| "This was not a drive by shooting on the information highway. This was a sniper round from somebody a mile away from your house." -- FireEye CEO Kevin Mandia outlines the nature of the massive SolarWinds cyber attack
Welcome to the "Face the Nation" Five at Five newsletter. Scroll down for your five takeaways from today's broadcast with moderator Margaret Brennan on CBS. Did someone forward you this? Sign-up at cbsnews.com/email. 1. Why no vaccine for Trump? SG Adams cites "medical reasons"  Amid questions about when President Trump will receive the coronavirus vaccine following the rollout of Pfizer's version last week, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams said the president has a "medical reason" for not getting vaccinated yet, citing an experimental antibody treatment he was given while recovering from COVID-19 in October. What we asked: Do you have plans to have President Trump get a shot in the arm on camera? What Adams said: "From a scientific point of view, I will remind people that the president has had COVID within the last 90 days. He received the monoclonal antibodies. And that is actually one scenario where we tell people maybe you should hold off on getting the vaccine, talk to your health provider to find out the right time. So politics aside there is a medical reason-- we know that monoclonal antibodies, if you've been administered them, actually are a potential reason why medically we would tell you to hold off on the vaccination." Why it matters: Adams' comments come as he, Vice President Mike Pence and second lady Karen Pence received their first dose of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine on live television, which was meant to build public confidence. President-elect Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden will get vaccinated Monday. The White House, however, has not said when the president or first lady, who was also infected with the virus, would get the vaccine. 2. Gottlieb talks concerns of latest COVID-19 strain in Europe  Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), warned Sunday that a new strain of the coronavirus discovered in Europe that prompted stringent restrictions in parts of the United Kingdom appears to be more contagious than existing variants but likely is not more lethal. What we asked: What do we know about the lethality of this strain? What Gottlieb said: "It's probably not more lethal, but we don't fully understand its contours. There was a question of whether or not this- there is a new variant and there's a question of whether or not it's become the predominant strain in London because of what we call founders' effect. It just got into London and got into some early super spreading events, or whether or not it's the result of what we call selective pressure, it's being selected for because it has qualities that make it more likely to spread. Increasingly, it does seem to be the latter. It seems like this new strain is more contagious. It doesn't seem to be any more virulent, any more dangerous than run of the mill COVID. The next question is, will it obviate our natural immunity? So, will people who had COVID from the old strain be able to get this new strain or will it obviate our vaccines? And the answer is probably not. This virus mutates like all viruses." Why it matters: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson imposed new, stricter restrictions in London and areas of southern England amid the rapid surge in coronavirus infections, which appears to be driven by a new strain of the coronavirus that is more than 70% more transmissible than existing variants. The U.K. alerted the World Health Organization to the new strain, and several European countries have stopped flights from the U.K. in response. Surgeon General Adams echoed Gottlieb's assessment of the new strain, telling "Face the Nation" earlier that officials "have no indications that it is going to hurt our ability to continue vaccinating people or that it is any more dangerous or deadly than the strains that are currently out there and that we know about." Meanwhile, incoming White House chief of staff Ron Klain said team Biden expected to be briefed on the new strain "early next week." 3. Cracking the hack: FireEye CEO talks SolarWinds attack  The intelligence community continues to learn more about what may be the worst cyber attack in history. It's affected many organizations, including federal agencies. Kevin Mandia, the CEO of FireEye, a cybersecurity company that was the first one to discover that this massive breach happened, shared insight into just exactly what took place and when. What we asked: Does it go back further than March? How long have hackers been inside the system? What Mandia said: "This is just one campaign in a long battle in cyberspace. But this campaign specifically has the earliest evidences of being designed. In October of 2019 when code was changed in the SolarWinds Orion platform, but it was innocuous code. It was not a backdoor. Then sometime in March, the operators behind this attack did put malicious code into the supply chain, injected it in there and that is the- the backdoor that impacted everybody. I think it's important to note everybody says this is potentially the biggest intrusion in our history. The reality is the blast radius for this, I kind of explain it with a funnel. It's true that over 300,000 companies use SolarWinds, but you come down from that total number down to about 18,000 or so companies that actually had the backdoor or malicious code in a network. And then you come down to the next part. It's probably only about 50 organizations or companies, somewhere in that zone that's genuinely impacted by the threat actor." Why it matters: Mandia's comments come as the FBI, DHS, and CISA have all expressed increased alarm about the intrusion that officials suspect was carried out by Russian hackers, with the nation's civilian cybersecurity agency warning that it poses a "grave" risk to government and private networks. Want to know more about the hack? Take a look at our Twitter Q+A from this week with Crowdstrike co-founder Dmitri Alperovich 4. Eli Lilly CEO on treatments for coronavirus  Eli Lilly Chairman & CEO David Ricks said on "Face the Nation" that it's disappointing his company's monoclonal antibody isn't being prescribed more and notes it's very important that those eligible talk to their doctor" about getting the treatment. What we asked: Why isn't this being prescribed more? What Ricks said: "It's disappointing news that we heard as well. I can tell you that across the country we've shipped and distributed broadly the monoclonal antibody from Lilly. And then in our clinical studies, it reduces the risk of hospitalization by about 70%. So, it's very important that those eligible talk to their doctor about getting this therapy. What we have seen, though, is differences in how different states and different hospital systems have chosen to act. Some really good cases where it's quite easy when your doctor recommends is to get the infusion. It's an infusion. It takes about two hours. And we've seen cases where there's been little or no action. So, it's important people know to ask their doctor if they're a candidate for this therapy." Why it matters: As Margaret Brennan noted, it shouldn't necessarily rely on the patient to tell their provider what kind of treatment they need. Ricks later clarified: "I'm not suggesting it's only the patient's responsibility... But we're also communicating with hospital systems and states because this is an emergency use authorization, unlike other approvals for drugs as a manufacturer, it's- it's not our role to go promote this." 5. Mary Daly on the COVID economy: Women are really in a bind  With sluggish improvements to job numbers overall, San Francisco Federal Reserve President Mary Daly noted that for women in the workforce, those numbers don't tell the whole picture. What we asked: There are a lot of people who've simply given up looking for work, that seems particularly acute among women. Why do you think that is? What Daly said: "Women are really in a bind. Many women still are the primary caregivers in their homes and we have home schooling now. So, women are being forced to make this really hard trade off and return to home, give up their careers, give up their jobs in order to make sure that their children are well cared for and can get the schooling and education they need. I mean, parenting is also essential work, and these women are taking on that essential responsibility because they don't have the normal school childcare, or child care more generally in the wake of COVID virus- COVID and coronavirus. So, we really are going to have to, kind of, come together to get past COVID, think about how to get these women back in the workforce, and back contributing in a way that they really want you to, to do both their childcare, their parenting and their vital work." Why it matters: With dismal job numbers and increasing demand on the family front, women are often left feeling the brunt of the economic toll as a result of the pandemic. Daly warned that without specific policies in place, like a national child care strategy, the crippling impacts on women specifically will be felt long term.
| 
No comments:
Post a Comment