Thursday 15 July 2021

China. Cruise Setback. Crypto Crash?

Baltic Dry Index. 3139 -89   Brent Crude 74.20

Spot Gold 1826

Coronavirus Cases 02/04/20 World 1,000,000

Deaths 53,100

Coronavirus Cases 15/07/21 World 189,180,805

Deaths 4,074,590

"I was alarmed at my doctor's report: He said I was a sound as a dollar."

Ronald Reagan.

In the stock casinos, “as goes China so goes the world?”

Well perhaps not quite yet, but for how much longer? Even with new US sanctions on imports from China pending and more restrictions on Chinese firms and products, more and more of the world is increasingly dependent on trade with China. By 2025? 2030? 

With the Fed and US politicians deliberately flooding the world with trillions of increasingly dodgy fiat dollars with no intrinsic value, how long before the dollar-yuan cross rate trades at par?  And when it does, what kind of global economy exists then?

Asian shares advance as China data better than feared

July 15, 2021

BEIJING — China reported second-quarter GDP growth that came in slightly below expectations, while retail sales and industrial production grew faster than forecast in June.

The country’s gross domestic product increased 7.9% in the second quarter from a year ago, the National Bureau of Statistics said Thursday. That fell short of Reuters’ estimate of 8.1% growth for the April to June period.

“Overall, China’s economy looks to be on track for recovery, with the 6% annual growth goal in reach,” Chaoping Zhu, global market strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management, said in a note.

“However, downside and structural risks in domestic demand are concerning,” he said, pointing to weak growth in long-term credit and uncertainty over market regulation.

Second-quarter GDP rose 1.3% from the first quarter, faster than the 0.6% pace between the first quarter of this year and fourth quarter of 2020. However, the latest quarterly increase was still slower than the 2.6% pace of the fourth quarter.

In the first quarter, GDP grew 18.3%, up from a contraction a year ago.

“China’s economy sustained a steady recovery,” the statistics bureau said in a release. But the bureau added there were still concerns about the global spread of the pandemic and “unbalanced” recovery domestically.

Retail sales rose 12.1% in June from a year ago, more than the expected 11% level forecast by Reuters. The fastest-growing category was beverages, up 29.1% year-on-year.

Retail sales growth has lagged that of the overall economy, and missed analysts’ expectations for the first two months of the second quarter.

More

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/15/chinas-q2-gdp-2021-retail-sales.html

In other news, there was a setback for the return of the cruise industry. Who wants to sail the seas confined to a cabin?

Nearly 3,000 guests, crew disembark cruise in Singapore after positive Covid case left them confined in cabins

Nearly 3,000 passengers and crew are disembarking a Dream Cruises ship on Wednesday after being confined in their cabins when a passenger tested positive for Covid-19.

All passengers and crew aboard the three-night World Dream “cruise to nowhere” in Singapore had been required to isolate in their cabins, with only essential crew members being allowed to move throughout the ship.

The guest had taken a rapid antigen test prior to boarding the cruise that came back negative, but contact tracing revealed the guest was a close contact of a confirmed Covid-19 case. The guest was then immediately isolated and tested positive for the virus on Tuesday, Dream Cruises, owned by Genting Cruise Line, said in a statement.

According to a report by Reuters, other guests on the ship were confined to their rooms being at 1 a.m. local time. The travellers began leaving the ship about 8:30 p.m.

The guest’s travel companions have all tested negative for the virus, and will disembark from a route that is separated from other passengers, along with those who came in contact with the guest. The passenger who tested positive disembarked hours before other guests and crew.

Contact tracing was conducted by tracking guests’ wearable devices, keycards and CCTV footage.

All other guests are being required to fill out contactless self check-out forms before leaving their rooms and must take a rapid antigen test at the Marina Bay Cruise Centre Singapore as they disembark, the company said.

Dream Cruises said the guests are required to remain in their cabins until they are called upon by crew to disembark.

