Pfizer says it’s growing a Covid booster shot to focus on the extremely transmissible Delta variant

Pfizer and BioNTech announced Thursday that they are developing a Covid-19 booster vaccine that will target the Delta variant amid concerns about the highly communicable strain that is already the predominant form of the disease in the United States.

The companies said that while they believe a third vaccination of their current two-dose vaccine has the potential to maintain the “highest level of protection” against all currently known variants, including Delta, they are “vigilant” and are developing an updated version of the Vaccine.

“As evidenced by real evidence from the Israeli Ministry of Health, the effectiveness of the vaccine has declined six months after vaccination, while at the same time the Delta variant is becoming the dominant variant in the country,” the companies said in a written statement.

“These results are consistent with an ongoing analysis of the companies’ Phase 3 study,” they said. “This is why we have said, and continue to believe, that all of the data we have, it is likely that a third dose may be required within 6 to 12 months of full vaccination.”

Clinical trials could begin as early as August, subject to regulatory approvals, the companies said.

The announcement comes on the same day the Olympic Games organizers said they would be banning all viewers from the Games this year after Japan declared a state of emergency designed to stem a wave of new Covid-19 infections that are partly due to the Delta variant is due.

Delta is estimated by the World Health Organization to be about 55% more transmissible than Alpha, the variant first found in the UK that once dominated the US, didn’t do as well at protecting against mild illnesses and the spread of the disease to others, scientists say.

On Monday, Israeli officials reported a decrease in the effectiveness of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine in preventing infections and symptomatic diseases, but said it remained highly effective in preventing serious diseases.

In the US, health officials are urging all eligible Americans to get vaccinated as soon as possible, especially before the fall season when Delta is expected to lead to a further surge in new coronavirus cases, especially in places with the lowest vaccination rates.

There are about 1,000 counties in the U.S. with a Covid vaccination rate of less than 30%, mostly located in the Southeast and Midwest, said CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky recently. In these areas, the authority already sees increasing infection rates due to the further spread of the delta variant.

Pfizer and BioNtech executives have repeatedly said that people will likely need a booster vaccination or a third dose within 12 months of full vaccination, as they expect vaccine-induced immunity to wear off over time. They also said that people are likely to have to take extra shots every year.

Pfizer and BioNTech are developing booster vaccines and are expected to apply for US approval for a third dose of their vaccine shortly.

BK Brasco Slams Sierra Gates’ Allegations Of Dishonest And Utilizing Her For Cash (Unique)

Following Monday’s new season premiere of ‘Love & Hip Hop Atlanta,’ Sierra Gates had some words to get off her chest about ex-fianceé BK Brasco. The reality star and entrepreneur alleged that BK “cheated on [her] for years” and “used [her] for [her] money.” In response, BK Brasco exclusively spoke with The Shade Room and revealed Sierra’s allegations are unprovoked “lies.”

BK shut down talks of using Sierra for her coins, saying that’s “not my thing” because he’s “a man first” who can “stand on his own two.” He shared that as a couple, they held each other down.

“We helped each other,” BK told The Shade Room. “Me and her helped each other….everything from mind, body and soul we wanted to do, and we did it together, and now I’m the worst person? Come on, don’t do that.”

The entrepreneur expressed multiple times that he does not know where the allegations are stemming from. His first theory seemed to be that Sierra might’ve been triggered by backlash received after the new episode aired. Still, he says it was her choice to leave and to allegedly cheat, therefore, she shouldn’t attempt to “destroy his character.”

For his second theory, BK said the “hell” started after he recently posted a photo of his new boo, Jasmine Arrick.

“This is the whole thing, if you moved on 100 percent…you shouldn’t even care about what this man thinking bout. If you truly happy and moved on, why are you coming at me? Cause the show came on? We know the show was coming on.”

He alleged that Sierra was calling people he knows, like his cousin, asking to speak to him. In regards to cheating during their relationship, BK also deemed those as “lies.”

