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The highly contagious Delta variant is the fastest and strongest coronavirus strain to date and will “pick up” the most vulnerable people, especially in places with low Covid-19 vaccination rates, World Health Organization officials warned on Monday.

Delta, first identified in India, has the potential to be “more deadly because it is more efficient in the way it is transmitted between people and ultimately it finds the at-risk people who are critically ill, hospitalized.” must be and possibly die, “said Dr Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO’s Emergency Health Program, said during a news conference.

Ryan said world leaders and public health officials can help defend the most vulnerable by donating and distributing Covid vaccines.

“We can protect these vulnerable people, these frontline workers,” said Ryan, “and the fact that we, as general managers, didn’t [Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus] has said again and again, is a catastrophic moral failure on a global scale. “

The WHO said on Friday that Delta is becoming the predominant variant of the disease worldwide.

The agency declared Delta a “questionable variant” last month. A variant can be described as “worrying” if, according to the health organization, it has been shown to be more contagious, fatal, or more resistant to current vaccines and treatments.

Delta is now replacing Alpha, the highly contagious variant that swept Europe and later the United States earlier this year, said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, in a recent interview.

Studies suggest it is about 60% more transmissible than alpha, which was more contagious than the original strain that emerged from Wuhan, China, in late 2019.

“We have to vaccinate now. Let everyone vaccinate now,” said Offit.

Delta has now spread to 92 countries, said Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical director for Covid, on Monday. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it now accounts for at least 10% of all new cases in the United States and is on its way to becoming the dominant variant in the nation.

In the UK, Delta recently became the dominant variety, outperforming its native alpha variety, which was first spotted in the country last fall. The Delta variant now accounts for more than 60% of new cases in the UK

WHO officials said there are reports that the Delta variant also causes more severe symptoms, but that more research is needed to confirm these conclusions. However, there is evidence that the Delta strain may cause different symptoms than other variants.

Neither variant has really found the combination of high transmissibility and lethality, but Delta is “the most capable, fastest, and fittest of these viruses,” WHO officials said Monday.

“This particular Delta variant is faster, it is fitter, it will weed out the more susceptible ones more efficiently than previous variants. So if people are left without vaccination, they will be even more at risk,” said Ryan.

Van Kerkhove said, “Unfortunately we still don’t have the vaccines in the right places to protect people’s lives.”

WHO has urged wealthy nations, including the US, to donate cans. The Biden government detailed early Monday where it will be sending 55 million doses of vaccine, most of which will be distributed through COVAX, the WHO-supported immunization program.

“These vaccines are highly effective against serious illness and death. That is what they are intended for and that is what they must be used for,” said Van Kerkhove. “This is what COVAX and WHO and all of our partners have worked to ensure that these vaccines reach the most vulnerable people.”

Notre Dame Quarterback Brandon Wimbush (7) runs with the ball under pressure from University of Miami Hurricanes Defensive Lineman Trent Harris (33) during the college football game between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the University of Miami Hurricanes on November 11, 2017 at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.

Icon Sportswire | Icon Sportswire | Getty Images

As Brandon Wimbush sees it, his earnings power should have peaked in November 2017: ESPN used an image of him all week in onscreen promotions of a football showdown between Notre Dame and Miami, but Notre Dame’s then-starting quarterback didn’t see a dime from 65,303 tickets sold or the millions of dollars ESPN parent Walt Disney Co. pays for broadcast rights.

Soon, Wimbush’s start-up, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based MOGL Corp., may begin to change that, thanks to laws working through state legislatures and Congress, and also to the unanimous Supreme Court decision on Monday that ruled against the NCAA in an antitrust case limiting the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s rights to bar college athletes from getting paid.

The Supreme Court ruled that the NCAA had violated antitrust rules and should pay student-athletes for education-related benefits, though it did not rule on broader compensation questions, and in the decision said legislation may be needed to address remaining issues. But it is one more step in a multiyear battle to chip away at the definition of “amateurism” used to keep collegiate athletes from making money from the sports in which they excel.

The NCAA had argued that limits on athlete pay don’t violate antitrust laws because they promote consumer choice by distinguishing the college game from professional sports leagues. The case decided Monday covered whether athletes can be paid for their services, beyond the basic cost of attendance, and whether the NCAA’s rules against it violate antitrust laws. The case technically does not cover payment for endorsements, as new state laws do, but experts expect Congress to act on that shortly after the decision.

