After adjustment for covariates, the habitual use of vitamin D supplements was significantly associated with a 34% lower risk of COVID-19 infection (OR, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.45–0.97; P = 0.034). Circulating vitamin D levels at baseline or genetically predicted vitamin D levels were not associated with the risk of COVID-19 infection. The association between the use of vitamin D supplements and the risk of COVID-19 infection did not vary according to the different levels of circulating or genetically predicted vitamin D (P-interactions = 0.75 and 0.74, respectively). Nick Note: Take the damn Vitamin. I have seen recommendations of 10,000 IU per day. WITH NO REPORTS OF TOXICITY
A trial of an experimental coronavirus vaccine detected the most sobering signal yet that people who have recovered from infections are not completely protected against a variant that originated in South Africa and is spreading rapidly, preliminary data presented this week suggests. The finding, though far from conclusive, has potential implications for how the pandemic will be brought under control, underscoring the critical role of vaccination, including for people who have already recovered from infections. Reaching herd immunity — the threshold when enough people achieve protection and the virus can’t seed new outbreaks — will depend on a mass vaccination campaign that has been constrained by limited supply. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, noted that it appears a vaccine is better than natural infection in protecting people, calling it “a big, strong plug to get vaccinated” and a reality check for people who may have assumed that because they have already been infected, they are immune.
Some experts fear vaccines may be less effective against strains of the coronavirus that were first found in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil.
In the placebo group of the trial for Novavax’s vaccine, people with prior coronavirus infections appeared just as likely to get sick as people without them, meaning they weren’t fully protected against the B.1.351 variant that has swiftly become dominant in South Africa. The variant has been detected only a handful of times in the United States, including a case reported Friday in Virginia, which became the third state to identify the presence of the virus variant.The preliminary finding from the South African vaccine trial, based on a data set with limitations, stirred debate and concern among researchers as results first hinted at in a news release last week were revealed more broadly this week.
“The data really are quite suggestive: The level of immunity that you get from natural infection — either the degree of immunity, the intensity of the immunity or the breadth of immunity — is obviously not enough to protect against infection with the mutant,” Fauci said.
Even if they don’t agree on the scope of the threat, scientists said reinfection with new variants is clearly a risk that needs to be explored more. There is no evidence that second cases are more severe or deadly, and a world in which people may have imperfect protection against new versions of the virus is not necessarily a world in which thepandemic never ends.“I worry especially that some of these premature sweeping conclusions being made could rob people of hope,” said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Georgetown University’s Center for Global Health Science and Security. “I worry the message they may receive is that we’re never going to be rid of this. When in fact that’s not what the data suggests.” She and others emphasized the apparent lack of severe health repercussions from reinfection — and the lack of evidence that reinfection is common. When Maryland biotechnology company Novavax first disclosed results from two international vaccine trials last week, the company noted in its news release that some people in the trial with earlier infections had become reinfected, probably with the variant B.1.351, which had become dominant during the trial.On Tuesday, details of the Novavax trial were presented at the New York Academy of Sciences. About 30 percent of the people in the South African trial had antibodies in their blood at the start of the trial showing they had recovered from an earlier infection. But that previous exposure didn’t necessarily appear to afford protection. Among those who got saltwater shots, the people with a prior infection got sick at the same rate as study participants who had not been previously infected — a surprise because they would have been expected to have some immunity. Nearly 4 percent of people who had a previous infection were reinfected, an almost identical rate to those with no history of infection.
“It’s awful strong data,” said Larry Corey, a virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle who is co-leading the federal clinical trial network testing coronavirus vaccines in the United States. “Basically, it’s saying vaccination actually needs to be better than natural immunity. But vaccination is better than natural immunity.
