Month: November 2021

On Tuesday, Pfizer announced it has asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) to authorize booster doses of its COVID-19 vaccine for all adults, ages 18 and older. The request comes a month and a half after the FDA authorized boosters for seniors and other higher-risk adults.

The request is similar to one made by Pfizer in August, when it asked federal regulators to amend its full license to allow a booster dose for individuals 16 and older. However many raised concerns that there was insufficient evidence to suggest that vaccine-induced immunity was waning in younger populations, particularly against severe disease. However, the company now says that new data from a large clinical trial of more than 10,000 fully vaccinated people found that a booster dose was over 95% effective against COVID-19 compared to individuals who were fully vaccinated but had not received a booster dose. A press release issued by Pfizer said that during the study period, “there were 5 cases of COVID-19 in the booster group, and 109 cases in the non-boosted group.” The company also says the efficacy of the booster dose was consistent across different ages and racial and ethnic groups.

Up until recently there was not enough known about the risk of a rare potential side effect, myocarditis or pericarditis — inflammation of different parts of the heart — after a third dose, particularly among young men. Safety data has shown that men under the age of 30 are at higher risk of the condition, specifically after the second dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. The FDA has also allowed people to mix-and-match any of the three authorized or approved vaccines in the U.S. as a booster shot..

So far, nearly 25 million booster doses have been administered nationwide, representing more than 12% of individuals who are fully vaccinated. Nearly a third of individuals who are 65 or older and are fully vaccinated have received a booster.

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On Tuesday, the Oklahoma Supreme Court overturned a ruling which ordered drugmaker Johnson & Johnson to pay $465 million for its role in the state’s opioid crisis. The court ruled 5-1 that District Judge Thad Balkman ruled improperly when he rendered the judgment against J&J in August 2019.

Judge Balkman said at the time that J&J and its subsidiary, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, created a public nuisance by compromising the health and safety of thousands of Oklahomans by marketing opioids. However, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that the company’s actions didn’t violate the public nuisance law, stating: “The court has allowed public nuisance claims to address discrete, localized problems, not policy problems. J&J had no control of its products through the multiple levels of distribution, including after it sold the opioids to distributors and wholesalers, which were then disbursed to pharmacies, hospitals and physicians’ offices, and then prescribed by doctors to patients.”

Johnson & Johnson has faced thousands of lawsuits for its role in the opioid crisis, which the U.S. government blames for nearly 70,000 deaths in 2020. The company agreed to pay up to $5 billion over the next nine years as part of a wide-ranging settlement with 14 states involving up to 4,000 opioid-related claims.

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On Monday, the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol issued six subpoenas to top-level members of the 2020 Trump reelection campaign, as well as individuals who promoted disproven conspiracies about the election and reportedly worked to find ways to overturn the results.

The committee demanded records and depositions from campaign manager William Stepien, senior adviser Jason Miller and executive assistant Angela McCallum. The committee also sent subpoenas to former President Trump’s attorney John Eastman, who reportedly advised Mr. Trump incorrectly that his vice president had the ability to reject electors from states and could overturn Joe Biden’s victory. The panel is also seeking information by subpoena from Michael Flynn, Mr. Trump’s one-time national security advisor who is believed to have attended an Oval Office meeting where attendees discussed seizing voting machines, declaring a national emergency and invoking some national security emergency powers to keep Mr. Trump in the White House, according to multiple reports. The committee also sent a subpoena to Bernard Kerik, an associate of Rudolph Giuliani, who reportedly funded command centers for the effort to overturn the 2020 election results.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi created the House select committee earlier this year to investigate the January 6 attack, when thousands of Trump supporters descended on the Capitol as Congress counted the electoral votes.  The riot led to the deaths of five people and the arrests of hundreds more. Mr. Trump, who encouraged his supporters to “walk over” to the Capitol during the Stop the Steal rally, was impeached by the House one week later for inciting the riot but was later acquitted by the Senate.

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On Monday, gun manufacturer Remington Firearms – the nation’s oldest arms maker, whose lines of shotguns and hunting rifles date back to 1816 – announced it will relocate its corporate headquarters from New York to Georgia, with plans to build a $100 million manufacturing center in the state. The arms maker said it will build an advanced manufacturing operation and establish a “world-class research and development center” in LaGrange, Ga., located about 70 miles southwest of the state capital. The company, officially known as RemArms LLC, is currently located in Ilion, N.Y.

RemArms CEO Ken D’Arcy said in a statement:  “We are very excited to come to Georgia, a state that not only welcomes business but enthusiastically supports and welcomes companies in the firearms industry.”  Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp praised the move, saying in a press release: “I am a proud owner of some of Remington’s first-class product, and now, I am excited to welcome them to their new home in the Peach State. As yet another big manufacturing win for our state, I look forward to seeing the oldest firearms manufacturer in America thrive in Georgia’s pro-business environment.” Kemp said the move will result in 856 new jobs created over a five-year period in Troup County, Ga.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/gun-maker-remington-moves-georgia-100m-856-job-81037632

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