“Why would she be with me if I cheated on her for years,” BK said. “When we first met, I had friends, I had girls that I was dealing with and I told her I didn’t want to be with her, I wanted to be friends with her then she was like ‘yo no I want you’ so I got rid of these girls and we started our relationship.”

He admitted he might’ve messed up here and there by “texting some girl here or there,” but he stands strong that he didn’t cheat on Sierra for the last two and a half years of their relationship and was focusing on disciplining himself and winning.

“I didn’t see the signs like what she said that she was going left, like I didn’t see that because I was focused on winning because I was matching her energy,” he said. “She was winning and I had to match hers.”

Bk ended the conversation by saying he just wants to get the facts straight.

“…I may not be the guy for her, he may be her match, he may be her equal, but that doesn’t make me a less of a man,” BK said. “…That’s what she wants and they may match better than us, but don’t try to downplay me for something that you did. I didn’t do nothing. I gave you a ring. I got on my knees.”

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Western heatwave virtually unimaginable with out local weather change, researchers say

People sleep in a cooling shelter set up during an unprecedented heat wave in Portland, Oregon, the United States, June 27, 2021.

Maranie Staab | Reuters

SANTA MONICA, California – The deadly heat wave that hit triple-digit temperatures in the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada, killing hundreds of people, was virtually impossible without man-made climate change, according to a new analysis by an international team of 27 scientists.

The temperature records were so extreme – 116 degrees Fahrenheit in Portland, Oregon and 121 degrees Fahrenheit in Canada’s British Columbia – that researchers said it was difficult to quantify how rare the heat wave was. The team working under the umbrella of Oxford University’s World Weather Attribution estimated it was a once-in-a-millennium event.

The scientists from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, Germany, and Switzerland estimated that human-made climate change increased the likelihood of such a heatwave by at least 150 times.

“An event like the heat wave in the Pacific Northwest in 2021 is still rare or extremely rare in today’s climate, but would be practically impossible without human-made climate change,” wrote the team of scientists. “As the warming continues, it will become much rarer.”

Researchers called for adaptation measures that address the increasing risk of heat waves, including action plans with early warning systems for high temperatures, as well as more ambitious targets to drastically reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that warm the planet.

The researchers also found that in a world with a warming of 2 degrees Celsius, which could occur this century without a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, such a heat event would occur roughly every five to ten years.

According to the World Meteorological Organization, the earth has already warmed up by more than 1 degree Celsius compared to the pre-industrial level.

World Weather Attribution’s analysis, which performs rapid analyzes to determine whether there is a relationship between climate change and certain extreme weather events, has not yet been peer-reviewed. However, it uses processes that have been peer reviewed for the past 10 years.

Scientists used computer simulations that compared a hypothetical world with no greenhouse gas emissions to the existing world to estimate the effects of climate change on weather events. The research is later published in peer-reviewed journals.

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The study, released on Wednesday, is in line with previous research on the effects of climate change on the frequency and severity of heat waves and droughts.

The most recent historic heat wave, which began in late June, resulted in forest fires, threatened water scarcity, and resulted in hundreds of deaths in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. The official death toll is expected to rise.

Experts say more than a third of global heat-related deaths during warm seasons are due to climate change. Heat also kills more people than any other weather-related disaster in the US

“Our results are an urgent warning: Our rapidly warming climate is breaking new ground that has significant consequences for health, well-being and livelihoods,” the scientists write.

North America just had its hottest June, according to scientists at the Copernicus Climate Change Service, with 2021 almost certainly going to be one of the 10 hottest years on record.

Trump enemy Michael Avenatti is convicted within the Nike extortion case

Attorney Michael Avenatti arrives at the U.S. courthouse in New York on October 8, 2019.

Brendan McDermid | Reuters

Michael Avenatti, the cheeky lawyer who became a major enemy of then-President Donald Trump, faces a criminal conviction on Thursday afternoon in New York for a cheeky botched plan to blackmail sportswear giant Nike for up to $ 25 million.

