Big Oil Eyes Wave Of Buybacks After Blowout Earnings

By Alex Kimani - May 09, 2021

Crude oil futures have rallied to their highest finish in months, with WTI price climbing above $65 for the first time in two months after OPEC+ stuck with plans to gradually ease production curbs, signaling confidence in the demand outlook. The optimism has coincided with a breakout season for the S&P 500, with the Energy Sector (XLE) being particularly impressive.

Indeed, the fossil fuel sector is enjoying a rare blowout season.

The majority of companies in the energy sector have beat Wall Street earnings estimates, while more than 80% have managed to surpass revenue expectations.

With impressive bottom-line growth, many top energy names are returning more capital to shareholders in the form of share buybacks and dividends. Companies usually repurchase shares when they believe they are undervalued, a big positive for oil and gas bulls.

Here's a rundown of Big Oil's share buyback and dividend trends after the latest earnings season.

Share Buybacks:

#1. ConocoPhillips Last year, Houston, Texas-based shale producer ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) earned itself accolades after announcing some of the deepest production cuts at a time when many shale companies were reluctant to lower production and relinquish market share. The company lowered its North America output by nearly 500,000 bpd, marking one of the biggest cuts by an American producer. This year, ConocoPhillips has kept drilling activity subdued and also kept a tight lid on capital expenditures.

Related: Texas Lawmakers Brace For A War On The Oil & Gas Sector

And those austerity measures are now paying off.

Conoco has become the first large U.S. independent oil producer to resume its share buyback program after suspending it during last year's oil crisis.

Conoco says it has resumed stock buybacks at an annualized rate of $1.5B, and also plans to sell off its Cenovus Energy stake in the current quarter and complete the sales by year-end 2022. Proceeds from the sale--valued at ~$2 billion--will be used to fund share buybacks.

COP stock is rallying again after Bank of America upgraded the shares to Buy from Neutral with a $67 price target, calling the company a "cash machine" with the potential for accelerated returns.

According to BofA analyst Doug Leggate, Conoco looks "poised to accelerate cash returns at an earlier and more significant pace than any 'pure-play' E&P or oil major." 

Leggate COP shares have pulled back to more attractive levels "but with a different macro outlook from when [Brent] oil peaked close to $70."

But best of all, the BofA analyst believes COP is highly exposed to a longer-term oil recovery.

But BofA is not the only Wall Street punter that's gushing about COP.

In a note to clients on Friday, Raymond James says the company's stock price is undervaluing the flood of cash the oil and gas company is poised to generate.

That's quite remarkable considering COP shares are up 39.3% in the year-to-date.

The bullish notes appear well-deserved. With WTI price in the mid-60s, ConocoPhillips would have little trouble generating copious amounts of free cash flows given the company's cash flow breakeven level of under $30/bbl.

Strong earnings

Like many companies in the U.S. shale patch, ConocoPhillips printed a strong Q1 2021 scorecard with stronger than expected earnings.

The company swung to Q1 GAAP earnings of $1B, or $0.75/share, from a year-ago loss of $1.7B, or $1.60/share. Revenues more than doubled to $10.56B from $4.81B a year earlier.

Q1 production, excluding Libya, climbed 16.4% Y/Y to 1.49M boe/day, a good 30% above the 1.14M boe/day output in Q4 2020. Total average realized price clocked in at $45.36/boe, much higher than the $33.21/boe realized in Q4 2020, thanks to the ongoing oil price recovery.

COP issued upbeat guidance, saying it expects Q2 production, excluding Libya, of 1.5M-1.54M boe/day due to seasonal turnarounds planned in Europe and Asia Pacific.

Conoco has also announced plans to reduce debt by $5B over the next five years, which really is gilding the lily considering its under-levered balance sheet.

Despite its acquisition of Concho Resources Inc. that gave the company a prime drilling position in the Permian Basin, COP says it is restraining future capital spending and has pledged to reinvest just 70% of its cash flow while returning the rest to shareholders through dividends and the share buybacks.

#2. BP Plc.

At a time when many oil companies are blaming the Texas Freeze for hampering their production targets, UK's leading oil and gas multinational BP Plc (NYSE:BP) has emerged as a winner from February's frigid weather.

