FDA authorizes emergency usage for Pfizer's Vaccine

 

After just about 16 million cases and 298 thousand deaths, FDA announced yesterday that they will be implementing emergency usage of Pfizer's vaccine. The American government wasn't ready to embrace the vaccine previously because of the unknown side effects which now have been made apparent with the most common effect being anaphylaxis and facial muscle paralysis. But, since then, the United Kingdom has made a deal with Pfizer for millions of doses which would put Britain in the driver's lane over the U.S in terms of priority distribution. Many nations in the world are fighting for Pfizer's cure so that prompted the U.S to excuse their worries and maintain peak vaccination supply.

Although the U.S has dealt its way into 100 million doses of the vaccine, the first batch of vaccines will be delivered out to high-risk citizens such as medical care workers who have constant exposure to the virus. Residents of long-term care facilities are also prioritized because of the pattern of the elderly succumbing to the virus in higher numbers accounting for around 40% of coronavirus deaths in the U.S. In terms of the process for vaccination, one would have to be vaccinated once every two weeks for a 95% efficacy rate. 

In terms of implementation, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has said that the months following December all the way until estimated April will be reserved for the priority group of high exposure. After that, "I would project by the time you get to April, it will be ... 'open season,' in the sense of anyone, even the non-high priority groups could get vaccinated," Fauci said. But just because a vaccine has been deployed, doesn't mean the duty of the civilians to socially distance will be less of a burden, especially since a vaccine is deployed, we as civilians must be even more vigilant so we can expedite the date of when non-risk citizens can receive the vaccination. 

Although the vaccination seems like a godsend, the FDA trial runs concluded that less than 4.6% of the participants had severe reactions. This may seem like a low percentage, but scale that into a nation's population and the number of recipients that faced adverse reactions will seem incredibly large. 

I think the American government had every right to be cautious of the side effects especially since the FDA expedited the vaccine's trial, but that shouldn't stop them from being proactive in the procurement of the drug. This isn't like the 2002 Sars outbreak where transmission was low as a result of death rates being high; the coronavirus is an excellent medium that specializes in crowd control to infect the peak number of people. What are your thoughts on an expedited distribution of the vaccination? Would you be willing to dose yourself knowing the risks?

Oracle Moves HQ from Redwood City to Austin, Texas

As of yesterday Oracle Corporations announced that it will be moving its headquarters from Redwood City, California to Austin, Texas. The company said this will be in effort to create a more flexible approach to its workforce. As of now it is unclear what this will exactly entail. They will have a new HQ address in Texas, but they have no current plans to move any existing staff. Oracle is now just one of many other big corporations to flee Silicon Valley, including Tesla and HP inc. As to why companies are fleeing California in this era, there are three main reasons.

Firstly is political views. Many conservative executives are turning their back to Silicon Valley as they have issues with the region’s politics. The past 8 months have been politically polarizing which had probably increased this factor's strength in the decisions of these top executives. Larry Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle noted to have had a fundraiser in recent months to support Donald Trump's campaign.

The second factor is taxes. California has a state income tax of 13.3% for amounts of $1 million a year. On the other hand, Texas has none. They do not even collect capital-gains tax on individuals. While state tax is only one of the many expenses for Oracle, in the previous year Oracle reported paying $172 million in state tax. Coupled with the high cost's of living in California, Texas is a much cheaper option for these companies and their workers.

The last reason so many companies are moving is because of the pandemic. When the technology industry started to flourish many decades ago, the common thought was that in the future people would be able to work from anywhere. Given that everyone will have cell-phones, computers and cloud business communications centers, people could work together from all across the globe. While that is true, the opposite trend actually prevailed. Tech entrepreneurs consolidated in areas such as Silicon Valley because it was easier and more efficient to do business close by. Now with the pandemic, tech companies have been forced to work from home, and it has proven successful. Companies like Oracle now realize it is possible to work outside of Silicon Valley, and they are choosing to do just that.

Having grown up within sight of the Oracle towers, this move definitely hit close to home. It’s definitely something I think we will see more of in the future, and this is just the start of the exodus from Silicon Valley. I anticipate that many more companies will move to cheaper states like Texas or Seattle, and we will start to see more companies come about from other areas around the world.

What do you think about big corporations moving away from California to avoid state taxes?

Do you think that this is the start of a new trend? Or will the end of the pandemic bring us back to the same culture that we had before the virus?

Would a more spread out network of tech companies be beneficial to us? Or do we prefer to have an overly expensive, crowded, traffic filled peninsula?

