QUICK READ: Here are some headlines around the web from real journalists who keep us informed.
CNN.com – Almost half (46%) of adults in a household experiencing income or job loss due to the coronavirus outbreak.
one-third of all Americans have — said their mental health has suffered due to the coronavirus outbreak, according to the latest Kaiser Family Foundation, Health Tracking Poll released Wednesday.
Nearly half (48%) of those polled said someone in their family has skipped or delayed getting medical care during the coronavirus pandemic.“Notably, 11% of adults overall say their or their family member’s condition got worse as a result of postponing or skipping medical care due to coronavirus,” according to the poll results.
FT.COM–Merck chief casts doubt on coronavirus vaccine timeframe.
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Merck chief executive Ken Frazier has cast doubt on the 12 to 18-month timeframe to develop an effective coronavirus vaccine, describing the widely mooted schedule as “very aggressive”. “It is not something I would put out there that I would want to hold Merck to,” the US pharmaceutical group’s chief told the Financial Times, adding that vaccines should be tested in “very large” clinical trials that take several months if not years to complete.
Washington Post.com – Taxpayers paid to develop remdesivir but will have no say when Gilead sets the price.
Gilead needed help from U.S. taxpayers. Lots of help. Three federal health agencies were deeply involved in remdesivir’s development every step of the way, providing tens of millions of dollars of government research support. Now that big government role has set up a political showdown over pricing and access.
Despite the heavy subsidies, federal agencies have not asserted patent rights to Gilead’s drug, potentially a blockbuster therapy worth billions of dollars. That means Gilead will have few constraints other than political pressure when it sets a price in coming weeks. Critics are urging the Trump administration to take a more aggressive approach.
“Without direct public investment and tax subsidies, this drug would apparently have remained in the scrapheap of unsuccessful drugs,” Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Tex.), chairman of the House Ways and Means health subcommittee, said earlier this month.
Moderna unveiled encouraging coronavirus vaccine results. Then top execs dumped nearly $30 million of stock Moderna’s stock price skyrocketed as much as 30% after the biotech company announced promising early results for its coronavirus vaccine.
Researchers: Nearly Half Of Accounts Tweeting About Coronavirus Are Likely Bots.
As ordinary investors piled in, two insiders were quietly heading for the exits. Moderna’s chief financial officer and chief medical officer executed options and sold nearly $30 million of shares combined on Monday and Tuesday, SEC filings reviewed by CNN Business show. The sales occurred after Moderna (MRNA) excited Wall Street before markets opened Monday by announcing encouraging vaccine trial results. Moderna’s market value swelled to $29 billion — even though the company has no marketed products.
Nearly half of the Twitter accounts spreading messages on the social media platform about the coronavirus pandemic are likely bots, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University said Wednesday.
Researchers culled through more than 200 million tweets discussing the virus since January and found that about 45% were sent by accounts that behave more like computerized robots than humans.