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| Presented By Bank of America |
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| Axios AM |
| By Mike Allen ·Jan 30, 2021 |
| 🧤 Happy Saturday! Today's Smart Brevity™ count: 895 words ... 3½ minutes. |
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| 1 big thing: We're selling the vaccine all wrong |
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| Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios |
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| COVID-19 vaccines are remarkably effective. But people are being discouraged from taking them because of all the emphasis on unknowns, Axios Future author Bryan Walsh reports. - Why it matters: The best vaccine in the world won't stop the pandemic if too few people take it.
Yes, some uncertainty remains about the shots' impact on spread and their effectiveness against new variants. - But a study of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine in monkeys suggested it'll reduce if not totally prevent transmission of the virus. Other research has shown similar effects with AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines.
But polling still shows more than half the U.S. would still decline or delay a shot if one were available to them now for free. - Some of that hesitancy is driven by general skepticism about vaccines and specific concerns about the new shots, despite reams of scientific data underscoring their safety.
- But it doesn't help that much of the messaging pushes the idea that life shouldn't change for the vaccinated even after they've gotten all of their shots, as they might have to keep wearing masks and social distancing afterward.
The bottom line ... Dr. Aaron Richterman, an infectious-disease specialist at Penn, told the N.Y. Times' David Leonhardt: "We're underselling the vaccine." |
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| 2. 🇨🇳 Xi critics caged for tweeting |
| This is chilling: China is imprisoning ordinary citizens who criticize the government on foreign social media — posts not even seen in China, The Wall Street Journal's Chun Han Wong reports from Hong Kong (subscription): - "Chinese authorities have sentenced more than 50 people to prison in the past three years for using Twitter and other foreign platforms — all blocked in China — allegedly to disrupt public order and attack party rule."
Why it matters: Human rights activists told The Journal this is a change from the past, when postings abroad were deterred through detentions and harassment. - "The growing use of prison sentences marks an escalation of China's efforts to control narratives and strangle criticism outside China's cloistered internet."
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| 3. GameStop revolt: "The market may never be the same" |
 GameStop, AMC theaters, fashion retailer Express. Data: YCharts. Chart: Axios Visuals The new power of retail investors, on full display this week in the GameStop chaos, is a "change that is not going to go away," NYU corporate-finance professor Aswath Damodaran told Barron's (subscription). - Why it matters: Traditional portfolio managers have lost control of the process.
Factors driving the wave, synthesized by Barron's: - During lockdown, "more new investors have opened accounts at brokers than ever before. U.S. brokers added at least 10 million new retail trading accounts, and a shift to zero trading commissions late in 2019 unlocked a wave of activity that dwarfed even the wild days of the dot-com bubble."
- "Daily options trading has more than doubled since 2019, led by retail investors who can get it free on platforms like Robinhood."
- Social momentum: A "big bet is easier when all your friends are doing it."
🗞️ How it's playing ... Courtesy Barron's |
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| A message from Bank of America |
| A pledge to support long-term equity in the workplace |
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| Bank of America is proud to be a founding member of the World Economic Forum's new Partnering for Racial Justice in Business initiative, a coalition of global organizations advocating for equitable workplaces. Bank of America is committed to playing a role to advance racial equality. |
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| 4. Pic du jour: Capitol Hill's new encampment |
| Photo: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visits National Guard troops deployed at the U.S. Capitol yesterday. Washingtonians navigate a new normal ... "[R]esidents of a quiet neighborhood nestled amid the national monuments are wrestling with life in a fortress, where checkpoints abut corner stores and armed soldiers are new neighbors," the WashPost reports. - The new security is — surprise! — polarizing: Some Capitol Hill residents have rallied behind the thousands of National Guard members, "bringing them wagons full of snacks and hot coffee ... Other locals have gone to great lengths to avoid the encampment."
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| 5. 🎬 "Axios on HBO" in Ukraine: How the world sees the U.S. |
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| Photo: "Axios on HBO" |
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| On tomorrow's season premiere of "Axios on HBO" (6 p.m. ET/PT), Jonathan Swan interviews Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was on the other end of the "perfect phone call" that led to President Trump's first impeachment. - Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan (subscription) previews the interview today. Zelensky, who has seen revolutions up close, told Swan he was "shocked" as he saw the U.S. Capitol stormed:
I could not even imagine something like this was possible in the United States of America. ... We are used to thinking that the U.S. has ideal democratic institutions where power is passed calmly, without war, without revolutions. ... That it could happen in the United States, no one expected that. ... After something like this, I believe it would be very difficult for the world to see the United States as a symbol of democracy in the world. See a 30-second clip. |
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| 6. Spies online |
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| Via ODNI |
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| The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), which integrates the 17 other members of the intelligence community, adds Instagram to its online networks. - The inaugural post shows Vice President Harris swearing in Avril Haines, the first woman to be director of national intelligence.
Follow here. |
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| 7. 🌶️ COVID boom in scent science |
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| Photo: Stephanie Gonot for The New York Times Magazine |
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| "The virus's strangest symptom has opened new doors to understanding our most neglected sense," Brooke Jarvis writes in the N.Y. Times Magazine: - Scientists have gone from thinking of smell as a "bonus sense" to a dominant one, and "from a secondary sense to one of the primary things that influences our life."
In the past, it "was always hard to get financing to study smell or smell disorders." Now, we're reminded that it's a startling superpower. You can walk through someone's front door and instantly know that she recently made popcorn. Drive down the street and somehow sense that the neighbors are barbecuing. Intuit, just as a side effect of breathing a bit of air, that this sweater has been worn but that one hasn't, that it's going to start raining soon, that the grass was trimmed a few hours back. If you weren't used to it, it would seem like witchcraft. Keep reading (subscription). |
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| 8. 🎰 1 game thing: Casinos add fantasy sports |
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| Betting lines at Race & Sports SuperBook at Westgate Las Vegas. Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images |
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| Casinos, internet gambling, sports betting and fantasy sports are all colliding with new, high-stakes partnerships, AP's Wayne Parry writes from Atlantic City: - Why it matters: This expansion is leading Wall Street analysts to predict fast-growing revenue in the U.S. over the next five to 10 years. Morgan Stanley sees a $15 billion sports betting and internet gambling market by 2025.
Driving the news: Two casino companies announced deals this week with fantasy sports providers. - Bally's acquired the daily fantasy sports company Monkey Knife Fight.
- Caesars Entertainment announced a strategic investment in SuperDraft, a daily fantasy sports company.
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| A message from Bank of America |
| Let's build opportunity for all in the workplace |
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| This week, World Economic Forum launched the Partnering for Racial Justice in Business initiative, a coalition committed to fostering racial and ethnic justice in the workplace. As a founding member of this initiative, Bank of America is committed to playing a role in the fight against racism. |
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| 📬 Thanks for starting your weekend with us. Please invite your friends to sign up for Axios AM/PM. |
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