Chinese language hospital says half of its employees have contracted Covid

Locals queue for medical treatment at Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine on June 1, 2022.

CFOTO | Future Publishing | Getty Images

BEIJING — About half of the nearly 2,000 workers at the Beijing Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital have contracted Covid-19 during the latest wave, director Liu Qingquan said Wednesday.

Liu told reporters that all the workers recovered after taking traditional Chinese medicine. He said of the 1,000 employees infected, only one, who already had high blood pressure, developed pneumonia.

China has promoted the use of traditional Chinese medicine alongside Western treatment of Covid. Instead of pharmaceutical drugs, traditional Chinese medicine relies on medicinal herbs and natural methods to help the body heal itself.

The Omicron variant swept across China in December when authorities abruptly ended most Covid controls. Local businesses reported that the majority of their employees fell ill within a week before recovering. In the city of Beijing alone, tens of thousands of people rushed to fever clinics in a single day, local authorities said.

Because of the surge in patients, doctors and nurses were unable to return home for several days, Liu said. He said health workers sometimes have to work while they themselves are sick and taking medication.

Over the past two weeks, officials in the city of Beijing and other Chinese urban centers have said they have weathered the worst of the Covid outbreak.

Although the situation has eased, “from the hospital’s point of view, our pressure is still very strong,” Wang Guiqiang, director of the infectious diseases department at Beijing University First Hospital, said on Wednesday. This emerges from a CNBC translation of his remarks into Mandarin.

The hospital has converted additional wards into critical care areas and trained doctors to become intensive care unit nurses, Wang said.

Pfizer’s Covid-19 drug

Locals have also rushed to stock up on medicines in the wake of the recent Covid wave in China, leading to shortages and long lines outside pharmacies over the past month.

PfizerThe drug Paxlovid, used to treat Covid, remains in short supply domestically, Wang said. But he said the drug will soon be manufactured in China by a local company.

Pfizer has signed an agreement with a local partner to manufacture Paxlovid in China, CEO Albert Bourla said, according to transcripts Monday at the JPMorgan Health Care Conference. He said local production could start as early as three or four months.

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Paxlovid is only covered by China’s basic national health insurance until March 31, China’s health security agency said on Sunday. The drug couldn’t produce an annual list of insurable drugs because Pfizer charged too high a price, the administration said.

CEO Bourla said what China plans to pay is “below the lowest in the middle” price bracket — a range 60% to 70% below what high-income countries pay.

“We didn’t agree,” Bourla said. “They are the second highest economy in the world. And I don’t think they should pay less than [El] Salvatore.”

If negotiations don’t change the situation by April, Bourla said, “we will move forward with the private market in China, which matters.”

Demand for Paxlovid from China has exploded from a few thousand to millions, he said without elaborating.

note and Chinese companies are also selling Covid drugs in the local market.

Concentrate on the treatment

Since mandatory testing for Covid ended in early December, official local outbreak figures have fallen sharply.

When asked about Covid deaths, Wang said calculating additional deaths is the best way, such as comparing the numbers to December 2021.

It is not clear how quickly these numbers would be available. China has said only a handful of deaths meet its criteria for being linked to Covid. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the total number of deaths in the country has increased since December.

“At this point in time, I don’t think it’s necessary to investigate each and every case. Treating patients should be a priority,” said Liang Wannian, executive vice-dean of the Vanke School of Public Health at Tsinghua University. That’s according to a CNBC translation of his Mandarin language comments on Wednesday.

Liang said the country will be on the lookout for new Covid variants and will report them in a timely manner. He didn’t go into much detail about the procedures for doing this.

A change in the Covid-related hospitalization or death rate would be the earliest indication of a new variant, said Dr. Chris Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, in late December. He said the likelihood of a new Covid variant emerging in China is slim.

The World Health Organization said this week that China is providing more information on the Covid-19 outbreak, but the country is still far under-reporting deaths, according to Reuters.

On Wednesday, Liang said the most difficult phase of China’s Covid wave was over, especially in rural areas.

But he said according to China’s latest Covid policy, local authorities facing a major outbreak could still move classes online and restrict large gatherings.

Titanic followers won’t ever let go of Kate Winslet’s hair debacle

It’s been 84 years and we’re still trying to take care of this photo.

In honor of the 25th anniversary of Titanic, a new poster featuring the beloved rose (Kate Winslet) and Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio). But instead of focusing on the two stars, fans are hanging on to Rose’s two simultaneous hairstyles.

As seen in the promotional artwork, Rose sports two very different hairstyles on either side of her head. On one side, the character has a curly updo, while on the other side, Kate’s character wears her curls with no curls.

