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Margaret Keenan, 90, is the first patient in the UK to receive the Pfizer / BioNtech covid-19 vaccine at University Hospital in Coventry.

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The UK launches the first coronavirus vaccines on Tuesday, making it one of the first countries in the world to do so.

Margaret Keenan, a 90-year-old grandmother, made history when she became the first person in the world to receive the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine outside of the trial conditions. The sting was approved by the UK Medicines Agency last week.

Now the vaccine is being given to frontline health workers, nursing home workers and those over 80 before it becomes more widespread among the UK population.

On the eve of the vaccine launch, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it was a “big step forward” in the fight against the pandemic. It will be the largest vaccination campaign in the country that has ever taken place.

Johnson’s assessment was confirmed by NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens, who said Monday it was a “crucial turning point in the fight against coronavirus”.

British newspapers meanwhile hailed it “V Day” and “Vaxit” (a piece about “Brexit” – the other big news in the UK this week).

‘I am so proud’

The rollout will take place at a crucial point in time for the country. The UK has the third highest number of coronavirus cases in Europe after France and Italy, with over 1.7 million confirmed infections and more than 61,000 deaths, data from Johns Hopkins University shows.

In the UK, 50 hospitals have been selected as vaccine hubs, which will serve as the primary location for vaccination delivery. Later, the vaccine will be introduced in community health centers such as doctor’s offices to allow for a more general vaccination program where priority is based on age and clinical needs.

Croydon University Hospital in London was one of the first hospitals to receive batches of the vaccine this weekend.

“It’s actually just amazing,” Louise Coughlin, chief pharmacist at Croydon Health Services, told reporters.

“Of course I can’t hold them in my hands because they are minus 70 degrees, but knowing that you are here and that we are among the first in the country to actually receive the vaccine, so the first in the world are easy incredible. I’m so proud. “

A Croydon Health Services pharmacy technician will take delivery of the first batch of Covid-19 vaccinations at Croydon University Hospital in South London on December 5, 2020.

GARETH FULLER | AFP | Getty Images

The UK has pre-ordered 40 million doses of Pfizer and BioNTechs vaccine, which in late-stage clinical trials have been shown to be 95% effective at preventing Covid infection.

Since it is a two-dose vaccine, the country has bought enough doses to vaccinate 20 million people. Pfizer’s delivery of vaccines will be staggered. The total amount is expected to be delivered by the end of 2021.

The UK has also pre-ordered other Covid-19 vaccines from AstraZeneca and Moderna, but these have not yet been approved.

From security issues to public trust

Pfizer confirmed to CNBC that the UK will initially receive around 800,000 recordings from its production site in Puurs, Belgium. However, the actual delivery schedule is secret. “For security reasons, we can no longer report how or where it is arriving in the UK,” a company spokesman told CNBC in a statement.

Aside from safety issues, the transportation and storage needs of the vaccine pose additional logistical challenges. The Pfizer BioNTech vaccine can only be agitated four times, must be stored at minus 70 degrees Celsius, and can only be stored at refrigerated temperatures for up to five days after thawing.

Another challenge facing the government is public awareness and participation in the vaccination program in the face of the spread of misinformation about vaccines.

Last week, Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, the UK’s deputy chief medical officer, warned that a “low intake” of the vaccine could spell continuation of coronavirus restrictions and possible further bans.

“Nobody wants to see lockdowns and the damage they do,” he said during a government press conference. “But if you want this dream to come true as soon as possible (so that life can get back to normal) you must take the vaccine when it is offered to you.”

Rhetoric against vaccinations

Surveys have shown that the UK public is generally supportive of obtaining a Covid vaccine and that it will not be mandatory. However, some are concerned about the rapid pace at which the vaccine has been tested and have received approval from the UK Drugs and Health Products Regulatory Agency.

“The vaccine is great news, but I have concerns about taking it given the short timeframe for testing,” a member of the public told CNBC in London.

“How safe is it? That is the key question. What age group and demographics was it tested on? I would like to see more testing before I take the plunge. I just need to be 100% sure that there is no adverse effect due to that.” The short test duration is not yet known to anyone. “

Protester holds an anti-vaccine placard in east London on December 5, 2020.