BP has posted robust Q1 2021 earnings, with first-quarter underlying replacement cost profit, used as a proxy for net profit, coming in at $2.6 billion, well above a profit of $115 million in the fourth quarter and $791 million for the first quarter of 202 as well as Wall Street's expectations for a first-quarter profit of $1.4 billion.

Interestingly, BP revealed it profited big from the Texas Freeze, with management saying that its gas trading unit enjoyed an "exceptional" Q1, taking advantage of prices that skyrocketed 300-fold in some areas and helping to drive profit well above pre-pandemic levels.

"We were well-positioned for colder-than-normal weather in the U.S." as well as in Asia, CEO Bernard Looney has told Bloomberg.

"We have a very, very strong and long history of knowing how to manage these disruptions and doing well. And of course we had disruptions in the first quarter in Asia and the United States," CFO Murray Auchincloss has said.

So, what does BP plan to do with its new jackpot?

After reaching its net debt target of $35 billion a year earlier than expected, BP has now committed to $500 million in share buybacks in the second quarter. Related: Oil Markets Optimistic As Brent Flirts With $70

BP has previously said that reaching its net debt target would trigger share buybacks and that it remains committed to returning at least 60% of surplus cash flow in 2021 to investors.

BP generated surplus cash flow of $1.7 billion in the quarter, meaning more buybacks could be coming.

Dividend Hikes:

#1. Marathon Oil Corp.

Marathon Oil Corp. (NYSE:MRO) is one of the leading E&P companies and the owner of the nation's largest refining system, with approximately 2.9 million barrels per day of crude oil processing capacity across 13 refineries.

Marathon Oil has yet to report Q1 earnings but has reported some encouraging preliminary information on Q1 financial and operational estimates and also announced a good dividend hike.

Marathon Oil says Q1 production clocked in at 345K net boe/day with sales of 341K net boe/day. Q1 cash flow from operations totaled $610M-$630M, representing $10M-$20M of negative changes in working capital. Meanwhile, first-quarter unhedged realizations came in at an estimated at ~$55/bbl for oil; $24/bbl for natural gas liquids and $6.30/mcf for natural gas.

The best part: Marathon Oil has declared $0.04/share quarterly dividend payable June 10 and good for a 33.3% increase from the previous dividend of $0.03 per share. MRO stock now sports a forward dividend yield of 1.42%, suggesting there's room for further hikes.

Marathon Oil's close peer, Valero Energy Corp. (NYSE:VLO), sports a much higher yield of 5.30%. Valero has declared $0.98/share quarterly dividend, in line with the previous distribution and payable June 8.

Valero reported GAAP EPS of -$1.73, beating the consensus estimate by $0.12, while revenue of $20.8B (-5.9% Y/Y) beat by $1.23B.

#2. Equinor ASA

Norway's national oil company, Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR), delivered an all-around impressive report and its best quarterly results since 2014.

Adjusted earnings clocked in at $5.47 billion in the first quarter, a 167% Y/Y improvement compared to the same period in 2020; Adjusted earnings after tax were $2.66 billion up from $560 million, while revenue of $16.13B (+7.0% Y/Y) beat by $340M. Related: Russia Boosted Oil Production In April

According to company President and CEO, Anders Opedal, Equinor largely benefitted from recovering oil and gas prices, helping to improve net cash flow above $5 billion and reduce adjusted net debt ratio to below 25%.

The best part: Equinor increased its quarterly dividend by 25% to $01.5 per share to bring the forward yield to 2.86%.

#3. Royal Dutch Shell

Anglo-Dutch oil and gas supermajor Royal Dutch Shell Plc. (NYSE:RDS.A) returned disappointing results, missing on both top-and bottom-line expectations.

Q1 2021 earnings of $3.2 billion represented a 10.3% improvement over the same period a year earlier; however, GAAP EPS of $0.72 fell short of Wall Street's expectations by  $01.9. Shell's topline was equally disappointing, with revenue of $55.67B (-7.3% Y/Y) missing by $6.51B.

Nevertheless, Shell managed to raise its dividend by 4.2% to $0.347/ADS quarterly dividend, marking the second time in six months it has hiked the payout.

