Mr. Aron said, adding that the deals have to be good for AMC shareholders. “I continue to be optimistic that having been partners for a century, we can adjust our business relationships so they support both streaming and theatrical releases and do so, not at our expense.”

President Biden is expected to sign his $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill on Friday.Credit…Andrew Harnik/Associated Press

Wall Street futures were pointing upward, and global markets were higher, as investors on Thursday were relieved by relatively modest inflation data in the United States and looking forward to the stimulus coming from President Biden’s $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill, which won final congressional approval on Wednesday.

The enormous piece of spending, one of the largest infusions of federal aid since the Great Depression, will provide another round of direct payments to millions of American, extend federal jobless benefits and provide millions for small businesses, state and local governments and schools. Mr. Biden is expected to sign it Friday.

  • Futures were pointing to a 0.7 percent rise on the S&P 500 when trading begins later in the day, and a 1.8 percent rise on the Nasdaq.

  • European markets were mostly higher, with the Stoxx Europe 600 up 0.2 percent, the Dax in Germany unchanged and the FTSE 100 in Britain 0.3 percent lower. Asian markets ended the day higher, with the Nikkei in Japan up 0.6 percent and the Shanghai Composite in China gaining 2.4 percent.

  • The Labor Department released data on Wednesday that showed inflation remained tame: Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, the Consumer Price Index rose 0.1 percent in February. The news seemed to calm some concerns about an overheating economy, and on Thursday the 10-year Treasury yield was lower.

  • The European Central Bank will conclude a two-day meeting on Thursday with a statement on interest rates and any changes it plans to make in its bond purchasing program. The bank’s president, Christine Lagarde, has said in recent weeks she is carefully watching bond yields creep up, and the bank could announce it is increasing the pace of its purchases in the bond market, a way the bank can keep interest rates lower.

  • Oil futures, which have meandered in recent days, gained a bit. Brent crude, the global benchmark, was up 0.8 percent after briefly touching $69 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, gained 1.1 percent, at about $65.20 a barrel.

Categories
Health

J&J’s one-shot Covid vaccine accredited by Europe

J&J's one-shot Covid vaccine approved by Europe

Crystal Jones, 52, head of the Athens City Department of Health, loads syringes of the vaccine on the first day of Johnson and Johnson’s vaccine.

SOPA pictures | LightRocket | Getty Images

The European Medicines Agency on Thursday recommended approval of the one-off coronavirus vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson, which may add another weapon to the armory used to fight Covid-19.

The vaccine will now be sent to the EU Commission for approval later on Thursday.

The vaccine has the added benefit of only requiring a single dose and can be stored in most standard refrigerators at temperatures of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius (or about 36 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit), making transportation and storage easier and cheaper makes.

Once delivery begins, the shot could add a lot to Europe’s difficult vaccination program and is the fourth to be approved by the EMA. Two-dose vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca, and Oxford University have also been approved.

While easier to distribute, the vaccine has been found not to be as effective as the Pfizer and Moderna shots in preventing Covid infection. However, the data shows that it offers an adequate level of protection: data from clinical trials from the United States have shown that J & J’s vaccine is 72% effective against moderate to severe Covid (although it has been found to be less effective in studies elsewhere which gives it an overall efficacy of 66% protection) compared to about 95% for the other two vaccines.

The speed at which the EU can introduce the J&J vaccine is not yet clear. The EU has ordered 200 million cans of the shot, with an option for an additional 200 million, Johnson & Johnson said in a statement last October.

However, it was reported on Wednesday that, like other vaccine suppliers in the EU (Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca), delivery of the J&J vaccine to the block may be slower than expected.

An unnamed EU official told Reuters that Johnson & Johnson had told the EU it was facing supply issues that could complicate plans to deliver 55 million doses of its vaccine to the block in the second quarter of the year. CNBC has contacted J&J for additional comments on the report and has yet to receive a response.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, said on Wednesday that it had not been informed of any delays from J&J.

Another delay in vaccine supply would exacerbate the already lethargic introduction of vaccines in the EU, which has faced issues due to a slower ordering process than the UK and US, slower deliveries, bureaucracy and hesitant vaccines.

In the US, J&J has signed a contract with the US government to supply 100 million cans by the end of June. On Wednesday, the Biden government announced plans to buy an additional 100 million cans. The announcement came as the White House is working to ramp up production of the vaccine after learning earlier this year that the company had fallen behind in production.

