vox--2020-12-07--One Good Thing: This true crime podcast about a murderous doctor is even scarier during a pandemic

One Good Thing is Vox ’ s recommendations feature .
In each edition , find one more thing from the world of culture that we highly recommend .
I listen to a metric ton of true crime podcasts — so many that murder starts to seem run-of-the-mill .
In that context , it ’ s hard to overstate the eagerness I felt when I sat down to marathon the new , six-episode second season of Wondery ’ s Dr. Death , the terrifying hit series about real doctors who knowingly inflict harm on their patients .
I loved season one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Death star host and medical journalist Laura Beil and have the same production team , the second season feels in many ways like a different , and weaker , series altogether .
But season two ’ s change in direction has renewed my appreciation for season one and its combination of taut , gripping storytelling and an unforgettable close-up look at systemic failure .
Dr. Death season one explored how institutional blind spots enabled a truly macabre central character to maim his patients over an 18-month surgical spree .
In retrospect , it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pandemic era , one of individual hubris married to society ’ s tendency to reward unearned entitlement .
And while it might be a little perverse to find pleasure in a story of medical malpractice during such a pandemic , Dr. Death ’ s first season stays fresh .
Season one of Dr. Death looks at a chilling case of medical malpractice The first season of Dr. Death , which launched in 2018 and ran for seven episodes , examined the life and horrific crimes of Christopher Duntsch .
Duntsch is a former @ @ @ @ @ @ @ combination of personal incompetence and sociopathy mixed with institutional indifference , managed to leave a string of mangled patients in his wake .
Among these patients — victims — were two people who died as a result of injuries Duntsch knowingly inflicted .
Over 18 months between 2011 and 2013 , Duntsch bounced around Dallas-area surgical practices , botching the surgeries of at least 33 of his patients while evincing an air of arrogant expertise that fooled multiple hospitals into hiring him .
This was despite his shaky track record and a string @ @ @ @ @ @ @ warning bells .
The entire time , Duntsch , who grew up rich and entitled , seemed to be aware he was making mistakes ; he falsified information on his CV and seemed to steamroll his critics on his way to the top .
“ Anyone close to me thinks that I likely am something between god , Einstein and the antichrist , ” he wrote in an email at one point while he was practicing surgery , “ because how can I do anything I want and cross every discipline boundary like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ [ ? ]
” A 2016 long-form article about Duntsch served as the basis for the 2018 podcast , which became a critically acclaimed hit and is currently being turned into a TV series for Peacock , with Joshua Jackson ( The Affair ) playing Duntsch .
Although the podcast ’ s first season ran just seven episodes , it left a striking impression : It was all I and most other true crime buffs I knew could talk about for weeks .
Because I ’ m a true crime nerd and perhaps @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ ve listened to many a jaw-dropping yarn about murder .
But the structured narrative , Beil ’ s way of incrementally revealing Duntsch ’ s history , and the sheer monumental scale of this story ’ s tragedies , audacities , and systemic failures made Dr. Death unlike any other series for me .
Beil takes you through a nightmare that unfolds at multiple levels .
There ’ s the actual gory surgical horror Duntsch inflicted — grueling and sometimes difficult even to listen to , with details about incisions and nerve @ @ @ @ @ @ @ most people never , ever want to hear in any setting , let alone this one .
She also charts Duntsch ’ s unbelievable progress through Dallas ’ s medical scene and all of the moments when he could , and should , have been held accountable for botched surgeries and malpractice , only to get pats on the back and his prior mishaps hand-waved away — all for the sake of convenience .
Above all , Beil focuses on Duntsch himself , with his confidence and his completely unwarranted arrogance about his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ devotes much of its time to close-reading Duntsch ’ s behavior and psychology .
By straightforwardly walking us through his college exploits , his drug-fueled residency days , and his complicated relationship with women , Beil delivers an unforgettable portrait of an entitled misogynist who joined toxic masculinity with narcissism and spent years passing off both traits as charisma .
For Dr. Death season two , Beil takes a different approach — and not one that entirely worked for me .
It ’ s a funny thing to realize that what I ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ series is what I usually complain about getting too much of : a closer look at the villain .
But season one put its villain in the foreground with a vengeance , and that made all the difference .
Dr. Death ’ s first season feels like a necessary exploration of how an entire system enables an incompetent narcissist It ’ s possible that I had set too high a bar for season two because of my love for season one , but the differences between the seasons are obvious .
Season two @ @ @ @ @ @ @ story of Dr. Farid Fata , a Lebanese American doctor who ran a renowned cancer clinic franchise in Michigan until whistleblowers who worked with him revealed that he ’ d been wrongfully diagnosing patients with cancer .
Apparently driven by greed , Fata had even put hundreds of his trusting patients on chemotherapy treatments they didn ’ t need .
The scale of Fata ’ s crimes is much bigger than Duntsch ’ s : He conducted his malpractice with less oversight because he ran a private practice , and carried out his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , all while his patients raved about him and he gained tremendous local acclaim as a caring and nurturing practitioner .
His nurses and staff saw a different side of him , however .
To them , Fata was the pinnacle of a megalomaniacal micromanager , a penny-pincher who deliberately eschewed established medical practice without ever being held accountable for it .
Season two of Dr. Death also scales outward .
Perhaps because Fata had so little professional oversight , Beil ’ s reporting turns away from examining his psychology or the system @ @ @ @ @ @ @ process of exposing his crimes .
Instead of focusing on Fata as the perpetrator , season two spends more time on several people who reported him , ultimately building to the climactic moment of exposure : a full-fledged FBI raid on Fata ’ s entire staff .
We do hear from a few of the victims and their families , and these are heart-wrenching tales of people duped by Fata ’ s outward show of kindness and veneer of authority .
But season two feels , overall , far more like a chase @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ m not sure a story about medical malpractice , especially one released during the pandemic , should feel this much like a thriller .
To be fair , some critics had similar complaints about season one ; the New Yorker noted that Wondery has made “ lurid ” true crime part of its milieu with series like Dr. Death and the equally popular Dirty John , another short-form true crime thriller .
But season one of Dr. Death is , to me , much different from the typical true crime podcast .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ down into its subject , it ’ s closer to the stellar second season of In The Dark , which my colleague Emily VanDerWerff called “ process-oriented storytelling.
” One of the stories from season one that people remember the most involves that of Jerry Summers , a lifelong friend of Duntsch ’ s who entrusted him with what should have been routine neck surgery only to wake up paralyzed — permanently .
That ’ s the kind of nightmare scenario you can only understand if you know both sides of Duntsch : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the upstanding model doctor people believed him to be .
Beil frames Duntsch within both contexts , letting a story of one sociopath become a much larger story about societal failure .
Summers and the other victims fell prey to the medical institutions that hired Duntsch and let him continue practicing despite botched surgeries , but they also fell prey to the social systems that reward confident men for their confidence , their swagger , and their gumption — regardless of whether those traits are earned .
I ‘ ve written about this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ crime narratives perpetuate this mystique of the confident man rather than working to demystify it .
The mythos of serial killer Ted Bundy continues to be one of the best examples of this , but other recent examples have sprung up , too .
The recent Netflix documentary American Murder worked hard to demystify family annihilator Chris Watts , who friends described as the perfect husband , and who was so popular he received a deluge of fan mail after he was imprisoned for murdering his wife and two young daughters .
Even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the Peacock show by the hunky Jamie Dornan , of Fifty Shades of Grey — a glamorous casting for an unglamorous guy who reportedly used to do his medical rounds while still high after all-nighters doing cocaine and LSD .
Dr. Death ’ s portrait of Duntsch works because Beil never stops reminding you how ordinary Duntsch ’ s brand of arrogant incompetence is , nor of the systems that allowed him to flourish .
She and her team of reporters hammer away at specific institutions for answers , especially Baylor , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
By contrast , season two hardly teaches us about Fata himself , his training , and the institutions that failed to check him .
One whistleblower carefully filed a report against Fata to her medical licensing organization through the internet , yet we learn nothing about the process by which that claim was investigated and ultimately closed — not even whether the organization that failed to act against Fata was subsequently investigated , or whether the claim was ever even seen by a pair of human eyes .
There ’ s a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ beats of season one and the relentless drill-down of season two .
Season two ’ s “ Dr .
