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Melania Trump dons symbolic outfit as she exits the White House - and fans react
The former First Lady made her final exit with husband Donald Trump

JANUARY 20, 2021 - JENNI MCKNIGHT HELLO 

Melania Trump opted for a chic all-black outfit on Wednesday as she joined husband Donald Trump for their final walk out of the White House

The former First Lady channelled Audrey Hepburn in a black skirt and matching jacket, covering her eyes behind a large pair of square, black sunglasses.

She accessorised with a classic Birkin bag, long gloves and kept her hair pinned back in a low chignon as she held onto her husband's arm as they walked to Marine 1 for the last time.

WATCH: Melania Trump makes stylish exit from the White House for the final time

Melania's choice of colour did not go unnoticed by fans on social media, with many claiming her decision to wear black could be a nod to the state of her husband's future.

One posted on Twitter: "Melania wearing black as she attends the funeral of her husband lol #InaugurationDay."

Another said: "Melania wore black on her way out of the WH. Symbolic?" A third added: "Melania departs the White House wearing black like she’s attending a funeral, finally an appropriate outfit."

Melanie channelled Audrey Hepburn for her final White House look

Others though simply praised how stunning she looked, with one commenting: "Melania has a very Audrey Hepburn look ... she’s all in black ... she just looks gorgeous, as always..."

However, research in the field of psychology revealed black is seen by others as a symbol of prestige, power and intelligence, making it a fitting choice for Melania's exit.

"Black is a colour that is taken seriously", colour and design consultant Karen Haller previously said.

The former First Lady and President boarded a plane to Palm Springs, Florida

Speaking ahead of boarding the plane to Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, Melanie said that "being your First Lady was my greatest honour".

She added: "Thank you for your love and your support. You will be in my thoughts and prayers. God bless you all, God bless your families and God bless this beautiful nation."

HER NEXT POSITION IS AS MS FLORIDA ORANGE JUICE

Pariah-in-Chief: Donald Trump is $1bn in debt, an impeachment trial is due next week, criminal charges are possible – and he’s being abandoned by banks, cronies and even his Mar A Lago neighbours

Trump reportedly only spoke to those agreeing he was cheated in the election

Businesses, banks, sponsors, politicians have either tried to distance themselves

He owes more than $1bn in loans on various hotels, mansions, and golf courses

By TOM LEONARD IN WASHINGTON DC FOR THE DAILY MAIL
PUBLISHED: 22 January 2021

There were still a few minutes left of Donald Trump’s troubled tenure as U.S. president, but his First Lady had had enough.

When the pair disembarked from Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport on Wednesday, Trump paused for one last photocall.

His wife, however — who’d changed en route from a fitted suit and heels into a flowing Gucci kaftan and flats — barely broke her stride.

She headed straight for the waiting limousine, leaving him to wave for the cameras and small crowd on his own.

Melania, at least, knew that it was all over. For her, the departure from the White House may have come not a moment too soon.

There were still a few minutes left of Donald Trump’s troubled tenure as U.S. president, but his First Lady had had enough

But one can hardly say the same for her husband who, even now, has not fully conceded defeat in the 2020 election.

The motorcade moved ‘unusually slowly’ as it took the Trumps to their glitzy $160 million Florida pleasure palace, Mar-a-Lago, perhaps so the soon-to-be ex-president might have one last bask in the adulation he craves from a few thousand fans lining the route.

And you can’t blame him for enjoying it while he could. For the man so obsessed with ‘winning’ is discovering just how painful it can be to lose — and on an epic scale.

While the Trump movement may not be finished, its figurehead is now a pariah for many of those who had enthusiastically buoyed him up with funding, business, friendship, connections and votes.

Trump was already an isolated and, according to some, deranged figure in the Oval Office, talking only to those willing to agree he was cheated out of a second term, when he shamelessly encouraged his supporters to invade the U.S. Capitol two weeks ago.

That violent insurrection left five dead, including a policeman, and the sanctity of U.S. democracy badly battered.

