In March, research assistant Noe Mercado prepared a test in Barouch Laboratory at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center's Center for Virology and Vaccine Research.CRAIG F. WALKER/GLOBE STAFF
“Johnson & Johnson said on Friday it would seek emergency use approval early next month for its one-shot coronavirus vaccine after results from a late-stage study showedit provided strong protection against COVID-19.
If the Food and Drug Administration grants the request, which seems likely amid the slow and uneven rollout of vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, Johnson & Johnson has promised to deliver 100 million doses in the United States by the end of June. Because the vaccine can be administered in one shot ― unlike the other vaccines, which require two ― that would mean full coverage for 100 million people.
The vaccine uses technology pioneered by the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. In the clinical trial, which involved 43,783 volunteers across the world, a single shot prevented 66 percent of moderate and severe cases globally, and 72 percent in the United States.
Worldwide, the shot prevented 85 percent of severe cases and none of the vaccinated people needed hospitalization or died from COVID-19, according to results released Friday morning by Johnson & Johnson and the National Institutes of Health.” Read more at Boston Globe
“While Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine is not quite as effective as the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, its single dose requirement and cost-effectiveness — it can be produced at half the cost of the other American ones — will make it an important player in the global vaccine scheme, experts say.” Read more at Vox / Julia Belluz and Umair Irfan
“A week and a half into the Biden presidency, Democrats are adopting a more muscular approach to dealing with Republicans, essentially declaring they will work with them if they can but are prepared move past them if they must.
Top Senate Democrats are now working on dual tracks, planning to hold a speedy impeachment trial to avoid derailing President Biden’s legislative agenda while also laying the groundwork for Biden’s covid relief package to pass shortly afterward.
The moves come after Biden launched his administration without Republicans in his Cabinet and started by issuing dozens of executive actions, a clip far more rapid than any of his recent predecessors.
Taken together, the moves are energizing Democrats eager for the party to flex its political muscle. But the tougher approach could also jeopardize one of Biden’s chief goals: achieving more bipartisanship in a capital that has been gripped by polarization.” Read more at Washington Post
“House Democrats have sought out new cellphone footage of the Capitol siege as well as updated details about injured police officers as they seek to build an emotionally compelling impeachment case against former president Donald Trump.
The goal is to present the Senate with fresh evidence that reveals what Trump knew in advance of the Jan. 6 rampage at the Capitol, as well as how his words and actions influenced those who participated. The rioting left five dead, including one member of the U.S. Capitol Police. In addition, two officers, one with the D.C. Police Department, have since died by suicide.
The effort to present new video evidence and witness testimony appears designed to make Republican senators as uncomfortable as possible as they prepare to vote to acquit Trump, as most have indicated they will do. The prospect of injured police officers describing the brutality of pro-Trump rioters to Republicans who regularly present themselves as advocates of law enforcement could make for an extraordinary, nationally televised scene.
Yet the strategy appears to be on a collision course with the Senate, where Democrats and Republicans alike have expressed reluctance to allow witness testimony in the interest of limiting the trial’s length to about a week. Both parties are eager to move past the final days of Trump’s presidency, with Democrats hoping to turn their attention to President Biden’s ambitious legislative agenda, and Republicans hoping to shift attention away from their standard-bearer’s role in the shocking riot.
The House impeachment managers are determined to present as much evidence as senators allow, to ensure a permanent record of Trump’s role in the riots — and to force Republicans to witness the chaos and carnage one more time before they vote against conviction, several individuals familiar with Democratic thinking said.” Read at Washington Post
“The rally in Washington’s Ellipse that preceded the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol was arranged and funded by a small group including a top Trump campaign fundraiser and donor facilitated by far-right show host Alex Jones.
Mr. Jones personally pledged more than $50,000 in seed money for a planned Jan. 6 event in exchange for a guaranteed ‘top speaking slot of his choice,’ according to a funding document outlining a deal between his company and an early organizer for the event.
Mr. Jones also helped arrange for Julie Jenkins Fancelli, a prominent donor to the Trump campaign and heiress to the Publix Super Markets Inc. chain, to commit about $300,000 through a top fundraising official for former President Trump’s 2020 campaign, according to organizers. Her money paid for the lion’s share of the roughly $500,000 rally at the Ellipse where Mr. Trump spoke.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
Migrants last week in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, on their way to the U.S. border. Credit...Jose Luis Gonzalez/Reuters
WASHINGTON — “A federal appeals court on Friday lifted a block on a Trump-era policy of rapidly turning away migrant children as public health risks, ramping up pressure on the Biden administration to restore the asylum process at the southwestern border.
