Month: April 2021

Categories
Politics

Rep. Matt Gaetz faces Home Ethics probe amid intercourse site visitors investigation

Rep. Matt Gaetz faces House Ethics probe amid sex traffic investigation

The House Ethics Committee said Friday it had opened an investigation into Rep. Matt Gaetz, the embattled Republican from Florida who was facing a federal investigation into criminal sex trafficking.

In a statement, the ethics committee said it was aware of the public allegations that Gaetz “may have committed sexual misconduct and / or illegal drug use”.

The panel also found that Gaetz allegedly “shared inappropriate pictures or videos on the floor of the house, misused government identification records, converted campaign funds for personal use and / or accepted bribes, inappropriate tips, or improper gifts that violate house rules , Laws or other standards of conduct. “

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38-year-old Gaetz has vigorously denied the wrongdoing since the Justice Department’s investigation first became known last week. He was not charged with a crime.

“The office will repeat once again that these claims are obviously false and have not been confirmed by a single person willing to leave their name behind,” Gaetz’s office told CNBC in response to the new ethics inquiry.

The Democrat-led Ethics Panel announced Friday that it has opened an investigation into Rep. Tom Reed, RN.Y., citing allegations of possible sexual misconduct.

Last month, Reed apologized to a woman who accused him of rubbing her back and hanging off her bra in a Minneapolis bar in 2017. Reed said he would not seek re-election in 2022.

Reed’s office did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment, but instead said in a statement to Politico: “We have already publicly addressed this situation and are working, in line with it, with the House Ethics Committee to bring this matter to a close. “

Ethics Committee press releases, attributed to Chairman Ted Deutch, D-Fla., And senior member Jackie Walorski, R-Ind., Stated that an investigation “does not in itself indicate a violation, or reflecting a judgment in the name. ” of the committee. “

Federal investigators are investigating whether Gaetz had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl and paid for her trips with him, the New York Times reported for the first time last week.

The investigation reportedly emerged from an investigation by Gaetz’s associate Joel Greenberg, a former Florida tax collector on criminal charges including underage sex trafficking, stalking, cable fraud and identity theft.

Greenberg had previously pleaded not guilty, but his attorney and prosecutors on his case told a judge on Thursday that Greenberg is expected to make a plea deal.

NBC reported Wednesday that investigators are investigating whether women were being paid to travel to the Bahamas with Gaetz to have sex, and whether Gaetz and Greenberg were using the internet to look for women who could pay them to have sex .

“I’m sure Matt Gaetz is not feeling very well today,” Greenberg’s lawyer Fritz Scheller told reporters on Thursday afternoon.

A Republican congressman, Adam Kinzinger from Illinois, has already asked Gaetz to resign.

Gaetz said this week that he had “absolutely not resigned” from the congress. As a staunch supporter of the former President Donald Trump, Gaetz has signed Marc Mukasey, a defender of the Trump organization, as a representative.

Gaetz has also hired a PR firm, the Logan Circle Group.

Categories
World News

China fines Alibaba $2.eight billion in anti-monopoly probe

China fines Alibaba $2.8 billion in anti-monopoly probe

The front of Alibaba’s Wangjing office in Beijing on December 24, 2020.

Costfoto | Barcroft Media | Getty Images

Chinese regulators fined Alibaba 18.23 billion yuan ($ 2.8 billion) in the tech giant’s antimonopoly investigation, claiming it abused its dominance.

Regulators launched an investigation into the company’s monopoly practices in December. The main focus of the research was on a practice that forces traders to choose one of two platforms rather than being able to work with both.

In a statement on Saturday, the Chinese State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) said the policy suppressed competition in China’s online retail market and “harmed retailers’ businesses on platforms and the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, according to a CNBC translation. a Chinese-language statement.

The government said the “choose one” policy and others allowed Alibaba to strengthen its position in the market and gain unfair competitive advantage.

In addition to the fine, which represents around 4% of the company’s 2019 sales, regulators are required to file Alibaba self-assessment and compliance reports with the SAMR for three years.

The company said in a statement that it had accepted the penalty and would comply with the SAMR’s decision. Alibaba said it had fully cooperated with the investigation, conducted a self-assessment and already made improvements to its internal systems.

“Alibaba would not have achieved our growth without solid government regulation and service, and the critical scrutiny, tolerance and support of all of our constituencies have been vital to our development,” the company said.

The company added it would hold a conference call at 8 a.m. Hong Kong time on Monday to discuss the fine.

The announcement is the latest development in China’s crackdown on its technology companies. Regulators are increasingly concerned about the power of China’s tech giants, especially those in the financial sector.