Avenatti’s anger won’t end after Manhattan Federal Court Justice Paul Gardephe convicts him on the Nike case, in which prosecutors have called for roughly eight years in prison. His defense lawyers want him to be detained for only six months.

The 50-year-old California attorney faces two other federal criminal cases pending.

Next week in California, Avenatti will begin a trial on a series of charges where prosecutors said he defrauded customers of millions of dollars. One of these clients was a mentally ill paraplegic.

Next year, Avenatti is due to be tried in Manhattan federal court for allegedly defrauding another fallen customer, porn star Storm Daniels, for $ 300,000 in proceeds for a book she wrote.

Avenatti has denied any criminal misconduct.

He gained widespread fame and disgrace for his bombastic portrayal of Daniels, who says she once had sex with Trump before he ran for president.

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Trump’s personal attorney at the time, Michael Cohen, paid Daniels $ 130,000 to keep silent about her allegations shortly before the 2016 presidential election so as not to affect Trump’s chances of winning the White House. Trump denies having sex with Daniels.

After the hush money program was exposed, Avenatti has been an almost constant presence on cable television news attacking Trump and Cohen. Avenatti once flirted with running for the Democratic presidential run in 2020.

But the attorney’s commercial flash came as he staggered under millions in debt, a burden prosecutors alleged had committed a series of serious crimes for which he was charged in early 2019.

In the Nike case, Avenatti was tried in court for attempting to put down the listed company by threatening in March 2019 that he would go public with alleged evidence that Nike bribed amateur basketball players and their families.

Avenatti warned Nike’s attorney that the allegations “could reduce your client’s market capitalization by $ 10 billion”.

“I don’t play around with it and I don’t play any more,” Avenatti told Nike lawyers shortly before his arrest.

Why David Harbor gave Black Widow spoilers to those two folks

Marvel Studios is known to be strict when it comes to spoilers. When then David Harbor got the role of Alexei Shostakov (aka Red Guardian) in Black Widow, he was expected to keep details about the film under wraps.

However, the actor has confided in two very specific people about his role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Who exactly were these lucky people? None other than Stranger Things co-creators Frosted and Ross Duffer.

“The circle of secrets includes other people keeping secrets,” he told E! News and notes that everyone in their life is begging for Stranger Things spoilers too. “I felt like I could share Marvel secrets with them because they know how to keep a secret and desperately keep the power of it.”

David later remarked, “But then there are people who really want to know and I just wouldn’t tell them anything.”

Before Disney, which owns Marvel Studios, reads this and gets upset about David, we should note that he had his very special reasons for giving the Duffers some tidbits.

Dow drops 500 factors amid international financial restoration considerations, bond yields slide

The major U.S. stock indexes fell on Thursday on concern about the global economic comeback from Covid-19. The losses came as Japan declared a state of emergency in Tokyo for the upcoming Olympics and as countries deal with a rebound in cases because of Covid variants.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped about 500 points, or 1.45%. The S&P 500 lost 1.5%. The Nasdaq 100 Composite fell 1.5%. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite closed at records in the prior session because of gains from tech shares.

The Labor Department’s latest jobless claims data came in unexpectedly higher at 373,000, signaling a possible slowdown in the the labor picture amid the Covid recovery. Economists expected to see 350,000 first-time applicants for unemployment benefits for the week ended July 3, according to Dow Jones.

Losses were led by companies that would benefit from a rapid economic comeback from the virus. Shares of Carnival and Royal Caribbean each dropped more than 2%. American Airlines and Delta Air Lines each fell more than 2%. Boeing fell 1.7% and Ford was also lower by 2.5%. Retailers Macy’s and Kohl’s lost nearly 3%.

Chip stocks also fell on concerns about the pace of the global recovery. Micron, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Intel and Applied Materials were all off by more than 2%.

