Moderna Stock Hits Month High As Japan Begins Testing Covid Vaccine
Moderna stock popped Thursday after the first participant in Japan received the biotech company's coronavirus vaccine through development partner Takeda Pharmaceutical.
Will Cowboys use money they could potentially save by not caving into Prescott’s demands on building the team around him? The proof is not in the pudding.
Happy Monday, and happy first day of March! This is Kristen. Calling all high school sports fans: Voting is now open for this week’s Charlotte Observer high school athlete of the week. You can vote as often as you like until this Friday, March 5, which is when a winner will be named. Find this week’s candidates and more information here from the Observer’s Langston Wertz Jr. and Jay Edwards.
Sri Lankan Roman Catholic Church officials declared a “Black Sunday” this weekend to demand justice for the victims of 2019 Easter Sunday bomb attacks that killed more than 260 people. Archbishop of Colombo Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith said Tuesday that the church has been given part of a presidential commission's report into the coordinated suicide bomb attacks on April 21, 2019, but many questions remain about its findings. A power struggle between the then president and prime minister which led to a communications breakdown and a resulting lapse in security coordination is said to have enabled the attacks, which occurred despite prior foreign intelligence warnings.
European Union plans for a coronavirus vaccine passport could be opened up to British tourists and other non-EU holidaymakers, Brussels said on Monday. Ursula von der Leyen said the EU-wide “Digital Green Pass” would be proposed this month and that it could be a first step towards a virus passport for travel from outside the bloc. "The Digital Green Pass should facilitate Europeans‘ lives. The aim is to gradually enable them to move safely in the EU or abroad - for work or tourism,” the European Commission president said. The chief spokesman for the European Commission said the process would be done "step by step". “We work on a European solution now, this is where we start and then anything else would need to come after,” he said. "We’re of the view that in collaboration with the World Health Organisation there should be a way to scale this up globally." The UK said it was looking into the idea. “The Department for Transport will work and speak to countries across the world in terms of how they may look to introduce passports," the Prime Minister’s spokesman said in London. The Green Pass will include information such as whether the carrier has ever had coronavirus, been tested or vaccinated and is aimed at “facilitating safe free movement in the European Union.” The legislation will be put forward on March 17. Spanish Tourism Minister Reyes Maroto said that work should be speeded up to save the summer season and enable safe travel from the UK. “It is important to have the tools ready to start mobility and make Europe a safe travel destination again as soon as the virus incidence data allows for this,” Ms Maroto said at a meeting of EU tourism ministers in Lisbon.
David Cameron has accused Theresa May of making a “very bad mistake” by combining the role of National Security Adviser and Cabinet Secretary during her tenure. The former prime minister heaped criticism on his successor, saying her decision in 2018 to hand both roles to one person, Sir Mark Sedwill, “temporarily weakened” Whitehall’s national security infrastructure. “They are two jobs,” Mr Cameron said on Monday. “Even if you were a cross of Einstein, Wittgenstein & Mother Teresa, you couldn’t possibly do both jobs.” The Cabinet Secretary is the most senior civil servant on Whitehall and is the senior policy adviser to the Prime Minister. The NSA is the central co-ordinator and adviser to the prime minister and cabinet on security, intelligence, defence, and some foreign policy matters. The roles were split up again by Boris Johnson after he took office. Addressing MPs and peers who sit on the Joint Committee on the National Strategic Security, Mr Cameron conceded it was a “mistake” that the Government’s future pandemic planning had focused on flu rather than respiratory diseases in the years leading up to the Covid-19 outbreak. “I think there was a pretty good flu pandemic plan but it was a flu plan rather than a respiratory diseases plan,” he said. He also admitted that more lessons should have been learned from the SARS epidemic in 2004. He questioned what had happened to a unit that he said was set up during his administration in the Cabinet Office to concentrate on “global virus surveillance”. Mr Johnson is now pushing for an international version of such a unit. He has called on global leaders to join a “global pandemic early warning system to predict a coming health crisis”, part of his five-point plan for curbing future pandemics. It would require “a vast expansion of our ability to collect and analyse samples and distribute the findings, using health data-sharing agreements covering every country”, the Prime Minister has said. Mr Cameron ruled out returning to the political arena when asked on Monday whether he would consider a comeback. “No,” he said. “Thinking about Donald Trump making a comeback is enough to keep us all spinning over.” He added that he was “happy doing what I’m doing for Alzheimer’s and dementia” and highlighted a fragile states council he has set up with former Liberian and Rwandan ministers. Asked whether he missed being prime minister, he quipped that he did not miss Wednesdays at noon, the time at which he faced his weekly Commons showdown with the Leader of the Opposition during Prime Minister’s Questions. Mr Cameron seized the opportunity to restate his criticism of Mr Johnson for axing the Department for International Development (DfID), branding it another “mistake”. “Having the Foreign Office voice around the (National Security Council) table and the DfID voice around the table I think is important,” Mr Cameron said. He added: “Can you really expect the foreign secretary to do all of the diplomatic stuff and be able to speak to the development brief as well? That's quite a task, so I think it is good to have both.”
DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS / Getty ImagesPrince Harry and Meghan Markle are being urged by some commentators in the U.K. to ask CBS to postpone the airing of its Oprah Winfrey interview, in which they are expected to mount a stinging attack on the royal family, as concern mounts over Prince Philip’s prospects of beating an infection.Prince Harry Tells Oprah He Left the Royals Because He Feared Meghan Markle Would Suffer Like Princess Diana Philip, 99, was moved to a specialist heart hospital on Monday and royal sources have been quoted by British newspapers saying the family is “pretty appalled” at the idea of the interview, which Oprah has said sees Meghan saying “pretty shocking things” being broadcast while Philip is so unwell.Penny Junor, author of Prince Harry, Brother, Soldier, Son, told The Daily Beast that airing the interview while Prince Philip was undergoing very public health travails risked making the interview look inappropriate, saying, “Anything could hijack this interview. Philip is ill. He is 99 and could die at any time. They were not to know he would get ill, but it could be seen to be the wrong time. But I doubt it is in their gift to postpone the interview. The control is in the hands of CBS and Oprah.”Robert Lacey, historical consultant for The Crown and author of the definitive royal biography Majesty, told The Daily Beast, “I think it would be a marvelous turnaround for Harry’s image if he took the brave step of canceling the whole thing this weekend—or, if that’s not practical, postponing it at least.”Royal commentator and former editor of Who’s Who Richard Fitzwilliams said it would “surely be appropriate” to postpone the interview.He told MailOnline, “Oprah is their friend and neighbor and would undoubtedly comply if asked and the gesture would I am sure be appreciated by the royal family. If an interview has been extended, as this recently has, it can also be postponed, as this undoubtedly should be.” Royal biographer Robert Jobson told the Mail, “With the Duke of Edinburgh clearly very unwell, the fact that the couple plan to go ahead with airing their self-indulgent, no-holds-barred interview with chat show queen Oprah Winfrey makes them appear heartless, thoughtless, and supremely selfish.“For U.S. broadcast network CBS, this interview is a coup, all about securing big viewing figures and big advert sales around the airing of their exclusive interview. So even if they wanted to, Harry and Meghan probably couldn’t dictate terms to Oprah Winfrey and the network now. Too much has been invested.”A TV industry insider told the Mirror, “CBS has sold millions of dollars worth of advertising around the interview, but bosses are aware of the delicacy of the Duke’s health. They have no loyalty to the royal family, although some feel as though they do to Harry and Meghan. For it to run if Philip’s condition worsened would be like setting off a diplomatic bomb. It would be grossly insensitive and hugely disrespectful.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
A viral TikTok pointed out an error with characters like Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley during a scene in the third movie.
The Philippine president has dismissed his former ambassador to Brazil after she was seen on video physically abusing a Filipino member of her household staff. President Rodrigo Duterte said Monday night he had approved a recommendation to fire Marichu Mauro, revoke her retirement benefits and disqualify her from public office for life. The Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila said at the time that the unidentified victim had returned to Philippines and that it was trying to reach her amid an investigation.
The United States wasted billions of dollars in war-torn Afghanistan on buildings and vehicles that were either abandoned or destroyed, according to a report released Monday by a U.S. government watchdog. The agency said it reviewed $7.8 billion spent since 2008 on buildings and vehicles. Only $343.2 million worth of buildings and vehicles “were maintained in good condition,” said the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, which oversees American taxpayer money spent on the protracted conflict.