Much of this heightened scrutiny has tightened in the business empire of billionaire Jack Ma, who founded both Alibaba and Ant Group.

Ant’s much-anticipated IPO was abruptly suspended in November, shortly after Chinese regulators released new draft rules on online microcredit, an integral part of the company’s business. The China Securities Regulatory Commission also cited Ma and other Ant executives ahead of the announcement.

Ma appeared to have come under fire for criticizing China’s financial regulators. The country’s financial system is “the legacy of the industrial age”.

After the Ant went public, Ma fell out of the spotlight and fueled speculation about his whereabouts. In January, the eccentric billionaire reappeared briefly in a video as part of an initiative by his charity foundation.

Ant has since committed to listing, saying it would help employees monetize stocks.

– CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal, Evelyn Cheng and Eunice Yoon contributed to this report.

Categories
Health

Vaccine Passports: What Are They, and Who May Want One?

Vaccine Passports: What Are They, and Who Might Need One?

With vaccinations against Covid-19 on the rise, attention is turning to tools that can help people prove they have been vaccinated and potentially bypass the stifling restrictions put in place to fight the pandemic.

Although the idea has met with opposition over privacy and equity concerns, there are already several types of coronavirus vaccination records, sometimes referred to as “vaccination records,” in paper and digital form. Hundreds of airlines, governments, and other organizations are experimenting with new electronic versions, and the number is growing every day, even though their use has been very limited.

Portable vaccine records are an old idea: travelers to many parts of the world, children enrolling in school, and some health care workers have long had to show them as evidence that they were vaccinated against diseases.

However, vaccination records use digital tools that take the concept to a new level, and experts predict that electronic verification will soon become part of everyday life, especially for international air travel, but also for access to crowded spaces like theaters.

Here are some of the most important questions to be asked.

In general, the term is understood to mean an electronic vaccination record, possibly in the form of a QR code, which is easily accessible via a smartphone or possibly stored on the device, but can also be printed out.

At its simplest, the documentation is a physical card created by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and usually given to people who receive their first Covid-19 shot in the US, or the ” yellow card “of the World Health Organization for decades by travelers vaccinated against diseases such as yellow fever. But these are on paper, filled in by hand, and are quite prone to forgeries.

The tool may need to take into account several variables: it is unclear how long it will take to vaccinate, poor batches can occur, and the emergence of new variants of the virus will likely require new vaccines. In the long run, an electronic record may need to indicate which specific vaccine a person received from which batch and when.

More than a dozen competing versions are already being developed and promoted.

In the short term, the clearest application may be in international travel, and the reason is obvious at every major airport: the number of passengers is a fraction of the prepandemic, but there are enormous lines at airline counters and passport control.

Many countries already require proof of a recent negative coronavirus test for entry. So far, this documentation has existed almost exclusively on paper or on the passenger’s phone and has to be confirmed by human eyes at the airport. Therefore, it is not possible to check in for a flight online or even at an electronic kiosk in the terminal.

As travel restrictions wear off, the volume will increase and many nations are expected to start demanding proof of vaccination (or previous coronavirus infection) to enter, or simply skip the quarantine requirement. More passengers and more documentation requirements make processing even more unwieldy.

“We need to automate this,” said Nick Careen, senior vice president of the International Air Transport Association, an airline industry trading group. “Even if compulsory vaccination has never been approved, there will still be a test requirement and we cannot do it manually.”

(Even with an electronic system, officials say there will be some people who will have to use paper health documents because they don’t have access to digital tools.)

No major country has publicly released vaccine reviews for domestic travel. However, some governments and companies are already requiring proof of a negative coronavirus test for access to certain crowded places, and some are now requiring proof of vaccination, increasing the desire for an electronic alternative.

Updated

April 9, 2021, 7:09 p.m. ET

To be most useful, a digital record would need to be widespread – from governments controlling travelers, airlines and shipping lines screening passengers, corporations restricting admission, and the conglomeration of healthcare providers, government agencies and pharmacies that give the shots.

This in turn means that it has to be easy to use and relatively inexpensive. It would be an obstacle if companies had to spend a lot of money or introduce new software.

In February, the Israeli government began issuing their digital Green Pass or physical certificate to vaccinated people. She has to enter places like hotels and theaters.

In the past month, hundreds more companies around the world – airlines, governments, drugstore chains, and others – began using privately controlled digital systems to review health records. Most use the systems – including one called CommonPass and the International Air Transport Association’s own system, Travel Pass – on a trial basis to check for negative coronavirus tests.

