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Moderna and Sorrento Therapeutics’ Vaccines Show Positive Results

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Updated: Friday, 5/22/2020 9:45 am

Moderna, the Massachusetts biotechnology company behind a leading effort to create a coronavirus vaccine, published positive data from its phase one human trial on its potential vaccine. The National Institutes of Health has partnered with Moderna to accelerate development of their vaccine candidate. The company plans to launch a large clinical trial in July aimed at showing whether the vaccine works.

The company reported that in eight patients who had been followed for a month and a half, the vaccine at low and medium doses triggered blood levels of virus-fighting (neutralizing) antibodies that were similar or greater than those found in COVID-19 patients who recovered. That would suggest, but doesn’t prove, that it triggers some level of immunity.

The neutralizing antibody-rich blood plasma donated by patients who have recovered is separately being tested to determine whether it is an effective therapy or preventive measure for Covid-19.

The vaccine uses a new process that is much faster than older methods of making vaccines. The vaccine includes a short segment of messenger RNA (mRNA) that is made in a lab and codes for the viral spike protein. It does not include any form of live virus, and the trial does not expose participants to the virus.

Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told NPR that “I think it is conceivable, if we don’t run into things that are, as they say, unanticipated setbacks, that we could have a vaccine that we could be beginning to deploy at the end of this calendar year, December 2020, or into January, 2021”.

Dr. Carlos del Rio, an Emory University professor of medicine told CNBC that a Covid-19 vaccine could be ready for distribution by the end of 2020 but cautioned that it’s an unprecedented timeline. Effectively, “…in a 65-day window, researchers have isolated and identified the virus and begun testing a potential vaccine on humans”, Dr. del Rio said. “That has never, ever occurred before.”

Moderna’s study is being carried out at Atlanta’s Emory University’s Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit and the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is funding construction of factories for the 7 most promising Covid-19 vaccine candidates.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/05/18/coronavirus-vaccine-first-results/

https://wapo.st/2XW1P6I

Antibodies are one of the ways the human body fights infection from the coronavirus. Researchers believe testing for covid-19 antibodies can lead to a virus treatment.

Small-cap biotech company Sorrento Therapeutics (SRNE) CEO Dr. Henry Ji announced that Sorrento had discovered an anti-SARS-Cov-2 antibody, dubbed STI-1499, that has demonstrated 100% inhibition of COVID-19 in an in vitro infection experiment at a very low antibody concentration and flushed out what’s also known as the virus from the body within four days.

Dr. Ji claims this is a cure, saying, “We want to emphasize there is a cure. There is a solution that works 100%. If we have the neutralizing antibody in your body, you don’t need the social distancing. You can open up a society without fear.” This antibody works by blocking the coronavirus’ spike proteins from attaching to a receptor on the surface of health surface called ACE2.

Sorrento said it will continue testing the product in the hopes of getting it approved to treat COVID-19.

References:

  1. https://heavy.com/news/2020/05/sorrento-therapuetics-coronavirus/
  1. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/22/moderna-vaccine-researcher-it-mind-boggling-to-be-done-in-2020.html?__source=facebook%7Cmain
  1. https://www.kpwashingtonresearch.org/news-and-events/recent-news/news-2020/coronavirus-vaccine-trial-now-includes-older-people

CDC Guidelines for Reopening 

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Testing, tracking and tracing are required to reopen and for the economy to return to normal before a COVID-19 vaccine

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released 60 pages of guidance for reopening schools, mass transit and non-essential businesses.

The plan outlines three “phase-specific thresholds” for reducing social distancing measures and proposes the use of six “epidemiologic gating” indicators to assess when to move through another phase.

According to CDC’s guidance, “extensive, rapid, and widely available COVID-19 testing is essential”.

The guideline recommends an approach using multiple surveillance systems and epidemiology networks to monitor the progression and impact of COVID-19 spread in the United States.

