
<p id="h-newly-valued-at-2-billion-the-ai-50-debutant-originated-as-a-chatbot-for-teenagers-now-it-has-aspirations-and-100-million-in-fresh-dry-powder-to-be-the-github-of-machine-learning"><strong>Newly valued at $2 billion, the </strong><a href="https://www.forbes.com/lists/ai50/"><strong>AI 50</strong></a><strong> debutant originated as a chatbot for teenagers. Now, it has aspirations—and $100 million in fresh dry powder—to be the GitHub of machine learning.</strong></p>



<p>When Hugging Face first announced itself to the world five years ago, it came in the form of an iPhone chatbot app for bored teenagers. It shared selfies of its computer-generated face, cracked jokes and gossiped about its crush on Siri. It hardly made any money.</p>



<p>The viral moment came in 2018—not among teens, but developers. The founders of Hugging Face had begun to share bits of the app’s underlying code online for free. Almost immediately, researchers from some of the biggest tech names in the business, including Google and Microsoft, began using it for AI applications. Today, the chatbot has long since disappeared from the App Store, but Hugging Face has become the central depot for ready-to-use machine-learning models, the starting point from which more than 10,000 organizations have created AI-powered tools for their businesses.</p>



<p>Hugging Face announced Monday, in conjunction with its debut appearance on&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>’&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/lists/ai50">AI 50</a>&nbsp;list, that it raised a $100 million round of venture financing, valuing the company at $2 billion. Top-tier venture capital firms Coatue and Sequoia won slots as new backers in the hotly contested Series C, joining A.Capital Ventures,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2020/07/01/lee-fixel-raises-1-billion-fund-addition/">Addition</a>&nbsp;Capital and lead investor Lux Capital as major stakeholders in the Brooklyn-based startup.</p>



<p>“Machine learning is becoming the new way to build technology, replacing software,” says Clément Delangue, cofounder and CEO of Hugging Face, which is named after the emoji that looks like a smiling face with jazz hands. “The old school of building technology was writing a million lines of code. Machine learning is starting to do that, but much better and much faster.”</p>



<p>Speaking from his home in Miami, where he moved during the pandemic (weather, not web3, he explains), Delangue, 33, says he believes that what GitHub is for software, Hugging Face has become for machine learning. That’s a confident comparison, considering the widespread popularity of GitHub, which is used by more than 70 million developers to share and collaborate on code and was last recorded making $300 million in revenue at the time of its $7.5 billion sale to Microsoft in 2018. Hugging Face, by contrast, generated less than $10 million last year, according to three people familiar with its finances. Delangue declines to comment on the number, but he and investors think that machine learning is already becoming the single most important technology of the 2020s, and that Hugging Face can eventually make billions in revenue with its own army of AI-minded developers.</p>



<p>“The companies you would assume are competitors on first blush—whether it’s Google or Amazon or Facebook—almost all of them are proponents,” says Lux Capital’s Brandon Reeves, who first invested in Hugging Face in 2019. “It really feels like this Switzerland-like piece of real estate in the ecosystem.”</p>



<p>“I don’t really see a world where machine learning becomes the default way to build technology and where Hugging Face is the No. 1 platform for this, and we don’t manage to generate several billion dollars in revenue.”Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue</p>



<p>Growing up in La Bassée, a small town of 6,000 in the north of France, Delangue recalls an idle childhood until he got his first computer at age 12. By 17, he’d become one of the top French merchants on eBay, selling ATVs and dirt bikes he imported from China and stockpiled in his father’s garden equipment shop. That prowess impressed eBay, which offered him an internship once he began college at ESCP Business School in Paris. Representing the company at an e-commerce trade show, Delangue was accosted by another attendee who trashed eBay’s recent acquisition of a barcode-scanning app—barcodes, the man said, would soon be obsolete because of advances in AI.</p>



<p>The man turned out to be a cofounder of Moodstocks, a startup making image-recognition software using machine learning. “With a very small team, they were managing to do stuff on par with what Google was doing with 100 times more people,” he says (years later, the company was acquired by Google). Impressed by the nimbleness of startups, Delangue never looked back. He declined eBay’s offer to extend his internship so that he could spend his free time at Moodstocks. After graduating in 2012, he turned down a job from Google to run his own startup. Delangue’s idea for a collaborative note-taking app didn’t go far, but in the tight-knit European startup scene he met Julien Chaumond, a fellow entrepreneur building a collaborative ebook reader. The pair riffed on their mutual interest in open technology and talked about starting a company together.</p>



<p>That time came in 2016, after both their companies had ground to a halt. A third cofounder was recruited in Thomas Wolf, a college friend of Chaumond’s who had gone on to receive a Ph.D. in physics and written research papers on machine learning. For the business idea, they settled on “open-domain conversational AI”—in other words, a chatbot that could understand any kind of conversation topic—because they felt it was the most difficult problem in technology they had the expertise to tackle at the time, Delangue says. “There’s this dream we all have to speak with an AI about everything, like you see in sci-fi.”</p>



<p>Hugging Face began as a personalized, Tamagotchi-like friend powered by a form of AI known as natural language processing (NLP). To train the chatbot’s natural language capabilities, the team also built an underlying library to house various machine-learning models—for example, one to detect the emotions behind a text message and another to be able to generate a coherent response—and the many datasets for understanding different kinds of conversational topics, like sports or classroom gossip. Harking back to the founders’ values for open collaboration, they released free pieces of the library as an open-source project on GitHub. The company participated in a bot-specific accelerator program run by the New York-based startup studio Betaworks and raised seed funding from venture capitalists as well as NBA star Kevin Durant. But two years in, their chatbot hadn’t made much money and was losing its hold on the attention spans of its young users.</p>



<p>Around the same time, researchers at Google and OpenAI announced the development of “transformers,” a new type of NLP model that demolished the reading comprehension abilities of both humans and the best AI incumbent at the time. By 2019, Google was powering its search results using this model. Hugging Face’s open-source library appeared at the perfect time for organizations that wanted to harness these NLP breakthroughs but didn’t have the same machinery as Google to build them from scratch. It became a near-instant hit as the machine-learning community converged around it as the central base for deploying transformer models. “We released things without thinking too much about it and the community blew up, as a surprise even to us,” Delangue says.</p>



<p>Reeves, the Lux investor, first met Delangue at a coffee shop in downtown San Francisco on a Friday near the end of 2019. Scared to miss out on a chance to invest, he offered a term sheet the following Monday at an $80 million valuation. “For 90% of the companies I’ve invested in, I’ve known them for many weeks or months or years,” he says. “I don’t think any have come over a weekend.” Since Delangue accepted Lux’s check, usage has continued to skyrocket. The developer community has built more than 100,000 machine learning models on Hugging Face, enabling others in turn to use those pretrained models for their own AI projects instead of having to build models from scratch. On GitHub, Hugging Face has accumulated “stars”—a vanity metric measuring the popularity of an open-source project—at a faster pace than the projects behind&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2021/06/24/confluent-shares-jump-25-in-ipo-making-co-founders-new-cloud-computing-billionaires/">Confluent</a>&nbsp;(annual revenue of $388 million),&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrickcai/2021/05/26/accidental-billionaires-databricks-ceo-ali-ghodsi-seven-berkeley-academics/">Databricks</a>&nbsp;(more than $800 million) and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2017/10/19/mongodbs-ipo-gives-new-york-tech-a-much-needed-win-as-shares-jump-25/">MongoDB</a>&nbsp;($874 million).</p>



<p>Although funding rounds for companies with similar stature were plentiful in 2021, the growth-stage venture capital market has since&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rebeccaszkutak/2022/03/23/record-setting-venture-capital-market-shows-signs-of-a-slowdown/">slowed</a>&nbsp;to a near halt. Hugging Face’s latest financing then indicates a more rarified vote of investor confidence, but some in the data startup ecosystem have privately expressed curiosity about how Delangue can grow Hugging Face’s revenue enough to validate its hefty valuation. Delangue thinks that if enough free users get hooked on Hugging Face, the money will follow in time from some of the companies that employ the users. “Given how valuable machine learning is and how mainstream it’s becoming, usage is deferred revenue,” Delangue says. “I don’t really see a world where machine learning becomes the default way to build technology and where Hugging Face is the No. 1 platform for this, and we don’t manage to generate several billion dollars in revenue.”</p>



<p>Hugging Face only started to offer paid features last year and counts more than 1,000 companies as customers, according to Delangue, including Intel and his former stomping ground eBay. Pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Roche pay for enterprise-grade security features, while Bloomberg is paying to run machine learning for its real-time terminal through Hugging Face instead of having to build out its own infrastructure. Microsoft is not a customer, but prominently uses Hugging Face as the basis to train its Bing search engine to better understand natural language queries.</p>



<p>“They prioritized adoption over monetization, which I think was correct,” says Sequoia partner Pat Grady, one of the new investors. “They saw that transformer-based models working their way outside of NLP and saw a chance to be the GitHub not just for NLP, but for every domain of machine learning.” Indeed, over the course of the last year, Hugging Face has started to become a hub for machine learning models for a variety of uses, such as computer vision to train image recognition in self-driving cars and recommender systems to help pharmaceutical companies predict the effectiveness of new drug therapies.</p>



