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Vaccine trials move forward in India. Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories is starting phase 2 and 3 testing for Russia’s Sputnik 5 vaccine, while Serum Institute of India said it will continue to give two full doses of AstraZeneca’s candidate, despite data showing a half dose might be more effective. Meanwhile, Pfizer and Moderna have asked for governmental approval for their vaccines in Europe and Singapore.
Salesforce is buying Slack for $27.7 billion. It’s the company’s biggest acquisition yet, and one of the largest-ever for the industry. The deal illustrates the hazards involved when going up against Big Tech.
The US keeps trying on stimulus. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, Democratic leaders, and a bipartisan group announced competing proposals to provide additional assistance to hard-hit individuals and industries. Meanwhile, attorney general William Barr stated that the justice department has uncovered no evidence of election fraud.
Facebook’s Oversight Board announced its first cases. The company-funded group whittled more than 20,000 submissions down to six, of which half are related to policies on hate speech. Separately, Amnesty International accused Facebook and Google of aiding censorship in Vietnam.
Chang’e-5 landed on the moon. The Chinese spacecraft aims to return the first samples of lunar rocks and dirt to Earth since 1976 in mid-December.
Three Hong Kong activists are sentenced. Agnes Chow, Ivan Lam, and Joshua Wong face up to five years in prison after previously pleading guilty to charges related to a 2019 protest.
Vaccine profitability, by the digits
$1 trillion: Estimated global vaccine annual revenues, in the pre-Covid-19 days
$4 billion: Estimated global flu shot annual revenues
$10 billion: Projected Covid-19 vaccine annual revenues while the virus is still deemed a public health hazard
$7 billion: Annual revenues Merck makes from the cancer drug Keytruda, alone
$3: Minimum per-dose cost for AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine
$25-$37: Per-dose cost for Moderna’s
Public pressure to keep Covid-19 vaccine prices low will likely relent once enough people have been vaccinated, and the pandemic is over. But after that, it could go multiple ways.
Charting busy travel days
Despite being one of its busiest days during the pandemic, US air travel on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, was substantially lower than every single day in 2019 for which the Transportation Security Administration has released figures.
Of course, the pandemic has caused airlines to drastically modify their operations. So while there were fewer passengers, there were fewer flights, too. That means that planes were more full this year than the headline figures suggest.
Employee happiness: lessons learned
As CEO of the online shoe retailer Zappos for 21 years, Tony Hsieh, who died Nov. 26 at age 46 from injuries sustained in a house fire, was an early pioneer in espousing employee happiness as a top business priority. His quest to create an environment where workers felt enthusiastic about their jobs and, by extension, their lives, is an indelible part of his legacy—one that reveals both the promise and the pitfalls of happiness as a corporate goal. Sarah Todd explores the takeaways for employers who want to do right by their staff.
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Surprising discoveries
There’s a bidding war for Covid-19 nurses. And it’s hurting the pandemic response.
The “Three Cs” is Japan’s buzzword of the year. Sanmitsu refers to the practice of avoiding closed spaces, crowds, and close-contact situations.
NASA may have found a long-lost rocket booster. A mysterious object is likely a jettisoned piece of the Surveyor 2 spacecraft that crashed into the moon in 1966.
BTS fans, rejoice! South Korea’s National Assembly passed a bill allowing male pop stars to defer their mandatory military service.
Now the Romanian monolith has disappeared. We at Quartz are very invested in this saga, but this is just getting silly.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, wayward spacecraft, and ANSWERS ABOUT THIS MONOLITH(!!) to hi@qz.com. Get the most out of Quartz by downloading our iOS app and becoming a member. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Susan Howson, Sarah Todd, David Yanofsky, Annalisa Merelli, and Liz Webber.