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The United States passed a grim milestone this week of 200,000 deaths from the coronavirus. As the virus continues to spread, U.S. health officials and public health experts are discussing who should get a Covid-19 vaccine first and how. We have more on that below. CNBC's Bertha Coombs also has an update on Obamacare following the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
| | Battle for Supreme Court raises stakes on Obamacare | The Supreme Court won't hear Republican states' lawsuit challenging the Affordable Care Act until after the election. President Donald Trump's rush to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg with a conservative jurist before next year could tip the balance for the court to overturn the law. Analysts say the health care stock sell-off that followed this development was overdone. Still, the uncertainty will weigh on the sector for some time, in the same way investor fears about Medicare for All hit the group for much of last year.
-Bertha Coombs | | | | Johnson & Johnson, Novavax advance vaccine candidates into late-stage trials | J&J kicked off a 60,000-person phase 3 trial across three continents this week for its Covid-19 vaccine candidate, which is the only one so far to test just one dose. Chief scientist Paul Stoffels told us on "Squawk Box" that earlier studies suggested a single shot may be enough to help curb the pandemic, but the company also plans to test a two-dose regimen in the U.K. for optimal longer-term protection. Later in the week, Novavax announced the start of a 10,000-person phase 3 in the U.K., where R&D chief Gregory Glenn said a surge in cases should facilitate faster determination of efficacy. Novavax's 30,000-person U.S. phase 3 is expected to start in October.
-Meg Tirrell | | | | Who should get the vaccine first? It might not be the groups you expect | Once a vaccine is approved, it's unlikely that the doses will be made available to everyone all at once. So tough decisions will need to be made by public health officials about which groups should be prioritized over others. Panelists at a virtual meeting of the National Vaccine Advisory Committee this week took on that question. Some debate arose about whether health care workers, who might come into contact with patients diagnosed with the virus, should be highest on the list. As one bioethicist explained, many now have access to adequate personal protective equipment. "The question is, how at risk are health care workers, especially in the United States, especially in the era of adequate PPE," Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, said at the meeting. "Because at least in our hospital, transmission from patient to doctor with PPE [is] zero." Where the group agreed is that these decisions aren't easy. Emanuel concluded that the prioritization of a potentially life-saving vaccine is "very, very complex."
-Chrissy Farr | | | | Top U.S. health officials try to reassure people of coronavirus vaccine safety | Will an authorized coronavirus vaccine in the U.S. be safe? It's a question that more people appear to be contemplating as the nation races to develop a Covid-19 vaccine in historic time. New CNBC/Change Research polls suggest that the number of people willing to receive a coronavirus vaccine once it becomes available has fallen as concerns about a politicized approval process grow. U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn reassured lawmakers during a Senate hearing Wednesday that he wouldn't approve a vaccine that the agency "would not feel comfortable giving to our families." White House coronavirus advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Robert Redfield, head of the Centers for Disease Control, said they would take an FDA-authorized vaccine.
-Noah Higgins-Dunn, Jacob Pramuk | | | | CDC director says more than 90% of U.S. still susceptible to coronavirus | More than 90% of the country remains susceptible to a coronavirus infection, Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told lawmakers earlier this week. He said the CDC is working on a large study that seeks to more precisely determine how widely the virus has spread across the country. Previous infections are important to understand because infectious disease specialists think infection generally conveys some immunity against the virus for at least a few months. But Dr. Scott Atlas, a relatively recent addition to the White House Coronavirus Task Force, later disputed Redfield at a White House press briefing. "I think that Dr. Redfield misstated something there," he said, adding that the CDC data is outdated and doesn't account for all people who might have some immunity against the virus.
-Will Feuer | | | | Trump's Covid-19 vaccine czar responds to call for firing | President Trump's coronavirus vaccine czar told me this week that he's had "enough" of accusations that his former work in the pharma industry creates a conflict of interest. Dr. Moncef Slaoui, who was appointed May 15 to run Operation Warp Speed, is a former executive at GlaxoSmithKline as well as a former board member of Lonza Group and Moderna. Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren called for Slaoui's resignation Wednesday, accusing the White House of using a "loophole" in federal ethics law to hire him and keep his stock holdings private. Slaoui said he still holds shares in GSK, where he worked for nearly 30 years, and said he plans to use them as part of his retirement. But he said he divested all shares in companies that have interests in Covid-19 except for GSK.
-Berkeley Lovelace Jr. | | @Work Summit | October 6, 2020
Rewriting the Rules: Finding Opportunity in Unprecedented Times
CNBC's @Work Summit will examine the ways top leaders are innovating to thrive today and which advancements will make work more efficient and more rewarding in the future.
FEATURING
Sandra Rivera, Intel
Donna Morris, Walmart
Stewart Butterfield, Slack
Minsok Pak, Mondelez International
Vasant Prabu, Visa
Chuck Robbins, Cisco
James Manyika, McKinsey Global Institute
Stephanie Creary, Wharton School
and many more | |
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