Death ” comes off as a disturbingly distant caricature , as opposed to the uncomfortable close-up we ’ re forced to endure of Duntsch .
The racial implications here are uncomfortable as well ; that the podcast makes so little effort to unpack the psyche of a man who ultimately pleaded guilty to knowingly misdiagnosing or mistreating 553 patients seems to be a fraught choice .
Instead , season two focuses on the moral @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one also had its whistleblowers , a pair of Dallas surgeons who teamed up to stop Duntsch after realizing no one else would .
Their ethical dilemmas have stuck with me , feeling weightier because we glimpse so much of the complicated world of high-powered Dallas medical politics that they ’ re navigating .
It ’ s easy to see why the second season ’ s creative team might have chosen , in this time of the pandemic , to place the emphasis on regular people taking accountability and taking risks to ensure @ @ @ @ @ @ @ much in her final season two wrap-up interview .
But ironically , the disastrous way many authorities have dealt with the Covid-19 pandemic in the US — with a combination of hubris , arrogance , unearned confidence , and a lack of accountability for their decision-making — makes me value even more the lessons season one tried to teach us .
These earlier episodes now seem almost like a pandemic playbook — a way of understanding systems of incompetence and how they sometimes manifest in unthinkable ways .

One Good Thing is Vox’s recommendations feature. In each edition, find one more thing from the world of culture that we highly recommend.
I listen to a metric ton of true crime podcasts — so many that murder starts to seem run-of-the-mill. In that context, it’s hard to overstate the eagerness I felt when I sat down to marathon the new, six-episode second season of Wondery’s Dr. Death, the terrifying hit series about real doctors who knowingly inflict harm on their patients. I loved season one, and although both seasons of Dr. Death star host and medical journalist Laura Beil and have the same production team, the second season feels in many ways like a different, and weaker, series altogether.
But season two’s change in direction has renewed my appreciation for season one and its combination of taut, gripping storytelling and an unforgettable close-up look at systemic failure. Dr. Death season one explored how institutional blind spots enabled a truly macabre central character to maim his patients over an 18-month surgical spree. In retrospect, it feels like a tale ready-made for a pandemic era, one of individual hubris married to society’s tendency to reward unearned entitlement.
And while it might be a little perverse to find pleasure in a story of medical malpractice during such a pandemic, Dr. Death’s first season stays fresh.
Season one of Dr. Death looks at a chilling case of medical malpractice
The first season of Dr. Death, which launched in 2018 and ran for seven episodes, examined the life and horrific crimes of Christopher Duntsch. Duntsch is a former Dallas neurosurgeon who, through a staggering combination of personal incompetence and sociopathy mixed with institutional indifference, managed to leave a string of mangled patients in his wake.
Among these patients — victims — were two people who died as a result of injuries Duntsch knowingly inflicted. Over 18 months between 2011 and 2013, Duntsch bounced around Dallas-area surgical practices, botching the surgeries of at least 33 of his patients while evincing an air of arrogant expertise that fooled multiple hospitals into hiring him. This was despite his shaky track record and a string of alarmed surgeons who tried to sound warning bells.
The entire time, Duntsch, who grew up rich and entitled, seemed to be aware he was making mistakes; he falsified information on his CV and seemed to steamroll his critics on his way to the top. “Anyone close to me thinks that I likely am something between god, Einstein and the antichrist,” he wrote in an email at one point while he was practicing surgery, “because how can I do anything I want and cross every discipline boundary like its a playground and never ever lose[?]”
A 2016 long-form article about Duntsch served as the basis for the 2018 podcast, which became a critically acclaimed hit and is currently being turned into a TV series for Peacock, with Joshua Jackson (The Affair) playing Duntsch. Although the podcast’s first season ran just seven episodes, it left a striking impression: It was all I and most other true crime buffs I knew could talk about for weeks. Because I’m a true crime nerd and perhaps a bit of a masochist, I’ve listened to many a jaw-dropping yarn about murder. But the structured narrative, Beil’s way of incrementally revealing Duntsch’s history, and the sheer monumental scale of this story’s tragedies, audacities, and systemic failures made Dr. Death unlike any other series for me.
Beil takes you through a nightmare that unfolds at multiple levels. There’s the actual gory surgical horror Duntsch inflicted — grueling and sometimes difficult even to listen to, with details about incisions and nerve damage and, um, screws that most people never, ever want to hear in any setting, let alone this one. She also charts Duntsch’s unbelievable progress through Dallas’s medical scene and all of the moments when he could, and should, have been held accountable for botched surgeries and malpractice, only to get pats on the back and his prior mishaps hand-waved away — all for the sake of convenience.
Above all, Beil focuses on Duntsch himself, with his confidence and his completely unwarranted arrogance about his own expertise. Dr. Death season one devotes much of its time to close-reading Duntsch’s behavior and psychology. By straightforwardly walking us through his college exploits, his drug-fueled residency days, and his complicated relationship with women, Beil delivers an unforgettable portrait of an entitled misogynist who joined toxic masculinity with narcissism and spent years passing off both traits as charisma.
For Dr. Death season two, Beil takes a different approach — and not one that entirely worked for me. It’s a funny thing to realize that what I’m missing most from a true crime series is what I usually complain about getting too much of: a closer look at the villain. But season one put its villain in the foreground with a vengeance, and that made all the difference.
Dr. Death’s first season feels like a necessary exploration of how an entire system enables an incompetent narcissist
It’s possible that I had set too high a bar for season two because of my love for season one, but the differences between the seasons are obvious. Season two of Dr. Death examines the equally horrific story of Dr. Farid Fata, a Lebanese American doctor who ran a renowned cancer clinic franchise in Michigan until whistleblowers who worked with him revealed that he’d been wrongfully diagnosing patients with cancer. Apparently driven by greed, Fata had even put hundreds of his trusting patients on chemotherapy treatments they didn’t need.
The scale of Fata’s crimes is much bigger than Duntsch’s: He conducted his malpractice with less oversight because he ran a private practice, and carried out his horrors over a longer period of time, all while his patients raved about him and he gained tremendous local acclaim as a caring and nurturing practitioner. His nurses and staff saw a different side of him, however. To them, Fata was the pinnacle of a megalomaniacal micromanager, a penny-pincher who deliberately eschewed established medical practice without ever being held accountable for it.
Season two of Dr. Death also scales outward. Perhaps because Fata had so little professional oversight, Beil’s reporting turns away from examining his psychology or the system that produced him and toward dramatizing the process of exposing his crimes. Instead of focusing on Fata as the perpetrator, season two spends more time on several people who reported him, ultimately building to the climactic moment of exposure: a full-fledged FBI raid on Fata’s entire staff.
We do hear from a few of the victims and their families, and these are heart-wrenching tales of people duped by Fata’s outward show of kindness and veneer of authority. But season two feels, overall, far more like a chase thriller than season one — and I’m not sure a story about medical malpractice, especially one released during the pandemic, should feel this much like a thriller.
To be fair, some critics had similar complaints about season one; the New Yorker noted that Wondery has made “lurid” true crime part of its milieu with series like Dr. Death and the equally popular Dirty John, another short-form true crime thriller. But season one of Dr. Death is, to me, much different from the typical true crime podcast. In the way it chooses to drill down into its subject, it’s closer to the stellar second season of In The Dark, which my colleague Emily VanDerWerff called “process-oriented storytelling.”
One of the stories from season one that people remember the most involves that of Jerry Summers, a lifelong friend of Duntsch’s who entrusted him with what should have been routine neck surgery only to wake up paralyzed — permanently. That’s the kind of nightmare scenario you can only understand if you know both sides of Duntsch: the sociopath he really was, and the upstanding model doctor people believed him to be.
Beil frames Duntsch within both contexts, letting a story of one sociopath become a much larger story about societal failure. Summers and the other victims fell prey to the medical institutions that hired Duntsch and let him continue practicing despite botched surgeries, but they also fell prey to the social systems that reward confident men for their confidence, their swagger, and their gumption — regardless of whether those traits are earned.
I‘ve written about this tendency before — specifically, how true crime narratives perpetuate this mystique of the confident man rather than working to demystify it. The mythos of serial killer Ted Bundy continues to be one of the best examples of this, but other recent examples have sprung up, too.
