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U.K. Chief Scientific Advisor Says 40% Of Covid Hospital Cases Are Vaccinated People, Global Stocks Sell Off

U.K. Chief Scientific Advisor Says 40% Of Covid Hospital Cases Are Vaccinated People, Global Stocks Sell Off

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Correction: This article has been updated from an earlier version that included an incorrect statistic on U.K. vaccination rates among those hospitalized for Covid-19.

Hospitalizations are rising in the highly vaccinated U.K., where 60 percent of people being admitted with covid-19 have not been vaccinated against the coronavirus vaccine, according to the U.K. government’s chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance.

Vallance corrected himself in a tweet on Monday after saying earlier at a Downing Street news briefing that about 60 percent of hospitalizations from covid were from fully vaccinated people.

Hospitalizations are up in the U.S. and around the world as well due to the deadly covid delta variant. A White House official and a staff member for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) have both tested positive for covid-19 after attending the same reception last week, officials confirmed to Axios. Both are vaccinated and mildly symptomatic, the report said.

“That vaccine sure is working!” Joey @solerKing247 tweeted.

The Dow Jones Industrial average on Monday had its worst day since October. Selling picked up over fears that a rebound in covid-19 cases will slow global economic growth, CNBC reported.

The Dow dropped 2.7 percent or 920 points, more than the 2-percent decline of late January. The S&P 500 fell 2.1 percent with energy and industrial sectors performing the worst and the Nasdaq Composite plunged 1.5 percent. The 10-year Treasury yield dropped to a new five-month low of 1.19 percent and crude oil tanked more than 6 percent.

In the U.S., CNN reported Monday that 24,923 people are hospitalized with covid-19, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. That’s a 26-percent increase from last week and a 50-percent increase from two weeks ago.

“This is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at a covid-19 briefing on Friday. More than 97 percent of people getting hospitalized with covid-19 are unvaccinated, Walensky said.

The U.K. is close to seeing the high numbers of the “winter wave” of infections, Vallance told reporters. He warned that there is the risk of “high levels of covid and they are increasing,” Sky News reported. “In the winter wave, we were up to around 60,000 people testing positive per day,” Vallance said. “We are now somewhere on towards 50,000. So we’re quite close to the size of the winter wave of infections and this is going to increase.”

Almost 90 percent of the adult U.K. population — more than 46 million people — have had a first vaccine dose. About two-thirds — more than 36 million – have had both doses, according to the BBC. The Pfizer, Moderna, Oxford/Astrazeneca and Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) vaccines are approved in the U.K.

By comparison, about 68 percent of U.S. people age 18 and older have received at least one vaccine and an increase in covid-19 cases has accompanied a leveling-off of U.S. vaccine rates. In the U.S., approved vaccines include ‎Pfizer, Moderna and ‎Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen.

Monday’s stock market moves were reminiscent of trading patterns at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Wall Street Journal reported: “Investors sold shares of companies directly affected by restrictions on movement and business, while buying government bonds and stocks that stood to benefit from renewed lockdowns.”

American and United airlines and Carnival cruises were all down at least 4.5 percent. Stocks that climbed included supermarket chain Kroger, up 3.4 percent, and online-crafts marketplace Etsy, which rose 2.8 percent.

“The Fear & Greed Index is 19. (Below 20 has historically been a pretty good time to buy.)” Tobias Carlisle
@Greenbackd tweeted on July 19.

The fear and greed index is a tool used by some investors to gauge the market. It is based on the premise that excessive fear can result in stocks trading well below their intrinsic values while greed can simultaneously result in stocks being bid up far higher than they should be worth.

Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 74: Jamarlin Martin Jamarlin returns for a new season of the GHOGH podcast to discuss Bitcoin, bubbles, and Biden. He talks about the risk factors for Bitcoin as an investment asset including origin risk, speculative market structure, regulatory, and environment. Are broader financial markets in a massive speculative bubble?