Author: BigGuy

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Biden to mandate vaccine for private sector workers

More than 80 million Americans working in the private sector will be required to receive a COVID vaccine or produce a negative test result at least once a week, a senior Biden administration official said Thursday.

Why it matters: The new rule, to be developed by the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), underscores the Biden administration’s ramped up efforts to control the virus as cases and hospitalizations largely driven by the Delta variant surge nationwide.

Driving the news: OSHA is developing the rule that will require vaccinations or once a week testing for companies with more than 100 employees, set to be implemented in the coming weeks, per the White House official.

The big picture: The Biden administration unveiled a six-pronged plan to respond to the virus on Thursday, which includes efforts to encourage vaccinations and bolster protections for the vaccinated, among other areas.

  • Health care workers at Medicare and Medicaid participating hospitals and other health care settings — more than 17 million people — will also be required to get vaccinated.
  • The administration is also preparing boosters to start as early as the week of Sept. 20.
  • President Biden will also sign an executive order requiring most federal employees to get the COVID vaccine, without the option of getting regular testing instead, Axios previously reported.

Other components of the six-part plan include:

  • Urging large entertainment venues to require proof of vaccination or testing for entry.
  • Requiring staff in school settings — including at the Head Start programs, youth program personnel at the Department of Defense and at the Bureau of Indian Education-Operated Schools — to be vaccinated.
  • Providing funding to school districts to support reopening, including backfilling salaries.
  • Bolstering COVID-19 testing, including increasing supply of over-the-counter at-home tests, and reducing the cost of at-home tests by ensuring top manufacturers — Walmart, Amazon and Kroger — sell at-cost for the next three months.
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Amazon COVID-19 Test kit for $36.99, a $3 price reduction… We sell the antigen self test kit for $29.95.

WASHINGTON, Sept 9 (Reuters) – Amazon.com (AMZN.O) said it will cut the cost of its direct-to-consumer COVID-19 PCR Test Collection kit to $36.99, a $3 price reduction. The U.S. retailer said the price cut reflects its costs for selling the FDA-approved kit and is the result of a public-private partnership with the Biden administration. The White House said Thursday that Amazon, Walmart (WMT.N), and Kroger (KR.N) will sell at home rapid COVID-19 tests at-cost for the next three months. Nick Note: What assholes… we sell the above BinaxNOW Antigen at home test kit for $29.99. And get this, they will not let us sell them in our Amazon affiliate store. We have them in stock same day shipping. You can get them from our online store. Go to the link below.

Discounted home Covid19 test kit

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United Airlines warns Delta variant to hit revenue, capacity

  • United Airlines Holdings warned on Thursday its third-quarter revenue and capacity would take a hit from weaker travel demand due to a rise in Covid-19 cases fueled by the delta variant.
  • United expects revenue to fall 33% compared to the same period in 2019 and capacity to decline at least 28%, more than the 26% fall forecast earlier.
  • United said it could incur an adjusted pretax loss in the fourth quarter as well if the demand slowdown continued.

United Airlines Holdings warned on Thursday its third-quarter revenue and capacity would take a hit from weaker travel demand due to a rise in Covid-19 cases fueled by the delta variant. United expects revenue to fall 33% compared to the same period in 2019 and capacity to decline at least 28%, more than the 26% fall forecast earlier. The airline expects to post an adjusted pre-tax loss in the third quarter while it had previously forecast adjusted pre-tax income of $82 million. United said it could incur an adjusted pretax loss in the fourth quarter as well if the demand slowdown continued.

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Thousands of Ford F-150s without chips are stored at Kentucky Speedway… Ford stockpiling thousands of new F-150 pickups near Detroit Metro Airport… Ford F-150s parked at Worlds of Fun in Kansas City

The microchip nightmare crippling auto factories globally is hitting Ford Motor Co.’s operations the hardest globally in terms of actual vehicles taken out of the production schedule, according to AutoForecast Solutions in Chester Springs, Pennsylvania. The company calculates factory-by-factory company announcements, shift production and work schedules in the U.S., Asia and Europe.

Ford stockpiling thousands of new F-150 pickups near Detroit Metro Airport

Ford is conducting final quality checks on thousands of early-production F-150 pickups that are stockpiled in lots around Metro Airport as dealers clamor for deliveries of America’s best-selling truck. Ford factory employees at the Dearborn Truck Plant have been working to meet an insatiable demand for the 2021 F-150. That meant Ford had to build trucks while the prototypes were still being driven as test models.Those trucks from the early build make up the stockpile of vehicles that are plain to see parked near the airport lately, and they are undergoing a final assessment, according to Ford. New F-150s coming out of the factory in recent weeks have been loaded directly with no delay onto truck haulers and trains to go to dealerships around the country, Ford said.

