GOP Stimulus Alternative | Most Popular Female Leader | Pfizer’s $1 Billion Bet On Covid Vaccine

Plus: The New Howard Stern: Joe Rogan’s Exclusive Deal With Spotify

Know Now

• Democratic Senators Urge Trump To Release More Details About $12 Billion TSMC Deal

• Facebook’s Offices Will Be 75% Quieter When They Reopen In July

• Powell Questions Whether Federal Policy Response Is ‘Enough;’ Mnuchin Warns Of “Permanent Damage” 

• Johnson & Johnson Discontinues Talc-Based Baby Powder In U.S. And Canada

• The GOP Alternative To More Stimulus Checks: Tying Aid To Work

Top Take-Aways

Vaccine experts expressed skepticism about the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine trial results announced by the biotech company, noting that the company has yet to release significant data to support its claim that its drug successfully produced antibodies in human trials. 

New Zealand has found no new Covid-19 cases in the past two days, just as a new poll named Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern the country’s most popular leader in 100 years thanks to her pandemic response. New Zealand has reported 1,500 people infected and only 21 deaths.

Sixty million people could fall into extreme poverty due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which would erase three years of progress, according to the World Bank, which is financing $160 billion in relief programs. Extreme poverty is defined as living on less than $1.90 a day.

The Trump administration plans to end the deployments of more than 40,000 national guard members helping states combat coronavirus one day before thousands would become eligible for federal benefits, including 40% off tuition at public colleges and universities.

Since going public last month, shares of daily fantasy and sports-betting company DraftKings have jumped over 50% as online gamblers bet on everything from video games and a charity golf match to table tennis and Korean baseball.

Spotify has claimed its biggest podcasting victory yet. On Tuesday, the Swedish streaming giant announced an exclusive deal with comedian Joe Rogan, who has the number one podcast in the world. MORE: Rogan made $30 million last year, making him Forbes’ highest-paid podcaster. 

Today's Must-Read

Since he became CEO 17 months ago, Albert Bourla has refocused Pfizer around science. Now, he's pushing the American pharmaceutical giant to produce vast quantities of an experimental vaccine and doubling down on potential therapeutics.

On the first Monday of May, Pfizer dosed the initial batch of healthy American volunteers in Baltimore with an experimental Covid-19 vaccine it developed with Germany’s BioNTech. Bourla was informed immediately. The following day, in an interview from his home in suburban Scarsdale, NY, with Wall Street Senior Editor Nathan Vardi, he pointed out it normally takes years to accomplish what Pfizer had just done in weeks.

“How fast we moved is not something you could expect from the big, powerful pharma,” he told Vardi. “This is speed that you would envy in an entrepreneurial founder-based biotech.”

There is, of course, considerable skepticism. Even from the inside “It’s not easy. As a matter of fact, it has never been done before—I can’t give you a probability,” says Kathrin Jansen, Pfizer’s vaccine research chief. “An unprecedented crisis, such as the ongoing pandemic, requires unprecedented action.”

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