Tag: COVID-19

Adam Neumann offers to buy back WeWork for more than $500 million: WSJ report

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann has submitted an offer to buy the bankrupt company for more than $500 million, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

It wasn’t immediately clear how Neumann would finance the acquisition of the provider of shared office space, the newspaper reported.

A representative for Neumann’s real estate company, Flow, confirmed that a bid was submitted, saying it exceeded the amount reported by the Journal.

“Two weeks ago, a coalition of half a dozen financing partners — whose identities are known to WeWork and its advisers — submitted a potential bid for substantially more than the Wall Street Journal reported,” the Flow representative said.

WeWork said in an emailed statement that it remains focused on emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the second quarter as a “financially strong and profitable company.”

“WeWork is an extraordinary company and it’s no surprise we receive expressions of interest from third parties on a regular basis,” the company said. “Our board and our advisers review those approaches in the ordinary course, to ensure we always act in the best long-term interests of the company.”

Neumann, previously WeWork’s chief executive officer, and other investors including Dan Loeb’s Third Point were exploring an offer to buy WeWork out of bankruptcy, Bloomberg reported last month. Neumann and his real estate startup, Flow, had been trying to get information from WeWork necessary to formulate a bid since December, according to a letter sent to WeWork’s lawyers.

Third Point isn’t involved in Neumann’s bid, said people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the information was private. A spokesperson for the firm declined to comment.

Neumann’s Flow received a $350 million investment from venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz at a $1 billion valuation in 2022 before even beginning operations. Flow operates multifamily residential properties that aim to foster a feeling of ownership and community.

WeWork’s valuation plummeted from a high of $47 billion after a failed attempt to go public in 2019, then the Covid-19 pandemic dealt another blow. Although WeWork’s office locations initially emptied out, demand for flexible work proved somewhat resilient. The company eventually went public in 2021 through a combination with a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC.

Before it fell into bankruptcy, WeWork had been trying to deliver a turnaround story — one in which the rowdy co-working startup transforms into a stable, profitable public company. After the pandemic, the New York-based firm was bleeding cash with onerous leases. The company listed $19 billion of liabilities and $15 billion of assets in its Chapter 11 filing last year.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Scientists discover new class of antiviral drugs against Covid infection

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Scientists have discovered a new class of antiviral drugs with the potential to prevent or treat COVID-19 infections in a future outbreak.

In a study published in the journal Nature, the researchers show that SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes COVID-19 — activates a pathway in cells that stops the production of peroxisomes and interferon, both key parts of the normal immune response.

The team from the University of Alberta in Canada successfully tested the new class of antiviral drugs that stimulate interferon production to reverse that effect.

Interferon stops infected cells from producing more virus by shutting down the infected cell, which often results in cell death, and then acts on the surrounding cells to prevent them from being infected, the researchers said.

The study builds on the team’s earlier research that showed how HIV has evolved to activate the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway in cells as a way to stop the body from producing peroxisomes, which trigger interferon production.

The team tried 40 existing drugs that target the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. Most were originally developed and tested for treating cancer, which often responds to boosted interferon production.

Three of the drugs significantly reduced the amount of virus found in the lungs, and one of the drugs was also effective at reducing inflammation and other clinical symptoms in mice.

“We saw, in some cases, a 10,000-fold reduction in the amount of virus produced in a test tube, and when we went into a mouse model, the drugs prevented severe weight loss and the mice recovered much quicker,” said study lead author Tom Hobman, a professor at the University of Alberta.

During a viral outbreak, people who might have been exposed or who have already developed early symptoms would take a four- or five-day course to prime their peroxisome levels and limit the severity and spread of the disease.

“The beauty of this approach is that in the absence of viral infection, there’s no interferon produced. We see these drugs potentially serving as first-line drugs against emerging viruses,” Hobman added.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Man takes 200 COVID-19 shots, immune system unscathed: Lancet study

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Researchers have examined a man in Germany who claims to have received 217 vaccinations against COVID-19 and found that his immune system was fully functional.

