Tag: companies

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Business

India’s plan to divest state-owned corporations is ‘again on observe’, says high official

India's plan to divest state-owned companies is 'back on track', says top official

An Air India passenger flight prepares to land.

STR | NurPhoto | Getty Images

India is “back on track” in its efforts to divest state-owned companies after delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic, according to a top Treasury official.

The country has a divestment target of rupees 1.75 trillion (about $ 24 billion) for the next fiscal year, which begins April 1, said Treasury Secretary Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget announcement last month.

This means that the government is exiting itself by selling state-owned assets to the private sector or listing them on the stock exchange.

“In fact, there was a lot of prep work going on, but we had interruptions due to Covid. The divestment plan is back on track,” said Tuhin Kanta Pandey, Secretary of Investment and Public Asset Management, in an interview on CNBC’s Streets “Signs Asia” on Tuesday.

“We have several transactions planned and we hope these deals continue this year,” he added.

In her budget speech, Sitharaman emphasized that the Indian government wants to privatize state-owned companies such as the national airline Air India and the oil and gas giant Bharat Petroleum Corporation, among others. It also proposed the privatization of two public sector banks and a general insurance company.

Although the aviation industry has been badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic, Pandey said the government is making progress on its privatization plan for Air India.

“The aviation industry is recovering quickly and Air India’s divestment plan has been on track for some time. We are moving forward with the expression of interest and the process is now in the second phase,” he noted.

According to Pandey, the Indian government intends to sell all of its stake in the national airline.

“The Air India divestment is 100%. That means the government has no stake in it,” he said, adding that the goal is to close the sale by June.

India’s ability to meet its divestment goal would also depend on the successful public offering of the state-owned Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) in India.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India last month relaxed public issuance norms to make it easier for the government to sell part of its stake in India’s largest insurer through a public listing. The IPO is expected this year.

“LIC is on target to go public. This is one of the largest financial institutions we have and work on it continues,” said Pandey.

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Health

Biden administration faucets personal firms, enterprise teams for assist in Covid struggle

Biden administration taps private companies, business groups for help in Covid fight

United States President Joe Biden speaks about the 50 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine administered in the United States during a landmark event in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC on February 25, 2021.

Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images

On Friday, White House officials will unveil a new partnership between the administration and senior business groups to help with the national Covid-19 response and vaccine roll out, said Andy Slavitt, White House Senior Advisor on Covid Response, known.

The partnership includes the Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable, the National Association of Manufacturers, and executives at Hispanic, African-American, Asian-American and other minority companies, Slavitt said.

The purpose of the partnership, a White House official told CNBC, is to urge businesses of all sizes to “promote public health actions to remove barriers to vaccination for employees and public health reporting related to masking.” and to improve vaccinations for their clients and communities. “The New York Times previously reported on the partnership.

Outside of the partnership, Walgreens and Uber are starting a pilot program to offer pharmacies free rides to get the Covid-19 vaccine. Other companies like Dollar General, Best Buy, and Target have announced that they will provide paid time off to compensate their employees for the vaccine.

Slavitt added that Lyft is partnering with CVS and the YMCA has also teamed up to offer 60 million free or discounted trips to help people get vaccinated. And Ford and The Gap have vowed to donate more than 100 million masks for free distribution.

“I wouldn’t portray these as a federal effort,” Slavitt said. “I would portray this as efforts by organizations across the country that we encourage others to take stock of in some cases.”

The White House, with its new business partners, will push more companies to do the same, Slavitt said.

Slavitt said administrative officials would be making calls to corporate groups over the next few weeks asking them to help with the federal response to the pandemic. He said the White House will urge them to oblige staff to follow public health precautions and educate the public about the importance of vaccination.