The CDC expects that the surveillance data will create situational awareness which allows timely monitoring of the spread and intensity of COVID-19 disease, and permits the efficient targeting of public health measures.

Furthermore, surveillance data will allow governmental agencies to understand overall impact and epidemic characteristics of COVID-19 infection across a spectrum of conditions to include:

  • asymptomatic infections
  • symptomatic infection
  • medically attended outpatient and ambulatory visits
  • hospitalizations
  • deaths

The federal health agency warned that some amount of community mitigation will be necessary until a vaccine or an effective drug to treat for COVID-19 is widely available.

The coronavirus has infected more than 1.5 million people and caused almost 100k COVID-19 related deaths in the United States, and resulted in more than 38 million Americans filing unemployment claims.

References:

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/downloads/php/CDC-Activities-Initiatives-for-COVID-19-Response.pdf

7 Habits to Help Build Your Wealth | U.S. News and World Report

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By Paulina Likos. — U.S.News & World Report May 18, 2020

Successful investors practice these habits to be one step ahead of the market.

Develop a routine of successful investing habits.

When you’re investing for your financial future, practicing successful habits is a fundamental step in constructing a resilient portfolio. It’s evident that in the world of investing, money management can get complex. That’s why having the right habits ingrained in your investment approaches is important in bringing clarity to your decision-making and confidence in your portfolio management. Here are seven habits that will help guide you through investing decisions during unprecedented market movements.

Read more: https://money.usnews.com/investing/portfolio-management/slideshows/habits-to-help-build-your-wealth

Periodically review your investment plan.

Know what your specific financial goals are and develop an investment policy statement. An IPS is a plan that outlines investment objectives and goals for a particular investor drafted by the portfolio manager and their client. This can be a helpful tool to guide portfolio managers on implementing strategies to grow or preserve a client’s investments. Experts advise that clients stick with the initial plan even when drastic market changes occur; however, certain benchmarks should be monitored from time to time. You should examine your risk tolerance and investment plan every six months to ensure you’re on track with your investments when a financial crisis hits. “Changes will likely need to be made in accordance with a well thought out plan that was put in place before the first punch is landed,” says Tim Bain, president of Spark Assessment Management Group.

Invest in what you know.

While experienced investors can try to evaluate the quality of a company, more often than not, it can be difficult to define its overall valuation and understand its trends. Taylor Kovar, CEO of Texas-based Kovar Capital Management, says, “Don’t invest in something you’ve never heard of just because someone online said it was going to make you a millionaire.” It’s best to focus on companies with products that you’re familiar with, that way it will be easier to predict and understand the ebbs and flows of a company and, most importantly, help in managing your portfolio effectively. “Look in your closet [and] kitchen cabinet, and invest in the brand of the products you see,” he says. “This will help you invest in companies you actually enjoy. It’s like you are paying yourself every time you buy their products.”

Stay away from the latest fads.

Investors seeking yield in a low interest rate environment should try to steer clear of fads. This short-term phenomenon is prevalent during market underperformance and tends to be pretty risky. “It is psychologically very difficult to remain true to your patient investing convictions when it seems investors speculating in the latest fad (think cannabis or tech ‘unicorns’) are being rewarded,” says Robert Johnson, professor of finance at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. There are plenty of other ways to diversify your assets rather than putting your money at risk with fads. “One doesn’t need to chase the latest trend to have investment success. Quite the contrary, chasing investment trends can be hazardous to your wealth,” Johnson says.

Be honest with your risk tolerance.

At any stage of your investing journey, it’s important to know if you are a conservative or aggressive investor. Defining risk tolerance is a habit that directly aligns with your financial goals. But sometimes, it can be unclear on how to determine where you lie on the risk spectrum. “Many investors tend to overestimate their level of risk tolerance, which causes them to sell at the worst times,” says Jerry Verseput, president at Veripax Wealth Management in Folsom, California. Market sell-offs like the one in March are good opportunities for investors to assess their feelings honestly as they saw the value of their investments drop.