<p>If his assumptions of machine learning supremacy are wrong, Delangue says Hugging Face is close to breakeven and has all $40 million from its previous fundraise still in the bank to reorient. “One of my personal learnings as an entrepreneur is to not think too much strategically with a big business plan of ten years, but more to experiment and follow the validation of the community and what they’re telling you,” he says. If the vision pans out, Reeves thinks the prize could be a $50 billion or $100 billion market capitalization on the stock market. It’s no wonder that Delangue says he’s turned down multiple “meaningful acquisition offers” and won’t sell his business, like GitHub did to Microsoft.</p>



<p>“We want to be the first company to go public with an emoji, rather than a three-letter ticker,” he says with an emoji-like smile. “We have to start doing some lobbying to the Nasdaq to make sure it can happen.”</p>



<p>B<strong><em>y Kenrick Cai, Forbes Staff </em></strong></p>


Screenshot 2022-05-10 at 10.02.49

The $2 Billion Emoji: Hugging Face Wants To Be Launchpad For A Machine Learning Revolution


<p>If it seems like the same Wall Street banks keep getting mentioned again and again as examples of companies requiring full-time, in-office work, there may be a reason: They don’t have much company.</p>



<p>A new&nbsp;<a href="https://www.conference-board.org/topics/natural-disasters-pandemics/reimagined-workplace-two-years-later-2022" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">survey</a>&nbsp;of human resources leaders from the Conference Board, a nonprofit business research group, finds that just 4% said they are requiring all employees to return to the workplace full-time. And less than half (45%) said they were requiring some workers to return to the office five days a week.</p>



<p>“We were all pretty shocked,” says Robin Erickson, vice president of human capital at the Conference Board. “We were surprised given what we’re hearing about how many employers are requiring workers to come back full time.”</p>



<p>In other words:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenamcgregor/2022/03/15/two-years-into-the-pandemic-almost-twice-as-many-workers-prefer-hybrid-schedules-to-fully-remote-work/?sh=29d0423177ec">Hybrid work arrangements</a>&nbsp;really do seem to be taking hold. The research found that 90% of the surveyed employers are allowing hybrid work schedules, whether that means the occasional office visit that workers decide on their own or a more prescribed schedule of one to four days in the workplace.</p>



<p>Erickson believes the percentage may not stay that low, particularly if the labor market cools, but for now there is too much pressure on companies to be flexible from workers who have the upper hand.</p>



<p>“Hybrid work is going to be the most lasting organizational legacy of Covid-19 but I think the pendulum will swing back,” Erickson says. “Employers are going to decide that they lost too much in terms of collaboration and culture. I think it will take a recession when jobs are no longer plentiful.”</p>



<p>It’s possible that the “all employees” language in the survey question is prompting the single-digit percentage. Many companies may have groups of employees who can work a hybrid schedule while others must work onsite. Otherwise, Erickson says the sample of 179 human capital leaders is distributed across industry, region, size and other factors.</p>



<p>That the percentage is so low of employers requiring all workers to return doesn’t surprise&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenamcgregor/2022/02/02/less-deodorant-fewer-showers-no-makeup-the-nine-extra-minutes-some-americans-sneak-by-working-remote/">Nicholas Bloom</a>, the Stanford University economics professor whose&nbsp;<a href="https://wfhresearch.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">research on remote work</a>&nbsp;is widely cited. Bloom and his colleagues at the University of Chicago and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.itam.mx/en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ITAM</a>&nbsp;found in April that among workers whose jobs can be done at home, the average number of days they can work remotely is 2.3, and very few of these employees have zero days they can work remotely.</p>



<p>“The share of employees doing jobs that can currently work from home (e.g. office jobs) but are forced into the office five days a week … is very small,” Bloom wrote in an email to&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>. “It makes no sense—employees are happier and more productive when they work from home two or three days a week, so very few employers are forcing them back to the office full time.”</p>



<p>The Conference Board’s report about the “<a href="https://www.conference-board.org/topics/natural-disasters-pandemics/reimagined-workplace-two-years-later-2022" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reimagined workplace</a>,” based on a survey it has conducted four times since the pandemic began, also found that for the first time, employers are more concerned about finding professional and office-based employees than industry workers and manual laborers, suggesting the Great Resignation has become a major issue in the white-collar workforce, too.</p>



<p>In April 2021, the survey found that just 60% of employers said they were concerned about finding professional workers to fill jobs; that figure rose to 84% in March 2022. Meanwhile, the percentage of human capital leaders concerned about hiring front-line workers was much higher last spring, at 80%, but rose to just 81% in the most recent survey. “It’s no longer just a front-line worker issue,” says Erickson.</p>



<p>That’s another reason it’s important for companies to let employees work remotely at least some of the time if they’re able, she says. Those demanding everyone come back five days a week “don’t have much company. People will quit and you’re going to be dealing with attrition issues.”</p>



<p><strong><em>By Jena McGregor, Forbes Staff</em></strong></p>


Senior businesswoman using laptop for team meeting video conference

Just 4% Of Employers Are Making Everyone Return To The Office Full-Time, Survey Finds


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



<p>The stock market moved sharply lower on Thursday, reversing all of its gains from the previous session when the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a half-percentage point, as volatility remains elevated and investors continue to worry about risks to economic growth.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>The market recorded its worst day since 2020: The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down nearly 3.1%, over 1,000 points, while the S&amp;P 500 lost 3.6% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite 5%.</p>



<p>Thursday’s declines reversed all of the market’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2022/05/04/dow-jumps-600-points-after-federal-reserve-hikes-interest-rates-by-half-percentage-point/?sh=139fde9779ce">gains</a>&nbsp;from a day earlier, when investors cheered a widely anticipated half-percentage point interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve—the largest increase in over two decades.</p>



<p>Despite the Fed’s big&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanponciano/2022/05/04/fed-authorizes-biggest-interest-rate-hike-in-22-years-to-fight-inflation-amid-violent-stock-sell-off/?sh=58e70b0c1822">announcement</a>, stocks were back down again as investors continued to dump shares of tech companies, which have been especially hard-hit amid the wider market selloff so far this year.</p>



<p>Several e-commerce companies saw shares fall after disappointing first-quarter earnings on Thursday, weighing on market sentiment: Ebay lost nearly 12%, Etsy 17% and Shopify 15%.</p>



<p>Shares of Big Tech companies were also moving sharply lower, with Amazon and Facebook parent Meta falling 7% or more, while Microsoft lost around 4%.</p>



<p>Government bond yields were on the rise amid the heightened uncertainty, with the ten-year Treasury note once again trading above 3%—its highest level since 2018.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



<p>Stocks had surged higher on Wednesday following the Federal Reserve’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2022/05/04/dow-jumps-600-points-after-federal-reserve-hikes-interest-rates-by-half-percentage-point/">rate hike</a>: The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.8%, over 900 points, while the S&amp;P 500 gained 3% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite 3.2%. Recent market moves have been extremely choppy, with equities still recovering from a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2022/05/02/markets-inch-higher-but-experts-warn-of-continued-volatility-after-brutal-stock-sell-off/">brutal selloff</a>&nbsp;in April. The Dow and S&amp;P 500 both recorded their worst months since March 2020, down 4.9% and 8.8%, respectively, while the Nasdaq posted its worst month since 2008, falling over 13%. Many analysts have warned of rising recession risks, as the Federal Reserve will likely have a tough time aggressively raising interest rates without hurting economic growth.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



<p>“There’s a real battle going on between dip buyers and those that believe there is more downside to come,” says Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer at Independent Advisor Alliance. He believes that markets are in a “difficult period” and that there is “still more downside ahead later this year,” though bear market rallies can be “sharp and vicious (for those left behind).”</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-to-watch-for">WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h2>



<p>The latest move from the central bank on Wednesday “confirms the base case scenario that the markets incorrectly priced in huge aggressive Fed action this year,” says Jeffrey Roach, chief economist for LPL Financial. Though the Fed said it is “prepared to adjust policy” as needed, “inflation risks linger from the Russian invasion and China’s extreme Covid lockdowns,” Roach adds.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING:</h2>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2022/05/04/dow-jumps-600-points-after-federal-reserve-hikes-interest-rates-by-half-percentage-point/">Dow Jumps 900 Points After Federal Reserve Hikes Interest Rates By Half-Percentage Point</a>&nbsp;(<em>Forbes</em>)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanponciano/2022/05/04/fed-authorizes-biggest-interest-rate-hike-in-22-years-to-fight-inflation-amid-violent-stock-sell-off/">Fed Authorizes Biggest Interest Rate Hike In 22 Years To Fight Inflation Amid ‘Violent’ Stock Selloff</a>&nbsp;(<em>Forbes</em>)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2022/05/02/markets-inch-higher-but-experts-warn-of-continued-volatility-after-brutal-stock-sell-off/">Markets Inch Higher—But Experts Warn Of ‘Continued Volatility’ After ‘Brutal’ Stock Selloff</a>&nbsp;(<em>Forbes</em>)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanponciano/2022/05/02/stocks-could-plunge-another-15-after-fed-spurred-selloff-will-the-economy-fall-into-recession/">Stocks Could Plunge Another 15% After Fed-Spurred Selloff—Will The Economy Fall Into Recession?</a> (<em>Forbes</em>)</p>



<p><strong><em>By <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/"></a>Sergei Klebnikov, Forbes Staff</em></strong></p>


Markets Open After Falling More 800 Points On Tuesday

Dow Plunges 1,000 Points, Tech Shares Crater As Stocks Erase Gains From Post-Fed Rally


