Raphael Stevens

A vial of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is seen with syringes at the Military Institute of Medicine hospital in Warsaw, Poland on March 25, 2021.Jaap Arriens | NurPhoto | Getty ImagesThe United States will share 60 million doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine with other countries as coronavirus cases continue to spike worldwide, a top U.S. official said Monday.Andy Slavitt, a senior advisor to President Joe Biden’s Covid-19 response team, said the U.S. government will share the AstraZeneca shots as they become available. The Food and Drug Administration has not yet authorized the vaccine for use in the U.S.The U.S. will not distribute any doses of the vaccine unless they meet the FDA’s expectations for “product quality,” senior administration officials told reporters during a press briefing Monday.The administration expects the U.S. could release 10 million doses of the vaccine “in the coming weeks,” pending FDA clearance, one official said. An additional 50 million doses could be distributed in May and June, the official said.”As part of the U.S. strategy to be ready for a range of scenarios, the United States has produced some AstraZeneca doses already,” the official said. “Given the strong portfolio of vaccines that the United States already has, as I mentioned, and given that the AstraZeneca vaccine is not approved for use in the U.S., we do not need to use AstraZeneca vaccine here during the next few months.”The move comes as state and local health officials say Covid vaccine supply is beginning to outpace demand in some regions of the U.S.More than 139 million Americans, or 42.2% of the total U.S. population, have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Roughly 94.7 million people, or 28.5% of the population, are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.CNBC Health & Science Read CNBC’s latest coverage of the Covid pandemic:Fauci says U.S. should see a turning point in the pandemic ‘within a few weeks’U.S. to share 60 million doses of AstraZeneca Covid vaccine with other countriesBiden administration set to relax outdoor mask guidancePhotos show the deadly toll of Covid in India as coronavirus cases top 17 millionThe rate of Covid vaccinations in the U.S. slid over the weekend, according to CDC data. The seven-day average of daily shots reported administered fell to 2.8 million on Sunday, the lowest level since late March.U.S. health officials say the nation does not need the AstraZeneca vaccine to meet its goal of having enough doses for all U.S. adults by the end of May.Biden previously said he expected the U.S. to share its surplus of vaccine doses with other countries. China and Russia have also shared vaccines with other countries.A day earlier, the Biden administration said it would immediately make raw materials needed for India’s coronavirus vaccine production available as the country works to counter a surge of Covid-19 infections.Over the past seven days, India has reported an average of about 321,000 new Covid-19 cases per day, up 50% from a week ago, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The country is averaging about 2,300 Covid deaths per day, according to the Hopkins data. Media reports indicate the official figure is being understated.Cases are also surging worldwide. The World Health Organization said earlier this month the number of new Covid-19 cases per week has nearly doubled over the past two months, pushing global infections toward their highest level in the pandemic.The WHO has urged wealthier nations, such as the U.S., to donate vaccines to poorer or developing countries.— CNBC’s Nate Rattner and Amanda Macias contributed to this report. More

Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci speaks with Vice President Mike Pence as they participate in a news briefing with member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on Thursday, Nov 19, 2020 in Washington, DC.Jabin Botsford | The Washington Post | Getty ImagesWhite House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said Monday that Americans should begin to see a turning point in the pandemic “within a few weeks.”The United States has been averaging about 3 million Covid-19 vaccination shots per day, Fauci said. Meanwhile, the nation reported a seven-day average of 58,164 new Covid cases per day as of Sunday, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. That’s down 14% from a week ago.If the U.S. continues its vaccination pace, “literally within a few weeks, we’re going to start to see a turning around of the dynamics,” Fauci said Monday during a virtual event hosted by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.”Not down to no infections,” he said. “If you’re waiting for classic measles-like herd immunity, that’s going to be a while before we get there. But that doesn’t mean we’re not going to have a significant diminution in the number of infections per day and a significant diminution in all of the parameters, namely hospitalizations and deaths.”The Biden administration has pushed Americans to get vaccinated as quickly as possible as new, highly contagious variants spread.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said earlier this month that the B.1.1.7 variant, which appears to be more deadly and spread more easily than other strains, is now the most common Covid strain circulating in the U.S.U.S. health officials say they are concerned the highly contagious variant, first identified in the U.K., could stall the nation’s progress on the pandemic. The outbreak has killed at least 572,287 Americans in a little over a year.CNBC Health & Science Read CNBC’s latest coverage of the Covid pandemic:Fauci says U.S. should see a turning point in the pandemic ‘within a few weeks’U.S. to share 60 million doses of AstraZeneca Covid vaccine with other countriesBiden administration set to relax outdoor mask guidancePhotos show the deadly toll of Covid in India as coronavirus cases top 17 millionStill, vaccinations are being administered at a rapid pace. More than 139 million Americans, or 42.2% of the total U.S. population, had received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine as of Sunday, according to the CDC. Roughly 94.7 million people, or 28.5% of the population, are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.Last week, the Biden administration announced a massive campaign to persuade more Americans, particularly young people, to take the Covid-19 vaccines as supply begins to outpace demand in some parts of the U.S.Fauci has said the goal is to vaccinate between 70% and 85% of the U.S. population — or roughly 232 million to 281 million people — to achieve herd immunity and suppress the pandemic.But he said Monday that herd immunity is a “moving target.” The U.S. should just focus on getting as many Americans vaccinated as possible, Fauci said.”We don’t know what the durability of the infection-induced immunity is. We don’t know if someone who got infected last winter or in the early part of 2020 is going to be safe from a protected standpoint now,” he said. More