Ford F-150s parked at Worlds of Fun in Kansas City awaiting quality review

Ford needs to install seat belts and conduct software checks on early-production F-150 pickups parked in lots around the Kansas City Assembly Plant, as well as thousands in lots around metro Detroit, while some dealers await deliveries of America’s bestselling truck, Ford confirmed to the Free Press on Monday.

“As part of our commitment to delivering high-quality vehicles, we are conducting final quality inspections on trucks built before dealer shipments started last month to ensure they meet the quality expectations of our customers,” said Kelli Felker, Ford global manufacturing and labor communications manager.

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Factbox-Latest on the worldwide spread of the coronavirus

Reuters) – Japan will extend emergency restrictions in Tokyo and other regions until the end of this month, while media reports suggested fully vaccinated residents in Australia’s Sydney might be freed from stay-at-home orders by the end of October.

DEATHS AND INFECTIONS

EUROPE

* Germany is extending its COVID-19 emergency aid for struggling companies by three months until the end of this year, the finance and economy ministries said.

* People will need to show a COVID-status certificate to enter bars, restaurants and fitness centres in Switzerland from Monday.

* About 2,000 Bulgarian restaurant and club owners, waiters, bartenders and gym instructors protested in the centre of the capital Sofia on Wednesday against newly imposed restrictions.

ASIA-PACIFIC

* Sydney’s cafes, restaurants and pubs are set to reopen in the second half of October after months of strict lockdown.

* Around a quarter of a million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine bought from Spain will arrive in New Zealand this week.

* The Asian Youth Games, which were to be held in Shantou city in China’s southern Guangdong province in November, have been postponed to December 2022 due to the pandemic.

AMERICAS

* Dozens of Honduran migrants received vaccines in the southern Mexican city of Tapachula on Wednesday.

* Countries in the Americas should prioritize pregnant and lactating women in the distribution of COVID-19 shots, the Pan American Health Organization said.

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

* South Africa has set a Nov. 1 date for municipal elections, after a court last week rejected a request to delay them until early next year to allow more time for COVID-19 vaccinations.

MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS

* The U.S. Food and Drug Administration declined Humanigen’s request for emergency use authorization of its lenzilumab drug to treat newly hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

* Brazil’s federal health regulator said documents provided by a Sao Paulo biomedical centre attesting to the safety of over 12 million doses of the Coronavac vaccine were insufficient to ensure their safety.

* Novavax has initiated an early-stage study to test its combined flu and COVID-19 vaccine.

ECONOMIC IMPACT

* Asian shares dropped Thursday, while the dollar held firm, in line with a cautious global mood as investors worried about the combination of slowing global growth and the potential tapering of central bank stimulus. [MKTS/GLOB]

* China’s factory-gate inflation hit a 13-year high in August driven by soaring raw materials prices despite Beijing’s attempts to cool them.

* Several Federal Reserve policymakers have signalled that the U.S. central bank remains on track to trim its massive asset purchases this year.

* British employers are facing the most severe shortage of job candidates on record due to the post-lockdown surge in the economy and Brexit, a recruiters’ body said.

* Taiwan plans to issue “stimulus coupons” again to boost consumer spending by T$200 billion ($7.22 billion) and support its coronavirus-hit economy

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Fed’s Kaplan to cut GDP estimates due to virus

Dallas Federal Reserve President Robert Kaplan said on Wednesday he cut his forecast for U.S. GDP growth this year due to the resurgence of COVID-19, but reiterated his support for starting to taper the Fed’s asset purchases in October as long as there is no fundamental change to the outlook. “Fear of infection is having an impact,” Kaplan said at a Dallas Fed Town Hall, forecasting slower hiring in September and a dent to demand in the third quarter, but no “prolonged” effect. This year the U.S. economy will probably grow 6%, he said, shy of the 6.5% pace he earlier forecast but so far not fundamentally different.

The U.S. Federal Reserve should go forward with a plan to trim its massive pandemic stimulus programme despite a slowdown in U.S. jobs growth last month, said James Bullard, the president of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank

“There is plenty of demand for workers and there are more job openings than there are unemployed workers,” Bullard said.