The motorcade moved ‘unusually slowly’ as it took the Trumps to their glitzy $160 million Florida pleasure palace, Mar-a-Lago, perhaps so the soon-to-be ex-president might have one last bask in the adulation he craves from a few thousand fans lining the route

Businesses, banks, sponsors, politicians and even members of his own family have either tried to distance themselves or completely deserted him — not only hurting his fragile ego, but also his wallet as he struggles to cope with a looming $1 billion debt and business empire in crisis.

A man who’s been compared to a Mafia boss, for the importance he attaches to loyalty, has seen scores of friends and allies fall away in his darkest hour.

Even Mar-a-Lago — an eye-wateringly expensive private members’ club at a 118-room Jazz Age chateau that is now the principal Trump home — may not be such a welcoming sanctuary.

The estate he pompously referred to as the ‘Winter White House’ can only remind him of his glory days, when he held court among fawning sycophants.

Some Mar-a-Lago staff called him ‘the King’ and every night the loudspeakers on the terrace would blare out ‘Hail to the Chief’ — a tune honouring the president — as he progressed to dinner, and everyone jumped to their feet to applaud.

Businesses, banks, sponsors, politicians and even members of his own family have either tried to distance themselves or completely deserted him — not only hurting his fragile ego, but also his wallet as he struggles to cope with a looming $1 billion debt and business empire in crisis

What tune will they play now and will anyone be clapping?

It is being reported locally that the scenes of January 6 as the Capitol was stormed were the final straw for many of his billionaire Palm Beach neighbours and even some of the Mar-a-Lago set. Some plan to stop paying their annual $16,000 fees and drop out of the 500-member club, even though they cannot recoup their joining fee, currently standing at $200,000.

Others, who joined purely for the chance to rub shoulders with a president, must be wondering if it’s worth it now that he’s an ex-president who managed just one term.

Billionaire businessman Nelson Peltz, a Palm Beach resident, said this week: ‘I voted for him in this past election. Today, I’m sorry I did that.’

He described the Capitol attack as ‘a disgrace’, adding: ‘As an American, I’m embarrassed.’

An unnamed super-rich philanthropist who has frequently held charitable events at Mar-a-Lago told the local newspaper: ‘He is over. Trump is marked and is going to be a huge liability for Palm Beach and Mar-a-Lago. Do you really think any charity is going to sign up to go to Mar-a-Lago now? No.’

Republicans and other conservative groups are expected to do the same, depriving Trump not just of an audience but of money — a lot of it. Last year, one Republican fund-raising event at Mar-a-Lago brought Trump revenues of $25 million.

Some of his immediate neighbours have made their feelings clear by writing to the local authority to object to his permanent presence, citing a 1993 agreement banning anyone from living there full-time as it is a social club.

Sadly for the protesters — many motivated by the huge disruption that, as an ex-president with a large security detail, his move will bring — they won’t get rid of him that easily.

Trump owns other large homes on the island, including two just outside Mar-a-Lago’s gates.

Palm Beach historian Laurence Leamer points out that the sedate enclave has always regarded Trump as far too vulgar. They tolerated him, but only because he was the president.

‘They’re concerned about low taxes and high stock markets — they got that and now enough of this guy, be gone,’ he says.

Palm Beach historian Laurence Leamer points out that the sedate enclave has always regarded Trump as far too vulgar. They tolerated him, but only because he was the president

Mr Leamer believes Trump will be miserable in Palm Beach for several reasons. For instance, now, he must put up with living directly under a Palm Beach airport flight path that was diverted for security reasons but — as he’s no longer president — will be reinstated. ‘This is a social island and he’s not social at all,’ Mr Leamer added. ‘He’s got to be the centre of things.’

He predicted that Mar-a-Lago, where business boomed after Trump became president, won’t give him much of a ‘buzz’ now as the crowds simply won’t come. Uber-rich Floridians aren’t the only ones less keen on rubbing shoulders with The Donald. During his final days in Washington, there were numerous resignations amongst his staff leaving him largely with just three White House advisers, many years younger than him.

Political allies who for years never uttered a word of reproach, are increasingly speaking out against him, anxious not to be forever tarnished by association.

