Episode 38: Insane in the Brain
This week witnessed some positive news on the pandemic, with cases in the US dropping 13.4% since early January and back to pre-Thanksgiving levels. The CDC Director Rochelle Walensky confirmed the country “now appears to be in a consistent downward trajectory for both cases and hospital admissions.” The US has vaccinated 11% of the population or 37 million people, which exceeds the total confirmed COVID cases of 26.5 million since the start of the pandemic.
This month is Black History Month, an annual celebration of African Americans’ achievements and a time for recognizing their central role in US history. President Gerald Ford officially recognized Back History Month in 1976, and every US president since has formally designated the month of February as Black History Month and endorsed a specific theme. The 2021 theme, “Black Family: Representation, Identity, and Diversity,” explores the African diaspora and the spread of Black families across the US.
This week also marked the end of an (e-commerce) era. After 27 years of leading Amazon, Jeff Bezos decided at age 57 it was time to step down as CEO and hand the reigns to 24-year Amazon veteran, Andy Jassy.
POLITICS
House Republicans held a closed-door session this week to discuss and vote what to do with two of its “problem children,” Liz Cheney and Majorie Taylor Greene. Cheney (R-WY ), the third-highest-ranking House Republican, is under fire for being one of 10 House Republicans to vote to impeach former President Trump. The Wyoming Republican Party censured Cheney for her actions. Fellow Republican congressman, Matt Gaetz (R-FL), a Trump wannabe, even flew to Cheney’s home state last week to lobby against her for re-election. Cheney did not retreat, saying, “several members have asked me to apologize for the vote, but I cannot do that. I owe you honesty. I owe you the truth. It was a vote of principle—a principle on which I stand and still believe.” Earlier this week, House Republicans voted 145-61 that Cheney could keep her leadership role in the lower chamber. The fall-out for the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump has been intense. Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) told NBC’s “Meet the Press,” that “everybody that supported you, or so it seems that way, your friends, your family, have turned against you. They think you’re selling out.” Kinzinger even received a certified letter from a constituent claiming he was “possessed by the devil.” The Illinois Republican Party is expected to censure Kinzinger for his vote to impeach the President. GOP Rep Tom Rice of South Carolina faced the same music. The Trump impeachment trial in the Senate commences next week and promises to be a spectacle.
The more newsworthy debate in the legislature involved freshman House Congressman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who sits on the Education and Labor and Budget committees. Greene has faced extreme scrutiny for her spurious claims on a range of topics, from the suspicion that parts of the 9/11 attacks didn’t occur to suggest that Parkland and Sandy Hook school shootings were staged to the theory that laser beams started California wildfires from space. She also has a history of racist and inflammatory statements and expressed support for the QAnon. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said that conspiracy theories are the “cancer” of the Republican party, however Republican leadership in the House decided not to remove Greene from her committee assignments. Some GOP House members even gave Greene a standing ovation during the closed-door meeting on Wednesday.
Democrats frustrated with Republicans’ lack of action around Greene forced a full House vote yesterday in an attempt to castigate her. Ahead of the vote, Greene wore a mask featuring the words “FREE SPEECH,” and said her comments “were words of the past” and that she was the victim of “big media companies” that chose to cherry-pick her statements and demonize her. All House Democrats and 11 Republicans voted 230-199 to remove Greene from all Committees. The concern is this move establishes a precedent for the House majority party to overrule the committee assignments of the minority, based on a politician’s words before taking office. For example, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) made anti-Semitic comments before her election, and she and Rep. Maxime WaterS (D-CA) called for crowds to harass Trump Administration officials in public. Would a Republican majority in the House at some point have free license to retaliate? I’d bet a lot of money that’s coming.
Biden gave his first foreign policy speech, framing it as a reset after four years of Donald Trump’s America. Highlights of the address are as follows:
Pledge to reinvest in alliances and diplomacy and emphasizing democratic values.
Warning Russia that “America is back” and that “the days of the US rolling over in the face of Russia’s aggressive actions were over.”
Biden’s Speech was notable in that he didn’t mention Iran. This apparent policy stance contrasts with how relentlessly Trump’s Secretary of State Mike Pompeo railed against Tehran.
Return to a vision of the US as an immigrant nation. Biden pledged to raise the cap on refugees to the US from 15k to 125k.
End support for the Saudi military campaign in Yemen, including arms sales. (Yemen has suffered a six-year civil war. The warring groups include the Saudi-backed government and Iran-supported Houthi rebels. The conflict erupted in 2014 when the Houthis stormed the the nation’s capital. A coalition led by Saudi Arabia has been launching airstrikes against Houthi rebels in the Middle East’s most impoverished country since 2015. The campaign has led to one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises as thousands of civilians have been killed. It has also exacerbated hunger and poverty in Yemen.