The systems are designed to also provide evidence of vaccination if required.

In March, Aruba and JetBlue allowed US passengers to show CommonPass, a negative test developed by the Commons Project, a Switzerland-based nonprofit organization, with support from the World Economic Forum. Lufthansa passengers flying to the USA can also use it.

In the same month, Singapore Airlines became the first airline to use the Travel Pass only to a limited extent for passengers between Singapore and London and will use it on a large scale in May.

Also in March, New York State became the first US government to introduce a system developed with IBM, the Excelsior Pass, which some venues could use to prove vaccination. Florida and Texas governors have vowed to block such a system in their states, calling it a violation of government and privacy invasion.

Iceland this month eased entry restrictions for people who have been vaccinated, and the UK is about to experiment with a vaccine review requirement to attend sporting events. So far, however, neither country has implemented a digital system.

The Biden government admits that private entities will use such systems, but says the federal government will not be involved in creating such a system. “There won’t be a federal vaccination database or federal mandate that requires everyone to receive a single vaccination record,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said this week.

However, this does not preclude a federal agency from using a privately developed electronic health record to screen international travelers.

Many of the concerns raised are about privacy, but the people who develop the systems say they can be addressed.

For example, CommonPass and its app do not contain any health information about the user, said Paul Meyer, executive director of the Commons Project Foundation. If a participating airline needs to know if a passenger had a negative test or vaccination and a participating pharmacy has the information, CommonPass can communicate with both and return a simple yes or no answer without providing any specific data.

“You shouldn’t have to give your health record to Yankee Stadium or an airline,” Meyer said.

Many technology and health institutions have come together as the Vaccine Credential Initiative to develop a commonly agreed set of open standards. This means that the software underlying a verification system is transparent and can be easily adapted to other systems, while at the same time protecting privacy. The WHO has a similar initiative, the Smart Vaccination Certificate.

However, some companies create closed, proprietary systems that they want to sell to customers, and some appear to have access to user information.

One concern is that a variety of systems may not be compatible, defeating the purpose of making it easier to verify a person’s status.

Another objection is that any requirement to prove vaccination status would discriminate against those who can’t get the shot or refuse the shot, and there is still uncertainty about how well vaccination prevents virus transmission.

For these reasons, the WHO said this week that it does not support asking for proof of vaccination for travel – for now.

Categories
Business

At Final, Support for Senior Vitamin That Provides Extra Than Crumbs

At Last, Aid for Senior Nutrition That Offers More Than Crumbs

Long before the coronavirus emerged, nutrition programs serving the country’s older adults were struggling to keep up with growing demand. Often they couldn’t.

For example, in Charlotte, NC and nine surrounding counties, the waiting list for meals on wheels averaged 1,200 people. However, Linda Miller, director of the Centralina Area Agency on Aging, who coordinates the program, always assumed the real need was greater.

She knew that some customers were skipping meals because they couldn’t travel to a senior center for a hot lunch every weekday. Some shared a single homemade meal that served for both lunch and dinner.

Some never asked for help. “Just like with food stamps that are under-used,” Ms. Miller said, “people are embarrassed:” I’ve worked hard all my life; I don’t want charity. ‘”

In northern Arizona, budget cuts combined with only modest increases in the federal dollar under the Older Americans Act also resulted in waiting lists.

“We get a lump sum and say: ‘Thank you! We weren’t cut! “, Said Mary Beals-Luedtka, director of the regional agency for aging, which supplies four largely rural districts there. “But flat-rate financing is like a decline. It is not sufficient. “

Covid-19 made the task immeasurably more difficult. Across the country, senior centers and church halls serving meals to healthier, more mobile seniors have been closed. Then those closings, as well as on-site housing guidelines and fear of exposure, have dramatically increased the number of elderly people who have had to eat.

Many volunteers, who were also at risk from age, stayed away. Sometimes family members who had been involved in shopping and cooking also became concerned about infecting their elders.

The Arizona team struggled last year to serve 150 percent more meals at home than last year. “My staff wavered,” said Ms. Beals-Luedtka. “It was crazy.” She still has around 70 people on a waiting list.

Help has come, however. For the convenience of administrators and advocates, the first three federal Covid recovery packages included a significant increase in funding for the Older Americans Act, which supports both community meals and group meals (which serve the majority of attendees) and meals on wheels.

The fourth and by far the largest infusion, $ 750 million, will come from the American rescue plan that President Biden signed last month. That brings the total increase for senior nutritional services to $ 1.6 billion. They received $ 907 million in fiscal 2019.