The formerly steadfast Trumpite Senator Lindsey Graham summed it up for many when he said: ‘Count me out. Enough is enough.’

Two universities that had awarded him honorary degrees have now rescinded them and there has even been a crack in the solidarity of Trump’s most loyal battalion — his children.

After years of instilling in them the family creed of self-interest and self-preservation, perhaps it shouldn’t have surprised him that daughter Ivanka — widely believed to be planning a White House run herself one day — put her own political future first, when she reportedly said she wanted to attend Joe Biden’s inauguration.

Family rifts aside, the most pressing matter for Trump is his finances. Myriad banks and businesses have distanced themselves from Trump since the Capitol outrage. Three of the four banks that held his largest deposits have cut their ties with him, while three law firms have dropped Trump as a client

A White House insider said Trump’s favourite child was ‘worried that her promising political career is in jeopardy and she’s doing whatever she can to save her reputation’.

Trump was said to have been furious with Ivanka and husband Jared Kushner, who had also been senior adviser to him, and regarded it as an insult. (In the event, Ivanka didn’t go, and the Trump White House officially insisted there was never any possibility she would).

Increasingly, Trump is turning to his sons, Donald Jr and Eric, who are among the few people left talking to him.

Family rifts aside, the most pressing matter for Trump is his finances. Myriad banks and businesses have distanced themselves from Trump since the Capitol outrage.

Three of the four banks that held his largest deposits have cut their ties with him, while three law firms have dropped Trump as a client.

A string of other banks as well as major corporations including Amazon, Ford, Walt Disney and supermarket giant Walmart say they will not be making donations to Trump’s supporters in Congress. And the city Trump considers his own — New York — has turned against him, too.

The authorities say they will end contracts with the Trump Organisation for two ice-skating rinks and a carousel in Central Park, as well as a golf course in the Bronx, on the grounds that ‘inciting an insurrection’ against the government is a crime.

New financial details provided by Trump as he left office reveal his properties lost $120 million in revenue last year because of the pandemic. The Trump Organisation has also suffered from a customer backlash against the Trump name — once the company’s great asset — which has further driven away business

At the same time sponsors of Trump Organisation events are backing out, while major tenants are fleeing Trump properties.

This includes his office building at 40 Wall Street, where both the Greater New York Girl Scouts and a TB charity have peremptorily announced they intend to end their leases which cost $664,000 and $900,000 a year in rent respectively.

On Thursday, his first day as an ex-president, Donald Trump spent time on the golf course, but even his beloved sport is souring towards him.

The Professional Golfers’ Association of America (PGA), the U.S. governing body, has ended an agreement to play the prestigious PGA Championship at Trump National Golf Club in New Jersey.

The next day, the R&A, which governs golf worldwide, announced it had no plans to take the British Open back to the Trump Turnberry course in Scotland, citing the controversy over its owner.

All of this comes at a time when Trump needs cash more than ever. Although he’s hardly broke — not yet, at least — he owes more than $1 billion in loans on a dozen of his various hotels, mansions, buildings and golf courses. Some $300 million must reportedly be repaid by 2024.

New financial details provided by Trump as he left office reveal his properties lost $120 million in revenue last year because of the pandemic.

The Trump Organisation has also suffered from a customer backlash against the Trump name — once the company’s great asset — which has further driven away business.

Banking consultant Bert Ely predicted Trump’s ‘very serious’ business problems which have been accumulating over recent years would ‘come to a head now that he’s left office’.

He added: ‘He’s done enormous reputational damage to himself.’

Adding to the financial pressure, the U.S. tax man is conducting an audit on a previous tax refund Mr Trump received and may decide he didn’t deserve it, leaving him to pay back more than $100 million.

And, of course, Trump doesn’t only face a threat to his wallet but also to his liberty.

He no longer enjoys presidential immunity from civil or criminal prosecution, and is being eyed up by a wolfish pack of Democratic politicians and prosecutors who would love to make their name by being the one to land a blow on the man so legally adept he was once dubbed ‘Teflon Don’.

First, though, he faces an impeachment trial in the Senate.