The study found that two shots of the experimental vaccine did provide protection against the variant. The reinfection result was incidental to the main objective of the study, which was to determine the vaccine’s efficacy and safety. It was not designed to test the likelihood of reinfection, and others argued that it can’t be used to draw firm conclusions and cautioned against assuming that the previous infection provided no protection. The study backs up recent laboratory data from South African researchers analyzing blood plasma from recovered patients. Nearly half of the plasma samples had no detectable ability to block the variant from infecting cells in a laboratory dish. In a separate study, scientists at Rockefeller University in New York took blood plasma from people who had been vaccinated and found that vaccine-generated antibodies were largely able to block mutations found on the B.1.351 variant.Novavax did not provide a breakdown of mild, moderate and severe cases, but severe cases of covid-19 were rare in the trial, suggesting that reinfection is unlikely to send people to the hospital. “It is not surprising to see reinfection in individuals who are convalescent. And it would not be surprising to see infection in people who are vaccinated, especially a few months out from vaccine,” said Michel Nussenzweig, head of the Laboratory of Molecular Immunology at Rockefeller University. “The key is not whether people get reinfected, it’s whether they get sick enough to be hospitalized.” “Everyone’s still trying to digest this and asking, is this really what’s happening?
Because the implications are pretty huge,” said Chris Murray, who leads the modeling team at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. “If the data holds true, it means we will need to walk the public back on the idea of how close we are to the finish line for ending this pandemic.”
Others are less sure. Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist at Harvard University, said he couldn’t draw clear conclusions from the data because it remains limited and preliminary. “The pace has been dizzying, and several times today, I have learned new things that significantly change my view of those data,” Lipsitch said.Projections created by data scientist Youyang Gu — whose pandemic models have been cited by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — suggest that about 65 percent of America’s population will reach immunity by June 1. But built into that 65 percent is roughly 20 percent having immunity from past infections only. Scientists are unsure how the potential for reinfection might influence their projections. They are eager to see if other vaccine trial data in coming weeks will corroborate the trend from the Novavax trial.
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the state of the U.S. economy and the need to pass coronavirus disease (COVID-19) aid legislation during a speech in the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington, U.S., February 5, 2021. Nick Note: Everyday we get closer to a huge happy check bill. Why work? Pay rent? or your bills. Get paid to fuck, get high and trade Robin Hood… Its called millennial heaven! The only problem with this kind of heaven. It soons turns to hell. When your work becomes your play your play becomes your work and its not fun any more… And something always comes along to screw it up.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden’s drive to enact a $1.9 trillion coronavirus aid bill gained momentum on Friday as the U.S. Senate narrowly approved a budget blueprint allowing Democrats to push the legislation through Congress in coming weeks with or without Republican support.
At the end of about 15 hours of debate and votes on dozens of amendments, the Senate found itself in a 50-50 partisan deadlock over passage of the budget plan. That deadlock was broken by Vice President Kamala Harris, whose “yes” vote provided the win for Democrats.
This was a “giant first step” toward passing the kind of comprehensive coronavirus aid bill that Biden has put at the top of his legislative agenda, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said. Shortly before the final vote, Democrats flexed their muscles by offering an amendment reversing three earlier votes that Republicans had won. Those had used the coronavirus aid battle to voice support for the Canada-to-United States Keystone XL pipeline that Biden has blocked and support for hydraulic fracking to extract underground oil and natural gas. Also overturned was a Republican amendment barring coronavirus aid to immigrants living in the United States illegally. With Democrat Harris presiding, she broke a 50-50 tie to overturn those Republican victories. It marked the first time Harris, in her role as president of the Senate, cast a tie-breaking vote after being sworn in as Biden’s vice president on Jan. 20. Before finishing its work, the Senate approved a series of amendments to the budget outline, which had already passed the House of Representatives on Wednesday. As a result, the House must now vote again to accept the Senate’s changes, which could occur as early as Friday. For example, the Senate added a measure calling for increased funding for rural hospitals whose resources are strained by the pandemic. Senate Democrats and the Biden administration have said they want comprehensive legislation to move quickly to address a pandemic that has killed more than 450,000 Americans and left millions jobless. They want to spend the $1.9 trillion to speed COVID-19 vaccines throughout the nation. Other funds would extend special unemployment