“It is a victory and an endorsement of the value of this program,” said Bob Blancato, executive director of the National Association of Nutrition and Aging Services Programs. “Malnutrition among older adults is an ongoing problem.”

Regardless, a 15 percent increase for those who qualify for grocery brands, specifically the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, will benefit an estimated 5.4 million elderly recipients.

For years, lawyers for older adults have been campaigning for more significant federal aid. Although the Elderly Americans Bill was supported by both parties, 5,000 local organizations were consistently lagging behind in their ability to feed the elderly due to small annual increases in funding.

From 2001 to 2019, funding for the Older Americans Act rose an average of 1.1 percent a year – a 22 percent increase in nearly two decades, according to an analysis by the AARP Public Policy Institute. Adjusted for inflation, however, funds for food services fell by 8 percent. State and local matching funds, endowment grants, and private donations helped keep the kitchens open and the drivers deliver, but many programs still failed to fill their budget gaps.

At the same time, the number of Americans over 60 – the age at which they are eligible for OAA nutrition and other services – rose 63 percent. About a quarter of low-income seniors were “food unsafe”, which means that they had limited or unsafe access to adequate food.

And that shortage was before the pandemic. After the programs hastily closed community meetings last spring, a survey by Meals on Wheels America found that nearly 80 percent of programs said new requests for self-delivered meals had at least doubled. Waiting lists grew by 26 percent.

Together with the money, the Covid relief legislation gave these local programs the flexibility they needed. To qualify for Meals On Wheels, domestic customers must typically require assistance with daily living activities. The emergency funds allowed administrators to service less frail seniors who were completing home stay orders and transfer money free from community centers for home delivery.

Even so, some administrators were faced with dire decisions due to the increased number of cases from people who had never applied for a meal before.

In northern Arizona, approximately 800 customers were served homemade meals as of February 2020. By June, that number had risen to 1,265, including new applicants as well as those who had previously dined at the program’s 18 now-closed senior centers. Customers received 14 meals each week.

By the summer, Ms. Beals-Luedtka had “no more money” despite government aid. She was faced with the grim task of telling 342 seniors who had been on the list for three emergency months that she had to remove them. “People were crying on the phone,” she recalled. “I literally had a man say he was going to commit suicide.” (She restored it.) Even those who stayed got five meals a week instead of 14.

Now Ms. Beals-Luedtka is waiting for an estimated $ 1.34 million from the rescue plan, which will largely remove the waiting list, increase the number of meals for each recipient, and help local vendors reopen senior centers with the procurement and repair of kitchen appliances .

In North Carolina, the Centralina agency last month began delivering boxes of groceries – containing produce, canned foods, and other staples – to low-income seniors using federal funds from last year’s CARES Act, in partnership with a grocery bank. “You are a huge success,” said Ms. Miller. “I could never do that.”

It may seem unnecessary for senior nutrition programs to accomplish anything other than feed hungry elderly people, but research has shown that they have a broader impact.

“Addressing nutritional needs isn’t just good for people’s quality of life,” said Kali Thomas, a researcher at Brown University whose studies have shown that meals on wheels have several benefits. “It improves your health.” These programs reduce loneliness and help keep seniors away from expensive nursing homes. They can also help reduce falls, although these results were based on a small sample and did not reach statistical significance.

Interestingly, Dr. Thomas suggested that daily food deliveries had a greater impact than weekly or twice-monthly frozen food deliveries, a practice many local organizations have used to save money.

Frail or forgetful customers may have trouble storing, preparing, and remembering frozen meals. The main reason daily deliveries pay off is because of their regular chats with drivers, according to their study.

“They build relationships with their customers,” said Dr. Thomas. “You could come back later to fix a rickety handrail. If you are concerned about a client’s health, let the program know. The drivers are often the only people they see all day, so these relationships are very important. “

Congregant meals also contribute to the wellbeing of participants by preventing food insecurity and providing socialization and healthier nutrition. This resulted in a prepandemic assessment.

While program administrators enjoy a rare opportunity to expand their reach, they fear that the aid money will be spent and waiting lists will reappear if Congress does not maintain this increased budget.

“There will be a cliff,” said Ms. Beals-Luedtka. “What will happen next time? I don’t want to have to call people and say, “We’re done with you now.” These are our grandparents. “

Categories
Business

Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program snarled by tech glitches

Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program snarled by tech glitches

The Anthem, a popular live music venue, is displaying a message of support on their marquee on April 3, 2020 in Washington, DC.