In this articleDISNFLXIn this handout photo provided by A.M.P.A.S., (L-R) Peter Spears, Frances McDormand, Chloe Zhao, Mollye Asher, and Dan Janvey, winners of Best Picture for “Nomadland,” pose in the press room during the 93rd Annual Academy Awards at Union Station on April 25, 2021 in Los Angeles, California.Matt Petit | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty ImagesThe 2021 Oscars ceremony was watched by the smallest audience the award show has ever received.On par with the performances of the Emmys and Golden Globes during the pandemic, the Academy Awards struggled to pull in mainstream viewers.Only 9.85 million viewers tuned into Sunday’s ceremony where Searchlight’s “Nomadland” took the top prize and Netflix walked away with the most wins. That’s a nearly 59% drop from the 23.6 million viewers that turned on their TVs for the program last year, according early fast national numbers released by Nielsen.The Academy’s third hostless show in a row scored a 1.9 rating among adults 18-49, a key demographic for advertisers, a 64% drop from 2020.The drop in both metrics is not entirely surprising, as award shows, in general, have faced declining viewership in recent years. After a year with movie theaters shuttered due to the pandemic, and with so few mainstream films nominated, this outcome was very much expected.Even so, Disney Advertising Sales sold out of ad inventory ahead of the 93rd Oscars telecast. Brands like Verizon and Expedia ran major new campaigns on Sunday’s broadcast. So too did General Motors’ Cadillac, which ran ads for its first electric crossover vehicle, Lyriq. Other advertisers included Google, Rolex, Airbnb, Apple, P&G, Panera and Subway.Oscars 2021 coverage from CNBCRead more about this year’s Academy Awards:‘Nomadland’ wins best picture at the 93rd Academy AwardsThe Oscars were a well-intentioned mess that flopped despite an elite producing teamAcademy Awards ratings plummet to all-time low as viewership drops below 10 millionNetflix snags 7 awards, nearly doubling its all-time Oscars tallyChloe Zhao becomes second woman to win best director at Academy AwardsAs women directors enter the Oscar spotlight, here are 13 filmmakers to watchThe evening was filled with many historic firsts that shined a bright light on diverse talent within the film industry, but that wasn’t enough to lure in a strong audience.In addition, the Hollywood producing team behind the event did little to entice audiences or spark social media interest. In fact, the ceremony faced backlash after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ decision to move the best picture announcement, which historically takes place at the end of the show, to before the two top acting awards. More