The recent Netflix documentary American Murder worked hard to demystify family annihilator Chris Watts, who friends described as the perfect husband, and who was so popular he received a deluge of fan mail after he was imprisoned for murdering his wife and two young daughters. Even Duntsch was originally slated to be played on the Peacock show by the hunky Jamie Dornan, of Fifty Shades of Grey — a glamorous casting for an unglamorous guy who reportedly used to do his medical rounds while still high after all-nighters doing cocaine and LSD.
Dr. Death’s portrait of Duntsch works because Beil never stops reminding you how ordinary Duntsch’s brand of arrogant incompetence is, nor of the systems that allowed him to flourish. She and her team of reporters hammer away at specific institutions for answers, especially Baylor, where Duntsch first received his surgical privileges.
By contrast, season two hardly teaches us about Fata himself, his training, and the institutions that failed to check him. One whistleblower carefully filed a report against Fata to her medical licensing organization through the internet, yet we learn nothing about the process by which that claim was investigated and ultimately closed — not even whether the organization that failed to act against Fata was subsequently investigated, or whether the claim was ever even seen by a pair of human eyes.
There’s a world of difference in the broad overview beats of season one and the relentless drill-down of season two. Season two’s “Dr. Death” comes off as a disturbingly distant caricature, as opposed to the uncomfortable close-up we’re forced to endure of Duntsch. The racial implications here are uncomfortable as well; that the podcast makes so little effort to unpack the psyche of a man who ultimately pleaded guilty to knowingly misdiagnosing or mistreating 553 patients seems to be a fraught choice.
Instead, season two focuses on the moral quandaries faced by whistleblowers. Yet season one also had its whistleblowers, a pair of Dallas surgeons who teamed up to stop Duntsch after realizing no one else would. Their ethical dilemmas have stuck with me, feeling weightier because we glimpse so much of the complicated world of high-powered Dallas medical politics that they’re navigating.
It’s easy to see why the second season’s creative team might have chosen, in this time of the pandemic, to place the emphasis on regular people taking accountability and taking risks to ensure medical safety. Beil even says as much in her final season two wrap-up interview.
But ironically, the disastrous way many authorities have dealt with the Covid-19 pandemic in the US — with a combination of hubris, arrogance, unearned confidence, and a lack of accountability for their decision-making — makes me value even more the lessons season one tried to teach us. These earlier episodes now seem almost like a pandemic playbook — a way of understanding systems of incompetence and how they sometimes manifest in unthinkable ways.


vox--2020-12-07--How the US hopes to avoid bottlenecks in much-needed vaccine supplies

The first shipments of Covid-19 vaccines could be just days away , as the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna shots await regulatory approval .
Within 24 hours of the Food and Drug Administration ’ s go-ahead , either of these vaccines could begin shipping throughout the US in weeks , if not days .
The vaccines ’ successful journey from the pharmaceutical companies ’ manufacturers to Americans ’ immune systems will require more than just the vaccine itself .
The inoculation of more than 300 million people in the United States will require everything from glass vials to syringes to sophisticated cooling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there has been fear that the production of these supplies won ’ t have ramped up enough by the time a viable vaccine is ready for distribution .
These worries aren ’ t unfounded .
The early months of the pandemic saw strained supply chains and a slew of shortages .
There was a massive manufacturing effort to boost the number of ventilators , and a logistical gridlock over personal protective equipment like N-95 masks .
Testing has been delayed in recent months because there aren ’ t enough chemical reagents .
Now @ @ @ @ @ @ @ brings with it a whole new round of supply chain worries .
The groups that represent the links in the supply chain for vaccine production — drug companies , pharmaceutical supplies manufacturers , government agencies — have had months to prepare .
Their overall attitude seems to be one of cautious confidence .
Many of these companies say they ’ ve produced enough of the materials needed for the beginning of a mass vaccination campaign .
But that doesn ’ t mean they ’ ll have enough in the future .
Some initial @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reduced due to delays in securing enough raw material : Pfizer announced it will ship only half the vaccine supply it planned to distribute this year , though it expects to still make a billion doses available next year .
Meanwhile , the hardware components are coming together .
Production of freezer systems to distribute vaccines is ramping up , and companies that produce pharmaceutical glass for vials have spent the summer preparing their production lines .
The US government has also brought on the medical supply company McKesson to assemble handy vaccination @ @ @ @ @ @ @ needles .
Suppliers and experts told Recode that while distributing Covid-19 vaccines will take a significant amount of coordination , we shouldn ’ t expect widespread shortages of any needed materials — if everything goes as planned .
The vaccines from both Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna require two shots given weeks apart , which is certain to make the logistics even more complicated .
And underlying the whole effort is a fear of waste and the idea that precious vaccine doses could go bad due to logistical failures .
“ The most important question @ @ @ @ @ @ @ where will this go wrong ?
” said Glyn Hughes , the global head of cargo at the International Air Transport Association .
“ If it goes wrong , and a vaccine is effectively no longer usable , that ’ s potentially a life that ’ s at stake.
” Then there ’ s the question of how willing to take a vaccine Americans will be .
A November Gallup poll found that 58 percent of Americans would get a Covid-19 vaccine , up from 50 percent in September .
If enough people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ care facilities have enough supplies and coordination to inoculate them , the effective end of the pandemic in the US could be months away , not years .
A leading vaccine must be kept very , very cold The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine will likely be the first to receive emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration , and Moderna is expected to be next .
While Moderna ’ s vaccine can be kept in a regular refrigerator for up to a month , the Pfizer vaccine has to be stored at around @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that creates some major challenges for distribution .
For shipping and short-term storage , Pfizer has built packaging equipped with a cooling system that can keep the vaccine cold for up to 30 days if it ’ s refilled with dry ice every five days .
This system also includes a GPS-enabled thermal sensor to track the location and temperature of the shipment .
The Pfizer vaccine can also be stored in ultra-low-temperature freezers for up to six months .
Companies that supply such freezers have been working hard to meet the surge @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have ultra-cold freezers , they ’ re typically used for other medical purposes , which means that hospitals need more .
“ Right now , we are out of everything , ” an executive of So-Low Environmental Equipment , one of the makers of these freezers , told CNBC in November .
Alex Esmon of Thermo Fisher Scientific , which also makes ultra-low-temperature freezers , told Recode that the company started preparing for a surge in demand earlier this year and that orders have grown at least two-fold since then .
He points @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stored in a relatively small freezer , which means that health care facilities can calibrate what cooling supplies they need based on how many people they expect to inoculate in a given time period .
“ It doesn ’ t necessarily require a huge build-out , ” Esmon explained .
“ It requires the right build-out based on what each clinic and hospital system determines is going to be their need.
” And then there ’ s the need for dry ice , both for Pfizer ’ s custom vaccine packaging and for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the material .
Dry ice companies have expressed some caution about the supply of carbon dioxide that they rely on , as there was a shortage of the compound earlier this year .
While some of these providers say they ’ re fine for now , they don ’ t know what will happen once a vaccine receives authorization , but they anticipate a surge in demand .
“ Right now we have a great supply chain of CO2 , which is beautiful for us because we haven ’ t let down any @ @ @ @ @ @ @ months , ” Marc Savenor , the CEO of the company Acme Dry Ice , told Recode .
He added that his company is already hearing from transportation and pharmaceutics companies for advance orders .
Still , the unique temperature needs of the Pfizer vaccine necessitates some thinking ahead from facilities that will distribute it .
The cooling requirements could make it harder to distribute in rural areas , and even some hospitals don ’ t yet have enough infrastructure to keep it cold .
Those planning to distribute the Pfizer vaccine have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , or buying lots and lots of dry ice , according to Jessica Daley , a supply chain expert at the health care supplier Premier .
And as health care facilities consider the requirements of the first vaccine available , there are likely others down the line that will have different needs .
Anticipation of a vaccine has also boosted demand for pharmaceutical glass to make vials that will hold and protect doses while they ’ re being transported and stored .
Vials are important because they allow for the shipment of multiple @ @ @ @ @ @ @ container .
These vials can ’ t be too big , because once they ’ re opened , the vaccine inside can spoil quickly .
So we need a lot of vials .
Over the summer , there was enough concern about a shortage of vials that the German company Schott , the world ’ s largest producer of pharmaceutical glass , denied requests from drugmakers to reserve its borosilicate glass in advance .