The decision to have both hairstyles used in the photo stopped many Titanic fans. One user wrote, “When I’m about to do my hair and Lyft says the lifeboat will be here in 2 minutes.” Meanwhile, another added, “That’s weird.”

But the striking hair isn’t the only aspect of the poster that Flack gets. Some viewers feel that Jack, who is holding Rose on the poster, is also looking away. One user added, “Leo’s fingers are weird and don’t reach for anything.”

Jim Cramer likes these 5 “pretty” rated shares within the S&P 500

CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Wednesday offered investors a list of stocks he thinks could be great additions to portfolios.

“We only want … stocks if they’re reasonably valued because this market has very little patience for expensive stuff,” he said.

Here is his list:

Earnings season kicks off on Friday with reports from big banks and airlines in full swing, and Cramer said he’s concerned analysts’ earnings estimates for 2023 look overblown given the state of the economy.

“My bet is that many companies will be making conservative forecasts and analysts will have to trim their full-year estimates if they are worried about a Fed-induced recession caused by multiple rate hikes,” he said.

As a result, he decided to focus on the price-to-earnings-to-growth ratio of stocks when compiling his picks. “That tells you whether a stock is cheap or expensive relative to its own growth, and that’s what really matters,” he said.

Cramer’s stock screen methodology

To create his list, Cramer first took all the stocks in the S&P 500 and eliminated those that didn’t have meaningful analyst coverage. Then he took out the companies expected to lose money or post negative earnings growth in 2023.

From this consolidated list, he eliminated companies expected to post earnings growth of less than 5%. Stocks with nosebleed price-earnings multiples were also eliminated.

“This market hates anything with a high price-to-earnings ratio, so anything that’s trading at more than 30 times earnings — out,” Cramer said. He also trimmed stocks trading below 10 times earnings as “a low multiple is a signal that Wall Street just doesn’t believe earnings estimates.”

Then, after getting rid of all the stocks with a dividend yield of less than 2%, he was left with 77 names. Finally, he ran a PEG ratio screen on the stocks, crossing out stocks where the price-to-earnings ratio was more than double the earnings growth rate. With 40 names left, he picked his top five.

Disclaimer: Cramer’s Charitable Trust owns shares in Morgan Stanley.

Jim Cramer likes these 5

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Biden expands public well being emergency as omicron XBB.1.5 spreads

People wearing masks walk next to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) testing site in New York City, New York, the United States, December 12, 2022.

Eduardo Munoz | Reuters

The Biden administration has extended the Covid-19 public health emergency until April as a highly transmissible omicron subvariant is raising concerns the US could face another wave of hospitalizations for the disease this winter.

“The COVID-19 public health emergency remains in effect, and as HHS has previously committed, we will provide states with 60-day notice in advance of a possible termination or expiration,” a spokesman for the Department of Health said Health and Human Services.

The US has renewed the Covid public health emergency every 90 days since the Trump administration first issued the declaration in January 2020.

The declaration of a state of emergency has had a tremendous impact on the US healthcare system over the past three years. It has protected public health insurance coverage for millions, given hospitals greater flexibility to respond to increases in patient numbers, and expanded telemedicine.

The White House Covid Task Force, led by Dr. Ashish Jha has repeatedly tried to reassure the public that the US is in a much stronger place today due to the widespread availability of Covid vaccines and treatments that prevent serious illness and death from the virus.

In August, HHS urged local and state health officials to prepare for the emergency to end soon. HHS has committed to providing state governments and healthcare providers with 60 days’ prior notice before the statement is lifted.

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President Joe Biden said the pandemic was over in September, a time when infections, hospitalizations and deaths were falling. But HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra told reporters during a call in October what the virus does this winter would determine whether or not the emergency must go ahead.

Once U.S. officials decide to end the public health emergency, hospitals will lose flexibility in how they deploy staff, add beds and care for patients as admissions spike. The lifting of the state of emergency could also impact the greatly expanded role pharmacies have played in administering vaccines during the pandemic, although the extent of that impact is not yet clear.

Millions of Americans are also expected to lose health insurance coverage under Medicaid in the coming months. Congress prohibited states from kicking people out of the program for the duration of the public health emergency. As a result, Medicaid enrollments have increased by 30% to over 83 million.

Last month, Congress severed Medicaid protections from the public health emergency and said states could begin withdrawing people from Medicaid in April if they no longer meet eligibility requirements.