JUSTIN TALLIS | AFP | Getty Images

Andre Spicer, professor of organizational behavior at Cass Business School in London, told CNBC on Monday that building public confidence in the vaccine was a “big problem” for governments.

“We know the rhetoric against vaccination is growing, especially during the Covid boom,” he told CNBC’s Street Signs to people in a community seen taking the vaccine. “

“But there is a lot of research to suggest that this doesn’t tend to convince the least certain,” he said. “With these people, you have to focus on people they actually know … like a family doctor or a nurse,” added Spicer.

Vaccines can often take many years to develop and get approved, but the devastating spread of the coronavirus pandemic has led scientists to find a way to stop the virus. The front runners in vaccines include those developed by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and AstraZeneca, and the companies have reported that their shots have been largely effective in preventing coronavirus infections in clinical trials.

The vaccine manufacturers insisted that no corners were cut. The UK regulatory agency was the first in the world to approve Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine last week. The European counterpart is expected to announce its conclusions on the Pfizer vaccine later this month and the Moderna vaccine in early January.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is holding a meeting Thursday to discuss an emergency application for the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine.

Senator Angus King (I-Maine) holds a table of bipartisan Senate and House members gathering to announce a framework for new laws to fight coronavirus at a press conference on Capitol Hill on December 1, 2020.

Kevin Lemarque | Reuters

Main Street has asked for a new round of federal aid. 83% of small business owners in the recent CNBC | SurveyMonkey Small Business Confidence Survey said they would be supporting a new stimulus package to help individuals and businesses affected by the coronavirus pandemic. On Tuesday, after months of stalled talks between Capitol Hill and the White House and as coronavirus cases hit new highs every day, Congress unveiled a new stimulus proposal that appears to be tailored to the urgent needs of small businesses across the country, though he was quickly shot down by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

A key aspect of the new proposal is the allocation of $ 288 billion in small business aid and the renewal of the Paycheck Protection (PPP) program this summer, which survey results put the greatest hope of small business owners struggling to keep the lights on, too when their doors are still closed due to the virus. Four in ten small business owners (41%) are in favor of expanding or expanding the PPP. This makes this proposal the only one that has received more support from small business owners than from the general public.

The pandemic and the paycheck protection program

The PPP provided funds to companies to demonstrate they had maintained their payrolls despite business closings and a general decline in demand earlier this year. Hiring and retaining workers is always a challenge for small business owners, but especially with the pandemic.

In the latest update to the quarterly tracking survey, conducted November 10-17 of more than 2,000 small business owners across the country, about one in five (19%) said they had to take leave or fire some or all of their employees due to the coronavirus . Of those who have taken leave or laid off employees, a majority (58%) have already put some or all of their workers on hold, 23% have not yet expected to reinstate all or some of their workers, and 19% expect these departures will have to be permanent his.

These layoffs have particularly focused on industry. For example, 33% of small business owners in the lodging and catering industries reported having to resort to layoffs and vacations this year, but only 10% of those in the real estate industry reported having to contend with coronavirus-related business setbacks this year.

At the start of the pandemic, policymakers recognized the inherent trade-off between public health and business survival: by encouraging or mandating business closures and by staying home as much as possible to avoid the spread of the novel coronavirus, would they condemn many of these companies to shut down entirely, or at least to be forced to take drastic measures to stay alive, which would likely include layoffs.

Whether it is temporary or permanent, the job losses reported by small business owners are exactly the problem that the PPP should solve.

A simple but elegant solution to a potential unemployment disaster was to pay companies to keep paying their workers even when they weren’t working and even when there was no income. At the individual level, no employee wants to be laid off, and no small business owner wants to reduce the number of employees. At the macro level, policy makers knew that minimizing or avoiding a recession would require a coordinated effort.

The only economic stimulus from Covid-19 that has given small business owners more support than the general public is the Paycheck Protection Program, which has allowed Main Street to continue paying salaries to workers on leave during the shutdown.

Q4 2020 CNBC | SurveyMonkey Small Business Survey

Support for another round of PPP is even higher among the small business owners who have had to lay off workers due to the coronavirus. More than half of small business owners (55%) who have resorted to vacation or layoffs in the past few months would like to see an extension or expansion of the PPP in a new stimulus package, compared with 33% of those small business owners who have not made any business adjustments due to the coronavirus have made.