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Yahoo News

Democrats and Republicans still unable to compromise on a new $908 covid stimulus package

  

 In March 18, 2020, Trump signed into law the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) to help support struggling businesses and unemployed individuals during the pandemic. However, this relief package and other unemployment benefits will expire by the end of this month. This means that if Congress is unable to compromise on a new stimulus package soon, 12 million Americans are set to lose the unemployment funds that have been supporting them for this past year when many have been laid off and job opportunities are scarce. With time running short, Congress has been negotiating on a new $908 billion economic relief package proposed by a bipartisan lawmaking group. Both parties agree that covid bill must be made, however, coming to a consensus has been very difficult so far due to opposition especially from Senator Mitch McConnell. 
    The initial plan was a $908 billion pandemic aid bill was drafted by moderates in both parties that would support small businesses, state and local governments, schools, unemployed individuals, healthcare providers, and funding for the distribution of the vaccine, but does not include stimulus checks this time. Senator McConnell has adamantly refused to endorse this $908 billion bill as he tries to push for his own bill, which is narrower. It omits benefits for state and local governments but gives funds for education, aid for small businesses, and pandemic liability protections for businesses, which Democrats immediately rejected. Republicans have shown resistance to the original bill because they believed that liability protections for businesses were too limited and have long-resisted state/local government funding. On the other hand, Democrats like Pelosi and Mnuchin have rejected McConnell’s bill and instead have proposed their own $916 billion alternative bill. This alternative bill would include $600 stimulus checks but no additional federal supplemental unemployment benefits. With limited time, Senator Mitt Romney understands the urgency of compromising and believes that they should just put aside their disagreements: “on state and local and liability we wait, given the time frame, until next year.” 
    Congress’ negotiations right now is just a chaotic mess. Compromise between the two parties has been nearly impossible even with a bipartisan group that has been “privately working for weeks to force their leadership to a compromise.” Democrats have said that minority leader Chuck Schumer has “been begging to negotiate with McConnell for half a year.” Millions of Americans’ financial support are on the line and it seems that this bipartisan proposal is the most realistic plan as of now because something is better than nothing. If Congress still can’t come to an agreement in the next week, Americans are going to lose even more faith in our government and “assume that government is broken.” The opposing nature of the parties in Congress is one of the drawbacks to our system of government today. Constant opposition and political polarization have made bipartisan agreements more difficult today than ever fail such as what happened with Obama’s original health care reform plan. Our system of government is not very efficient. It takes a really long time to pass legislation when the House and Senate are controlled by opposing parties. Even if it does pass, Congress will still have to convince Trump to sign the bill. I believe this inefficiency is part of the reason why we have not gotten covid under control in the US yet. 

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How Covid Shifted the Job Market

Early in quarantine, many citizens lost their jobs. According to AARP, many service workers and small business owners were out of jobs.  However, many job opportunities were emerging with delivery companies. With the danger of going outside, delivery services like Amazon have been growing more and more popular which means a need for additional employees.

As seen from Digital Commerce, Q2 and Q3 of 2020 have been far more profitable for Amazon than every other year since 2018 .As delivery services become increasingly popular,  Amazon has hired about 96,700 new employees in 3 months, where such a jump is only matched by the time Amazon bought out Whole Foods. Similarly with Uber Eats, according to the table from Business of Apps, the gross bookings has jumped from 14.5 billion in 2019 to a projected 25 billion for 2020, where the previous increase has been a couple billion.

From a chart from NYTimes, it can be seen that the trend doesn't just apply to Amazon and Uber Eats. From May to July, there was a significant jump in job creation. However, unlike Amazon, the job creation rate has started to slow down to the point where if this trend continues, it will take a long time before the job market can recover from the devastating blows dealt by the pandemic. All the new job opportunities only make up 55% of the 22 million jobs lost since the beginning of the Covid outbreak and the rate at which we are recovering has been flattening out since August. Seeing how another huge spike in Covid-19 cases has occurred, it is possible that we will go through a similar surge in job losses, but smaller in size. In order to try to recover from this recession, there will likely be many professions that will become impractical, and those former job owners will need to find something new until the pandemic completely blows over. 

It's Trump's final days of rage

 

Image above from the Human Rights Campaign.

    As we approach January 20th 2021, Biden has been more adamant about his COVID-19 reliefs and plans as the 46th president. However, Trump still isn't believing that he lost the 2020 election. He has been demanding a major defense bill, yet some Republican supporters have been ignoring those demands and instead chosen to create new drafts that disregard his polite requests. David Marchick, an American attorney, said (quoted from the Washington Post), "The country looks to the new, but the old is still in office until January 20th." His statement, while true, doesn't seem to apply to President-elect Joe Biden. Across his many platforms, Biden has been exhorting Americans to follow safety protocols. This includes proper social distancing guidelines and the use of face masks. He has even been announcing his Cabinet members. While the power will soon transfer to Biden, it hasn't nonetheless. Trump is still eager to take charge and withdraw troops from overseas, as well as fire government officials. 