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



<p>Severe Covid cases may cause cognitive impairment equivalent to aging 20 years and losing 10 IQ points, according to a new&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S258953702200147X" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a>&nbsp;conducted by researchers at the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London, adding to a growing body of evidence that coronavirus infections can lead to long-term cognitive and mental health issues.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>The study, published in the journal eClinicalMedicine, found survivors of severe Covid-19 infections had cognitive impairments similar to aging that occurs between the ages of 50 to 70.</p>



<p>Cognitive impairments were even worse for those who had been put on a ventilator while they were infected, researchers found.</p>



<p>The study compared 46 patients between the ages of 28 to 83, who were hospitalized between March 10 to July 31 2021, to more than 66,000 members of the general public, and found cognitive impairments for those with severe Covid sometimes persisted more than six months, and patients improved slowly, if at all.</p>



<p>The results suggest patients recovering from severe coronavirus infections may need longer-term care for cognitive deficits, according to the researchers.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



<p>“Cognitive impairment is common to a wide range of neurological disorders, including dementia, and even routine [aging]&nbsp;, but the patterns we saw—the cognitive &#8216;fingerprint&#8217; of COVID-19—was distinct from all of these,” the study’s senior author, David Menon, a professor at the University of Cambridge, said in a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/951275" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">statement</a>.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



<p>A growing body of research shows people recovering from severe Covid can experience a range of long-term mental health and cognitive symptoms including depression, anxiety, brain fog, fatigue and other issues. A&nbsp;<a href="https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20211025/brain-fog-months-covid" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a>&nbsp;of 740 people with no history of memory problems conducted by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in October 2021 found some patients treated for Covid still had high rates of brain fog more than seven months after diagnosis. Previous studies have also&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2022/02/16/unvaccinated-more-likely-to-get-long-covid-and-suffer-symptoms-for-longer-studies-find/?sh=13579aaf49e6">shown</a>&nbsp;unvaccinated people are more likely to develop long-term Covid symptoms than those who are vaccinated. The study from the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London is one of the first comprehensive inquiries into the long-term effects of severe Covid, finding that the severity of a coronavirus infection is linked to the severity of the after effects.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-we-don-t-know">WHAT WE DON’T KNOW</h2>



<p>Exactly what causes long-term Covid cognitive effects. The body’s inflammatory response and immune system are potential pathways, but researchers said future studies should focus on “mapping” cognitive deficits to underlying issues in the body and inflammatory biomarkers.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<p><a href="https://news.sky.com/story/severe-cases-of-covid-causing-cognitive-impairment-equivalent-to-ageing-20-years-new-study-finds-12604629" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Severe cases of COVID causing cognitive impairment equivalent to ageing 20 years, new study finds</a>&nbsp;(Sky News)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2022/02/16/unvaccinated-more-likely-to-get-long-covid-and-suffer-symptoms-for-longer-studies-find/?sh=13579aaf49e6">Unvaccinated More Likely To Get Long Covid—And Suffer Symptoms For Longer—Studies Find</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)</p>



<p><strong><em>By Madeline Halpert, Forbes Staff</em></strong></p>


PALESTINIAN-HEALTH-VIRUS-VACCINE

Severe Covid Can Drop Your IQ 10 Points, Study Suggests


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



<p>Elon Musk is looking for additional equity financing for his planned $44 billion purchase of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/twitter/?sh=2f10336d22a3">Twitter</a>, Reuters&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/exclusive-musk-talks-new-twitter-financing-sources-2022-05-02/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;Monday, which could allow the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/elon-musk/">billionaire</a>&nbsp;to reduce the amount of his&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbesindia.com/article/news/musk-offloads-4-billion-in-tesla-shares-after-twitter-deal/75805/1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">own money</a>&nbsp;bound up in the acquisition without taking out more loans.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/tesla/">Tesla</a>&nbsp;CEO has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/exclusive-musk-talks-new-twitter-financing-sources-2022-05-02/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">approached</a>&nbsp;investment firms including&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/apollo-global-management/?sh=5a842bd17358">Apollo Global Management</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/ares-management/">Ares Management</a>, Reuters reported, citing unnamed sources.</p>



<p>Musk is reportedly communicating with hedge funds, private equity companies and wealthy individuals about the possibility of obtaining equity financing.</p>



<p>Musk has offered to pay for Twitter through&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001418091/000110465922048128/tm2213229d1_sc13da.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$21 billion</a>&nbsp;in equity financing, in addition to a $12.5 billion&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/advisor/investing/elon-musk-to-acquire-twitter-twtr/">margin loan</a>&nbsp;against part of his&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattdurot/2022/04/26/why-elon-musk-is-already-26-billion-poorer-because-hes-buying-twitter/">21% stake</a>&nbsp;in Tesla and $13 billion in loans secured against Twitter assets.</p>



<p>Some banks that offered to support the acquisition with loans secured against Twitter have hesitated to provide additional debt financing,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/exclusive-musk-talks-new-twitter-financing-sources-2022-05-02/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Reuters</a>&nbsp;reported, noting that banks think Twitter did not generate sufficient cash flow to justify more loans.</p>



<p>However, Reuters said Musk is still deliberating on whether to enlist equity partners to help shoulder his own $21 billion share of funding for the Twitter acquisition.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



<p>Musk has also contacted major Twitter shareholders—including founder&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/jack-dorsey/?sh=4d4b5b992372">Jack Dorsey</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/fidelity-investments/?sh=234e8055370a">Fidelity</a>—about the prospect of holding onto their stakes in the company’s new structure, Reuters&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/exclusive-musk-talks-new-twitter-financing-sources-2022-05-02/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>. Musk has previously&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-14/the-twitter-investors-musk-hopes-to-keep-may-not-want-to-stay" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">suggested</a>&nbsp;that he wants to retain as many existing Twitter shareholders as possible following the planned acquisition.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



<p>Musk disclosed April 4 he had acquired a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2022/04/04/elon-musk-acquires-92-stake-in-twitter/">9.2%</a>&nbsp;stake in Twitter, and later made his&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/masonbissada/2022/04/26/musks-twitter-purchase-includes-1-billion-fee-if-deal-falls-through/?sh=7872cf3eb15a">“best and final offer”</a>&nbsp;to purchase the entire company for&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2022/04/25/twitter-elon-musk-takeover-bid-deal-43-billion-54-20/?sh=191965d8b680">$54.20 per share</a>&nbsp;The board first adopted a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/twitter-moves-to-block-elon-musk-from-increasing-stake-11650040204?mod=article_inline" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">“poison pill”</a>&nbsp;defense to deter a hostile takeover, but several days after Musk announced he had secured&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2022/04/21/elon-musk-has-secured-465-billion-in-financing-for-twitter-bid-considers-tender-offer/?sh=2a43ef2316a4">$46.5 billion</a>&nbsp;in financing, the board accepted his offer. Despite setting a lofty goal of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/10/technology/twitter-earnings-4q-2021.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">doubling revenue</a>&nbsp;from 2021 to 2023, Twitter’s growth has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2022/04/27/twitters-first-quarter-earnings-sojust-how-bad-are-they/">lagged</a>&nbsp;expectations. In the&nbsp;<a href="https://s22.q4cdn.com/826641620/files/doc_financials/2022/q1/Final-Q1%E2%80%9922-earnings-release.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">first quarter</a>&nbsp;of 2022, Twitter’s revenue grew by 16% year-over-year to $1.2 billion. The company’s net income grew 655% year-over-year to $513 million, though this growth was due mostly to a gain of $970 million from the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/martyswant/2021/10/06/twitter-is-selling-its-mobile-ad-network-mopub-to-applovin-for-105-billion/">sale</a>&nbsp;of the mobile ad network MoPub, and the company reported an operating loss of $128 million in the first quarter. Musk said he intends to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/musk-told-banks-he-will-rein-twitter-pay-make-money-tweets-sources-2022-04-29/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">boost</a>&nbsp;Twitter’s profitability by offering new opportunities to monetize tweets and that he intends to cut costs by reducing Twitter board member salaries from roughly&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2022/05/02/musk-criticizes-twitters-executive-compensation-heres-how-it-compares-to-rivals-meta-snap-and-alphabet/">$290,000</a>&nbsp;to&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1516056299376623626?s=20&amp;t=gPll1s9GF3Pt_5KAO4G7iw" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$0</a>.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h2>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/elon-musk/">$253.6 billion.</a>&nbsp;That’s how much Musk is worth, making him the world’s richest person, according to&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>’ estimates. His stakes in Tesla and SpaceX account for most of his fortune.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2022/04/29/how-musk-already-owns-twitter-the-8-top-tweets-in-the-past-week/">“How Musk Already Owns Twitter: The 8 Top Tweets In The Past Week”</a> (Forbes)</p>



<p><strong><em>By <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacharysmith/"></a>Zachary Snowdon Smith, Forbes Staff</em></strong></p>


Economic Photo Illustrations

Musk Reportedly Seeks More Financing For Twitter Acquisition


<p><em>Technical analysis has become a go-to strategy for many traders to build strategies and gauge market strategy. It is a broad subject, but at its core technical analysis relies on the use of charting tools and indicators to gauge market momentum and trends. This information can then be used to identify buy and sell signals, as well as getting an early sense of when market sentiment is starting to shift.</em></p>



<p><em>However, technical analysis is not without is criticisms, especially when it comes to crypto. Indicators can be wrong, or send off conflicting signals. Additionally, crypto’s relatively short lifespan, especially beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum, provide little historical data to test strategies and assumptions. Additionally, concerns surrounding wash trading and market manipulation, although know unique to crypto, can be problematic.</em></p>



