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5 years earlier than vaccine can maintain line towards Covid variants

5 years before vaccine can hold line against Covid variants

Covid vaccinator, Petra Moinar, prepares syringes with the AstraZeneca vaccine before it is administered at Battersea Arts Centre on March 8, 2021 in London, England.

Chris J Ratcliffe | Getty Images News | Getty Images

LONDON — England’s top medical officer has warned that the coming winter will continue to be difficult for the country’s health system despite the country’s successful coronavirus vaccination program.

A further easing of lockdown restrictions in England was delayed this week due to a surge in cases of the delta variant first discovered in India. 

In a speech to the NHS Confederation Thursday, Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said the current wave of Covid infections due to the delta variant would likely be followed by another surge in the winter.

He said that Covid-19 “has not thrown its last surprise at us and there will be several more [variants] over the next period,” according to Sky News. He added that it would likely take five years before there are vaccines that could “hold the line” to a very large degree against a range of coronavirus variants.

And until then, he said that new vaccination programs and booster shots would be needed.

In the U.K., where the delta variant is now responsible for the bulk of new infections, cases have spiked among young people and the unvaccinated, leading to a rise in hospitalizations in those cohorts.

It’s hoped that Covid-19 vaccination programs can stop the spread of the delta variant and so the race is on to protect younger people who might not be fully vaccinated. 

Analysis from Public Health England released on Monday showed that two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines are highly effective against hospitalization from the delta variant.

But some vaccines are reported to be less effective against other strains. For example, British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said earlier this month that it has started commercial negotiations with AstraZeneca to secure a variant vaccine — which has been adapted to tackle the variant first discovered in South Africa.

Meanwhile, trials of booster shots are already underway in Britain and there are reports that the population will receive a third shot before winter this year. 

Over 42 million people have had a first dose of a vaccine in Britain — that’s about 80% of the adult population — and over 30 million people have had their second dose.

—CNBC’s Holly Ellyatt contributed to this article.

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Politics

Eighty Years Later, Biden and Johnson Revise the Atlantic Constitution for a New Period

Eighty Years Later, Biden and Johnson Revise the Atlantic Charter for a New Era

CARBIS BAY, UK – UK President Biden and Prime Minister Boris Johnson signed a new version of the 80-year-old Atlantic Charter on Thursday, using their first meeting to redefine the Western alliance and what they see as the growing divide between troubled democracies and their autocratic rivals, led by Russia and China.

The two leaders unveiled the new charter as they tried to draw the world’s attention to emerging cyberattack threats, the Covid-19 pandemic that has turned the global economy on its head, and climate change it would hoped make clear that America First’s Trump era was over.

But the two men continued to grapple with old world challenges, including Mr Biden’s private admonition to the Prime Minister to take action that could spark sectarian violence in Northern Ireland.

The new charter, a 604-word declaration, was an attempt to outline a grand vision for global relations in the 21st century, just like the original, first drafted by Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt, a declaration for a western one Commitment was to democracy and territorial integrity just months before the United States entered World War II.

“It was a policy statement, a promise that the UK and United States will meet the challenges of their time and that we will meet them together,” said Biden after his private meeting with Mr Johnson. “Today we are building on that commitment with a revitalized Atlantic Charter that has been updated to reaffirm that promise while addressing directly the key challenges of this century.”

The two men met at a seaside resort on the Cornish coast in England while Royal Navy ships were patrolling to protect the in-person meeting of the Group of 7 Industrialized Leaders, clearly trying to put themselves in the shape of Churchill and FDR . Looking at a small display of the original Atlantic Charter agreed on aboard a ship off Newfoundland in August 1941, less than four months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Mr. Johnson noted that “this was the beginning of the alliance and “NATO.”

But Mr Biden’s advisors said they thought the charter had grown musty and did not reflect a world of diverse challenges – from cyberspace to China – in which Britain is a greatly reduced power.

Where the original charter provided for the “ultimate destruction of Nazi tyranny” and demanded freedom “to cross the high seas and oceans unhindered”, the new version focused on the “climate crisis” and the need to “protect biodiversity” . It is peppered with references to “emerging technologies”, “cyberspace” and “sustainable global development”.

As a direct reprimand for Russia and China, the new agreement calls on the Western allies to “resist interference through disinformation or other malicious influences, including in elections”. She assesses the threats to democratic nations in a technological age: “We reaffirm our shared responsibility for maintaining our collective security and international stability and resilience against the full spectrum of modern threats, including cyber threats.”

And it promises that “NATO will remain a nuclear alliance as long as there are nuclear weapons. Our NATO allies and partners will always be able to count on us, even if they continue to strengthen their own national armed forces. “

It would be hard to imagine that Mr Johnson, who nurtured his relationship with President Donald Trump, would sign such a document in the Trump era. Nonetheless, he is clearly addressing Mr Biden, who was born barely two years after the first charter was signed and who throughout his political life embraced the alliance it created.

