caulfield12

Their vaccines are not based on much different mRNA platform but traditional ones...if you think there’s no appreciable difference, you’re free to volunteer to fly here and get one yourself. I have no choice, as my job (and family) depends on my getting it. This is not an all vaccines being equal question. The genetic information for Covid vs. mMRA sequencing are two entirely distinct issues. Ahead of talks at the WTO on patents on COVID-19 tools, a small number of countries continue to block a waiver that would open up access to these tools during the pandemic. Should the waiver be agreed, countries could produce COVID-19 vaccines and drugs on a larger scale, at lower prices. MSF urges these countries to immediately stop blocking the proposal to allow lives to be saved. https://www.msf.org/countries-obstructing-covid-19-patent-waiver-must-allow-negotiations Governments around the world are taking steps to make sure that private corporations don’t use the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to make unjustified monopoly profits. They’re doing that by ensuring that governments can override patents and issue compulsory licenses for COVID-19 related treatments, vaccines, and tools. Canada’s recent COVID-19 bill authorizes the government to make and use patented inventions as needed in fighting the pandemic. Governments in Chile, Ecuador, Germany, and Israel have taken similar steps. But in the U.S., lobbyists and lawyers for patent owners are pushing our government to move in the exact opposite direction. And they may succeed. Last week, Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) introduced a bill that gives 10 extra years of patent rights (on top of the usual 20 years) to any “new or existing pharmaceutical, medical device, or other process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter.” The patent rights grab, included in a bill that’s ostensibly about limiting medical lawsuits, also applies to improvements on existing technology. Sasse’s bill does prevent issued patents that relate to COVID-19 from taking effect until after the current national emergency declaration ends. But that reasonable limitation is coupled with an unnecessary and damaging giveaway of 10 extra years of patent exclusivity. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/04/lengthening-patent-terms-10-years-exactly-wrong-response-covid-19

Nobody wants marginal veterans, but what else can one expect looking at FA moves under Hahn? I don’t think anyone realistically expected Bauer, Springer or Ozuna...but was Joc Pederson too much of an ask, too? TLR won’t be tested until the first controversial situation with Tim Anderson, a losing streak, or something completely unpredictable as it usually the case. We can’t draw any conclusion on Collins, Merceds or Vaughn until June 1st. Same with Rodon, and likely Cease, Kopech and Crochet’s health/performance as well.

https://www.mlb.com/news/2021-world-series-predictions After Jimenez injury, still 71 votes for first in Central, Yankees picked roughly 2/1 for AL pennant.

What is the incentive for American pharmaceutical companies to innovate...if they're just going to give the results away without any patent protection and then lose almost ALL of the profits to cheaper manufacturing countries like India, China, etc? What do you tell Pfizer and Moderna and J&J shareholders, that American exceptionalism exists, but we are just going to give up any advantages we have for the "good of the world" when nobody else is doing the same thing other than China? Let's not forget the debacle brewing with AstroZeneca shipments even leaving the UK at this time...every country in the EU is pretty much at each other's necks, with the northern countries like Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, Germany once again pitted against Greece/Italy/Spain/Portugal, etc., in a re-run of 2008-2010. If China does do this (start copying the US vaccines), it would be a huge political loss of face, because they've already spent so much time and money/resources promoting their five homegrown vaccines through "vaccine diplomacy" to the rest of the world. Just don't see it happening at this point. Nevertheless, there are only roughly 40 democracies standing in their (China's) way at this point. Plus, China has a SURPLUS of homegrown vaccines right now, it's just that the majority of the general population doesn't quite trust them at this point. We're only at 3% roughly of the entire population vaccinated. By the time that happens, variants and booster shots will be the buzzword, as it will be late 2022 to reach 70% of the population. Philosophically, the faster the world reaches herd immunity (and not just individual countries), the better off everyone will be...but there are certainly philosophical differences about how to achieve that. But the vaccine coalition (Novavax or whatever it's called) for the 2nd and 3rd world is woefully underfunded, and there's only so much the WHO can do on its own.

Oregon State almost completed the comeback from way down against Houston but ran out of gas in the attempt. Looks like Baylor is already threatening to blow ARK out of the gym. Can't wait for USC/Gonzaga, Michigan (hopefully) vs. Baylor and whoever's left to play Gonzaga in the championship game. Would be insane if Michigan makes it without Livers. At any rate, Juwan Howard definitely deserves to be Coach of the Year, if it's not Few, Drew or Underwood.

