2:22 AM
By Scott Murdoch , Lawrence
Delevingne
HONG KONG/BOSTON (Reuters) - Asian share
markets mostly shot higher on Tuesday driven by regional airline, tourism and
travel stocks as global investors applauded progress in the development of a
coronavirus vaccine which lifted confidence in a world economic recovery.
---- The vaccine news sparked renewed
optimism in equities around the world but oil prices slipped in Asian trade
after posting the biggest one-day percentage gain in five months.
However, some analysts sounded caution over the speed in which the
vaccine could be implemented.
“Given more tests are needed, then the approval process. Manufacturing
and distribution would mean the vaccine, if truly effective, is still months
away from mass deployment,” said Tai Hui, chief Asia market strategist at
JPMorgan Asset Management.
Brazil’s health regulator said on Monday it had suspended clinical
trials for China’s Sinovac coronavirus vaccine after adverse effects had
emerged.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.1% after reaching a 29-year high in early
trade and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.6%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index futures was up 1% in early trade but there
was marginal weakness in China as the CSI300 Index slipped by 0.24%. MSCI’s
broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was 0.12% higher.
Airline, travel and tourism stocks across Asia were beneficiaries of the
optimism prompted by the vaccine announcement.
Qantas Airways gained 8.6% to hit its highest level since March, Japan
Airlines shot 17.6% higher and ANA Holdings rose 16.4%.
In Hong Kong, Cathay Pacific Airways shares jumped 14.9%, the best since
July.
“Markets will get ahead of themselves in the short term with the vaccine
news but longer term it feels like it is going higher,” Ord Minnett advisor
John Milroy said from Sydney.
Early Tuesday, Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga instructed his
cabinet to design a fresh stimulus package to help revive the nation’s flagging
economy to offset the ongoing effects of coronavirus..
The stronger performance on Asian markets followed the positive lead
overnight from the United States and Europe.
More
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-markets/asian-stocks-rally-as-investors-applaud-vaccine-development-idUKKBN27Q08L
In other news.
Germany Considers Delaying a $4
Billion Tariff Strike on the U.S. By Birgit
Jennen and Bryce
Baschuk November 9, 2020, 5:00 AM GMT Updated on November 9, 2020,
8:38 AM GMT
·
·
Germany is seeking to mend transatlantic trade relations
and is mulling a more conciliatory approach that would see the European Union delay
tariffs set to hit $4 billion of American products as soon as Tuesday,
according to a senior official familiar with the government’s thinking.
Germany will raise the issue on Monday at a meeting of the
EU’s trade ministers, where Berlin will support rekindling the bloc’s
relationship with the U.S. rather than escalating the 16-year-old trade
conflict, which is over illegal subsidies provided to Boeing
Co. and rival Airbus SE , said the official, who asked not to be
identified because the discussions are private. The European Commission, which
will make the decision on the duties, stands by the tariffs.
Read
More: World Leaders Welcome Biden Win
as They Seek Reset in U.S. Ties
The possible change in strategy comes at a delicate moment
for the EU, which has instituted new lockdowns to contain the spread of Covid
and is struggling out of the worst recession in history. A tit-for-tat trade
battle with the U.S., which has already hit the EU with tariffs on $7.5 billion
of exports over the dispute, couldn’t come at a worse time for the bloc.
“We need a large and broad industrial tariff deal between
the U.S. and the EU,” German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said on Monday.
“Such an offer is on the table, and it is more than fair that we give the U.S.
administration the opportunity to prepare itself for it once it is in office,”
he said Monday on Deutschlandfunk radio.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said over the weekend
that his government would make “concrete proposals” to Washington on how to
improve the relationship and that a “new deal” was needed.
Top WTO Awards The EU will be allowed to impose tariffs on $4
billion worth of U.S. exports
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-09/germany-mulls-delaying-a-4-billion-tariff-strike-on-the-u-s?srnd=premium-europe
Finally, is Kamala Harris really a first, or is she
standing on the shoulders of another? And a Republican at that. My thanks to Ian in Canada for sending along
the link.