The new charter specifically urges both countries to abide by “the rules-based international order,” a phrase that Trump and his staff tried unsuccessfully to banish from previous statements by Western leaders, believing it was a globalist threat represented Mr. Trump’s America First Agenda at home.

Updated

June 11, 2021 at 12:31 p.m. ET

Mr Biden also used his first full day abroad to officially announce that the United States will donate 500 million doses of the Pfizer BioNTech Covid vaccine to 100 poorer countries, a program that, according to official figures, will donate US $ 3.5 billion. Would cost $ 2 billion, including $ 2 billion in donations to the previously announced Covax consortium.

“Right now, our values ​​are asking us to do everything in our power to vaccinate the world against Covid-19,” said Biden. He brushed aside concerns that his government would use vaccine distribution as a diplomatic weapon in the world market.

“The United States is making these half a billion doses available without any conditions,” he said. “Our vaccine donations do not involve pressure for favors or possible concessions. We do this to save lives. To end this pandemic. That’s it. Period.”

But the donation, which is presented as a humanitarian action that was also in the US’s own interest, also carries a political message. Mr Biden’s advisors say this is a strong demonstration that democracies – and not China or Russia – are able to respond to the world’s crises, faster and more effectively.

By taking the lead in efforts to vaccinate the world and make resources available to meet its greatest public health challenges, officials said the United States is regaining a role it has been playing since the end of World War II tried to play.

Desperate to use the summit as a showcase for a post-Brexit identity with the Global Britain brand, Mr Johnson has also outlined ambitious plans to end the pandemic. Ahead of the summit, Mr Johnson urged leaders to commit to vaccinating everyone in the world against the coronavirus by the end of 2022.

Public health experts applauded Mr Biden’s announcement. If previous donations had been little more than a patch on a huge global vaccine deficit, the 500 million doses were more in line with the scale of the challenge, they said.

The announcement came when Covax, the vaccine-sharing partnership, struggled to deliver enough doses, especially as India blocked supplies from a large factory there to speed up its domestic vaccination campaign. Covax has shipped 82 million cans, less than a fifth of the shipment it expected by June.

But it continues to be difficult to get doses into people’s arms. Public health officials around the world have urged wealthy nations to start distributing their donations soon, rather than releasing additional doses at once later this year so that countries can administer the doses when they arrive.

In his meeting with Mr Johnson, Mr Biden also dealt with an old subject that he knows well: the British Territory of Northern Ireland. It first erupted as a source of tension between Mr Biden and Mr Johnson during the 2020 presidential campaign when Mr Biden warned on Twitter that “we cannot allow the Good Friday Agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland to be sacrificed”. of Brexit. “He added that any trade deal between the United States and Britain would depend on preventing the return of a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland that lies within the European Union.

As a proud Irish American who loves to quote poetry by Yeats, Mr. Biden’s loyalty on this matter has never been in question. They are in stark contrast to Trump, who campaigned for Brexit and once urged Johnson’s predecessor Theresa May to sue the European Union. Mr Biden, on the other hand, described Brexit as a mistake.

The problem is that post-Brexit trade tensions in Northern Ireland have only increased since the election of Mr Biden. The UK has blamed the European Union for trade disruptions that resulted in some supermarket shelves in Northern Ireland being empty after the UK officially exited the bloc in January.

Negotiations over the arrangements, known as the Northern Ireland Protocol, are increasingly controversial, with Britain threatening to pull the plug if Brussels does not make concessions. Last week, the most senior American diplomat in London, Yael Lempert, bluntly expressed government concerns over mounting tensions against British Brexit chief negotiator David Frost.

News of the meeting surfaced in the Times of London on Wednesday evening when Mr Biden arrived in the country. While some analysts predicted it would overshadow Mr. Biden’s meeting with Mr. Johnson, others indicated that it served a purpose – publicly registering American concerns in a way that saved Mr. Biden the need to highlight the point in person.

White House officials have gone out of their way to say they do not want to be drawn into a dispute between London and Brussels. At the same time, they leave no doubt as to the depth of Mr. Biden’s feeling for the Good Friday Agreement conveyed through one of his Democratic predecessors, Bill Clinton.

“He’s not making threats or ultimatums,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told Air Force One reporters. “He will simply convey his ingrained belief that we stand behind this protocol and must protect it.”

Mark Landler contributed the coverage from Falmouth, England, and Benjamin Mueller from London.

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Health

Biogen CEO says $56,000 yearly for Alzheimer’s drug is ‘honest,’ guarantees to not hike value for at the very least four years

Biogen CEO says $56,000 annually for Alzheimer’s drug is 'fair,' promises not to hike price for at least 4 years

Michel Vounatsos, CEO of Biogen, told CNBC Monday that the list price of $ 56,000 per year for the company’s FDA-approved Alzheimer’s drug aducanumab was “fair”.

However, the Massachusetts-based biotech has vowed not to increase the price of the drug, which it marketed under the Aduhelm name, for the next four years, Vounatsos said.