Last week, Biden announced that pharmaceutical company Merck would help manufacture J & J’s Covid vaccine. Under the terms of the agreement, Merck will deploy two facilities in the US for J & J’s vaccine. One will make the vaccine and the other will provide “fill-finish” services when the vaccine is put into vials.

– CNBC’s Berkeley Lovelace Jr. contributed to this story.

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect the correct approval process within the EU.

Categories
Entertainment

Earlier than Lockdown, This Tremendous Fan Went to 105 Reveals in One Season

Before Lockdown, This Super Fan Went to 105 Shows in One Season

Before the pandemic, he loved to play host. Every winter since 1978 he had convened a series of Wednesday evening salons inviting curators, collectors, artists and art lovers to his apartment. “It’s amazing what the conversations are around midnight,” he said.

His last evening was March 9, 2020 when he went to Petterino’s Monday Night Live, a cabaret showcase, with friends. “It was full throttle,” he said, “as if everyone knew the ban was coming.”

A few days later he got dressed and got on the bus to see the symphony perform “Rhapsody in Blue” and “Boléro”. He arrived, found out the performance had been canceled, and went back home. That was March 12th.

Minieka never had much use for television. For years he had a hand-me-down black and white watching the Oscars and elections, but when the tubes started leaking he threw it out. At the beginning of the pandemic, a friend offered him her old TV – she was upgrading – and he decided it was time to plug in cables and find out about streaming.

He plays “Downton Abbey”, “The Crown” and “Brideshead Revisited”. Occasionally he watches a movie. But he has no patience for digital theater. “I just don’t enjoy it,” he says. “I was in the real thing.”

Now he’s had both doses of vaccine and plans to celebrate by seeing a Monet exhibit at the Art Institute. But will he be performing live again? He is not sure.

“I kind of got used to sitting at home and not paying for tickets or spending a few nickels to have things streamed,” he said. “It used to be that you had an 8 o’clock curtain and if I wasn’t there they would close the doors. Now I can start whenever I want and I don’t have to wear a matching tuxedo. “

Categories
Politics

Obamacare’s About to Get a Lot Extra Inexpensive. These Maps Present How.

Obamacare’s About to Get a Lot More Affordable. These Maps Show How.

Under the stimulus bill passed by Congress this week and due to be signed by President Biden on Friday, almost everyone who takes out their own insurance is eligible for a discount.

The US rescue plan expands the subsidies available to comprehensive health insurance under the Affordable Care Act – increasing it for those already eligible and providing new support for those with incomes previously too high to qualify. The top cards, taken from calculations by the Kaiser Family Foundation, show how the changes will reduce health insurance costs across the country based on location and age.

The changes mean minor adjustments for some Americans and very substantial ones for others. For anyone making around $ 19,000, the subsidies are now generous enough to sign up for a typical plan with no monthly payment. For someone making more than $ 51,000, new subsidies could cut premiums in the country’s most expensive markets by as much as $ 1,000 a month.

Some groups are still not eligible for help: undocumented immigrants and poor Americans in states that haven’t expanded Medicaid under an option under the Affordable Care Act. A vast majority of uninsured Americans can now get financial help with purchasing insurance, according to Cynthia Cox, vice president at Kaiser.

“This law will shape it so that the majority of uninsured citizens will be entitled to free or low-cost coverage,” she said. “This won’t bring us to universal health coverage, but it will bring us closer to universal eligibility for subsidized health insurance – for two years.”

The cards here roughly show how much Americans who buy such plans will have to pay each month under the new rules. All eligible plans must cover a standard set of comprehensive benefits, including prenatal care, prescription medication, and mental health services – more coverage than available in the short-term plans or departments of health some middle-income Americans are currently enrolled in.

To qualify for the new benefits, individuals must register with Healthcare.gov or a government exchange website for plans. The changes will be retroactive to January 1, which means people who already have Obamacare plans will get their money back. Anyone who is not insured now can qualify for new prizes immediately after registering. However, experts say it may take a while for the subsidy changes to appear on Healthcare.gov. If you sign up right away, you may have to pay the old price for the first month and wait for a refund.

If you have unemployment insurance, the law gives you a special discount: regardless of your income, your premiums will look similar to those of the person who earns $ 19,000 on our cards. And if you’ve lost your cover at work and want to keep it, the invoice will also pay the full cost of your six-month premiums under the federal COBRA program.

