Canada is the latest country to investigate how to stretch vaccine doses as far as possible, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to have tragic consequences all around the world.
Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, said Tuesday she has asked the National Advisory Committee on Immunization to investigate whether it would be warranted to delay the second doses of a COVID-19 vaccine in a bid to get first doses to more people faster.
“This is a topic of, of course, active discussion,” Tam said at her regular Tuesday briefing on the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada.
The situation, she noted, is grim, with more than 7,500 new patients diagnosed every day, more than 77,700 people actively infected with it, and more than 4,000 people in the nation’s hospitals with it. Over the last week, an average of 122 Canadians have died of COVID-19 every day.
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Tam said there is some promising evidence that single doses of vaccines designed to be given in two shots are effective for a while, but that evidence is limited. She stressed Canada remains committed to giving two doses of the vaccines but that she has asked the advisory committee to look at what is known about the matter, and what should be considered when deciding whether to adjust the dosing schedule.
Health Canada has approved two vaccines against COVID-19, and about 150,000 people have now been given at least one dose. On Monday, the first people began receiving their second doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, 21 days after they received first doses on Dec. 14.
1:07 Coronavirus: Canada hasn’t identified any cases of new coronavirus variant seen in U.K., Dr. Tam says
Coronavirus: Canada hasn’t identified any cases of new coronavirus variant seen in U.K., Dr. Tam says – Dec 22, 2020
That schedule follows the advice of Pfizer and BioNTech, which said their vaccine is 95 per cent effective at preventing COVID-19 symptoms within seven days of receiving a second dose. The doses are to be administered 21 days apart.
AstraZeneca’s vaccine, which has been approved in the United Kingdom but not yet in Canada, also requires a second dose after 28 days.
Several countries are now investigating or authorizing the delay of those second doses, to get more people vaccinated with first doses.
Denmark authorized a six-week delay. The U.K., which recorded a single-day record of 58,784 new cases Tuesday, is pushing that second dose back by 12 weeks for its two approved vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca.
Germany is also investigating whether to delay the second dose.
Pfizer told The Canadian Press in a statement it doesn’t endorse a delayed-dose plan. While peer-reviewed reports on its vaccine’s clinical trial found the vaccine was about 52 per cent effective at preventing illness after one dose, most patients received the second dose after 21 days so there is no data analyzing how well one dose works beyond three weeks.
Moderna similarly said it can’t comment on whether its vaccine is effective outside the two-dose, 28-day schedule. Moderna said two equal doses given 28 days apart provided a stronger immune response than one double dose delivered in a single injection.
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The World Health Organization said Tuesday delaying Pfizer’s second doses up to six weeks could be acceptable under exceptional circumstances.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it is worth investigating the idea of delaying doses, or injecting half-doses, but that at the moment there is no evidence supporting the authorization of any changes.
1:09 Coronavirus: Trudeau advises snowbirds travelling to U.S. for vaccine to stay home
Coronavirus: Trudeau advises snowbirds travelling to U.S. for vaccine to stay home
Dr. David Fisman, an epidemiologist in Toronto, said there might be some evidence for delaying a second dose to six weeks, rather than 21 or 28 days.
“For many vaccines a second dose is given at six weeks and that works nicely,” he said, noting sometimes the “boost” from the second dose is actually better if it’s given a little later. He said he suspects the six-week window wasn’t used in the COVID-19 trials because this is a public health emergency.
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However Fisman said Canada has bigger vaccine concerns right now because we just aren’t vaccinating people fast enough on the suggested dose-schedule.
Netflix (NFLX) stock slid as much as 9.6% Friday after the company gave a second quarter revenue forecast that missed estimates and announced it would stop reporting quarterly subscriber metrics closely watched by Wall Street.
On Thursday, Netflix guided to second quarter revenue of $9.49 billion, a miss compared to consensus estimates of $9.51 billion.
The company said it will stop reporting quarterly membership numbers starting next year, along with average revenue per member, or ARM.
“As we’ve evolved our pricing and plans from a single to multiple tiers with different price points depending on the country, each incremental paid membership has a very different business impact,” the company said.
Netflix reported first quarter earnings that beat across the board on Thursday, with another 9 million-plus subscribers added in the quarter.