Keep educating yourself.

An expert tip: Keep reading about how the market is changing. With the pandemic in mind, think about how habits and behaviors are changing in the short term, how that will affect the long term and how future trends might evolve. “What is going to be long-lasting in work and personal life? Do you want to be [investing in] Kodak film or the person investing in digital cameras? Don’t believe what you hear as much as know-how and where to find the facts,” says Peter Creedon, CEO at Crystal Brook Advisors in New York City.

Save for retirement.

Keep investing in your future by adding into your retirement account each month — that’s the power of dollar-cost averaging. Even if some months are fewer than others, allocating some of your income to retirement savings consistently puts long-term investors in a better position toward meeting their future financial goals. You can measure how successful you are as a saver by monitoring your retirement score, an estimate of what your retirement income may look like according to the steps you are taking to save now. This estimation will predict whether you’re on target on meeting your retirement needs or if you need to boost your allocation. It will also give you an idea of how much you will need for retirement and what changes you need to make that happen.

Know when to seek assistance.

Many individual investors try to find “do it yourself” methods for investing. There’s a misconception that successful investors should be monitoring the markets constantly and hold a finance degree, but most experts say the biggest hurdle is knowing when to seek help and how to find the right financial advisor. One tip: Find out what kind of experience the advisor has and which investing strategies they often use. “Make sure in an interview that the advisor shares your investing values and has a well-defined process to develop an investment policy statement for you and your goals,” says Jamie Ebersole, founder and CEO of Ebersole Financial in Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts. “If you and your advisor are not aligned on these important issues, it will make for a very frustrating relationship.”

Setting yourself up for investing success.

  • Periodically review your investment plan.
  • Invest in what you know.
  • Stay away from the latest fads.
  • Be honest about your risk tolerance.
  • Keep educating yourself.
  • Save for retirement.
  • Know when to seek assistance.

Sources:

  1. https://www.entrepreneur.com/slideshow/307635
  2. https://money.usnews.com/investing/portfolio-management/slideshows/habits-to-help-build-your-wealth

Habits of the Wealthy Anyone Can Adopt

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“The reason why someone is either rich or poor can be traced back to daily habits.” Tom Corley, author of “Rich Habits: The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals”

Replace bad habits and behaviors. 

Aristotle, the 4th Century B.C. Greek philosopher, was attributed as saying, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.”

It has been said that nature abhors a vacuum, and the same can be said about habits and behaviors; it’s hard to replace a bad habit or behavior with nothing.

Instead of ceasing a bad financial habit or behavior, investors need to replace them with positive and successful financial habits and behaviors.

Rather than liquidating an account, encourage a replacement behavior like rebalancing, tax-loss harvesting, making more incremental portfolio adjustments, or putting in “crash bids” for high-quality stocks that may be trading at a discount.

It’s easy for individuals to be disorganized, without vision, undirected and at the mercy of poor habits. Embracing good habits often takes ficus, effort and desire to improve. Here are eight rich habits:

Habit #1: Exercise.

Exercised an average of 30 minutes, four days a week.

Habit #2: Build relationships.

Keep a running list of positive influencers in your life and regularly connect with them.

Habit #3: Visualize your goals.

Look at your goals—each set with an expiration date and action plan—when you wakes up and before bed. Attack goals with intensity. Keep goals top of mind, and always in sight. This will yield big results.

Habit #4: Read. A lot.

Start reading two books a month—focusing on emotional well-being, leadership, personal finance, and health

Habit #5: Practice affirmations.

Positive mindset provides a huge influence on one’s quality of life. The more you like yourself, the higher your self-esteem and well-being. Practice daily affirmations related to the most important areas of your life, focusing on faith, family and professional career.

The key to successful affirmations is choosing a mantra that’s tied to a dream and a realistic goal that are specific, achievable and true: “I’m working 10 extra hours per week to make $100,000 by next year.”

Habit #6: Volunteer.

