Wall Street closes mostly lower on Delta strain risks

Major stock markets in the United States closed the trading session on Monday mostly with losses as investors weighed the risks posed by the rapid spread of the Delta variant. The number of job openings increased to a series-high in June as the rate climbed to 6.5%. Federal Reserve official Raphael Bostic said he expects asset tapering to start in the October-December period of this year, however, the positive jobs report could expedite the matter. Additionally, Fed’s Tom Barkin noted that the high inflation has already hit the 2% requirement for raising interest rates and the Delta strain hasn’t yet impacted the demand. Meanwhile, the drop in oil prices pulled back some energy companies, along with tourism-related entities.The Dow dropped by 0.30% as International Business Machines fell by 1.97%, while the S&P 500 closed with 0.09% in the red with Air Products & Chemicals losing 5.18%. The Nasdaq 100 grew by 0.16% led by Moderna gaining 17.10%. The euro slid by 0.20% against the dollar to sell for $1.17380 at 3:56 pm ET.

Delta variant concern could slow economic recovery, Fed’s Kashkari warns

The coronavirus delta variant has already led some officials to reinstate mask mandates, but Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari warns that it could also hinder the economy’s comeback. In an interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Kashkari observed that the more transmissible delta variant is breeding “caution” among Americans, which has contributed to hesitancy when it comes to going back to work. “I was very optimistic the fall would be a very strong labor market with many of those Americans coming back to work,” he said. That’s still my base-case scenario, but if people are nervous about the delta variant, that could slow some of that labor market recovery and therefore be a drag on our economic recovery. So the sooner we can get people vaccinated – the sooner we can get delta under control – the better off our economy’s going to be.” Kashkari noted that in addition to caution about contracting the illness, there are more indirect factors behind people not returning to work. These, he said, include having issues with child care as well as enhanced unemployment benefits. Those benefits, Republicans have warned, have led to a lack of motivation to return to work because in some cases the benefits pay more than the jobs people had. Republicans have urged the administration to end the enhanced benefits, which provide an extra $300 per week. It is set to expire Sept. 6. In May, Biden warned that people who turn down job offers could lose their benefits. So far, 26 states have opted out of the enhanced benefits and require people collecting unemployment to look for work. National Economic Council Director Brian Deese was more optimistic, telling “Fox News Sunday” that “jobs are plentiful and wages are going up” while almost 70% of American adults have received at least one vaccine dose. “We have to stay vigilant, we have to stay focused, but we, our economy, and this recovery are strong, and there’s durable momentum in the economy, we just have to keep that going,” Deese said. Kashkari also addressed recent inflation, admitting that “it was greater than I thought” but maintaining that he still believes it is temporary because it is not a broad inflation across the entire economy. Still, he said, “We’re paying very close attention.” He did say supply chain problems that have impacted a number of industries have been an inflation concern, but he was optimistic that these problems will “get worked out.” He cited a reduction in lumber prices after they had spiked and a temporary toilet paper shortage earlier in the pandemic. Kashkari said many of the supply chain issues were just “the market at work as businesses are trying to work out their issues and become more efficient,” he said.

Moderna Admits vaccine wears off after 6 months and booster shots will be necessary

Moderna Co-founder and Chairman Noubar Afeyan discusses the progress the vaccine developer has made in the battle against Covid-19 and the different variants that have been emerging. He also talks about whether booster shots will be necessary and vaccine supply shortages.

Why is the company recommending a third dose?

Despite just over 50% of the US population vaccinated, there has been a worrying rise in cases driven by the Delta variant of covid-19. The new variant is much more infectious than previous variants. It has forced some states to reimpose some restrictions and others to impose vaccine mandates on federal workers. As the country heads towards winter, where more of the population will be indoors, there will be a higher risk of infection in comparison to the summer.

— Julie Leask (@JulieLeask) August 3, 2021

For those whose vaccines were administered at the beginning of the year there could be a risk by the fall that they have lost some of their effectiveness. This could in turn lead to what are called ‘breakthrough cases,’ where people are reinfected with covid-19 but at a stage that could put their health seriously at risk. Moderna posted new information as part of its second-quarter earnings release where it claimed a third dose may be needed as the Northern Hemisphere heads into winter. The company said both a third shot of the original vaccine and new versions have demonstrated “robust antibody responses to COVID-19 variants of concern.” Tests for a third jab reportedly give the same level of protection as someone who received the original two does for the first time. The information has been submitted to a peer-reviewed journal.