In this articleCSBUXDISWWDWDFCEWTA flag flies outside the Citigroup building in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens, New York.Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesCitigroup will face a shareholder vote Tuesday on whether the bank should consider a nonmanagement worker in its pool of candidates when filling a board seat.The proposal, which is spearheaded by shareholder advocate James McRitchie and based on the NFL’s Rooney Rule, is meant to diversify boards and bridge the gap between corporate management and its workforce. The goal is to open the lines of communication between the workforce and board members, ensuring that workers can provide their input and the board is aware of important issues.The coronavirus pandemic called even more attention to the pressures dealt with by hourly workers. While many companies ceded sick pay to their employees during the crisis, concerns about valuing profits over safety have led many to speak up, like the recent union drive by Amazon workers in Alabama.”Last year was a big wake-up call for front-line workers and the necessity of having those people,” McRitchie said.One example is the widening chasm between CEO and worker compensation. From 1978 to 2018, CEO compensation rose more than 1,000%, while wages for the typical worker grew just 11.9%, according to a 2019 report from the Economic Policy Institute.Outside of the United States, worker representation on boards is much more common. Thirteen European countries, including Germany and France, require employee representation on a board once a company reaches a certain size.In the U.S., the most recent high-profile example is the United Auto Workers’ retiree health-care trust gaining a seat on General Motors’ board after the automaker’s bankruptcy during the 2008 financial crisis. The trust lost the seat in 2018 after it sold off a chunk of shares, reducing its stake to less than 50%. That same year, Sens. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., introduced two bills that would require employees to vote for a significant portion of board seats.A glimpse inside the business”The board is not supposed to be involved in day-to-day management, but sometimes the inner workings is where the problems start. Trees rot from the bottom up, as well as the top down,” said Nancy May, CEO of BoardBench Cos., a corporate governance advisory firm.May used the example of the recent scandal at Purdue Pharma, where the board claimed ignorance of the sinister tactics that were driving sales. Purdue filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2019, a year before pleading guilty to criminal charges from the Justice Department stemming from its marketing of OxyContin.But one drawback of the proposal is it could result in employee board members who don’t completely understand companies’ operations or are driven by their personal beliefs, according to May.The current push to consider a nonmanagement worker for a board seat kicked off more than a year ago at Walmart’s shareholder meeting with a proposal from Cynthia Murray, an hourly employee of the retailer.”I know when the pandemic started, Walmart had dropped the ball,” Murray said in an interview. “Had we had workers on the board, they could’ve stepped in immediately and said this is what’s going on.”Murray is a member of United for Respect, an advocacy group made up of Walmart workers. United for Respect and Majority Action, a nonprofit that focuses on corporate accountability, worked together to shore up support for the proposal. The initiative won support from the state treasurers of Illinois and Pennsylvania, according to Majority Action’s executive director, Eli Kasargod-Staub, but votes came up far short, with only 1.9% of shareholders in favor.McRitchie, who publishes CorpGov.net, then took up the mantle. He submitted similar proposals to Starbucks, Disney, Woodward, WD-40, Citigroup and Edwards Lifesciences, which will hold its annual shareholder meeting on May 4. He said he targeted companies that he thought would be more amenable to the proposal, based on the terminology that they use for the workforce — like Starbucks’ use of “partner” — and existing mechanisms to gauge workers’ thoughts, such as WD-40’s employee surveys.McRitchie’s resolution also includes other options for receiving more worker input, like appointing a board member as a liaison to workers, creating a workers’ council or instating a substantial employee stock ownership program.So far, his campaign has largely failed to capture the approval of shareholders. The proposals at Starbucks, Disney, Woodward and WD-40 received supporting votes in the single digits after the companies’ boards told shareholders to oppose the proposals.In proxy filings, the boards all argued against the proposal by pointing out that the companies already have open lines of communication with employees and a robust process to nominate board members. WD-40’s board, for example, cited that 94% of employees who responded to their latest biennial survey stated they are excited about the company’s future direction.AT&T’s board used similar arguments when it faced a comparable proposal last year from Jeff Rechenbach, the retired secretary treasurer of the Communications Workers of America, a union that represents more than 150,000 of the company’s workers. Like those so far for McRitchie, Rechenbach’s resolution failed to pass.Starbucks, AT&T and Citigroup declined to comment on the proposal. Walmart, Disney, Woodward and WD-40 did not respond to a request for comment from CNBC. A spokesperson for Edwards Lifesciences referred to the proxy filing for the company’s public stance on the matter.An uphill battleResubmitted proposals face an uphill battle to be voted on again. The Securities and Exchange Commission allows a company to exclude a resubmitted proposal from its proxy materials if it failed to reach at least 5% of votes in favor when voted on once before in the last five years. Barred from resubmitting last year’s proposal, Murray has instead submitted a resolution for Walmart’s shareholder meeting this year to create a pandemic advisory council made up of workers to advise the board.At Citigroup, McRitchie’s proposal looks unlikely to receive enough support. Once again, the board told shareholders to vote against the proposal, noting that it did not prohibit nominations of employees.”The Board believes it is problematic to mandate inclusion of individuals on the candidate list based on a single qualification – employment by Citi – without requiring that such candidates meet Citi’s overall Director Qualifications,” it said in the March proxy filing.McRitchie is hopeful that there will be progress in the years to come.”Public pension funds voted against these proposals because they didn’t really have a policy, and I think we might see a different story next year,” he said.Majority Action’s Kasargod-Staub pointed to the progress over the last decade around other efforts to diversify corporate boards, so shareholders are better able to grasp the Rooney Rule-style approach. But May thinks that the process will still be slow, even with increasing shareholder pressure.”Boards here in the States move at slower than a snail’s pace to make change,” she said. More

