When COVID-19 vaccines first became available, Ric Griffith’s family-owned drugstore was among 250 mom-and-pop pharmacies that helped West Virginia get off to the fastest start of any state in vaccinating its residents. Republican Gov. Jim Justice went on national news shows to declare West Virginia — a place that regularly ranks near the bottom in…
Read more
Wall Street stocks staged a late rally to retrace early losses on Friday and post their best monthly performance of the year, despite disappointing results from Apple and Amazon reviving questions about labour shortages, supply squeezes and, in turn, persistently high inflation. The blue-chip S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell in morning trading, but…
Read more
The US Food and Drug Administration has authorised the use of the BioNTech/Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine for children aged five to 11 years, paving the way for the US to become the first country in the world to green light that jab for younger children. The agency said its emergency use authorisation was based on a…
Read more
Microsoft regained its crown as the most valuable publicly listed company in the world on Friday from Apple, whose shares slumped following a weak quarterly earnings update from the maker of iPhones and Mac computers. Microsoft’s 2.2 per cent gain on Friday lifted its market valuation to $2.49tn. Apple slid 1.9 per cent, taking its…
Read more
Pharmacy benefit managers seem to be getting the better of the 21 states that banned spread pricing and are continuing to bill Medicaid for more than the price paid to drugstores for medicines. Spread pricing is a financial boon to PBMs. Under this practice, PBMs pay pharmacists for dispensing medications at one rate, then return…
Read more
The deadline for Maine to begin enforcing a COVID-19 vaccine requirement for healthcare workers arrived on Friday. Northern Light Health announced that unvaccinated workers would no longer be working at its 10 hospitals as of Saturday. In Lewiston, Central Maine Medical Center is already in compliance, meaning unvaccinated staff members aren’t allowed to work. MaineHealth,…
Read more
Medicaid issues are turning up as winners in President Joe Biden’s social agenda framework even as divisions force Democrats to hit pause on far-reaching improvements to Medicare. The budget blueprint Biden released Thursday would fulfill a campaign promise to help poor people locked out of Medicaid expansion across the South due to partisan battles, and…
Read more
President Emmanuel Macron has warned that an energy crisis threatens the world’s post-pandemic recovery, calling for leaders at a G20 summit in Rome this weekend to work together to stabilise supplies. In an interview, the French president also urged bigger financial commitments towards the fight against global warming on the eve of the COP26 climate…
Read more
More than two years after Glasgow was unveiled as the host of COP26, 25,000 delegates from around the world are descending on the Scottish city for the most important environmental conference since the Paris accord was signed six years ago. Yet even before the 14-day marathon gets under way on Monday, a year later than…
Read more
As he renames Facebook as Meta, Mark Zuckerberg is placing a bold bet on his vision of the future: a techno-utopia where people are connected and live in a virtual universe. While this vision of the “metaverse” seems far off in the future, if achievable at all, Zuckerberg is convinced that his 3bn-strong social network,…
Read more