Drew Angerer | Getty Images

It was literally a long, dark year at the Independent in San Francisco. The music and comedy shows that filled the venue’s stage and boosted the local economy have been halted since early March 2020. Apart from a few sales of goods, total sales have decreased by almost 100%.

“It’s been a devastating year for The Independent and our industry. We are the first to close and the last to reopen,” said Allen Scott, managing director of The Independent.

“All of these little clubs that really are the backbone of the live touring industry aren’t built to lose three, six – let alone twelve or 18 – months of money,” said Scott.

Owners like Scott have been eager to submit their applications to the Small Business Administration’s Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program, a $ 16 billion fund that aims to get the industry going until personal entertainment can resume . Music clubs, theaters, event organizers and more can access grants of up to $ 10 million based on 2019 gross revenues under the program initiated during Covid’s second aid package.

However, the SBA portal faced technical challenges on launch day and the application process is currently suspended.

The portal should be open on Thursday afternoon. However, when it closed at 4:15 p.m., no applications were filed. On Friday it was closed all day while the agency worked on solving the technical problems. Late on Friday, the SBA announced that the portal would be closed for the whole weekend.

“If a reopening date is set, we’ll provide updates in advance so applicants have time to prepare,” the agency said in a tweet late Friday.

When the portal opens, the funds will be distributed based on availability, the agency said.

“This decision was not taken lightly as we understand that this hard-hit industry must be quickly relieved,” SBA spokeswoman Andrea Roebker said in a statement on Thursday, adding that the agency is working on getting them back in as soon as possible To put into operation.

Earlier on Friday, the SBA said, it worked with its vendors to fix the technical problems it had identified.

At the moment the wait continues. Industry reps and owners, grateful for the lifeline, were frustrated with the mishaps and the delay in getting help out the door. The challenges were reminiscent of issues faced the first few days of the paycheck protection program launch last year. This program experienced delays in processing applications.

“We are grateful to the SBA for their hard work creating this program … There is a lot of confusion and fear around the process, but we are still hopeful. The application cannot come soon enough,” said Scott. “Our livelihood depends on it.”

The National Independent Venue Association was formed during the pandemic to advocate for relief. It now represents around 3,000 local venues and promoters across the country.

NIVA estimates that hundreds of venues have permanently closed their doors due to the pandemic. And more are threatened, as the shutdown could extend into summer and autumn. Supporting the struggling venues will be key to rebuilding the economy once things are open again, the group said.

“We’re part of the backbone of our local economy because for every dollar spent on a ticket at a small music venue, it generates $ 12 in economic activity for businesses in the area,” said Audrey Fix Schafer, a board member of the NIVA.

“If they want their communities to come back, they need this economic magnet of independent venues like ours once the full reopening is certain,” she said. The group projects these venues to have a direct annual economic impact of nearly $ 10 billion on local communities.

For many venues, opening with partial capacity is not “economically feasible” due to the high overhead costs, according to the group. National tour routing is also not expected to be in full swing until artists can fully tour in reopened locations.

As owners and operators await help, they are confident that music and theater lovers can return in person later this year, and the program will have ample funding to meet those in need.

Casey Lowdermilk, assistant general manager of the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in downtown San Francisco, said the venue had grown to zero from 450 employees and 80 concerts a year.

“Hopefully this money will be enough and get to all the venues that need it in time,” Lowdermilk said. “And hopefully by June or July we will have a real track of when we can return to full capacity events that are indoor venues.”

Scott of the Independent is confident that once the opening is certain, the demand will be there.

“We are ready to come back to it,” he said. “People got cooped up. We had some leading indicators in the industry, some festivals that were on sale, and some tours that all stalled. … I’m very optimistic about demand out there. And we can’t wait to open our doors. “

– CNBC’s Whitney Ksiazek contributed to this report.

Categories
Health

How Covid protected bubble could be created on cruises

How Covid safe bubble can be created on cruises

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, who advised cruise lines on Covid protocols, told CNBC on Friday that he believed a safe environment could be created on the ships.

Gottlieb’s comments came a day after Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis said the state had sued the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and demanded that the public health agency see cruise ships leave US ports immediately allowed to sail.

Gottlieb, co-chair of an advisory board for Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and Royal Caribbean, told Squawk Box that companies have reasonable guidelines to prepare for when to cease operations after a Covid hiatus that is longer than longer allowed to record one year.

“They are committed to things like mandatory screening of passengers. Norwegian Cruise Line recently announced that they will require vaccination of all of their passengers,” said Gottlieb, who served as the US Food and Drug Administration representative from 2017-2019 – The state was active in the Trump Administration.