<p><em>One of the industry leaders in providing crypto-specific technical analysis is Katie Stockton, founder and managing partner of Fairlead Strategies, LLC, an independent research firm and investment advisor. I spoke with her to learn how she approaches these challenges and what she has learned in her coverage of crypto.</em></p>



<p><strong><em>SPECIAL OFFER: For expert insights into the latest crypto and blockchain developments, crypto and equity model portfolios, and exclusive interviews subscribe today to our premium research service,&nbsp;</em></strong><a href="https://www.forbes.com/newsletters/forbescryptoassetadvisor/?sh=48525336dec8"><strong><em>Forbes CryptoAsset and Blockchain Advisor</em></strong></a><strong><em>.</em></strong></p>



<p><strong>Forbes: What does technical analysis actually mean?</strong></p>



<p><strong>Stockton:</strong>&nbsp;I hate to say it but I wish it wasn&#8217;t called technical analysis because I think it&#8217;s mistaken for things that are technical as it pertains to technology. Charting is more accurate as a description of what we do. We see technical analysis as one discipline of several that can be used to understand markets, and its goal is primarily to understand price trends and where there may be inflection points as well as potential areas of buying and selling pressure.</p>



<p>And we&#8217;re doing that through an understanding of supply and demand. The way you understand supply and demand is by simply analyzing price. The only other data point that the market lends itself to in technicals is volume, but our focus is on price. We use a number of technical indicators to take out some of the gray area of the markets, and because they give you a binary buy or sell signal. We welcome that since the takeaway is usually black and white.</p>



<p><strong>Forbes: What are some of those indicators?</strong></p>



<p><strong>Stockton:</strong>&nbsp;I’ll give you sort of the big picture and how I think about technical indicators. I classify them in three ways: trend following, overbought/oversold conditions and relative strength. We have probably two or three for each category. I always tell people, you don&#8217;t want to have too many indicators that are trying to get the same answer, because then you’ll find some confirmation bias and or duplication in what you’re doing. And remember, this is all based on price. So you also don’t want to get too many derivatives away from price. One of the indicators I use for trend following is the MACD, which stands for moving average convergence divergence.</p>



<p>Here is what it means: We want to buy things that are going up and to the right. Very simply, we want to buy things that are going to go higher, and a trend has this inherent momentum to it. Suffice it to say that when something has momentum, you should make the assumption that it will continue to do so. And that’s the momentum inherent to trends. So, you really genuinely want to buy things that are working their way higher, and you want to sell things that are in downtrend or working their way lower. That is trend following. We have indicators to understand if those trends are still strong. And the indicators tend to be based on moving averages of price, including the MACD moving average convergence, divergence and the moving averages are basically look backs using historical prices. What we’ve found is that some of the indicators that are derived from them can really help isolate important shifts and trends. And not only do we want to buy securities that are going up, we want to know when to sell them. The indicators can help us know when those trends are shifting.</p>



<p>Here is an example using&nbsp;<strong>bitcoin</strong>&nbsp;<strong>(BTC)&nbsp;</strong>on the monthly chart. Bitcoin has suffered a loss of long-term upside momentum according to the monthly MACD indicator, which crossed over in a “sell” signal in January. The indicator has an inherent lag to it, but it is designed to identify major shifts in trend. The last “buy” signal occurred in July 2020 and was followed by a strong up move.</p>



<p><strong>Forbes: What are some of the other buckets?</strong></p>



<p><strong>Stockton:</strong>&nbsp;For the overbought/oversold piece of it, we tend to gravitate towards the stochastic oscillator. Here the goal is to look at where security is closing relative to a high/low range to see where it has been over that period of time. If it continually closes near the high end of that range, it supposedly gets more overbought—talk about an overused word; same with the word oversold. I would say overbought and oversold are almost misnomers and that, overbought isn&#8217;t necessarily a bad thing. When something is overbought, it is a reflection of momentum. And there&#8217;s a reading based on the stochastic oscillator that is an actual overbought reading. And it&#8217;s an oscillator between zero and 100%. Above 80% is overbought, and we don&#8217;t mind that. In fact, we sort of like to see something overbought above 80%. What we don’t like to see in terms of following a trend or an uptrend is that reversal back down. So it’s when that overbought reading gives way to a downtick or a downturn, that’s when we feel we have some kind of sell signal.</p>



<p>We rely on this stochastic oscillator to help us understand when an overbought reading is finally taking its toll on price (and vice versa) and to help us identify good entry points in stocks or securities that had been trending lower. Of course, we have a lot of people watching, as an example, bitcoin or high growth stocks, for some kind of turnaround. In those cases, they want to know if this downtrend that we&#8217;ve seen is at the point where it’s oversold enough that it’s going to turn the corner. We can use this stochastic oscillator to get us to that answer in a way that is not our opinion, it’s just a reflection of what this mathematical gauge is telling us.</p>



<p>Here is an example of the stochastic oscillator using<strong>&nbsp;ether (ETH)</strong>. Ether has made a lower high associated with a downturn in the weekly stochastic oscillator from overbought territory above 80%. This tends to be a setback with a duration of several weeks as it pertains to the weekly bar chart. Ether was oversold as recently as March, when risk assets bottomed, but the rally was fleeting. We see upturns and downturns in the stochastics as catalysts.</p>



<p><strong>Forbes: What happens if you get mixed signals?</strong></p>



<p><strong>Stockton:&nbsp;</strong>There’s a degree of subjectivity depending on the state of the market, such as whether it’s a trending market or a sideways market. In a trending market, you should give more weight to momentum gauges, trend following gauges and moving average based gauges. A range bound environment, which is where an oscillating measure like the market breadth measure or the stochastic oscillator, will be a little bit more valuable.</p>



<p><strong>Forbes: The crypto market can be fragmented. How do you make sure that you are looking at accurate prices?</strong></p>



<p><strong>Stockton:&nbsp;</strong>That&#8217;s a good question. I always like to review what most people are looking at, such as a mainstream exchange. And honestly, usually, the first thing that you pull up, if you were to type in a ticker, is usually the primary exchange on which this instrument is traded. We primarily use Coinbase for bitcoin and ether.</p>



<p><strong>Forbes: The transparency of blockchains has led to an explosion of technical indicators that are available to traders. Do you use any or do you just focus on price?</strong></p>



<p><strong>Stockton:&nbsp;</strong>We just focus on price. And that’s across the board for all asset classes, not just cryptocurrencies. We’re interested in reading about things like these emerging trends because they also help you make an informed decision. So it’s not to say we don’t agree with using that as an input. It’s just not really what our expertise is. One reason that the equity market is great for us is because there’s so much data around it. You get not just price data, but you also get what we call market internals. Market participation/sentiment can be measured either as an investor poll, like how you feel or it can be like a transactional gauge of how people are positioned like using the volatility index or put call ratios. So we have this abundance of data for these market internals for the equity market, just because of how long it’s been around, in part. We don’t yet have the same level of price history for cryptocurrencies, but we also don&#8217;t have all these data points that we would consider to be market internals. And it would be really helpful if we did.</p>



<p><strong>Forbes: I’m sure you’ve seen some of the criticisms of technical analysis when it comes to crypto, such as the challenges presented by such a shallow pool of data. How do you adapt to this?</strong></p>



<p><strong>Stockton:</strong>&nbsp;The good news about the short history of bitcoin and others is that we’ve actually had some cyclicality already within that context. I call it time compression, the moves that used to take six months now take two months, and then those that take two months run their course in two weeks. I think the more price history, the better. But as long as you’re capturing different types of environments you can still build models around it. And you can still trust your indicators, as long as you have enough signals to analyze. The technical indicators, at least the ones we use, should theoretically carry over to anything that has a price and liquidity. So there’s definitely going to be nuances or maybe a certain timeframe just matters a bit more for one security than the next, but overall, you should see that transference of the methodology be pretty seamless, especially bitcoin and ether, obviously, like deep liquid markets. Others should still carry over pretty equally unless liquidity is so thin that you see a chart that has a lot of gaps on it, not just a gap up in response to news, because that’s kind of normal at times, but gaps throughout a trend as well.</p>



<p><strong>Forbes: I&#8217;m sure you&#8217;re aware of wash trading and other ways that people try to manipulate the markets. How do you try to account for that, especially for assets that might be a little less known and less trustworthy that trade primarily on exchanges that aren&#8217;t necessarily based in the U.S. or have strong regulatory credentials?</strong></p>



<p><strong>Stockton:</strong>&nbsp;That would be concerning if we’re looking at something that we don’t trust. So we would probably avoid that at all costs, if we can. The price is the price. If the volumes are strong enough to move the price, we care about that. And as mentioned, we’re not really looking at volumes as much anyway.</p>



<p><strong>Forbes: It is impossible for someone to be right 100% of the time. But I’m curious if you have any sense of what your success rate is or if you find your predictions in crypto being more or less accurate than in traditional markets.</strong></p>



<p><strong>Stockton:</strong>&nbsp;I don’t have a way to measure my accuracy ratio, per se, because I’ve always been a publishing research analyst, money manager until very recently. So now, as you know, as a money manager, we have a way to track records.&nbsp;<em>The company recently launched the Fairlead Tactical Sector ETF (TACK) that tracks technical trends across asset classes.</em>&nbsp;But what you hope is that people will subscribe to your research and follow your calls if you&#8217;re right, more often than not.</p>