Charles Curtis Charles Curtis (January 25,
1860 – February 8, 1936) was an American attorney and Republican politician from Kansas
who served as the 31st vice president of the United States
from 1929 to 1933 and Senate Majority Leader from 1924 to 1929. A
member of the Kaw Nation born in the Kansas
Territory , Curtis was the first person with significant Native American ancestry and
the first person with acknowledged non-European ancestry to reach either of the
highest offices in the federal executive branch .
He is the highest-ranking enrolled Native American ever to serve in the federal
government. He is the most recent Executive Branch officer to have been born in
a territory rather than a state.
Based on his personal experience, Curtis believed that
Indians could benefit by getting a mainstream education, assimilating, and
joining the main society.
More
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Curtis
Winter
Watch.
The Arctic winter sea-ice expansion and
northern hemisphere snow cover. From around mid-October, the northern
hemisphere snow cover usually rapidly expands, while the Arctic ice gradually
expands back towards its winter maximum.
Over simplified, a rapid expansion of
both, especially if early, can be a sign of a harsher than normal arriving northern
hemisphere winter. Perhaps more so in 2020-2021 as we’re in the low of the
ending sunspot cycle, which possibly also influenced this year’s record
Atlantic hurricane season.
Adding to this year’s winter concerns,
a developing La Nina weather pattern in the Pacific. While the La Nina effect
on the winter weather of western Europe is weaker than that of an El Nino
pattern, which tends to make for a milder winter, a La Nina pattern tends to
make for a colder winter.
The early take, Eur-Asia turned snowy
fast in mid-October. The Arctic sea ice
expansion is slow, and from a very low level at the end of September, but with
the vastly expanded snow cover, sea ice formation has now sped up
It is still too early to suggest a mild
western European winter ahead, but it is the way I was leaning in late October given
the slowish recovery of the Arctic sea ice. But with the Kara and Laptev sea
ice speeding up fast now, especially in the Laptev Sea, at the end of the first
week of November I’m starting to think that might be wrong. It might be a normal to slightly colder winter
ahead for western Europe.
US National Ice
Center.
https://www.natice.noaa.gov/ims/
In
any great organization it is far, far safer to be wrong with the majority than
to be right alone.
John Kenneth
Galbraith.
Covid-19 Corner This
section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
English study suggests T cells
could be sufficient to protect from COVID-19 November 10, 2020
12:02 AM
LONDON (Reuters) - High levels of so-called “T cells” that respond to
the coronavirus could be sufficient to offer protection against infection, an
English study said on Tuesday, adding to the evidence of the crucial role they
play in immunity to COVID-19.
T cells, a type of white blood cell that makes up part of a healthy
immune system, are thought to be essential to protect against infection from
the SARS-COV-2 coronavirus, and could provide longer term immunity than
antibodies.
The study on nearly 3,000 people, conducted by Oxford Immunotec and
Public Health England (PHE), found that no participants with a high T cell
response developed symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection when researchers followed
up with them.
That compares to 20 confirmed infections among participants who saw low
T cell responses.
“This suggests individuals with higher numbers of T-cells recognising
SARS-CoV-2 may have some level of protection from COVID-19, although more
research is required to confirm this,” said David Wyllie, Consultant
Microbiologist at Public Health England.
The study was a pre-print, and has not been published in a journal or
peer reviewed.
The researchers suggested that the importance of T cells in the immune
response might mean serological testing to detect antibodies would not paint a
full picture of who was at lower risk of infection in the population.
They also said that levels of SARS-CoV-2 responsive T cells declined
with age, especially in the absence of antibodies, possibly explaining why
older people are more at risk from COVID-19.
Oxford Immunotec, which has a platform designed to measure T cell
response, has been enlisted by Britain to provide testing to assess different
coronavirus vaccine candidates.
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-britain-tcell/english-study-suggests-t-cells-could-be-sufficient-to-protect-from-covid-19-idUKKBN27Q001
Pfizer, BioNTech say their
COVID-19 vaccine is more than 90% effective November 9, 2020
11:51 AM By Michael Erman , Julie
Steenhuysen
(Reuters)
- Pfizer Inc on Monday said its experimental vaccine was more than 90%
effective in preventing COVID-19 based on initial data from a large study, a
major victory in the fight against a pandemic that has killed over 1 million
people, roiled the world’s economy and upended daily life.