Public support for a new stimulus package is similar: 89% of non-small business owners across the country support a new stimulus package. The most popular proposal is the simplest: direct payments to individuals supported by half of small business owners (50%) and the majority of the population (54%). The package announced on Tuesday does not include funding for this particular proposal.

Despite the overwhelming public and small business support, congressional business talks had stalled since late summer, largely due to partisanship.

While they are still overwhelmingly backing a new stimulus package, Republicans are a little less enthusiastic compared to Democrats. In public, 84% of Republicans and 96% of Democrats say they support the adoption of a new federal incentive. Among small business owners, 76% of Republicans and 96% of Democrats support such a proposal.

The CNBC | SurveyMonkey Small Business Survey for Q4 2020 has broad support for another round of Covid-19 incentives and relatively high support from small business owners from both political parties for more funding for the Paycheck Protection Program.

Q4 2020 CNBC | SurveyMonkey Small Business Survey

When Republican small business owners were specifically asked about the prospect of a renewed PPP, they, like Democratic small business owners, were more enthusiastic than their partisans who do not own small businesses. Just over half (51%) of Democrats who own small businesses support a renewed PPP, and more than 40% of Democrats in public. Similarly, 39% of Republicans who own small businesses support a renewed PPP, more than 28% of Republicans in the public eye.

Only 23% of small business owners expect their workforce to grow in the next 12 months, up from 32% a year ago and in the first quarter of this year. Support for a revitalized PPP among small business owners shows that they believe it will bring the economic recovery needed to get back to where they were before the pandemic.

The CNBC | SurveyMonkey Small Business Survey for the fourth quarter of 2020 was conducted by more than 2,200 small business owners between November 10 and November 10. 17. The survey will be conducted quarterly through the SurveyMonkey online platform and will be based on the survey methodology.

As companies rolled out new digital capabilities to operate amid the coronavirus pandemic, ServiceNow reached a milestone among key customers, CEO Bill McDermott told CNBC on Monday.

In the third quarter, the cloud service provider signed its 1,000th customer contract worth over US $ 1 million a year – twice as much as a year ago.

“We were probably about half of it [last year]”Said McDermott in an interview with Jim Cramer, the host of Mad Money.” We’ve taken quite a step into the C-suite. “

ServiceNow, whose digital workflows have been a hot commodity among companies struggling to adapt to the digital world, closed a number of large deals in the third quarter that ended September 30th. Some of these corporate contracts include the NBA, WNBA, and Dell, as well as doing business with federal and state governments.

ServiceNow reported its best quarter among federal agencies, including nine federal customers with an annualized contract value of more than $ 10 million, which measures the expected revenue of each customer per year.

The Department of Veterans Affairs gave ServiceNow the largest deal in the company’s record in April, a five-year contract worth $ 96 million to modernize the agency’s IT infrastructure. The company also counts the US Air Force and the US Army among its customers.

“Today, digital transformation is this generation’s opportunity,” said McDermott.

ServiceNow’s shares rose 1.44% to $ 533.25 on Monday. The stock is up nearly 89% this year.

Customer Tamara Jenkins tries on a hat with Meeka Robinson Davis, owner of One-Of-A-Kind Hats, as Davis’ daughter Chrstiana Davis watches in the store in the Windsor Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California on November 24, 2020.

Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty Images

Vacation shoppers aren’t just looking for low prices and unique gifts. Many want their money to matter.

This year the coronavirus pandemic has hit small businesses, and the assassination of George Floyd put racial inequalities in a harsh light. The Result: Almost 60% of consumers said they are likely or highly likely to be shopping in neighborhood stores and local retailers this Christmas season to help the local economy. This was found in a survey conducted by Accenture in late August and August of more than 1,500 US consumers in September. Roughly the same percentage said they are likely or most likely to purchase more local products this year.

Consumers want to support companies that also reflect their values. About 4 in 10 respondents said they plan to shop at minority owned companies, and the same number said they’ll shop at retailers who support the Black Lives Matter movement.