Gottlieb also noted that social distancing was possible on the ships, saying “these cruises will not be operated at full capacity.”

“When you start implementing all of these public health recommendations, you start creating an environment that could be pretty safe,” he explained. “I believe you can create a safe bubble around this experience, especially if you compare it to other vacation experiences where you have no control over the surroundings,” he added.

Cruise ships were a hotspot for Covid outbreaks in the early days of the global health crisis last year, leading the CDC to issue their no-sail order in mid-March 2020. While the CDC has issued some guidelines for cruise lines as part of its conditional sailing to help achieve this, the agency has not yet set a date when operators can resume voyage from U.S. ports.

In response to a request from CNBC to comment on Gottlieb’s comments, the CDC said via email that it “has an obligation to work with the cruise industry and seaport partners to continue the cruise on the phased approach set out in the conditional sailing order This goal is in line with the desire for resumption of passenger operations in the United States, expressed by many of the major cruise lines and travelers, hopefully by midsummer. “

However, the cruise industry is growing impatient after companies borrowed billions in debt and issued new shares to fund operations while sailing revenues dried up. Late last month, a trade group asked the CDC to allow a gradual restart in early July. Operators have stated that they are seeing strong demand for bookings, suggesting that people are starting to feel comfortable returning to cruises.

In a CNBC interview on Wednesday, Carnival CEO Arnold Donald pointed out differences between restrictions in America and other countries around the world where cruises have resumed in some locations.

“A person can fly from the US to another country today. Get on a cruise ship and then return to the US, regardless of whether they have been vaccinated or not,” Donald said at Closing Bell. “But here in the US at the time, even if you were vaccinated, you couldn’t get on a cruise ship.”

Donald commended the Biden government for their work in distributing Covid vaccinations in the US, where approximately 20% of the population is fully vaccinated. He believes the cruise industry and CDC can work together to reach an agreement on sailing.

“The government has made great strides on vaccinations and has taken command of this matter,” said Donald. “We are confident that we can work together and come up with something that would be a workable solution and hope we have some more sailing out of the US this summer.”

Richard Fain, CEO of Royal Caribbean, told CBS This Morning on Thursday that he would like the cruise industry to be treated “very much like the airlines” that have been allowed to fly. However, Fain is optimistic about the possible resumption of U.S. crossings in the second half of this year, citing President Joe Biden’s goal of getting society back to normal by July 4th.

– CNBC’s Katie Tsai contributed to this report.

Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb is a CNBC employee and a member of the boards of directors of Pfizer, genetic testing startup Tempus, health technology company Aetion Inc., and biotech company Illumina. He is also co-chair of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and Royal Caribbean’s Healthy Sail Panel.

Categories
Politics

Plunging Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Provide Dents State Inoculation Efforts

Plunging Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Supply Dents State Inoculation Efforts

“The last thing we wanted to hear about was that we were getting fewer vaccines,” Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican, told reporters on Friday. “We were hoping to start up as they promised.”

In a statement, New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat, said, “We won’t be able to get as many shots into the arms of New Yorkers as we’d like”. He added, “As has been the case since our vaccination efforts began, the X-Factor is care, care, care.”

Some state health officials had hoped to use Johnson & Johnson’s unique, easy-to-store vaccine to target college students and other temporary groups. Others offered it at mass vaccination sites or directed it to rural areas.

Instead, Johnson & Johnson can shipments across the states will drop sharply next week: California will drop from 572,700 to 67,600 cans, Texas from 392,100 to 46,300, Florida from 313,200 to 37,000, and Virginia from 253,400 to 27,900.

In Virginia, which will expand vaccine coverage to the entire adult population in nine days, the effect will be “tremendous,” said Dr. Danny Avula, the state vaccination coordinator. He said officials should warn people that appointments could be difficult to come by, even though they would be allowed to register for recordings.

Categories
Entertainment

James Hampton, Bumbling ‘F Troop’ Bugler, Dies at 84

James Hampton, Bumbling ‘F Troop’ Bugler, Dies at 84

James Hampton, a character actor who achieved some level of sitcom immortality in one of his earliest roles, the inept signaler Hannibal Dobbs in the 1960s series “F Troop,” died Wednesday at his home in Trophy Club, Texas. He was 84 years old.

Linda McAlister, his agent, said the cause was complications from Parkinson’s disease.

Mr. Hampton had a kind face that lends itself well to comedic roles characterized by bumblebees or gullibility. He was among them on a handful of television shows like “Death Valley” and “Dr. Kildare” when the director of a “Gunsmoke” episode he was in drew his attention to a casting director at Warner Bros. That led to the role in “F Troop,” a spunky ABC comedy about a military outpost, Fort Courage, in the 1860s.

