Author: BlackMask Financial

Preliminary laboratory studies demonstrate that three doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine neutralize the Omicron variant, while two doses appear to be significantly less effective, Pfizer said in a statement on Wednesday. The ability of a vaccine to protect against infection can be examined in two ways: in the laboratory to see if antibodies found in the blood of vaccinated individuals neutralize the variant, or by collecting data from the field to show how many vaccinated individuals become infected compared with unvaccinated individuals. The company’s scientists compared the results from blood taken from individuals who had received the booster a month earlier with those from blood from vaccinees with only two shots. Pfizer said that the level of protection offered by the booster against Omicron resulted similarly to the one provided by two doses of the vaccine against other variants. The research showed that the immunity offered by the third dose against Omicron was 25-times higher than the immunity offered by two doses. According to the statement, two doses likely still offer some protection against severe disease. “Our preliminary, first dataset indicates that a third dose could still offer a sufficient level of protection from disease of any severity caused by the Omicron variant,” said BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin. “Although two doses of the vaccine may still offer protection against severe disease caused by the Omicron strain, it’s clear from these preliminary data that protection is improved with a third dose of our vaccine,” said Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla. “Ensuring as many people as possible are fully vaccinated with the first two dose series and a booster remains the best course of action to prevent the spread of COVID-19.” However, at least one researcher said that Pfizer’s statements about the vaccine’s effectiveness must be taken with caution.

“It must be said honestly that currently Pfizer statements are based on in vitro experiments and in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the Omicron vaccine we will have to wait patiently to gather information from the real world,” said Dr. Oren Kobiler of Tel Aviv University. “Right now everything is speculation based on lab data.”

He added that in addition, there is concern that an updated and adapted vaccine to target the Omicron variant, which Pfizer said it could have ready by March, might be less effective against the Delta variant. The latter is still the most dominant strain in most of the world and “therefore it is unclear whether it is right to rush into further developments at this stage,” Kobiler said. Pfizer said that they will continue to collect both data from laboratory tests and from the field to obtain more information. Antibodies represent only one part of the immune system and therefore laboratory tests do not fully mirror the ability of the body to fight a disease. Earlier in the day, the research head of a laboratory at the Africa Health Research Institute in South Africa said that the Omicron variant can partially evade protection from two doses of Pfizer vaccine. Alex Sigal, a professor at the research institute, said on Twitter there was “a very large drop” in the neutralization of the Omicron variant relative to an earlier strain of COVID-19.  But the study showed that blood from people who had received two doses of the vaccine and had a prior infection was mostly able to neutralize the variant, suggesting that booster doses of the vaccine could help to fend off infection. NN: This is VERY preliminary data. We need to see the hospital data which will take a few more weeks…

NEW YORK (Reuters) -U.S. bank executives on Tuesday raised concerns about the impact of a sustained period of higher inflation, adding to pressure on the Federal Reserve to accelerate plans to slow down the pace of its asset purchases. Wells Fargo Chief Executive Charlie Scharf said at a conference that the Fed may need to move more quickly to address inflation concerns. Goldman Sachs Chief Executive David Solomon said he anticipated a period of higher inflation. The International Monetary Fund last week warned of intensifying inflationary pressures, especially in the United States, and said U.S. central bankers should focus more on inflation risks.

“There’s a case to be made that they (the Federal Reserve) should be moving faster than they’ve been moving,” said Scharf, speaking at the Goldman Sachs Financial Services Conference.

“Inflation is very, very real,” he said. “Prices are significantly higher for inputs across most industries. Labor shortage and wage increases are extremely real. Whether that continues for several years is not all that relevant but it certainly will have an impact over the next year or so.” The Fed needs to be ready to respond to the possibility that inflation may not recede in the second half of next year as most forecasters currently expect, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said last week. “My guess is now that there will be a quicker path to appropriate actions,” said Scharf. Goldman Sachs’ Solomon anticipates inflation will be higher for a period but doesn’t expect a repeat of the cost rises seen in the 1970s, he said in an interview with CNBC. “There’s a reasonable chance that we’re going to have inflation above trend for a period of time but that doesn’t mean it has to be like the 1970s,” he said. “You’ve got to be cautious and manage your risk appropriately.” Solomon acknowledged “uncertainty” in global financial markets due to factors including the Omicron COVID-19 variant and question marks over the pace at which the Fed and other central banks will reduce asset purchases. “We’re still not completely out of the pandemic. There’s uncertainty that comes from that and that uncertainty is going to affect economic activity,” he said. “On top of that, we have shifts going on in fiscal and monetary policy to try to balance that. There’s no question that this has been an unprecedented period so it’s very hard to predict how we’re going to come out of this.”

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Mandatory vaccinations against the coronavirus are an “absolute last resort”, head of the World Health Organization’s Europe division, Hans Kluge, told reporters on Tuesday. “Mandates around vaccination are an absolute last resort and only applicable when all feasible options to improve vaccination uptake have been exhausted,” Kluge said. NN: you could have people dropping dead in mass…….  They are not going to screw around with the holidays…

Tome Lee is one of the millennials stock market  cheer leaders. After the bubble burst he will be never seen again.