The price of the drug reflects “two decades without innovation” and will also allow Biogen to continue investing in its pipeline of drugs for other diseases, he said in an interview with CNBC’s “Power Lunch”. He added that the company works closely with the federal health insurance program Medicare, as well as with private insurers.

Biogen’s shares rose up to 60% on Monday after the Food and Drug Administration announced it approved the company’s drug for the disease. It’s the first drug approved by U.S. regulators to slow cognitive decline in people with Alzheimer’s, and the first new drug for the disease in nearly two decades.

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills. The Alzheimer’s Association estimates that more than 6 million Americans live with it. According to the group, this number is expected to rise to almost 13 million by 2050.

The FDA’s decision was eagerly awaited. The drug is also expected to generate billions in revenue for the company offers new hope to friends and families of patients living with the disease.

Biogen said Monday that aducanumab’s list price is $ 56,000 a year, which was higher than the $ 10,000-25,000 price some analysts had expected. The expenses for the patient depend on their health insurance.

When asked if the company expects patient pressures on price to drop, Vounatsos found that the disease and other forms of dementia cost the US over $ 600 billion annually and patients $ 500,000 annually.

It is time to “invest” in treatment, he added.

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Health

Crimson Knots in Steepest Decline in Years, Threatening the Species’ Survival

Red Knots in Steepest Decline in Years, Threatening the Species’ Survival

The number of red knots visiting the beaches of Delaware Bay during this spring’s north migration unexpectedly dropped to its lowest level since counts began nearly 40 years ago, adding to concerns about the survival of the shorebird and a sharp setback for a quarter of a century his efforts meant to save him.

Conservationists found fewer than 7,000 of the bird’s rufa subspecies in extensive land, air and water counts on the New Jersey and Delaware side in May. The number is about a third of that found in 2020; less than a quarter of the level for the past two years; and the lowest since the early 1980s when the population was around 90,000.

The numbers were already well below the level that would ensure the bird’s survival. A previous decline had been halted by years of conservation efforts, including a New Jersey ban on harvesting horseshoe crabs, the eggs of which provide essential nourishment for birds on their long-distance migrations.

The recent decline is making the Rufa subspecies – which has been endangered at the federal level since 2014 – even more susceptible to external shocks such as bad weather in their Arctic breeding areas and bringing them closer to extinction, say naturalists.

“I think we need to think about the red knot as a dying species, and we really need immediate action,” said Joanna Burger, a biologist at Rutgers University. Since the early 1980s, she has been studying the knot and other deciduous shorebirds such as ruddy turnstone and semi-palmate sandpipers in Delaware Bay.

She called for an immediate ban on the fishing of horseshoe crabs as bait, an industry that still operates in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia and is subject to quotas from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. Although regulators do not allow female crabs to be harvested, naturalists say the rule will not be strictly enforced, resulting in the loss of some of the egg-laying animals and a consequent reduction in the birds’ food supply.

The recent decline also fueled calls by naturalists to urge the pharmaceutical industry to stop using LAL, an extract from the blood of crabs used to detect bacteria in vaccines, drugs and medical devices. A synthetic alternative, rFC, is available and used by at least one pharmaceutical company, but the industry as a whole has been slow to embrace the new technique, resulting in continued demand for horseshoe crabs in the bay.

Although the crabs are returned to the sea after bleeding, conservationists believe that up to a third will die or be unable to reproduce. Ironically, there were plenty of crab eggs to eat on the beaches of the bay this year, but a long-term decline in egg availability has severely dented the bird population and thinned any cushion that would allow the species to survive natural hazards.

Larry Niles, an independent wildlife biologist who has trapped, monitored, and counted shorebirds on New Jersey’s bay beaches for the past 25 years, said he expected this year’s red knots to decline as there was evidence of a bad breeding season in season 2020 but shocked at the size of the decline.

He said it was likely due to low sea temperatures in the mid-Atlantic during the 2020 migration. The cold water delayed spawning of the horseshoe crabs until early June, when the birds had already left Delaware Bay to complete their migration.

Many of the birds, weighing just 4.7 ounces when fully grown, are emaciated after flying from Tierra del Fuego in southern Argentina on one of the longest bird migrations. Some fly non-stop for seven days before reaching Delaware Bay, where they usually stay for about two weeks to rest and gain weight.

But last year many could not find food in the bay and continued north to reach their breeding grounds. Dr. Niles estimates that about 40 percent of migrants died in the last year before reaching the Arctic simply because they ran out of energy.

In that year he also blamed the predation by peregrine falcons, whose growing coastal population was supported by the construction of nesting platforms in New Jersey. They often hunt over the beaches of the bay, making it harder for flocks of shorebirds to feed and gain weight.

The best hope for the species’ survival lies in a complete ban on harvesting female horseshoe crabs until the crab population has recovered, said Dr. Niles.

“Rufa nodes, especially red long-haul nodes, could be lost,” he said in a message to supporters. “We can’t stop bad winds or cold water, but we can increase the horseshoe crab population so that birds that arrive in most of these conditions will find an abundance of horseshoe crab eggs.”