How easy it going to be for India/China/Russia to create their own vaccines with this information...? Obviously, they'd need the sub-zero storage conditions. By the way, Florida, SHOCKINGLY, going in the reverse direction and creating another "super-spreader" event with their Spring Break shenanigans. https://www.yahoo.com/news/cases-florida-national-covid-bellwether-115340644.html

They must have seen something in that playoff series against the A's...

Mendick wasn't a SS anyway. Leury's the primary back-up there, so Mendick backing up 2B is the only advantage vs. Lamb. TLR loves his veterans, right? Hamilton and Lamb. That said, Yermin/Collins over Lucroy doesn't actually fit this way of thinking. And Nick Williams might have hit better, but they'd clearly rather err on the side of speed and defense with both Hamilton AND Engel...believing they have enough offense to cover until you get to the late-inning defensive replacements.

America is great already. America can be even better, it can certainly improve. Two credible viewpoints with no simplistic resolution in sight. Both sides believe wholeheartedly in their viewpoints...those convictions won't easily change or waver. But I think the analogy stands up fairly well...especially the argument about "you don't love your country, so you should just leave." We hear the equivalent on the baseball side of things all the time. That's also quite similar to this current litmus test thing we have going on about what constitutes being a great White Sox fan. That we should be content or praise more what we already have just doesn't sit well to many long-suffering White Sox fans watching the team make a mint the last 5 years while asking for our continuing patience.

Except there's no way to state clearly the impact having one of our three best offensive contributors will have on the rest of the line-up. It's not as easy as plugging Danny Mendick in there and saying he should be a 2ish fWAR contributor out in LF, and couldn't be worse than Jimenez or Vaughn defensively. Line-up "protection" is debated to death around here, but it remains to be seen what the overall impact is on guys like Abreu and Grandal. Who knows, maybe Robert rises to the challenge and asserts himself as a 4-6 hitter instead of a #7 with reduced pressure on him to produce...?

The Ricketts are going to be crucified if Kyle Hendricks is the only identifiable player on the roster in the 2nd half.

And yet MANY of the fans crowing about how good our team will jump off the bandwagon and disappear from Game Threads if the season doesn't go as expected or predicted. Now there's a number of reasons to avoid a GT, but if you look at 2017-2019, there were a number of games that barely had 2-3 pages.

This enjoy the ballpark/ambience thing only works for Cubs' fans pre-2016, PTAC and maybe Texsox. The rest of us are desperate for another extended playoff run. Not to mention the fans who have been around a long time remember 1994, the White Flag trade...the scars are less of a problem than confronting a similar environment with Covid-19 spending depressed, then the looming CBA showdown, then the potential losses of Giolito/Anderson. Right now, the window is only "clearly open" through these three seasons, and we're already taking a significant hit to the offense with Jimenez down. Perhaps, in the end, opening up that opportunity for Vaughn/Collins will prove to have been worth it...and Jimenez will come back with a totally different mindset about how he approaches the game, but that's not usually what has happened if you look at White Sox history.

Just the fact that we're talking about crazy shit like playing Lamb at 3B and moving Moncada to LF shows how vulnerable this team is right now. We're not even considering if Collins/Vaughn don't hit (Collins is getting close to "expendable" now, regardless) and the psychological implications of running a player out there for a World Series contender who couldn't be more ill-suited for the position (who's supposed to be a generational bat)...and three other key players all likely overcompensating to cover for him, and the likelihood of another injury occurring. Scott Merkin can tout a six deep rotation (which includes Kopech somehow), but they're incredibly vulnerable if one of the top 3 pitchers goes down. While that's true for nearly any other team in baseball, the big spending teams won't hesitate to go out and make a move or take on additional payroll to fix the hole. Whereas we tend to "half ass" it to the trade deadline when oftentimes pennants can be lost in the first 1/3rd or 1/2 of a season. It's embarrassing with all the money coming in with the NBCSportsChicago (well, whatever it's now called)...at the very least, we're a Top 8-12 team in MLB local broadcasting rights (Fangraphs put us at #3 with $120 million per season or $750k per game) rights and this is the best we can. Losing Jimenez, Engel and Cordero isn't going to kill this team...but we're on a precarious slope. The irony is that the White Sox have a better chance of winning their division than the Padres do, despite SD doing everything possible to win, the Dodgers have just been THAT good. Meanwhile, the White Sox kind of meander along with their middling/mediocre approach...a middling/mediocre farm system again, and just kinda hope for the best.