( Borosilicate is a type of glass that can protect the vaccine from contamination — like tiny glass particles @ @ @ @ @ @ @ says it made three out of every four glass vials used in all three stages of vaccine trials , and in preparation for a vaccine , the company aims to produce enough vials for 2 billion vaccinations .
The Italian firm Stevanato Group , which also aims to produce enough glass for 2 billion doses , and the German company Gerrescheimer , have also committed to supplying pharmaceutical glass for vaccine containers .
US companies are also producing alternatives as protection against bottlenecks .
For several years , the New York-based glass manufacturer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ type of pharmaceutical glass , but the pandemic has given the novel material new promise .
Valor Glass is supposed to be stronger than borosilicate glass , and less likely to produce cracks that can affect the sterility of a vaccine dose .
( Corning also produces borosilicate glass tubing as well as Gorilla Glass , which is used for smartphone screens . )
In June , Corning received a $ 200 million contract from the US government to expand production of Valor Glass .
The company now plans to produce an extra @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of 2021 , which would be 10 times what it produced before the pandemic , according to Brendan Mosher , the vice president and general manager of Corning ’ s pharmaceutical glass business .
Another alternative is from SiO2 Materials Science , which makes medical-grade containers out of plastic that have a very thin coating of pure silica , the primary ingredient in most glass .
The material can withstand incredibly cold temperatures , is lighter than traditional glass , and is less likely to break , SiO2 ’ s chief business officer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vials are already being used by Moderna and other companies that make Covid-19 treatments .
A $ 143 million contract with the federal government helped SiO2 Materials Science add hundreds more employees , and Ganti says the company will be producing vials for about 200 million doses every month by 2021 .
When vials full of doses are delivered to and unpackaged at their facilities , health care workers will use needles and syringes to remove the dose from the container and inject the vaccine into patients .
Across the US and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ number of syringes and needles .
Over the summer , Trump administration trade and manufacturing policy director Peter Navarro warned that it could take up to two years to manufacture enough syringes and needles to distribute a coronavirus vaccine nationwide .
In a whistleblower complaint , vaccine expert Rick Bright also warned that the Strategic National Stockpile only had 15 million syringes and later urged members of Congress to boost the government ’ s supply .
The country , the experts said , would need hundreds of millions of needles .
The government @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and needles in the intervening months .
The Department of Defense has spent $ 100 million to secure more syringes and safety needles in a deal meant to provide over 500 million safety syringes within a year to the Strategic National Stockpile .
The federal government also loaned nearly $ 600 million to a Connecticut-based company called ApiJect , which produces pre-filled syringes that serve as an alternative to the standard methods of injection .
This particular device hasn ’ t been used before — a fact that has prompted some confusion and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ yet to be approved by the FDA .
Meanwhile , health care supplier McKesson has been charged by the federal government with assembling vaccine kits , which include needles and syringes , for both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines on behalf of the Strategic National Stockpile .
The government is also working with Becton , Dickinson , and Company , also known as BD , which is one of the world ’ s largest producers of syringes and needles .
BD aims to supply the government with 286 million syringes by early spring @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to McKesson to be included in the US supply of vaccine kits .
“ This is a wonderful solution for providers because all of those little things that , like you said , you don ’ t often think about — the alcohol wipes , the Band-Aids , the syringes , the needles — those things will be provided in those kits , ” Daley , the supply chain expert at Premier , told Recode , adding that they don ’ t anticipate a shortage of syringes .
Still , BD has also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more than they need , and that health care providers planning to distribute the Covid-19 vaccine should not order injection devices on their own .
But the company ’ s senior vice president for public affairs , Elizabeth Woody , expressed confidence in the plans , saying that the company felt prepared for the pandemic in part because of its experience with the H1N1 outbreak .
“ We got a flavor of what might be required at a time like this , ” Woody told Recode .
“ Since the start of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ working around the clock , discussing our needs with governments across the globe , and really running our needle and syringe production lines 24/7.
” The task of distributing vaccines to hundreds of millions of people is daunting Taking all of the needed materials into account — freezers , glass vials , syringes , needles — there ’ s still a lot of anxiety around making sure that the vaccine ends up in the right place at the right time .
No one wants vaccine doses to go to waste .
While Pfizer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will handle the distribution of the vaccine from Moderna once it ’ s approved .
But there are other key players that are preparing for their role in vaccine distribution .
Airlines are bracing to start moving the vaccine , even turning to passenger planes that have been grounded by low demand during the pandemic .
Shippers like FedEx , UPS , and DHL are all preparing for deliveries , and some are boosting freezer storage while also balancing the demands of holiday season online shopping .
Once the vaccine arrives , there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Depending on their area and resources , local health facilities could vary widely in their ability to get vaccines to patients .
“ My concern is there may not be enough storage capacity or staff to be able to vaccinate at the desired rate , ” Northwestern professor Hani Mahmassani told Recode .
“ There ’ s a myriad of little things that can go wrong at that level , and you may not have the health care infrastructure to deliver.
” The second dose also presents unique challenges : Vaccine distributors injecting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ need to be meticulous about which patients receive which vaccine , and keep track of who needs a booster shot just a few weeks later .
Meditech , one prominent provider of electronic health records in the US , is working on providing a certificate to patients as they receive the first and second dose , for instance .
US health officials have also said that people who get vaccinated will receive “ vaccine cards , ” harking back to the idea of immunity passports discussed earlier this year .
But that means @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for delivering vaccines and supplies hold up , the greatest challenge will still be logistical : getting the right people to show up and receive the vaccine — and a necessary booster — at the right time .
For health care facilities , that will mean a high level of coordination and meticulous tracking .
There ’ s understandable fear that that might be a far-fetched goal , too .
Nearly a year into the pandemic , Covid-19 testing is still crippled by long lines , delays , and confusion .
Even if @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the vaccine goes off without a hitch , the public has to be willing to take the vaccine and get their booster shots in the right time frame .
Large numbers of people need to be inoculated for the US population to reach herd immunity .
“ If only 40 percent of the population gets vaccinated , this thing will not disappear , ” said Hughes , the air cargo expert at IATA .
Otherwise , he added , the vaccine is “ a bit like a fire break when you have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spread , but it won ’ t save the forest .
Open Sourced is made possible by Omidyar Network .
All Open Sourced content is editorially independent and produced by our journalists .

The first shipments of Covid-19 vaccines could be just days away, as the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna shots await regulatory approval. Within 24 hours of the Food and Drug Administration’s go-ahead, either of these vaccines could begin shipping throughout the US in weeks, if not days.
The vaccines’ successful journey from the pharmaceutical companies’ manufacturers to Americans’ immune systems will require more than just the vaccine itself. The inoculation of more than 300 million people in the United States will require everything from glass vials to syringes to sophisticated cooling systems. But since this summer, there has been fear that the production of these supplies won’t have ramped up enough by the time a viable vaccine is ready for distribution.
These worries aren’t unfounded. The early months of the pandemic saw strained supply chains and a slew of shortages. There was a massive manufacturing effort to boost the number of ventilators, and a logistical gridlock over personal protective equipment like N-95 masks. Testing has been delayed in recent months because there aren’t enough chemical reagents.
Now, the imminent arrival of Covid-19 vaccines brings with it a whole new round of supply chain worries. The groups that represent the links in the supply chain for vaccine production — drug companies, pharmaceutical supplies manufacturers, government agencies — have had months to prepare. Their overall attitude seems to be one of cautious confidence. Many of these companies say they’ve produced enough of the materials needed for the beginning of a mass vaccination campaign.
But that doesn’t mean they’ll have enough in the future. Some initial projects for vaccine production are already being reduced due to delays in securing enough raw material: Pfizer announced it will ship only half the vaccine supply it planned to distribute this year, though it expects to still make a billion doses available next year.
Meanwhile, the hardware components are coming together. Production of freezer systems to distribute vaccines is ramping up, and companies that produce pharmaceutical glass for vials have spent the summer preparing their production lines. The US government has also brought on the medical supply company McKesson to assemble handy vaccination kits filled with materials like syringes and needles.
Suppliers and experts told Recode that while distributing Covid-19 vaccines will take a significant amount of coordination, we shouldn’t expect widespread shortages of any needed materials — if everything goes as planned. The vaccines from both Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna require two shots given weeks apart, which is certain to make the logistics even more complicated. And underlying the whole effort is a fear of waste and the idea that precious vaccine doses could go bad due to logistical failures.