COVID
The new head of CDC said we could open schools without vaccinating all teachers. She said science now says that schools can open safely with masking, social distancing, hand washing, and proper ventilation. Teacher Unions across the country are protesting the Director’s comments.
J&J applied for emergency authorization for its vaccine yesterday. The next step is the FDA board will review and render a decision in 3-4 weeks. The FDA has indicated it would authorize a vaccine that’s at least 50% effective. (The flu vaccine, by comparison, generally reduces people’s risk of getting influenza by 40% - 60% compared with people who aren’t inoculated, according to the CDC.) The Phase 3 study reported different protection levels in other regions of the world: 72% in the US, 66% in Latin America, and 57% in South Africa. The 44,000-person trial showed that, globally, the vaccine is 85% effective at preventing severe symptoms that lead to hospitalization in the four weeks following vaccination and offered 100% protection after the four weeks. Protection was consistent across race and age, including those over age 60. The benefit of the J&J vaccine is it does not require special coolers for storage and delivery. The company plans to ship the vaccine at 36 - 46 degrees Fahrenheit. Plus, the J&J vaccine only needs one shot. As soon as the FDA issues approval, J&J will start shipping the vaccine to distribute 100 million doses by early summer.
The COVID vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford is 75% effective against the UK coronavirus variant. The vaccine appears to be 84% effective for other virus strains. Another positive finding is a single dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine may reduce transmission of the virus up to 67% and offer strong protection for three months. (Research shows the vaccine is 76% effective at preventing infection with the first shot, which grows to 82% with a second shot.) These findings could vindicate the UK government’s controversial strategy of delaying the second shot for up to 12 weeks to get more people vaccinated. The research could also bring scientists closer to answering one of the big questions about the vaccine drive: will the vaccines curb the coronavirus’s spread? The makers of all three approved vaccines—Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca—have said their shots proved to be anywhere from 70% to 95% effective in clinical trials in protecting people from illness caused by the virus. But it was unclear whether the vaccines could also suppress transmission of the virus — that is, whether someone inoculated could still acquire the virus without getting sick and spread it to others. As a result, experts say that even vaccinated people should continue to wear masks and keep their distance from others.
One topic gaining momentum is mixing vaccines to accelerate vaccination of at-risk groups and stifle virus mutations before they spread. This concept would mean someone might get a first shot of the Pfizer vaccine, and the second shot may be Moderna or AstraZeneca. I’m not a scientist, but this approach sounds insane in the brain. I can’t help but harken back to the lesson I learned in college about mixing alcohol in my system—Beer before liquor, never sicker! I’ll assume the same goes with vaccines.
ECONOMY
US employers added 49,000 jobs last month, returning growth to the labor market but an underwhelming figure. The unemployment rate now stands at 6.3%, although some decline was due to long-term unemployed giving up on looking for work. Jobs grew strongly in business and professional services, according to the Labor Department. The leisure and hospitality sector lost 61,000 jobs in January, following a steep decline of 536,000 jobs in December. Retailers, healthcare, and warehouses all cut jobs in January. The labor market remains 10 million jobs below its pre-pandemic levels, and it’s apparent the path back to full recovery will be measured and lengthy.
The Senate approved a fast-track budget measure for President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID relief package this morning. Vice President Kamala Harris cast her first tie-breaking vote in the Senate to advance the resolution after an all-night session. The House passed the measure with a vote of 219-209. The budget resolution that passed is not the Covid relief bill. It merely sets the stage for Democrats to use a process known as “budget reconciliation” to pass the legislation on a party-line vote, possibly in late February or March, after the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump. The bottom line is Democrats can now enact the package without any Republican votes. The reconciliation process was set up as part of the 1974 Congressional Budget Act to make it faster and easier to pass legislation related to spending, taxes, and debt. Budget reconciliation allows lawmakers to bypass the Senate’s 60-vote threshold typically required to break filibusters and move legislation forward with a simple majority vote. Bills eligible for the budget reconciliation process involve federal revenue or spending. Reconciliation has been used in the past for controversial measures such as the Affordable Care Act in 2010 and Trump’s sweeping tax cuts in 2017. Since its first use in 1980, lawmakers leveraged reconciliation to enact 21 bills. President Biden suggested he still hopes for a bipartisan bill, but the gulf between Biden’s $1.9 trillion plan and the $600 billion plan supported by Republicans feels insurmountable. However, some Democratic Party members are concerned about Biden’s relief package’s size, which may pressure Biden to compromise. In an opinion article, former top Obama economic aide Larry Summers said that while the 2009 aid package to combat the Great Recession was too small, the 2021 plans for “stimulus measures of the magnitude contemplated are steps into the unknown,” citing inflation and other fears.