“The market has been in one of those ‘Goldilocks’ stretches when economic growth was accelerating while inflation and interest rates remained low. Increased Covid cases, particularly Delta Variants have caused concerns that the economic acceleration will slow,” said Timothy Lesko of Granite Investment Advisors. “A few weeks ago the porridge was too hot, now it seems it is too cold. With markets at all time highs and some valuations stretched there is little room for economic slowdown in this market.”

Investors rotated into the safety of Treasuries further on Thursday, pushing the yield on the 10-year Treasury to 1.25% to the lowest since late February. Despite the recovering economy and fast inflation, the 10-year Treasury yield continues to decline. It was at 1.58% to start July and hit a 2021 high of 1.78% in March. Traders remain confused about the exact reasons for the rollover in yields, with many citing concern that the best of the economic recovery may be behind us.

Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and other financial shares declined on Thursday as their profitability outlook dimmed with lower rates. JPMorgan Chase and PNC Financial were also lower.

“Nothing suggests the near slump in yields is over,” wrote Christopher Harvey, head of equity strategy at Wells Fargo, in a note Thursday. “A sharp drop below 1.25% could cause equity PMs to believe that something is wrong or broken. As a result, we see a growing possibility of a 5% selloff in equities before earnings season.”

Harvey noted he believes the buying in bonds is more technical in nature and not due to macroeconomic factors.

The Summer Olympics in Japan — which have already been delayed for a year — will ban spectators, Reuters reported on Thursday. This follows the state of emergency declaration for Tokyo by Japan to curb a wave of new Covid infections. The state of emergency will begin July 12 and run through Aug. 22, while the Games are scheduled from July 23 to Aug. 8.

Meanwhile the global Covid death toll continued to advance, exceeding 4 million on late Wednesday, as countries including India battle more transmissible variants.

The Cboe Volatility index, or ‘VIX,’ surged above the key 20 level Thursday morning, perhaps signaling a period of greater volatility ahead.

So-called meme stocks took big hits on Thursday as the sell-off caused investors to flee stocks like AMC and GameStop that had been boosted by speculative trading by retail traders chatting on Reddit. AMC fell 8% and GameStop slipped more than 3%.

The move lower in futures came after a positive regular session for U.S. markets led by tech stocks on Wednesday. The S&P 500 rose 0.3% to an all-time high of 4,358.13, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 104.42 points to 34,681.79. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite closed just above its own flatline to eke out a record close.

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Olympics will ban spectators after Japan declares a state of emergency

A man wearing a face mask stands behind the Olympic symbols of the five intertwined rings, pictured near the National Stadium in Tokyo.

James Matsumoto, SOPA Pictures | LightRakete | Getty Images

The organizers of the Olympic Games are banning all spectators from the Games this year after Japan declared a state of emergency designed to contain a wave of new Covid-19 infections, Reuters reported on Thursday.

It is the latest setback for the Summer Olympics, which has already been postponed by a year, which resulted in high costs for the postponement. The state of emergency begins July 12th and lasts until August 22nd, while the games are scheduled from July 23rd to August 8th.

The organizers had already excluded international viewers from participating and set a ceiling for domestic viewers at 50% of capacity or up to 10,000 people.

There is immense pressure to contain the spread of the virus at the Games to protect both athletes and neighboring regions. More than 11,000 participants are expected to travel to Japan to compete, along with thousands of officials and staff who will also attend.

Nationwide, Japan has reported about 811,000 coronavirus cases and more than 14,800 deaths, according to the World Health Organization. However, the country faced a relatively slow adoption of the vaccine. According to Reuters, only about a quarter of the population has received at least one COVID-19 vaccination.

Adaptation to no fans

NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC, plans to show more than 7,000 hours of content from the Tokyo Olympics through its networks and streaming platforms. Now NBC has to grapple with whether viewers notice the difference without viewers.