<p>We will be wrong at times, but we’d like to think that we don’t stay wrong for very long because the indicators don’t let us. The indicators will keep you honest. We don’t try to be ultra predictive, but rather just keep people on the right side of trends, give them some risk metrics to watch and some objectives, perhaps based on the current action, talk about catalysts, etc. So we’re not saying we think bitcoin will be at price X by year end—we don’t add value that way or have that crystal ball. But when people can follow the views in a consistent manner, that’s where the real benefit can be.</p>



<p><strong><em>By Steven Ehrlich, Forbes Staff</em></strong> </p>


Illustrations of Cryptocurrency In Indonesia

How Technical Traders Apply Their Expertise To Crypto Markets


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



<p>Elon Musk sold more than 4.4 million shares of electric car company Tesla earlier this week for just under $4 billion, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings released Thursday evening, shortly after the billionaire Tesla CEO agreed to buy Twitter.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>The sales took place on Tuesday and Wednesday, at prices ranging between about $872 and $999 per share,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001318605/000089924322015923/xslF345X03/doc4.xml" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001318605/000089924322015924/xslF345X03/doc4.xml" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">regulatory</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001318605/000089924322015949/xslF345X03/doc4.xml" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">filings</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001318605/000089924322015942/xslF345X03/doc4.xml" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>.</p>



<p>Musk still owns more than 168 million shares of Tesla.</p>



<p>Shortly after the sales were disclosed, Musk&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1519850299757846530" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeted</a>: “No further TSLA sales planned after today.”</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h2>



<p>$246.2 billion. That’s Musk’s net worth, according to&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>’ estimates. His stakes in Tesla and rocket maker SpaceX account for most of his wealth.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



<p>Twitter’s board of directors&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2022/04/25/twitter-elon-musk-takeover-bid-deal-43-billion-54-20/?sh=7dd98932b680">agreed Monday</a>&nbsp;to sell the company to Musk, wrapping up a dramatic period that began with Musk buying up 9.2% of Twitter and later making an unsolicited bid to purchase the entire social media company at a valuation of $44 billion. The deal—which still needs to be approved by Twitter’s shareholders—<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-25/musk-s-21-billion-mystery-where-will-he-get-cash-for-twitter" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">will require Musk</a>&nbsp;to come up with some cash: The billionaire offered to pay for Twitter using $21 billion in equity financing, in addition to more than $20 billion in loans.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



<p>Shares of Tesla have fallen more than 12% this week, closing at $877.51 Thursday. Some <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattdurot/2022/04/26/why-elon-musk-is-already-26-billion-poorer-because-hes-buying-twitter/?sh=6411f8ea7977">analysts think</a> the sliding share prices are tied to Musk’s commitment to buying Twitter, which could distract the Tesla CEO and force him to sell part of his stake in the company.</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/"></a><strong><em>By Joe Walsh, Forbes Staff</em></strong></p>


Elon Musk Sells About $4 Billion In Tesla Shares Ahead Of Planned Twitter Purchase


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



<p>Rapper Travis Scott mounted his return to the music industry Wednesday with the announcement of several public performances, his first since 10 people were killed and hundreds were injured in a crowd surge at a music festival he headlined five months ago.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>Scott’s first public show since the November Astroworld incident will take place next month at the E11even nightclub in Miami, while the city hosts the Grand Prix.</p>



<p>Scott was also&nbsp;<a href="https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/travis-scott-primavera-sound-lineup-astroworld-1235064060/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a>&nbsp;as a headliner at three installations of the Primavera Sound Festival happening in November in São Paulo, Brazil; Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Santiago, Chile.</p>



<p>Last week, Scott&nbsp;<a href="https://pitchfork.com/news/travis-scott-features-on-first-widely-released-new-song-since-2021-astroworld-tragedy/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">was featured on</a>&nbsp;a single, “Hold That Heat,” with Future and Southside—his first major release since the tragedy.</p>



<p>Earlier this month, billboards appeared in California seemingly to promote his long-delayed album&nbsp;<em>Utopia</em>,&nbsp;<a href="https://variety.com/2022/music/news/travis-scott-utopia-billboards-1235229520/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em>Variety</em></a>&nbsp;reported, though it&#8217;s not clear when the work will be released.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



<p>Scott stepped back from the public eye after the Astroworld incident, which was caused by a crowd surge while Scott was performing at the Houston-area festival. In December, 275 lawsuits from victims against Scott, Astroworld organizer Live Nation and other entities were combined into a single case, which is reportedly still in its early stages. In February, a gag order was issued to limit how much attorneys and clients can say about the case. Scott was accused of violating this order last month when he took to social media to launch Project HEAL, a youth initiative that includes solutions for event safety. While announcing the project, Scott said he has spent the last few months to grieve and said “I will always honor the victims of the Astroworld tragedy who remain in my heart forever.” Scott has performed at some small, private events this year, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.etonline.com/travis-scott-to-give-first-public-performance-since-astroworld-tragedy-and-will-headline-multi-city" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Entertainment Tonight</a>.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kimberleespeakman/2021/12/03/nearly-300-astroworld-lawsuits-to-be-combined-into-single-case/?sh=69525bbb294d">Nearly 300 Astroworld Lawsuits To Be Combined Into Single Case</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2022/03/29/lawyers-of-astroworld-victims-accuse-travis-scott-of-trying-influence-public-opinion-ahead-of-trial/?sh=78a244143177">Lawyers Of Astroworld Victims Accuse Travis Scott Of Trying To Influence Public Opinion Ahead Of Trial</a> (Forbes)</p>



<p><strong><em> By <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/"></a>Marisa Dellatto, Forbes Staff</em></strong></p>


Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival

Travis Scott Plans First Concert Appearances Since Deadly Astroworld Tragedy


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



<p>Antibodies produced by Covid-19 vaccines and booster shots may be less effective at defending against the omicron variant than previous coronavirus strains, a study by researchers at Johns Hopkins University found—the latest data from the winter’s record-breaking Covid-19 surge.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/newsroom/news-releases/why-breakthrough-covid-antibodies-fighting-original-virus-may-be-weaker-against-omicron" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a>, first published April 7, examined the antibodies of 18 vaccinated and boosted patients who were diagnosed with Covid-19 between late December and mid-January, when the omicron variant accounted for over 90% of Covid-19 cases.</p>



<p>Researchers found that while these patients had high levels of antibodies that stop the coronavirus’ spike protein from binding to the surfaces of cells, the antibodies “didn’t carry out that function as well when responding to the omicron strain” compared to the original strain of the virus, Dr. Joel Blankson, a professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and senior author of the study, said in a release.<em></em></p>



<p>The study also compared the immune system responses of vaccinated and infected people with a control group of vaccinated people who hadn&#8217;t contracted the coronavirus, and found both groups had similar levels of antibodies.</p>



<p>These results differ from earlier studies that showed vaccinated people who contracted the virus’ original alpha variant had lower levels of antibodies than people who were not infected, Blankson said.</p>



<p>However, the study found vaccinated patients with breakthrough cases of omicron produced strong responses of immune cells called “T cells,” which Blankson says might explain why vaccinated people often experience mild Covid-19 symptoms.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h2>



<p>57.7%. That’s the portion of Americans who tested positive for antibodies produced by coronavirus infection in February, up from just 33.5% in December, before the omicron surge, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2022/04/26/cdc-most-americans-have-had-covid-antibody-tests-show/?sh=6efaeba75067">data</a>&nbsp;released by the CDC Tuesday. The study implies that over half of the country—including three-in-four children—have had Covid-19 at some point. The massive jump in natural antibodies aligned with the country’s record-breaking winter surge, when over 800,000 new cases were reported each day.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-to-watch-for">WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h2>



<p>Both Pfizer and Moderna are developing omicron-specific vaccine booster boosters that could potentially produce antibodies better-equipped to counter the variant, with Moderna beginning phase 2 trials of its booster shot last month. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/masonbissada/2022/04/13/pfizer-may-have-omicron-optimized-covid-vaccine-ready-by-fall-ceo-says/?sh=a9f12c771bf9">said</a>&nbsp;earlier this month he hopes the company will have the modified vaccine ready by the fall.</p>



<p><strong><a href="https://www.forbes.com/coronavirus/">Full coverage and live updates on the Coronavirus</a></strong></p>



<p><strong><em>By <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/masonbissada/"></a>Mason Bissada, Forbes Staff</em></strong></p>


Coronavirus Vaccination In Gaza, Palestine

Antibodies From Covid Vaccines May Be Weaker Against Omicron, Study Finds


<p>Phewww. That was fast!</p>



<p>A little over 11 days after Elon Musk proposed paying $54 a share for Twitter, the company’s board&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2022/04/25/twitter-elon-musk-takeover-bid-deal-43-billion-54-20/">approved the transaction</a>&nbsp;on Monday, a surprise reversal. Twitter initially seemed opposed to the idea—it&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2022/04/15/twitter-board-adopts-poison-pill-to-fend-off-elon-musks-takeover-bid/">adopted</a>&nbsp;a poison pill, a defense against an unsolicited bid like Musk’s—but warmed up to it last weekend after Musk detailed how he could pay for it. Answer: A lot of debt (about $25 billion), some equity (roughly $21 billion), all of it wrapped in Musk’s Tesla shares. (He has lots of those, around $230 billion worth of them.) It adds up to a $44 billion price tag on Twitter, a 38% premium over where the stock traded when Musk first disclosed his shareholding.</p>