benefits that will expire at the end of March and make direct payments to people to help them pay bills and stimulate the economy. They also want to send money to state and local governments dealing the worst health crisis in decades. But as the hours wore on and dozens of amendments were offered, exhausted senators mainly spent the night disposing of Republican ideas, such as ending all U.S. foreign aid and prohibiting Congress from expanding the U.S. Supreme Court beyond its current nine justices. Senators voted on issues ranging from immigration and abortion to energy and taxes. But none of the approved amendments will carry the force of law in a budget blueprint and mainly are guidelines for developing the actual coronavirus aid bill in coming weeks. More importantly, the budget plan unlocks a legislative tool called reconciliation that is designed to let Democrats approve Biden’s $1.9 trillion proposal by a simple majority. Most legislation must get at least 60 votes in the 100-seat Senate to advance. But the chamber is divided 50-50 and Republicans oppose the Democratic president’s proposal. Reconciliation would allow the Senate’s 48 Democrats and two independents who align with them to approve the relief package, with a tie-breaking vote from Harris. Republicans have countered the budget plan with proposals that would be less than one-third the cost. While their plan dovetails with the Democrats’ in some respects, Biden has deemed it as too anemic to put the country back on its feet after a year of suffering through the pandemic. A group of 10 Republican senators who met with Biden at the White House on Monday sent him a letter on Thursday saying that significant amounts of money already appropriated by Congress have not yet been spent. Last year, Congress passed emergency bills totaling around $4 trillion to deal with the health and economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 virus. In early voting on Thursday, senators delivered a message to the Biden administration that direct payments should be tailored to those who need the money the most, as it voted 99-1 to recommend that high-income earners not qualify for a new round of government checks that could amount to $1,400 for individuals. Senators did not specify income limits. But an earlier round of direct payments placed thresholds of $75,000 for individuals and $150,000 for married couples before the money would start scaling down. “The decent compassionate thing is for us to target the relief to our neighbors who are struggling every day to get by” during the coronavirus pandemic, said Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, author of the proposal. Nick Note: The gifts keep coming. It looks like the only people who have to pay their bills are white mails… You hunky oppressor of the masses..
Keith Gill, the trader known on Reddit for reaping hefty gains from GameStop’s recent stock spike, is under investigation, The New York Times reported.
Gill rose to internet fame as pseudonyms Roaring Kitty and u/DeepFuckingValue when GameStop skyrocketed.
Regulators are probing whether his investment broke rules associated with his job as a financial advisor.
The risk-loving investor who goes by Roaring Kitty on YouTube and u/DeepFuckingValue on Reddit is being investigated for his previous job as a financial adviser, The New York Times reported Wednesday. Keith Gill rose to fame in January for his massive bet on GameStop. He first revealed his bullish stance on the beleaguered video-game retailer in a July YouTube video, saying that massive short interest in the stock could be leveraged to fuel a massive rally. Such a stock surge came to fruition last month, and Gill’s position allegedly swelled to $48 million from roughly $755,000 at the peak of the Reddit-trader phenomenon. Yet regulators in Massachusetts are now looking into whether Gill violated rules related to his previous job at Boston-based insurance firm MassMutual. Gill produced content for the company meant to promote financial wellness and education, according to the Times. MassMutual reportedly told regulators that Gill gave his notice on January 21 but was still an employee through January 28. Since Gill worked in the firm’s securities and investment advisory business and holds a CFA license, the lack of a disclosure regarding his GameStop trade could land him in hot water.
Credentialed financial advisors have an “obligation” to tell employers about outside investing activities, William Galvin, Massachusetts’ secretary of the commonwealth, told the Times. MassMutual was reportedly uninformed of Gill’s GameStop trades and messaging around the stock.
The firm also told regulators that might have fired Gill had he not stopped such activity, according to the report. Gill did not immediately reply to a request for comment. He also did not respond to the Times’ messages seeking comment. The latest activity on Gill’s Reddit account suggests he plans to spend less time in the spotlight. The investor posted a screenshot of his GameStop position on Wednesday showing his stake is now worth $22 million, adding he plans to “back off the daily updates for now.” The posts were among the most popular on Reddit and collectively garnered hundreds of dollars worth of virtual awards. Nick Note: This pump and dump market manipulator is known as Roaring kitty. I have a new name for him…. FUCKED DUCK!
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate early on Friday passed a budget plan that would allow for passage of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package in coming weeks without Republican support.