“First, masking and social distancing must be required to protect workers, customers, and others on the premises,” Slavitt said. Second, reduce barriers to vaccination. Make a plan to vaccinate employees and make it easier for employees to vaccinate by providing incentives such as paid time off or compensation for employees who get vaccinated when they attend Row are. “

Jay Timmons, president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers, said “no American is safe from COVID-19 until all Americans are safe,” said a statement. The group represents more than 12 million employees and 130,000 companies. “Manufacturers are proud to join the Biden administration in this call to arms.” He said the group and its members are determined to help end the pandemic.

Categories
Politics

Cracking down on China’s shady shell corporations

Cracking down on China's shady shell companies

A Chinese policeman guards a giant portrait of the late Chairman Mao Zedong at Tiananmen Gate in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China.

Getty Images

When you think of anonymous shell companies, you might think of illegal activities by shady criminal groups, or tax evaders trying to hide their money, or crooked foreign officials trying to defraud the population.

But there is one other thing to keep in mind: the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

While it hasn’t received nearly as much attention as some other topics related to the Chinese government, anonymous shell companies have proven to be a key component in the country’s recent rise.

More importantly, these shell companies preventing investigators from successfully tracking financial flows have proven to be key tools for both the CCP’s corrupt and heightened influence in the country and its expansive overseas efforts, all of which are aimed at this increasing the influence of the People’s Republic of China and eroding American power and American interests.

Take a look at Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), for example. While the CCP spins the initiative as mere economic expansion and global integration, further investigation reveals far more suspicious and far more corrupt deals – often with anonymous Shell companies at their core.

From Southeast Asia to Africa to Europe, the BRI has relied on anonymous Shell companies to hide payments to corrupt officials overseas and smear their palms to sign love agreements with representatives of the PRC and state-affiliated companies.

These shell companies, which prevent investigators from successfully tracking financial flows, have proven to be key tools both in the corrupt and heightened influence of the Chinese Communist Party in the country and in its expansive efforts abroad.

According to a report by the Hudson Institute’s Kleptocracy Initiative, the Belt and Road Initiative has “loaded the kleptocracy in developing countries with bribes and unprecedented embezzlement opportunities” – much of it relied on anonymous Shell companies, which are both journalists and anti-corruption activists blocked from exposing the details of crooked deals.

Not only has the BRI further undercut American efforts elsewhere, but the CCP has relied on anonymous Shell companies to prop up the rogue regime in North Korea. As recently as this year, the Justice Department charged dozens of people with laundering billions of dollars through anonymous corporations to help develop North Korea’s nuclear program.

Or look at the role anonymous Shell companies are playing in the CCP’s domestic stranglehold. Like other corrupt authoritarian powers in countries like Russia and Iran, the CCP often seems more interested in looting its people than in providing things like basic freedoms.

Most of the time, anonymous shell companies are at the center of these corrupt, oligarchic schemes. To take just one example, the Panama Papers revealed global transplant operations that were hidden behind anonymous Shell companies. Around 40,000 anonymous shells were directly linked to politically influential Chinese nationals, including Chinese President’s brother-in-law Xi Jinping.

The revelations also pulled the curtain back on a number of other CCP majors, all of whom are hiding their looted millions behind anonymous Shell companies.

Even the CCP’s biggest human rights violations rely on anonymous Shell companies. In Xinjiang, where the CCP set up the largest concentration camp system in the world since World War II and where the CCP forcibly detained millions of Uyghurs and Kazakhs for their ethnicity, Beijing has relied on anonymous shell companies to hide their funding.

A paramilitary organization set up by the CCP in Xinjiang relied on hundreds of thousands of anonymous Shell companies to cover up how Beijing is funding its massive crimes.

Easier than getting a library card

Shell anonymous companies are clearly key to the CCP’s designs. But in all of these details and the way China uses and abuses anonymous shell companies, there is an unfortunate reality.

The largest provider of anonymous shell companies is not in Beijing or other traditional offshore ports. Right here in the US, getting an anonymous shell company is often easier than getting a library card – and the Chinese government has turned over and over again for many of their anonymous needs.