Alarm as US Covid cases above 100,000 a day for first time since February

https://youtu.be/Bgyca3SHnbo

Seven-day hospital admissions average up 40% from last week

Daily Covid-19 cases in the US moved above 100,000 a day for the first time since February, higher than the levels of last summer when vaccines were not available, and came as health officials sounded alarm over lagging rates of vaccination driving the surge of the infectious Delta variant. The seven-day average of hospital admissions has also increased more than 40% from the week before, with health workers describing frustration and exhaustion as hospitals in Covid hotspots were again overwhelmed with patients, almost 20 months into the pandemic in the US. “As we look at our hospitalizations and as we look at our deaths, they are overwhelmingly unvaccinated people,” CDC director Rochelle Walensky said at a briefing on Thursday. About half of all new infections and hospitalizations in the past week were in seven southern states Florida, Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi – even though the states represent less than a quarter of the country’s population, said White House coronavirus coordinator, Jeff Zients. In Mississippi on Thursday, there were 3,164 new confirmed cases, the second highest single-day caseload in the state during the pandemic. “We’re seeing a phenomenal increase in daily reported cases of Covid, and this is entirely attributable to the Delta variant, which is sweeping over Mississippi like a tsunami,” said state health officer Thomas Dobbs. The entire state had just eight ICU beds available on Thursday, officials said, and more than 1,147 people were hospitalized with Covid-19. Nichole Atherton, an intensive care nurse in Mississippi, told Reuters she was planning to resign from her hospital and find nursing work elsewhere because she couldn’t stand watching Covid’s toll on her community. “The first wave was heartbreaking, because there was nothing people could do except stay away from the people they love,” Atherton said about infections last year before vaccines were developed. “This time, there are options.” Three people have messaged her to say they will get vaccinated, Atherton said. At a White House coronavirus briefing on Thursday, officials said as cases surge, efforts were focused on communities with low vaccination rates, which are driving the pandemic. “Across the board, we are seeing increases in cases and hospitalizations in all age groups,” said Walensky. Walensky said the CDC had reported more than 103,400 new cases of Covid on Wednesday, and that the seven-day average for cases was about 89,463 per day. One bright spot is vaccination rates are now increasing again across the US. White House data director Cyrus Shahpar said that on Wednesday there were more vaccinations in a single day than since 3 July, with 864,000 new doses reported administered. Of those, 585,000 were first shots. Of the three vaccines approved for emergency use in the US, Johnson & Johnson only requires one shot, Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines need two shots several weeks apart, and all three give strong protection. Some of the same states responsible for the increase in cases are also picking up the vaccination pace. The White House said Tennessee has seen a 90% increase in first shots over the past two weeks. Oklahoma saw an 82% increase and Georgia saw a 66% percent increase. “The unvaccinated continue to be the big highway of transmission,” William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University Medical Center told CNN. “So the unvaccinated continue to be the big highway of transmission. The vaccinated, they’re little side streets. Let’s not get preoccupied with that. We need to get more people vaccinated.” A growing number of companies are requiring employees get the Covid-19 vaccine. United on Friday became the first major US airline to require all employees get vaccinated. And defense secretary Lloyd Austin is expected to soon order vaccines mandatory for the military. More than a million service members are fully vaccinated of the roughly two million active-duty, guard and reserve troops, according to the Associated Press. Meanwhile, hospitals are fighting to get financial help from state and federal officials. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) provides funding to help cover some Covid-related costs at hospitals. But state officials in Texas are denying funding requests from hospitals as cases surge across the state, after providing $5.39bn earlier in the pandemic, which was reimbursed by Fema, according to local news channel WFAA. Click the link below to Go to our store.

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COVID-19 Rapid Tests: A Milestone in Fight Against the Pandemic

The FDA granted emergency authorization to over-the-counter antigen COVID-19 test for fully at-home usage. Test in the privacy of your home results in15
  • The FDA has approved the Abbots BinaxNOW home covid-19 taken without a prescription and produces results — in about 15 minutes — without the need to either mail in a sample to a lab or wait in line for a clinic.
  • Michael Mina, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, believes if just half the U.S. population were able to test themselves every four days, the country could quickly achieve vaccine-like “herd immunity” by letting people know in real time when they were contagious.
  • “Scale these tests up, get these into everyone’s home, put these at the door of a restaurant, put these at the door of a gym,” Mina said in a press call “We change the balance.”

What Mina is suggesting is similar to the daily COVID-19 testing carried out by the NFL and other professional sports leagues — which is meant to regularly sweep for infections before they lead to outbreaks — albeit on a much larger scale. Rapid antigen tests can cost as little as $15,per test entirely at-home. They take lab test out of the picture. Nick Note: We have purchased 1000 of these test kits. And have less then 300 kits left in stock ready for immediate delivery. They are selling FAST and 3 suppliers have put us on back order. We have a special offer. Order ten kits and receive our CornaVit supplement or our ULPA filter and half mask as a free bonus.

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Hospital workers overwhelmed as delta variant spreads across US