“The most important question that countries have to ask themselves is where will this go wrong?” said Glyn Hughes, the global head of cargo at the International Air Transport Association. “If it goes wrong, and a vaccine is effectively no longer usable, that’s potentially a life that’s at stake.”
Then there’s the question of how willing to take a vaccine Americans will be. A November Gallup poll found that 58 percent of Americans would get a Covid-19 vaccine, up from 50 percent in September. If enough people are willing to get inoculated and health care facilities have enough supplies and coordination to inoculate them, the effective end of the pandemic in the US could be months away, not years.
A leading vaccine must be kept very, very cold
The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine will likely be the first to receive emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration, and Moderna is expected to be next. While Moderna’s vaccine can be kept in a regular refrigerator for up to a month, the Pfizer vaccine has to be stored at around minus 70 degrees Celsius, a fact that creates some major challenges for distribution.
For shipping and short-term storage, Pfizer has built packaging equipped with a cooling system that can keep the vaccine cold for up to 30 days if it’s refilled with dry ice every five days. This system also includes a GPS-enabled thermal sensor to track the location and temperature of the shipment. The Pfizer vaccine can also be stored in ultra-low-temperature freezers for up to six months.
Companies that supply such freezers have been working hard to meet the surge in demand. While many hospitals already have ultra-cold freezers, they’re typically used for other medical purposes, which means that hospitals need more. “Right now, we are out of everything,” an executive of So-Low Environmental Equipment, one of the makers of these freezers, told CNBC in November.
Alex Esmon of Thermo Fisher Scientific, which also makes ultra-low-temperature freezers, told Recode that the company started preparing for a surge in demand earlier this year and that orders have grown at least two-fold since then. He points out that thousands of doses can be stored in a relatively small freezer, which means that health care facilities can calibrate what cooling supplies they need based on how many people they expect to inoculate in a given time period.
“It doesn’t necessarily require a huge build-out,” Esmon explained. “It requires the right build-out based on what each clinic and hospital system determines is going to be their need.”
And then there’s the need for dry ice, both for Pfizer’s custom vaccine packaging and for other types of freezers that rely on the material. Dry ice companies have expressed some caution about the supply of carbon dioxide that they rely on, as there was a shortage of the compound earlier this year. While some of these providers say they’re fine for now, they don’t know what will happen once a vaccine receives authorization, but they anticipate a surge in demand.
“Right now we have a great supply chain of CO2, which is beautiful for us because we haven’t let down any of our customers in the last six months,” Marc Savenor, the CEO of the company Acme Dry Ice, told Recode. He added that his company is already hearing from transportation and pharmaceutics companies for advance orders.
Still, the unique temperature needs of the Pfizer vaccine necessitates some thinking ahead from facilities that will distribute it. The cooling requirements could make it harder to distribute in rural areas, and even some hospitals don’t yet have enough infrastructure to keep it cold.
Those planning to distribute the Pfizer vaccine have to decide between investing in ultra-low-temperature freezers, or buying lots and lots of dry ice, according to Jessica Daley, a supply chain expert at the health care supplier Premier. And as health care facilities consider the requirements of the first vaccine available, there are likely others down the line that will have different needs.
A Covid-19 vaccine means glass vials — and new alternatives
Anticipation of a vaccine has also boosted demand for pharmaceutical glass to make vials that will hold and protect doses while they’re being transported and stored. Vials are important because they allow for the shipment of multiple shots of a vaccine in the same container. These vials can’t be too big, because once they’re opened, the vaccine inside can spoil quickly. So we need a lot of vials.
Over the summer, there was enough concern about a shortage of vials that the German company Schott, the world’s largest producer of pharmaceutical glass, denied requests from drugmakers to reserve its borosilicate glass in advance. (Borosilicate is a type of glass that can protect the vaccine from contamination — like tiny glass particles — and high temperatures.) Schott says it made three out of every four glass vials used in all three stages of vaccine trials, and in preparation for a vaccine, the company aims to produce enough vials for 2 billion vaccinations. The Italian firm Stevanato Group, which also aims to produce enough glass for 2 billion doses, and the German company Gerrescheimer, have also committed to supplying pharmaceutical glass for vaccine containers.
US companies are also producing alternatives as protection against bottlenecks. For several years, the New York-based glass manufacturer Corning has been working on a novel type of pharmaceutical glass, but the pandemic has given the novel material new promise. Valor Glass is supposed to be stronger than borosilicate glass, and less likely to produce cracks that can affect the sterility of a vaccine dose. (Corning also produces borosilicate glass tubing as well as Gorilla Glass, which is used for smartphone screens.)
In June, Corning received a $200 million contract from the US government to expand production of Valor Glass. The company now plans to produce an extra 164 million vials annually by the end of 2021, which would be 10 times what it produced before the pandemic, according to Brendan Mosher, the vice president and general manager of Corning’s pharmaceutical glass business.
Another alternative is from SiO2 Materials Science, which makes medical-grade containers out of plastic that have a very thin coating of pure silica, the primary ingredient in most glass. The material can withstand incredibly cold temperatures, is lighter than traditional glass, and is less likely to break, SiO2’s chief business officer Lawrence Ganti told Recode. These high-tech vials are already being used by Moderna and other companies that make Covid-19 treatments. A $143 million contract with the federal government helped SiO2 Materials Science add hundreds more employees, and Ganti says the company will be producing vials for about 200 million doses every month by 2021.
Vaccines require lots of syringes and needles
When vials full of doses are delivered to and unpackaged at their facilities, health care workers will use needles and syringes to remove the dose from the container and inject the vaccine into patients. Across the US and the world, this will require an incredible number of syringes and needles.
Over the summer, Trump administration trade and manufacturing policy director Peter Navarro warned that it could take up to two years to manufacture enough syringes and needles to distribute a coronavirus vaccine nationwide. In a whistleblower complaint, vaccine expert Rick Bright also warned that the Strategic National Stockpile only had 15 million syringes and later urged members of Congress to boost the government’s supply. The country, the experts said, would need hundreds of millions of needles.
The government has ramped up the production of syringes and needles in the intervening months. The Department of Defense has spent $100 million to secure more syringes and safety needles in a deal meant to provide over 500 million safety syringes within a year to the Strategic National Stockpile. The federal government also loaned nearly $600 million to a Connecticut-based company called ApiJect, which produces pre-filled syringes that serve as an alternative to the standard methods of injection. This particular device hasn’t been used before — a fact that has prompted some confusion and concern, especially since the device has yet to be approved by the FDA.
Meanwhile, health care supplier McKesson has been charged by the federal government with assembling vaccine kits, which include needles and syringes, for both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines on behalf of the Strategic National Stockpile. The government is also working with Becton, Dickinson, and Company, also known as BD, which is one of the world’s largest producers of syringes and needles. BD aims to supply the government with 286 million syringes by early spring, many of which will be sent to McKesson to be included in the US supply of vaccine kits.
“This is a wonderful solution for providers because all of those little things that, like you said, you don’t often think about — the alcohol wipes, the Band-Aids, the syringes, the needles — those things will be provided in those kits,” Daley, the supply chain expert at Premier, told Recode, adding that they don’t anticipate a shortage of syringes.
Still, BD has also warned buyers not to stockpile or buy more than they need, and that health care providers planning to distribute the Covid-19 vaccine should not order injection devices on their own. But the company’s senior vice president for public affairs, Elizabeth Woody, expressed confidence in the plans, saying that the company felt prepared for the pandemic in part because of its experience with the H1N1 outbreak.
“We got a flavor of what might be required at a time like this,” Woody told Recode. “Since the start of the Covid pandemic, we’ve been working around the clock, discussing our needs with governments across the globe, and really running our needle and syringe production lines 24/7.”
The task of distributing vaccines to hundreds of millions of people is daunting
Taking all of the needed materials into account — freezers, glass vials, syringes, needles — there’s still a lot of anxiety around making sure that the vaccine ends up in the right place at the right time. No one wants vaccine doses to go to waste.