Notes: The rewards and subsidies shown here are for individuals who purchase a silver plan at the second lowest price in their market. However, subsidies are calculated differently depending on the size of the family. A family of four earning around $ 40,000 would pay the same premium as an individual earning $ 19,000, for example.

In a few states, people on $ 19,000 are not eligible for new grants because they already qualify for other low-cost government insurance programs – Medicaid in Alaska, Hawaii, and the District of Columbia; and the Minnesota and New York Primary Health Plan (the Primary Health Plan is Medicaid-style, low-premium coverage for a portion of low-income Americans in certain states).

If you want to calculate the premium you would pay for your income, household size, and location, this online tool can come in handy.

Here you can find answers to other frequently asked questions about the stimulus package.

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Denmark suspends use of AstraZeneca Covid vaccine

Denmark suspends use of AstraZeneca Covid vaccine

The Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine.

Karwai Tang | Getty Images

LONDON – Denmark announced on Thursday that it would temporarily stop using the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University.

The Danish health authority said it would temporarily suspend the use of the shot in its vaccination program “following reports of severe cases of blood clots in people vaccinated with AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine”.

“With this in mind, the European Medicines Agency has launched an investigation into the AstraZeneca vaccine. One report relates to a death in Denmark. It cannot currently be concluded whether the vaccine is related to the blood clots.” Authority said in a statement.

No information was provided about the number of reports of blood clots or where they came from.

The announcement comes after a similar move in Austria earlier this week, where authorities are investigating one person’s death and another person’s illness after receiving doses of the vaccine.

AstraZeneca’s shares in the London market were down 2.4% on Thursday morning. Oxford University would not comment on the announcement when contacted by CNBC.

An AstraZeneca spokesman said the company was aware of a statement by the Danish health authority that it is investigating possible adverse effects of the vaccine.

“Patient safety is a top priority for AstraZeneca. Regulators have clear and strict standards of efficacy and safety for approving new drugs, including the COVID-19 vaccine AstraZeneca. The vaccine’s safety has been thoroughly investigated in Phase III clinical trials. Review data confirms the vaccine is generally well tolerated, “AstraZeneca said in a statement to CNBC.

Søren Brostrøm, director of the National Health Department in Denmark, insisted that the 14-day suspension was a precautionary measure during the investigation.

“It is important to emphasize that we did not decide against the AstraZeneca vaccine, we are deferring it. There is good evidence that the vaccine is both safe and effective. But both we and the Danish Medicines Agency need to respond Reports of possible serious side effects from both Denmark and other European countries, “he said.

Austria concerns

The Austrian health authorities stopped using batch ABV5300 of the AstraZeneca vaccine after a person was diagnosed with multiple thrombosis (formation of blood clots in blood vessels) and died 10 days after vaccination. Another person was hospitalized with pulmonary embolism after vaccination.

“The latter is now recovering,” said the European Medicines Agency on Wednesday.

However, the EMA added that “there is currently no evidence that vaccination caused these conditions that are not listed as side effects with this vaccine.”

The EMA found that the same batch of ABV5300 was shipped to 17 EU countries and comprised 1 million doses of the vaccine.

“Some EU countries have also suspended this batch as a precautionary measure while a full investigation is in progress. Although a quality defect is considered unlikely at this point, the batch quality will be investigated,” said the EMA.

It added that its safety committee was reviewing the issue and “investigated the cases reported with the batch, as well as all other cases of thromboembolic events and other blood clot-related conditions post-vaccination.”

“The information available so far shows that the number of thromboembolic events in vaccinated people is no higher than in the general population.”

As of March 9, “22 cases of thromboembolic events have been reported among the 3 million people vaccinated with the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in the European Economic Area,” the EMA said.

Trust in the UK and the EU

In late clinical studies, the AstraZeneca-Oxford shot was found to have an average of 70% effectiveness in protecting against the virus. A recent study by Oxford researchers found that the Covid vaccine was 76% effective at preventing symptomatic infection for three months after a single dose and that the effectiveness rate actually increased with a longer interval between the first and second dose.

The AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine is widely used in the launch of vaccination in the UK and the European Union.

The UK has so far vaccinated over 22 million people with a first dose of a coronavirus vaccine and is currently only using the AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech shot.