“People work really, really, really hard for the money they make, and when they give that to a company, they want to make sure that the company is really, really hard working to create the kind of world they live want in, “said Aurora James, founder of the 15 Percent Promise. “If you spend a dollar anywhere, you are voting to keep this thing going – especially in this pandemic world where so many companies can no longer exist. Every single dollar you spend really counts.”

Large retailers have focused on this and responded by supporting small businesses and selling more of their products. Lowe’s has made millions in grants to small and minority-owned businesses and launched a pitching competition to identify outstanding entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds. Macy’s and Williams Sonoma’s West Elm has committed at least 15% of their shelf space to black-owned company products. And Nordstrom recently added brands such as Baby Tress and Bomba Curls to its beauty division.

Other companies donate for social causes. The start-up AllBirds for sustainable sneakers, for example, raised the prices on Black Friday by USD 1 in order to donate to a climate fund founded by activist Greta Thunberg. All purchases are matched against an additional US dollar.

“This time of year is synonymous with mass consumption and throwaway culture,” Allbirds co-founder Tim Brown told CNBC in an interview. “We’re trying to make a statement that this can be done differently.”

Kendra Scott, a jewelry brand sold by major retailers such as Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s, introduced a range of bracelets for charity. Half of the proceeds will go to Feeding America, which feeds children who are unable to get meals at school during the pandemic.

Over the next year, Lowe plans to bring more than 400 products from entrepreneurs to its stores or website. The hardware store donated $ 30 million in grants to minority businesses and $ 25 million to small business grants in rural communities. These troubled businesses include plumbers, electricians, and other home professionals who buy supplies from hardware stores but lost their businesses during the pandemic.

The hardware store is run by Marvin Ellison, one of the few black CEOs on the Fortune 500. In an interview with CNBC in May, he said he was amazed at the spate of grant applications the company has received.

Jeweler Kendra Scott donates half of the proceeds of his Everlyne bracelet to Feeding America.

Kendra Scott

Racial Justice as “Really Good Business”

James, the founder of the 15 percent pledge and a Brooklyn-based entrepreneur, said the pandemic had increased consumer desire to “shop small” – whether from a corner shop or discovering a local product Founder at a large retailer.

“We want to make gifts that people on both sides are comfortable with,” she said. “When I’m at the checkout, I’d like to be able to give a gift that doesn’t just go to the person I’m giving it to, but also to the small business I bought it from.”

The 36-year-old entrepreneur wrote an Instagram post that went viral following the George Floyd protests, urging companies to use at least 15% of their shelves for products from black-owned companies to reflect the makeup of the U.S. population.

Nine companies, including well-known brands like Macy’s, Sephora and Rent the Runway, have since signed the 15 percent promise.

Aurora James

Photo: Grace Miller

James said she pushed big corporations to help because she was worried about the impact of the pandemic on black-owned companies. About 41% of black-owned businesses across the country closed between February and April, according to a study by the University of California at Santa Cruz. Over the same period, only 17% of white companies closed, the study found.

Consumer support for small businesses this vacation could determine if they can keep their doors open, she said. “Walmart doesn’t really need your help this holiday season, but black-owned small businesses across America really do.”

Some shoppers will do this on Saturday, a day that has come to be known as Small Business Saturday. The shopping event that American Express launched a decade ago is encouraging shoppers to spend money in their communities.

When large companies use weight for social causes, they tend to see an benefit to their bottom line as well, as these points of view resonate with consumers.

“Corporate America tends to become blind to some of these things,” she said. “But I’ve always known that it’s not only right to be fair and sustainable, but also to do really good business.”

She said she knows the difference a large retailer can make firsthand. About seven years ago, Nordstrom presented a collection by Brother Vellies, the luxury brand she founded that sources shoes and handbags from craftsmen around the world. The company gave their first class real estate: seven storefronts in cities across the country.

“It was a big deal for me,” she said. “It has absolutely changed my business.”

– CNBC’s Lauren Thomas contributed to this report.

Dr. Joseph Varon (left) and other medical workers speak to a patient in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas on December 6, 2020.

Go Nakamura | Getty Images

The Food and Drug Administration could approve a coronavirus vaccine as early as this week. The move would be a pivotal moment in the pandemic as health officials say the US is likely to face the worst public health crisis in history this winter.