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Politics

Fb Says Trump’s Ban Will Final at Least 2 Years

Facebook Says Trump's Ban Will Last at Least 2 Years

SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook said on Friday that Donald J. Trump’s suspension from the service would last at least two years, clarifying a timeline on the ban that the company put in place in January.

The company said Mr. Trump would be eligible for reinstatement in January 2023, when it will then look to experts to decide “whether the risk to public safety has receded,” Facebook said. The company barred the former president from the service after comments he made about the Capitol riots.

“Given the gravity of the circumstances that led to Mr. Trump’s suspension,” Nick Clegg, vice president of global affairs at Facebook, wrote in a company blog post, “we believe his actions constituted a severe violation of our rules which merit the highest penalty available under the new enforcement protocols.”

If reinstated, Mr. Trump will be subject to a set of “rapidly escalating sanctions” if he committed further violations, up to and including the permanent suspension of his account.

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Black Wall Road was shattered 100 years in the past. How Tulsa race bloodbath was coated up

Black Wall Street was shattered 100 years ago. How Tulsa race massacre was covered up

Ruins of the Greenwood District after the massacre of African Americans in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in June 1921. American National Red Cross photograph collection.

GHI | Universal Images Group | Getty Images

A century ago this week, the wealthiest U.S. Black community was burned to the ground.

At the turn of the 20th century, the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, became one of the first communities in the country thriving with Black entrepreneurial businesses. The prosperous town, founded by many descendants of slaves, earned a reputation as the Black Wall Street of America and became a harbor for African Americans in a highly segregated city under Jim Crow laws.

On May 31, 1921, a white mob turned Greenwood upside down in one of the worst racial massacres in U.S. history. In the matter of hours, 35 square blocks of the vibrant Black community were turned into smoldering ashes. Countless Black people were killed — estimates ranged from 55 to more than 300 — and 1,000 homes and businesses were looted and set on fire.

A group of people looking at smoke in the distance coming from damaged properties following the Tulsa, Oklahoma, racial massacre, June 1921.

Oklahoma Historical Society | Archive Photos | Getty Images

Yet for the longest time, the massacre received scant mentions in newspapers, textbooks and civil and governmental conversations. It wasn’t until 2000 that the slaughter was included in the Oklahoma public schools’ curriculum, and it did not enter American history textbooks until recent years. The 1921 Tulsa Race Riot Commission was formed to investigate in 1997 and officially released a report in 2001.

“The massacre was actively covered up in the white community in Tulsa for nearly a half century,” said Scott Ellsworth, a professor of Afro American and African studies at the University of Michigan and author of “The Ground Breaking” about the Tulsa massacre.

“When I started my research in the 1970s, I discovered that official National Guard reports and other documents were all missing,” Ellsworth said. “Tulsa’s two daily white newspapers, they went out of their way for decades not to mention the massacre. Researchers who would try to do work on this as late as the early 1970s had their lives threatened and had their career threatened.”

The body of an unidentified Black victim of the Tulsa race massacre lies in the street as a white man stands over him, Tulsa, Oklahoma, June 1, 1921.

Greenwood Cultural Center | Archive Photos | Getty Images

In the week following the massacre, Tulsa’s chief of police ordered his officers to go to all the photography studios in Tulsa and confiscate all the pictures taken of the carnage, Ellsworth said.

These photos, which were later discovered and became the materials the Oklahoma Commission used to study the massacre, eventually landed in the lap of Michelle Place at Tulsa Historical Society & Museum in 2001.

“It took me about four days to get through the box because the photographs were so horrific. I had never seen those kinds of pictures before,” Place said. “I didn’t know anything about the riot before I came to work here. I never heard of it. Since I’ve been here, I’ve been at my desk to guard them to the very best of my ability.”

Patients recovering from injuries sustained in the Tulsa massacre. American National Red Cross Photograph Collection, November 1921.

Universal History Archive | Universal Images Group | Getty Images

The Tulsa museum was founded in the late 1990s, but visitors couldn’t find a trace of the race massacre until 2012 when Place became executive director, determined to tell all of Tulsa’s stories. A digital collection of the photographs was eventually made available for viewing online.

“There’s still a significant number of people in our community who don’t want to look at it, who don’t want to talk about it,” Place said.

‘The silence is layered’

Not only did Tulsa city officials cover up the bloodbath, but they also deliberately shifted the narrative of the massacre by calling it a “riot” and blaming the Black community for what went down, according to Alicia Odewale, an archaeologist at University of Tulsa.

The massacre also wasn’t discussed publicly in the African American community either for a long time. First out of fear — if it happened once, it can happen again.

“You are seeing the perpetrators walking freely on the streets,” Odewale said. “You are in the Jim Crow South, and there are racial terrors happening across the country at this time. They are protecting themselves for a reason.”

Moreover, this became such a traumatic event for survivors, and much like Holocaust survivors and World War II veterans, many of them didn’t want to burden their children and grandchildren with these horrible memories.