Initial assumptions that Republicans would automatically save him now look premature, after leader Mitch McConnell told colleagues he favoured impeaching Trump as it would make it easier to ‘purge’ him from the party.

Trump also faces a wide-ranging criminal investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney in New York into whether the Trump Organisation is guilty of various frauds — some of which carry a long prison sentence.

At the same time, the New York Attorney General is undertaking a civil investigation into whether the Trump Organisation is guilty of property fraud, lying about the value of its properties to more easily secure bank loans or to lower its taxes. This investigation could turn into a criminal one.

There is more. Trump could also be charged with obstruction of justice over attempts to impede the Mueller inquiry into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election, and with separate election interference in the state of Georgia (when Trump asked its governor to help overturn Biden’s victory there).

Then there are the civil lawsuits claiming he benefited financially from his presidency as well as sexual misconduct lawsuits by various women stretching back decades.

Trump faces a possible year in prison over claims his company falsified business records to hide payoffs to ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal and porn star Stormy Daniels to stay quiet about alleged sexual relationships with him.

Meanwhile, even some of the right-wing extremists responsible for his pariah status have turned on him. The Proud Boys are furious he didn’t stop them being charged over the Capitol attack.

They mocked him this week as a ‘total failure’ and other groups involved in the Capitol riot have echoed that sentiment.

And these are the same people that Trump will be hoping would vote for his Patriot Party, a new political alliance that he is said to be considering establishing.

One sympathetic Republican politician said of the former president yesterday: ‘He now needs some time for himself.’

That’s just as well. There are precious few others who seem to want to share it with him.

 Norwegian MP Who Nominated Trump for Nobel Peace Prize Warns About Big Brother

SOCIETY  15.01.2021Get short URL

by Igor Kuznetsov

In days following the US Capitol siege, Donald Trump has been banned from almost all major social media platforms; this has sparked an exodus of users to alternative platforms in an attempt to avoid what is seen as censorship.

Norwegian MP and liberal-conservative Progress Party heavyweight Christian Tybring-Gjedde has condemned the recent purge of the social media, during which thousands of accounts were deleted, including that of US President Donald Trump, and the closure of alternative social media network Parler, marketed as a “free speech” alternative to Twitter.

In a lengthy Facebook post, Tybring-Gjedde called the decision “unwise” and warned of “selective freedom of speech”.

“Firstly, there is no historical experience that gagging free speech somehow leads to less aggression and rebellion, but even more serious is that we allow a few people to act as opinion police and define which utterances can be accepted and which must be censored,” Tybring-Gjedde, who outside of Norway is most known for nominating Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, said.

Tybring-Gjedde warned of far-reaching consequences.

“They ban from actual access to the platform and justify this with the fact that the probability that Trump writes something the technology giants do not find acceptable is high and that they therefore want to be careful. A parallel can be that you arrest an alleged thief, not only for the allegation that the person has stolen, but in anticipation of the next potential theft because the probability of relapse is high. Don't even try, Big Brother doesn't only see you, but also reads your thoughts.”

Tybring-Gjedde also emphasised that the way in which this is done may seem illegal, suggesting that “such prejudice violates the principle of legal defence”.

In a subsequent comment to the news outlet Resett, Tybring-Gjedde ventured that many are reluctant to look at the issue in a principled way because “the hatred of Trump is almost total”.

“Additionally, he comes from the right. Then the principles often vanish,” Tybring-Gjedde told Resett.

The Progress Party heavyweight called for a public discussion about “the power that the media giants have usurped” and pledged to address this development at the next party meeting.

The Facebook post sparked an influx of comments, with many Norwegians agreeing with Tybring-Gjedde. Many invoked other Orwellian metaphors, drawing parallels between “Big Tech censorship” and the classic dystopia 1984.

In days following the US Capitol siege, Donald Trump has been banned from almost all major social media platforms. While Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Reddit have all banned him, payment giant Stripe has prohibited the Trump campaign from receiving donations and Shopify has shut down two stores linked to Trump.