On July 1, Florida and Alabama will become the first states to overrule the NCAA on some of those broader pay issues and authorize athletes to make money off their name, likeness and image — including traditional endorsements, personal appearances and social media opportunities. MOGL is positioning itself as the first online marketplace to match college athletes with marketers to exploit their new rights, as Congress considers nationwide rules. A long list of states are planning moves later on to open the market for collegiate athletes to make marketing deals, including New Mexico, Mississippi and Georgia.

“I was that college athlete, I experienced that lack of opportunity,” Wimbush says. “The Miami game was one of the most-hyped games. I could have done a lot.” 

MOGL is an audible for Wimbush, a former five-star recruit who hoped to be in the National Football League by now. The 24-year-old from national powerhouse St. Peter’s Prep in Jersey City was New Jersey’s Gatorade Player of the Year his senior year, beating teammate Minkah Fitzpatrick, now an All-Pro safety for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He’s also the son of a divorced mother who worked as a nurse. Like many athletes, he talks about having seen sports as a means to take care of his family, a goal frustrated by the NCAA’s ban on his profiting off his college playing career.

Most athletes’ brands reach peak value in college

As he came to grips last year with the idea that he wouldn’t be picked in the NFL draft, he was approached by Ayden Syal, a friend from Notre Dame who was then working in private equity, who had the beginnings of the idea for MOGL.  

“Even though he went to [St. Peter’s archrival] Seton Hall Prep, he was a good guy, and it was an idea I could get behind,” said Wimbush, who majored in accounting while Syal studied consulting. 

If it works, the company could change the balance of power in collegiate athletics between schools and athletes by helping athletes make a living while in school, Syal says. It also may help colleges build ties to local communities by having athletes promote local businesses, countering the NCAA’s longstanding argument that fans like college sports because athletes don’t get paid. 

“In 99.9 percent of cases, college is when the value of athletes’ brands happens to be the highest,” Syal said. 

Their site is a platform where athletes will effectively serve as their own agents, Syal said, matching their name, image and likeness to the listings from businesses, usually small businesses in or near college towns. MOGL weeds out businesses the NCAA would consider boosters trying to disguise illegal inducements to pick a specific school. That’s different from traditional agents who solicit bigger-dollar opportunities for a handful of top stars. If it works, the partners say, they’ll make much smaller deals but many more of them.

We’re not going to get Trevor Lawrence his ‘Head and Shoulders’ deal that will be worth millions. We’re the local source.

Ayden Syal, MOGL co-founder

The idea is to connect the second tier of college athletes with mostly local businesses, such as car dealers and restaurants. Wimbush and Syal think marquee stars such as Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence, picked No. 1 in the 2021 NFL Draft by the Jacksonville Jaguars, and his successors at the top of the competitive mountain will sign with traditional agents in the world of paid college athletes that is about to dawn.

“We’re not going to get Trevor Lawrence his ‘Head and Shoulders’ deal that will be worth millions,” said Syal, referring to Lawrence’s shoulder-length blond mane. “We’re the local source.”

One of their first clients is the Orlando North Seminole County Office of Economic Development and Tourism. The office worked through MOGL to contract three players for the National Women’s Soccer League’s Orlando Pride to promote a national youth soccer tournament through podcasts, videos and other social media. That effort supported a $33 million investment Seminole County has made in youth sports facilities to draw visitors, said tourism director Guilherme “Gui” Cunha.

“I absolutely love everything they’re doing,” said Cunha, a former college football player and high school coach himself. “Spending $6,000 to get three athletes was a steal.”

Orlando Pride players featured in a local government economic development and tourism marketing campaign. From left: Bridget Callahan (holding soccer ball, Orlando Pride), Brandon Wimbush (MOGL co-founder), Carrie Lawrence (Orlando Pride), Jordyn Listro (holding soccer ball, Orlando Pride), Karen Aplin (black mask, Orlando North Seminole County), Jessica Pickering (pink mask, Orlando North Seminole County).

Karen Aplin | Orlando North, Seminole County

Wimbush and Syal have interns handling sales on campuses, Wimbush said, promoting MOGL in states where legislatures have passed laws, not yet in effect, to authorize athletes to cash in on their name, image and likeness despite the NCAA’s rules. Florida’s and Alabama’s laws will take effect first, but 13 states including California have passed similar laws, effective between now and 2023.