    While Biden has been spreading COVID-19 relief and safety protocols on his social media, Trump has been using Twitter to lash out about an election he has lost. Interesting enough, recent tweets from the user @realDonaldTrump have included retweets of his own posts, specifically one captioned, "SO TRUE. NO WAY WE LOST THIS ELECTION!" from December 6th. Similar claims have also been made by Trump during his first major public appearance since the election, such as "You know we won Georgia, just so you understand," when in fact he did not, and lost by 12,000 votes. Some have called his outcrys "classic Act V behavior" and "part tragedy, part farce, full of sound and fury," mimicking a Shakespearean play.

    What else will Trump do within these next 44 days? Only time (and the media) will tell.

More than half of NYC firefighters would choose not to get the coronavirus vaccine

  

 

   As two coronavirus vaccines are underway to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration very soon, the questions now are: will Americans be required to take the vaccine and will they be willing to take it?

    The answer to whether or not the vaccine will be mandated is quite complicated. It is highly unlikely that the federal government will make vaccinations mandatory. Public health powers belong to the states and that includes the mandating of vaccinations. Biden already announced that he will not mandate vaccines, but he will “do everything in [his] power as president to encourage people” to get vaccinated. How he will do this is still unclear, but it seems like the only thing he can do is appeal to governors and officials to enact mandates. Whether this will be effective or not, we’ll just have to see.

    However, it is much more likely that private organization or companies will require their employees to get the vaccine. Over the years, health care facilities have increasingly required workers to get vaccinations. 24 of the states in the US have some requirements for flu vaccines for health care facility workers. The vaccine may also eventually be required for students, daycares, and some health care workers but it may take years for that to happen. Although the FDA and CDC have said that employers cannot mandate vaccines under the EUA (emergency use authorization), they can establish consequences for refusing it. Generally speaking, however, it is unlikely that the general public will be required to take it, and as Dr. Fauci says, “you cannot force someone to take a vaccine” since people reserve the right to refuse it.

    Since the government cannot mandate vaccines, getting people to feel comfortable with it is the most important thing to do now. Unfortunately, a Gallup Panel survey "found that 58% of American would be willing to get a COVID-19 vaccine, a decrease from July, when 66% said they would." According to ABC News, a survey finds that 55% of NYC firefighters would refuse the vaccine. This growing reluctance is surprising considering that 200 members of the NYC fire department are out sick with the coronavirus. Even though Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccine both claim to have efficacy rates of over 90%, there is a great hesitation among the public to get is since it is a new vaccine. This increase in reluctance is generally attributed to the lack of information about the vaccine. We don’t know the long term side effects and considering that this vaccine was approved much quicker than most, it makes sense that many people are hesitant to take it.

    Dr. Fauci has said that if 75-85% of people in the US get vaccinated, the coronavirus would be over before the end of 2021. However, given the public’s hesitation, I think it may take even longer. Personally, I think people and employees should retain the right to choose whether to get vaccinated or not. However given the high efficacy rates, I do think that people should get it and I believe there are more benefits than drawbacks. Should one risk the possible side effects of taking the vaccine? Is the coronavirus vaccine just another flu vaccine which only 50% of people get? The decision is ultimately yours to make and depends on your personal circumstances. But remember that taking the vaccination means not only means immunity for yourself but for others as well. 

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Questions: 

1. Should the federal government be allowed to mandate covid-19 vaccinations? Should our school district mandate the vaccine if they had the authority to do so? Would you feel more comfortable going back to school knowing that everyone has gotten the vaccine?

2. Why do you think that so many people are hesitant about getting vaccinated? What are some drawbacks of getting vaccinated?

Former Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh, Died in House Fire

Tony Hsieh was the former CEO of Zappos, the major online shoe retailer that was purchased by Amazon in 2009. He was a tech visionary, who built up the business with one thing in mind: customer satisfaction. After graduating from Harvard with a degree in computer science, he started working with close friends on entrepreneurial endeavors. He created Link Exchange, a digital advertising network that he eventually sold to Microsoft. He created a startup incubator with investment from his own ventures capital fund, and he eventually created Zappos. Zappos came to define Hsieh's career as he became the CEO and Zappos exploded in popularity. Fast forward, 20 years, Hsieh was a multi milionaire, and just another victim of the coronavirus/ US Opioid epidemic.