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Fed should pursue plan to trim pandemic stimulus, Bullard says

Sept 8 (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Reserve should move forward with a plan to trim its massive pandemic stimulus programme despite a slowdown in job growth last month, St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard said in an interview with the Financial Times. Bullard dismissed concerns that the labour market recovery was faltering even as the U.S. economy created the fewest jobs in seven months in August after hiring in the leisure and hospitality sector stalled amid a resurgence in COVID-19 infections. “There is plenty of demand for workers and there are more job openings than there are unemployed workers,” Bullard said in the interview published on Wednesday. “If we can get the workers matched up and bring the pandemic under better control, it certainly looks like we’ll have a very strong labour market going into next year”, he told the newspaper. Bullard said in late August that he would like the central bank to start reducing its asset purchases soon and finish winding down those purchases by the first quarter of next year. “The big picture is that the taper will get going this year and will end sometime by the first half of next year”, he told the Financial Times.

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Covid cases up 300% year over year… Hence my grave concerns

Daily coronavirus cases are four times higher than they were following Labor Day weekend of last year with the number of daily deaths twice as high as they were this time in 2020, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.Since the global health crisis emerged in late 2019, the United States has recorded more than 40 million COVID-19 cases, including just 4 million in the last month alone.

Health officials noted the biggest difference between this year and last is the delta variant. They blamed the 316% increase over last year’s daily infections on the highly contagious COVID-19 mutation as well as a large number of Americans refusing to become vaccinated against the fast-spreading disease. According to data from Health and Human Services, hospitalization rates are also up 157% compared with Labor Day weekend 2020, leaving medical facilities packed to the brim and their staffs exhausted and overwhelmed. What’s more, intensive care units across several states are inching closer to full capacity, which could force doctors to make life-and-death decisions. “We are perilously close,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, told CNN. “You’re going to have to make some very tough choices.” Last year, coronavirus cases spiked across 31 states and the positivity rate surged in 25 of them only two weeks after the Labor Day holiday. The 2020 figures prompted U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky last week to warn unvaccinated Americans against traveling for the holiday weekend this year.

She also emphasized vaccinated people should wear their masks when required and that the high rate of virus transmission meant that it could be risky for them to travel as well.

Nationwide, only 53% of the total population is fully vaccinated, and just 62% of eligible Americans have received their jabs, leaving tens of millions at risk.

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Europe opens lower amid coronavirus concerns

European shares dropped amid a blurred outlook for global growth, as investors await Thursday’s update from the European Central Bank. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index was down 1.1% as of 9:01 a.m. in London, trading at its lowest level since Aug. 19 as automakers, banks and industrials led losses. Miners and technology outperformed, but all sectors were lower. Volumes for Euro Stoxx 50 futures in the first hour of trading was double the 30-day average. Investment firm EQT AB fell 6.3% as an investor sold stock, part of a flurry of share sales on Tuesday that also included SoftwareOne Holding AG, automaker Stellantis NV and online retailer Asos Plc.

European stocks edge further from record amid economy concerns

Europe’s main stock benchmark has struggled for traction after hitting an all-time high last month. While coronavirus vaccination programs are expected to continue to drive the economic reopening, disappointing economic data has distorted the recovery path just as interest rate-setters consider scaling back support. “A bit of a pull-back on the potentially slowing growth concerns is always likely,” Marija Veitmane, a multi-asset strategist at State Street Global Markets, said in written comments. The Delta Covid-19 variant has the potential to slow the global economic recovery, she added. Traders are now looking ahead to the European Central Bank’s policy update: “There will be a bit of sitting out, waiting to hear how much the ECB slows purchases,” Guy Foster, chief strategist at Brewin Dolphin, said in written comments. Some fund managers coming back from vacations may also be taking profits, Foster added. Governing Council member Robert Holzmann told Eurofi Magazine Wednesday that the ECB may normalize policy “sooner than most financial market experts expect.” The broader outlook for European equities is supported by the recent rebound in corporate profits, according to BlackRock. “Valuations remain attractive relative to history and look even more attractive than at the start of the year thanks to strong earnings,” strategists including Wei Li wrote in a report. Bankers’ views on global equities have turned slightly more negative, with firms including Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse Group AG cautioning on the U.S. market. Both are more positive on Europe, however. Among individual shares, Sanofi slipped 1% after agreeing to buy immune-system therapies firm Kadmon Holdings Inc. for $1.9 billion. Airlines including EasyJet Plc and Ryanair Holdings Plc gained as the Telegraph newspaper reported that the U.K. may scrap its green and amber warning lists for foreign travel next month.