JustOneMinute

AstraZeneca Blues

This may be a death knell for the AZ vaccine, in Europe and the US anyway:

Germany suspends use of AstraZeneca’s Covid shot for the under-60s, dealing another blow to drugmaker

Germany has suspended use of the coronavirus vaccine created by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford in the under-60s, due to renewed concerns over reports of blood clots.

The move comes after the country’s medicines regulator found 31 cases of a rare type of blood clot in a small number of people immunized with the coronavirus vaccine produced by the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker. The suspension is likely to deal yet another blow to its vaccine’s reputation.

It seems like only yesterday the Euro regulators were only allowing the AZ vaccine for the under-65 crowd, saying the data for oldsters was too sparse. But that was late January!

Well. No one will blame these bureaucrats if thousands die of COVID and this action may even prevent a few dozen deaths from a weird clotting disease. Weird the Brits aren't seeing it in there much larger vaccinated population, but do we trust them to tell the truth?

As to the US, AZ is preparing their trial data but has not yet applied for an EUA. As I understand it, the US vaccine supply situation is already in good shape between Pfizer, Moderna and J&J. We bet on a lot of horses, a lot have crossed the line, and we may not need the AZ product (which people won't take anyway.) And Novavax is lurking in the wings!

For the rest of the world, this is a blow. AZ used refrigerator storage, which made distribution easier in less developed countries.

BONUS SPECULATION: My understanding is that if the US approves an EUA for the AZ vaccine they are contractually obliged to deliver (and the US to pay for) 300MM doses. Or that may be a US option to buy, and we could decline.

I suppose we could buy them and donate them to the global organization, COVAX. Or we could quietly suggest to AZ that a US rejection of their EUA is likely, so just hold off.

Whatever Floats Your Boat

Its alive! The Ever Given effort to unblock the Suez Canal had a major breakthrough. But lots of work remains, so reports of its successful re-launch are premature.

Jump Ball!

Big basketball weekend. I've inherited Michigan from my big sister (who also bequeathed me Tom Brady, so, WINNING!).

And the Lady Huskies have the team and the player to put on a show.

Getting Ready For Sleepy Joe

Pres. Biden will have his first press conference at 1:15 ET today. If you enjoy afternoon naps, tune in and see if you doze off before Sleepy Joe does.

Late In The Process, But AstraZeneca Gets Strong Trial Results For Its Vaccine

AZ gets good results in its long-awaited US trial. However, they don't seem to be in a hurry to apply to the FDA for an Emergency Use Authorization and, given vaccine availability in the US, the FDA isn't in a hurry to approve them.

Barring major production setbacks from Moderna, Pfizer and/or Johnson & Johnson, the AZ trial seems to have been for science and show here in the US. Which is fine, since the rest of the world can use the reassurance.

HERE WE GO AGAIN: And now questions have been raised about their data.

Longing For a New Front In The Race Wars

Its very important to progressives that Asian-Americans feel themselves to be threatened by whites. Far too important an agenda item to be left to mere facts and fate.

From a different direction, Slate chatted with a properly progressive prof who was intent on explaining that any notion of Asian-American tension with Blacks is just lazy thinking. Are you remembering Korean-American shopkeeprs standing on their store rooftops during the LA riots? Or Al Sharpton leading protests against Asian-American deli owners in NYC? Don't be lazy!

And if you use that frame, you make it an Asian-Black thing, you’re focusing on the two groups and taking attention away from the larger structures of power in which they’re embedded—not just racial structures, but also capitalism. Think about the relationship between Korean merchants buying a liquor store in Compton, and their Black customers. This is about capitalism, the way it creates divisions between groups and deems certain people disposable.

Slate closes with solid advice from the professor - even if you're getting assaulted by a Black person, remember the real enemy!

But I think it’s important, when looking at violence against Asian Americans, not to lose that context. When Asian Americans understandably feel fear and anger and sorrow about these attacks on our own communities, I think we also have to ask ourselves, Are we fighting for Black lives as hard as we’re fighting for our own? It’s in moments like this that it’s really difficult to remember, because we’re afraid and upset. But to remember that we are advantaged, compared to Black people, is what it takes to be a good ally—even though it can be very hard, at times like these. But I think these are the moments when it’s the most important to do it.

That Went Well

This pre-fight weigh-in had the usual theatrics:

First U.S.-China meeting under Biden gets off to a rocky start

• • The first high-level gathering of U.S. and Chinese officials under President Joe Biden kicked off with an exchange of insults at a pre-meeting press event Thursday, according to NBC News.
  • The two-day talks are set to conclude Friday.
  • A planned four-minute photo session for the officials to address reporters ended up lasting one hour and 15 minutes due to a frothy exchange, according to NBC News

Dialing Back March Madness

For the first time in decades I had already sent in most of my tax stuff. Why bother?

IRS to Delay Tax Deadline to Mid-May After Chaotic Year

 

 

How The West Lost COVID

Solid New York Magazine overview of what went right (not much, except vaccines!) and wrong with our COVID response in the West and around the world:

How the West Lost COVID

How did so many rich countries get it so wrong? How did others get it so right?