Shell also announced that it had managed to reduce net debt by more than $4 billion last quarter, progressing towards the $65 billion milestone to increase shareholder distributions.

#4. Chevron Corp.

At a time when the vast majority of oil and gas companies have been reporting blowout earnings, America's second-largest E&P company, Chevron Corp. (NYSE:CVX), was a notable laggard, missing on both top-and bottom-line expectations despite managing to swing to a profit.

Chevron reported Q1 2021 Q1 GAAP earnings dropped to $1.38B, or $0.72/share, from $3.6B, or $1.93/share, in the year-ago period. GAAP EPS of $0.72 was 0.16 below the consensus while revenue of $31.07B (+4.6% Y/Y) missed by $1.48B.

A big offender was Chevron's refining and chemical units, which reported a Q1 profit of just $5M vs. a $1.1B a year ago, which the company attributed to the February winter storm in Texas as well as the continuing impact of the pandemic.

Meanwhile, Q1 production of 3,121 was below the consensus of 3139 Mboe/d. 

Still, Chevron declared $1.34/share quarterly dividend, good for a 3.9% increase from the prior dividend of $1.29. The shares now sport an impressive 5.20% forward yield.

By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:

• Big Oil Hikes Dividends After Blowout Quarter

U.S. watchdog to evaluate Pentagon’s response to UFO reports

By Josh K. Elliott Global News
Posted May 6, 2021

News: Pentagon confirms leaked footage of ‘pyramid-shaped’ UFOs is real

WATCH: Recently leaked video of flashing, triangle-shaped objects that flew over a U.S. warship is real, the Pentagon said, after UFO investigators released the clip and several other puzzling photos online. – Apr 14, 2021

The watchdog for the U.S. Department of Defense is evaluating the Pentagon’s response to reports of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs), the government term for UFOs.

Randolph R. Stone, the assistant inspector general for evaluations, announced the UFO-related probe in a memo published on the Pentagon’s website Monday, less than a month after leaked U.S. navy footage showed “pyramid-shaped” UFOs buzzing a warship. The Pentagon confirmed that the footage is authentic, but did not provide an explanation for what it shows.

READ MORE: Leaked footage of ‘pyramid-shaped’ UFOs is real, Pentagon says

The new watchdog probe will “determine the extent to which the DoD has taken actions regarding Unidentified Aerial Phenomena,” Stone wrote in the memo. “We may revise the objective as the evaluation proceeds, and we will consider suggestions from management for additional or revised objectives.”

Stone added that the investigation will begin sometime this month, and will touch on many different offices within the DoD, including the Office of the Secretary of Defense. It’s unclear when the probe will conclude or when the results will be made public.

The DoD office of the inspector general is an independent, objective watchdog that seeks to ensure ethical conduct and effectiveness in the department. It also monitors the DoD for fraud, waste and abuse, according to its mission statement.

0:21Pilot claims UFO spotted while flying over ArizonaPilot claims UFO spotted while flying over Arizona – Mar 29, 2018

Although scant on details, the announcement is the latest in a steady drip of UAP-related material from the U.S. military in recent years. Leaked videos and declassified documents have been spilling out into public view on a regular basis since approximately 2017, when a bombshell New York Times report revealed that the U.S. government had secretly been investigating UFO reports for years.

READ MORE: The CIA released thousands of UFO documents online. Here’s how to read them

UFOs have been a taboo subject for decades, but U.S. military officials have taken a more open attitude toward the unexplained incidents in recent years. They’ve confirmed some UFO videos, declassified others and generally encouraged military members to report any encounter due to the potential risk it poses.

“This is all about frequent incursions into our training ranges by UAPs,” Joe Gradisher, spokesperson for the deputy chief of naval operations for information warfare, told CNN in 2019. “Those incursions present a safety hazard to the safe flight of our aviators and security of our operations.”

The Canadian military has also been logging UFO sightings by airline pilots, according to a report in Vice News. Many of those sightings have also been logged in Transport Canada’s Civil Aviation Daily Occurrence Report System (CADORS), though Canadian officials have not been as open about the topic as their American counterparts.

