DAILY DOSE: August 17, 2021
Posted on 08/17/2021
1. COVID BOOSTERS. Despite receiving COVID-19 gene vaccinations, a booster shot is in the midst of being offered for U.S. residents and vulnerable populations. Vaccines are supposed to prevent years of protection; however, these controversial COVID shots appear to be offering protection for only a certain time period as new COVID variants crop up. Health Director Dr. Francis Collins said Tuesday on the “The Hugh Hewitt Show,” said that “The people who got immunized in January are the ones that are now having more breakthrough cases.”
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized third doses of both the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna coronavirus vaccines for certain immunocompromised people.
Pfizer and Moderna shares have been increasing since the advent of their COVID gene vaccine products. Moderna shares went up 6.6% on August 17, 2021, after the U.K. regulator approved the COVID-19 shot for 12-17-year-olds.
2. TATTLING FOR “MISINFORMATION”. Social media arbiter Twitter will let some users report misinformation. Twitter plans to use the results to consider expanded “fact-checking”. In addition, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio questioned the CEO of YouTube over censorship concerns. Rubio called for U.S. President Joe Biden to block the popular social media app TikTok in the U.S., which is owned by China-based ByteDance.
3. PARTY POOPER. Airbnb plans to enforce anti-party restrictions for Halloween in October 2021.
4. According to the Status Committee, Azerbaijan oil output was at 20.1 million tons in January-July 2021.
5. Salesforce.com integrates Slack features in its services. Salesforce is a highly acquisitive company, buying Tableau for US$ 15.7 billion in 2019.
6. India starts releasing oil to state-owned refiners as it commercializes strategic reserve under a policy shift.
7. COMCAST KILLER? Amazon.com, Inc. plans to invest US$ 10 billion to develop Project Kuiper. Kuiper Systems LLC is a subsidiary of Amazon that was set up in 2019 to deploy a large broadband satellite internet constellation to provide broadband internet connectivity. On another note, Blue Origin, the private space company owned by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, escalated its dispute with NASA over the agency’s Human Landing System contract to a U.S. federal court after losing a case before the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). In April 2021, NASA awarded a US$ 2.9 billion contract to SpaceX.
8. SHOW ME YOUR PAPERS. Wall Street giant Morgan Stanley is requesting vaccinated employees who received the COVID shots to show proof of the shots. Goldman Sachs employees are currently required to report their vaccine status to the company, but are not required to show proof.
9. BIDEN’S BOTCHED PULLOUT FROM AFGHANISTAN, EMBOLDENS CHINA. After the Taliban stunningly took over Afghanistan after a near 20-year defeat, China flexed its muscles on Taiwan. “Taliban’s rapid victory embarrasses U.S., smashes image, arrogance,” stated one headline in Global Times, a Chinese Communist Party media outlet.
“From what happened in Afghanistan, they should perceive that once a war breaks out in the [Taiwan] Straits, the island’s defense will collapse in hours and the U.S. military won’t come to help,” Global Times said.
China views Taiwan as a rebellious province, and has already asserted more control of Hong Kong, which was a former U.K. colony city. British Hong Kong was a colony and dependent territory of the British Empire from 1841 to 1997.