While Pfizer will distribute its own vaccine, McKesson will handle the distribution of the vaccine from Moderna once it’s approved. But there are other key players that are preparing for their role in vaccine distribution. Airlines are bracing to start moving the vaccine, even turning to passenger planes that have been grounded by low demand during the pandemic. Shippers like FedEx, UPS, and DHL are all preparing for deliveries, and some are boosting freezer storage while also balancing the demands of holiday season online shopping.
Once the vaccine arrives, there’s another hurdle before injection. Depending on their area and resources, local health facilities could vary widely in their ability to get vaccines to patients.
“My concern is there may not be enough storage capacity or staff to be able to vaccinate at the desired rate,” Northwestern professor Hani Mahmassani told Recode. “There’s a myriad of little things that can go wrong at that level, and you may not have the health care infrastructure to deliver.”
The second dose also presents unique challenges: Vaccine distributors injecting patients with the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine need to be meticulous about which patients receive which vaccine, and keep track of who needs a booster shot just a few weeks later. Meditech, one prominent provider of electronic health records in the US, is working on providing a certificate to patients as they receive the first and second dose, for instance. US health officials have also said that people who get vaccinated will receive “vaccine cards,” harking back to the idea of immunity passports discussed earlier this year.
But that means that even if all the supply chains for delivering vaccines and supplies hold up, the greatest challenge will still be logistical: getting the right people to show up and receive the vaccine — and a necessary booster — at the right time. For health care facilities, that will mean a high level of coordination and meticulous tracking. There’s understandable fear that that might be a far-fetched goal, too. Nearly a year into the pandemic, Covid-19 testing is still crippled by long lines, delays, and confusion.
Even if the supply chain holds and the distribution of the vaccine goes off without a hitch, the public has to be willing to take the vaccine and get their booster shots in the right time frame. Large numbers of people need to be inoculated for the US population to reach herd immunity.
“If only 40 percent of the population gets vaccinated, this thing will not disappear,” said Hughes, the air cargo expert at IATA. Otherwise, he added, the vaccine is “a bit like a fire break when you have a wildfire.” It might slow the spread, but it won’t save the forest.
Open Sourced is made possible by Omidyar Network. All Open Sourced content is editorially independent and produced by our journalists.


vox--2020-12-07--Retired Gen. Lloyd Austin reportedly chosen as the first Black person to lead the Pentagon

President-elect Joe Biden has reportedly chosen retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin to be secretary of defense — making him the first Black person and the third retired military officer ever nominated for the post .
The news was first reported by Politico , then confirmed by CNN , the Wall Street Journal , and the New York Times .
Austin ’ s nomination comes as a bit of a surprise .
For months , the expectation was that Michèle Flournoy , a former top Pentagon official , would be Biden ’ s nominee , making her the first woman to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ faced resistance in recent days from some progressive groups unsettled by her past support for the war in Afghanistan and ties to the defense industry ; at the same time , members of the Congressional Black Caucus began pushing Biden to select a Black defense secretary .
That helped paved the way for Austin to get the nod , especially as Biden seeks to form a more diverse Cabinet that “ looks like America.
” There ’ s no doubting Austin ’ s military credentials .
Starting his Army career in 1975 as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ become a four-star general and the commander of US Central Command — the US military organization overseeing operations in the Middle East — in 2013 .
It was in that role that he gained notoriety for being “ an invisible general ” who shunned the limelight and the press as he helped lead the US military fight against ISIS .
He sometimes garnered attention for the wrong reasons .
In September 2015 , Austin told the Senate Armed Services Committee that only “ four or five ” of the 54 US-trained rebels in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the terrorist group .
By that point , $ 42 million had been spent on the $ 500 million training program that had begun that April .
Upon his retirement in 2016 , though , then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter called Austin “ a soldier ’ s soldier , ” and then-President Barack Obama stated that he ’ d “ relied on his wise judgment and steadfast leadership.
” Confirming Austin won ’ t be a straightforward process , though .
Like former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis , Austin will require a congressional waiver @ @ @ @ @ @ @ current law doesn ’ t allow the role to be filled by someone who has served in uniform on active duty in the past seven years .
Sen. Jack Reed ( D-RI ) , the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee , said he ’ d oppose a waiver for a recently retired officer .
Further , Austin is a board director at Raytheon Technologies , a major US defense contractor — a position that is sure to roil some progressives .
Still , with this nomination , Biden has placed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spotlight — and it remains to be seen how he does in it .

President-elect Joe Biden has chosen retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin to be secretary of defense, two sources familiar with the decision told me — making him the first Black person and the third retired military officer ever nominated for the post.
The news was first reported by Politico, then confirmed by other outlets like CNN, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times.
Austin’s nomination comes as a bit of a surprise. For months, the expectation was that Michèle Flournoy, a former top Pentagon official, would be Biden’s nominee, making her the first woman to head the Defense Department. But she faced resistance in recent days from some progressive groups unsettled by her past support for the war in Afghanistan and ties to the defense industry; at the same time, members of the Congressional Black Caucus began pushing Biden to select a Black defense secretary.
That helped paved the way for Austin to get the nod, especially as Biden seeks to form a more diverse Cabinet that “looks like America.”
There’s no doubting Austin’s military credentials. Starting his Army career in 1975 as a second lieutenant, he rose to become a four-star general and the commander of US Central Command — the US military organization overseeing operations in the Middle East — in 2013. It was in that role that he gained notoriety for being “an invisible general” who shunned the limelight and the press as he helped lead the US military fight against ISIS.
He sometimes garnered attention for the wrong reasons. In September 2015, Austin told the Senate Armed Services Committee that only “four or five” of the 54 US-trained rebels in Syria were still on the ground fighting the terrorist group. By that point, $42 million had been spent on the $500 million training program that had begun that April.
Upon his retirement in 2016, though, then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter called Austin “a soldier’s soldier,” and then-President Barack Obama stated that he’d “relied on his wise judgment and steadfast leadership.”
Confirming Austin won’t be a straightforward process, though. Like former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Austin will require a congressional waiver to become the defense secretary, as current law doesn’t allow the role to be filled by someone who has served in uniform on active duty in the past seven years. Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in 2018 that he’d oppose approving a waiver ever again.
Further, Austin is a board director at Raytheon Technologies, a major US defense contractor — a position that is sure to roil some progressives.
Still, with this nomination, Biden has placed the “invisible general” in the spotlight — and it remains to be seen how he does in it.


vox--2020-12-07--Brexit talks enter the final stage — maybe

Brexit negotiations have reached a “ critical stage , ” according to the UK government .
What that all means for the prospect of a Brexit deal is , well , still pretty unclear .
The United Kingdom and the European Union are trying to work out their future relationship , after the UK formally left the bloc in January .
In fact , they ’ ve been working on this for many months , but major sticking points have prevented the two sides from reaching an agreement .
And after a few self-imposed deadlines , the actual deadline of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ short weeks away .
The urgency of the moment is underscored by this “ last ditch ” effort to get to an agreement .
The EU ’ s chief Brexit negotiator , Michel Barnier , has said that negotiations can continue to midweek , but not beyond that .
That ’ s in part because while December 31 may be the official deadline , both the UK and the European parliaments must ratify and implement any agreement by then .
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s a real way forward .
Based on their statement from the meeting , signs of progress are scant .
But it ’ s also not quite over yet .
Johnson plans to head to Brussels for this last push toward an agreement .
“ We agreed that the conditions for finalising an agreement are not there , due to the remaining significant differences on three critical issues , ” Johnson and von der Leyen said in a joint statement .
“ We asked our chief negotiators and their teams to prepare @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be discussed in a physical meeting in Brussels in the coming days.
” The result is a Brexit the world is accustomed to : time running short , deadlines looming , the EU and the UK at an impasse despite the threat of a no-deal crash-out .
This time , though , the stakes are even higher , as it all comes against the backdrop of a pandemic and massive economic disruption on the continent .
A failure to strike a deal could exacerbate the economic crisis , especially in the UK .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ of a deal — and yet , no one is quite ready to give up on the chance that the UK and EU will pull something through at the end .
“ It ’ s still , I think , quite uncertain , ” Steven Peers , a professor of law at the University of Essex , told me .
“ Either way , really , somebody has to compromise .
One side has to compromise , and there ’ s no sign of it sufficiently yet.
” The United Kingdom formally left @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but it entered into an 11-month transition period in which it continued to follow EU rules .