In March, the Trump administration effectively sealed the borderfrom asylum seekers, citing the threat of the coronavirus. The latest court decision, from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, reverses a lower-court ruling from November that found that expelling thousands of children without the opportunity to assess their claims for protection exceeded the authority of the public health emergency rule. President Donald J. Trump used the rule, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to empower border agents to rapidly return migrants to Mexico or to their home countries.” Read more at New York Times
“Politicians from all across the ideological spectrum slammed the online brokerage Robinhood for pausing the buying of GameStop, AMC, and other stocks that redditors have driven up in the past week, saying it gave hedge funds an advantage over retail traders.” [Vox] Read more at Yahoo News / Ethan Wolff-Mann
“The populist financial revolt — and the subsequent control attempts from Robinhood — brought everyone from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Sen. Ted Cruz into agreement that the stoppage was unfair.” [Vox] Read more at MarketWatch / Chris Matthews
“Robinhood says it aims to ‘democratize finance,’ but many say its shutdown on buying specific stocks disadvantaged retail traders. And while many politicians are in agreement that the move was wrong, some believe in opening up the stock market to as many people as possible, while others argue for regulating trading, whether app users or hedge funds.” [Vox] Read more at Recode / Emily Stewart and Rani Molla
“While Republicans have long held a reputation as the party of Wall Street, those who have adopted a mantle of populism, like Donald Trump Jr., sided with the redditors. They see the anti-elite anger of those involved in the GameStop rebellion as potential allies in broader culture wars against tech companies or the media.” [Vox] Read more at New Republic / Jacob Silverman
“The Democrats who lead the House and Senate finance committees have called for stock market hearings, while some Republicans have decried Robinhood’s stoppage as interference in the free market. Democrats like Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), who represents Silicon Valley, have called for greater regulation and equality in the stock market.” [Vox] Read more at Business Insider / Mia Jankowicz
“More progressive Democrats, like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), have criticized the entire saga as an example of the pitfalls of so-called casino capitalism, in which high-frequency trading only serves to benefit the uber-wealthy. They called for taxes on wealth and financial transactions, respectively.” [Vox] Read more at Business Insider / Mia Jankowicz
“Warren lambasted the Securities and Exchange Commission for not enforcing anti-market manipulation rules, saying she sees Democratic control of government as an opportunity to increase regulation on all aspects of the stock market. She also cautioned against seeing the episode as a David vs. Goliath tale, saying wealthy people may be betting alongside the redditors.” [Vox] Read more at Boston Globe / Anissa Gardizy
“Lawmakers from New York and New Jersey, looking to capitalize on new Democratic majorities in Congress, are trying to repeal the $10,000 cap on the state and local tax deduction as part of a pandemic-relief bill. But the Biden administration has been noncommittal, and the move looks likely to wait until later this year.
The lawmakers say the cap, created in the 2017 tax law, punishes their constituents unfairly and pushes residents to move to low-tax states such as Florida. They are pitching the break as crucial to their states’ economic recovery.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“A New York judge on Friday increased pressure on former President Donald J. Trump’s family business and several associates, ordering them to give state investigators documents in a civil inquiry into whether the company misstated assets to get bank loans and tax benefits.
It was the second blow that the judge, Arthur F. Engoron of State Supreme Court in Manhattan, had dealt to Mr. Trump’s company in recent weeks.
In December, he ordered the company, the Trump Organization, to produce records that its lawyers had tried to shield, including some related to a Westchester County, N.Y., property that is among those being scrutinized by the New York State attorney general, Letitia James.
On Friday, Justice Engoron went further, saying that even more documents, as well as communications with a law firm hired by the Trump Organization, had to be handed over to Ms. James’s office. In doing so, he rejected the lawyers’ claim that the documents at issue were covered by attorney-client privilege.” A New York judge on Friday increased pressure on former President Donald J. Trump’s family business and several associates, ordering them to give state investigators documents in a civil inquiry into whether the company misstated assets to get bank loans and tax benefits.
The ruling was a fresh reminder that Mr. Trump — who left office about a week ago under the cloud of impeachment and who is headed for a Senate trial on a charge of ‘incitement of insurrection’ after his supporters stormed the Capitol in a violent rampage — faces significant legal jeopardy as a private citizen.
The most serious threats confronting the former president include a criminal investigation by the Manhattan district attorney and the civil inquiry by the attorney general into possible fraud in Mr. Trump’s business dealings before he was elected.” Read more at New York Times
“Former President Trump left office as numerous lawsuits against him and his administration still hung in the balance, a result that legal experts say was part of a calculated strategy to run out the clock and avoid accountability while in the White House.
By dragging his feet in court, Trump evaded subpoenas for his tax returns and dodged a final ruling on whether his continued business dealings violated the Constitution’s ban on profiting off the presidency.
His administration also upended the legal process, experts say, by treating emergency requests to the Supreme Court as a standard litigation move, often with success.” Read more at The Hill
“Former President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee raised $86 million through the GOP’s online fundraising platform between Nov. 24 and the end of 2020, according to a Friday filing with the Federal Election Commission.
Trump raised the money while falsely claiming that widespread voting fraud had cost him the election. The amount was less than the $207.5 million that he and the RNC raised in the 19 days after the Nov. 3 election, but does not include all contributions to his committees or the RNC. They are due to report detailed information to the FEC on Sunday.” Read more at Bloomberg
Representative Kevin McCarthy, left, and Senator Mitch McConnell are trying to navigate their party’s politics after President Donald Trump’s term.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times
“The two men now leading the Republican Party usually align during political crises. But the Trumpian chaos splintering the G.O.P. is not only testing Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader, and Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader — it’s also highlighting their differences in how to handle the former president and hampering a united strategy for retaking Congress next year.” Read more at New York Times
“Investigators probing a massive hack of the U.S. government and businesses say they have found concrete evidence the suspected Russian espionage operation went far beyond the compromise of the small software vendor publicly linked to the attack.
Close to a third of the victims didn’t run the SolarWinds Corp. SWI 0.24% software initially considered the main avenue of attack for the hackers, according to investigators and the government agency digging into the incident. The revelation is fueling concern that the episode exploited vulnerabilities in business software used daily by millions.
Hackers linked to the attack have broken into these systems by exploiting known bugs in software products, by guessing online passwords and by capitalizing on a variety of issues in the way Microsoft Corp.’s MSFT -2.92% cloud-based software is configured, investigators said.
Approximately 30% of both the private-sector and government victims linked to the campaign had no direct connection to SolarWinds, Brandon Wales, acting director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said in an interview.” Read more at Wall Street Journal