Pfizer and German partner BioNTech SE are the first drugmakers to show
successful data from a large-scale clinical trial of a coronavirus vaccine. The
companies said they have so far found no serious safety concerns and expect to
seek U.S. emergency use authorization later this month.
If authorized, the number of vaccine doses will initially be limited.
Many questions also remain including how long the vaccine will provide
protection. However the news provides hope that other vaccines in development
against the novel coronavirus may also prove effective.
“Today is a great day for science and humanity,” Albert Bourla, Pfizer’s
chairman and chief executive, said in a statement. “We are reaching this
critical milestone in our vaccine development program at a time when the world needs
it most with infection rates setting new records, hospitals nearing
over-capacity and economies struggling to reopen.”
Pfizer expects to seek broad U.S. emergency use authorization of the
vaccine for people aged 16 to 85. To do so, it will need to have collected two
months of safety data on around half of the study’s roughly 44,000
participants, expected in late November.
“I’m near ecstatic,” Bill Gruber, one of Pfizer’s top vaccine
scientists, said in an interview. “This is a great day for public health and
for the potential to get us all out of the circumstances we’re now in.”
Pfizer said the interim analysis was conducted after 94 participants in
the trial developed COVID-19, examining how many of them received the vaccine
versus a placebo.
The company did not break down exactly how many of those who fell ill
received the vaccine. Still, over 90% effectiveness implies that no more than 8
of the 94 people who caught COVID-19 had been given the vaccine, which was
administered in two shots about three weeks apart.
The efficacy rate is well above the 50% effectiveness required by the
U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a coronavirus vaccine.
To confirm its efficacy rate, Pfizer said it will continue the trial
until there are 164 COVID-19 cases among participants. Given the recent spike
in U.S. infection rates, that number could be reached by early December, Gruber
said.
More
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-vaccines-pfizer/pfizer-and-biontech-say-their-covid-19-vaccine-is-over-90-effective-idUKKBN27P1DE
Pfizer Vaccine Results Leave
Questions About Safety, Longevity By James Paton
and Robert
Langreth November
9, 2020, 9:30 PM GMT
Covid-19 vaccine results from Pfizer Inc. BioNTech SE
Questions about production, distribution and, most
importantly, the performance and capability of the shot itself still need to be
answered, even if the numbers look highly promising, according to vaccine
specialists. The Pfizer trial started less than four months ago, and how long
the vaccine will confer protection and how many will benefit are almost
complete unknowns for now.
“The key question still centers upon time,” said Michael Kinch
In a remarkable scientific feat -- achieved without funding analysis
The
results were published in a press release, not a peer-reviewed journal study.
Nonetheless, they electrified travel entertainment The likely success of the first vaccine in a large,
late-stage trial raised hopes that others, like those developed by Moderna Inc. AstraZeneca Plc
Too Early The companies’ statement
Read More: Second-Generation Covid Vaccines Are Built for Impact Over Speed
About half the trial participants are elderly, and it’s
possible to project from the current results that the efficacy among older people
should be above 80%, BioNTech Chief Executive Officer Ugur Sahin said. More
analysis is needed to be sure, he said.
A shot that prevents serious disease would be important for
relieving pressure on overloaded hospitals and emergency rooms. The current
data analysis doesn’t include any severe cases, but they’re expected to occur
as the study continues, Pfizer Senior Vice President William Gruber
It still may be difficult to accrue the five severe cases
that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has said it wants to see in vaccine
trials, because the rate of serious infections has gone down as the pandemic
progressed and treatment has improved, he said.
Pfizer expects to have accumulated two months of safety
data for people in the trial by next week. If there are no unforeseen problems,
the company could apply for an emergency use authorization in the U.S. soon after
that, potentially this month.
At that point, FDA’s internal reviewers will first pore
over the safety, efficacy and manufacturing data. The agency also has promised
a review by outside experts to increase public confidence in any vaccine
authorized. A date for that hearing hasn’t been set yet.