The largest number of states passing such laws so far are in the Southeast, home to high-profile Southeastern Conference athletic programs such as the University of Alabama, Auburn University, University of Georgia and University of Florida. 

To date, Wimbush and Syal claim to have about 500 athletes signed up, though their identities won’t be released until the laws take effect in their states. For the athletes to endorse MOGL publicly before the laws take effect would violate NCAA rules.

Wimbush’s ability to be the public face of a company is unsurprising to people who have followed his career. From his freshman year at Notre Dame he landed big-company internships. Tim Zanni, former head of accounting firm KPMG’s technology practice, called Wimbush the most impressive intern he’d hired in 17 years. Wimbush also counts former NetApp vice chair Tom Mendoza, for whom Notre Dame’s business school is named, as a mentor and spent a summer at venture capital firm Accel Partners.

NCAA and college sports laws are changing

The law around amateur athletics is changing rapidly as courts and legislators expand athletes’ rights to be paid more of the estimated $8 billion in revenue it generates, dominated by football and basketball, said Florida attorney Darren Heitner. Heitner helped write the state’s law permitting athletes in the state to make endorsement deals and barring the NCAA from stopping them.

Congress and President Joe Biden are likely to have the final word on what the rules for the new world of college athletics will be, a stance Heitner said is favored by the NCAA, which would rather not face multiple state standards.

NCAA spokeswoman Stacey Osburn didn’t respond to e-mails seeking comment.

Seven federal bills have been introduced on the topic. Democrats led by Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut have proposed a measure that would require half of adjusted revenue to be shared with athletes, an arrangement similar to collective bargaining agreements in the National Basketball Association. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., has proposed less-sweeping changes that exclude revenue sharing but would let athletes do endorsements and paid appearances.

An aide involved in the legislation said the two parties are working on a compromise to expand athletes’ compensation, commercial opportunities and health-care coverage but will likely stop short of revenue sharing. The aide declined to be named because the aide was not authorized to be an official source on the topic and did not want to disrupt the ongoing negotiations.

Capitol Hill’s push will likely make the NCAA propose its own changes, said John Heisler, senior associate athletic director at the University of Central Florida, where Wimbush, who spent his last year of eligibility playing for the Knights, is targeting current athletes.

“We all anticipate something coming from the NCAA soon,” said Heisler, noting that many proposals to let athletes make off-the-field deals violate existing NCAA rules. UCF needs to know the final rules before it can evaluate proposals to partner with commercial entities that are interested or counsel athletes about how they should move forward, Heisler said.

How local markets become big game

Seminole County’s Cunha has one idea, which he says illustrates how a platform like MOGL may work over time.

He hopes to use local athletes to lure more tourists, in the immediate future from Hawaii, exploiting the fact that both UCF and Florida State expect to start quarterbacks from the Aloha State this fall. He noted there is a direct flight from Hawaii to Orlando, and Hawaiians tend to behave like international tourists who stay in town longer and spend more money than visitors from closer by.

Seminole County plans to sign an amateur athlete on July 1, though Cunha could not be more specific because he has not been allowed to have direct contact with the athlete — he is only allowed to speak with MOGL until the Florida law takes effect. The Supreme Court decision and any future changes from the NCAA are irrelevant to Florida, he said.

“I can see the NCAA wanting to slow play this, but we want to show that we support our athletes and this is a valuable market for us,” he said. “We can’t chase an athlete from the Orlando Magic. This is space we want to live in, the amateur athlete space.”

The NCAA is likely to take action ahead of July 1. The organization has had an NIL — or name, image, likeness — proposal that is ready for a vote since January, but that was delayed due to antitrust concerns. NCAA President Mark Emmert has said he wants the governing bodies in college sports to approve new rules before the state laws go into effect, a decision that could come during the next meeting of the council that oversees Division I sports on June 22-23.

The NCAA could also look to challenge the state rules in court. Other college sports executives, such as SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey, have called for Congress to set a standard that would override state laws.

Cunha said MOGL has a chance to end up like tech start-ups that build out a technology that bigger rivals don’t have, create a market that the big players always considered too small to serve with traditional business models, and ultimately become attractive M&A targets. He predicts MOGL will attract thousands of athletes to its platform, prove it can match athletes with small opportunities in bulk, and attract an offer from agency titans that now focus on making big deals for a relatively small number of elite athletes.