1:16 American Airlines flight has close encounter with UFO – Feb 25, 2021

The Pentagon officially started paying more attention to UFOs last August, when it announced a UAP Task Force to “detect, analyze and catalogue UAPs that could potentially pose a threat to U.S. national security.”

These developments have added fuel to speculation that the UFOs might be alien visitors. However, these phenomena remain unidentified, and it’s possible that a terrestrial actor — such as China or Russia — could be responsible for such sightings.

OR THE USA

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence is scheduled to deliver a trove of unclassified reports about UAPs to Congress next month, as part of a mandate included in the U.S. government’s COVID-19 relief bill.

A real-life 'Unicorn' was saved in Australia

Nida Omar
Digital Reporter

•  

Tuesday, April 16th 2019, 11:37 am -Real-life unicorns are actually a thing.

 

Image: Susan Cipriano, Creative Commons

You might think that unicorns are just mythical creatures that exist solely in books, movies and, Starbucks beverages but that’s not the case.

A lucky family in Australia has what might be the closest thing to a real-life unicorn in their backyard.

An Australian sheep managed to evade slaughter because of the unicorn-styled horn in the middle of his head.

Michael Foster, a stock agent from Southern Australia, said he was checking out a stock of sheep near his home town in Burra when he discovered the unique animal.

The sheep, dubbed Joey, stood out because of the sole horn across its head, that gives it the appearance of a unicorn.

"I thought it might have been a joke to start with, but I thought, 'yeah it looks like a unicorn,'" Foster told 7News Adelaide.

Reports say the sheep’s appearance is due to one of his horns not fully developing.

When he found out that the one-horned fellow was going to be sold, Foster decided to trade it for a two-pack of beer.

Foster told 7News that he’s going to make Joey famous.

“We’ll break him in, take him to shows and pageants, and who knows where we can go, maybe Hollywood,” he told 7News.

Joey isn’t the first time a ‘unicorn sheep’ was discovered.

In 2017, farmers in Iceland found that a sheep from their livestock resembled the mythical creature. The sheep, which was named ‘einhyrningur’ which is "unicorn" in Icelandic, had its two horns fused together, giving it the appearance of one big horn.

The unusual animal "always looks slightly surprised or sad in expression," the farmers told the BBC.

The farmers credit their unicorn to a “weird sort of geological mutation that causes the horns to grow in such an unusual way.”

While it’s a rare occurrence for animals in the wild to have one horn naturally, there are cases where humans have played a hand in ‘making’ unicorns.

In 2016, a 16-year-old sheep from Bristol, England was dubbed a unicorn after a schoolyard accident left her with one horn.

Children had been playing with the animal named Peanut on a school field trip to a farm when they snapped off her horn by accident.

Fortunately for Peanut, she wasn’t in any pain, and she ended becoming a star attraction at the Hartcliffe Community Farm in Bristol.

ALSO SEE CAW CHURCH OF ALL WORLDS UNICORN CIRCA 1980'S

When Unicorns Walked The Earth - CamTrader

https://camtrader.ca/when-unicorns-walked-the-earth

The next time someone equates a near-impossible feat to the work of “magic and unicorns” hit them with this little party fact—in the 1980s, unicorns actually walked the earth. Well, sort of… Oberon Zell—

MUTUAL AID

Feral horses, donkeys dig desert holes to hydrate biodiversity

Nathan Howes 

WEATHER NETWORK

When it comes to finding water and staying hydrated in desert environments, animals will take all the help they can get. This includes from other wildlife, even ones that pose threats to natural ecosystems.

Researchers have found that feral donkeys and horses have been digging equid wells in search of water, not only for themselves, but for other species, too. The findings of the study were recently published in Science.

SEE ALSO: Ontario officials watch invasive pig numbers so they don't go wild

The study found that equid-dug wells increased water availability and were used by more than 57 other species, including many birds, other herbivores such as mule deer and mountain lions. As well, the abandoned holes decreased distance between water sources and increased germination in critical riparian tree species.

On average, it was discovered that the number of species was 51 per cent higher at the wells than what was observed in nearby dry areas during the same time periods.

© Provided by The Weather Network

Wild horse. (Erick Lundgren).