There were 1,646 passengers and 1,249 crew members on board the ship, Dream Cruises said.

The cruise line also canceled a two-night World Dream cruise that was scheduled to depart on Wednesday.

More

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/14/nearly-3000-confined-guests-crew-to-disembark-cruise-with-covid-case.html

Next, in cryptocurrency land, is there anything of value at all?

‘Black Swan’ author Nassim Taleb says bitcoin is worth zero and fails as a currency and a hedge

Published Tue, Jul 13 2021 12:09 PM EDT  Updated Tue, Jul 13 2021 7:30 PM EDT

Nassim Nicholas Taleb has reversed his stance on bitcoin.

The author of “The Black Swan” said in a recent paper that the largest cryptocurrency by market cap has failed to satisfy the notions of it as a currency without government, as a hedge against inflation and as a safe haven investment.

“Few assets in financial history have been more fragile than bitcoin,” he said.

Taleb had previously spoken more favorably on bitcoin, particularly on its potential to help people circumvent capital controls in markets that rely on them to manage their exchange rates. He called it “the first organic currency” in the foreword of “The Bitcoin Standard” in 2018 and “an insurance policy” against government control over currency.

In his recent paper, “Bitcoin, Currencies, and Fragility,” published in late June, Taleb, a probability researcher and former longtime quantitative trader, says bitcoin is worth “exactly zero” partly because it requires a sustained amount of interest to maintain it.

By contrast, “gold and other precious metals are largely maintenance free, do not degrade over an historical horizon, and do not require maintenance to refresh their physical properties over time,” he said.

Bitcoin was created in 2008 and has always been notoriously volatile, though the Covid-19 pandemic year is the first time it has experienced such extreme volatility in the face of a global economic crisis.

Taleb noted that in March 2020 bitcoin dropped further than the stock market and recovered with it “upon the massive injection of liquidity.” That’s “sufficient evidence that it cannot remotely be used as a tail hedge against systemic risk,” he said.

More

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/13/black-swan-author-nassim-taleb-says-bitcoin-is-worth-zero.html

China's crackdown on crypto continues as more mining projects shut down

Wednesday 14 July 2021 9:27 am

The cryptocurrency industry in China was further hit today as Anhui province said it would close all crypto mining operations due to energy consumption concerns.

The province in east China will shut down the energy-intensive projects as part of a package of changes to address a power supply shortage.

Cryptocurrency prices continued to drop overnight, with Bitcoin down just over 4 per cent, Ethereum down 6 per cent and XRP down 5 per cent.

The news was reported by hf365.com, a media group affiliated with the government of Hefei, Anhui’s capital.

Going forward, Anhui will rework its regional energy system. This includes strictly controlling projects that require large amounts of energy and power and constructing new data centres in a more centralised way.

Cryptocurrency prices fell last month after authorities from China’s Sichuan province ordered a state-owned power grid to cut the energy of 26 cryptocurrency mining farms in the region. Major Chinese BTC mining pools were hit by the order, leading to a 17 per cent hashrate drop on the Bitcoin.

Previously, authorities in Xinjiang directed power plants in the Zhundong Economic Technological Development Zone to shut down their mining facilities.

Both Xinjiang and Sichuan have historically been major Bitcoin mining hubs in China due to their abundant fossil fuel and hydroelectric energy.

Shortly after, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) told the country’s major financial institutions to stop facilitating cryptocurrency transactions.

In a statement, the PBoC said banks must not provide products or services such as trading, clearing, and settlement for cryptocurrency transactions. They must also identify exchanges over over-the-counter dealers’ capital accounts and cut off the payment link for transaction funds.

https://www.cityam.com/chinas-crackdown-on-crypto-continues-as-more-mining-projects-shut-down/

The co-creator of dogecoin explains why he doesn’t plan to return to crypto: It’s ‘controlled by a powerful cartel of wealthy figures’

Jackson Palmer, the co-creator of the meme-inspired cryptocurrency dogecoin, made a rare return to Twitter on Wednesday with some harsh words about crypto in general.