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Subscriber additions of 9.3 million beat expectations of 4.8 million and followed the 13 million net additions the streamer added in the fourth quarter. The company added 1.7 million paying users in Q1 2023.
Revenue beat Bloomberg consensus estimates of $9.27 billion to hit $9.37 billion in the quarter, an increase of 14.8% compared to the same period last year as the streamer leaned on revenue initiatives like its crackdown on password-sharing and ad-supported tier, in addition to the recent price hikes on certain subscription plans.
Netflix’s stock has been on a tear in recent months, with shares currently trading near the high end of its 52-week range. Wall Street analysts had warned that high expectations heading into the print could serve as an inherent risk to the stock price.
Earnings per share (EPS) beat estimates in the quarter, with the company reporting EPS of $5.28, well above consensus expectations of $4.52 and nearly double the $2.88 EPS figure it reported in the year-ago period. Netflix guided to second quarter EPS of $4.68, ahead of consensus calls for $4.54.
Profitability metrics also came in strong, with operating margins sitting at 28.1% for the first quarter compared to 21% in the same period last year.
The company previously guided to full-year 2024 operating margins of 24% after the metric grew to 21% from 18% in 2023. Netflix expects margins to tick down slightly in Q2 to 26.6%.
Free cash flow came in at $2.14 billion in the quarter, above consensus calls of $1.9 billion.
Meanwhile, ARM ticked up 1% year over year — matching the fourth quarter results. Wall Street analysts expect ARM to pick up later this year as both the ad-tier impact and price hike effects take hold.
On the ads front, ad-tier memberships increased 65% quarter over quarter after rising nearly 70% sequentially in Q3 2023 and Q4 2023. The ads plan now accounts for over 40% of all Netflix sign-ups in the markets it’s offered in.
Netflix reported first quarter earnings after the bell on Thursday. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo (REUTERS / Reuters)
Alexandra Canal is a Senior Reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on X @allie_canal, LinkedIn, and email her at alexandra.canal@yahoofinance.com.
Oil prices initially spiked on Friday due to unconfirmed reports of an Israeli missile strike on Iran.
Prices briefly reached above $90 per barrel before falling back as Iran denied the attack.
Iranian media reported activating their air defense systems, not an Israeli strike.
Oil prices gave up nearly all of early Friday’s gains after an Iranian official told Reuters that there hadn’t been a missile attack against Iran.
Oil surged by as much as $3 per barrel in Asian trade early on Friday after a U.S. official told ABC News today that Israel launched missile strikes against Iran in the early morning hours today. After briefly spiking to above $90 per barrel early on Friday in Asian trade, Brent fell back to $87.10 per barrel in the morning in Europe.
The news was later confirmed by Iranian media, which said the country’s air defense system took down three drones over the city of Isfahan, according to Al Jazeera. Flights to three cities including Tehran and Isfahan were suspended, Iranian media also reported.
Israel’s retaliation for Iran’s missile strikes last week was seen by most as a guarantee of escalation of the Middle East conflict since Iran had warned Tel Aviv that if it retaliates, so will Tehran in its turn and that retaliation would be on a greater scale than the missile strikes from last week. These developments were naturally seen as strongly bullish for oil prices.
However, hours after unconfirmed reports of an Israeli attack first emerged, Reuters quoted an Iranian official as saying that there was no missile strike carried out against Iran. The explosions that were heard in the large Iranian city of Isfahan were the result of the activation of the air defense systems of Iran, the official told Reuters.
Overall, Iran appears to downplay the event, with most official comments and news reports not mentioning Israel, Reuters notes.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that “there is no damage to Iran’s nuclear sites,” confirming Iranian reports on the matter.
The Isfahan province is home to Iran’s nuclear site for uranium enrichment.
“Brent briefly soared back above $90 before reversing lower after Iranian media downplayed a retaliatory strike by Israel,” Saxo Bank said in a Friday note.
The $5 a barrel trading range in oil prices over the past week has been driven by traders attempting to “quantify the level of risk premium needed to reflect heightened tensions but with no impact on supply,” the bank said, adding “Expect prices to bid ahead of the weekend.”
At the time of writing Brent was trading at $87.34 and WTI at $83.14.