<p>So that’s it—Elon won? Can we expect to see a spaceship in employee parking starting any day? Truthfully, we’re a few orbits around the sun from that, but Musk is definitely on course to getting what he says he wants.</p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-are-musk-s-next-steps"><strong>What Are Musk’s Next Steps?</strong></h3>



<p>The agreement between Twitter’s board and Musk doesn’t seem to include a “go-shop period.” Some buyout deals have these provisions, a time in which the board welcomes any competing bids. (It’s like when the auctioneer with the honeyed voice starts with, “Going once, going…”) Go-shops vary in length, their terms dictated by what buyer and seller agree to. (Generally, about a month to six weeks.) Adding a go-shop is seen as favorable for investors, the board doing its best to get them the highest price. But go-shops aren’t required by law in Delaware, where Twitter is incorporated, so it’s not totally strange for Twitter not to do one. (Skipping it will add to the feeling on Wall Street that even with JPMorgan’s and Goldman Sachs’ help, Twitter found little interest when it shopped itself around over the last few weeks, trying to avoid Musk.)</p>



<p>Musk will next make a $54.20 tender offer to raise his shareholding in Twitter to at least 50% or higher. A tender offer is where he asks shareholders to sell him their shares. He owns 9.2%, some 73.5 million shares. To get over 50%, he needs another 319.5 million shares, which will cost $17.2 billion. Easy-peasy. He has $46 billion in financing lined up.</p>



<p>As the board deliberated last weekend, Musk&nbsp;<a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=2ahUKEwjL44qE37D3AhUEhYkEHRnMABUQFnoECBMQAQ&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsj.com%2Farticles%2Ftwitter-re-examines-elon-musks-bid-may-be-more-receptive-to-a-deal-11650822932%3Fmod%3Dbusiness_minor_pos7&amp;usg=AOvVaw1cn50CEzdyOCsYbH4fWzK9" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reportedly</a>&nbsp;spent the weekend on the phone with big shareholders, wooing them. From there, it doesn’t require any rocket science: Musk or some member(s) of Team Musk have undoubtedly added up the yeses from last weekend and knows Musk can cross over to majority control. There is the fairly unlikely scenario of some sudden shareholder revolt, stopping him from passing 50%. Again, pretty unlikely. The board has given its stamp of approval, and the deal has received a thumbs-up from many of the analysts following Twitter.</p>



<p>The tender offer will stay open for 20 business days. “And then any shareholder who didn’t tender into his offer will get cleaned up by the company,” says Brian Quinn, a corporate law professor at Boston College. “The company cuts you a check for $54.20 for every share you still own.”</p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-could-stop-musk"><strong>What Could Stop Musk?</strong></h3>



<p>Other than some unforeseen act of god, very little. U.S. regulators don’t seem likely to oppose it over anti-trust concerns, since Twitter is not combining with, say, Snap or something.</p>



<p>What we can’t account for or really predict is some act of Elon. In anything Musk-related, there is a small but non-zero chance of the once-in-a-lifetime unexpected thing happening right now, immediately at this point in our lifetimes. The man truly redefines convention and predictability. One minute, he’s on Twitter&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1517707521343082496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">making penis jokes involving Bill Gates</a>. The next, he’s buying Twitter, having won approval from a board of 11 highly educated and well-compensated directors, including Twitter’s cofounder and (twice) former CEO, Jack Dorsey.</p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-are-musk-s-plans-for-twitter-and-twitter-inc"><strong>What are Musk’s Plans for Twitter—and Twitter Inc.?</strong></h3>



<p>The board expects the deal to close this year. For now, CEO Parag Agrawal is staying to see that process finish. After that, it won’t be a surprise to see him go, perhaps less than a year after taking over the job from Dorsey last November. Musk has been none too quiet about his criticism for Agrawal and current-state Twitter. If he wants to fire Agrawal, it will trigger a $38.7 million severance package, though it probably won’t come to that. More broadly, the company reportedly&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2022/4/25/23041753/twitter-ceo-elon-musk-no-layoffs-planned" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told employees</a>&nbsp;there won’t be any layoffs “at this time” during an all-hands meeting on Monday.</p>



<p>Coming up, we get see to if the spaceship executive can push Twitter into something more resembling warp speed. (And if he even really wants to.) The company had grown more ambitious in the past couple years after an earlier tangle with another initially unwelcome investor. But Wall Street had come to have increasing doubts about whether Twitter could hit lofty goals Dorsey helped set before he left. That includes revenue growing by 50% from 2021 to $7.5 billion in 2023, a bold projection that won’t be helped by (1) a general slouch in the ad market right now over consumer-spending fears, (2)&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2022/02/02/meta-stock-drops-20-after-fourth-quarter-profit-dropped-more-than-expected/?sh=31d5113d743c">continued fallout</a>&nbsp;from a change to Apple software that has made mobile ads less valuable and (3) the inherent distraction caused by a hostile takeover, even one concluding as quickly as this one. (This really did move swiftly. For comparison, the Oracle-PeopleSoft saga stretched over 18 months—18!—to get to the same point Musk and Twitter reached in less than three weeks.)</p>



<p>Musk has variously said he’d like the platform to better embrace free speech principles, reduce ads, open up its algorithm, add an editing tool, increase user verification and tamp down on spam bots. He also at one point used a TED Talk interview to suggest he didn’t really care about the business part of Twitter at all. There is, of course, the entire other part of Twitter, the cultural cache it emanates—the part that for 16 years has made Twitter a draw for presidents and celebrities alike and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=2ahUKEwj-gbbl47D3AhVLkokEHVgKAN0QvOMEKAB6BAgDEAE&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2Fpolitics%2Ftrump-will-not-return-to-twitter-even-if-elon-musk-purchases-platform-will-begin-using-his-truth-social&amp;usg=AOvVaw2y3_tRqvPU0AC5ekg1oFPU" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a unhealable sore point</a>&nbsp;for one celebrity-turned-president. This culture part has always seemed in great disproportion to the business part, and such a situation is a blinking-neon invitation to someone like Musk, who will think he can finally fix what Ev Williams, Dick Costolo and Jack Dorsey (twice) could not, since, hey, it can’t be harder than rocketing men into outer space on a semi-regular basis.</p>



<p>Here’s Musk sounding very Musk-like in a press release announcing the deal, talking about the future and why he did the thing in the first place:</p>



<p>“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,&#8221; said Mr. Musk. “Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.&#8221;</p>



<p>One thing’s for certain. These alterations will take Musk much more time (and patience) than it did to buy the site in the first place.</p>



<p><strong><em>By <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/"></a>Abram Brown, Forbes Staff</em></strong></p>


Elon Musk And Twitter Logo Illustration

Elon Musk’s $44 Billion Twitter Deal: What Actually Happens Next?


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



<p>The World Health Organization has recommended Pfizer’s antiviral pill Paxlovid to treat high-risk Covid patients, the agency announced Friday, which it said is safer, easier to administer and better at preventing hospitalizations than other available treatments.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>The WHO’s expert panel endorsed Paxlovid—a combination of nirmatrelvir, which inhibits coronavirus replication, and ritonavir, an HIV inhibitor which also slows the liver’s breakdown of nirmatrelvir—for Covid patients without severe disease who are at high risk of hospitalization.</p>



<p>High risk groups include older patients, those with compromised immune systems or chronic illnesses and the unvaccinated, according to the guidelines.</p>



<p>The panel cited new data from two clinical trials involving 3,100 patients, which found Paxlovid led to 84 fewer hospital admissions per 1,000 patients treated with little or no risk of severe side effects when given within five days of the onset of symptoms.</p>



<p>Paxlovid should not be used in lower risk patients as the benefits are “trivial,” though the group said this is a weak recommendation as there are likely an “appreciable number” of people who will place a “high value on very small reductions” in risk.</p>



<p>The panel also issued a weak recommendation for using the antiviral drug remdesivir for patients with non-severe Covid-19 at high risk of hospitalization, replacing earlier guidance against its use in any Covid patients based on new data from five clinical trials.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-to-watch-for">WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h2>



<p>New recommendations. The WHO guidelines are intended to be a “living” document that is updated as new information comes in. The panel said it is evaluating several other medicines, including a cheap and widely available antidepressant,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2022/04/06/common-antidepressant-likely-cuts-risk-of-covid-hospitalization-study-finds/?sh=24300e0d2b58">fluvoxamine</a>, that has shown promise as a potential Covid treatment. The panel is also considering colchicine, an anti-inflammatory, and anticoagulation therapy, as well as evaluating whether GlaxoSmithKline and Vir’s antibody treatment sotrovimab is effective against BA.1 and BA.2 omicron variants.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



<p>Paxlovid is one of the only oral antiviral drugs approved for Covid-19 and has been widely hailed as a game-changer in efforts to control the virus. To be taken at home before or shortly after symptoms developed, the pill plugged a large gap in the treatment of Covid-19, which previously relied on prevention (such as vaccination), treating the most severe cases in hospital or tricky-to-administer on-site treatments for those not in hospital. It is the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2022/03/03/who-backs-mercks-antiviral-pill-for-high-risk-covid-patients-but-finds-regenerons-antibody-cocktail-ineffective-against-omicron/?sh=5f1ca61a4e85">second</a>—and now preferred—oral antiviral endorsed by the WHO after it recommended Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics’ molnupiravir for high-risk patients in early March. While initially scarce, supply of the antivirals now vastly&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/demand-pfizers-covid-pills-lags-around-world-2022-04-19/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">outstrips</a>&nbsp;demand. Despite this, they are&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/covid-antiviral-pill-paxlovid-underused-supply-rcna24200" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">underutilized</a>&nbsp;and not prescribed to many who would benefit from them in Europe, the U.S. and other wealthy countries, which secured the majority of early production.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