Until now, it has been unclear what effects hypervaccination such as this would have on the immune system. Some scientists were of the opinion that immune cells would become less effective after becoming used to the antigens.

However, the case study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal found that the immune system of the person is fully functional.

More than 60 million people in Germany have been vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2, a majority of them several times, the researchers said.

The man examined by a team at Friedrich–Alexander University Erlangen–Nurnberg (FAU) in Germany claims to have received 217 vaccinations for private reasons. There is official confirmation for 134 of these vaccinations, they said.

”We learned about his case via newspaper articles,” said Kilian Schober from FAU.

”We then contacted him and invited him to undergo various tests in Erlangen (a city in Germany). He was very interested in doing so,” he said.

Vaccinations contain parts of the pathogen or a type of construction plan that the vaccinated person’s cells can use to produce these pathogenic components themselves.

Thanks to these antigens, the immune system learns to recognise the real pathogen in the event of a later infection. It can then react more rapidly and forcibly.

The researchers wanted to analyse what happens if the body’s immune system is exposed extremely often to a specific antigen.

”That may be the case in a chronic infection such as HIV or hepatitis B, that has regular flare-ups,” explained Schober.

”There is an indication that certain types of immune cells, known as T-cells, then become fatigued, leading to them releasing fewer pro-inflammatory messenger substances,” he added.

This and other effects triggered by the cells becoming used to the antigens can weaken the immune system, which is then no longer able to combat the pathogen so effectively.

However, the study does not deliver any indication that this is the case, the researchers said.

”We were also able to take blood samples ourselves when the man received a further vaccination during the study at his own insistence. We were able to use these samples to determine exactly how the immune system reacts to the vaccination,” Schober said.

The results showed that the individual has large numbers of T-effector cells against SARS-CoV-2. These act as the body’s own soldiers that fight against the virus, the researchers said.

The person even had more of these compared to the control group of people who had received three vaccinations, they said.

The researchers did not perceive any fatigue in these effector cells. They were similarly effective as those in the control group who had received the normal number of vaccinations.

They also explored memory T cells — cells at a preliminary stage, similar to stem cells, that can replenish numbers of suitable effector cells.

”The number of memory cells was just as high in our test case as in the control group,” explained Katharina Kocher, one of the leading authors of the study.

”Overall, we did not find any indication for a weaker immune response, rather the contrary,” Kocher added.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

India ranks fourth in global measles outbreak — what’s causing it

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Measles is a highly contagious viral airborne disease caused by a virus that spreads easily through the air and can lead to severe complications and death. The virus can affect any person but is most common in children, especially those below the age of five.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), around 136,000 people, mostly children, died of measles in 2022. In recent months, there has been a major outbreak of measles in several countries, including India, with multiple cases reported daily.

As per the provisional data reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) as of early February 2024, India stood fourth among the top countries with measles outbreaks. The country reported 12,301 cases between July–December 2023. The maximum number of cases in the said period was reported in Yemen (18,464), followed by Azerbaijan with 13,721 cases and Kazakhstan (13,195).

Country                                Number of cases             

Yemen                                                  18,464.

Azerbaijan                                           13,721.

Kazakhstan                                         13,195.

India                                                      12,301.

Ethiopia                                                10,060.

Russian Federation                            7,720.

Iraq                                                        7,601.

Pakistan                                               7,027.

Kyrgyzstan                                          5,777.

Indonesia                                            3,205.

Why Measles cases are rising

One of the major reasons behind the increased risk of measles outbreaks is the COVID-19 pandemic, the CDC said. As per the available data, more than 61 million doses of measles-containing vaccine were postponed or missed between 2020 and 2022 due to delays in supplementary immunisation activities related to COVID-19.