There are many reasons to volunteer; use the opportunity to expand your network of like-minded people. It is an opportunities to give back and to create relationships with high-level thinkers.

Habit #7: Confide in a mentor who’s been in your shoes.

The most successful people on earth value mentors who’ve walked in their shoes and made it to the other side.

Habit #8: Practice gratitude.

Meditate or focus for a few minutes each morning and evening on what your grateful: spouse, kids, job and friends, to name a few. This habit helps you pay more attention to what’s going great in your life, puts life in the correct perspective, and keeps you focused on always moving forward with the right attitude.

Henry David Thoreau once said, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”

If you want to remain unrewarded, unfulfilled and ultimately unhappy, then continue to accept your habits which are not useful to fulfilling your aspirations, dreams and desires.

Bonus Habit:

“If you want to become really wealthy, you must have your money work for you. The amount you get paid for your personal effort is relatively small compared with the amount you can earn by having your money make money.” John D. Rockefeller

References:

  1. https://grow.acorns.com/7-daily-rich-habits-anyone-can-adopt/
  2. https://grow.acorns.com/money-mistakes-wealthy-people-dont-make/

Safety Advice for Reopening | Wall Street Journal

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As businesses reopen, public-health experts provide guidance on venturing out safely

Public-health experts generally agree that to reopen society safely, communities need widespread testing so officials can be confident that the number of coronavirus cases in the population is low and people who are positive can be quarantined.

Communities also need a system to trace people who have come into contact with positive cases so they too can be isolated, doctors say. “Otherwise you simply let everybody out for a few days and two weeks later have a surge in cases and have to start all over again,” says Gregory Poland, director of the Mayo Clinic’s Vaccine Research Group in Rochester, Minn.

The U.S. so far largely lacks widespread testing and tracing, he says. “Most communities do not have that capacity.”

So the safest move for most people is still to stay home as much as possible. But if you do go out, there are ways to reduce the risks. Here’s what the experts say:

Read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/safety-advice-for-reopening-how-to-reduce-your-risks-as-coronavirus-lockdowns-ease-11588510800?mod=theme_coronavirus-ribbon

Sources:

  1. https://www.wsj.com/articles/safety-advice-for-reopening-how-to-reduce-your-risks-as-coronavirus-lockdowns-ease-11588510800?mod=theme_coronavirus-ribbon

Sunlight Doesn’t Kill The Virus

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There are an unknown number of Americans who have been or are infected with COVID-19 coronavirus, but experienced either mild or no symptoms. And, despite the flattening of the infection curve and the reopening of states’ economies across the country, it is important to remember that the virus has not gone away.

Additionally, many of the largest outbreaks have been in regions where the weather is cooler, leading to speculation that the disease might begin to tail off with the arrival of summer. However, health experts are uncertain that the spread of the coronavirus will diminish, or take a sabbatical like the seasonal influenza, with the arrival of the heat, humidity and sunlight of summer.

Sunlight contains three types of ultraviolet light — UVA, which tans and ages your skin, and can cause eye damage; UVB, which burns and also ages skin; and UVC is harmful and quite good at destroying genetic material.

There is no data on whether the UVA rays of the sun can inactivate this coronavirus. However, research on SARS, another coronavirus, found that exposing that virus to UVA light for 15 minutes did nothing to reduce its spread

In contrast, UVC light has proven to be more promising versus the coronavirus. This relatively obscure part of the spectrum consists of a shorter, more energetic wavelength of light. It is particularly good at destroying genetic material – whether in humans or viral particles. Fortunately, UVC is filtered out by ozone in the atmosphere long before it reaches a person’s fragile skin.

So, the takeaways are to stay safe, practice social physical distancing , wash your hands frequently and wear a face mask when out in public.