The social media giants' exclusion of Trump has unleashed a landslide of users switching to other social media to avoid the meddling seen as opinion policing. Social media alternatives such as Parler, Gab and Telegram have gained millions of users

REPOSTED FROM SPUTNIK VOICE OF THE GRU FOR TRUMPERS

A GLASS OF VODKA AND YOU GOTTA GET NAKED...

Naked man ‘wrapped in guts’ goes on rampage with dad’s severed head: report

By Yaron Steinbuch

January 22, 2021 

Enlarge Image

Dmitry Ponomarenko, 30, was found wrapped in intestines and holding his dad's severed head, according to a report.dumskaya.net

A naked maniac covered with intestines went on a rampage in Ukraine — hitting parked cars with his father’s severed head in front of horrified passers-by, according to a report.

“A naked and bloodied man wrapped in guts and holding the head of a man came out of the front, sat on a bench and lit a cigarette,” a neighbor in Odessa told local media, the Sun reported.

Shocked residents called police, who rushed to the scene and found the naked psycho, 30-year-old Dmitry Ponomarenko, according to the outlet.

Holding the decapitated head of his father, Ponomarenko declared to cops that “he is a god who is not worshipped,” local media reported.

Azathoth | The H.P. Lovecraft Wiki | Fandom

Police found the headless corpse of 53-year-old Igor Ponomarenko lying on a bed in the apartment.

In the kitchen, they discovered the sliced and gutted body of family friend Aleksandr Demchenko, 32, the Sun reported.Dmitry Ponomarenko, 30, was found wrapped in intestines and holding his dad’s severed head, according to a report.dumskaya.net

Ponomarenko reportedly said he killed the men “because he had to.”

He has been charged in the double murder.

SEE EMOTIONAL PLAGUE

   

"The Dreams in the Witch House" by H. P. Lovecraft

www.hplovecraft.com › writings › texts › fiction › dwh

He knew his room was in the old Witch House—that, indeed, was why he had taken it. There was much in the Essex County records about Keziah Mason's trial, ...

Oxford Covid vaccine: Scientists hail ‘exciting’ potential new candidate which could be effective in low doses

The candidate, named RBD-SpyVLP, could be as effective in lower doses making it easier to manufacture in large quantities and be used in conjunction with other vaccines, early animal studies suggest

By Paul Gallagher i NEWS January 22, 2021 

A potential new coronavirus vaccine from Oxford University could be as effective in lower doses making it easier to manufacture in large quantities and be used in conjunction with other vaccines, early animal studies suggest.

The candidate, named RBD-SpyVLP, produces a strong antibody response in mice and pigs, providing vital information for the further development of the vaccine. Although this type of vaccine is not a competitor for the first wave of vaccines, it is hoped that it will be useful as a standalone vaccine or as a booster for individuals primed with a different Covid vaccine. Current guidance is for the same vaccine to be used in the required two doses to maximise protection.

Greater antibody response

The Oxford-produced candidate contains part of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein called the receptor binding domain (RBD), which a range of protective neutralising antibodies can bind to in a way that blocks infection. The RBD is attached to a virus-like particle (VLP) that contains no genetic material using Oxford’s SpyTag/SpyCatcher technology, a kind of protein “superglue”.

Studies by Oxford and The Pirbright Institute revealed the potential vaccine generated a greater antibody response in mice than administering the RBD alone. Pirbright researchers tested the RBD-SpyVLP vaccine in pigs as a large animal model to establish if different dosages would affect the immune response

.

Pirbright’s pig model has previously been used to test the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine now in use across the UK (Photo by JUAN MABROMATA/AFP via Getty Images)

The study also examined samples taken from the nose and mouth of vaccinated pigs and found specific antibodies of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, were present. The teams described the finding as “promising” since antibodies at the site of entry for SARS-CoV-2 could be important for providing robust protection.

Interestingly, no difference was found in the magnitude of antibody response when comparing vaccine dose levels. This suggests that the smaller dose tested, which is the same as intended for humans, may provide equal protection to larger doses or that even lower doses of the vaccine could be effective.
Pig model

Pirbright’s pig model has previously been used to test the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine now in use across the UK, which demonstrated that two doses produced a stronger immune response in pigs than one. Pigs have similar immune, respiratory and physiological characteristics to humans, and can therefore provide vital knowledge about the response to candidate vaccines that can inform human clinical trials. This model has been shown to predict vaccine outcome in humans, particularly in influenza studies.

