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Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel Defends Fivefold Price Hike of COVID Vaccine During Senate Grilling
Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel on Wednesday defended the company’s plans to hike the price of its COVID shots fivefold, deflecting pressure at a Senate hearing to abandon the hike while taking barbs over his compensation.
Moderna plans to increase the list price of its vaccine by 400% to $130 when the shots are sold on the private market as early as this fall. The company has been charging the U.S. government about $26 per dose.
Moderna expects demand for the vaccine to fall by 90%, leaving the company will be on the hook for any wasted doses, Bancel said. During the pandemic, the federal government picked up those costs.
Sanders accused Bancel of “profiteering” and “excessive CEO compensation” during his opening remarks. The senator later told Bancel the public doesn’t understand why Moderna is quadrupling the price of the vaccine when the company and its executives have made so much money.
China Suspends Access to Western Scientists Searching for COVID Origins
Western scientists researching the origins of the coronavirus pandemic have had their access to an international database suspended due to a complaint from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that they scooped data from a Chinese study.
The scientists — from the U.S., U.K., Canada and France — on Monday published a paper which said analysis of data from the start of the pandemic lent itself to the theory that COVID-19 emerged from a live animal in a wet market in Wuhan, a theory China supports.
The data, which itself caused controversy after being kept from the international community for three years, mysteriously disappeared from the database shortly after being uploaded in January this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) said. The Chinese CDC contends researchers had removed the data to update their own paper.
The latest controversy only adds to the mystery over the origins of the pandemic, the search for which has been frustrated by obfuscation by China, Western officials have previously said. It comes as a growing number of U.S. intelligence agencies and medical experts are entertaining the possibility that the virus spread into the human population as a result of a lab leak.
Biden Signs Law to Declassify COVID Origins. But …
President Biden this week signed legislation requiring the Director of National Intelligence to declassify information related to the origins of the coronavirus and in particular ties between a bio lab in the Chinese city of Wuhan and the pandemic that swept the globe, killing millions. But …
Let’s back up: Biden said in a statement he was “pleased” to sign the law and wanted to make public “as much information as possible.” The caveat came in the statement’s last line: “In implementing this legislation, my Administration will declassify and share as much of that information as possible, consistent with my constitutional authority to protect against the disclosure of information that would harm national security,” Biden said.
I flagged that line on Twitter after the statement landed on Monday, wondering how much the president’s interpretation of his authority (and duties) related to classified information would hamstring the release of coronavirus information.
China Approves an mRNA COVID Vaccine, Its First
China has for the first time approved a COVID-19 vaccine based on mRNA technology, greenlighting a homegrown shot months after the ruling Communist Party eliminated its strict pandemic restrictions.
China has long refused to use the foreign-made mRNA shots that were crucial in easing the pandemic in many parts of the world and that the United States first authorized for emergency use in December 2020. Beijing chose instead to promote its own pharmaceutical firms, first in rolling out a more traditional but less effective COVID vaccine, and later, in the pursuit of a homegrown mRNA, or messenger RNA, vaccine.
China’s new mRNA vaccine, developed by CSPC Pharmaceutical Group Ltd., based in the northern Chinese city of Shijiazhuang, was approved for emergency use by China’s health regulator, according to a statement from the company on Wednesday.
Rand Paul Dings ‘Self-Interested’ Fauci, Lab-Leak Critics, Scoffs at Biden ‘Caveats’ on COVID Info
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. pointed chiefly to frequent foil Dr. Anthony Fauci. “The people of America should realize that the people saying it didn’t come from a lab are self-interested,” Paul said.
“Tony Fauci approved and gave the money to the lab in Wuhan. So by proving that, he has and shares some culpability in the origins of this virus. So he’s always going to deny that it came from the lab because it comes back to his reputation for having the incredibly poor judgment to send this money to Wuhan.”
“So … the machinery of government over there is biased, and they’re never going to admit to this. But if you talk to the real scientists — and there’s dozens and dozens of eminent virologists now who have come to the conclusion this came from the lab,” Paul said.
The Kentucky senator argued most venerable experts would still want to seek policy reforms to make sure the U.S. no longer funds gain-of-function research credited with creating the pandemic‘s contagion — citing 12 purported American laboratories where similar study is still conducted.
Steps Have Dropped Since COVID and the Trend Is Worrisome, Study Says
Americans took fewer steps during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and they still haven’t gotten their mojo back, a new study found. “On average, people are taking about 600 fewer steps per day than before the pandemic began,” said study author Dr. Evan Brittain, associate professor of cardiovascular medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.
Oddly, it was younger people between 18 and 30 whose step counts were most impacted, Brittain said. “In fact, we found every 10-year decrease in age was associated with a 243-step reduction per day.”
Younger generations make up the majority of workers in technology, software and other professions that are able to work from anywhere, “whereas older people may have less of those jobs,” said Dr. Andrew Freeman, director of cardiovascular prevention and wellness at National Jewish Health, a hospital in Denver, who was not involved in the research.
Whatever the reason, the study data shows that people were not moving as much during the pandemic as they used to. That is worrisome, Freeman added.
End of COVID Emergency Will Usher in Changes Across the U.S. Health System
The Biden administration’s decision to end the COVID-19 public health emergency in May will institute sweeping changes across the healthcare system that go far beyond many people having to pay more for COVID tests.
In response to the pandemic, the federal government in 2020 suspended many of its rules on how care is delivered. That transformed essentially every corner of American healthcare — from hospitals and nursing homes to public health and treatment for people recovering from addiction.
The end of the emergency means nursing homes will have to meet higher standards for training workers.
A looming rollback of broader access to buprenorphine, an important medication for people in recovery from opioid addiction, is alarming patients and doctors. Amid a national epidemic of opioid addiction, if the expanded policy for buprenorphine ends, “thousands of people are going to die,” said Ryan Hampton, an activist who is in recovery.