If an emergency authorization is granted, a second
committee of outside experts convened by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention will quickly weigh in to decide who should get the vaccine first.
Only then will distribution begin.
Read More: Covid Exit Strategy Depends on Getting Vaccine to Whole World
All this means that even if Pfizer’s data hold up, it may
be late December or even early January before a vaccine becomes available. At
that point there might be around 50 million doses worldwide, enough for 25
million people.
In an interview late last month, Richard Hatchett, chief executive
officer of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, said that if a
vaccine crosses the line, there could be uncertainties about the durability of
protection and how often people may need booster shots. The number of doses
available would also probably be unclear. Global vaccine supplies might begin
to catch up with demand at some point in 2022, he said.
“Even if we got a positive readout and a pretty benign
safety signal and an emergency use authorization is extended -- if that’s what
ends up happening in the U.S. -- the quantity of the vaccine that will become
available will still be limited,” he said.
The Warp Speed effort to develop and buy vaccines would
have to achieve complete success -- with six of six successful -- for the U.S.
to reach herd immunity by June, according to Airfinity Ltd.
Vaccines like Pfizer’s must be kept at ultra-cold
temperatures, a challenge that will need to be overcome if the vaccine is to be
made broadly available, according to experts.
Masks,
Social Distancing Rollout of any shots will take time, so masks, distancing
and testing and contact tracing will still be vital, said Ohid Yaqub measures
It’s also important to continue watching those who received
the vaccine for years. The messenger RNA technology used in the Pfizer/BioNTech
vaccine has never been deployed in humans before.
“It will be crucial to track the safety and efficacy over
the coming weeks and months,” said Kinch, the Washington University expert. “If
nothing else, we have learned that we need to look to the long term.”
”A positive signal would be exciting,” Hatchett said, “but
it certainly wouldn’t mean that the pandemic is about to be over.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-09/pfizer-vaccine-results-leave-questions-about-safety-longevity?srnd=premium-europe
China Vaccine Trial Halted in
Brazil After Serious Adverse Event Rachel Chang and Simone Iglesias November
9, 2020, 8:12 PM EST Updated on November 9, 2020, 9:10 PM EST
·
Sinovac’s
vaccine has already been administered widely
·
The
final-stage trial of a Chinese frontrunner vaccine candidate has been halted Testing of Sinovac Biotech Ltd.
Sao Paulo’s Instituto Butantan, which partnered with
Sinovac to produce the vaccine locally, said in a statement it was surprised by
the decision and is looking into details of what happened in the study.
Director Dimas Covas said
Sinovac’s company representative did not immediately
respond to a request for comment.
Halts to investigate serious adverse events are not
uncommon in large-scale drug trials and two western developers - AstraZeneca Plc Johnson & Johnson
But China has already started administering its vaccines,
including Coronavac, to hundreds of thousands of people under an expansive emergency
use approval, making the prospect of a safety issue being detected at this
stage more concerning.
China Defends Giving Experimental Vaccines to Thousands
Last month, China’s science ministry said
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-10/brazil-pauses-trial-of-china-vaccine-after-serious-adverse-event?srnd=premium-europe
U.S. COVID-19 hospitalizations
surge to record of just over 59,000 patients: Reuters tally
November
10, 2020
3:50 AM By Anurag
Maan
(Reuters)
- There were just over 59,000 COVID-19 patients in hospitals across the United
States on Monday, the country’s highest number ever of in-patients being
treated for the disease, as new infections at record levels for the sixth
consecutive day.
The harsh statistics tallied by Reuters
cemented the United States' position as the nation worst affected by the
coronavirus pandemic, even as drugmaker Pfizer Inc PFE.N
President-elect Joe Biden hailed Pfizer’s
progress, but urged Americans to wear masks as he noted a vaccine may not be
widely available for many months.
The number of Americans with COVID-19
currently hospitalized has surged around 73% over the past 30 days to at least
59,008 - a record level that surpasses the previous high of 58,370 on July 22.
Daily new infections, meanwhile, exceeded 100,000 for the sixth consecutive
day.