Ellsworth said he knows of descendants of massacre survivors who didn’t find out about it until they were in their 40s and 50s.

“The silence is layered just as the trauma is layered,” Odewale said. “The historical trauma is real and that trauma lingers especially because there’s no justice, no accountability and no reparation or monetary compensation.”

A truck carries African Americans during race massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S. in 1921.

Alvin C. Krupnick Co. | National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Records | Library of Congress | via Reuters

What triggered the massacre?

On May 31, 1921, Dick Rowland, a 19-year old Black shoeshiner, tripped and fell in an elevator and his hand accidentally caught the shoulder of Sarah Page, a white 17-year-old operator. Page screamed and Rowland was seen running away.

Police were summoned but Page refused to press charges. However, by that afternoon, there was already talks of lynching Rowland on the streets of white Tulsa. The tension then escalated after the white newspaper Tulsa Tribune ran a front-page story entitled “Nab Negro for Attacking Girl In Elevator,” which accused Rowland of stalking, assault and rape.

In the Tribune, there was also a now-lost editorial entitled “To Lynch Tonight,” according to Ellsworth. When the Works Progress Administration went to microfilm the old issues of the Tribune in the 1930s, the op-ed had already been torn out of the newspaper, Ellsworth said.

Many believe the newspaper coverage undoubtedly played a part in sparking the massacre.

The aftermath

People stand outside the Black Wall Street T-Shirts and Souvenirs store at North Greenwood Avenue in the Greenwood District of Tulsa Oklahoma, U.S., on Thursday, June 18, 2020.

Christopher Creese | Bloomberg | Getty Images

For Black Tulsans, the massacre resulted in a decline in home ownership, occupational status and educational attainment, according to a recent study through the 1940s led by Harvard University’s Alex Albright.

Today, there are only a few Black businesses on the single remaining block in the Greenwood district once hailed as the Black Wall Street.

This month, three survivors of the 1921 massacre — ages 100, 106 and 107 — appeared before a congressional committee, and a Georgia congressman introduced a bill that would make it easier for them to seek reparations.

Rev. Dr. Robert Turner of the Historic Vernon Chapel A.M.E. Church holds his weekly Reparations March ahead of the 100 year anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa Massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S., May 26, 2021.

Polly Irungu | Reuters

Meanwhile, historians and archaeologists continued to unearth what was lost for decades. In October, a mass grave in an Oklahoma cemetery was discovered that could be the remains of at least a dozen identified and unidentified African American massacre victims.

“We are able to look for signs of survival and signs of lives. And really look for those remnants of built Greenwood and not just about how they died,” Odewale said. “Greenwood never left.”

— CNBC’s Yun Li is also co-author of “Eunice Hunton Carter: A Lifelong Fight for Social Justice.”

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Business

Biden finances would give CDC greatest funding increase in practically 20 years

Biden budget would give CDC biggest funding boost in nearly 20 years

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris receive an update on the fight against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic as they visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., March 19, 2021.

Carlos Barria | Reuters

President Joe Biden’s first budget proposal would give the largest funding boost in nearly two decades to the agency most closely tracking the coronavirus pandemic, his administration said Friday.

The budget blueprint for fiscal 2022 would include $8.7 billion in discretionary funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to budget documents shared by the Office of Management and Budget.

The agency said that budget bump would build on the CDC investments doled out in the American Rescue Plan, the $1.9 trillion Covid relief plan that Biden signed into law in March.

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The new funding would be used to “support core public health capacity improvements in States and Territories, modernize public health data collection nationwide, train new epidemiologists and other public health experts, and rebuild international capacity to detect, prepare for, and respond to emerging global threats,” the OMB said.

While the CDC funding request is a big increase from recent years, it comprises just a small slice of Biden’s $6 trillion budget proposal for 2022. The request wraps in funding for a double-barreled, multitrillion-dollar economic overhaul plan that the president unveiled earlier this year.

More than 33 million Covid infections, and at least 593,466 deaths, have been reported in the U.S., according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

From before Covid was even officially labeled a pandemic, the CDC has issued guidance on how to slow or prevent the spread of the virus in different environments, from summer camps to nursing homes. The agency has now issued and updated more than 200 guidance documents, its website shows.

But the budget proposal would go beyond funding the agency’s disease-focused work.

The budget materials say $153 million would be allocated for the CDC’s Social Determinants of Health program to work on “improving health equity and data collection for racial and ethnic populations.”

The government would also provide $100 million for the CDC’s Climate and Health program as part of a $1.2 billion investment in strengthening resilience to wildfires, floods, droughts and other climate-related disasters.

The budget request for the Health and Human Services Department would double firearm violence prevention research at the CDC and the National Institutes of Health.

Overall, HHS is requesting $133.7 billion in discretionary funding — a $25.3 billion, or 23.4%, bump from the enacted budget of fiscal 2021.