Perfect example, Goldman doesn't trust Hwang back to his time with Tiger but can't resist missing out on all the deals finally pulls trigger. A disciple of hedge-fund legend Julian Robertson, Sung Kook “Bill” Hwang shuttered Tiger Asia Management and Tiger Asia Partners after settling an SEC civil lawsuit in 2012 accusing them of insider trading and manipulating Chinese banks stocks. Hwang and the firms paid $44 million, and he agreed to be barred from the investment advisory industry. He soon opened Archegos -- Greek for “one who leads the way” -- and structured it as a family office. Family offices that exclusively manage one fortune are generally exempt from registering as investment advisers with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. So they don’t have to disclose their owners, executives or how much they manage -- rules designed to protect outsiders who invest in a fund. That approach makes sense for small family offices, but if they swell to the size of a hedge fund whale they can still pose risks, this time to outsiders in the broader market. “This does raise questions about the regulation of family offices once again,” said Tyler Gellasch, a former SEC aide who now runs the Healthy Markets trade group. “The question is if it’s just friends and family why do we care? The answer is that they can have significant market impacts, and the SEC’s regulatory regime even after Dodd-Frank doesn’t clearly reflect that.” ... One reason is that Hwang never filed a 13F report of his holdings, which every investment manager holding more than $100 million in U.S. equities must fill out at the end of each quarter. That’s because he appears to have structured his trades using total return swaps, essentially putting the positions on the banks’ balance sheets. Swaps also enable investors to add a lot of leverage to a portfolio. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/one-world-greatest-hidden-fortunes-002617417.html

VAFAN is already impersonating Tony Robbins, albeit without the goofy grin.

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/mlb-power-rankings-the-2021-season-is-here-and-baseballs-two-best-teams-play-in-the-nl-west/s White Sox, Astros, Blue Jays, Twins, A's lumped together in second tier...

And that signals an obvious lack of confidence in Mendick...

Or Machado at 3B and Moncada in RF...you’d basically be the baseball version of the Latin Harlem Globetrotters. Outside of Acuna, you’d have Top 2 of 3 youngsters in the game...with Robert banging on the door. Moncada’s 2019 potential, etc. MVP caliber players in Anderson and Abreu. Another MVP candidate in Machado. Top 3-5 catcher in Grandal.

You would do well here in China...

WHITE SOX: See you in the ALCS For the first time in franchise history, the White Sox will reach the playoffs in consecutive seasons. But getting to the playoffs is not enough for this group. They have the offensive excellence throughout their lineup to offset the key loss of Eloy Jiménez, who could return near the end of the 2021 campaign. If they need to make an outside addition, general manager Rick Hahn said there’s financial room to maneuver, and those maneuvers might come well before the Trade Deadline. The bullpen figures to be one of the best in baseball and the starting staff looks strong one through six, with the return of Carlos Rodón and Michael Kopech. All of these facts translate into a chance for the White Sox to emerge as one of the final two AL teams. -- Scott Merkin

They’re not moving Rodriguez that quickly...

No pain in the arm here in China, even. (Of course, GPS satellites are tracking me right now through the nano chips.) That said, a couple of my co-workers experienced a sore arm for 24-36 hours and a couple were sick/lethargic the first couple of days (this was the first dosage).

He had an excellent reputation with the Brewers when he came over, and was considered a future GM in waiting. I think he just got in over his head financing that gay nightclub in Phoenix that really caused the problem...as the amount of embezzling was only $440,000, spread out over 23 different players. Perhaps, with the way it has always been business as usual in Latin America with buscones taking their cuts and double contracts for taxation purposes/income reporting, it became too tempting a graft? Some have theorized Wilder felt KW would bail him out, that they were close (KW would look the other way, in theory) and intimated that minority front office execs had to watch each others' backs, but it turned out to be quite the opposite situation in the end. https://www.redreporter.com/2006/2/3/18152/61361

There's been some obvious misses (at least so far) with Adolfo, Victor Diaz/Basabe and underestimating Jimenez's defensive shortcomings, but we've been pretty darned accurate ever since Alexei Ramirez. The only one that really didn't work out (until now) was Viciedo. Of course, progress in the DR, Puerto Rico, Central America and Venezuela has been pretty darned abysmal. And we lost the inside track in Brazil that started with Wilder/Rienzo/Paulo Orlando/Anderson Gomes (of course, the Indians ended up with the right Gomes, YAN) back in the day. But the point remains on those "moonshot" signings worth their weight in gold over time with the right evaluator. Imagine our DR connection with Eloy, Vladdy, Jr., Tatis, Jr., and Soto working collectively as recruiters!!! For every 500 Yogurt/Yolbert Sanchez's, there's going to be a Tatis/Guerrero/Soto. But the odds have dramatically increased though in our favor due to the presence of Paddy.