“I am often asked if I will ‘return to cryptocurrency’ or begin regularly sharing my thoughts on the topic again. My answer is a wholehearted ‘no,’” Palmer tweeted on Wednesday.

In 2013, Palmer and Billy Markus created dogecoin as a joke based on the “Doge” meme, which portrays a shiba inu dog. Markus and Palmer didn’t intend for dogecoin to be taken seriously.

But the coin has recently taken off, and dogecoin is currently one of the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market value. Earlier this year, it hit an all-time high of nearly 74 cents. Despite its recent surge in popularity, Markus and Palmer haven’t profited, as they both sold out before dogecoin’s meteoric rise.

In his Twitter thread, Palmer criticized those in power in the cryptocurrency space, saying that it is “controlled by a powerful cartel of wealthy figures” who “have evolved to incorporate many of the same institutions tied to the existing centralized financial system they supposedly set out to replace.”

Palmer also criticized how crypto is shared and marketed. In another tweet, he alleged that “the cryptocurrency industry leverages a network of shady business connections, bought influencers and pay-for-play media outlets to perpetuate a cult-like ‘get rich quick’ funnel designed to extract new money from the financially desperate and naive.”

Palmer admits this type of “financial exploitation” existed before cryptocurrency, but says he still believes that the crypto industry hurts the “average” people who join it. He also believes it is susceptible to fraud, similar to other cryptocurrency critics.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/14/dogecoin-co-creator-jackson-palmer-criticizes-the-crypto-industry.html

Finally, China. China is becoming a minefield for business.

U.S. warns businesses connected to China’s Xinjiang region run ‘high risk’ of violating law

Published Tue, Jul 13 2021 1:21 PM EDT Updated Tue, Jul 13 2021 7:17 PM EDT

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Tuesday warned businesses with supply chain and investment ties to China’s Xinjiang province that they could face legal consequences, citing growing evidence of genocide and other human rights abuses in the country’s northwest region.

The most-pointed line from the Xinjiang Supply Chain Business Advisory – published jointly by the State Department, Treasury, Commerce, Homeland Security, Labor and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative – states that “businesses and individuals that do not exit supply chains, ventures, and/or investments connected to Xinjiang could run a high risk of violating U.S. law.”

The updated advisory strengthens previous warnings to companies by highlighting potential violations of U.S. law if their operations are linked even “indirectly” to the Chinese government in Xinjiang.

“The People’s Republic of China government continues its horrific abuses in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and elsewhere in China, targeting Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, and ethnic Kyrgyz who are predominantly Muslim, and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups,” State Department spokesman Ned Price wrote in a statement Tuesday.

“These abuses include widespread, state-sponsored forced labor and intrusive surveillance, forced population control measures and separation of children from families, mass detention, and other human rights abuses amidst ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity,” he added.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

On Friday, the Biden administration added 14 Chinese companies and other entities to its economic blacklist over alleged human rights abuses and high-tech surveillance in Xinjiang.

More

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/13/us-warns-businesses-with-investment-ties-to-chinas-xinjiang.html

Goldman CEO David Solomon says China’s crackdown on tech companies will delay many U.S. listings

Published Tue, Jul 13 2021 4:32 PM EDT  Updated Tue, Jul 13 2021 7:41 PM EDT

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said that China’s recent moves boosting oversight of its technology industry surprised him and will likely delay “a large number” of companies from listing shares in the U.S.

Last week, shares of riding-hailing giant Didi Global plunged after China declared that new users couldn’t download the app amid a cybersecurity review. Didi had been advised by Chinese regulators to postpone its U.S. listing, but the tech company went ahead with it last month, The Wall Street Journal has reported.

“There’s a significant backlog of Chinese companies that are turning to global capital to raise money to support their growth, and we have our own backlog, a large number of companies that have been planning to come to the U.S. market,” Solomon told CNBC’s Wilfred Frost on Tuesday in an interview.