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Business

Louvre Will get Its First Feminine Chief in 228 Years

Louvre Gets Its First Female Leader in 228 Years

Asked what it means to be a woman running the most visited and largest museum in the world, she replied: “Things are really changing for women in the museum world. Of the 70 curators in the Louvre, more than half of them are women. More women are heading museums, especially in Europe. And younger women are much more confident these days.”

A few months ago, it was assumed that Martinez, the Louvre’s president since 2013, was assured a third term. Under his tenure, the Louvre grew past 10 million visitors for the first time. Its Leonardo exhibition, which ended a few weeks before France went into a nationwide lockdown last year, drew rave reviews and a record million visitors.

Yet critics accused Martinez of an authoritarian style that ignored the advice of his curators and a cheapening the museum’s brand by forming partnerships with brands like Uniqlo, allowing a couple to spend a night in the museum as part of a marketing campaign for Airbnb. (The Louvre also leased its space to Beyoncé and Jay-Z to film the music video for their song “Apes**t” and features prominently in the Netflix hit “Lupin,” one of the platform’s most-watched series.)

In March, after a dispute over a new color scheme in one of the Louvre’s galleries became a weekslong talking point in France’s news media, Henri Loyrette, a former president of the museum, threw his weight behind Martinez’s critics. He gave testimony in a lawsuit brought by the Cy Twombly Foundation, which said a new paint job had disfigured a ceiling mural by the abstract American painter.

Martinez will continue at the museum, which reopened on May 19 after months of being closed, until Aug. 31. He will then become a heritage ambassador, responsible for coordinating France’s participation in international projects.

Des Cars learned of Macron’s decision on Monday, when she was visiting the Musée d’Orsay with her parents and other family members and received a call on her cellphone from the culture minister, Roselyne Bachelot. “My heart beat much faster,” she said. “The Louvre is the heart of Paris. The building itself goes back 800 years. It’s a former royal palace that became a public institution that belongs to the culture of France and also to the citizens of the world. It was quite an emotional moment.”

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Health

Immunity to the Coronavirus Might Persist for Years, Scientists Discover

Immunity to the Coronavirus May Persist for Years, Scientists Find

Immunity to the coronavirus lasts at least a year, possibly a lifetime, and improves over time, especially after vaccination, according to two new studies. The results could help dispel lingering fears that protection from the virus will be short-lived.

Taken together, the studies suggest that most people who have recovered from Covid-19 and were later immunized don’t need boosters. However, vaccinated people, who most likely never got infected, need the shots, as do a minority who were infected but did not evoke a robust immune response.

Both reports looked at people who had been exposed to the coronavirus about a year earlier. Cells that hold a memory for the virus remain in the bone marrow and can produce antibodies when needed, according to one of the studies published in Nature on Monday.

The other study, which is also being examined for publication in Nature, found that these so-called memory B cells continue to mature and strengthen at least 12 months after the initial infection.

“The publications are consistent with the growing body of literature suggesting that immunity induced by infection and vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 appears to be long-lasting,” said Scott Hensley, an immunologist at the University of Pennsylvania, who was not involved in the research.

The studies could allay fears that immunity to the virus is temporary, as is the case with coronaviruses, which cause colds. But these viruses change significantly every few years, said Dr. Hensley. “The reason we become repeatedly infected with frequent coronaviruses over the course of life could have a lot more to do with the variation in these viruses than with immunity,” he said.

In fact, memory B cells, which were produced in response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and boosted by vaccination, are so effective that they even thwart variants of the virus and nullify the need for boosters, according to Michel Nussenzweig, immunologist at Rockefeller University in New York, who led the study on memory maturation.

“People who have been infected and vaccinated really have a great response, a great set of antibodies, because they keep developing their antibodies,” said Dr. Nut branch. “I assume they will last a long time.”

The result may not only apply to vaccine protection, as immune memory is likely to be organized differently after immunization than after natural infection.

That means people who haven’t had Covid-19 and have been vaccinated may need a booster shot, said Dr. Nut branch. “We’ll know something like that very, very soon,” he said.

When a virus first appears, B cells multiply quickly and produce antibodies in large quantities. Once the acute infection has subsided, a small number of cells take their place in the bone marrow and steadily pump out modest amounts of antibodies.

To study the memory B cells specific to the new coronavirus, researchers led by Ali Ellebedy of Washington University in St. Louis analyzed the blood of 77 people at three-month intervals, starting about a month after they were infected the coronavirus. Only six of the 77 had been hospitalized for Covid-19; The rest had mild symptoms.

Antibody levels in these people fell rapidly four months after infection and then slowly decreased for months afterward – results that are in line with other studies.

Some scientists have interpreted this drop as a sign of waning immunity, but it’s exactly what is expected, other experts said. If blood contained large amounts of antibodies to every pathogen the body had ever encountered, it would quickly turn into thick mud.

Updated

May 26, 2021, 11:32 a.m. ET

Instead, blood levels of antibodies drop sharply after an acute infection, while memory B cells in the bone marrow remain calm and ready to take action if necessary.