Vice President Kamala Harris broke a 50-50 tie by casting a vote in favor of the Democratic measure, sending it to the House of Representatives for final approval. Separate, more detailed legislation still would have to be crafted and passed to carry out Biden’s coronavirus-relief bill, which also could provide more time for negotiations with Republicans. Nick Note: What this means is happy checks will soon be on the way. And a whopping 2 Trillion Dollar stimulus package with all the dream legislation of the lefties is on the way.
LONDON (Reuters) – Frankfurt-listed shares in retail trader darlings such as videogame store GameStop and cinema operator AMC Entertainment fell in early trade on Thursday.
Shares of GameStop, which fell to $89 in after-market U.S. trade on Wednesday, were down 12.1% to 79.20 euros ($95.09).
AMC Entertainment, which settled at $8.60 in aftermarket trade, fell 8.6% to 7.45 euros ($8.94). Nick Note: Its really sad and comical to watch. The millennials are jerking themselves off with candle sticks and chart patterns like Fibonacci (a simple sequencing system from the 1100AD) and other jokes to try and figure out how low it can go. They bought these stocks on a short squeeze a game they did not understand and are not equipped to play. And were ill advised. As the stock price went higher they borrowed against the profitable shares they held to by more and more and more. Instead of realizing they are not smart but got lucky they rode it all the way up making their break even price higher and higher… and they are now booking massive losses while in their chat rooms jerking themselves off that the price will go back up. The real danger here is as they wipe out they will take their brokers down with them. I have made far more money on the short side. But you really really got to know what you are doing.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Wednesday he sealed a deal with GOP Leader Mitch McConnell on a new power-sharing agreement for Democrats to control the agenda in the Senate. The Senate is expected to vote on the final deal later Wednesday that would officially transfer the leadership gavels for Senate committees from Republicans to Democrats. The Senate is split evenly, 50-50, but Democrats hold the tie-breaking advantage with Vice President Kamala Harris able to cast the 51st vote. “The leadership of both parties have finalized the organizing resolution for the Senate,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said. “We will pass the resolution through the Senate today.” Schumer made it clear he’s prioritized climate change for Democrats’ turn at power for the next two years. “I’ve already instructed the incoming Democratic chairs of all relevant committees to begin holding hearings on the climate crisis in preparation for enacting President Biden’s ‘Build Back Better’ agenda,” Schumer said of Biden’s green jobs plan.
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., stands with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., as a joint session of the House and Senate convenes to confirm the Electoral College votes cast in November’s election, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021. (Kevin Dietsch/Pool via AP)
Schumer already announced the new Democratic committee chairs, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., as chair of the Budget Committee; Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., as Chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee; Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., as leader of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill, as the head of the Judiciary Committee. “I’m confident that our members are ready to hit the ground running on the most important issues that face our country,” Schumer said. “Senate Democrats are not going to waste any time taking on the biggest challenges facing our country and our planet.” The new power-sharing agreement is modeled after the organizing resolution from 2001 — the last time there was a 50/50 Senate. There have been hiccups along the way in striking a deal because McConnell wanted written assurances from Schumer that Democrats would not due away with the legislative filibuster. McConnell retracted his demand after two Democratic senators — Manchin and Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema — said they would not vote to get rid of the provision that requires 60 votes for most major legislation to advance. “Basic arithmetic now ensures that there are not enough votes to change the rule,” McConnell said last week.
There is a massive threat to our capital markets, the free market in general, and fair dealings overall. And no, it’s not China. It’s a homegrown threat that everyone has been afraid to talk about. Until now. That fear has now turned into rage. Hordes of new retail investors are banding together to take on Wall Street. They are not willing to sit back and watch naked short sellers, funded by big banks, manipulate stocks, harm companies, and fleece shareholders. The battle that launched this week over GameStop between retail investors and Wall Street-backed naked short sellers is the beginning of a war that could change everything. It’s a global problem, but it poses the greatest threat to Canadian capital markets, where naked short selling—the process of selling shares you don’t own, thereby creating counterfeit or ‘phantom’ shares—survives and remains under the regulatory radar because Broker-Dealers do not have to report failing trades until they exceed 10 days. This is an egregious act against capital markets, and it’s caused billions of dollars in damage. Make no mistake about the enormity of this threat: Both foreign and domestic schemers have attacked Canada in an effort to bring down the stock prices of its publicly listed companies. In Canada alone, hundreds of billions of dollars have been vaporized from pension funds and regular, everyday Canadians because of this, according to Texas-based lawyer James W. Christian. Christian and his firm Christian Smith & Jewell LLP are heavy hitters in litigation related to stock manipulation and have prosecuted over 20 cases involving naked short selling and spoofing in the last 20 years. “Hundreds of billions have been stolen from everyday Canadians and Americans and pension funds alike, and this has jeopardized the integrity of Canada’s capital markets and the integral process of capital creation for entrepreneurs and job creation for the economy,” Christian told Oilprice.com.