Fortunately, the US is finally on the verge of eliminating this scourge. The National Defense Authorization Act of 2021, which went into effect January 1, 2021, contained our legislation – the ILLICIT CASH Act – effectively banning anonymous shell companies once and for all. The move will not only be the largest anti-corruption reform in the US in decades, it will also eliminate one of the world’s most popular tools for the criminals and corrupt.

Needless to say, there are many reasons to celebrate the passing of our laws. It will finally end one of the favorite tools used by cartels trying to hide their profits and oligarchs hiding their plundered wealth from battered populations. And it will include critical reforms of the anti-money laundering tools in our country that will bring our anti-money laundering laws into the 21st century.

It will also exemplify American unity and strength, thanks to its strong support from both parties. And perhaps most importantly, the Chinese Communist Party leaders who bribe officials overseas are building concentration camps at home and undermining American interests wherever they get a chance.

Sens. Mark R. Warner, D-VA and Mike Rounds, R-SD.

Categories
Business

‘Like Wartime’: Canadian Corporations Unite to Begin Mass Virus Testing

‘Like Wartime’: Canadian Companies Unite to Start Mass Virus Testing

TORONTO – A consortium of some of the country’s largest companies has launched a rapid testing program to protect its 350,000 employees and publish a playbook for business Canada on how to safely reopen.

The program is considered the first of its kind in the group of 7 industrialized nations and has already attracted the attention of the Biden government.

The 12 companies, including Canada’s largest airline and grocery chain, have been working together for four months. Creation of a 400-page instruction manual for performing rapid antigen tests in various work settings. They started testing the tests in their workplaces this month and expect to expand the program to 1,200 small and medium-sized businesses.

They also plan to share their test results with state health officials to significantly increase the number of tests in the country and provide an informal study on the spread of the virus among asymptomatic people.

“It’s like wartime – people come together to do something that is in everyone’s interest,” said Marc Mageau, senior vice president of refining and logistics at Suncor Energy, the country’s largest oil producer, who conducted the tests this month introduced his employees.

The program faces some inherent challenges: After an outbreak last year in the White House, antigen tests were discovered that induce both false negative results and a false sense of security. They are also in short supply in Canada. Some experts feel that they should be reserved for schools and nursing homes rather than non-essential businesses.

While vaccines are considered the world’s best weapon to fight the pandemic, most experts believe it will take months, if not a full year, for Canada to reach the vaccination levels that will allow workplaces to safely return to their pre-Covid surgeries .

Canada is in a second wave of pandemics that has driven infections to record levels and deaths to around 19,800. In response, many parts of the country are on lockdown, restaurants, theaters, and non-essential retail stores are closed.

Canada’s economy contracted about 5 percent during the pandemic. Some industries such as real estate and manufacturing have performed well, but those that depend on public crowds, such as entertainment and hospitality, have seen employment decline.

“Think about downtown Toronto: nobody is there anymore. Entertainment – everything is stopped, ”said Joshua Gans, professor of strategic management at the University of Toronto who served as advisor to and is the author of the project “The Pandemic Information Gap: The Brutal Economy of Covid-19.”

“It is time to figure out how to actually reopen the closed sectors,” he said.

The consortium companies were brought together in the spring by Ajay Agrawal, founder of the University of Toronto’s Creative Destruction Lab. That helps science and technology start-ups. They were inspired by the most Canadian muses: Margaret Atwood, the author.

“How soon can we get a cheap, self-administered test at the drugstore?” Ms. Atwood asked business leaders and others who were tasked with brainstorming ideas for economic recovery during the pandemic during a virtual meeting last May.

The problem, the group noted, was the “information gap” – with no way of telling who an asymptomatic carrier might be, everyone was treated as a potential threat.

Ms. Atwood envisioned something like a home pregnancy test.

“That would be a game changer,” she said.

When the group realized that the government was overwhelmed by the health crisis, they decided to take on the task themselves and form a consortium led by the Creative Destruction Lab.

The group focused on antigen testing because of its speed, price, and utility: you can get results in minutes, don’t require a lab, and can cost anywhere from $ 5 to $ 20 in Canada.

Updated

Jan. 30, 2021, 8:47 p.m. ET

However, they are less accurate and produce more false negative results than the gold standard polymerase chain reaction or PCR tests, which can cost 20 times as much. The three antigen tests approved for use in Canada characterize between 84 percent and 96.7 percent of those infected with the virus.

In the UK, antigen tests used in a mass testing campaign identified only two-fifths of the coronavirus cases detected by PCR testing.

Because of this, many experts in Canada and elsewhere initially argued that it would be wiser to expand PCR testing. However, as the pandemic spread and the country failed to meet its testing goals, that thinking changed, said Dr. Irfan Dhalla, co-chair of the Canadian Advisory Panel on Testing and Screening for Covid-19, which recommended increasing the country’s use of rapid tests.

“A rapid antigen test is clearly better than no test at all, as long as it is not used as a free pass, ”said Dr. Dhalla. “Whether it’s a job or a school, you still have to wear a mask and physically distance yourself as much as possible.”

In the long term, the members of the consortium hope that the testing program will help reduce infection rates enough to allow crowded restaurants and boardroom meetings to take place again. In the meantime, however, they plan to use the tests as an extra layer of protection – in addition to wearing masks, social distancing, and pre-screening of staff so those with symptoms can stay home.

The consortium companies also test their employees twice a week to increase the likelihood that positive cases will be picked up.

“Everyone is looking for a silver bullet. We realized that it doesn’t exist. It’s not, ”admitted Laura Rosella, professor of epidemiology at the University of Toronto and advisor to the project.

In September, more than 100 consortium employees began working together at the expense of their companies to come up with a plan. Two retired generals volunteered to manage the logistics.

The coronavirus outbreak>

Things to know about testing

Confused by Coronavirus Testing Conditions? Let us help:

    • antibody: A protein produced by the immune system that can recognize and attach to certain types of viruses, bacteria or other invaders.
    • Antibody test / serology test: A test that detects antibodies specific to the coronavirus. About a week after the coronavirus infects the body, antibodies start appearing in the blood. Because antibodies take so long to develop, an antibody test cannot reliably diagnose an ongoing infection. However, it can identify people who have been exposed to the coronavirus in the past.
    • Antigen test: This test detects parts of coronavirus proteins called antigens. Antigen tests are quick and only take five minutes. However, they are less accurate than tests that detect genetic material from the virus.
    • Coronavirus: Any virus that belongs to the Orthocoronavirinae virus family. The coronavirus that causes Covid-19 is known as SARS-CoV-2.
    • Covid19: The disease caused by the new coronavirus. The name stands for Coronavirus Disease 2019.
    • Isolation and quarantine: Isolation is separating people who know they have a contagious disease from those who are not sick. Quarantine refers to restricting the movement of people who have been exposed to a virus.
    • Nasopharyngeal smear: A long, flexible stick with a soft swab that is inserted deep into the nose to collect samples from the space where the nasal cavity meets the throat. Samples for coronavirus tests can also be obtained with swabs that do not go as deep into the nose – sometimes called nasal swabs – or with mouth or throat swabs.
    • Polymerase chain reaction (PCR): Scientists use PCR to make millions of copies of genetic material in a sample. With the help of PCR tests, researchers can detect the coronavirus even when it is scarce.
    • Viral load: The amount of virus in a person’s body. In people infected with the coronavirus, viral loads can peak before symptoms, if any.

The group was registered as a nonprofit called the CDL Rapid Screening Consortium in November, with each company contributing $ 230,000 in operating costs.

The employees work in teams Researched around 50 different antigen tests around the world, analyzed what was required for a screening program – from staff to number of dresses – and estimated the total cost.

The resulting 400-page user guide includes everything from an example of an employee invitation to participate in the program and a standard consent form, to a detailed shopping list of materials required to run a program.

One of the hurdles was getting tests. They had to get them from the government because they are not yet widely available in Canada and the demand from schools and nursing homes is high.