“The COVID-19 pandemic led to setbacks in surveillance and immunisation efforts. The suspension of immunisation services and declines in immunisation rates and surveillance across the globe left millions of children vulnerable to preventable diseases like measles,” WHO states.

Last year, a report by the WHO and CDC stated that around 11 lakh children in India missed their first dose of the measles vaccine in 2022. The first COVID-19-positive case was reported in India in January 2020.

India logged as many as 40,967 cases of measles in 2022, the report highlighted.

Another reason behind the outbreak is that the measles virus belongs to the Paramyxoviridae family and is very well known for its rapid transmission, TOI reported.

A person infected with measles can potentially spread the virus to nine to 18 others, making the disease even more contagious than the coronavirus.

Symptoms

The usual symptoms of the disease begin around 10–14 days after exposure to the virus. One of its most visible symptoms is rashes on the body. Others are:

1. Running nose.
2. Cough.
3. Red and watery eyes.
4. Small white spots inside the cheeks.

The symptoms of the disease usually last five days before fading, while most of the deaths from the disease are from complications related to it.

During pregnancy, if a woman catches measles, it may result in the premature birth of her newborn with low weight.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

PM Modi virtually lays foundation stone of 13 critical care projects in Jammu and Kashmir

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday virtually laid the foundation stone of 13 critical care projects worth ₹350.25 crore in Jammu and Kashmir. He also dedicated six Food Safety on Wheels’ amounting to ₹2.63 crore to the people of the Union Territory through virtual mode from Rajkot in Gujarat.

Foundation stone for 100-bedded critical care block units (CCBUs) were laid at Government Medical College (GMC) Jammu and District Hospital Budgam, and 50-bedded CCBUs at district hospitals in Kulgam, Pulwama, Kupwara, Reasi, Poonch and Shopian besides GMC Baramulla, GMC Rajouri, GMC Kathua, SKIMS Bemina (Srinagar) and Public Health Centre Sonamarg.

Approved under PM-ABHIM and ECRP, the critical care units would provide services of emergency, surgical and intensive care to the patients, an official said. Most of the critical care services are confined to the tertiary care level with limited access to secondary care and referral transport systems.

The top five causes of mortality – coronary artery disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, stroke, diarrhoeal diseases and neonatal disorders – shall be managed timely at the level of these units itself, the official said, adding it will not only reduce the burden on tertiary care facilities but will also reduce the out of pocket expenses significantly, the official said.

The COVID pandemic has highlighted the need for critical care facilities, especially at the level of the districts. To augment the capacity of the district for assured treatment and management of patients with infectious diseases or critical illnesses by creating critical care hospital blocks or wings at district hospitals and medical colleges, according to the official.

He said the current architecture of the public hospitals is not equipped fully to handle the dual burden of meeting critical care needs and maintaining essential services as was seen during the two waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many hospital buildings, especially in the districts, do not have provision for segregating a part of the building as an infectious disease treatment block, the official said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Applications for US jobless benefits fall again as labour market powers on

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The number of Americans applying for jobless benefits fell to its lowest level in five weeks, even as more high-profile companies announced layoffs.

Applications for unemployment benefits fell by 12,000 to 201,000 for the week ending February 17, the Labour Department reported Thursday. The four-week average of claims, a less volatile measure, fell by 3,500 to 215,250, down from 218,750 the previous week.

Weekly unemployment claims are broadly viewed as representative of the number of US layoffs in a given week. They have remained at historically low levels in recent years, despite efforts by the US Federal Reserve to cool the economy.

The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark borrowing rate 11 times beginning in March of 2022 in an effort to bring down the four-decade-high inflation that took hold after the economy roared back from the COVID-19 recession of 2020.

Many economists expected the rapid rate hikes to weaken the labour market and potentially tip the country into recession, but it hasn’t happened. Jobs have remained plentiful and the economy has held up better than forecast thanks to strong consumer spending.

