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First human-tested vaccine gives early hope

QuickTake Tonight
Bloomberg

Greetings, QuickTake readers! In this edition: Reopening may come too late for Italian retailers, FBI blasts Apple over encrypted gunman's iPhones and robonauts are space exploration's next frontier.

Vaccine trial shows early promise

The first Covid-19 vaccine to be tested in humans appears safe and able to generate coronavirus-killing antibodies in test subjects, Moderna said Monday. The findings are just a sample from its phase one clinical trial in which eight volunteers who were given two doses of the vaccine in March developed antibodies on par with recovered virus patients.

"The data couldn't have been better," Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said, calling the results "a very good sign that we make an antibody that can stop the virus from replicating." Chief Medical Officer Tal Zaks said the figures "substantiate our belief that mRNA-1273 has potential to prevent Covid-19 and advance our ability to select a dose for pivotal trials."

Side effects seen in the trial included fatigue, fever, muscle pains and headache, and all of the symptoms resolved within a day. Moderna is moving into phase two of its clinical trials to further study its effectiveness, and it plans to test thousands of patients in phase three this summer.

$ignificant figures

270,000. That many Italian merchants out of some 2.7 million are at risk of failing, particularly in the northern Lombardy region, even as businesses from bars to hairdressers reopened Monday.

265 km/h. Authorities are preparing to evacuate 5 million people ahead of a cyclonic storm with wind speeds equivalent to a category 5 hurricane that's set to hit the coasts of India and Bangladesh late Wednesday.

$560,000. A mismatched pair of Nike Air Jordan 1s (sizes 13 and 13.5), worn by Michael Jordan in 1985, fetched three times Sotheby's estimated price at auction, breaking the world record for sneakers.

Highly quotable

"Global public good." Chinese President Xi Jinping vowed to make any Covid-19 vaccine universally available once it's developed and pledged $2 billion over two years to support the global fight against coronavirus.

"Effectively no help from Apple." Barr said the FBI unlocked encrypted iPhones from the Pensacola naval base shooter and found "substantial ties" to al-Qaeda. He also said he doesn't expect a criminal probe of Obama or Biden, despite prodding by Trump.

"Comprehensive evaluation." The WHO bowed to calls from African, European and other countries to launch an independent probe into "lessons learned" from its coordination of the global response to Covid-19.

This is not normal

Disaster scenario. The risk of extreme flooding in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's biggest metropolis, could be 10 times greater by 2050, resulting in billions of dollars in economic and infrastructural damage.

The future is now

Robonauts. Tech startup Gitai is developing robots that can be remotely operated from Earth and launched into space to handle astronauts' tasks, laying the groundwork for the next era of humans working in space.

What's good

Shaking off stress. Dozens of Kenyan nurses and health-care workers took part in a socially distanced Zumba class to alleviate anxiety and prioritize mental health before returning to work to treat Covid-19 patients.

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BTW: Are treadmill partitions in gyms and inner tube tables at restaurants the new normal of social distancing? Tell us what you think.

Thanks for reading!
-Andrew Mach

 

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