LONDON (BLOOMBERG) - Moderna chief medical officer Paul Burton said he suspects the new Omicron coronavirus variant may elude current vaccines, and if so, a reformulated shot could be available early in the new year.
"We should know about the ability of the current vaccine to provide protection in the next couple of weeks," Dr Burton said on Sunday (Nov 28) on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show.
"If we have to make a brand new vaccine, I think that's going to be early 2022 before that's really going to be available in large quantities," he said.
"The remarkable thing about the mRNA vaccines, the Moderna platform, is that we can move very fast," he added.
The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotech company mobilised "hundreds" of staff early last Thursday, Thanksgiving Day in the United States, after news of the Omicron variant spread.
Protection should still exist, depending on how long ago a person was vaccinated, and for now the best advice is to take one of the current Covid-19 vaccines, Dr Burton said.
"If people are on the fence, and you haven't been vaccinated, get vaccinated," he said. "This is a dangerous-looking virus, but I think we have many tools in our armamentarium now to fight it."
Fears that it could exacerbate a winter Covid-19 surge in the northern hemisphere and undermine a global economic recovery sent a wave of risk aversion across global markets last Friday that continued on Sunday when the Middle East opened for the week.
Moderna said in a release on Friday that it was working rapidly to test the current vaccine against the Omicron variant, and studying two booster candidates.
"Since early 2021, Moderna has advanced a comprehensive strategy to anticipate new variants of concern," the company said. "The company has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to advance new candidates to clinical testing in 60 to 90 days."
Cases of the new omicron coronavirus variant are spreading and the WHO says symptoms are mild so far. Global markets face a week of uncertainty. China sends 27 warplanes close to Taiwan. Here’s what you need to know today.
Airlines, passengers and businesses scrambled to respond to a deluge of travel restrictions announced over the weekend to slow the spread of the omicron variant. Australiasuspended direct flights from nine southern African countries. Singapore is watching the impact of the new strain “very closely” and may be forced to roll back some easing measures. The Philippines won’t welcome travelers from some European countries for the next several weeks. Meanwhile, the WHO is urging caution after two South African health experts, including the doctor who first sounded the alarm about omicron, indicated that symptoms linked to it have been mild so far. The variant appears to be more transmissible, reinforcing the need for vaccinations or booster shots, said the U.S.’s top infectious-disease doctor, Anthony Fauci.
The fate of global markets now depends at least in part on laboratories around the world probing the omicron strain, potentially leaving investors with weeks of uncertainty. Stocks looked set to fall in Asia on Monday while currency markets stabilized after Friday’s volatility. OPEC+ is moving two technical meetings to later this week after oil’s rout last Friday and to give its committees more time to evaluate the impact of a new strain. And pessimists rule emerging markets as central banks confront the fallout from the variant.
China’s Covid Zero strategy may be around a while longer. The country would face a “colossal outbreak” if it were to reopen in a similar manner to the U.S., researchers at Peking University predicted. Loosening from its current approach would lead to as many as 637,155 infections a day, the modeling showed — which would be the largest daily figure reported by any country since the pandemic began. The study also predicted a rise in China’s infections if it adopted the policies of the U.K., Israel, Spain or France. Separately, Goldman joined Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan in offering quarantine reimbursement for employees in the Asia-Pacific.
China on Saturday sent 27 warplanes close to Taiwan, the most since October, after a U.S. lawmaker defied Beijing’s demand that she abandon a trip to the island. The aircraft, including J-16 fighter jets, entered Taiwan’s southwest Air Defense Identification Zone, according to the Ministry of National Defense. Meanwhile, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator said world powers must secure full, guaranteed and verifiable sanctions removal for Tehran when they resume talks on Monday aimed at reviving a landmark 2015 deal and ending a standoff with the U.S.
Thailand is targeting newly minted crypto millionaires to breathe life into its pandemic-battered tourism industry. Its tourism authority is working with the nation’s regulators and a local cryptocurrency exchange to pave the way for the acceptance of digital tokens for travel. Separately, social media platforms will be required to reveal the identities of anonymous online trolls or face making defamation payouts under new legislation proposed by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Meanwhile, is India banning crypto? Here’s a look at the hot-cold relationship between digital currencies and one of the fastest-growing markets for crypto trading.