Throughout its 94 episodes across six seasons, "Sex and the City" featured some very famous faces. The show is now getting a revival on HBO Max.
The plane laden with vaccines had just rolled to a stop at Santiago’s airport in late January, and Chile’s president, Sebastián Piñera, was beaming. The source of that hope: China – a country that Chile and dozens of other nations are depending on to help rescue them from the COVID-19 pandemic. China’s vaccine diplomacy campaign has been a surprising success: It has pledged roughly half a billion doses of its vaccines to more than 45 countries, according to a country-by-country tally by The Associated Press.
The Senate Finance Committee said its members will vote on Wednesday on three Biden administration nominees, including Katherine Tai as trade czar and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra as U.S. health secretary. Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden will convene the business meeting at 10 a.m. to vote on the nominations of Tai, Becerra and Wally Adeyemo, who was nominated as to be deputy Treasury secretary, the committee said. All three candidates are expected to win approval by the committee, a congressional aide said, which would clear the way for their consideration by the full Senate.
From fun fashion moments to pets and "Schitt's Creek" references, here are interesting things you might not have seen during the award show.
Prince Harry, who shocked Britain last year when he and his wife Meghan stepped back from royal duties, told U.S. interviewer Oprah Winfrey that he had worried about history repeating itself, according to excerpts released on Sunday. The CBS broadcast network released two brief clips from Winfrey's interview of the couple, which is scheduled to air on March 7. "My biggest concern was history repeating itself," Harry said, apparently referring to his mother Princess Diana, who was hounded by the British press and died at age 36 in a car crash in Paris after her divorce from Prince Charles.
Alex Smith is reportedly set to hit the free agent market this offseason and keep his career going over two years after suffering an injury that some thought was career-ending.
Sunday's Golden Globes were partly virtual, which explains why Catherine O'Hara, Daniel Kaluuya and Tracy Morgan had some technical difficulties.
The Trump administration allegedly spent $10bn in hospital relief funds on Operation Warp Speed
These looks are so good they're worth repeating.
Carl Court/GettyBy William G. Bain, Georgios D. Kitsios, and Tomeka L. SuberA year ago, when U.S. health authorities issued their first warning that COVID-19 would cause severe “disruption to everyday life,” doctors had no effective treatments to offer beyond supportive care.There is still no cure, but thanks to an unprecedented global research effort, several treatments are helping patients survive COVID-19 and stay out of the hospital altogether.COVID-19 treatments target two broad problems: the coronavirus’s ability to spread through the body, and the damage caused by the body’s immune system response. When the virus enters the body, it takes over cells and uses them to replicate itself. In response, the body sends inflammatory signals and immune cells to fight the virus. In some patients, that inflammatory response can continue even after the virus is under control, leading to damage in the lungs and other organs.The best tool is prevention, including using face masks and vaccines. Vaccines train the immune system to fight off attackers. With less risk of an uncontrolled infection, they can cut the risk of death from COVID-19 to near zero. But vaccine supplies are limited, even with a third vaccine now authorized for U.S. use, so treatments for infected patients remain crucial.This Drug Is a Staple of COVID Treatment. Should It Be?As doctors who work with COVID-19 patients, we have been following the drug trials and success stories. Here are six treatments commonly used today for COVID-19. As you’ll see, timing matters.Keeping you out of the hospitalTwo promising types of treatments involve injecting antiviral antibodies into high-risk COVID-19 patients before the person becomes severely ill.Our bodies naturally create antibodies to recognize foreign invaders and help fight them off. But natural antibody production takes several days, and SARS-CoV-2—the coronavirus that causes COVID-19—replicates fast. Studies show that injecting patients with antibodies soon after symptoms begin can help protect patients against serious infection.Monoclonal antibodies: These lab-engineered antibodies can bind to SARS-CoV-2 and prevent the virus from entering cells and infecting them. They include Bamlanivimab and the combined therapy casirivimab/imdevimab developed by Regeneron. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization for these therapies because they have been found to protect high-risk patients from hospitalization and death. Once patients are sick enough to need hospitalization, however, studies haven’t found a proven benefit from them.Convalescent plasma: Another way to deliver antibodies involves blood drawn from patients who have recovered from COVID-19. Convalescent plasma is primarily given in research settings because the clinical evidence so far is mixed. Some trials show benefits early in the disease. Other studies have not shown any benefit in hospitalized patients.There may be a role for convalescent plasma as a supplemental therapy for some patients because of the growing threat of mutated SARS-CoV-2 variants, which may evade monoclonal antibody therapy. However, careful research is necessary.If you are hospitalizedOnce patients become so sick that they have to be hospitalized, treatments change.Most hospitalized patients have difficulty breathing and low oxygen levels. Low oxygen occurs when the virus and corresponding immune response injure the lungs, resulting in swelling in lung air sacs that restricts the amount of oxygen getting into the blood. Patients hospitalized with COVID-19 usually need supplemental medical oxygen to help them breathe. Doctors frequently treat patients on oxygen with the antiviral agent remdesivir and anti-inflammatory corticosteroids.Remdesivir: Remdesivir, originally designed to treat hepatitis C, stops the coronavirus from replicating itself by interfering with its genetic building blocks. It has been shown to shorten the length of hospital stays, and doctors may prescribe it to patients on oxygen shortly after arrival in the hospital.Chris Christie Says He’s Out of the Hospital After Week-Long Stay for COVID-19Corticosteroids: Steroids calm the body’s immune response and have been used for decades to treat inflammatory disorders. They are also widely available, cheap and well-studied medications, so they were among the first therapies to enter clinical trials for COVID-19. Several studies have shown that low-dose steroids reduce deaths in hospitalized patients who are on oxygen, including the sickest patients in the intensive care unit, or ICU. Following the findings of the landmark RECOVERY and REMAP-CAP COVID-19 studies, steroids are now the standard of care for patients hospitalized with COVID-19 who are treated with oxygen.Blood thinners: Inflammation during COVID-19 and other viral infections can also increase the risk of blood clots, which can cause heart attacks, strokes and dangerous clots in the lungs. Many patients with COVID-19 are given the blood thinners heparin or enoxaparin to prevent clots before they occur. Early data from a large trial of COVID-19 patients suggests that hospitalized patients benefit from higher doses of blood thinners.Some patients with COVID-19 become so sick that they need an ICU for high levels of oxygen support or a ventilator to help them breathe. There are several therapies available for ICU patients, but ICU patients have not been found to benefit from high doses of blood thinners.Treating the sickest patientsICU patients with COVID-19 are more likely to survive if they receive steroids, studies have found. However, low-dose steroids alone may not be enough to curb excessive inflammation.Tocilizumab: Tocilizumab is a lab-generated antibody that blocks the interleukin-6 pathway, which can cause inflammation during COVID-19 and other diseases. New results from the REMAP-CAP trial that have not yet been peer-reviewed suggest that a single dose of tocilizumab given within one to two days after being placed on respiratory support reduced the risk of death in patients already receiving low-dose steroids. Tocilizumab has also been shown to benefit patients with high levels of inflammation in early results from another trial.These innovative therapies can help, but careful supportive care in the ICU is also crucial. Decades of extensive research have defined core management principles for helping patients with severe lung infections who need ventilators. These include avoiding underinflation and overinflation of the lung by the ventilator, treating pain and anxiety with low levels of sedative medications, and periodically placing certain patients with low oxygen levels on their belly, among many other interventions. The same key principles likely apply to patients with COVID-19 to help them survive and recover from a critical illness that can last weeks or months.Medical progress since the start of the pandemic has been awe-inspiring. Doctors now have vaccines, antiviral antibodies for high-risk outpatients and several treatments for hospitalized patients. Continued research will be crucial to improve our ability to fight a disease that has already claimed more than 2.5 million lives worldwide.William G. Bain, Georgios D. Kitsios, and Tomeka L. Suber are assistant professors of medicine at the University of PittsburghRead more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
China appears to be moving faster toward a capability to launch its newer nuclear missiles from underground silos, possibly to improve its ability to respond promptly to a nuclear attack, according to an American expert who analyzed satellite images of recent construction at a missile training area. Hans Kristensen, a longtime watcher of U.S., Russian and Chinese nuclear forces, said the imagery suggests that China is seeking to counter what it may view as a growing threat from the United States. The U.S. in recent years has pointed to China's nuclear modernization as a key justification for investing hundreds of billions of dollars in the coming two decades to build an all-new U.S. nuclear arsenal.