Stocks and oil prices fall as Moderna CEO says vaccines will struggle with Omicron
CNN
Global stocks and oil prices are falling again after a brief respite Monday from the heavy sell-off triggered by the emergence of the Omicron coronavirus variant.
Stocks in Asia Pacific and Europe slid, Dow futures were down 1% and oil prices fell about 2% as more countries reported cases of the variant and imposed new travel restrictions. The mood was also dampened by a warning from Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel that current vaccines will struggle with Omicron.
"There is no world, I think, where [the effectiveness] is the same level . . . we had with [the] Delta [variant]," Bancel said in an interview with the Financial Times published on Tuesday. "I think it's going to be a material drop. I just don't know how much because we need to wait for the data. But all the scientists I've talked to ... are like, 'This is not going to be good'."
The Republican-led House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic on Thursday morning will send a letter to US Attorney General Merrick Garland referring a potential criminal case involving former New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo to the Department of Justice, alleging he lied to Congress.