The point of the transition period was to give both the EU and the UK time to figure out their post-breakup relationship .
The two sides need to come up with a trade arrangement , but they also have to deal with a slew of other issues , from fishing to security cooperation .
Those negotiations have dragged on for months , held up by three main issues : fisheries , governance , and state aid @ @ @ @ @ @ @ field.
” The fisheries issue is a relatively minor economic question for both the UK and the EU , but it ’ s taken an outsize role in the debate .
It accounts for a very small percentage of the UK economy — as the New York Times reported , Harrods department store contributes more annually to the UK economy — but it ’ s a politically important industry , and symbolically tied to the Brexit ideal of reclaiming sovereignty , including over UK waters .
But the UK doesn ’ t take @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is also a politically important and symbolic industry in some EU member-states , who want to retain access to UK waters .
France wants to keep the current arrangements , and French President Emmanuel Macron has insisted that he will not sacrifice France ’ s fishing industry in any deal .
Macron is under a lot of political pressure at home , where his support is flagging , most recently around a controversial security law .
Governance is also an issue , which is basically how any deal will be enforced , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ certain goods — will exist if one party breaks the terms of any agreement .
This is a particularly sensitive subject for the European Union , which is afraid the UK won ’ t live up to its commitments , especially after the UK introduced a bill that would have violated parts of the Brexit deal Johnson reached with the EU last year .
That legislation , known as the Internal Market Bill , was returned to Parliament on Monday , where MPs added back in some clauses that would have breached the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the UK has reportedly extended something of an olive branch , with the government saying it will take out those provisions if the EU and UK can get a deal .
And then there ’ s the issue of state aid , often framed as the “ level playing field ” arrangements .
The EU is insisting that if the UK wants tariff-free access to its single market , it can ’ t try to undercut the EU by subsidizing industries or businesses ; the EU also wants to guard against the UK @ @ @ @ @ @ @ post-Brexit .
But the UK sees this as the EU trying to get it to follow the rules of the club it just left .
Brexit was supposed to give the UK the power to reclaim its sovereignty and reestablish its own trading regime , so they ’ ve bristled at these demands .
This is basically where the two sides have been for months , entrenched on these same issues , with each side accusing the other of being inflexible .
“ The problem is that both sides want the other to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ root of the problem , ” Anand Menon , director of The UK in a Changing Europe , told me .
“ I ’ m pretty sure that if the British government gave ground on the level playing field and governance , the EU would suddenly manage a slightly more flexible attitude on fish .
Equally , the EU isn ’ t going to do that until they sense some movement .
So there ’ s a bit of a chicken and egg issue.
” The call between Johnson and von der Leyen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are ongoing , and Johnson is expected to head to Brussels later this week .
But so far there ’ s been no signal of a real breakthrough .
And that may have as much to do with the internal politics around the outstanding issues as with the issues themselves .
As experts told me , the options for compromise are available and are attainable .
“ The question really is , is Boris Johnson ready in the next 24-48 hours to move that small more distance ?
” Michael Leigh , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tank , told me .
“ And you know , has [ Michel ] Barnier got the freedom , particularly now vis-a-vis Paris , to move as well.
” What ’ s next ?
A deal .
Or maybe no deal .
So is this week really the do-or-die moment for Brexit ?
Barnier gave the deadline as this Wednesday , likely because the European Council is meeting later that week , which would allow the leaders of the EU member-states to sign off on any agreement .
Experts I spoke to didn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the two sides pushing talks to the ultimate last moment , or even fudging some bare-bones deal by the end of December and then resuming talks in January .
But that ’ s also just a lot harder to do in this stage of Brexit .
December 31 is the deadline according to the EU-UK withdrawal agreement ( the first Brexit deal ) , and that ’ s an international treaty .
Both the UK Parliament and the European Parliament need to ratify any agreement , and they need to implement this deal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the first phase of Brexit , even if there is a deal , the relationship between the EU and the UK will change , and there will likely be disruptions , no matter what .
The UK will be out of the EU single market , and the transition period — which kept everything temporarily the same — will be over .
The goal of the EU-UK trade deal is to allow for tariff- and quota-free trade .
But even if that happens , businesses will still face new barriers , like new @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a separate trading regime , and there will be checks on goods crossing the Irish Sea to Britain .
This is going to cause some turbulence for both the EU and the UK — but even more so for the UK , as the EU is its biggest trading partner and it ’ s all by itself .
If less than a month to implement a new trading regime is problematic , it will all be much , much more calamitous if the EU and UK do not reach a deal .
Then @ @ @ @ @ @ @ UK was following will end — and tariffs and quotas will also kick in .
Checks and controls could create massive gridlock at ports of entry , which could lead to food and medicine shortages .
Tariffs could lead to price increases on food and other supplies .
Businesses and industries have already been hammered by Covid-19-related lockdowns , which will make this potential disorder far more costly .
As the UK ’ s own government predicted , the country could face “ systemic economic crisis ” as the transition period ends against @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in theory provide ample motivation for both the EU and UK to make a deal .
But it ’ s not so simple , mostly because of politics .
UK Prime Minister Johnson is under pressure at home over his handling of Covid-19 , and he ’ s facing a rebellion within his own Conservative Party , primarily over Covid-19 restrictions .
That right flank of his party is also ardently pro-Brexit — the very same people who don ’ t want to see the UK concede to the EU and are , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the costs of no deal .
If Johnson is seen as caving to the EU , he may face pressure from these Brexiteers .
Last fall , Johnson sold an “ oven ready ” Brexit deal that wasn ’ t exactly that .
But Johnson ’ s signature salesmanship might not work this time around .
“ The problem is that when he sold the deal before , the consequences were quite far off in the future .
And that ’ s no longer the case , ” Fran Burwell , distinguished fellow @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at McLarty Associates , told me .
A no-deal exit will be very bad , but a deal will also involve some disruptions .
If Johnson makes a deal and the UK still experiences a painful adjustment period , he ’ ll get blamed for making a bad deal .
But if Johnson doesn ’ t make a deal and there is disruption and even deeper economic pain , he can blame an intransigent European Union , or France , or whatever .
“ Johnson is a political animal , and I ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ him to make a deal , ” Burwell added .
Of course , the EU has its own internal politics .
Macron ’ s position on fishing certainly isn ’ t helping things , although the bloc has tended to fall in line in past Brexit negotiations .
The EU very much wants to make a deal , but it also very much wants to move on .
It has to deal with the Covid-19 economic downturn , and it ’ s dealing with a rebellion from Hungary and Poland over the trillion-dollar @ @ @ @ @ @ @ All of this puts both the EU and the UK in precarious positions as talks enter their ( maybe ) final week .
Experts I spoke to said the prospects of a deal aren ’ t great right now , but you can never rule it out .
This is Brexit , after all — even if nothing ever seems to change , there are always twists and turns .
Deal or no deal , it ’ s unlikely that Brexit ends this month .
Given the short timeline , the UK and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ details to work out after the transition period ends .
And if there ’ s no deal , some , especially in the EU , see the UK quickly coming back to the negotiating table , maybe in a much worse position .
“ I think this is the forever Brexit , ” Glyn Morgan , director of the Center for European Studies at the Moynihan Institute at Syracuse University , told me .
“ Because it ’ s not as if you can get out and ignore your trading partner .
”

Brexit negotiations have reached a “critical stage,” according to the UK government.
What that all means for the prospect of a Brexit deal is, well, still pretty unclear.
The United Kingdom and the European Union are trying to work out their future relationship, after the UK formally left the bloc in January. In fact, they’ve been working on this for many months, but major sticking points have prevented the two sides from reaching an agreement. And after a few self-imposed deadlines, the actual deadline of December 31 is now just a few short weeks away.
The urgency of the moment is underscored by this “last ditch” effort to get to an agreement. The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, has said that negotiations can continue to midweek, but not beyond that. That’s in part because while December 31 may be the official deadline, both the UK and the European parliaments must ratify and implement any agreement by then.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke Monday to figure out if there’s a real way forward. Based on their statement from the meeting, signs of progress are scant. But it’s also not quite over. Johnson plans to head to Brussels for this last push toward an agreement.