US employers delivered a stunning burst of hiring to begin 2024, adding 353,000 jobs in January in the latest sign of the economy’s continuing ability to shrug off the highest interest rates in two decades.

Last month’s job gain — roughly twice what economists had predicted — topped the December gain of 333,000, a figure that was revised sharply higher. The unemployment rate stayed at 3.7% and has been below 4% for 24 straight months — two full years — the longest such streak since the 1960s.

Though layoffs remain at low levels, there has been an uptick in job cuts recently across technology and media. Google parent company Alphabet, eBay, TikTok, Snap and the Los Angeles Times have all recently announced layoffs. Last week, Cisco Systems announced it was cutting 4,000 jobs.

Outside of tech and media, UPS, Macy’s and Levi’s also recently cut jobs. In total, 1.86 million Americans were collecting jobless benefits during the week that ended February 10, a decrease of 27,000 from the previous week.

Though inflation has eased considerably in the past year, the Labor Department reported last week that consumer prices remain well above the Fed’s 2% target. The Fed has left rates unchanged at its last four meetings.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

COVID-19: India logs 1,226 cases of JN.1 variant, highest from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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A total of 1,226 cases of COVID-19 sub-variant JN.1 have been reported in the country so far with Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh recording the highest number of cases till now, according to INSACOG on Thursday.Da ta compiled by the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) showed that 17 states and UTs have detected the presence of the variant.

Karnataka has detected 234 cases of JN.1 sub-variant followed by Andhra Pradesh (189), Maharashtra (170), Kerala (156), West Bengal (96), Goa (90), Tamil Nadu (88) and Gujarat (76). Rajasthan recorded 37 JN.1 cases, Telangana 32, Chhattisgarh 25, Delhi 16, Uttar Pradesh 7, Haryana five, Odisha three, and Uttarakhand and Nagaland one each, according to the data accessed by PTI.

The Centre has asked the states and Union Territories to maintain a constant vigil amid an uptick in the number of Covid cases and the detection of the JN.1 sub-variant in the country.

The states have been urged to ensure effective compliance with the detailed operational guidelines for the revised surveillance strategy for COVID-19 shared with them by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The states have also been asked to regularly monitor and report district-wise cases of influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) from all health facilities for early detection of a rising trend of Covid cases.

The World Health Organisation has classified JN.1 as a separate “variant of interest” (VOI) given its rapidly increasing spread but said it poses “low” global public health risk.

The JN.1 sub-variant of the coronavirus was previously classified as a VOI as part of the BA.2.86 sub-lineages, the parent lineage that is classified as a VOI, the world body said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

COVID-19: India reports 682 cases of JN.1 from 12 states till Jan 7

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The number of cases of COVID-19 sub-variant JN.1 reported from 12 states till January 7 rose to 682, official sources said on Monday. They said 199 cases have been reported from Karnataka, 148 from Kerala, 139 from Maharashtra, 47 from Goa, 36 from Gujarat, 30 from Andhra Pradesh, 30 from Rajasthan, 26 from Tamil Nadu, 21 from Delhi, three from Odisha, two from Telangana and one from Haryana.

Even though the number of cases is rising and the JN.1 sub-variant has been detected in the country, there is no cause of immediate concern as the majority of those infected are opting for home-based treatment, indicating mild illness, officials said. The Centre has asked the states and Union territories to maintain a constant vigil amid an uptick in the number of Covid cases and the detection of the JN.1 sub-variant in the country.

States have been urged to ensure effective compliance with the detailed operational guidelines for revised surveillance strategy for COVID-19 shared by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. They have asked to monitor and report district-wise cases of influenza-like illness and severe acute respiratory illness in all health facilities regularly for early detection of rising trend of cases.