“Because of the actions the Chinese government has taken, I think some of those companies will not come to market at this point in time,” Solomon said, adding it was too early to tell what the long-term impacts would be.

As head of what is arguably the premier global Wall Street advisory firm, Solomon will have to navigate the increasingly fraught relationship between China, its giant technology firms and the rest of the world. Goldman, along with JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley, were lead underwriters on Didi’s U.S. listing.

More

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/13/goldman-ceo-solomon-says-chinas-tech-crackdown-will-delay-many-us-listings.html

Cathie Wood Sells China Tech Stocks, Warning of Valuation Reset

By Abhishek Vishnoi and Carly Wanna

July 13, 2021, 9:42 PM EDT Updated on July 14, 2021, 5:31 AM EDT

Cathie Wood’s Ark Investment Management has been selling Chinese tech stocks, with holdings in one of the firm’s funds falling to the lowest on record as Beijing’s crackdown on the sector intensifies.

China’s weighting in Wood’s flagship Ark Innovation ETF has plunged to less than 1% from 8% as recently as February, while that of the Ark Next Generation Internet ETF has fallen to 5.4%, the lowest compared to month-end figures since Bloomberg began compiling the data in October 2014. The China weighting in Ark’s fintech ETF has remained steady at around 18%.

“I do think there’s a valuation reset,” Wood, Ark’s founder and chief executive officer, said in response to questions on the outlook for larger Chinese tech firms during a monthly webinar with investors on Tuesday. “From a valuation point of view, these stocks have come down and again from a valuation point of view, probably will remain down.”

The paring of Chinese tech holdings by one of the world’s biggest thematic fund providers underscores how the sector is losing its allure as Beijing increases scrutiny of the industry’s data collection and offshore listings. Many investors are wary of calling a bottom, even as a gauge of China’s internet companies has rebounded in recent days after losing over $1 trillion of market value since mid-February.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-14/cathie-wood-sells-china-tech-stocks-warning-of-valuation-reset?srnd=premium-europe

"In politics stupidity is not a handicap."

Napoleon.

Global Inflation Watch.          

Given our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our spendthrift politicians, inflation now needs an entire section of its own.

Inflation could prompt largest Social Security cost-of-living adjustment in decades. Why there’s a push to change the way it’s calculated

The Social Security cost-of-living adjustment for 2022 could be 6.1% due to inflation, according to a new estimate.

That would be the biggest increase since 1983, according to non-partisan advocacy group The Senior Citizens League, which calculated the figure. It’s also a bump up from last month’s estimate, when the increase for next year was expected to be 5.3%.

The new estimate comes as the Consumer Price Index in June increased 5.4% from a year earlier, the largest gain since August 2008. Higher food and energy prices were among the culprits that helped push the inflation measure higher.

That helped push estimate the Social Security COLA for 2022 higher. That annual change is calculated based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, or CPI-W.

Gasoline is particularly heavily weighted in the CPI-W, which helped to push up the COLA estimate. Many seniors are also noticing higher prices at their grocery stores, according to Mary Johnson, Social Security and Medicare policy analyst at The Senior Citizens League.

The COLA could be subject to change, as there are still three more months of data to report before the Social Security Administration determines the official number for next year.

One thing unlikely to happen during that time is any action from the Federal Reserve. Central bank Chairman Jerome Powell said on Wednesday that the Fed is still “a ways off” from changing its policy.

More

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/14/social-security-cost-of-living-increase-for-2022-may-be-largest-in-decades.html

The IRS is sending out 4 million refunds this week to taxpayers who overpaid on their 2020 unemployment benefits

Published Tue, Jul 13 2021 2:49 PM EDT Updated Tue, Jul 13 2021 5:11 PM EDT

Roughly 4 million refunds will be sent this week to people who overpaid taxes on their 2020 unemployment benefits, the IRS announced Tuesday.

Due to the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act, which became law in March, up to $10,200 in 2020 unemployment compensation was excluded from taxable income for individuals and married couples with modified adjusted gross income under $150,000 last year.

However, many taxpayers had already filed their tax returns before the legislation was approved by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden.

For taxpayers who overpaid due to the exclusion, the IRS will either refund the overpayment — as it’s doing this week — or apply it to other outstanding taxes or other federal or state debts owed.

The IRS already issued a round of refunds related to the exclusion in May and June. The agency said it plans to continue issuing refunds throughout the summer.

The average refund is $1,265 for this tranche. Refunds by direct deposit will start July 14 and those delivered via paper check will begin July 16, the IRS said.

It’s uncertain how many people are due an adjustment or refund related to this exclusion. A May report from the Treasury Department said that about 7.3 million tax returns processed by the IRS as of early March would qualify.

More

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/13/the-irs-is-sending-out-4-million-refunds-this-week-to-taxpayers-who-overpaid-on-their-2020-unemployment-benefits.html

McDonald's to offer childcare and tuition amid hiring push

Wednesday 14 July 2021 10:11 am

McDonald’s will be offering tuition payments and higher hourly wages as well as childcare support in an attempt to attract workers due to many of its restaurants struggling to employ staff in the US.

Since the pandemic, the fast food giant has let staff members go in order to save running costs, but is now experiencing difficulties finding staff as the Covid restrictions ease.

Franchises own around 13,450 U.S. stores. McDonald’s corporate parent stated that it will support these efforts by making a multimillion-dollar investment.

Surveys have suggested that some people are hesitant to re-enter the workforce because of healthcare risks, childcare issues and unemployment benefits.

Some restaurant owners in the US will introduce perks which will include the provision of emergency childcare.

Owners agreed to increase pay and benefits in June, which has been validated by the National Franchise Leadership Alliance (NFLA) who represent thousands of U.S. franchises.

Individual restaurants are now adopting the same initiative with one franchise owner in Colorado who is reported to have spent colossal figures on wage and benefit increases, according to McDonald’s.

David Costa, a restaurant owner and officer with the company-backed National Franchisee Leadership Alliance of franchisees, stated that he hopes the incentives will help McDonald’s and its operators compete in today’s job market, which he said will, “remain employers of choice in today’s increasingly competitive hiring environment”.

---- The golden arch chain have declared that it will boost wages to around $15 per hour by 2024. That followed significant pressure from campaign groups such as ‘Fight for 15’.

Various other restaurants are attempting to understand how to lure workers back. These include Chipotle Mexican Grill who implemented a survey which led to the annoucment of boosting their wages to around $15 an hour. Also Shake Shack Inc are reported to have increased their hourly wages at more than half of their U.S. restaurants this year.

More

https://www.cityam.com/mcdonalds-to-offer-childcare-and-tuition-amid-hiring-push/

Below, why a “green energy” economy may not be possible anyway, and if it is, it won’t be quick and it will be very inflationary, setting off a new long-term commodity Supercycle. Probably the largest seen so far.

The “New Energy Economy”: An Exercise in Magical Thinking

https://media4.manhattan-institute.org/sites/default/files/R-0319-MM.pdf

Mines, Minerals, and "Green" Energy: A Reality Check

https://www.manhattan-institute.org/mines-minerals-and-green-energy-reality-check


"Anytime you don't want anything, you get it." 

Calvin Coolidge, 30thPresident of the United States.

Covid-19 Corner                       

This section will continue until it becomes unneeded.

Indonesia is bracing for worsening Covid outbreak as cases spike

Indonesia is bracing for its Covid-19 outbreak to get worse after a near-vertical climb in cases, a
senior minister said on Thursday, warning that infections had spread faster than anticipated due to the more virulent delta variant.

The world’s fourth most populous country is struggling to slow virus transmission even after imposing its toughest mobility curbs so far.

Wednesday’s tally of more than 54,000 cases was the latest of many peaks in the past month, and up more than tenfold on the number of infections at the start of June.

In a streamed news conference, senior minister Luhut Pandjaitan said daily Covid-19 cases could still climb as the Delta variant, first identified in India, has a two-to three-week incubation period.

“We’re already in our worst-case scenario,” Luhut said. “If we’re talking about 60,000 (cases a day) or slightly more than that, we’re okay. We are hoping not for 100,000, but even if we get there, we are preparing for that,” he added.

The government has converted several buildings into isolation facilities, deployed fresh graduate doctors and nurses to treat Covid-19 patients and imported treatment drugs and oxygen, he said.

Hospitals in Indonesia’s most populated Java island have been deluged in recent weeks, with many people struggling to get treatment and hundreds dying while self-isolating.

Cases and bed occupancy rates also have risen in parts of Sumatra and Kalimantan and more remote regions like West Papua, where health facilities are less equipped to handle an outbreak.

Luhut also said that vaccine efficacy was weaker against the delta variant that accounted for most infections on Java island, but urged people to get inoculated to help prevent serious illness and death.

The government was analyzing the situation and would decide whether to extend the current emergency coronavirus curbs that will expire on July 20, he said.

In a separate statement, the country’s Covid-19 task force said there has been a low adherence to health protocols despite the mobility curbs.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/15/indonesia-is-bracing-for-worsening-covid-outbreak-as-cases-spike.html

Study: Up to 1 in 5 people with COVID-19 in U.S. needs hospital care

July 13, 2021 / 11:10 AM

July 13 (UPI) -- Nearly one in five people with COVID-19 in the United States requires hospital care for the disease, with those with pre-existing health conditions such as dementia or obesity at higher risk for serious illness, an analysis published Tuesday by JAMA Network Open found.

In addition, more than 20% of those hospitalized due to the coronavirus required intensive care treatment or ventilation support to breathe, or were discharged into hospice care, the data showed.

Of those admitted to the hospital after infection between March and October of last year, about 12% died.

However, the death rate among hospitalized patients declined to just under 9% by October from approximately 16% at the start of the pandemic as improved treatment approaches emerged.

Since Aug. 1, about 2.3 million people in the United States have been hospitalized with COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

More than 604,000 people with COVID-19 died in the United States over the course of the pandemic, the agency said.

"This study found that COVID-19 mortality decreased over time during 2020," wrote the researchers, from the National COVID Cohort Collaborative Consortium, a collective of physicians engaged in treating infected patients at 34 hospitals across the country.

---- Although virus-related hospitalization rates declined nationally through April and May this year, they have increased by about 9% since late June, coinciding with the rise of the more transmissible Delta variant, which now accounts for 50% of new cases, the CDC reported.

Unlike earlier stages of the pandemic, when older adults were at increased risk for hospitalization and severe illness, adults ages 18 to 49 years now make up about 40% of new admissions, the agency estimates.

For this study, National COVID Cohort Collaborative Consortium researchers analyzed electronic health records on nearly 2 million adults tested for COVID-19 at 34 hospitals in the United States between Jan. 1 and Dec. 7, 2020.

Roughly 175,000 of the adults included in the study tested positive for the virus, and just over 32,000 of them, or 19%, were hospitalized, the data showed.

Of those hospitalized, nearly 7,000, or more than 20%, required invasive ventilatory support or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation to breath or died or were discharged to hospice care following their illness.

More

https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2021/07/13/coronavirus-severity-hospitalizations-study/6711626184324/

Immunized but banned: EU says not all COVID vaccines equal

LONDON (AP) — After Dr. Ifeanyi Nsofor and his wife received two doses of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine in Nigeria, they assumed they would be free to travel this summer to a European destination of their choice. They were wrong.

The couple — and millions of other people vaccinated through a U.N.-backed effort — could find themselves barred from entering many European and other countries because those nations don’t recognize the Indian-made version of the vaccine for travel.