Sports venues around the world were customized without fans during the pandemic and often used digital seats to indicate some form of attendance. US professional leagues like the National Football League and Major League Baseball have also incorporated artificial noise into their broadcasts to mimic the noise of the crowd.

It is difficult to get viewers involved in sports broadcasts without viewers, so NBC could use the technology to improve production. In 2014, the media giant and the International Olympic Committee agreed on a $ 7.75 billion media rights deal to extend their partnership. The current agreement runs until 2032.

Still, an Olympics without fans will destroy ticket revenue for the IOC. According to an IOC annual report, more than six million tickets were sold for the 2016 Rio Games, raising approximately $ 1.2 billion.

Due to the delays, the budget of the games is already estimated at 15.4 billion, according to Reuters

Disclosure: CNBC parent NBCUniversal owns NBC Sports and NBC Olympics. NBC Olympics owns the U.S. broadcast rights to all Summer and Winter Games through 2032.

5 issues to know earlier than the inventory market opens Thursday, July 8

Here are the most important news, trends and analysis that investors need to start their trading day:

1. Dow to drop 500 points as Covid concerns resurface

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Brendan McDermid | Reuters

Dow futures on Thursday fell nearly 500 points, or more than 1.3%, in a broad premarket decline as Japan declared a state of emergency in Tokyo for the upcoming Summer Olympics and as countries deal with a rebound in Covid cases due to variants. Futures tied to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq also dropped about 1.3% each.

Thursday’s selling came one day after Wall Street’s rally had resumed, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq finishing at record high closes. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.3% shy of Friday’s record close.

2. 10-year Treasury yield falls on global economic growth worries

Investors rotated into the perceived safety of bonds Thursday, pushing the 10-year Treasury yield below 1.26% to the lowest since late February. Bond yields move inversely to prices.

  • Despite the strengthening economy and hotter inflation, the 10-year yield continues to decline.
  • It began July around 1.58%. It hit a then-14-month high of 1.78% in March.
  • It began 2021 at less than 1%.

In another look at the recovery in the labor market, the government Thursday morning said initial jobless claims for last week totaled a worse-than-expected 373,000. That’s up slightly from the upwardly revised pandemic-era low the previous week. The level of continuing claims decreased to 3.34 million, down 145,000 from the previous week’s revised level.

3. Tokyo to go under state of emergency ahead of Olympics

The logo of Tokyo 2020 is displayed near Odaiba Seaside Park in Tokyo on July 7, 2021, as reports said the Japanese government plans to impose a virus state of emergency in Tokyo during the Olympics.

Kazuhiro Nogi | AFP | Getty Images

Just two weeks before the Tokyo Olympics, Japan’s prime minister on Thursday announced the state of emergency for the capital city due to rising Covid infections. The order goes into effect this coming Monday and through Aug. 22. That means the Olympics, opening on July 23 and running through Aug. 8, will be held entirely under emergency measures. While fans from abroad were banned months ago, Olympics officials had recently set venue limits at 50% capacity for local spectators. However, the state of emergency could force another change in the fan policy.

4. Global coronavirus deaths top 4 million as delta variant spreads

Two women walk next to graves of people who passed away due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at the Parque Taruma cemetery in Manaus, Brazil May 20, 2021.

Bruno Kelly | Reuters

The global death toll from Covid exceeded 4 million late Wednesday as infections worldwide crossed 185 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. In recent months, many countries are battling a surge in Covid infections due to the spread of the more transmissible delta variant, which first emerged in India. The delta strain now accounts for more than half of new Covid cases in the U.S. The World Health Organization has said that delta is the “fastest and fittest” variant yet, and health experts have warned it could undermine efforts to contain Covid even as vaccination campaigns are underway around the globe.

5. States bring new antitrust suit against Google over app store

The logo of Google Play is seen on a screen.