I especially liked this passage:

In the U.S., the story of the pandemic year has been dominated by the character of the president who presided over it so ineptly, often with such indifference it seemed he was rooting for the disease. But the problem with assigning Donald Trump all, or even most of, the blame for America’s suffering is that the country’s failure isn’t unique. In fact, before the arrival of vaccines, the American experience of the coronavirus was not exceptional but typical — at least among those European nations it typically considers its peers. And as the New Year has brought a new administration, experts in fields from public health to economics have grown more comfortable acknowledging that catastrophe was much bigger and deeper than the denier-in-chief and indeed much more “normal” than Americans outraged or mourning are likely to understand.

Yes, the truth can now be told - the US was middle-of-the-pack among its obvious Euro-peers.

Live, Its Saturday Day!

Away we go.

Metaphor Alert!

Bite me. From CNN:

Biden German Shepherd has aggressive incident and is sent back to Delaware

"Aggressive behavior incident"? And what was the ABI?

Major, who was adopted by Biden in November 2018 from a Delaware animal shelter, had what one of the people described as a "biting incident" with a member of White House security. The exact condition of the victim is unknown, however, the episode was serious enough that the dogs were subsequently moved to Wilmington, Delaware, where they remain.

A biting incident? But not a 'man bites dog', I guess.

Major is a young-at-heart three year old; Champ is thirteen and apparently on a similar program to Sleepy Joe:

Major, who is 3 years old, is the younger of the two Biden dogs, and has been known to display agitated behavior on multiple occasions, including jumping, barking, and "charging" at staff and security, according to the people CNN spoke with about the dog's demeanor at the White House. The older of Biden's German Shepherds, Champ, is approximately 13 and has slowed down physically due to his advanced age.

So can Team Sleepy keep control of the aggressive, barely controlled youngsters like AOC? Sorry, Major Trouble? Who else will get savaged as they try to keep a lid on this?

Hearts must be racing at CNN.

Yet Another Cuomo Accuser

A third former Cuomo aide, Ana Liss, becomes his fourth accuser: [AND Then There Were Five, below]

ROCHESTER, N.Y.—A former aide of Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he asked her if she had a boyfriend, called her sweetheart, touched her on her lower back at a reception and once kissed her hand when she rose from her desk.

Ana Liss, now 35 years old, served as a policy and operations aide to Mr. Cuomo between 2013 and 2015. She said the actions by Mr. Cuomo were unsolicited and occurred in the first year while she sat at her desk, which was near his office in the Executive Chamber of the New York State Capitol in Albany.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Ms. Liss said she initially perceived Mr. Cuomo’s conduct as harmless flirtations. Over time, she said, she has come to see it as patronizing, and she added it diminished her from an educated professional to “just a skirt.”

“It’s not appropriate, really, in any setting,” she said.

In response to questions about Ms. Liss, Rich Azzopardi, a senior adviser to Mr. Cuomo said Saturday: “Reporters and photographers have covered the governor for 14 years watching him kiss men and women and posing for pictures. At the public open-house mansion reception, there are hundreds of people, and he poses for hundreds of pictures. That’s what people in politics do.”

PILING ON: A fifth woman sashayed forward, smiling provocatively... No, NO, NOOOO!

Former press aide Karen Hinton endured a “very long, too long, too tight, too intimate” embrace from Cuomo in a dimly lit Los Angeles hotel room in December 2000, she told the Washington Post.

The married Hinton pulled away, but “he pulls me back for another intimate embrace,” she told the paper. “I thought at that moment it could lead to a kiss, it could lead to other things, so I just pull away again, and I leave.”

At the time, Cuomo led the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

A current rep for Cuomo strongly denied Hinton’s allegation to the newspaper, claiming “this did not happen.”

 

The Cuomo Cover-Up

The Cuomo cover-up of his nursing home disaster began well before there was talk of a Federal investigation. That, as the Times notes, quashes Cuomo's "Orange Man Made Me Lie" defense.

Cuomo Aides Rewrote Nursing Home Report to Hide Higher Death Toll

The intervention was the earliest action yet known in an effort by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo that concealed how many nursing home residents died in the pandemic.

...

After the state attorney general revealed earlier this year that thousands of deaths of nursing home residents had been undercounted, Mr. Cuomo finally released the complete data, saying he had withheld it out of concern that the Trump administration might pursue a politically motivated inquiry into the state’s handling of the outbreak in nursing homes.

But Mr. Cuomo and his aides actually began concealing the numbers months earlier, as his aides were battling their own top health officials, and well before requests for data arrived from federal authorities, according to documents and interviews with six people with direct knowledge of the discussions, who requested anonymity to describe the closed-door debates.

Somewhat buried - the coverup was underway as Cuomo explored a book deal:

But the July report allowed Mr. Cuomo to treat the nursing home issue as resolved last year, paving the way for him to focus on touting New York’s success in controlling the virus.

“I am now thinking about writing a book about what we went through,” Mr. Cuomo said four days after the report’s release, his first public comments about a possible book.

By that point, he was already seeking formal approval from a state ethics agency to earn outside income from book sales, according to a person with knowledge of his planning at the time.

A cover-up for a book deal? Yeah, book 'em.

Back At It

My loving wife and I got our first round of shots yesterday. Pfizer. So far the only side effect is I won't be throwing fastballs with my left arm. Which, being right-handed, is not a big deal.