<p>In a statement, the WHO expressed its concern that low- and middle-income countries will “be pushed to the end of the queue when it comes to accessing this treatment,” as happened with Covid-19 vaccines. Though Pfizer has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2022/03/17/35-manufacturers-granted-licenses-to-produce-generic-version-of-pfizers-covid-antiviral-pill-for-developing-countries/?sh=de86dea62acb">inked</a>&nbsp;deals with pharmaceutical companies around the world to produce generic forms of the drug, the WHO said these products are “not yet available from quality-assured sources.” The agency said Pfizer’s “lack of transparency&#8230; is making it difficult for public health organizations to obtain an accurate picture of the availability of the medicine, which countries are involved in bilateral deals and what they are paying.”</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2022/03/03/who-backs-mercks-antiviral-pill-for-high-risk-covid-patients-but-finds-regenerons-antibody-cocktail-ineffective-against-omicron/?sh=5f1ca61a4e85">WHO Backs Merck’s Antiviral Pill For High-Risk Covid Patients But Finds Regeneron’s Antibody Cocktail ‘Ineffective’ Against Omicron</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/demand-pfizers-covid-pills-lags-around-world-2022-04-19/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Analysis: Demand for Pfizer&#8217;s COVID pills lags around the world</a>&nbsp;(Reuters)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/covid-antiviral-pill-paxlovid-underused-supply-rcna24200" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Hundreds are still dying from Covid every day. Why is Paxlovid sitting on shelves?</a> (NBCNews)</p>



<p><strong><em>By <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/">Robert Hart</a>, Forbes Staff</em></strong></p>


Drug Paxlovid

WHO Endorses Pfizer’s Antiviral Pill Paxlovid For High-Risk Covid Patients But Says Benefits ‘Trivial’ For Low-Risk Groups


<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="https://policies.google.com/privacy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"></a>TOPLINE</h2>



<p>Patients hospitalized with Covid-19-associated pneumonia were more likely to develop dementia than patients hospitalized with other types of pneumonia, according to a&nbsp;<a href="https://academic.oup.com/ofid/article/9/4/ofac115/6543929?login=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a>&nbsp;published March 7 by&nbsp;<em>Open Forum Infectious Diseases</em>, adding to a growing body of research linking Covid-19 to cognitive disorders and brain damage.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>A study of data 20,806 patients found that patients hospitalized with non-Covid-19 pneumonia ran a 2.5% risk of developing new-onset dementia following recovery, whereas patients hospitalized with Covid-19 pneumonia ran a 3% risk, an increase of 18.6%, University of Missouri researchers said based on data gathered by health information technology company the Cerner Corporation.</p>



<p>This effect was strongest among people over 70, where risk of dementia was 5% after non-Covid-19 pneumonia and 6.4% after Covid-19 pneumonia, an increase of roughly 28%.</p>



<p>Covid-19 survivors developed a type of dementia tending to impact memory and the ability to carry out daily tasks while leaving language ability and awareness of time and place relatively intact,&nbsp;<a href="https://medicine.missouri.edu/news/covid-19-pneumonia-increases-dementia-risk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;lead researcher Dr. Adnan I. Qureshi in a statement Tuesday.</p>



<p>Researchers detected no dementia risk associated with Covid-19 pneumonia for people age 35-70, though the study did suggest a roughly .2% risk of dementia for people under 35 who had Covid-19 pneumonia, compared to a 0% risk for people in that age group who had non-Covid-19 pneumonia.</p>



<p>The median delay between Covid-19 pneumonia and the onset of dementia was 182 days, researchers said.</p>



<p>Surprisingly, cardiovascular diseases and risk factors like cigarette smoking, alcohol use and a history of stroke were more common among patients with non-Covid-19 pneumonia than among patients with Covid-19 pneumonia, researchers found.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



<p>Scientists have struggled to untangle Covid-19’s effect on the brain and on cognitive function. A&nbsp;<em>British Medical Journal</em>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2022/02/16/mental-illness-risk-soars-after-covid-infection-study-finds---even-with-milder-cases/?sh=12c1385b51bc">study</a>&nbsp;found that Covid-19 infection is strongly associated with mental health disorder diagnoses—particularly diagnoses of depression, anxiety and stress disorders like PTSD. Covid-19 is also capable of impacting the structure of the brain, in some cases&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacharysmith/2022/04/11/covid-smell-loss-linked-to-damage-in-brain-study-finds/?sh=6cec73572a94">damaging</a>&nbsp;cells associated with the sense of smell, inflicting permanent smell loss. The mechanism by which the coronavirus alters brain structure is still debated, and neurological smell loss associated with the virus may be a result of symptoms like inflammation, rather than damage done directly by the virus itself. There is also&nbsp;<a href="https://aaic.alz.org/releases_2021/covid-19-cognitive-impact.asp" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">some evidence</a>&nbsp;suggesting a link between Covid-19 and Alzheimer’s disease, though scientists&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/could-viruses-cause-alzheimers-covid-19-brain-studies-offer-new-clues" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">warn</a>&nbsp;that it could be decades before it’s possible to know for sure whether the virus causes Alzheimer’s. Future research should investigate the underlying mechanisms of Covid-19 disease to develop strategies for preventing disabling conditions like dementia, the authors of the&nbsp;<em>Open Forum Infectious Diseases</em>&nbsp;study wrote.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



<p>A&nbsp;<em>JAMA Network Open</em>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacharysmith/2022/04/14/psychiatric-disorders-may-increase-risk-of-breakthrough-covid-study-finds/">study</a>&nbsp;found that psychiatric disorders may increase the risk of breakthrough infections after vaccination, possibly due to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(20)30564-2/fulltext" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lowered immune function</a>&nbsp;among people with certain psychiatric disorders, which could decrease vaccine effectiveness.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamhaseltine/2022/03/21/a-case-of-shrunken-brains-how-covid-19-may-damage-brain-cells/">“A Case Of Shrunken Brains: How Covid-19 May Damage Brain Cells”</a> (Forbes)</p>



<p><strong><em>by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacharysmith/"></a>Zachary Snowdon Smith, Forbes Staff</em></strong></p>


Valencian Community Begins Flu Vaccination For The Over 70s Along With The Third Dose Covid

Covid-19 Pneumonia Increases Risk Of Dementia, Study Says


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



<p>Shanghai on Monday reported the first deaths linked to the city’s ongoing Covid-19 outbreak—China’s worst since the start of the pandemic—as the rise in cases in eastern China and the country’s commitment to a zero-Covid approach prompted more cities to impose pandemic restrictions despite concerns of major economic disruption.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>Three unvaccinated people aged between 89 and 91 died with Covid on Sunday, local officials in Shanghai announced in a press briefing.</p>



<p>An additional 16 infected people remained in a critical condition, city officials added.</p>



<p>The Covid deaths in Shanghai are the first reported in China in nearly a month, after two fatalities linked to the disease reported in Jilin marked the country’s first Covid deaths since January 2021.</p>



<p>Shanghai on Monday added 19,831 new asymptomatic cases and 2,417 symptomatic cases to its overall tally, a<a href="http://en.nhc.gov.cn/2022-04/18/c_85923.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ccording to</a>&nbsp;China’s National Health Commission.</p>



<p>The city is entering the fourth week of its ongoing Covid-19 lockdown—initially scheduled to be ten days long—with no definitive end in sight.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h2>



<p>4,641. That’s the total number of Covid-19 deaths that China has reported since the start of the pandemic. When adjusted for population size, China has one of the lowest pandemic death rates of any country—below 0.5 per 100,000 population. In comparison, the United States has reported more than 300 deaths per 100,000.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



<p>Shanghai has reported more than 300,000 Covid-19 cases since the start of the current outbreak in late March. While authorities began to loosen some curbs last week, most of the city remains under lockdown. The stringent three week long lockdown has caused some&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/07/world/asia/shanghai-china-covid-protests.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">anger</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/china/covid-shaming-pits-neighbour-against-neighbour-locked-down-shanghai-2022-04-18/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">discontent</a>&nbsp;among the city’s residents due to several issues like food shortages and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/covid-business-health-shanghai-d6a5e46da22086e7231abd271fa5cc59" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">stringent quarantine rules</a>. The outbreak in Shanghai has been fueled by the highly infectious omicron subvariant known as BA.2 which appears to have blunted the effectiveness of China’s lockdown and mass testing efforts.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



<p>Despite growing criticism about its effectiveness in the face of a highly transmissible virus, Beijing has vowed to stick with its zero-Covid strategy. Last week Chinese President Xi Jinping&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/shanghai-cases-hit-record-as-xi-jinping-reiterates-urgency-of-covid-curbs/article65320471.ece" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">backed</a>&nbsp;the approach stating that “prevention and control work cannot be relaxed.” Xi’s stance was endorsed in an&nbsp;<a href="http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrb/html/2022-04/18/nw.D110000renmrb_20220418_3-01.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">editorial</a>&nbsp;published in the state-run People’s Daily on Monday which said the strategy was “correct and effective” and called on the Chinese people to stick to it “unswervingly and unrelentingly.”</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<p><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-18/shanghai-reports-first-deaths-during-its-current-covid-outbreak?srnd=premium-asia&amp;sref=CSMHWBLp" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Shanghai Reports Three Deaths, First of Current Covid Outbreak</a>&nbsp;(Bloomberg)</p>