Alexander Pohl | NurPhoto | Getty Images

State attorneys general are again going after Google with an antitrust lawsuit, this time alleging the Alphabet unit abused its power over app developers through its Play Store on Android. The case marks the fourth antitrust lawsuit lodged against the company by U.S. government enforcers in the past year. By focusing on the Play Store, the latest lawsuit touches on an aspect of Google’s business that is most similar to Apple’s App Store. The App Store has become embattled in legal challenges and drawn lawmaker questions over whether it unfairly charges developers for payments through their apps by customers and whether it favors its own apps over those of its rivals.

— The Associated Press contributed to this report. Follow all the market action like a pro on CNBC Pro. Get the latest on the pandemic with CNBC’s coronavirus coverage.

Disclosure: CNBC parent NBCUniversal owns NBC Sports and NBC Olympics. NBC Olympics is the U.S. broadcast rights holder to all Summer and Winter Games through 2032.

Search shifts from rescue to restoration

Search and rescue teams continue to work in the rubble of the collapsed Champlain Towers South apartment in Surfside, Florida on July 6, 2021.

Eva Marie Uzcategui | AFP | Getty Images

Finding the site of a collapsed Florida condo building is shifting from a rescue to a salvage operation as the likelihood of finding survivors decreases, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said in a news conference Wednesday afternoon.

For two weeks, rescue teams have carried out arduous search and rescue operations to find more victims in the rubble of the collapsed Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida. But the possibility of finding someone alive is “near zero,” said Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett on Wednesday.

Levine Cava also announced that the death toll has risen to 54, of which 86 are not yet known.

“I couldn’t be more proud of our team. The extraordinary men and women from here, at home and from around the world who have given this search everything they have every day,” said Levine Cava.

“At this point we have really exhausted all of the options available to us on the search and rescue mission. Today is about beginning the transition to recovery so that we can help bring an end to the families who have suffered and who have been waiting for, “us.”

The transition from rescue to salvage will be at midnight tonight and will be marked by a moment of silence in front of the construction site with first responders and faith leaders, Levine Cava added.

Search and rescue teams were able to reach areas of the pile that were inaccessible before the building was demolished on Sunday evening without first responders injuring despite the difficult conditions at the site, Levine Cava said.

The building was demolished in a controlled demolition amid concerns that the standing structure was unstable and could fall on first responders as Hurricane Elsa approached Florida.

Weather conditions cleared Wednesday so rescue teams could continue their search efforts despite initial concerns about having to temporarily suspend work, Levine Cava said in the morning. Forecasters downgraded Elsa from hurricane to tropical storm on Wednesday after hitting land on Florida’s northern Gulf coast.

The emergency management department has received 42 resource requests from citizens affected by Tropical Storm Elsa, with more than 26,000 power outages, according to Florida Governor Jeanette Nunez.

More than 10,000 employees are ready to respond to these failures and provide resources such as water, food and generators, added Nunez.

After a brief stop to tear down the standing rubble, search and rescue workers will continue to work in the rubble of the partially collapsed 12-story Champlain Towers South apartment on July 5, 2021 in Surfside, Florida.

Giorgio Viera | AFP | Getty Images

Surfside Vice Mayor Tina Paul said authorities are working to find long-term housing for survivors of the condominium collapse, many of which are still staying in hotels.

“That is also a priority just to rebuild their lives,” Paul said. “The best way to start is to have a home to call your own.”

Paul added that authorities are receiving inquiries from board members and condominium presidents about the safety of their buildings. The City of Surfside issued a press release calling for a geotechnical survey of properties more than 30 years old, but Paul said better recommendations are being developed.

Levine Cava said Miami-Dade County is moving forward with a 30-day audit that evaluates all four-story residential properties that are 40 years or older and “have not completed the process of identifying and resolving issues.”

The county assessed a total of 40 buildings as part of the audit and identified one building with four balconies that was classified as unsafe according to Levine Cava. While the building was not being evacuated, the balconies were immediately closed.