The FDA is expected to hold a meeting of its Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Related Biological Products, known as VRBPAC, on Thursday to discuss Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine with German drug maker BioNTech. Two days before the meeting, the FDA is expected to release a roughly 100-page document evaluating the companies’ clinical trial data, said Dr. Paul Offit, a voting member of the Advisory Board, provided an insight into the agency’s view of the vaccine.

“The public will see everything we see,” said Offit, who is also director of the Vaccination Education Center at the Philadelphia Children’s Hospital.

If Thursday’s meeting goes well and the advisory panel officially votes to approve the vaccine, the FDA could announce its approval “within a few days,” Alex Azar, secretary of health and human services, told ABC News on Sunday This Week “. “But it will follow the FDA’s gold standard process and I will make sure it does,” he added.

The vaccine couldn’t come at a more crucial time. Hospitals in the U.S. already have higher numbers of Covid patients than ever before, and the country’s outbreak is poised to break even worse records this week. Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator, warned on Sunday that the escalating surge in coronavirus is likely to be the most difficult event in U.S. history.

“This is not just the worst public health event. This is the worst event this country will face not just on the public health side,” she told NBC’s Meet the Press, reiterating the director’s comments of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Dr. Robert Redfield on Wednesday.

“This fall / winter tide combines everything we saw in spring with everything we saw in summer – plus the fall tide that turns into winter tide. I think that is why Dr. Redfield addressed the American people so absolutely . ” She added.

The approval would also mark a record-breaking timeframe for a process that typically lasts around a decade. The fastest vaccine development of all time, mumps, lasted more than four years and was approved in 1967. Last week, the UK approved Pfizer’s emergency vaccine, becoming the first country to do so.

Pfizer submitted its Covid-19 vaccine data to the FDA on November 20. A final analysis of its Phase 3 clinical trial of more than 43,000 participants found the vaccine to be 95% effective against Covid, safe, and appeared to fight off serious illness.

The FDA’s review of the vaccine should take a few weeks as the agency reviews all aspects of the data submitted in the application, including reviewing all safety information “to make sure there are no cracks” and everything is “solid”.

“If you’re talking about a study involving 44,000 people, that’s a lot of clinical data,” Offit said in a recent interview with CNBC.

US officials say they will distribute the vaccine within 24 hours of approval. Starting doses of the vaccine will be limited as production increases. Leading U.S. health officials predict it will take months to vaccinate anyone who wants to be vaccinated against Covid in the U.S. The federal government has made agreements with several drug manufacturers to buy some of their first doses.

Drug manufacturers and states are preparing to sell the vaccine from around a week on. The Federal Aviation Administration said it supported the “first mass air delivery” of vaccines late last month. United Airlines transported Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine from Brussels to Chicago O’Hare International Airport, people familiar with the matter told CNBC.

The vaccine will likely be distributed in phases. A CDC panel voted 13: 1 on Tuesday for healthcare workers and residents of long-term care facilities in the United States to receive the first coronavirus vaccine doses once they are cleared for public use. There are approximately 21 million healthcare workers and 3 million long-term care residents in the United States, according to the CDC.

U.S. officials say they should be able to hand out enough coronavirus vaccine doses to immunize 100 million people, roughly a third of the U.S. population, by the end of February.

Former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton said last week that they may be taking a coronavirus vaccine publicly, as polls suggest that many Americans are skeptical about getting vaccinated. According to a recent Gallup poll, black people in particular who are disproportionately affected by the virus appear to be less willing to take it.

When asked about the skepticism about Covid-19 vaccines on Monday, President Donald Trump’s coronavirus vaccine tsar Dr. Moncef Slaoui told CNBC that he was “very concerned” about it.

“In recent months, politicization, the context in which vaccine development took place, has exacerbated these sentiments,” said Slaoui, who heads the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed ​​vaccination program, in a “Squawk Box” interview. We plan to be 100% transparent and have as many independent experts as possible examine all data. “

He urged Americans to “keep your thoughts open”.

“Listen to the experts you trust. When you’ve heard the data in full, make up your mind,” he said.