What We’ve Been Reading
What’s caught our eye over the past 24 hours:
And finally, here’s what Tracy’s interested in today
What just happened in markets? News of omicron — a new strain of Covid with 32 mutations to its spike protein — prompted a massive selloff on Friday. The S&P 500 closed down 2.2% as investors rushed to incorporate the new variant into their expectations of economic growth. Obviously the big unknown is what exactly omicron mighty mean for vaccine efficacy, and here there remains a big question mark. But if we focus on the market reaction for a bit, two things jump out.
1. The first is that something weird was happening in markets even before Friday. While the S&P 500 was relatively flat from Monday to Wednesday (Thursday was closed for Thanksgiving), there was a lot going on under the surface. The CBOE's Volatility Index had already begun to nudge higher, opening the week at 18.20 and then jumping to as high as 20.96 on Wednesday. You can see the shift in the VIX Curve in the below chart, which also shows that the curve is now inverted. Stocks beloved by hedge funds and certain momentum investors also dropped precipitously early in the week, with lots of factor strategies seemingly taking hits.
2. Meanwhile, the spread between 5- and 30-year U.S. Treasuries jumped on Friday as investors priced-in a potentially slower rate of Fed interest rate hikes. But as Jon Turek over at Convexity Capital points out, all this uncertainty would appear to raise the chances of a central bank policy error (in which case, the curve should be flattening rather than steepening). “If anything, omicron actually raised the odds of a policy mistake as the price side of the mandate will make it much harder for the Fed to react to potential growth risks,” he says.
All of this is a long-winded way of saying that we don't know a lot about omicron just yet and markets may be reacting in a not particularly coherent way, or to something else entirely.
You can follow Tracy Alloway on Twitter at @tracyalloway.
You won't see snacks the same way again — or specifically, the person selling them — unless you have been snacking with your eyes.
A street vendor in Chiang Mai, Thailand has stirred the internet's imagination this week with her creative way of attracting customers.
Wearing nothing underneath her cardigan — with a pin barely keeping it together— the 23-year-old has been selling Thai pancakes, a popular street snack, or better known to locals as khanom Tokyo.
And it appears that her sweet treats have brought all the men to her stall.
United States treasuries and the Japanese yen gained while South Africa's rand fell to its lowest in a year against the US dollar amid fears the variant may spread internationally, thwarting the recovery in the world's economy.
Asian stocks and US equity futures fell amid the risk-off tone, with thin liquidity likely a factor given American markets were shut for Thanksgiving on Thursday.
A gauge of Asia-Pacific stocks slid to the lowest since the middle of last month, with travel shares among the biggest decliners. Singapore Airlines shares fell nine cents, or 1.7 per cent, to $5.16.
Japan's Nikkei index sank 2.23 per cent, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index fell 0.9 per cent while South Korea's Kospi index was down 0.48 per cent.
Just after opening, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index tumbled 0.96 per cent while the Shanghai Composite dropped 0.23 per cent.
The benchmark Straits Times Index was down 1.06 per cent as at 9.35am.
The detection of the strain comes on top of concerns in markets about high inflation and the prospect of quicker exit from ultra-loose monetary settings. Global shares have climbed about 16 per cent this year, weathering a plethora of risks after investors poured almost US$900 billion (S$1.23 trillion) into equity exchange-traded and long-only funds this year - topping the combined total from the past 19 years.
"Traders are trimming risk positions because of concern over the new virus variant," said Dr Alvin T. Tan, head of Asia foreign exchange strategy at RBC Capital Markets in Hong Kong. "The risk-off sentiment is magnified given the thin liquidity as it's Asia morning plus the US holiday."
IG Markets analyst Kyle Rodda said that the virus variant is "a scary headline", so it may have caused a knee-jerk reaction.
He added that "North America off the desks means there's a wall of buyers missing", and thinner markets make for more pronounced moves.
United First Partners head of Asian Research Justin Tang said: "There is some risk off happening from Japan to Africa due to concerns around a new virus variant being found in South Africa, but the good thing is countries such as UK are acting fast to curtail its spread."
He added: "Given that the world has gone through this before with Delta, there is already a playbook for such situations - even if the new variant overstays."
The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield dropped as much as 5 basis points to 1.58 per cent as cash trading resumed following the holiday. The yen rose 0.4 per cent against the dollar, while the Swiss franc saw a 0.2 per cent rise, both outperforming their Group of 10 peers. The rand slid as much as 1.3 per cent to a one-year low of 16.1717 per dollar.
Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs Group economists said they expect the US Federal Reserve to tighten policy faster than previously anticipated, including doubling the pace at which it tapers bond purchases to US$30 billion a month from January. They see an interest-rate lift-off from near zero in June next year.
"The increased openness to accelerating the taper pace likely reflects both somewhat higher-than-expected inflation over the last two months and greater comfort among Fed officials that a faster pace would not shock financial markets," the Goldman team, led by Dr Jan Hatzius, wrote in a note.
In China, the economy continued to slow this month, with car and homes sales dropping again as a housing market crisis dragged on, according to Bloomberg's aggregate index of eight early indicators.
JPMorgan CEO says he regrets his China comments. Binance is in talks with sovereign wealth funds. NFT is the Collins Dictionary word of the year. Here’s what you need to know today.
Jamie Dimon is walking back his words, saying he regrets quipping at a Boston event on Tuesday that JPMorgan is likely to outlast the Chinese Communist Party. His comments detract from constructive dialogue, he said, and it’s “never right to joke about or denigrate” a country. Beijing has so far stayed silent in response, and as of midday Wednesday in China the bank hadn’t communicated with government officials on the issue. JPMorgan went into damage-control mode as soon as he said his words. With nearly $20 billion of exposure in China, JPMorgan has a lot riding on maintaining cordial relations.
Asian stocks looked set for a mixed open Thursday after the latest Federal Reserve minutes flagged the risk of a faster reduction in stimulus. The U.S. dollar jumped and the Treasury yield curve flattened. There are signs this week that showed this year’s love for risky assets has hit a rough patch. OPEC expects that oil stockpiles released by consuming nations could massively swell the surplus in global markets, ahead of the oil bloc’s meeting on whether to further increase output. And traders expecting Australia’s central bank to soon follow New Zealand and South Korea in hiking rates may have to wait.
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, confirmed it’s in talks with sovereign wealth funds about them taking a stake, as the closely held firm faces increasing regulatory pressure worldwide. Meanwhile, India is considering a proposal to treat cryptocurrencies as a financial asset while safeguarding small investors. The legislation may stipulate a minimum amount for investments in digital currencies, while banning their use as legal tender. And aficionados are turning to technical indicators for clues as to where Bitcoin and Ether may go next.
Olaf Scholz is set to succeed Angela Merkel as German chancellor after forging a coalition that aims to revamp the economy by tackling climate change and promoting digital technologies. After almost two months of talks, Scholz's center-left Social Democrats finalized an agreement with the Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats. Scholz set out to steer Germany through the resurgent pandemic and transform Europe’s largest economy into a climate leader.
The Collins Dictionary declared NFT its word of the year in recognition of the convergence of the worlds of money, tech and art in what became known as “non-fungible tokens.” Collins defines them as “a unique digital certificate, registered in a blockchain, that is used to record ownership of an asset such as an artwork or a collectible.”
What We’ve Been Reading
What’s caught our eye over the past 24 hours:
And finally, here’s what Tracy’s interested in today
For a moment on Wednesday, crypto went on sale in India. News that parliament will consider a bill to regulate “private cryptocurrencies” sparked a massive selloff. Altcoins like Shiba and Doge slipped precipitously on trading platforms popular with Indian investors, yet the same coins were remarkably stable on exchanges like Binance and Kraken. At one point, Bitcoin was down almost 14% on WazirX but a mere 0.5% elsewhere in the world. Anyone who could figure out how to quickly and efficiently get money into and out of the country could have bought crypto on the cheap and simply sold it for a higher price elsewhere.
Source: TrendingView.com
Of course, therein lies the rub and the precise reason why pricing arbitrages like this can exist in crypto. One of the great ironies of ostensibly decentralized money is that it is in fact highly centralized once traded on exchanges that are vulnerable to outages and must meet national rules around KYC or moving funds in and out of the country. That’s one of the reasons why the crypto market’s most famous pricing discrepancy has persisted for so long.
You can follow Tracy Alloway on Twitter at @tracyalloway.
— With assistance by Tracy Alloway
(Corrects to remove reference to old article in last paragraph.)
KUNMING, CHINA (AFP) - Two-year-old Haoyang has likely just months to live, but the only medicine that can help his rare genetic condition is not found anywhere in China and closed borders due to the Covid-19 pandemic mean he cannot travel for treatment.