PARIS, Dec 6 (Reuters) – Frace now has identified 25 positive cases of the Omicron COVID-19 virus variant, of which 21 were imported from people returning from Southern Africa, and four who were the result of local infection, Health Minister Olivier Veran said on Monday. Veran said the Omicron variant seems much more contagious than the Delta variant. He also said that France is aiming to start offering COVID-19 vaccination to all children aged 5 to 11 from December 20, provided health authorities give the go-ahead.

England has community transmission of Omicron variant, health minister says

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s health minister said on Monday there is now community transmission of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus across regions of England but it is too early to say if this will “knock us off our road to recovery”. Defending the introduction of stricter rules to slow the spread of the virus, Sajid Javid told parliament the government was “leaving nothing to chance” while scientists assessed the variant, which was first reported in South Africa last month. Javid said there are now 261 Omicron cases in England, 71 in Scotland and four in Wales – a total of 336. “This includes cases with no links to international travel, so we can conclude there is now community transmission across multiple regions of England,” Javid said.

LONDON (Reuters) – Future pandemics could be even more lethal than COVID-19 so the lessons learned from the pandemic must not be squandered, one of the creators of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine said. “This will not be the last time a virus threatens our lives and our livelihoods,” Sarah Gilbert said in the Richard Dimbleby Lecture, the BBC reported. “The truth is, the next one could be worse. It could be more contagious, or more lethal, or both.” “We cannot allow a situation where we have gone through all we have gone through, and then find that the enormous economic losses we have sustained mean that there is still no funding for pandemic preparedness,” she said. “The advances we have made, and the knowledge we have gained, must not be lost.”

Negotiations between world powers and Iran over its nuclear program will spill over into a second week with the two sides still far apart.  The U.S. gave a bleak assessment of the latest round of negotiations in Vienna, saying Iranian officials weren’t serious about reviving a 2015 accord that limited Tehran’s atomic activities in return for sanctions relief. “We can’t accept a situation in which Iran accelerates its nuclear program and slow-walks its nuclear diplomacy,’’ the U.S. State Department said. Iran on Sunday said it can’t be expected to stop expanding its nuclear work until there’s an agreement on the U.S. lifting economic sanctions. Tehran’s chief negotiator, Ali Bagheri Kani, presented European diplomats with amendments to existing draft documents from previous rounds of talks. The negotiations have stalled since June, when hardline cleric Ebrahim Raisi won Iran’s presidential election. European officials, who asked not to be named, expressed disappointment and concern with Tehran’s proposed amendments.  “Time is limited,’’ the EU’s top envoy to the talks, Enrique Mora, said. “There is a sense of urgency.”  The stumbling negotiations have sent Iran’s national currency to a record low against the U.S. dollar. Talks are set to resume in the middle of this week.

In the Middle East, practical cooperation is gradually replacing the old narrative of Israeli-Arab relations, allowing for agreements to be decoupled from the Palestinian conflict, Zev Chafets writes for Bloomberg Opinion. The change began with the Abraham Accords, that this month led to a energy-for-water deal between Israel and Jordan, the biggest pact between the two countries since they signed a peace agreement 27 years ago. The diplomatic significance here is hard to overstate, Chafets says. NN: Iran now has enough enriched uranium to build several bombs. If it were the Trump administration Iran’s facilitates would. up in Israel created smoke. But Biden and his bunch off merry lefty liberals have warned Israel to stand down. As far as the oil markets any hopes of sanctions lifted and vast  amounts of Iranian oil coming to market have been shattered. Also please note Biden is looking the other way as Iran is delivering oil  and distillates to N.Korea, Cuba and Venizewalla

this is the promotional video for the very cruise that returned with a boatload of infected passengers…. so much for their safety protocols

(Reuters) – A cruise ship set to dock in New Orleans with over 3,000 passengers has detected 10 cases of COVID-19 among its crew and guests, the Louisiana Department of Health said late on Saturday. The cruise ship Norwegian Breakaway, owned by Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd, departed New Orleans on a weeklong cruise on Nov. 28 and had stops in Belize, Honduras and Mexico, the health agency said. “NCL has been adhering to appropriate quarantine and isolation protocols,” the department said in a tweet. The ship is set to reach New Orleans on Sunday morning, according to its itinerary. Everyone on board will be tested for COVID-19 before leaving and will be provided with post-exposure and quarantine public health guidance by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). People who test positive for COVID-19 will either travel to their homes or self-isolate according to CDC guidelines, the health agency said. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours. NN: Like it or not the plague is still with us. More infectios then ever. Which means crowd fests no mater how many toilet  paper masks and hand washing just plain will not work. How do you isolate  people plied with alachol on a floating gluttony barge. We are talking  5000 screaming mimes  board proven stupid by the fact they got on board in the first place?