Hospitalizations have grown from 12,000, a month ago, to more than 61,000 now, as states like Mississippi say the contagious variant is sweeping over them “like a tsunami.” With coronavirus infections on the rise again in the U.S., hospitals across the country are trying to meet the needs of thousands of patients who are testing positive for COVID-19, and are in need of medical care. One state that has seen a rapid increase in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations has been Nevada, where case levels have swelled by nearly 200% in the last month, the state’s highest level since February, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Basically, we’re reliving 2020 in 2021,” Dr. Angie Honsberg, medical director for the intensive care unit at University Medical Center told ABC News. “We, unfortunately, are back to having a very high number of COVID patients. We have had a break for the last two and a half months and unfortunately, now we’re back to feeling like we were back in January in February when close to half of our ICU was critically ill patients with COVID respiratory failure.” Since mid-June, the average number of patients being admitted to the hospital each day with COVID-19 in Nevada has tripled, according to the CDC. This marks the highest number of patients seeking care in more than five months. “The current group of patients seems to get sick quicker than the patients that we saw with the earlier COVID outbreak and we’re also seeing, for the most part, a younger group of patients,” Honsberg said. Some of the patients have very severe pneumonia, Honsberg added. A similar message is conveyed by Robin Ringler, charge nurse in UMC’s Medical ICU, who said that the patients she is seeing in the ICU are very sick, many struggling to breathe, and on ventilators. In fact, she said, some of these patients are so sick “that the doctors currently are talking about doing tracheostomy on them, and that is going to keep them on the ventilator for prolonged periods of time because they cannot breathe on their own.” Ringer’s team is now anticipating more COVID-19 ICU admissions, with a growing number of COVID patients appearing in the emergency room.

“In the last two weeks, we’ve had a real increase in COVID infections in the hospital. Our COVID numbers have gone up so high. They’ve almost, I think they quadrupled from two weeks ago,” Ringler said. “The number of patients seeking treatment has been getting higher every week.”

The increases are a discouraging development, said Ringler, when vaccines were introduced, and cases began to decline, her team thought they may have been finally out of the woods. Nick Note: It’s a lot worse then they are telling you. Save Your Life (Salvavida) Mask up, Vitamin up, Isolate up, Test up, We can help you now vitamins, test kits and masks are on giveaway. FREE Bonuses galore in our store.

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U.S. plans to give extra COVID-19 shots to at-risk Americans – Fauci (updated story)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States is working to give additional COVID-19 booster shots to Americans with compromised immune systems as quickly as possible, as cases of the novel coronavirus continue to rise, top U.S. infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said Thursday. The United States is joining Germany, France and Israel in giving booster shots, ignoring a plea by the World Health Organisation to hold off until more people around the world can get their first shot. U.S. regulators need to fully authorize the COVID-19 vaccines or amend their emergency use authorizations before officials can recommend additional shots, but the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is working to make third doses available sooner under certain circumstances, officials said at a July meeting. “It is extremely important for us to move to get those individuals their boosters and we are now working on that,” Fauci said on a press call, adding that immunocompromised people may not be sufficiently protected by their existing COVID-19 vaccinations. Fauci said rising cases resulting from the spread of the contagious Delta variant in the United States can be turned around with additional vaccinations. The Biden administration has been eager to thaw opposition by some Americans, including those who distrust the government, to taking the vaccine as the highly infectious Delta variant sweeps the country. Seven U.S. states with the lowest COVID-19 vaccination rates account for half of the country’s new cases and hospitalizations in the last week, the White House said on Thursday. The states are Florida, Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi, according to President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 coordinator, Jeff Zients, who spoke at the press briefing Of those, Florida and Texas account for about a third of new coronavirus cases and an even higher share of hospitalizations in the country. COVID cases are up about 43% over the previous week and daily deaths are up more than 39%, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, who also spoke on the call. The United States hit a six-month high for new COVID cases with over 100,000 infections reported on Wednesday, according to a Reuters tally. Some 864,000 vaccinations have been given in the past 24 hours, the highest since early July, the White House said. Zients said the Biden administration supports U.S. businesses and other institutions requiring that their employees get vaccinated. He added that the White House is considering requiring foreign visitors to be vaccinated as it plans to eventually reopen international travel but said it had made no final decision.

US working on providing booster shots to weakened population

https://youtu.be/_8tDljXSCsE

White House medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Thursday that the government is working on authorizing a third COVID-19 vaccine shot for immunosuppressed populations in the United States. “It is extremely important for us to move to get those individuals their boosters, and we are now working on that and we will make that be implemented as quickly as possible… It is a very high priority,” Dr. Fauci stressed.

These vaccinated populations count for only around 2.7% of adult people in the US, however, they represent roughly 44% of hospitalized COVID-19 cases despite being fully inoculated.

According to studies cited by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, booster shots could help those with weakened immune systems increase resistance to the coronavirus.

Long Lines at Covid-19 Testing Sites Again

There are new signs outside the Miami-Dade Government Center, put up after the mayor’s announcement yesterday. Meanwhile, another deja vu image. Long lines for testing. It’s a far too familiar sight, long lines of people waiting to get tested. “I can’t go to work, cause I’m sick and I have to get tested before I go back to work,” Emma Downing, who was waiting to get tested said. In Broward, cars snaking around Mills Pond Park. Down in Dade, Chopper 6, telling a similar story at Amelia Earhart Park. “I tried checking CVS, Walgreens, I couldn’t get any appointments,” Monica Dellavecchia, who was waiting for a Covid test said.“Every federal government employee will be asked to attest to their vaccination status,” Biden said. “Anyone who does not attest or is not vaccinated will be required to mask no matter where they work, test one or two times a week to see if they’ve acquired Covid, socially distance, and generally will not be allowed to travel for work.”