DAILY DOSE: October 6, 2021
Posted on 10/06/2021
1. Battle Creek-based Kellogg Company is facing a union strike. Kellogg Company’s U.S. cereal plants stopped production on October 5, 2021 when around 1,400 workers went on strike. The impacted plants include: Omaha, Nebraska; Battle Creek, Michigan; Lancaster, Pennsylvania; and Memphis, Tennessee. The union dispute includes pay and benefit issues such as the loss of premium health care, holiday and vacation pay and reduced retirement benefits.
2. Germany’s Federal Network Agency had approached Nord Stream 2, a 1,200 kilometer pipeline, for assurances that it would meet all regulatory requirements when it enters into operation. The pipeline has the capacity to send 55 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Russia to Germany annually
3. Northern Europe’s largest shipping and logistics company DFDS A/S is buying 100 electric heavy trucks from Volvo Group. This is the largest commercial order of electric trucks for DFDS so far.
4. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) hiked interest rates on October 6, 2021 for the first time in seven years. RBNZ increased the cash rate to 0.5% – a 25 basis point increase. RBNZ signaled more tightening is expected to control inflation and local housing.
5. Drug giant Merck & Co. is working with the Singapore government on buying molnupiravir, an experimental antiviral Covid-19 oral drug pill. Studies show that the pill slashes the risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19. Singapore will gain access to molnupiravir once certain regulatory milestones are achieved, according to a statement from Merck.
6. According to a new study published on the bioRxiv preprint server, antibody levels could wane after 7 months for people who got the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine. The research study found that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine induces high levels of neutralizing antibodies against the original vaccine strain, but these levels drop by nearly 10-fold by 7 months.
Some highly-vaccinated COVID-19 mRNA states like Massachusetts are experiencing COVID breakthrough cases. Massachusetts health officials on October 5, 2021, reported nearly 4,000 new COVID breakthrough cases over the past week, and 46 more deaths.