Professor Simon Graham, who led the pig studies at Pirbright, said: “These results offer valuable insights into the kind of immune responses that the RBD-SpyVLP vaccine could trigger in humans. Further understanding the dose required to elicit a strong immune response is key for the progression of vaccine development and scaling up for manufacture.”

‘Exciting and promising’

The researchers said their work, published in Nature Communications, provides vital information for the further development of the vaccine. They also tested the stability of the vaccine and found it is highly resilient, stable at room temperature and can be freeze dried without losing its power to immunise. These properties would reduce dependence on cold chains for transport and storage and facilitate global distribution, such as those needed for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

Professor Melanie Welham, Executive Chair at the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) said: “These latest results into the immune response from the Oxford Covid-19 vaccine candidate, RBD-SpyVLP, are both exciting and promising. By drawing on scientific knowledge from multiple disciplines, researchers have collectively demonstrated the ability to improve and advance development of the vaccine.”

Vaccine development has progressed at an unprecedented pace, with the World Health Organisation reporting 173 vaccine candidates in preclinical trials, 64 that have moved to human clinical trials and three that have received temporary authorisation for use in the UK.

THE CRISIS OF CAPITALIST PRODUCTION

Moderna And Pfizer Need To Nearly Double COVID-19 Vaccine Deliveries To Meet Goals

THE NEED FOR NATIONALIZATION & CENTRAL PLANING OF PRODUCTION COVID-19

A COVID-19 vaccine hub taking appointments only stands in Brooklyn as New York City begins to run low on doses Friday.
SPENCER PLATT / GETTY IMAGES

By SYDNEY LUPKIN • NPR

Originally published on January 22, 2021 

With a spotlight on COVID-19 vaccine distribution shortcomings, there's another bottleneck that could prevent inoculations from significantly speeding up in the near future: Pfizer's and Moderna's ability to scale up manufacturing and deliver doses to the U.S. government.

The companies promised to deliver 100 million doses apiece to the United States by the end of March. But they'll need to make huge leaps in a short time to meet that goal.


In the last few weeks, they've each been steadily delivering about 4.3 million doses a week, according to an NPR examination of vaccine allocation data. But to hit their targets of 100 million doses on time, they each need to deliver 7.5 million doses a week for the next nine weeks.

"I think it is going to be a real challenge for them to hit that contracted target. There's just no question about that," said consultant John Avellanet, who's advised pharmaceutical companies since the 1990s on manufacturing and compliance issues.

The companies would need everything to go right.

And a lot can go wrong. Equipment breaks and needs repair. Doses need to pass quality tests before they can be shipped. And the production process depends on companies maintaining a steady supply of chemical ingredients, glass vials and skilled labor.

"In some ways, it's almost a miracle that they've been able to produce what they've been able to produce," Avellanet said.

Pfizer and Moderna vaccines both rely on messenger RNA, or mRNA, to protect against the virus. Although mRNA vaccines have been studied for a decade, it's the first time they've been used on a massive scale.

"It's one thing to make 300 vials or let's say even for a clinical trial, 3,000 vials. It's a whole other game to make 4 million, 7 million," Avellanet said. "And all of a sudden, the demands are huge. And so you're going to end up with machinery that gets out of calibration, that breaks down ... and so forth and so on. And so that can slow the process dramatically."

What's more, RNA is fragile, said David Gortler, who until Wednesday afternoon was the senior adviser to the now-former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn.

"Going back to my Yale days when I was a lowly fellow inside of a molecular biology lab, I had to work with RNA myself," he told NPR. "And RNA is something which is very, very delicate and it can be inactivated, just like — we used to joke — just by looking at it the wrong way."

Gortler is a pharmacist and pharmacologist who specializes in drug quality and supply chain issues. He said he understands that Pfizer and Moderna are already working at "maximal capacity" with existing facilities. Building new facilities would require FDA inspections and "take a very long time."