<p><a href="https://apnews.com/article/covid-business-health-china-shanghai-8a87e198bccadd93d3788b315bc410bf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Shanghai reports 1st deaths from current COVID-19 outbreak</a>&nbsp;(Associated Press)</p>



<p><strong><a href="https://www.forbes.com/coronavirus/">Full coverage and live updates on the Coronavirus</a></strong></p>



<p><strong><em>By <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/"></a>Siladitya Ray, Forbes Staff</em></strong></p>


Shanghai Lockdown Continues as First Covid Deaths Reported

Shanghai Reports First Deaths From Latest Covid Surge


<p>People diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder are about 3.7% more likely to experience a Covid-19 infection after being vaccinated than people without psychiatric disorders, according to a&nbsp;<a href="https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/e66ACBB103fZlAgxCj14a7?domain=click.alerts.jamanetwork.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a>&nbsp;published Thursday by<em>&nbsp;JAMA Network</em>&nbsp;<em>Open</em>&nbsp;that suggested a need for Covid-19 prevention efforts geared toward people with mental health difficulties.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p><a href="https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/001522.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Substance use disorder</a>&nbsp;was associated with a roughly 16% higher risk of breakthrough infection compared to people without any psychiatric disorder diagnoses, making it the disorder most strongly tied to infection risk, researchers affiliated with the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Health Care System and the University of California San Francisco Department of Psychiatry found.</p>



<p><a href="https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/000932.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Adjustment disorder</a>—which may be triggered by a stressful life event and includes symptoms like trembling and severe feelings of tension or hopelessness—was linked to a roughly 13% higher chance of breakthrough infection.</p>



<p><a href="https://medlineplus.gov/anxiety.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Anxiety disorders</a>&nbsp;were linked to a roughly 8% higher risk of breakthrough infection.</p>



<p>The association between psychiatric disorder diagnoses and elevated breakthrough Covid-19 risk was strongest among patients 65 and over, reflecting the generally higher vulnerability to Covid-19 among older people.</p>



<p>As well as controlling for typical factors like age and sex, researchers controlled for obesity, smoking and medical conditions like diabetes, which might play a complicating role in the relationship between mental health and Covid-19 risk.</p>



<p>The study drew on records from 263,697 fully vaccinated patients who accessed Department of Veterans Affairs healthcare between February 2020 and November 2021 and had no record of testing positive for the coronavirus before vaccination.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



<p>Before vaccines were widely available, people with psychiatric disorders were at greater risk of contracting Covid-19 and experiencing severe outcomes like hospitalization and death, according to the authors of the&nbsp;<em>JAMA Network</em>&nbsp;<em>Open</em>&nbsp;study. Scientists are still working to untangle the precise relationship between mental health and Covid-19 vulnerability. Studies published in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(20)30564-2/fulltext" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the&nbsp;<em>Lancet</em></a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022399902003094?via%3Dihub" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">and</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1745691621989243" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">elsewhere</a>&nbsp;indicate that people with certain psychiatric disorders have lowered immune function or poor response to vaccines, suggesting they might have reduced immunity to Covid-19 after vaccination. Additionally, a 2022&nbsp;<a href="https://doi.apa.org/fulltext/2022-37281-001.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a>&nbsp;published by the American Psychological Association found a correlation between certain post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and risky Covid-19 behaviors like taking air travel for vacation or attending events with large crowds. Because of their elevated risk from Covid-19, there is a need for booster shot and public health campaigns directed at people with psychiatric disorders, the&nbsp;<em>JAMA Network</em>&nbsp;<em>Open</em>&nbsp;study authors said.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-surprising-fact">SURPRISING FACT</h2>



<p>Researchers found that psychotic disorder diagnoses were associated with a 10% lower risk of breakthrough infection among people under 65—the only instance in which a psychiatric disorder diagnosis was tied to a lower breakthrough risk.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2022/02/16/mental-illness-risk-soars-after-covid-infection-study-finds---even-with-milder-cases/">“Mental Illness Risk Soars After Covid Infection, Study Finds — Even With Milder Cases”</a> (Forbes)</p>



<p><strong><em>By <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacharysmith/"></a>Zachary Snowdon Smith, Forbes Staff</em></strong></p>


anxiety

Psychiatric Disorders May Increase Risk Of Breakthrough Covid, Study Finds


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



<p>Covid-19 infection is linked to eye conditions called retinal vascular occlusions—blockages of blood vessels in the eye that can cause vision loss—according to a&nbsp;<a href="https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/-41oCAD8k3tm1Vvxt9HnxU?domain=click.alerts.jamanetwork.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a>&nbsp;published Thursday by&nbsp;<em>JAMA Ophthalmology</em>&nbsp;that threw light on one of several little-understood long-term effects of the virus.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>The first condition, called&nbsp;<a href="https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/001028.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">retinal artery occlusions</a>, can cause sudden blurring or loss of vision in one eye, and was found to have increased 29.9% in the period two to 26 weeks after Covid-19 diagnosis compared to the period 26 to two weeks before diagnosis, researchers concluded.</p>



<p>The second condition,&nbsp;<a href="https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/007330.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">retinal vein occlusions</a>, causes similar symptoms to retinal artery occlusions and was even more strongly associated with Covid-19, with a 47% increase in the period two to 26 weeks after Covid-19 diagnosis compared to the period 26 to two weeks before diagnosis, according to the study.</p>



<p>The strong association between Covid-19 and retinal vein occlusions seems to confirm previous research suggesting that Covid-19 generally affects veins more severely than arteries, researchers said—a finding that could help guide treatment approaches for Covid-19 patients.</p>



<p>Even following Covid-19 infection, retinal vascular occlusions remained rare, with retinal artery occlusions affecting about 1 in 333,333 patients and retinal vein occlusions affecting about 1 in 81,967 patients during the period two to 26 weeks after they were diagnosed.</p>



<p>Researchers did not find that Covid-19 patients who were hospitalized were more likely to experience retinal vascular occlusions than those who were not hospitalized.</p>



<p>The study included 432,515 patients without a history of retinal vascular occlusions more than six months prior to their Covid-19 diagnosis, and who were diagnosed with the virus between January 20, 2020 and May 31, 2021.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



<p>Retinal vascular occlusions are caused when blood clots or fat deposits block blood vessels in the retina, the part of the eye that receives light and transmits images to the brain. These occlusions may cause damage&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2696914/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ranging</a>&nbsp;from slight vision impairments to whole-eye vision loss.&nbsp;<a href="https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/001028.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Retinal artery occlusion</a>&nbsp;is linked to diabetes, high blood pressure, elevated levels of fat in blood and various disorders affecting the heart or the carotid artery, according to the National Library of Medicine’s MedlinePlus service.&nbsp;<a href="https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/007330.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Retinal vein occlusion</a>&nbsp;is linked to diabetes, high blood pressure, fatty buildup in the arteries and eye disorders like glaucoma. Outcomes are variable: while many patients&nbsp;<a href="https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/007330.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">regain</a>&nbsp;a degree of vision, there are&nbsp;<a href="https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/001028.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">no reliable treatments</a>&nbsp;for whole-eye vision loss due to a retinal vascular occlusion. These occlusions may indicate the presence of clots or fat deposits elsewhere in the body, warning of a risk of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/central-retinal-artery-occlusion" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">stroke</a>, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



<p>Though Covid-19’s immediate symptoms have been well documented, scientists have struggled to understand the longer-term effects of the virus. A&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacharysmith/2022/04/11/covid-smell-loss-linked-to-damage-in-brain-study-finds/?sh=4ce4bea22a94">study</a>&nbsp;published Monday by&nbsp;<em>JAMA Neurology</em>&nbsp;determined that the long-term smell loss reported by some Covid-19 patients is tied to damage to the olfactory bulb, the part of the brain that processes smells. Covid-19 has also been associated with a range of vascular issues such as inflammation of the heart muscle or the sac containing the heart. Some researchers have concluded that much of the damage caused by the coronavirus is not directly inflicted by the virus itself, but by infection symptoms like inflammation, the&nbsp;<em>New York Times</em>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/02/health/covid-smell.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reports</a>. The authors of the&nbsp;<em>JAMA Ophthalmology</em>&nbsp;study suggested a similar interpretation, theorizing that the initial vascular damage caused by Covid-19 infection might make some people more vulnerable to a pre-existing risk of retinal vascular occlusions.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-contra">CONTRA</h2>



<p>It’s possible that the&nbsp;<em>JAMA Ophthalmology</em>&nbsp;study underestimated the risk of retinal vascular occlusions among severely ill patients because those patients’ conditions may have prevented them from informing healthcare staff of vision changes, researchers said.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-we-don-t-know">WHAT WE DON’T KNOW</h2>



<p>Further research would be necessary to establish a cause-and-effect relationship between Covid-19 infection and retinal vascular occlusions, researchers said. The&nbsp;<em>JAMA Ophthalmology</em>&nbsp;study established only an association between the two conditions.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacharysmith/2022/04/11/covid-smell-loss-linked-to-damage-in-brain-study-finds/">“Covid Smell Loss Linked To Damage In Brain, Study Finds”</a> (Forbes)Follow me on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/snowdonsmith/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">LinkedIn</a>. Send me a secure <a href="https://www.forbes.com/tips/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tip</a>. </p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacharysmith/"></a><em><strong>By Zachary Snowdon Smith, Forbes Staff</strong></em></p>


Author: Forbes

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