OTHER NEWS
Business consultant McKinsey & Company has agreed to pay a fine of $573 million for its role in the opioid epidemic. McKinsey worked with Perdue Pharma for 15 years. Evidence shows the companies worked together in 2013 on how to “supercharge” sales of opioids by $100 million, including targeting doctors who might have overprescribed opioids and switching patients to more potent doses. Most of the settlement money will go to treatment and rehab programs in areas battered by the epidemic. The opioid crisis has killed over 400,000 Americans and wrecked the lives of millions more. McKinsey’s payout is more considerable than the revenue the firm generated by advising opioid clients, a practice it stopped in 2019. (OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma agreed to pay the DOJ $8.3 billion, and members of the Sackler family, who own the company, agreed to pay $225 million in a civil settlement but admitted no wrongdoing. Johnson & Johnson and three drug distributors are in negotiations for a settlement worth $26 billion.)
Corporate irresponsibility news keeps coming. A congressional report revealed, “dangerous levels” of metals like lead, arsenic, cadmium, and mercury in trusted baby food brands. These metals are listed on the World Health Organization’s top 10 chemicals of public health concern and tied to chronic disease and cancer. The investigators examined products made by Nurture, Hain Celestial Group, Beech-Nut Nutrition, and Gerber, adding that it was “greatly concerned” that Walmart, Campbell Soup, and Sprout Organic Foods refused to cooperate with the investigation. Exposure to toxic chemicals impacts a baby’s brain’s development, leading to lower IQ and behavioral problems. The FDA reviewed the report and noted that the harmful elements enter the food supply from natural sources such as the soil, water, and air, making it hard to avoid them altogether. Still, pesticides used in farming can increase exposure. Currently, the FDA doesn’t have limits for heavy metals in most baby foods. And companies don’t provide warnings to parents on their tables. Experts say parents can minimize the risk by avoiding rice cereal or products made with rice flour, plus sweet potato products. These crops can absorb more pollutants during growth.
In the last few years, the country music industry has made a concerted effort to progress on diversity and social issues. Those efforts hit a wall this week when country music star Morgan Wallen returned home from a night of partying and was videotaped by a neighbor making drunken, profanity-laced statements and using a racially charged word. The reckoning for Wallen has been appropriately severe. Big Loud, Wallen’s record label and management company, announced it suspended his recording contract indefinitely. Radio conglomerates iHeartMedia and Entercom both pulled his songs from the airwaves in more than 150 stations. Cable-TV powerhouse CMT pulled his videos from all platforms. The Academy of Country Music announced that it would “halt Morgan Wallen’s potential involvement and eligibility” in the ACM awards. Wallen quickly apologized via a statement to TMZ. However, this is one of several instances of problematic behavior for Wallen, and it’s not clear if he can (or should) recover from this gaffe.
A class-action lawsuit in California is underway that Subway’s tuna sandwiches contain no actual tuna fish. Plaintiffs say that lab testing had confirmed that Subway tuna is not tuna, though they declined to give further details or present laboratory evidence. Rumors are that Jessica Simpson upon hearing the news screamed, “I knew it was chicken!”
I. Below are the articles I found interesting the past week:
How to talk to Millenials about capitalism
Inside the craziest meeting of the Trump presidency
How Anthony Fauci survived Donal Trump
Dealing with imposter syndrome as a new CEO
The GameStop stock saga is dangerous and all too familiar.
Can you still transmit COVID after vaccination?
Resignation email from Jeff Bezos to employees
II. Stats that made me go WOW!
- The NAACP was founded on February 12th, 1909, the centennial anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth.
- The African diaspora consists of the worldwide collection of communities descended from people from Africa who were enslaved and shipped to the Americas via the Atlantic slave trade between the 16th and 19th centuries. The largest populations are in Brazil (85 million), the US (46 million), and Haiti (9 million).
- Cannabis spending, which hit $29 billion in 2020, is projected to reach $63.5 billion by 2024.
- US cigarette sales were flat in 2020, following decades of decline. Tobacco companies said that demand was strong because Americans had more time to smoke during the lockdown and additional income, as many people saved money on restaurants and entertainment.
- Peloton’s sales grew 128% last quarter, trouncing analysts’ expectations. The company registered its first billion-dollar revenue quarter and $63 million profit for the three months ending December 31st. Peloton ended 2020 with 1.67 million connected fitness subscribers, up 134% from the prior year. The company raised its full-year outlook, estimating revenue will top $4 billion. Peloton shares are up more than 365% in the last 12 months and the company boasts a $46 billion market cap.
III. Name that Tune!
As I write this email, I am listening to “Insane in the Brain” by Cypress Hill.
Cypress Hill is an American hip hop group from California and the first Latin-American hip hop group to go multi-platinum. The leading members of the group are brothers who were born in Pinar Del Rio, Cuba. In 1971, their family immigrated to the US. The group name follows a street in the brother’s South Gate, CA, neighborhood. Cypress Hill released the song “Insane in the Brain” in 1993 and it became a mainstream hit, reaching number 19 on the Billboard Hot 100 and selling 600,000 copies in the US.
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