This is despite the fact the two feral species are believed to be a threat to biodiversity and have been subject to widespread eradication and control programs in Australia, for example.
UP TO TWO-METRE WELLS BUILT TO FIND WATER

In North America deserts, the feral animals were responsible for creating wells up to two metres in depth in order to access groundwater. It was noted in the study that most other equids and all elephant species dig wells, too. The equids increased the density of water features and was the only source of water at times.

"Vertebrate richness and activity were higher at equid wells than at adjacent dry sites, and by mimicking flood disturbance, equid wells became nurseries for riparian trees," the study said. "Our results suggest that equids, even those that are introduced or feral, are able to buffer water availability, which may increase resilience to ongoing human-caused aridification.

In the review, the authors stated that water is the main resource in dryland ecosystems, in limited supply. It determined species composition, food web structure and vegetation dynamics.

© Provided by The Weather Network

Feral donkey. (Erick Lundgren)

"At one fully intermittent stream that lost all background water, equid wells provided 100 per cent of surface water. Even at sites [that] remained perennial (background water retained at headwater springs), wells provided up to 74 per cent of surface water by accessing the water table in dry reaches," the study outlined.

As part of the research, the team surveyed four Sonoran Desert groundwater-fed streams in Arizona every 2-4 weeks over three summers. Equid wells were "particularly important" to supplying water in midsummer as temperatures increased and water tables receded.

"It’s a very hot, dry desert and you’ll get these pretty magical spots where suddenly there is surface water," said Erick Lundgren, a field ecologist at Denmark's Aarhus University and one of the study's co-authors, in an interview with NewScientist.

The well-digging also had a positive influence on vegetation. For example, on a dammed perennial Sonoran Desert river, several riparian trees were uncovered in abandoned equid wells. The trees are part of a small-seeded, fast-growing, flood-adapted functional group, whose germination requires moist layers without competing vegetation.

Thumbnails courtesy of Erick Lundgren.

Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution, Peter Kropotkin 1902

https://www.marxists.org › reference › archive › mutual...

Peter Kropotkin 1902. Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution. Source: Anarchy Archives. Proofed: Zdravko Saveski, 2021. Contents. Introduction · Chapter 1: Mutua

Will Canada have made at home COVID-19 booster vaccines in 2021? Expert says likely not

Hannah Jackson  
GLOBAL NEWS

As officials work to vaccinate the population against COVID-19, experts have warned that the virus could become endemic, meaning booster shots are likely going to be required to ensure long-term protection from the coronavirus.

© Courtesy: CHUM 

Individual receiving a COVID-19 vaccine

Currently, all of Canada's COVID-19 vaccines are coming from abroad, which means Canada has been at the mercy of a competitive global market and delays from manufacturers have impacted Canada's ability to get shots into arms.

However, the federal government says it is also working to ramp-up Canada's domestic vaccine manufacturing capacity.

Read more: Canada will have received 6.4M AstraZeneca COVID-19 doses by June’s end, official says

In February, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his government had signed a deal with Maryland-based vaccine development company Novavax, to produce it's COVID-19 vaccine candidate at the National Research Centre's Royalmount Biologics Manufacturing Centre in Quebec.

During the announcement, Trudeau said Canada needs "as much domestic capacity for vaccine production, as possible."

Will Canada have made-in-Canada vaccines from the NRC's Royalmount facility by the time the population needs a COVID-19 booster shot?

Here's a closer look at what's going on.

Construction 'on track'

In an email to Global News on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the NRC said construction for the Biologics Manufacturing Centre is happening "at an accelerated rate" and "is on track and proceeding very well."

"Construction is on schedule to be completed by end of July 2021," the email read. "Generally a new Good Manufacuting Practices facility can take two years or more to complete."

Video: COVID-19 vaccine eligibility opening rapidly in Peterborough and across Ontario

The agency added that once construction is complete, "several steps will be required before actual vaccine production can begin."

These steps include establishing a process to make the specific vaccine in the facility and ensuring the process will result in a specific vaccine with "precisely the same quality in every dose."

It will then need approval from Health Canada.