“We agreed that the conditions for finalising an agreement are not there, due to the remaining significant differences on three critical issues,” Johnson and von der Leyen said in a joint statement. “We asked our chief negotiators and their teams to prepare an overview of the remaining differences to be discussed in a physical meeting in Brussels in the coming days.”
The result is a Brexit the world is accustomed to: time running short, deadlines looming, the EU and the UK at an impasse despite the threat of a no-deal crash-out.
This time, though, the stakes are even higher, as it all comes against the backdrop of a pandemic and massive economic disruption on the continent. A failure to strike a deal could exacerbate the economic crisis, especially in the UK.
Few experts are optimistic about the prospects of a deal — yet no one is quite ready to give up on the chance that the UK and EU will pull something through at the end. “It’s still, I think, quite uncertain,” Steven Peers, a professor of law at the University of Essex, told me. “Either way, really, somebody has to compromise. One side has to compromise, and there’s no sign of it sufficiently yet.”
What’s holding up this Brexit deal
The United Kingdom formally left the European Union in January 2020, but it entered into an 11-month transition period in which it continued to follow EU rules.
The point of the transition period was to give both the EU and the UK time to figure out their post-breakup relationship. The two sides need to come up with a trade arrangement, but they also have to deal with a slew of other issues, from fishing to security cooperation.
Those negotiations have dragged on for months, held up by three main issues: fisheries, governance, and state aid, or the so-called “level playing field.”
The fisheries issue is a relatively minor economic question for both the UK and the EU, but it’s taken on an outsize role in the debate. It accounts for a very small percentage of the UK economy — as the New York Times reported, Harrods department store contributes more annually to the UK economy — but it’s a politically important industry, and symbolically tied to the Brexit ideal of reclaiming sovereignty, including over UK waters.
But the UK doesn’t take all the blame for this. Fishing is also a politically important and symbolic industry in some EU member states, who want to retain access to UK waters. France wants to keep the current arrangements, and French President Emmanuel Macron has insisted that he will not sacrifice France’s fishing industry in any deal. Macron is under a lot of political pressure at home, where his support is flagging, most recently around a controversial security law.
Governance is also an issue, which is basically how any deal will be enforced and what penalties — like additional tariffs on certain goods — will exist if one party breaks the terms of any agreement.
This is a particularly sensitive subject for the European Union, which is afraid the UK won’t live up to its commitments, especially after the UK introduced a bill that would have violated parts of the Brexit deal Johnson reached with the EU last year. That legislation, known as the Internal Market Bill, was returned to Parliament on Monday, where MPs re-added some clauses that would have breached the protocol around Northern Ireland. However, the UK has reportedly extended something of an olive branch, with the government saying it will take out those provisions if the EU and UK can get a deal.
And then there’s the issue of state aid, often framed as the “level playing field” arrangements. The EU is insisting that if the UK wants tariff-free access to its single market, it can’t try to undercut the EU by subsidizing industries or businesses; the EU also wants to guard against the UK diverging on environmental standards or labor protections post-Brexit.
But the UK sees this as the EU trying to get it to follow the rules of the club it just left. Brexit was supposed to give the UK the power to reclaim its sovereignty and reestablish its own trading regime, so the UK has bristled at these demands.
This is basically where the two sides have been for months, entrenched on these same issues, with each side accusing the other of being inflexible.
“The problem is that both sides want the other to blink first. That’s the root of the problem,” Anand Menon, director of the UK in a Changing Europe, told me. “I’m pretty sure that if the British government gave ground on the level playing field and governance, the EU would suddenly manage a slightly more flexible attitude on fish. Equally, the EU isn’t going to do that until they sense some movement. So there’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg issue.”
The call between Johnson and von der Leyen is a sign that talks at least are ongoing, and Johnson is expected to head to Brussels later this week. But so far there’s been no signal of a real breakthrough. And that may have as much to do with the internal politics around the outstanding issues as with the issues themselves.
As experts told me, the options for compromise are available and are attainable. “The question really is, is Boris Johnson ready in the next 24-48 hours to move that small more distance?” Michael Leigh, a senior fellow at the Brussels-based Bruegel think tank, told me. “And, you know, has [Michel] Barnier got the freedom, particularly now vis-à-vis Paris, to move as well?”
What’s next? A deal. Or maybe no deal.
So is this week really the do-or-die moment for Brexit?
Yes, mostly.
Barnier gave the deadline as this Wednesday, likely because the European Council is meeting later that week, which would allow the leaders of the EU member states to sign off on any agreement. Experts I spoke to didn’t rule out the possibility of the two sides pushing talks to the ultimate last moment, or even fudging some bare-bones deal by the end of December and then resuming talks in January.
But that’s also just a lot harder to do in this stage of Brexit. December 31 is the deadline according to the EU-UK withdrawal agreement (the first Brexit deal), and that’s an international treaty. Both the UK Parliament and the European Parliament need to ratify any agreement, and they need to implement this deal.
This is key. Unlike in the first phase of Brexit, even if there is a deal, the relationship between the EU and the UK will change, and there will likely be disruptions, no matter what.
The UK will be out of the EU single market, and the transition period — which kept everything temporarily the same — will be over. The goal of the EU-UK trade deal is to allow for tariff- and quota-free trade. But even if that happens, businesses will still face new barriers, like new customs rules. Northern Ireland also has a separate trading regime, and there will be checks on goods crossing the Irish Sea to Britain.
This is going to cause some turbulence for both the EU and the UK — but even more so for the UK, as the EU is its biggest trading partner and it’s all by itself.
If less than a month to implement a new trading regime is problematic, it will all be much, much more calamitous if the EU and UK do not reach a deal.
Then all the trade and regulatory arrangements the UK was following will end — and tariffs and quotas will also kick in. Checks and controls could create massive gridlock at ports of entry, which could lead to food and medicine shortages. Tariffs could lead to price increases on food and other supplies. Businesses and industries have already been hammered by Covid-related lockdowns, which will make this potential disorder far more costly.
As the UK’s own government predicted, the country could face “systemic economic crisis” as the transition period ends against the backdrop of Covid-19.
This should in theory provide ample motivation for the EU and UK to make a deal. But it’s not so simple, mostly because of politics.
UK Prime Minister Johnson is under pressure at home over his handling of Covid-19, and he’s facing a rebellion within his own Conservative Party, primarily over Covid-19 restrictions. That right flank of his party is also ardently pro-Brexit — the very same people who don’t want to see the UK concede to the EU and are, at least rhetorically, willing to risk the costs of no deal.
If Johnson is seen as caving to the EU, he may face pressure from these Brexiteers.
Last fall, Johnson sold an “oven ready” Brexit deal that wasn’t exactly that. But Johnson’s signature salesmanship might not work this time around.
“The problem is that when he sold the deal before, the consequences were quite far off in the future. And that’s no longer the case,” Fran Burwell, a distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council and senior director at McLarty Associates, told me.
A no-deal exit would be very bad, but a deal will also involve some disruptions. If Johnson makes a deal and the UK still experiences a painful adjustment period, he’ll get blamed for making a bad deal.
But if Johnson doesn’t make a deal and there is disruption and even deeper economic pain, he can blame an intransigent European Union, or France, or whatever. “Johnson is a political animal, and I’m not seeing the political incentive for him to make a deal,” Burwell added.
Of course, the EU has its own internal politics. Macron’s position on fishing certainly isn’t helping things, although the bloc has tended to fall in line in past Brexit negotiations. The EU very much wants to make a deal, but it also very much wants to move on. It has to deal with the Covid-19 economic downturn, and it’s dealing with a rebellion from Hungary and Poland over the trillion-dollar aid package needed to do so.
All of this puts both the EU and the UK in precarious positions as talks enter their (maybe) final week.
Experts I spoke to said the prospects of a deal aren’t great right now, but you can never rule it out. This is Brexit, after all — even if nothing ever seems to change, there are always twists and turns.
Deal or no deal, it’s unlikely that Brexit ends this month. Given the short timeline, the UK and EU will likely have additional arrangements and details to work out after the transition period ends. And if there’s no deal, some, especially in the EU, see the UK quickly coming back to the negotiating table, maybe in a much worse position.
“I think this is the forever Brexit,” Glyn Morgan, director of the Center for European Studies at the Moynihan Institute at Syracuse University, told me. “Because it’s not as if you can get out and ignore your trading partner.”