The show featured Forrest Tucker, Larry Storch, Melody Patterson and Ken Berry, but Mr. Hampton made an indelible mark in his supporting role as the horn player, whose playing bore only a passing resemblance to music. (In the show’s opening montage, an arrow hits the bell end of his horn directly as he plays.) The show only ran two seasons, but its exaggerated humor in an era of milder comedies like “The Andy Griffith Show” made it known to a specific audience segment .

Mr. Hampton was known to a later generation from the 1985 film Teen Wolf, in which he portrayed the title character’s father, a werewolf played by rising star Michael J. Fox. He was also in the sequel to “Teen Wolf Too” with Jason Bateman in 1987.

Mr. Hampton also played a more serious role, including the utility company’s PR man showing Jane Fonda’s character in a nuclear power plant when a disaster strikes in The China Syndrome (1979).

He has occasionally directed, including episodes from the 1990s series “Hearts Afire,” which cast Billy Bob Thornton. When Mr. Thornton wrote his acclaimed film “Sling Blade” (1996), he ensured that Mr. Hampton played a role in it as the hospital administrator.

Burt Reynolds was another major influence in his career. They met while they were working on Gunsmoke together when Mr. Reynolds was a regular cast member. The two appeared in the 1974 soccer film “The Longest Yard,” and Mr. Hampton wrote and directed episodes of Mr. Reynolds’ 1990 series, “Evening Shade.”

James Wade Hampton was born in Oklahoma City on July 9, 1936. His father, Ivan, owned a dry cleaner, and his mother, Edna (Gately) Hampton, worked in a fashion workshop.

He grew up in Dallas and studied speech and theater at North Texas State College (now the University of North Texas). He was drafted into the army in 1959 and served in Europe. He returned to Texas in the early 1960s and worked in the local theater before moving to New York in 1962.

Recognition…Barry Crowbar / WireImage

Mr. Hampton worked non-stop for the next four decades, getting roles occasionally, even after he retired in 2002 and settled in Texas. He is survived by his wife, Mary Deese Hampton, whom he married in 2002. two sons, James and Frank; a daughter, Andrea Hampton Doyle; and three grandchildren.

After “F Troop”, Mr. Hampton returned in 1976 in the movie “Hawmps!” He played a mid-19th century lieutenant assigned to oversee an experiment in Texas using camels in the cavalry. Mr. Hampton was a Johnny Carson favorite at the time and was a frequent guest on his “Tonight Show,” including the night of the Hollywood premiere of “Hawmps!”

When Mr. Hampton told The Community Common in Portsmouth, Ohio in 2007, he was Mr. Carson’s first guest so he could leave early to get to the premiere. He happened to mention to Mr. Carson that his mother was in the studio audience. Mr. Carson turned on the house lights and congratulated her on her son’s big night.

His mother replied by saying, “You just go to the premiere, James. I’ll stay and watch the rest of Johnny. “

Categories
Business

Alibaba Faces $2.eight Billion High quality From Chinese language Regulators

Alibaba Faces $2.8 Billion Fine From Chinese Regulators

China announced on Saturday that it had fined e-commerce titan Alibaba a record $ 2.8 billion for monopoly business practices. This was the government’s toughest move to date in its campaign to tighten regulation of the country’s internet giants.

Beijing’s market watchdog began investigating Alibaba for possible antitrust violations in December, including preventing vendors from selling their goods on other shopping platforms. On Saturday, the regulator said its investigation found that Alibaba was hindering competition in online retail in China, affecting innovation in the internet economy and harming consumer interests.

The fine on Alibaba, one of China’s most valuable private companies and the foundation of the business empire of Jack Ma, the country’s most famous tycoon, exceeds the $ 975 million antitrust fine imposed by the Chinese government on American chip giant Qualcomm in 2015.

The Chinese authorities left little doubt on Saturday about the signal they wanted to send to other internet giants. In a comment posted online a minute after the fine was announced, People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s official newspaper, described regulation as “a kind of love and care.”

“Monopoly is the great enemy of the market economy,” the comment said. “There is no contradiction between legal regulation and support for development. Rather, they complement and reinforce each other. “

The fine is unlikely to materially affect Alibaba’s assets. The state market regulator, the Chinese agency that imposed the fine, said the amount represented 4 percent of Alibaba’s domestic sales in 2019. The group reported profits of more than $ 12 billion in the last three months of 2020 alone.

Overall, the fact that Beijing has not asked Alibaba to make any major additional concessions makes the decision “good news for the firm,” said Angela Zhang, associate professor and director of the Center for Chinese Law at Hong Kong University.

When Qualcomm was fined six years ago, it also agreed to offer Chinese customers significant discounts on patent fees. On Saturday, the market regulator said only that Alibaba would have to curb its anti-competitive behavior and submit reports of its compliance for three years.

“I would think the market should respond positively,” said Professor Zhang, although she warned the government could conduct additional research on other aspects of Alibaba’s business at any time.

In a statement, Alibaba said it would “sincerely” accept the punishment and strengthen internal systems “to better serve our responsibility to society”.

“The penalty imposed today was to alert and catalyze businesses like ours,” Alibaba said. “It reflects the thoughtful and normative expectations of regulators for the development of our industry.”

Over the past decade, Alibaba’s business has expanded beyond shopping to include logistics, grocery, entertainment, social media, travel booking, and more. Like its peers on the Internet, Alibaba has said that the breadth of its business helps make each of its services more useful. However, critics say the size of the company worsens the playing field for competitors and limits consumer choice.

China started taking a closer look at its tech giants last year. The market regulator proposed updating the country’s antimonopoly law with a new provision for large internet platforms like Alibaba’s. In November, officials put an end to plans by Alibaba’s sister company, finance-focused Ant Group, to go public and tighten control over internet finance.

In December, it opened the antimonopoly investigation against Alibaba – an astonishing twist for Mr. Ma, whom the people of China had long held up as an icon of entrepreneurial plucking.

In the USA and Europe too, skepticism about the power of large Internet companies has increased. Western regulators have repeatedly fined Goliaths like Google over the past few years for various antitrust violations. But such penalties have not changed the nature of businesses in general enough to allay concerns about their power.

China began tightening oversight of big tech later than the West. But his efforts are already beginning to affect the way Chinese internet giants operate. This reflects the extent to which all private companies in China must remain in the good grace of the government in order to survive.

For many years, Alibaba and its arch-rival, gaming and social media giant Tencent, have competed fiercely in a variety of companies, including by preventing their own users from spending time on the other company’s services. That could gradually change. In a first for the company, Alibaba recently applied for two of its trading platforms, Taobao Deals and Xianyu, to be present on WeChat, Tencent’s ubiquitous social app.

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Health

Blood Clots Linked to AZ Vaccine Stem From Uncommon Antibody Response

Blood Clots Linked to AZ Vaccine Stem From Rare Antibody Reaction

The antibodies resulted in a condition called thrombotic thrombocytopenia, which caused both clotting and abnormal bleeding. The researchers suggested calling the newly identified version in these patients “vaccine-induced immunothrombotic thrombocytopenia” or VITT.

Scientists have put forward various theories of what triggers the immune response. The AstraZeneca vaccine uses a chimpanzee adenovirus to transport DNA into recipients and trigger an immune response against the coronavirus. Laboratory research has shown that the chimpanzee virus or DNA could be causing the problem. Some researchers have suggested that bleeding from the injection mixed with the vaccine could bring platelets into the crosshairs of the immune system.

Dr. Greinacher called the theories plausible but unproven.

The article described special blood tests that could help diagnose the disorder and differentiate it from other, more common, clotting problems unrelated to the vaccine. The research team suggested treatment with a blood product called intravenous immunoglobulin, which is used to treat various immune disorders. Dr. Greinacher compared the treatment to putting out a fire.

Medicines called anticoagulants or blood thinners can also be given. However, the researchers advised against prescribing a commonly used heparin because the vaccine-induced condition is very similar to a severe reaction that is rarely seen in people given heparin.

The second report from Norway described five patients, one male and four female health workers aged 32 to 54, who had blood clots and bleeding seven to ten days after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine. Four had severe blood clots in the brain and three died. Severe headache was one of her early symptoms. Like the German patients, they all had high levels of antibodies that could activate blood platelets.

The team from Norway also recommended intravenous immunoglobulin treatment. The researchers said the disorder is rare but “a new phenomenon with devastating effects on otherwise healthy young adults,” and they suggested it might be more common than previous studies with the AstraZeneca vaccine had shown.

On Friday, European regulators also said they were reviewing reports of some blood clot cases that have occurred in people who had received the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. In the United States, federal agencies are investigating reports of another type of unusual blood disorder in which a few dozen people who received either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines experienced steep decreases in platelet counts.

Benjamin Mueller and Melissa Eddy contributed to this.