Omicron XBB.1.5 is spreading rapidly

The subvariant omicron XBB.1.5 quickly becomes dominant in the USA. Scientists believe it has a growth advantage because it attaches better to human cells and is also adept at bypassing immunity. The World Health Organization has described it as the most transmissible subvariant to date, although there is no data to suggest it makes people sicker.

Since the arrival of omicron in the US in late 2021, unleashing massive waves of infection across the US and around the world, Covid has splintered into an alphabet soup of subvariants that evolve to become increasingly adept at promoting immunity from vaccination and to avoid infections.

Columbia University scientists found in a study published in December that the BQ and XBB families of Omicron subvariants pose the biggest threat to the Covid vaccines and could be causing a surge in breakthrough infections. These subvariants are also resistant to all approved antibody treatments used to protect people with compromised immune systems.

In a series of Twitter posts over the past week, Jha said he’s concerned about XBB.1.5’s rapid rise, but doesn’t think the subvariant will be a major setback. He encouraged people to get an Omicron booster shot if they haven’t already, and encouraged the susceptible to get antiviral treatment if they have a breakthrough infection.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 38% of seniors age 65 and older have received an omicron booster shot to date. There is concern that the proliferation of XBB.1.5 could lead to an increase in hospitalizations and deaths among older Americans.

Jha said most people who are currently being hospitalized and dying from Covid are aged 70 and over and are either not up to date on their vaccines or not receiving treatment if they have a breakthrough infection.

Home Majority Chief Scalise dodges debt ceiling questions

US House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Republican of Louisiana, speaks next to House of Representatives Republican Conference Speaker Elise Stefanik (L), Republican of New York, during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC January 10 2023

Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images

Republican Majority Leader of the House Steve Scalise on Tuesday dodged thorny questions about whether Congress would allow the U.S. to pay its debt after lawmakers passed new rules making it harder to raise federal borders.

The US is dangerously close to hitting its debt ceiling of about $31.4 trillion, the legal limit set by Congress on how much the federal government can borrow. It includes the total outstanding federal debt of about $24.5 trillion, as well as the nearly $6.9 trillion the government has borrowed from itself. If Congress doesn’t raise the debt ceiling soon, it would inevitably lead to a US Treasury default – an unprecedented event that would plunge the nation into a financial crisis.

“America occasionally hits the debt ceiling over time because it’s like a credit card limit,” Scalise, R-La., said at a Capitol news conference. He was responding to a reporter who asked him to explain what lawmakers had agreed on regarding the debt ceiling and whether he could “guarantee” the US would not default.

“And if at some point you ask for the limit to be increased, do you have to sit down and say why are we hitting the limit? Why are we maxing out the credit card? Because it’s the nation’s credit card,” he added.

It will be much more difficult for lawmakers to raise the debt limit under the new Congress, since House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., has approved a set of rules mandating that any increase in the debt limit be accompanied by spending cuts. It was one of several concessions he made to gain support from a group of conservative Republicans who had blocked his oratory.

The debt ceiling debate is already raising questions on Wall Street. Citing McCarthy’s hard-fought battle and 15 rounds of voting, Goldman Sachs economists cited the rule changes as a concern about whether Congress would raise the debt ceiling, saying in a research note Monday it would likely be a “close decision.”

“The debt ceiling will be a problem,” the report said. “Tax deadlines will pose a greater risk this year than they have in a decade.”

The US last raised the debt ceiling by $2.5 trillion in December 2021. According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget monitoring group, the increase is expected to last until at least July 2023.

Removing the debt ceiling does not justify new spending; it allows the government to borrow more money to cover existing obligations. And since the federal government is constantly spending more than it takes in from taxes, the legislature has to raise the debt ceiling periodically. Failure to raise the debt ceiling could cause the government to default and halt day-to-day operations, creating potential turmoil in markets and the economy.

The last major crack above the debt ceiling was in late 2011, caused by the withholding of a newly elected Republican congressional majority. Although the US ultimately did not default on its debt, the chaos led to Standard & Poor’s issuing the first downgrade of the government’s credit rating.

A September 2021 report by Moody’s Analytics says a Treasury default could send the US economy into a tailspin like the Great Recession. Moody’s forecasts a 4% drop in GDP and the loss of nearly 6 million jobs if the US defaults.

In the short term, a default could delay Social Security and Medicare benefits, salaries for government employees, military personnel and contractors, and other expenses already approved by Congress.

The process of raising the debt limit has been routine for Congress for decades. According to the US Treasury Department, lawmakers have permanently raised, temporarily extended, or somehow changed the definition of the debt limit 78 times since 1960 to avoid defaulting.