When it comes to COVID-19 vaccines, he said quality is even more important than speed.

"I'd rather hear the companies have fallen short of their production goal, but managed to maintain their quality control because all of this really depends on the quality control," he said. "It's really the case for all drugs. So like I said before, but in this case, just because of the particular nature of this drug and the specific fragility of dealing with anything RNA-related, it's important to take a step back."

Asked about why vaccine delivery appeared to be behind and what's being done to speed it up, Operation Warp Speed spokesperson Michael Pratt in the Trump administration sent NPR the following statement just before the Biden administration took over:

Both companies continue to scale up production, and current forecasts indicate we are on track to allocate 200 million doses by the end of March across the vaccine portfolio. Operation Warp Speed continues to assess all available avenues to assist manufacturers to optimize and maximize their production processes as requested/required.

The new administration has said it plans to use the Defense Production Act to increase production. The Trump administration used the Defense Production Act 18 times as part of Operation Warp Speed, according to a Dec. 29 statement from the White House press secretary.

Moderna said it hasn't been releasing weekly or monthly production estimates, so it couldn't provide more details about how it will deliver significantly more doses to the United States in the coming weeks to meet its first-quarter goal.

"We continue to be on track with our expectations of delivering 100 million doses of vaccine by the end of Q1, and 200 million doses by the end of Q2," Moderna spokesperson Ray Jordan wrote in an email to NPR. "Production and releases are not linear and we have explained that we have been successfully scaling up our production yields over time."

On Dec. 15, Vice President Pence visited the Catalent contract manufacturing facility making finished vaccine doses for Moderna, where leadership told him they were completing 500,000 doses a day and hoped to double production to meet delivery goals. They described employees working "tirelessly" and volunteering to work Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Pfizer didn't respond to NPR's request for comment. But it slashed vaccine deliveries for some European Union countries this week, according to Reuters.

Gortler said he worked at Pfizer for several years, and if it's running behind, it's probably because of its attention to quality. "I'm sure that if they're rejecting things, that's actually what you want to hear," he said. "So in my mind, it's a good thing."

To hit their goals, Moderna and Pfizer each need to increase shipments to 7.5 million doses from 4.3 million per week in a hurry.

The task is difficult but not impossible.

John McShane, a managing partner at the health care product consulting firm Validant, said he's "guardedly optimistic" that the companies will be able to scale up manufacturing drastically and deliver 100 million doses each by March 31.

He said there are three main "levers" the companies can pull to increase production: add equipment, increase the yield per batch and find ways to shorten the time it takes to go from raw materials to finished, internally approved product.

"Those are three pretty big levers," McShane said. And outsourcing could help, too. "One CMO [contract manufacturing organization] with the right capacity could double your throughput overnight," he added.

What's more, he said, it's likely that the doses Moderna and Pfizer plan to deliver on March 31 are already somewhere in the production process.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

THE CRISIS OF CAPITALIST PRODUCTION 

AstraZeneca to cut COVID-19 vaccine delivery to EU by 60%, reports

THE NEED FOR NATIONALIZATION & CENTRAL PLANING OF PRODUCTION COVID-19

The company says the delay is due to "production problems" at a vaccine factory in Belgium run by its partner Novasep.


Saturday 23 January 2021 UK

The delivery issues are understood to have been caused by production problems at a plant in Belgium

AstraZeneca will cut deliveries of the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine to the European Union by 60% in the first quarter of the year, according to Reuters news agency.

The company was expected to deliver around 80 million doses to the 27 EU countries by the end of March, an EU official told the agency.

However, it now expects that to be cut to 31 million doses due to "production problems" at a vaccine factory in Belgium run by its partner Novasep.

Stella Kyriakides, the European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, said on Twitter: "@EU_Commission and Member States expressed deep dissatisfaction with this.

"We insisted on a precise delivery schedule on the basis of which Member States should be planning their vaccination programs, subject to the granting of a conditional marketing authorisation.