 

Hsieh was always a big partier and avid alcohol drinker. He always worked to make others happy, but he could never find a way to become happy himself. After retiring from his position as CEO of Zappos, how moved to Las Vegas where he worked to turn a seedy part of town in to a hub for tech and art. He publish his own book " Delivering Happiness" while secretly suffering from issues of mental health and addiction. He started to take a dramatic turn south over the past year, especially as COVID - 19 put in social distancing restrictions and lockdowns. Tony struggled when he was alone, and the isolation was not good for his mental health. He started disconnecting with friends and family, and went on a starvation diet and veered into frequent drug use. Notably, he used nitrous oxide, which would deprive him of oxygen that he needed, and he became increasingly interested in fire. 

In the early morning of the day after Thanksgiving, Tony Hsieh was staying at a co-workers house in Connecticut, where he died from a house fire. While several escaped the burning house, Tony supposedly locked himself in, either on purpose or by accident. He died 9 days later from smoke inhalation. As Forbes describes it, "In some ways, count him as another Covid-19 victim, except that instead of succumbing to the disease itself, the virus appears to have accelerated some wrenching internal battles and a series of terrible external decisions."

My questions for discussion are as follows:

Do you believe that money can by happiness? If so, in what way? If not, how do you believe one can achieve happiness?

How do you you think the Corona Virus lockdown has impacted people at home? Has it led to worsening mental health issues? What are your personal experiences?

**Before commenting, I encourage you to read the Forbes article on Tony Hsieh. They go into much more detail than I do, and will give you a better understanding of his story.**

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Biden hires all-female senior communications team: re-shaping representation

 

Biden and Harris name all-female communications team with 'experience' and 'credibility'

    Over the past week, President-elect Joe Biden has been announcing the teams that will support him during his soon-to-be presidency. One remarkable announcement was of his senior communications team. An all-female group. For the first time in history, women will have the opportunity to weigh in on any important decision, as well as be a voice for the administration. 

    Not only does this group of women make history for being all-female, but additionally it is a diverse group of women as well. Biden is successfully representing America as a diverse population by hiring people from many different ethnicities. 

    Apart from the communications team, Biden has also nominated Neera Tanden as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget. His choice to nominate this individual has spurred some online gossip and controversy, and in an article published by the Guardian, they quoted Tanden from an incident where she assaulted a journalist during Hillary Clinton's first presidential campaign: "'I didn’t slug him, I pushed him,'" in an apology to the New York Times last year. The Guardian responded, "As if that somehow makes things better."

    Representation in America has always highlighted men. But recently, movements such as "Me Too" and "Black Lives Matter" have brought to light the unappreciated people in this country who represent so much. Gender roles have begun to transform from what the normal used to be, and with Biden's recent female additions to his cabinet, the younger generations will be inspired to pursue stereotypical male jobs. The representation of females in America has never looked better.

Homelessness still a relevant issue amidst Covid-19's "second wave"

As cases being to surge and coronavirus hits its second wave, homeless shelters begin to face concerning issues. Homeless shelters around the world must start shorting the number of homeless people to limit the severity of virus exposures.

This is an impossible system to fight; this exists as a cyclical nature where the pandemic causes major economic regression as citizens restrict their spending, and as business goes down corporations are forced to law off employees, and this lack of employment, in turn, leads to even more frugality. A study done by Columbia University indicates that the number of people without permanent housing will increase by a margin of 45% by the end of the year all due to mass unemployment.

Local and State governments have been doing their part in curbing the infection rate as the state of California has pledged $150 million dollars to help combat Covid-19 in homeless populations. Yet the monetary expenditure hit even harder for the federal government, where 2020's fiscal year increased $2.105 trillion from last year with that budget entirely made up of coronavirus aid programs, stimulus checks, and unemployment aid compensation.

"As the numbers climb, shelters have transformed their spaces to meet Covid-19 guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention," said Donald Whitehead, an executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless. The stricter requirements imposed by the CDC compromises the majority unaccounted for: the homeless. And although some cities such as Los Angles and Denver helped secure hotels for the homeless, the spikes in Covid-19 outbreaks within these allocated hotels and shelters have devastated the local population.

We still see no light in this dark tunnel as infection rates and death tolls are record-breaking every other day. The conditions are incredibly dire for those without residence as shelters fill up and cities are locking down. I believe the best we can do now as citizens to help is to mitigate the spread of infections by obeying CDC's set requirements and district set curfews. How should governments tackle this issue?