More recently, some House Republicans, including McCarthy, have used it as a negotiating tactic to cut spending. Scalise used that reasoning on Tuesday, telling reporters the government needs to review how much money it’s handing out.

“At the same time, you’re dealing with the debt limit and setting up mechanisms so you’re not constantly maxing it out,” Scalise said, “because if the limit goes up, you don’t go to the store the next day and just max it out again.” You begin to figure out how to control the spending problem. And it’s been like this for far too long. And we’re going to deal with that, and I think the American people have challenged us to confront that.”

Teen works to assist different black women after shedding her hair

After a teenager named Eleora Ogundare suffered hair loss as a result of her sickle cell anemia treatments, she set out to help other people who were in similar predicaments. Now the 15-year-old is fulfilling that mission through her and her mom’s booming business: Eleora Beauty.

Speaking to CBC News, Eleora looked back on the journey that brought her to this point, which began when she was diagnosed with sickle cell disease when she was just 8 years old. As a result of her chemotherapy treatments, Eleora began suffering from hair loss that took quite a toll.

“My hair was my confidence because the kids I dated liked the long, beautiful long hair.”

Eleora and her mother Eugenia Ogundare eventually decided to shave their heads to get the process over with.

“I no longer had what gave me confidence. I had to cut everything.”

Her mother tried to help wherever she could

In response to her daughter’s situation, Eugenia wanted to help boost Eleora’s confidence, realizing that the hair loss could be affecting her “sense of identity”.

“The struggle for her is identity, you know, trying to understand why her hair isn’t as silky as the next person in her class.”

Eugenia also noted that while a black woman’s hair is her “crown,” it’s “a whole different ball game” when you lose her beloved locks.

As a result, Eugenia devoted time experimenting with different hair oils and creams until she came up with her very own formula to regrow Eleora’s hair. Specifically, she says the user benefits are proof that her product can work wonders.

“One of the problems that black women actually face is edging, so the first thing we get is, ‘Oh, it’s actually working for my edging. And then we get the moms who are like, ‘Oh, my daughter’s hair was difficult to manage. It’s more manageable [now].'”

Teen entrepreneurs use childhood illnesses as a starting point to help other black girls and women https://t.co/52j1TMsaUA

— Calgarynews (@calgarynews) January 10, 2023

Bring self-love, awareness and self-confidence

Adedoyin Omotara — a salon owner in Calgary, Alberta — sells Eleora Beauty in her shop, and she notes the importance of black girls finding products that “actually work.” [their] Hair.”

“It’s a big part of who we are, especially physically, but we need to understand the impact it has on the inside. Younger people need to understand that there are products that can actually work for our hair so they don’t start putting toxic products in their hair just to look like another Sharon on the street.”

The salon owner added, “Whatever issues we face in our community, we remain the solution to those issues.”

On that point, Eleora notes that she believes she is “making a difference in young girls’ lives.”

“When I was younger, I kind of wished I had something like that to make me feel more confident. But I’m glad I’m doing it now to help other people.”

Greetings to Eleora and Eugenia Ogundare and we wish them all the best in their journey of helping other black girls suffering from hair loss!

Vitality Switch is an excellent inventory

Nvidia Corp: “Nvidia is a great company, but it sells at a very high price-to-earnings ratio. … We withdrew a little [for the Charitable Trust].”

Blackstone Minerals Ltd: “I don’t know Blackstone Minerals. I’ll have to work on this situation some more.”

EVgo Inc: “Our biggest fear is again losing money and it no longer meets our criteria for what we recommend.”

Energy transfer LP: “ET is actually a very good stock. … Times are changing and it’s just gotten better and better.”

Medical Properties Trust Inc: “I don’t like this, this particular part of real estate investment trusts. I think they’re too profitable, so I’m worried they won’t be able to make the distribution.”

Axelis Technologies Inc: “Some of these companies in this business are doing amazingly well. And you have to give them that.”

Disclaimer: Cramer’s Charitable Trust owns shares of Nvidia.

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Bernie Sanders tells Moderna to not elevate vaccine value

Senator Bernie Sanders on Tuesday urged Moderna not to quadruple the price of its Covid-19 vaccine once shot distribution moves to the commercial market.

In a letter to Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel, Sanders called the price hike “outrageous.” The independent Vermont senator and future chair of the Senate Health Committee said such a sharp rise in prices would make the vaccines unavailable to millions of uninsured Americans and potentially put their lives at risk if Covid continues to spread.