Instead, his desperate father, Mr Xu Wei, has created a home laboratory to create a remedy for the boy himself.
"I didn't really have time to think about whether to do it or not. It had to be done," the 30-year-old told AFP from his DIY lab in a high-rise apartment building in southwestern Kunming.
Haoyang has Menkes Syndrome, a genetic disorder that impacts how copper - which is crucial for brain and nervous system development - is processed in the body.
Sufferers rarely survive beyond the age of three.
But Xu, who has only high school education and ran a small online business before his son became ill, is determined to give him a fighting chance.
"Even though he cannot move or speak, he has a soul and feels emotions," he said, holding Haoyang in his lap to give him honey mixed in water.
After being told the disease was incurable and the only medication that could help ease symptoms was not available in China, he began researching and teaching himself pharmaceuticals.
"My friends and family were against it. They said it was impossible," he remembers.
Most online documents on Menkes Syndrome were in English, but undeterred, Mr Xu used translation software to understand them before setting up a home lab in his father's gym.
On discovering copper histadine could help, he set up the equipment to create it himself, mixing copper chloride dihydrate with histidine, sodium hydroxide and water.
Blocked by covid-19
Xu Wei holding his son Xu Haoyang at his home laboratory in Kunming, China, on Oct 20, 2021. PHOTO: AFP
Mr Xu now gives Haoyang a daily dose of homemade medicine, which gives the child some of the copper his body is missing.
The amateur chemist claims that a few of the blood tests returned to normal two weeks after beginning the treatment.
The toddler can't talk, but he gives a smile of recognition when his father runs a gentle hand over his head.
His wife, who didn't want to give her name, cares for their five-year-old daughter in another part of the city.
Menkes Syndrome is more prevalent in boys than girls, and it is estimated one in 100,000 babies are born with the disease globally, according to organisation Rare Diseases.
There is little information or data available, but Mr Xu said pharmaceutical companies have shown little interest as the treatment "does not have commercial value and its user group is small".
Under normal circumstances, he would have travelled abroad to bring back treatments for Haoyang from specialist centres overseas, but China has largely closed its borders since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mr Xu felt he had no choice but to make it himself.
"At first, I thought it was a joke," said Haoyang's grandfather Xu Jianhong.
"(I thought) it was an impossible mission for him."
Xu Wei pouring liquid nitrogen at his home laboratory in Kunming, China, on Oct 20, 2021. PHOTO: AFP
But six weeks after throwing himself into the project, Mr Xu produced his first vial of copper histidine.
To test it, he first experimented with rabbits and then injected the treatment into his own body.
"The rabbits were fine, I was fine, so then I tried it on my son," he said.
Reassured, he then started gradually increasing the dosage.
But the medicine is not a cure.
Professor Annick Toutain, specialist of rare diseases at the Tours University Hospital in France, said the copper treatment "is only efficient against certain genetic anomalies and if it is administered very early on, in the first three weeks of life".
She said that after that the treatment will alleviate symptoms, "without leading to recovery".
Mr Xu has accepted that it can "only slow down the disease".
Gene therapy
Xu Wei looking through Menkes syndrome-related material on a computer at home in Kunming, China, on Oct 22, 2021. PHOTO: AFP
His work has led to interest from VectorBuilder, an international biotech lab, who are now launching gene therapy research with Mr Xu into Menkes syndrome.
The company's chief scientist Bruce Lahn described it as "a rare disease among rare diseases" and said they were inspired after learning about Mr Xu's family.
Clinical trials and tests on animals are planned for the next few months.
Mr Xu has even been contacted by other parents whose children have been diagnosed with Menkes, asking him to make treatment for their relatives too - something he has refused.
"I can only be responsible for my child," he told AFP, while health authorities have said they will not intervene as long as he only makes the treatment for home use.
Xu Wei moving medical equipment at his home laboratory in Kunming, China, on Oct 20, 2021. PHOTO: AFP
Dr Huang Yu of the Medical Genetics Department at Peking University told AFP that as a doctor he was "ashamed" to hear of Mr Xu's case.
He said he hoped that "as a developing country, we can improve our medical system to better help such families".
With a full-time role as an amateur chemist, Mr Xu has little income and relies mainly on his parents.
Friends tried to talk him out of his medical efforts, but undeterred, the young father is planning to study molecular biology at university and do everything he can to protect his son.
"I don't want him to wait desperately for death. Even if we fail, I want my son to have hope."