Meanwhile, according to the Health Canada website, Novavax submitted an application for its COVID-19 vaccine in late January, and it remains "under review."

The NRC said it is working "closely" with Novavax to "prepare for the production of the vaccine" at the centre, "including on the technology transfer, which is underway."

"Engineering runs are targeted for December 2021 and production runs will follow once the vaccine candidate, the facility, and the production process receive the required Health Canada approvals."

The NRC said once complete and certified, the centre will have a production capacity of two million doses of a vaccine per month.

Read more: ‘No A, B list of COVID vaccines’: Experts weigh in on NACI’s ‘mixed messages’

"The actual number of doses will vary dependin on the specific vaccine, the manufacturing platform and processes, as well as its yield," the email said.
Is the timeline plausible?

Canada's first COVID-19 shots were administered in December of 2020. Researchers suggest those who receive a vaccine will likely need a booster in approximately one year.

Asked if he thinks Canadians can expect to see made-at-home booster shots at the end of this year, Robert Van Exan, president and owner of Immunization Policy and Knowledge Translation said he doesn't think so.

He said the money from the government is to increase the size and capacity at the Royalmount facility to accomodate Novavax.

"They were hoping that it wouldn't take as long because they had part of that facility already built and they would go into hyperdrive to do what they needed to do," he said. "Could it be done by 2022? Maybe, but I think you're pushing it."

Ultimately Van Exan, who has 40 years expeience working in the vaccine industry in Canada, said "later in 2022" is likely when we will see vaccines ready for use from the Royalmount facility.

While late 2020 seems far away, Van Exan said building a manufacturing facility from scratch is an even longer process which could take around five years to complete.

In part, he said, because it's a massively expensive undertaking. But also because there is specialized infrastructure that needs to be built in to the building.

Van Exan said this includes things like HEPA filters, a steam generation plant, a facility that produces sterile water, centrifuges, chromatography equipment and more.

"Then, once the equipment is all in there ... it would take a good six months to validate that equipment," he said. "Because you have to prove that everything in that facility is validated and running exactly as it should in a vaccine plant."
Moving forward

Van Exan said he "wouldn't even be worrying about making a vaccine in Canada for this first round of inoculations and maybe not even for the boosters."

"I would focus on what am I going to do in the future, because this is going to happen again," he said of the pandemic.

He said what Canada should be focussing on is building 'surge capacity.'

Van Exan said while Canada has the capacity to make vaccines, it was all being used to create shots that are equally important and needed.

He pointed to Sanofi which produces vaccines for childhood vaccines for Canada, the U.S. and other parts of the world.

Read more: Canada ‘very closely’ watching data on mixing and matching COVID-19 vaccines

"You can't stop doing those immunization tests because you've got a pandemic or else you'll have another pandemic on your hands," he explained. "So what you really need is what we would call surge capacity or extra capacity on top of what you're already doing."

One way to do this, Van Exan explained is by creating a year or two's worth of stockpile of the vaccines routinely made at a plant. That way if it needs to pivot to create, for example, a COVID-19 vaccine, there would still be a comfortable supply of the other shots.

Another option, he said, is to build large-scale fill and pack departments onto existing vaccine manufacturing facilities, Canada could buy bulk vaccines from the U.S. or elsewhere and package them for distrobution in the country.

Another way to ramp up surge capacity, Van Exan said, is to build "shell facilities."

"One outfit in Switzerland came up with the idea of building vaccine factories, building the shell," he said. "Building them with all of the steam and the air systems and everything that you would need complete in them, but don't put any machinery in them."

Video: Biden outlines updated U.S. COVID-19 vaccination plan, includes expanding rollout to children

He said the amount of time it would take to get one of the shell facilities up and running in a pandemic would be "somewhere between six to 12 months."

"This could be done when you're doing your clinical (vaccine) trials," he said.

In a previous interview with Global News, Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious diseases faculty member at the University of Toronto said Canada’s lack of domestic vaccine manufacturing capability has been “highlighted as a health security threat."

“And it is,” he continued. “But I don’t think that’s lost on the Canadian government and the local governments.”

He said the federal government's investment in boosting domestic vaccine production is a "really good start," but added that it will take "sustained investment over time" in both the manufacturing and innovation side of things.