References:

  1. https://www.gatesnotes.com/Health/Seattle-Coronavirus-Assessment-Network?WT.mc_id=20200512100000_SCAN_BG-EM_&WT.tsrc=BGEM
  2. https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/04/17/836830157/coronavirus-faqs-can-sunlight-kill-the-virus-how-risky-is-an-elevator-ride
  3. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200323-coronavirus-will-hot-weather-kill-covid-19

50/15/5: a saving and spending rule of thumb | Fidelity Investments

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It isn’t about managing every penny. Track your money using 3 categories.

FIDELITY VIEWPOINTS – 03/03/2020

Key takeaways

  • Consider allocating no more than 50% of take-home pay to essential expenses.
  • Try to save 15% of pretax income (including employer contributions) for retirement.
  • Save for the unexpected by keeping 5% of take-home pay in short-term savings for unplanned expenses.

Budget…the 50/15/5 rule is Fidelity’s simple rule of thumb for saving and spending: Aim to allocate no more than 50% of take-home pay to essential expenses, save 15% of pretax income for retirement savings, and keep 5% of take-home pay for short-term savings. (Your situation may be different, but you can use our rule of thumb as a starting point.)

Why 50/15/5? Fidelity analyzed hundreds of scenarios in order to create a saving and spending guideline that can help people save enough to retire. Their research found that by sticking to this guideline, there is a good chance of maintaining financial stability now and keeping your current lifestyle in retirement. To see where you stand on our 50/15/5 rule, use our Savings and spending check-up.

Essential expenses: 50%

Some expenses simply aren’t optional—you need to eat and you need a place to live. Consider allocating no more than 50% of take-home pay to “must-have” expenses, such as:

  • Housing—mortgage, rent, property tax, utilities (electricity, etc.), homeowners/renters insurance, and condo/home association fees
  • Food—groceries only; do not include takeout or restaurant meals, unless you really consider them essential, i.e., you never cook and always eat out
  • Health care—health insurance premiums (unless they are made via payroll deduction) and out-of-pocket expenses (e.g., prescriptions, co-payments)
  • Transportation—car loan/lease, gas, car insurance, parking, tolls, maintenance, and commuter fares
  • Child care—day care, tuition, and fees
  • Debt payments and other obligations—credit card payments, student loan payments, child support, alimony, and life insurance

Keep it below 50%: Just because some expenses are essential doesn’t mean they’re not flexible. Small changes can add up, such as turning the heat down a few degrees in the winter (and turning your AC up a few degrees in the summer), buying—and stocking up on—groceries when they are on sale, and bringing lunch to work. Also consider driving a more affordable car, carpooling, or taking public transportation. Consider a high-deductible health plan (HDHP), with a health savings account (HSA) to reduce health care costs and get a tax break. If you need to significantly reduce your living expenses, consider a less expensive home or apartment. There are many other ways you can save. Take a look at which essential expenses are most important, and which ones you may be able to cut back on.

Retirement savings: 15%

It’s important to save for your future—no matter how young or old you are. Why? Pension plans are rare. Social Security probably won’t provide all the money a person needs to live the life they want in retirement. In fact, we estimate that about 45% of retirement income will need to come from savings. That’s why we suggest people consider saving 15% of pretax household income for retirement. That includes their contributions and any matching or profit sharing contributions from an employer. Starting early, saving consistently, and investing wisely is important, as is saving in tax-advantaged retirement savings accounts such as a 401(k)s, 403(b)s, or IRAs.

How to get to 15%: If contributing that amount right now is not possible, check to see if your employer has a program that automatically increases contributions annually until a goal is met. Another strategy is to start by contributing at least enough to meet an employer match, and then if you get a raise or annual bonus, add all or part of these funds to your workplace savings plan or individual retirement account until you have reached the annual contribution limit.

Short-term savings: 5%

Everyone can benefit from having an emergency fund. An emergency, like an illness or job loss, is bad enough, but not being prepared financially can only make things worse. A good rule of thumb is to have enough put aside in savings to cover 3 to 6 months of essential expenses. Think of emergency fund contributions as a regular bill every month, until there is enough built up.