“Let’s do tests there first,” said Dr. Dhalla, referring to schools, nursing homes and important workplaces. “As we gain experience, we can talk about getting people back to work where working from home is an option.”

In January, five companies began testing the program in environments as diverse as pharmacies and radio stations. So far, around 400 employees have volunteered and nearly 1,900 tests have been carried out. According to Sonia Sennik, the executive director of the Creative Destruction Lab and avid quarterback of the project, only three have made positive returns.

“They didn’t go to work and they might spread something,” said Ms. Sennik. “We interrupted the transmission chain three times.”

The companies found the program reduced employees’ fear of not only getting to work but returning home every day, she said.

“I’m relieved,” said Mohamed Gaballa, an Air Canada official who took the test during a break at Toronto Pearson International Airport. This came up within 15 minutes by email: “Your screening result is negative. You can go on with your day. “

“This has been a missing piece in Canada for far too long,” said Dan Kelly, president and chief executive officer of Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses that represents 110,000 small and medium-sized businesses.

Small businesses face a lot more hurdles to implementing such a program, even if dodging a 400-page manual, he said. There is the cost of the tests, but more importantly the staff to manage them.

Mr. Kelly envisioned that the program would not work in restaurants and busy stores – places where unscreened customers far exceeded the number of employees screened unless they were planned to be tested. But in kitchens, small warehouses, small manufacturing facilities, and offices, “these tests could be very helpful,” he said.

“Under normal circumstances, the idea of ​​small businesses doing employee testing for everything would be a fantasy,” said Kelly, who sits on the federal government’s industry advisory group on Covid-19 testing. “But in this case, given the desperation to remain or remain open among small business owners, there is a potential appetite for it.”

Categories
World News

China response on delisting of Chinese language firms on New York Inventory Trade

China response on delisting of Chinese companies on New York Stock Exchange

A woman adjusts a Chinese flag near US flags.

Ng Han Guan | AFP | Getty Images

We’ll have to see if the Chinese government will retaliate against the US. But I think the actual things to be done won’t matter …

Ronald Wan

non-executive chairman at Partners Financial Holdings

When asked if more Chinese companies could be delisted, Brendan Ahern, chief investment officer of the investment firm KraneShares, said: “I don’t see any expansion of these three specific names just because it was really driven by this executive order.”

Speaking to CNBC’s Squawk Box Asia on Monday, he said the order could “reverse course” after President-elect Joe Biden was sworn in on Jan. 20.

He added that on the Chinese side, Beijing “wants the Biden government to really start the relationship over.”

Ronald Wan, non-executive chairman of Partners Financial Holdings, added that the measures Beijing is taking are unlikely to be “significant”.

“We’ll have to see if the Chinese government will retaliate against the US. But I think the actual actions won’t matter, which may restrict some type of US government-affiliated company, activity in China or Hong Kong. But I think the government is still welcoming US capital and funds to get into the Asian and Hong Kong markets, “he told CNBC’s Street Signs Asia on Monday.

Ahern said investors in the three US-listed stocks – China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom – will be able to convert them into their Hong Kong-listed stocks.

Categories
Business

U.S. Firms Face China Tariffs as Exclusions Expire

U.S. Companies Face China Tariffs as Exclusions Expire

WASHINGTON – American companies have to pay higher taxes on some of the products imported from China as the tariff bans that protected many companies from President Trump’s trade war expired at midnight Thursday.

Mr Trump began imposing tariffs on Chinese goods valued at more than $ 360 billion in 2018, prompting thousands of companies to ask the administration for temporary exemptions exempting them from the duties. Companies that met certain requirements received a tax return that ranged from 7.5 to 25 percent. These included companies that import electric motors, microscopes, salad spinners, thermostats, breast pumps, ball bearings, forklifts and other products.

The majority of these exclusions, which could run into billions in revenue for US-based companies, automatically expired at midnight on Thursday. After that, many companies will again have to pay a tax to the government to import a variety of goods from China, including textiles, industrial components and other miscellaneous products.