"The @EU_Commission will continue to insist with @AstraZeneca on measures to increase predictability and stability of deliveries, and acceleration of the distribution of doses."

A statement from AstraZeneca said: "While there is no scheduled delay to the start of shipments of our vaccine should we receive approval in Europe, initial volumes will be lower than originally anticipated due to reduced yields at a manufacturing site within our European supply chain.

"We will be supplying tens of millions of doses in February and March to the European Union, as we continue to ramp up production volumes."

The EU drug regulator is due to decide on approval of AstraZeneca's vaccine on 29 January, with a deal to purchase at least 300 million doses, with an option for an additional 100 million already signed

Europe's immunisation campaign has already been hampered by a temporary shortfall in the supply chain of vaccine developers Pfizer and BioNTech, who are retooling a site in Belgium to boost output.

Earlier the Financial Times reported that supplies to the UK would not be affected.

 CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

MEPs vote to add Channel and British Virgin Islands to tax haven blacklist

UK overseas territories such as Cayman Islands also may lose protection once afforded by UK’s EU membership

Cane Garden Bay at Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. The UK overseas territory faces inclusion on the EU’s tax haven blacklist after the union. Photograph: cdwheatley/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Richard Partington

@RJPartington

Fri 22 Jan 2021 THE GUARDIAN

The European parliament is pushing for UK overseas territories including the British Virgin Islands, Guernsey and Jersey to be added to an EU tax havens blacklist after the conclusion of the Brexit deal.

Sending a signal that tougher action on tax avoidance was required in response to the coronavirus pandemic, MEPs voted overwhelmingly in favour of adding more nations and territories to the list of non-cooperative jurisdictions.

The resolution, passed earlier this week by a vote of 587 to 50, included measures calling for the automatic inclusion on the blacklist of countries which use a 0% tax regime. Among these are the UK overseas territories, viewed by transparency campaigners as havens for tax avoidance.

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Several jurisdictions have been taken on and off the list since it was first launched in 2017. However, those linked to EU member states have typically avoided inclusion, and the UK had lobbied to protect its overseas territories from past scrutiny

After the vote, any decision to expand the blacklist would rest with the 27 member states on the EU’s Economic and Financial Affairs Council. While also arguing for the inclusion of EU territories such as the Netherlands, Ireland and Malta, MEPs said that after Brexit that UK territories lacked a layer of protection from inclusion on the blacklist.

This week’s vote explicitly mentioned the conclusion of the Brexit deal, saying that Britain’s overseas territories should now be screened for potential inclusion on the list, and that the Brexit deal was based on “mutual values and geared towards common prosperity, which automatically excludes aggressive tax competition”.

Robert Palmer, the director of the Tax Justice UK campaign group, said: “Post-Brexit the UK tax havens have lost their protector within the corridors of Brussels. I’d expect to see the EU to ramp up pressure on places like Jersey to clean up their act. The UK itself has been warned that if the government tries a Singapore-on-Thames approach, with a bonfire of regulations and taxes, then the EU will act swiftly.”

The push to expand the blacklist comes amid criticism from MEPs that the current version excludes many locations widely regarded as tax havens, including the Cayman Islands. The British overseas territory was included on the EU blacklist in February last year, but was then later removed.

Debating the vote on Wednesday, Spanish conservative MEP José Manuel García-Margallo attacked the post-Brexit status of Gibraltar. “Who would set up in European territory if they can set up in Gibraltar and not pay tax and have access to the European Union? We were concerned about the UK becoming a Singapore on our borders. So should we accept a tax haven on the borders at Gibraltar?”

Scrutiny of the UK’s tax arrangements is rising amid concern on the continent that Boris Johnson’s government could dramatically reshape the regime to give Britain a competitive advantage outside of the EU. It also comes as government borrowing balloons in countries around the world due to the Covid-19 pandemic, putting pressure on nations to raise more from taxes to repair their battered public finances.

UK overseas territories have also come under the microscope after allegations of widespread political corruption, misuse of taxpayers’ money and a climate of fear led the governor of the British Virgin Islands to establish an independent judge-led inquiry into the claims.