Hospitalizations are a key metric of how the
pandemic is progressing because, unlike case counts, they are not influenced by
the number of tests performed.
Texas
reported the highest number of hospitalized patients with 6,103, followed by
Illinois with 4,409 and California with 3,668 patients, according to the
Reuters tally.
More
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-usa-hospitalizatio/u-s-covid-19-hospitalizations-surge-to-record-of-just-over-59000-patients-reuters-tally-idUKKBN27Q0DP?il=0v
Next, some vaccine links
kindly sent along from a LIR reader in Canada. The links come from a most
informative update from Stanford Hospital in California.
World
Health Organization - Landscape of COVID-19 candidate vaccines . https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/draft-landscape-of-covid-19-candidate-vaccines
NY
Times Coronavirus Vaccine Tracker . https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html
Stanford
Website . https://racetoacure.stanford.edu/clinical-trials/132
Regulatory
Focus COVID-19 vaccine tracker . https://www.raps.org/news-and-articles/news-articles/2020/3/covid-19-vaccine-tracker
Some other useful Covid links.
Johns Hopkins Coronavirus resource
centre
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
Rt Covid-19
https://rt.live/
Covid19info.live
https://wuflu.live/
Centers for Disease Control
Coronavirus
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
Technology Update.
With events happening
fast in the development of solar power and graphene, I’ve added this section.
Updates as they get reported. Is converting sunlight to usable cheap AC or DC
energy mankind’s future from the 21st century onwards.
3D print experts discover how to
make tomorrow's technology using ink-jet printed graphene Date:
November 4, 2020
Source:
University of Nottingham
Summary:
Researchers have cracked the conundrum of how to use inks to 3D-print novel
electronic devices with useful properties, such as an ability to convert light
into electricity.
The University of Nottingham has cracked the conundrum of how to use
inks to 3D-print novel electronic devices with useful properties, such as an
ability to convert light into electricity.
The study shows that it is possible to jet inks, containing tiny flakes
of 2D materials such as graphene, to build up and mesh together the different layers
of these complex, customised structures.
Using quantum mechanical modelling, the researchers also pinpointed how
electrons move through the 2D material layers, to completely understand how the
ground-breaking devices can be modified in future.
Paper co-author, Professor Mark Fromhold, Head of the School of Physics
and Astronomy said, "By linking together fundamental concepts in quantum
physics with state-of-the art-engineering, we have shown how complex devices
for controlling electricity and light can be made by printing layers of
material that are just a few atoms thick but centimetres across.
"According to the laws of quantum mechanics, in which the electrons
act as waves rather than particles, we found electrons in 2D materials travel
along complex trajectories between multiple flakes. It appears as if the
electrons hop from one flake to another like a frog hopping between overlapping
lily pads on the surface of a pond."
The study, 'Inter-Flake Quantum Transport of Electrons and Holes in
Inkjet-Printed Graphene Devices', has been published in the peer-reviewed
journal Advanced Functional Materials .
Often described as a 'super material', graphene was first created in
2004. It exhibits many unique properties including being stronger than steel,
highly flexible and the best conductor of electricity ever made.
Two-dimensional materials like graphene are usually made by sequentially
exfoliating a single layer of carbon atoms -- arranged in a flat sheet -- which
are then used to produce bespoke structures.
However, producing layers and combining them to make complex,
sandwich-like materials has been difficult and usually required painstaking
deposition of the layers one at a time and by hand.
Since its discovery, there has been an exponential growth in the number
of patents involving graphene. However, in order to fully exploit its
potential, scalable manufacturing techniques need to be developed.
The new paper shows that additive manufacturing -- more commonly known
as 3D printing -- using inks, in which tiny flakes of graphene (a few
billionths of a metre across) are suspended, provides a promising solution.
More
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/11/201104001301.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fmatter_energy%2Fgraphene+%28Graphene+News+--+ScienceDaily%29
There
can be few fields of human endeavour in which history counts for so little as
in the world of finance. Past experience, to the extent that it is part of
memory at all, is dismissed as the primitive refuge of those who do not have
the insight to appreciate the incredible wonders of the present.
John Kenneth Galbraith
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