The WHO has classified JN.1 as a separate “variant of interest” given its rapidly increasing spread but said it poses a “low” global public health risk. The JN.1 sub-variant of the coronavirus was previously classified as a variant of interest (VOI) as part of the BA.2.86 sub-lineages, the parent lineage that is classified as a VOI, the world body said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

COVID-19 cases rise in Singapore, clinics face higher than usual patient loads

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Doctors in Singapore believe the latest COVID-19 wave has peaked in the country, even as some clinics still face higher than usual patient loads, and doctors are watching out for possible surges in the coming months.

The doctors are seeing cases stabilise, down by around 20% from December, according to a Channel News Asia report on Friday.

However, clinics are already planning for more man power and medication supplies in anticipation of another surge in the months ahead. Healthway Medical, for instance, now sees an average of 50 to 60 patients come in daily with respiratory infections across its 57 clinics, the report said.

COVID-19 and influenza cases make up the bulk of them.

This is around 10% higher than regular patient loads but a slight drop from the peak around Christmas. The peak of all the upper respiratory tract infection cases has plateaued. Majority of people have already returned from travelling, CNA quoted head of primary care at Healthway Medical Group Dr John Cheng as saying.

Most of our clinics actually had enough buffer for all the acute and upper respiratory tract infections to cater for a sudden surge of patient numbers, he said. For the end of the year, there will definitely be a surge. And then, most of the time, during festive seasons, during holidays – with more and more people interacting, more travellers (travelling) in and out – we will be expecting some surges during those periods,” he said.

OneCare Medical is also seeing cases stabilise across its 38 clinics. It said cases are less likely to go up significantly again in the near term. We feel that the ARI (Acute Respiratory Infection) has already peaked, so we should see the numbers stabilise and probably slowly come down over the next few weeks, back to the usual baseline numbers, CNA quoted CEO of OneCare Medical Dr Jimmy Chew as saying.

Of course, if the weather continues to be quite cold, and there continues to be a lot of circulating strains of ARI pathogens, then perhaps we might still see the numbers being sustained,” he said. With Chinese New Year coming up (February 10), there will still be ongoing gatherings. And of course there are still some travellers travelling, especially those who want to take advantage of the off-peak season, said Chew.

There might still probably be a bit of infectious diseases still ongoing. But of course, hopefully, we have already seen the peak of ARI cases, so that we will observe a downward trend in the coming weeks,” he said. I think we need to keep a close surveillance of the situation. So, medication wise, we tend to stock up more prior to the expectation of this peak, said Dr Daniel Soong, medical director at Unihealth Clinic, was quoted as saying by CNA.

If we notice that there is an increase in cases and caseloads, we might deploy more manpower in our clinic to ease off the waiting time for the patients, Soong said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

India records single-day rise of 774 fresh COVID-19 cases in India

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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India has recorded a single-day rise of 774 COVID-19 cases while the number of active cases stands at 4,187, the Union health ministry said on Saturday. Two deaths — one each from Tamil Nadu and Gujarat — were reported in a span of 24 hours, according to the ministry’s data updated at 8 am.

The number of daily cases was in double digits till December 5 but it began to rise again amid cold weather conditions and after the emergence of a new COVID-19 variant, JN 1.

After December 5, the highest single-day rise of 841 cases was reported on December 31, 2023, which was 0.2% of the peak cases reported in May 2021, official sources said. Of the 4,187 active cases, the majority (over 92%) are recovering under home isolation.

An official source said, “The currently available data suggests that the JN.1 variant is neither leading to an exponential rise in the new cases nor a surge in the hospitalisation and mortality.”

India has witnessed three waves of COVID-19 in the past with the peak incidence of daily cases and deaths being reported during the Delta wave during April-June 2021. At its peak, 4,14,188 cases and 3,915 deaths were reported on May 7, 2021. Since the pandemic began in early 2020, more than 4.5 crore people have been infected and over 5.3 lakh have died across the country.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease stands at over 4.4 crore with a national recovery rate of 98.81%, according to the ministry’s website. According to the website, 220.67 crore doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered so far in the country.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow