There has been much accomplished but there’s still much to do in terms of getting Americans vaccinated against COVID-19, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, during the latest briefing by the White House COVID Response Team on Tuesday. He talked about herd immunity, what is known about mix-and-match booster shots, and said two words every American should hear. Read on to find out more—and to ensure your health and the health of others, don’t miss these Sure Signs You May Have Already Had COVID.
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Fauci recalled the flu pandemic of 1918, during which his father was 10 years old, said he remembered hearing about relatively young people dying. “Back then, they had crude early bacterial vaccines that likely never would have gotten approved by the regulatory and public health authorities today,” he said. “Whereas today we have a highly specific, highly effective and very safe vaccine.”
Fauci said that nearly 70 million Americans still have not been vaccinated. “The overwhelming majority of the people who’ve died from COVID-19 were people who are unvaccinated,” he said, noting that fully vaccinated people have a five times lower risk of infection and more than 10 times lower risk of hospitalization and death.
The new Surgeon General of Florida has been advocating herd immunity as a concept, which Fauci dismissed. “You know you are at herd immunity when the virus doesn’t have an opportunity to go from person to person,” said Fauci. “But right now we don’t know what that number is. And when you don’t know what the number is, what do you do? You vaccinate as many people as you possibly can as quickly and as expeditiously as you possibly can. That’s what we should be concentrating on, not any particular number.”
Some are curious whether they should get can—or should—get a booster shot of a different vaccine than the one they were originally inoculated with. Fauci said those studies are ongoing and the last data should be available in October. “As with all things we do, they must be submitted to the FDA for their regulatory approval,” he said. “You don’t want to get ahead of the FDA.”
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said that vaccines given during pregnancy are safe and effective. “We are fortunate now to have historical safety data with all of these vaccines,” she said. “We know that pregnant women are at increased risk of severe disease, hospitalization, and ventilation. They’re also at increased risk for adverse events to their baby.
“We now have data that demonstrates that vaccines in whatever time in pregnancy or lactating that they’re given, are actually safe and effective and have no adverse events to mom or to baby,” she added, noting that some vaccine traverses from mother to baby in utero, so the baby achieves some protection against COVID.
“The best way to protect our unvaccinated, and that includes our young children, is to surround them with people who are vaccinated,” said Walensky. “So get vaccinated yourself. It would be great to have everybody who is eligible to be vaccinated, to get vaccinated, to better protect the people who are around them.”
She noted that a new study from Arizona found that schools which implemented masking were three-and-half times less likely to have a COVID outbreak. That joins data from other studies showing masking is COVID protective in schools. And to get through this pandemic at your healthiest, don’t miss these35 Places You’re Most Likely to Catch COVID.
CALGARY – TC Energy Corp. has lowered the estimated cost of its Southeast Gateway pipeline project in Mexico.
It says it now expects the project to cost between US$3.9 billion and US$4.1 billion compared with its original estimate of US$4.5 billion.
The change came as the company reported a third-quarter profit attributable to common shareholders of C$1.46 billion or $1.40 per share compared with a loss of C$197 million or 19 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
Revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30 totalled C$4.08 billion, up from C$3.94 billion in the third quarter of 2023.
TC Energy says its comparable earnings for its latest quarter amounted to C$1.03 per share compared with C$1.00 per share a year earlier.
The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 95 cents per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
BCE Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter as it recorded $2.11 billion in asset impairment charges, mainly related to Bell Media’s TV and radio properties.
The company says its net loss attributable to common shareholders amounted to $1.24 billion or $1.36 per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a profit of $640 million or 70 cents per share a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, BCE says it earned 75 cents per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 81 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
“Bell’s results for the third quarter demonstrate that we are disciplined in our pursuit of profitable growth in an intensely competitive environment,” BCE chief executive Mirko Bibic said in a statement.
“Our focus this quarter, and throughout 2024, has been to attract higher-margin subscribers and reduce costs to help offset short-term revenue impacts from sustained competitive pricing pressures, slow economic growth and a media advertising market that is in transition.”
Operating revenue for the quarter totalled $5.97 billion, down from $6.08 billion in its third quarter of 2023.
BCE also said it now expects its revenue for 2024 to fall about 1.5 per cent compared with earlier guidance for an increase of zero to four per cent.
The company says the change comes as it faces lower-than-anticipated wireless product revenue and sustained pressure on wireless prices.
BCE added 33,111 net postpaid mobile phone subscribers, down 76.8 per cent from the same period last year, which was the company’s second-best performance on the metric since 2010.
It says the drop was driven by higher customer churn — a measure of subscribers who cancelled their service — amid greater competitive activity and promotional offer intensity. BCE’s monthly churn rate for the category was 1.28 per cent, up from 1.1 per cent during its previous third quarter.
The company also saw 11.6 per cent fewer gross subscriber activations “due to more targeted promotional offers and mobile device discounting compared to last year.”
Bell’s wireless mobile phone average revenue per user was $58.26, down 3.4 per cent from $60.28 in the third quarter of the prior year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada Goose Holdings Inc. trimmed its financial guidance as it reported its second-quarter revenue fell compared with a year ago.
The luxury clothing company says revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 29 totalled $267.8 million, down from $281.1 million in the same quarter last year.
Net income attributable to shareholders amounted to $5.4 million or six cents per diluted share, up from $3.9 million or four cents per diluted share a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, Canada Goose says it earned five cents per diluted share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 16 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
In its outlook, Canada Goose says it now expects total revenue for its full financial year to show a low-single-digit percentage decrease to low-single-digit percentage increase compared with earlier guidance for a low-single-digit increase.
It also says it now expects its adjusted net income per diluted share to show a mid-single-digit percentage increase compared with earlier guidance for a percentage increase in the mid-teens.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