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Sanders, who has become an influential national figure after his two unsuccessful bids for the Democratic presidential nomination, has repeatedly denounced the drug industry for high drug prices in the powerful Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

Sanders said an increase in vaccine prices would also negatively impact Medicaid and Medicare budgets, which will continue to cover the vaccines at no cost to the programs’ beneficiaries. Sanders wrote that private health insurance premiums would also rise as a result of a price increase for vaccines.

“Your decision will cost taxpayers billions of dollars,” Sanders wrote to Bancel.

Bancel told The Wall Street Journal on Monday that Moderna is considering a price in the range of $110 to $130 per Covid vaccine dose if the recordings are sold in the commercial market. The federal government, which has handled vaccine procurement and distribution during the emergency phase of the pandemic, currently pays about $26 per vaccine dose.

“I find your decision particularly offensive given that the vaccine was co-developed in partnership with scientists at the National Institutes of Health, a U.S. government agency funded by U.S. taxpayers,” Sanders wrote to Bancel.

Bancel told the Journal that he thought the price matched the value of the vaccine. Pfizer is also considering raising the price of its Covid vaccine to $110-$130 per dose.

dr Ashish Jha, who heads the White House Covid task force, told the US Chamber of Commerce in August that the administration plans to bring the vaccines to the commercial market sometime in 2023. This means that patients would receive the vaccine like any other medical treatment, with the cost depending on their insurance company.

During the pandemic, the federal government has required all healthcare providers participating in the vaccination campaign to make the vaccinations available to patients free of charge, regardless of their health insurance status.

Moderna’s Covid vaccine is the company’s only commercially available product. The Boston-based biotech posted a profit of $12.2 billion in 2021, the first year of the vaccine campaign, and an additional $6.9 billion through September 2022.

CNBC reported in March that Bancel sold more than $400 million worth of Moderna stock during the pandemic.

Rachel Maddow explains why Biden categorised paperwork are a dud

Rachel Maddow contrasted how Trump each handled the news of classified documents in their offices to show why the Biden story is nothing.

Video by Maddow:

Maddo says:

As I said, there was a brief flurry on the right about this process tonight when the news broke about the Penn Biden Center. It was only a brief flurry because in President Biden’s case, he and his attorneys appear to have actually done the right thing when it comes to these classified documents. Biden’s attorneys say they discovered those documents among his vice presidential papers on Nov. 2. The White House Office notified the National Archives of the finds that same day. The National Archives apparently did not even know that these documents were missing and had not sought their return.

The archives took custody of this material the next morning. That seems to be it. Attorney General Merrick Garland has asked one of the last remaining Trump-appointed US attorneys to review the discovery of these documents at the Penn Biden Center, but it doesn’t sound like an adversarial process at all. The White House says it is cooperating fully with the national archives and the Justice Department on the review.

Again, this was not, as in Trump’s case, the desperate search of the archives for the return of the material that Trump called off, and Trump denied those requests and ultimately called off the subpoena to return those documents.

These appear to be documents accidentally kept at the Penn Biden Center and discovered by Biden’s attorneys. They notified the White House, which immediately notified the National Archives that these documents were in the wrong place. The archive moved to retrieve them immediately. That seems to be the sum of those, as far as we know.

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The current President followed the law. The ex-president chose to break the law. That is the difference between the character of the two men. That’s one of the reasons Joe Biden is currently President and Donald Trump isn’t.

For a brief moment, Republicans thought they had their Biden scandal, but their hopes crumbled to dust when Biden’s behavior demonstrated why Trump should be impeached.

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House press pool and congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a bachelor’s degree in political science. His thesis focused on public policy with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and professional memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and the American Political Science Association

The Deadly Attraction Sequence can be right here prior to you assume

hide rabbits.

The upcoming Paramount+ series Fatal Attraction – featuring Lizzy Caplan, Joshua Jackson and Amanda Peet— will release its first two episodes on April 30, the streamer announced on January 9.

Fatal Attraction is described by Paramount+ as a “profound reimagining” of the classic 1987 thriller starring Glen Close, MichaelDouglas and Anne Archer in the roles now played by Caplan, Jackson and Peet.

“The new series will explore deadly attraction and the timeless themes of marriage and infidelity,” says the streamer, “through the lens of modern attitudes towards strong women, personality disorders and enforced control.”

Alexandra Cunninghamwho previously worked with Peet on Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story serves as showrunner and writer.

“[The show] it’s about how some people just can’t win,” Cunningham said Jan. 9 at the Television Critics Association panel of Fatal Attraction don’t have any. And when we’ve done our job, which these actors and their colleagues definitely did, they think your sympathies will change more than once.”