“I don’t think you’re going to flip a switch overnight and all of a sudden re-create your vaccine creation and manufacturing capability.” he said.
Procuring boosters

If Canada won't have domestic vaccine manufacturing capacity in time to produce COVID-19 vaccine boosters, where will the country's supply come from?

In March, Health Canada confirmed to Global News that work is "underway to define our future booster needs, both in terms of quantities and the vaccine technologies on which to focus."

Read more: Feds ‘in discussions’ to secure COVID-19 booster, variant shots: Health Canada

"Canada is in discussions with vaccine developers regarding plans for early and secure access to booster and variant vaccines when they become available," the agency said in an emailed statement.

The federal government has also pledged $173 million to help Canadian Biotech company Medicago develop a vaccine and build a plant in which to produce it.

The company's website, says it's COVID-19 vaccine is currently in phase 3 clinical trials.

The website said "before launching a vaccine, it is essential to test its safety and efficacy during clinical trials."

"While standard vaccine development timelines can take five to 20 years, we plan to submit a COVID-19 vaccine to health authorities for regulatory reviews in 2021," the company's website reads.

To date, more than 14.2 million doses of the approved COVID-19 vaccines have been administered across Canada.

According to COVID-19 Tracker Canada, 34.4 per cent of Canadians have now received at least one dose.

Cowabunga! 

More than 800 turtles rescued from NJ storm drains

They're lean, they're mean and they're green. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Not exactly, but hundreds of diamondback terrapin hatchlings have been rescued from subterranean storm drains along the Jersey Shore

.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

According to a Stockton University Facebook post, the turtles were hiding from the cold temperatures over the winter and surviving off yolk sacks in drains in Margate, Ventnor and Ocean City.

Volunteers who rescued 826 of the animals turned them over to Stockton University’s “Head Start” program, where staff will care for and rehabilitate the creatures for about a year before placing them back in the wild, NJ Advance Media reported.

There are 1,108 terrapins receiving care from the program, which has reached capacity.

If you find a hatchling, Stockton recommends placing the animal in room-temperature water up to the shell with a rock it can climb on. Healthy turtles can be released at dusk into a tidal creek or bay area.

The Associated Press

HE WOULD KNOW
Turkish President calls Israel "terror state"

May 10, 2021  Source : Reuters

 


Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan called Israel a "terror state" on Saturday after Israeli police fired rubber bullets and stun grenades towards rock-hurling Palestinian youth at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque on Friday.


AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan called Israel a "terror state" on Saturday after Israeli police fired rubber bullets and stun grenades towards rock-hurling Palestinian youth at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque on Friday.

He added that Ankara had launched initiatives to mobilise international institutions.

The clashes at Islam's third-holiest site and around East Jerusalem, which injured at least 205 Palestinians and 17 police officers, came amid mounting anger over the potential eviction of Palestinians from homes on land claimed by Jewish settlers. Israel's Supreme Court will hold a hearing on the case on Monday.

Speaking at an event in Istanbul, Erdogan called on all Muslim countries and the international community to take "effective" steps against Israel, adding that those who remain silent were "a party to the cruelty there."

"The cruel Israel, terror state Israel is mercilessly and unethically attacking Muslims in Jerusalem," Erdogan said.

He added that Turkey had "immediately launched the necessary initiatives to get the United Nations, Organisation for Islamic Cooperation and all relevant institutions to take action."

Several Turkish officials criticised Israel late on Friday as clashes erupted, and most opposition parties echoed the condemnations, in a rare sign of unity.

There was no immediate response to a request for comment from Israel's foreign ministry. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that law and order would be maintained in Jerusalem as would the right to worship.

Hundreds of people crowded outside Israel's embassy in Ankara and its consulate in Istanbul late on Friday, despite a nationwide COVID-19 lockdown, in protest of the violence in Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa.

Turkey has condemned what it said was Israel's "systematic attempt at evicting Palestinians", referring to the long-running legal case. Erdogan on Saturday called for evictions to be halted.

"Otherwise, we will do everything we can to ensure the cruel are sentenced to the fate they deserve," he warned, without elaborating.