“With this innovation, I think they’ll get bought out within 24 months of the new [NCAA] rules,” Cunha said, naming agencies such as IMG and William Morris as potential suitors. “This will be an easy purchase for them.”

Syal and Wimbush stop short of that. Their two-year goal is to establish themselves as a business that high-school athletes think of as the place to help them begin brand-building while in college, operating nationwide as new laws allow it. To do that, they need to build ties with businesses and with the NCAA as well as athletes, Syal said.

“Our access to athletes at scale does make us an attractive acquisition target for a company looking to enter the collegiate space,” Syal said. But, he added, “what will be the most important over the next 24 months is achieving a critical mass of athletes and opportunities on the platform.”

A worker wears a Sweetgreen Inc. hat while preparing food at the company’s restaurant in Boston, Massachusetts.

Adam Glanzman | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The Sweetgreen salad chain has applied for an IPO in confidence.

Sweetgreen was founded in 2007 and is considered a healthier alternative to fast food. A planned debut has been rumored for years, but it’s coming as the pandemic spurred a surge in digital sales. Axios reported the news first.

The chain is popular with both busy office workers and investors. The company’s final funding round earlier this year was nearly $ 1.8 billion. Sweetgreen told the New York Times that its 2019 sales exceeded $ 300 million.

Like its rival Chipotle Mexican Grill, Sweetgreen turned to technology to fuel sales growth even before the health crisis made it necessary. The salad chain invested in their mobile app and formatted their restaurants to make picking up digital orders as easy as possible in order to reduce the long lines that meandered through their stores during lunchtime.

The pandemic has also resulted in other major changes for Sweetgreen, such as accelerating its plans to start building sites with thoroughfares. The pilot restaurant is slated to open this winter at the Highlands Ranch, Colorado. It has also pushed to the suburbs after focusing on urban areas in its first decade.

The US Army began evaluating the Chevrolet Colorado ZH2 fuel cell electric truck in 2017. It is based on the all-terrain pickup Colorado ZR2 from GM.

GM

General Motors’ plans for hydrogen fuel cells, a long-promised technology, are taking shape as the company invests $ 35 billion in electric and autonomous vehicles by 2025.

GM began working on fuel cells more than 50 years ago with little to no commercial success. But it wants to change that in the years to come with its Hydrotec fuel cell system, which could be a dark horse to expanding GM’s activities outside of the automotive space.

GM sees enormous opportunities for fuel cells in the military, in commercial vehicles and other modes of transport such as rail and shipping. GM is exploring these and other areas as a complementary solution to its emerging battery electric vehicle business known as Ultium.

“Batteries have to play a role, but to fully electrify and handle the range of different applications we’re talking about, you also need hydrogen fuel cells,” said Charlie Freese, who heads GM’s global fuel cell business. “They complement each other very well.”

Hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles and devices function similarly to battery electric vehicles, but instead of pure batteries they run on electricity from hydrogen and oxygen, with water vapor being the only by-product. They are filled with a fuel nozzle almost as quickly as conventional gasoline and diesel vehicles.

As a rule of thumb, according to Freese, batteries are best suited to replace gasoline-powered vehicles and devices, while fuel cells are better suited for longer ranges and vehicles like semi-trailers that run on diesel fuel.

“Each market will be a little different, but what is clear is that the world is moving towards electrification,” he said. “Fuel cell technology has moved dramatically down the cost curve and continues to do so.”

GM announced last week that it will launch its third generation Hydrotec fuel cells with even higher power density and lower costs by the middle of the decade.

Expansion of GM

Fuel cell vehicles face the same challenges as BEVs, including consumer adoption, fueling infrastructure, and costs. This is one of the reasons GM is looking outside of the auto industry to drive demand.

On Thursday, GM announced a contract with Liebherr-Aerospace to develop a demonstrator system for hydrogen fuel cell power generation for aircraft. That announcement came two days after the automaker said it had worked with Wabtec Corp. signed a letter of intent for the development and supply of battery and hydrogen fuel cell systems for freight locomotives.

According to Wabtec Corp. the FLXdrive is the world’s first 100% battery-powered heavy-duty freight locomotive.