CDC loosens quarantine guidelines

On Dec. 2, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced it allows self-quarantine for those who have had exposure to COVID-19 to be seven to 10 days instead of the traditional 14-day period. 

For those who received a negative diagnostic test and have no symptoms, post-exposure quarantine can be as low as seven days. For those without a test, 10 days without symptoms is sufficient for a self-quarantine. In both cases, people who have been exposed are expected to monitor for symptoms throughout the remainder of the 14 days. The CDC still recommends a full 14-day quarantine, however if “local circumstances and resources” are not conducive to a two week quarantine, a shorter period is acceptable. 

“We believe that if we can reduce the burden a little bit, accepting that it comes at a small cost, we may get a greater compliance overall with people completing a full quarantine," said Dr. John Brooks, the chief medical officer for CDC's COVID-19 response. 

Concerns regarding inability to take 14 days off of work or school, especially for those with economic hardships primarily led to this change. There is a slight increase in risk of transmission, but according to the CDC, it’s acceptable with the expectation that more people will adhere to the quarantine period if it’s shorter. An additional reason: some who have tested positive for the coronavirus may choose to share contacts for fear those they had seen recently will have to quarantine for the full 14 days. Contact tracing may see its full ability if the quarantine period is made shorter.

The initial 14-day period was based upon the upper bounds of the coronavirus’s incubation period. Asymptomatic carriers, likely between 20% and 40%, can still transmit the virus, just as those in the incubation period who have yet to develop symptoms can.

For the holiday season, the CDC retains the same recommendation it had before Thanksgiving: stay home. If people don’t adhere, though, perhaps quarantining post holiday get-together will be a little easier and a little more successful.

Trump is Discussing Preemptive Presidential Pardons for his Children and Rudy Giuliani

 Donald Trump has been an unconventional president to say the least. This pattern has not stopped since he lost the election. This week, preemptive pardons for Ivanka, Don Jr., and Eric Trump, as well as Jared Kushner and Rudy Giuliani are being discussed. According to The New York Times, the sitting president is worried that Biden's justice department will seek retribution by targeting his children. This is very interesting in that a preemptive pardon suggests that his children, as well as Mr Giuliani who made a special appearance in Borat's latest movie, are guilty of something. One can only speculate what the trust funded children of a trust funded tax evading draft dodging nearly ex-president could be guilty of. 

According to CNN, Donald Trump Jr. was under investigation for his Russian contacts, but was never charged. Jared Kushner provided false information about his foreign contacts when applying for his security clearance, but was pardoned by Trump. The president thinks he is being, or at least going to be unfairly targeted by his victorious opponent. This is somewhat ironic coming from the person who during the election was slandering Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden for his business dealings in Ukraine. 

Personally, I think this is some sort of an admission of guilt. You don't need to be pardoned if you haven't done anything wrong. What do you think? What do you think Trump is guilty of? What do you think his children are guilty of? Do you think this is constitutional? Do you think this is morally correct? Please, leave your thoughts in the comments. 

Governor Gavin Newsom has to pick a new senator to replace Vice President elect Kamala Harris

 

San Francisco Chronicle: Who should fill Kamala Harris' Senate seat if she becomes VP?

    Now that Election Day has finally halted, buzz is going around about who the next Senator of California could be. Kamala Harris will be leaving her seat empty starting Inauguration Day in January, and only one vote will determine who will sit in it and fill the spot as part of the U.S. Senate. Gavin Newsom, Governor of California, is currently deciding who is valuable enough to partake in the Senate and to represent California. His vote is the only one to count, so many have been influencing him with numerous names and colleagues to possibly choose from. For instance, many friends, lawmakers, and other advisers keep spreading Alex Padilla's name. California's secretary of state and Latino, Padilla has emerged as a favorable candidate. However, some active campaigns also argue to replace Harris with another woman. Representative Karen Bass from Los Angeles has been mentioned as well as Representative Barbara Lee from Oakland, two very well educated Black females. 

    California, a state with a high population of Latinos, would do well with a Latino representative in the Senate. The Latino Victory Fund agrees with the statement, and has been promoting the #PickPadilla hashtag on their website to lean Newsom to choose Padilla as the next Senator. 

    Polls across the internet have been created to see who the rest of the public believes should be the next Senator. Yet, while the public is consumed with this new contest between a wide variety of diverse candidates, only Gavin Newsom has the final say. And because of the next election in 2022, Newsom would want to elect someone who would therefore support him as he runs for re-election.

    Who do you believe will be chosen? Who would you want to represent California?