The Trump administration’s lack of clarity on whether it would extend bans left many companies in the balance.

The United States had announced some extensions – on December 23, the sales agent announced that it would extend the exclusions for a small category of medical care products, including hand sanitizers, masks, and medical devices, to March 31 to help fight the US help coronavirus pandemic.

However, Ben Bidwell, the director of US Customs at freight forwarder CH Robinson, who has assisted customers with filing for exclusions, said “the vast majority” of those granted would expire by the end of the year and importers would either one depending on the product additional tariff of 7.5 percent or 25 percent.

The United States sales agent “remained fairly silent about any extension,” Bidwell said.

The legislature campaigned for the administration to extend the exemptions. On December 11th, more than 70 members of Congress, including Republican Jackie Walorski of Indiana and Democrat Ron Kind of Wisconsin, sent a letter urging United States sales representative Robert E. Lighthizer to extend all of their active bans to help businesses affected by the pandemic.

“Our economy is still in a fragile state due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic,” the letter said. “The extension of these exclusions provides employers with the security they need and helps save jobs.”

Mr Trump introduced tariffs to protect some American industries from foreign competition and encourage others to move their supply chains out of China. The tariffs have partially achieved these goals, although most of the companies have relocated their activities to other low-cost countries such as Vietnam or Mexico rather than the USA.

Updated

Jan. 1, 2021, 4:30 p.m. ET

However, most economists say these gains resulted in a high price tag and hurt American manufacturing as a whole, greatly increasing the cost of imported components and making US manufacturers less competitive with other companies overseas.

Some companies say the elimination process was particularly unfair. While large corporations have invested large sums of money in hiring Washington law firms to lobby the administration and request exemptions, some small businesses have stated that they lacked the resources to request and win disqualifications.

“The expiration of these exclusions – especially because the facts supporting their original purpose remain unchanged – shows how arbitrary and capricious the process was,” said Stephen Lamar, executive director of the American Apparel & Footwear Association, the makers of footwear and footwear represents clothing.

“These companies could poorly afford a tax on their imported intermediate consumption and US workers when they originally applied for these exclusions, and they certainly can’t now,” he added.

Two other long-term programs that have exempted imported products from tariffs also expired on Thursday.

The Various Tariffs Act, which temporarily suspends tariffs on some imported goods, including inputs used by American manufacturers, and the Universal System of Preferences, which gives thousands of products from developing countries duty-free access to the US market, are ending Year expired the year. There has been little momentum in Congress to revive the programs as public opinion has gradually turned against initiatives to give foreign companies cheaper access to the American market in order to encourage free trade.

Company executives are unsure whether the future administration will adopt a different tactic, but President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. is unlikely to make any material changes in the near future.

In a December interview with the New York Times, Mr Biden said he would conduct a full review of the United States’ trade relations with China and consult with allies in Asia and Europe to develop a coherent strategy before changes are made.

“I’m not going to take any immediate steps, and that goes for tariffs too,” he said.

Categories
Business

Ought to Corporations Require Staff to Get Vaccinated?

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

In 1905, the Supreme Court ruled against a pastor, Henning Jacobson, who sued the state of Massachusetts for asking residents to take a vaccine after an outbreak of smallpox. “Genuine freedom for all could not exist under the application of a principle that recognizes the right of each and every person to use his or her own, be it in relation to himself or his property, regardless of the harm that may be done to others. ” Court ruled. “So it is the legally regulated freedom.”

This and other decisions have repeatedly reaffirmed this principle. Private companies can choose to hire, fire, or do business with employees unless they discriminate on the basis of a protected category.

There is still room for interpretation. Lawyers could argue that in previous cases, an emergency-only drug approved by the FDA was not considered, as will be the case with the early coronavirus vaccines. Or maybe a more conservative Supreme Court would be open to reiterating previous precedents.