Dr. Ellebedy received bone marrow samples from 19 people approximately seven months after infection. Fifteen had detectable storage B cells but four did not, suggesting that some people may have very few cells or no cells at all.

“It tells me that even if you got infected, it doesn’t mean you have a super immune response,” said Dr. Ellebedy. The results confirm the idea that people who have recovered from Covid-19 should be vaccinated, he said.

Five of the participants in Dr. Ellebedy’s study donated bone marrow samples seven or eight months after the initial infection and again four months later. He and his colleagues found that the number of storage B cells remained stable over this time.

The results are especially noteworthy given that bone marrow samples are difficult to obtain, said Jennifer Gommerman, an immunologist at the University of Toronto who was not involved in the work.

A landmark 2007 study showed that antibodies can theoretically survive for decades, perhaps well beyond the average lifespan, suggesting the long-term existence of memory B cells. But the new study offered rare evidence of its existence, said Dr. Gommerman.

Dr. Nussenzweig studied how memory B cells mature over time. The researchers analyzed the blood of 63 people who had recovered from Covid-19 about a year earlier. The vast majority of participants had mild symptoms and 26 had also received at least one dose of the Moderna or Pfizer BioNTech vaccine.

So-called neutralizing antibodies, which were needed to prevent re-infection with the virus, remained unchanged between six and twelve months, while related but less important antibodies slowly disappeared, the team found.

As memory B cells evolved, the antibodies they produced developed the ability to neutralize an even wider group of variants. This continued maturation may be due to a small piece of the virus being bound by the immune system – for target practice, so to speak.

One year after infection, the neutralizing activity was lower in the non-vaccinated participants compared to all forms of the virus, with the greatest loss being recorded compared to the variant first identified in South Africa.

The vaccination significantly increased antibody levels and confirmed the results of other studies. The shots also increased the body’s ability to neutralize by 50 times.

Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul said Sunday he would not receive a coronavirus vaccine because he was infected last March and was therefore immune.

However, there is no guarantee that such immunity will be strong enough to protect him for years, especially given the emergence of variants of the coronavirus that can partially bypass the body’s defenses.

The results of the study by Dr. Nussenzweig suggest that people who have recovered from Covid-19 and were later vaccinated will continue to have extremely high levels of protection against emerging variants, even without receiving a vaccine booster later.

“It looks exactly what we’d hope a good memory B-cell response would look like,” said Marion Pepper, an immunologist at the University of Washington in Seattle who was not involved in the new research.

All experts agreed that immunity in people who have never had Covid-19 is likely to vary widely. Fighting a live virus is different from responding to a single viral protein introduced by a vaccine. And in those who had Covid-19, the initial immune response had time to mature over six to 12 months before being challenged by the vaccine.

“These kinetics are different from someone who has been immunized and re-immunized three weeks later,” said Dr. Pepper. “That doesn’t mean they might not have that broad answer, but it could be very different.”

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LeBron James on Pepsi partnership after 17 years with Coca-Cola

LeBron James on Pepsi partnership after 17 years with Coca-Cola

“Mom, who is LeBron James?” asked my 4 year old daughter.

“He’s one of the best basketball players in the world,” I replied, explaining some of his accomplishments. “Why?”

“I really like his drink,” she said after stealing a sip of Mtn Dew Rise from a sample package Pepsi sent me prior to my interview with James. Pandemic parenting at its best. With just one taste of the energy drink, she was thrilled – and immediately became a LeBron James fan.

PepsiCo is counting on this type of response after luring James away from arch-rival Coca-Cola, whom he has supported for 17 years. The four-time NBA champion is considered one of the most marketable athletes in the world.

Pepsi launched its first James ad campaign on Thursday. It will include a commercial that will air during the NBA playoffs.

In the new ad filmed earlier this year, James imagines what his life would be like if he idled instead of rising above him every day.

“Who would I be if I dozed? Skipped an exercise? If I was distracted … If I’d lost sight of my goals,” he asks in the ad. “No, I’ve decided to get up.”

James told CNBC he is excited about this new partnership and hopes he can put Mtn Dew Rise on the menu despite an already overcrowded energy drink room.

“I think the concept behind the energy drink is what I’m getting into,” said James. “Rise above self-doubt and rise above opportunity.”

Given that 36-year-old James dominates the basketball court and leads various philanthropic and social justice initiatives alongside leading the LeBron James business empire, which consists of a portfolio from restaurants to media companies, he may be the last one who needs it an energy drink.

A crowded but growing category

For everyone else, Pepsi executives hope Mtn Dew Rise is differentiated enough to stand out. It contains roughly the same amount of caffeine as two cups of coffee and is full of vitamins.

The brand is launched to “start the morning with a mental boost, immune support and zero grams of added sugar”. It’s available in six fruity flavors including Berry Blitz, Peach Mango Dawn, and James’ favorite pomegranate Blue Burst.

The Los Angeles Lakers star will be his face alongside other influencers named over time.

“We know it’s a crowded category,” said James. “But we believe there is more space.”