Although AstraZeneca vaccine produced in Europe has been authorized by the continent’s drug regulatory agency, the same shot manufactured in India hasn’t been given the green light.

EU regulators said AstraZeneca hasn’t completed the necessary paperwork on the Indian factory, including details on its production practices and quality control standards.

But some experts describe the EU move as discriminatory and unscientific, pointing out that the World Health Organization has inspected and approved the factory. Health officials say the situation will not only complicate travel and frustrate fragile economies but also undermine vaccine confidence by appearing to label some shots substandard.

More

https://apnews.com/article/europe-business-lifestyle-health-travel-f678a53270470d9b35ce6259e48548bf

Flu shot may help prevent severe COVID-19, study says

July 12, 2021 / 3:13 PM

A flu shot might offer some protection against severe effects of COVID-19, a new study suggests.

If you are infected with COVID-19, having had a flu shot makes it less likely you will suffer severe body-wide infection, blood clots, have a stroke or be treated in an intensive care unit, according to the study.

"Our work is important," said study co-author Dr. Devinder Singh, noting limited resources around the world continue to constrain access to the COVID-19 vaccine.

"The global population may benefit from influenza vaccination, as it can dually act to prevent a coronavirus and influenza 'twindemic,' which could potentially overwhelm health care resources," said Singh, chief of plastic surgery at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

Why a flu shot would protect against some severe effects of COVID-19 isn't clear, but it's possible that it primes the immune system to reduce the odds of some system-wide harms also seen with flu, the researchers say.

They caution, however, that the flu vaccine is not a substitute for the COVID-19 vaccine. Also, the study can't prove that a flu shot is protective when it comes to COVID-19, only that it might be.

More

https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2021/07/12/coronavirus-flu-shot-prevent-severe-disease-study/5581626114049/

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 vaccineshttps://www.who.int/publications/m/item/draft-landscape-of-covid-19-candidate-vaccines

NY Times Coronavirus Vaccine Trackerhttps://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html

Stanford Websitehttps://racetoacure.stanford.edu/clinical-trials/132

Regulatory Focus COVID-19 vaccine trackerhttps://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/

Centers for Disease Control Coronavirus

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html

The Spectator Covid-19 data tracker (UK)

https://data.spectator.co.uk/city/national

 

Technology Update.

With events happening fast in the development of solar power and graphene, I’ve added this section. Updates as they get reported.

World's biggest green hydrogen hub announced for Western Australia

Loz Blain  July 13, 2021

Western Australia could soon be home to the world's biggest green hydrogen project. The Western Green Energy hub (WGEH) wants to deploy 50 GW of solar and wind generation to produce up to 3.5 million tons of green hydrogen or 20 million tons of ammonia a year.

This monster project edges out the 45-GW Svevind project in Kazakhstan that was announced just a couple of weeks ago. It underscores the huge paydays the energy industry is foreseeing in green energy exports.

Yes, hydrogen is inefficient and borderline wasteful compared to storing and releasing green energy in batteries. But the world is aiming to decarbonize completely by 2050, and batteries simply don't have the energy density for many applications, such as long-haul trucking, shipping and aviation. Hydrogen will also be key in decarbonizing steel production – and it represents and energy export opportunity in a post-coal and oil world that doesn't look like it's getting a global energy grid any time soon to share renewable power without putting it on boats.

The new hub would take advantage of Western Australia's excellent solar potential and solid wind potential, occupying some 15,000 square kilometers (5,800 sq mi) of largely red, rocky desert near Kalgoorlie in the south-east of the state. Construction would be in phases, to ramp up as expected demand for these green fuels grows.

More

https://newatlas.com/energy/western-green-energy-hub/?utm_source=New+Atlas+Subscribers&utm_campaign=568d112cc2-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2021_07_14_08_07&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-568d112cc2-90625829

"If you can count your money, you don't have a billion dollars."

J. Paul Getty.

 

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