The remaining portion of the partially collapsed 12-story Champlain Towers South Condo building is falling into controlled demolition on July 4, 2021 in Surfside, Florida.

Joe Raedle | Getty Images

Other cities, like North Miami Beach and Miami Beach, have also started conducting their own audits, she added.

“There will be changes, there will be improvements,” said Levine Cava.

Burkett also provided updates on Champlain Towers North, the sister property of the collapsed condo building. Engineers and authorities are on site to check that it is safe for residents to live in.

Burkett said it would take several weeks to gather sufficient evidence of structural problems at Champlain Towers North.

The cause of the collapse of the Champlain Towers South is still unknown.

Recent evidence shows that the 40-year-old building showed signs of structural damage as early as 2018, with waterproofing problems under the pool and cracks in the underground car park.

New Covid outbreaks a high danger to financial restoration, OECD chief says

Covid-19 vaccinations without prior registration being done at Sector 30 district hospital on June 22, 2021 in Noida, India.

Sunil Ghosh | Hindustan Times | Getty Images

New outbreaks of Covid-19 remain one of the top risks to a global economic recovery, the OECD’s secretary-general has warned, calling for developed nations to support less-developed nations with their vaccination programs.

“We must do what we can to get as many people as we can, all around the world, vaccinated. There is a particular responsibility for developed economies and it’s not just a matter of charity or benevolence, it’s actually a matter of self interest both in terms of making sure we keep our populations safe … and also to ensure the economic recovery can be sustained,” Mathias Cormann, secretary-general of the OECD, said Thursday.

“New outbreaks are still one of the biggest downside risks in terms of the sustained economic recovery moving forward,” he told CNBC’s Annette Weisbach.

“There is a race on between getting as many people vaccinated all around the world including and in particular in developing economies and the risk of new variants appearing, and variants that may be resistant to the vaccines currently available,” he noted.

Read more: Covid-19 has destroyed 22 million jobs in advanced countries, says OECD

Cormann is not alone in worrying that the ongoing spread of Covid-19, particularly the latest highly transmissible delta variant among younger and unvaccinated people, could derail an economic recovery.

Bruno Le Maire, France’s finance minister, told CNBC on Tuesday that “the single thing that might jeopardize the economic recovery in France is a new wave of the pandemic.”

On Wednesday, the World Health Organization reiterated its call for wealthier nations to help poorer countries by sharing Covid vaccines, particularly for health and care workers, and the elderly.

Global minimum tax rate

The coronavirus pandemic might be the most urgent issue in terms of global public health but governments have been turning to other pressing matters in the meantime, including international tax reform.

In June, finance ministers of the most advanced economies, known as the Group of Seven, backed a U.S. proposal calling for corporations around the world to pay at least a 15% tax on earnings and the agreement has now garnered support from many more countries.

Last Thursday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced that at least 130 nations had agreed to a global minimum tax on corporations, part of a broader agreement to overhaul international tax rules.

Cormann said the agreement was much-needed, noting that “131 countries have reached an agreement on an internationally consistent way forward when it comes to fair taxation. Globalization and the digitalization of our economies created distortions in efficiencies and serious inequities in our tax system and businesses weren’t paying their fair share of tax everywhere where they should.”

“We now have an agreement where the winners of globalization including and in particular the major multinational digital companies do pay their fair share of tax, or would pay their fair share of tax once (the deal is) implemented in the markets in which they generate their profits.”

He noted that all the 131 countries have agreed that the minimum global corporate tax rate should be 15%, as well as those in the Group of 20 industrialized nations. “So that already sets a floor on the level of tax competition globally.”

Some low corporate tax jurisdictions, like Ireland and Hungary, have misgivings over the agreement but Cormann said they were engaged in the negotiation process: “Some countries obviously come at this from a different starting position,” he noted, “but 131 out of 139 counties (members of the G20/OECD Inclusive Framework who are collaborating to reform tax rules) are on board and that’s a significant milestone.”