The Dangerous Naked Short-Selling MOIn order to [legally] sell a stock short, traders must first locate and secure a borrow against the shares they intend to sell. A broker who enters such a trade must have assurance that his client will make settlement. While “long” sales mean the seller owns the stock, short sales can be either “covered” or “naked”. A covered short means that the short seller has already “borrowed” or has located or arranged to borrow the shares when the short sale is made. Whereas, a naked short means the short seller is selling shares it doesn’t own and has made no arrangements to buy. The seller cannot cover or “settle” in this instance, which means they are selling “ghost” or “phantom” shares that simply do not exist without their action. When you have the ability to sell an unlimited number of non-existent phantom shares in a publicly-traded company, you then have the power to destroy and manipulate the share price at your own will. And big banks and financial institutions are turning a blind eye to some of the accounts that routinely participate in these illegal transactions because of the large fees they collect from them. These institutions are actively facilitating the destruction of shareholder value in return for short term windfalls in the form of trading fees. They are a major part of the problem and are complicit in aiding these accounts to create counterfeit shares. The funds behind this are hyper sophisticated and know all the rules and tricks needed to exploit the regulators to buy themselves time to cover their short positions. According to multiple accounts from traders, lawyers, and businesses who have become victims of the worst of the worst in this game, short-sellers sometimes manage to stay naked for months on end, in clear violation of even the most relaxed securities laws. The short-sellers and funds who participate in this manipulation almost always finance undisclosed “short reports” which they research & prepare in advance, before paying well-known short-selling groups to publish and market their reports (often without any form of disclosure) to broad audiences in order to further push the stock down artificially. There’s no doubt that these reports are intended to create maximum fear amongst retail investors and to push them to sell their shares as quickly as possible.
CANBERRA (Reuters) – About 2 million Australians began their first full day of a strict coronavirus lockdown on Monday following the discovery of one case in the community in Perth, capital of Western Australia state, but no new cases have since been found. Authorities ordered a five-day lockdown of Perth after a security guard at a hotel used to quarantine people returning from overseas was found to have contracted the virus. The state government said 66 people have been deemed close contacts of the unidentified guard and none of those already tested were infected. “In total 13 close contacts have now tested negative and of those 11 high-risk contacts have been moved into hotel quarantine as an extra precaution,” Western Australia state Premier Mark McGowan told reporters in Perth. Tests on the rest of the close contacts were expected to be completed on Monday, McGowan said. Australia has managed to largely contain its novel coronavirus epidemic – limiting cases to nearly 29,000 and deaths to 909 – with the sort of decisive action seen in Perth, and tight border controls. A vaccine campaign is due to begin this month, which Prime Minister Scott Morrison said would cost at least A$6.3 billion ($4.8 billion). Australia had already pledged to spend A$4.4 billion to acquire enough doses for its 26 million population, but Morrison said his government had set aside a further A$1.9 billion to pay for the roll-out. “The strategy is backed by an initial allocation of around A$1.9 billion in new support for the vaccine roll-out. This is on top of more than $4.4 billion allocated for vaccines purchases,” Morrison said in a speech in Canberra. Classifying the inoculation programme as his “first priority”, Morrison said the economy must now begin to wean itself off government spending. Australia has pledged more than A$250 billion in stimulus, which has already begun to taper. But Morrison said there was a limit to the support government could afford. “We are not running a blank cheque budget,” Morrison said. Nick Note: Its a really simple problem to have. Find a infection and lock the place down including the dogs….. And after 2 weeks its GONE. That is why Australia and New Zealand have virtually no infections and a coronvirus death is very very rare.