The road to a coronavirus vaccine ›

Answers to your vaccine questions

With a coronavirus vaccine spreading out of the US, here are answers to some questions you may be wondering about:

    • If I live in the US, when can I get the vaccine? While the exact order of vaccine recipients may vary from state to state, most doctors and residents of long-term care facilities will come first. If you want to understand how this decision is made, this article will help.
    • When can I get back to normal life after the vaccination? Life will only get back to normal once society as a whole receives adequate protection against the coronavirus. Once countries have approved a vaccine, they can only vaccinate a few percent of their citizens in the first few months. The unvaccinated majority remain susceptible to infection. A growing number of coronavirus vaccines show robust protection against disease. However, it is also possible that people spread the virus without knowing they are infected because they have mild symptoms or no symptoms at all. Scientists don’t yet know whether the vaccines will also block the transmission of the coronavirus. Even vaccinated people have to wear masks for the time being, avoid the crowds indoors and so on. Once enough people are vaccinated, it becomes very difficult for the coronavirus to find people at risk to become infected. Depending on how quickly we as a society achieve this goal, life could approach a normal state in autumn 2021.
    • Do I still have to wear a mask after the vaccination? Yeah, but not forever. The two vaccines that may be approved this month clearly protect people from contracting Covid-19. However, the clinical trials that produced these results were not designed to determine whether vaccinated people could still spread the coronavirus without developing symptoms. That remains a possibility. We know that people who are naturally infected with the coronavirus can spread it without experiencing a cough or other symptoms. Researchers will study this question intensively when the vaccines are introduced. In the meantime, self-vaccinated people need to think of themselves as potential spreaders.
    • Will it hurt What are the side effects? The vaccine against Pfizer and BioNTech, like other typical vaccines, is delivered as a shot in the arm. The injection is no different from the ones you received before. Tens of thousands of people have already received the vaccines, and none of them have reported serious health problems. However, some of them have experienced short-lived symptoms, including pain and flu-like symptoms that usually last a day. It is possible that people will have to plan to take a day off or go to school after the second shot. While these experiences are not pleasant, they are a good sign: they are the result of your own immune system’s encounter with the vaccine and a strong response that ensures lasting immunity.
    • Will mRNA vaccines change my genes? No. Moderna and Pfizer vaccines use a genetic molecule to boost the immune system. This molecule, known as mRNA, is eventually destroyed by the body. The mRNA is packaged in an oily bubble that can fuse with a cell, allowing the molecule to slide inside. The cell uses the mRNA to make proteins from the coronavirus that can stimulate the immune system. At any given moment, each of our cells can contain hundreds of thousands of mRNA molecules that they produce to make their own proteins. As soon as these proteins are made, our cells use special enzymes to break down the mRNA. The mRNA molecules that our cells make can only survive a few minutes. The mRNA in vaccines is engineered to withstand the cell’s enzymes a little longer, so the cells can make extra viral proteins and trigger a stronger immune response. However, the mRNA can hold for a few days at most before it is destroyed.

For the past week, I’ve spoken to executives at companies in various industries to find out if they require vaccination of employees or customers. Nobody wanted to speak in the file.

Almost everyone said they wanted to recommend the vaccine but not make it mandatory. Some said they tried to create a culture of trust and a vaccine mandate would undermine that trust. Others were concerned about legal liability if an employee experienced adverse side effects from the vaccine. Some said they would like to commission the vaccine, but feared a backlash could turn into a public relations nightmare.

This is not a hypothetical thought experiment. When the executive director of Qantas, the Australian airline, said he would require passengers to be vaccinated – “certainly for international visitors and people leaving the country, we consider it a necessity,” he said – the backlash was quick. A travel agent in the UK stopped booking flights with the airline, stating: “We believe that physical autonomy in relation to medical interventions is a personal choice and should not be imposed by companies on people.”

It’s understandable that leaders would be afraid to promote potential controversy, but leadership is about making tough decisions when the stakes are high. Just recommending the vaccine may not be enough.

Categories
Business

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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