While emergency funds are meant for more significant events, like job loss, we also suggest saving a percentage of your pay to cover smaller unplanned expenses. Who hasn’t been invited to a wedding—or several? Cracked the screen on a smartphone? Gotten a flat tire? In addition to those there are certain category of expenses which are often overlooked, for example; maintenance and repairs of cars, field trips for kids, copay for doctor’s visit, Christmas gifts, Halloween costumes to name a few. Setting aside 5% of monthly take-home pay can help with these “one-off” expenses. It’s good practice to have some money set aside for the random expenses, this way you won’t be tempted to tap into your emergency fund or tempted to pay for one of these things by adding to an existing credit card balance. Over time, these balances can be hard to pay off. However, if you pay the entire credit card balance every month, and get points or cash back for purchases, using a credit card for one-off expenses may make sense.

How to get to 5%: Having this money automatically taken out of a paycheck and deposited in a separate account just for short-term savings can help a person reach this goal.

Read more: https://www.fidelity.com/viewpoints/personal-finance/spending-and-saving

Value Investing

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“It is only in a bear market that the value investing discipline becomes especially important because value investing, virtually alone among strategies, gives you exposure to the upside with limited downside risk.” Seth Klarman

Value stocks have historically been considered one of the most successful ways to invest for long-term investors in the equity markets. Value investing is a long-term investment strategy whose basic concept is to identify stocks that represent bargains or whom stock price are deemed cheap, and hold the stock decades. This is usually because such companies are out-of-favor with the consensus investors.

Stocks are considered to be undervalued based on several metrics. Those metrics can include a price-to-earnings ratio lower than their industry-standard, below average price-to-book ratio, or an above average dividend yield.

Value investing, according to investing guru Benjamin Graham, involved seeking stocks that were selling at an extraordinary discount to the value of the underlying assets, which he called the “intrinsic value”.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett embraced the value investing concept, but took it a step further. Unlike Graham, he wanted to look beyond the numbers and focus on the company’s management team and its product’s competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Two essential principles behind value investing over the long-term, meaning decades, are:

  1. If you buy a stock for less than it’s true worth, the stock’s price will eventually converge with it’s intrinsic value; and
  2. If you buy a wonderful business, the value of that business will compound and increase exponentially the longer you hold on to it.

The most important thing to understand is that value investing requires a long-term mindset. Renowned economist John Maynard Keynes once said, “The market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent.” The lesson is that while occasionally one’s timing is fortunate and an investment pays off very quickly, even a value-focused strategy doesn’t guarantee quick gains.

“In the short run, the market is a voting machine, but in the long run it is a weighing machine.” Ben Graham

Mr. Market doesn’t always “realize” very quickly that it was wrong about a stock or that it undervalued an asset. But, over the long-term, Mr, Market tends to abide by a company’s fundamentals such as earnings growth.

For most retail investors, stocks, from the truly long-term 30-year perspective, are safer than bonds.

References:

  1. https://www.vintagevalueinvesting.com/8-investment-tips-for-beginners-from-warren-buffett/

Unemployment Insurance Claims Increasing

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Unemployment insurance claim filings continue there unprecedented increase.

Another 2.9 million Americans filed for unemployment the previous week in May. This brings the total to 36.5 million people whom have filed for jobless aid in the two months since the coronavirus and state governments forced millions of businesses to close their doors and shrink their workforces according to the Labor Department.

Unemployment stood at 14.7% in April, the most recent month for reporting. 

Recovering From Coronavirus Might Take Longer Than Expected | WSJ

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Understanding how the body clears the new coronavirus is becoming more important as the U.S. begins to reopen. WSJ’s Daniela Hernandez explains how the body fights infection and why feeling better doesn’t equal being virus-free.

Photo illustration: Laura Kammermann

https://www.wsj.com/video/why-fully-recovering-from-coronavirus-might-take-longer-than-expected/985A51E7-D3C9-4375-BC3B-9E5E2E03691E.html