⏱The vaccine relay
Chinese space rocks and anime combinations
Happy Monday Morning to all of you. Things are looking up! Some really good news about the vaccine today
0:05- Truck drivers are now the most important people in America
Early yesterday morning hundreds of trucks left Pfizer’s headquarters in Kalamazoo, MI filled to the brim with vaccines for the nation. This effort marks the culmination of a scientific breakthrough, and now puts the pressure on the supply chain who has to deal with ultracold freezers, dry ice (which is in low supply), needles, masks, and swabs. If shipments are delayed at all, the vaccines are at risk of spoiling. Fingers crossed for perfection.
0:20- The Scarlet Letter in 2020?
Once the vaccine begins to be widely distributed, and more and more people are vaccinated, the question arises: how will we know who’s gotten it? Airlines such as United, JetBlue, and others have planned to introduce a “health passport app” called CommonPass which would carry verification statuses for both Covid tests and vaccination status and would be required for certain international flights. Privacy experts, such as Michele Goodwin from the University of California, Irvine, warn that this could be used as a proxy for discrimination and may not be legal.
0:44- It’s not every day that a bunch of rocks make the news
There’s only two more days left until a Chinese made space shuttle will return to Earth bringing with it the first moon rocks in over four decades. Those rock samples are from what is thought to be the site of recent volcanic activity, and weigh a touch over 4.4 pounds. The rocks will be analyzed upon return, and some of the samples will be given to the United States and other countries.
1:03- Massive Media Mergers
If you’re a fan of anime, you’re probably pretty happy right now. AT&T (who also recently sold DirecTV) sold Crunchyroll, the anime streaming service, to Sony for $1.175bn. This acquisition now makes Sony one of the largest anime distributors in the world as they also own Funimation, AnimeLab, and Wakanim.
1:17- Monkey See, Monkey Do
A day after Roblox delayed their IPO, Fintech company Affirm Holdings, also delayed their IPO citing the same challenges associated with the flaming hot IPO market right now. Affirm, which offers consumers the ability to pay for products in installments through short term loans, was targeting a valuation of around $10bn, and says that it is now targeting January/February for their IPO.
Have a great rest of your day, and we’ll see you tomorrow bright and early!
-The 90 Second News Team
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