Wabtec

GM also has agreements or partnerships regarding Hydrotec with Navistar and the competitive EV start-up Nikola. The programs are in addition to several previous programs between GM and the US military using hydrogen fuel cells, including a pickup truck and an unmanned submarine.

“We’re using some sort of land, sea, and air approach,” Freese said. “It’s the energy storage density for long missions, fast refueling and quiet stealth, low thermal initiatives. Those are things that are very important in these applications. And they carry over to some of the others.” [industries]. “

Freese said GM expected to commercialize fuel cells for real-world solutions “soon” and declined to elaborate on those plans. GM has a joint venture with Honda Motor to offer a fuel cell vehicle called Clarity to develop and manufacture fuel cells at a Michigan facility.

The closest-term product GM has announced is with Illinois-based truck maker Navistar. At the beginning of the year, the companies announced a collaboration on a fuel cell-powered tractor-trailer.

General Motors will deliver its Hydrotec fuel cell power cubes to Navistar for use in its production fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) – the International RHTM Series.

GM

According to the companies, JB Hunt Transport is expected to be the first customer to pilot the tractor units and the hydrogen refueling system in late 2022. The first trucks are expected to be offered for sale in 2024.

‘Uncertain future

Many believe hydrogen can help decarbonise industries where batteries are insufficient due to their lower energy density and heavier weight. However, technology is still expected to take a back seat to BEVs, which are cheaper and easier for consumers and businesses to understand.

“The transportation future of hydrogen looks uncertain given the tug-of-war with batteries,” said BTIG analyst Gregory Lewis in a recent announcement to investors. “We expect hydrogen to be used in niche applications.”

Tesla boss Elon Musk, whose company only sells BEVs, has described fuel cells as “foolish cells” and “insanely stupid”.

But there is a growing market for the technologies amid a global surge in decarbonization legislation, officials say. Fortune Business Insights predicts the global fuel cell market will be $ 29 billion by 2028.

The key GM is seeking could be lowering costs for commercial customers, many of whom have routes and on-site refueling more likely than consumers.

“Industrial applications like steel, refineries and chemicals, where green hydrogen can be produced and consumed on site (avoiding transportation costs) appear to be early adopters of green hydrogen,” said Lewis. “In addition, hydrogen is already gaining importance for industrial use in the zero-emission policy of some countries.”

– CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.

A medical worker will receive the Covid-19 vaccine on April 7, 2021 at Sun Yat-sen University’s First Affiliated Hospital in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China.

Southern image | Visual China Group | Getty Images

GUANGZHOU, China – China has delivered more than a billion doses of its Covid-19 vaccines, a major milestone in the world’s largest vaccination drive.

As of Saturday, 1,100,489,000 doses had been administered to people in China, according to the country’s National Health Commission (NHC). More than 100 million doses were administered in the six days up to and including Saturday.

It is unclear how many people were fully vaccinated as the government does not publish these numbers. But Zhong Nanshan, one of the leading Chinese health experts at the NHC, said in March that the country is aiming to fully vaccinate 40% of the population by the end of June.

After the coronavirus outbreak in China last year, authorities tried to get it under control quickly and largely managed to reopen the economy and get life back to normal. One reason China’s vaccination campaign got off to a slow start earlier this year was because people failed to realize the urgency of vaccination.

But the campaign has now started. It took China 25 days to go from 100 million cans to 200 million cans – and just six days from 800 million to 900 million, according to state media Xinhua.

Still, there were new coronavirus outbreaks in the country last year. Since the end of May, the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou has been fighting against the delta variant that was first created in India. It is the first time this variant has been broadcast locally in mainland China.

The city reported no new locally transmitted cases on Sunday after a mass test drive and local lockdowns.

CNBC two visited vaccination sites in town earlier this month and saw long lines as people rushed to get vaccinated.

The World Health Organization has approved the Chinese-made Sinopharm since May and the Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine since June for emergencies.

China has shipped its vaccines to countries around the world including Brazil, the United Arab Emirates and Malaysia. However, US and European health officials have not approved Chinese emergency vaccines.

There were questions about the effectiveness of the vaccines made in China. The effectiveness rates for China’s Covid vaccines have been found to be lower than those developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.

Chile, another recipient of Chinese vaccines, released the results of a real-world study of over 10 million people in April. The Sinovac vaccine was found to reduce deaths by 80%. Despite being one of the most heavily vaccinated countries in the world, Chile saw an increase in cases in April.