States like New Jersey and New York have increased taxes on the wealthy to balance their budgets. This, according to analysts, could harm them in the long run. “This for a relatively small revenue hole has the potential to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you’re worried about the revenue losses because people aren’t coming back, then probably the worst thing you can do is impose very taxes that would make them not come back,” Tax Foundation vice president of state projects Jared Walczak said.Conservatives have long warned of wealthy individuals leaving high tax states for low taxes. But sociologist Cristobal Young said wealthy individuals are neither as concerned with taxes nor as mobile as policymakers often think. Wealthy people travel a lot, but they’re tied socially and financially to where they live. They are also more likely to avoid taxes by hiring creative consultants that moving, Young told CNBC.That could change post-pandemic, however, as many wealthy individuals are no longer bound to their offices or their children’s schools as they once were. CNBC wealth reporter Robert Frank said these decisions are even easier for wealth management firms who have smaller headcounts, many of which are hedge funds. Moving data from 2020 indicates a smaller urban exodus than initially projected. Except for March and April, moves closely mimic 2019. The Bay area and San Francisco saw a prominent exit but even then, nearly 80% of the moves were within the state. This indicates that few, if any, left due to high taxes. Still, this data precedes tax increases taking effect. “The problem with experiments when it comes to outmigration of the one percent who pay 40% of the taxes in New York State and California is that if you discover at some point the experiment failed, then it’s too late,” Frank said. More

In this articleWMTCars drive past a Walmart store in Washington, DC, on August 18, 2020.Nicholas Kamm | AFP | Getty ImagesWalmart said Monday that it has rising representation of women and people of color in officer roles — a sign that the company says reflects steps it is taking to better reflect the country’s diversity among its top leadership.The big-box retailer is the largest U.S. employer with a workforce of about 1.53 million people. It published its annual diversity and inclusion report on Monday.Nearly 75% of Walmart employees in officer roles are white. About 25% of those roles are held by people of color — including 8.42% held by Black or African-American employees, as of Jan. 31, 2021. The officer level is the highest level of the company and includes positions of vice president and above.Nearly 24% of the U.S. population identifies as a race or origin that is not white, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. More than 13% of the U.S. population is Black or African-American.Walmart’s representation of women and of people of color at the officer level rose 1.03% and 0.61%, respectively, over the past year, according to the report. The increase in people of color was driven by a nearly 2% increase in Black and African American officers, the company said.Walmart, like other companies across corporate America, has faced heightened pressure to show that it is advancing racial equity with how it hires, promotes and does business — particularly after the pandemic and the murder of George Floyd illuminated how sharp disparities in health care access, financial opportunity and treatment by police can be deadly.The retailer made several diversity-related commitments in the wake of the George Floyd protests. Among them, the company said it would focus on making its own workforce more diverse, give progress updates twice a year and contribute $100 million over five years to help fight systemic racism. Walmart and its foundation gave the first round of grants in February.Walmart’s Chief Culture, Diversity and Inclusion Officer Ben-Saba Hasan said in an interview that the company has focused on hiring and promoting women and people of color by enlisting support across the board, rather than having efforts largely begin and end in his department. Of Walmart’s total new hires in 2020, people of color made up 55% and women represented just shy of 50%, he said.Hasan said he has gotten about 40 or 50 calls from chief diversity officers over the past 14 months — a noticeably higher volume than in the past. He said many of those executives are stepping into a brand-new role created by their companies.And, he said he has noticed more energy devoted to the effort at Walmart compared with his nearly 13 prior years at the company.”As I think back about the past year sitting in this job, I feel what is almost this unthinkable set of challenges that has forced our nation to look directly in the face of social systems that have created inequities for many of us,” he said. “And I think people are seeing it through a different eye.” More

A woman looks at a Basquiat painting titled “In This Case” that is coming up for auction at Christies, with an estimate of over $50 million.Source: Christie’sIn a sign that the art market is flush with cash, a rare skull painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat is being auctioned by Christie’s with an estimate of more than $50 million.The painting will be the centerpiece of Christie’s sale of 21st century art in May in New York. Christie’s 20th century and 21st century auctions will also feature a Pablo Picasso estimated to go for more than $50 million and other trophy works by Claude Monet, Mark Rothko and Vincent Van Gogh — a sign that lofty prices are enticing sellers to part with major works.Christie’s doesn’t have an official estimate on the Basquiat work, called “In this Case,” but the auction house is telling collectors upon request that the estimate is over $50 million. Dealers said it could go for twice that.The piece is one of a trio of “skull” paintings Basquiat made. In 2017, another sold at a Christie’s auction for $110 million. Dealers said “In this Case” — with its even more dramatic red and yellow color palette — could fetch more.”As his final expression in the series, it is the most raw and visceral and emotionally charged of the three paintings, with Basquiat holding nothing back,” said Ana Maria Celis, senior specialist and head of 21st century art at Christie’s.Basquiat, a former New York graffiti artist who died at age 27 in 1988, has quickly become a favorite among wealthy global collectors and museums, especially amid the growing awareness of racial justice and diversity issues. His “Warrior” painting sold at auction in Hong Kong last year for $42 million, making it the most expensive Western artwork ever sold at auction in Asia.While Christie’s won’t comment on the identity of the seller, dealers say it is a European collector, and they expect bids from around the world.”The appetite for Basquiat’s works is global and has dramatically expanded in recent years, ” Celis said. More