DAILY DOSE: October 7, 2021
Posted on 10/07/2021
1. U.S. DEFAULT AVERTED. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell blinked as the Senate’s short-term deal raised the debt ceiling by US$ 480 billion, extending the deadline to December 3, 2021.
2. Poland’s top court ruled that says the country’s constitutions trumps some European Union laws.
3. Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison described social media as a “coward’s place” and he warned that these platforms that include Facebook could be held liable for defamatory comments posted anonymously. Australia also created a law that could imprison social media executives if their platforms stream violent images.
In 2021, Australia passed laws that mandate Google and Facebook to pay for journalism.
4. Armin Laschet resigns as Chairman of Germany’s Conservative CDU party.
5. Invesco creates digital assets and blockchain thematic equity ETFs in the U.S.
6. Huw Pill was named Chief Economist and Executive Director for Monetary Analysis at the Bank of England in September 2021. Pill recently said that negative interest rates are both feasible and likely to ease monetary conditions.
7. NORDICS HALT MODERNA FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. Sweden’s Public Health Agency recommended a temporary halt to the use of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine among young adults over concerns of inflammation of the heart muscle (myocarditis) and inflammation of the pericardium (pericarditis). “The Public Health Agency has decided to pause the use of Moderna’s vaccine Spikevax, for everyone born 1991 and after, for cautionary reasons,” the agency said in a statement, adding that those groups should instead receive the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
On October 7, 2021, the Finnish health Institute also halted the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine for younger males due to reports of a rare cardiovascular side effect, joining Sweden and Denmark in limiting its use.
8. Pfizer Inc. is asking the U.S. FDA approval for its COVID shots for children as young as 5. According to CDC data, COVID deaths in the U.S. for children aged 0-4 was 181 out of total COVID deaths of 700,951, from start week January 4, 2020 to October 2, 2021. COVID deaths in the U.S. for children and teens aged 5-18 was 406 for the same time period vs. 378,496 for people aged 75 years and above.