Energy Drinks had retail sales of $ 14.15 billion last year, according to Euromonitor.

“It’s a category that is growing significantly,” said Duane Stanford, editor and publisher of Beverage Digest.

The category is seen as the next frontier for Cola and Pepsi as soda consumption has subsided as people become more health conscious. The volume leader in the category is Monster Energy, marketed by Coke.

Pepsi isn’t new to the category. Rockstar Energy was acquired for $ 3.85 billion in March 2020, and initial results have been positive. Ramon Laguarta, CEO of Pepsi, said Rockstar sales are growing again after years of weak or declining demand. Laguarta said it was too early to say if new consumers would join the category but the brand’s revival was encouraging.

“Energy is a high priority for PepsiCo right now and they basically pulled out all the stops by signing LeBron,” Stanford said. “It gives you an indication of how serious you are about energy, but also how much you believe LeBron can really help you.”

In March, Pepsi renewed its sponsorship with the NBA as the league’s official soft drink. Mtn Dew remains the title sponsor of the 3-point competition during the All-Star Weekend. Pepsi took over the relationship with the NBA in 2015 after Coke worked with her for nearly three decades. Pepsi also has ties with NBA stars Zion Williamson and Joel Embiid.

“An Incredible Ride”

James was an 18 year old phenomenon when he signed his contract with Coke and started working with the Sprite brand. While at the company, he helped commercialize Sprite and Powerade by appearing in many commercials, and even introduced a limited edition. Last September, he mutually agreed to part with Coca-Cola.

The decision came when Coke was re-evaluating its finances in response to the pandemic. The company’s sales were hurt as fewer consumers went to restaurants, sporting events, and movie theaters. At the time, Coke said it wanted to invest in places that would ensure long-term growth. In addition to shedding more than 2,000 jobs, Coke has trimmed its global beverage portfolio from 430 to 200 brands and retired brands like Tab Soda and its smoothie business.

“I had an amazing ride with Coke and I still have some great friendships there and it’s going to last forever,” said James. “But when that opportunity arose, it was the perfect time for us to move on.”

Stanford said it was likely that Coca-Cola couldn’t justify the cost of working with James. It is unknown how much the deal was worth, but from a perspective, Nike’s deal with James is worth over a billion dollars.

“He’s got a lot of buckets up now in the media, sports and entertainment sectors and that is becoming a much stronger asset when it comes to reaching young consumers,” said Stanford.

Pepsi wouldn’t comment on the value of its business. It is said that James was the first athlete to bring an entirely new brand to market, and the partnership was using a new model to support James who was not just an athlete. Pepsi will work with him on issues related to education, social justice, and initiatives in underserved communities.

“Pretty much all of the partnerships and things I do at this point have something to do with my foundation and making sure we continue to highlight my community and other communities that need a voice, need an opportunity,” said James .

His foundation’s philanthropic endeavors include the I Promise School in his former hometown of Akron, Ohio. He has also participated in More Than A Vote, a group supported by athletes to fight voter suppression.

“I think we can all do more,” said James when it comes to social justice issues and bridging the wealth gap. “We can all do better,” he said.

When asked if he could have a future with Pepsi’s sports drink Gatorade, a seemingly natural fit, LeBron didn’t rule it out.

“We’ll see, we’ll see,” he laughed. “Of course we want to start with small steps – crawl before you go. We’re in a good place right now and will see which options are best for us,” he said.

Gatorade mocked and apologized to James for a 2014 tweet saying “The person who had cramps wasn’t our client. Our athletes can take the heat” after James about Game 1 of the NBA Finals Had left leg cramps.

Pandemic deal

James signed this endorsement contract in the middle of the pandemic and an NBA season that had strict protocols to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

“I haven’t had a chance to meet anyone face to face and that’s because of the season we’re stuck in our hotel rooms,” he said. “I look forward to the opportunity to meet the CEO and all the great people at Pepsi.”

He was involved on the creative side through Zoom calls and emails.

“Because my name is linked to it, when you do something that means something to you and it hits your home, you absolutely want to be there,” he said.

With seemingly endless energy, the Lakers star said it was his family and the kids at Promise School who make him get out of bed every morning and urge him to get better.

“You need that motivation. You need this person who gets up every day, who wants to get better and bigger, who wants to challenge things that other people don’t want to,” he said.

But James said even he had lazy days.

“There are weeks, there are days, there are months when I also lack a little energy because how hard I work, hard I go, and how hard I try to be the best at what I do. So every little kickstart from a drink, a person, or from music – I try to take full advantage of it. “

For Pepsi, getting King James on board is a huge asset, according to marketing managers.

“He’s an icon,” said Bob Dorfman, Baker Street Advertising’s creative director. “He’s definitely going to help get the product moving, and on the PR side, it looks kind of cool that they stole it from Coke.”

And if you’re wondering about my daughter – possibly the youngest fan of Mtn Dew Rise – then the drink works. She was up until midnight and bounced off the walls.