Former allies Turkey and Israel have had a bitter falling-out in recent years despite strong commercial ties, mutually expelling ambassadors in 2018.

Ankara has repeatedly condemned Israel's occupation of the West Bank and its treatment of Palestinians, while playing down prospects of a rapprochement amid sharp policy differences.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has said any rapprochement between the two sides was unlikely as long as Israeli policies towards Palestinians continued, and Erdogan has said that while Ankara would like to improve ties with Israel, it cannot abandon its Palestinian policy.

On Friday, Cavusoglu held talks in Ankara with Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki.

Penn study reveals how opioid supply shortages shape emergency department prescribing behaviors

Injectable opioid shortage in 2018 led to less opioid use overall, yet no significant change in opioid dosing, Penn Medicine research finds

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

Research News

 

PHILADELPHIA-- When evaluating the opioid crisis, research reveals that external factors - such as the volume of pre-filled syringes, or a default number of opioid tablets that could easily be ordered at discharge for the patient - can shift prescribing and compel emergency department (ED) physicians to administer or prescribe greater quantities of opioids. A new study published in the Journal of Medical Toxicology reveals that opioid prescribing behavior can also be decreased by external factors, such as a supply shortage.

Led by the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, researchers evaluated pharmacy data from the electronic medical records (EMR) collected before, during, and after a period of parenteral opioid shortage across two large urban academic emergency departments - the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey. In this case, the shortage was of parenteral morphine and hydromorphone, as a result of supply chain disruptions caused by Hurricane Maria in 2018.

Researchers found that the percentage of patients who received an opioid among all ED visits during the 2018 shortage fell significantly from 11.5% pre-shortage to 8.5% during, and did not return to baseline once the shortage abated. Further, the total number of oral or IV opioid doses administered during the shortage also decreased and remained lower than pre-shortage levels once supply chains were restored. However, the study also found that while fewer opioid doses were administered to fewer patients, there was no change in net Morphine Milligram Equivalent (MME) per patient receiving opioids.

"Although the percentage of patients who received non-opioid analgesics did not rise during the shortage, it was significantly higher in the post-shortage period," said lead investigator Amanda Deutsch, MD, an Emergency Medicine resident at Penn. "This suggests that a subset of patients were transitioned to non-opioids, and this prescribing practice was a sustained change after the resolution of the shortage."

The study also found that because the shortages were specifically of parenteral morphine and hydromorphone, those were replaced by parenteral fentanyl, but the overall total use in MME of opioids administered remained the same. The use of oral morphine also appeared to increase during the shortage period. These findings may suggest that the shortage may have led to a shift from IV opioid use to oral opioid formulations.

However, researchers felt that the shift in prescribing patterns during the shortage can offer an opportunity for more research into how external factors can influence ED prescribing practices. "Changing clinician prescribing behavior is challenging," said author Jeanmarie Perrone, MD, a professor of Emergency Medicine at Penn. "This study shows encouraging data to support that there are environmental modifications that can nudge providers toward more judicious opioid use."

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Penn Medicine is one of the world's leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. Penn Medicine consists of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which together form a $8.9 billion enterprise.

The Perelman School of Medicine has been ranked among the top medical schools in the United States for more than 20 years, according to U.S. News & World Report's survey of research-oriented medical schools. The School is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $496 million awarded in the 2020 fiscal year.

The University of Pennsylvania Health System's patient care facilities include: The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center--which are recognized as one of the nation's top "Honor Roll" hospitals by U.S. News & World Report--Chester County Hospital; Lancaster General Health; Penn Medicine Princeton Health; and Pennsylvania Hospital, the nation's first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional facilities and enterprises include Good Shepherd Penn Partners, Penn Medicine at Home, Lancaster Behavioral Health Hospital, and Princeton House Behavioral Health, among others.

Penn Medicine is powered by a talented and dedicated workforce of more than 44,000 people. The organization also has alliances with top community health systems across both Southeastern Pennsylvania and Southern New Jersey, creating more options for patients no matter where they live.

Penn Medicine is committed to improving lives and health through a variety of community-based programs and activities. In fiscal year 2020, Penn Medicine provided more than $563 million to benefit our community.