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Our briefing for Tuesday, January 18, 2022:
Jan 18, 2022 4:37:02 PM
- In the United States, hospital systems are being overwhelmed by new cases of the Omicron variant and experts are suggesting that there are no signs of a natural immunity being built among the American population. Dr. Anthony Fauci, Chief Medical Advisor to the President said in an interview for the World Economic Forum that he would not yet declare Covid-19 to be endemic nor would he consider Omicron to be the last variant the world must contend with. When asked if the virus could this year become a part of a normal life, like the flu, Fauci said “I would hope that that’s the case, but that would only be the case if we don’t get another variant that eludes the immune response.” American deaths now exceed 1,900 per day and although cases are beginning to slow in the Northeastern U.S., the rest of the country may not have yet reached its peak. Fauci said that the evolution of the pandemic is still unclear and would not speculate about its end. “The answer is: We do not know,” he said.
- Major Canadian airlines are calling for an end to mandatory Covid testing at airports. In a letter addressed to the federal government and the government of Ontario, Air Canada, WestJet, and Toronto's Pearson International Airport petitioned to halt testing for vaccinated travelers on arrival. "As the government has ramped up testing at airports for international arrivals, we have seen frontline workers struggle to get PCR tests, and lab processing capacity decrease significantly," the letter said. The letter claims that the tests have been unfairly distributed to airports when some of the most vulnerable communities struggle to acquire them. As cases continue to rise, the molecular testing kits have been restricted to those at high risk of hospitalization or people in settings where the virus can spread rapidly. Travelers entering the country are required to show proof of a negative test before boarding and all passengers arriving from countries other than the United States are required to isolate until they are able to show proof of a second negative test upon landing.
- A new study from the United Kingdom suggests that front-line health care workers have suffered PTSD at the same rate as soldiers who have fought in combat missions. Health care workers in intensive care units throughout the U.K. have experienced levels of post-traumatic stress from the pandemic comparable to those who have fought in Afghanistan, according to a survey released last month. Researchers say that the level stress experienced by ICU workers could affect the quality of patient care. The study found that nurses who have recently begun their careers have been the most negatively affected. The study concludes that there is a strong link between poor mental health of the practitioners and increased functional impairment while administering care. "These effects are likely to have an impact on patient care outcomes and the longer-term resilience of the healthcare workforce," the researchers said.
- On Monday, Greece made vaccination mandatory for people over age 60 as hospitals in the country are seeing a dramatic spike in new admissions. People in the age group will face a 50 euro fine in January for failing to get vaccinated, followed by a 100 euro fine for every month after that. Currently, two-thirds of the Greek population is fully vaccinated, and the average throughout the European Union is roughly 70 per cent. Health Minister Thanos Plevris said that the money collected from the fines will be used to fund hospitals in the country. “The age factor is important because of its impact on the public health service,” Plevris said in a television interview on Sunday. Health care workers have been mandated to get vaccinated since last year, and vaccine passports in the country will now be considered null and void after 7 months if the individual has not received a booster shot. Since the vaccine mandate for older people was announced in December, more 500,000 of the targeted population have been fully vaccinated.
- According to an Israeli study released Monday, a fourth dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is not enough to thwart infection from the Omicron variant. 154 medical personnel at the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv received a fourth dose of the vaccine for the trial, and antibody levels were raised, however, that was not enough to completely prevent infection. Those infected in the trial were not immune to virus but those who contracted it saw little-to-no symptoms after receiving the shot. Last week, European regulators said that a fourth dose of the vaccine could actually have the opposite effect, weakening the body’s immune systems and causing more serious symptoms. In December, Israel began administering fourth shots to people over 60 and since then have inoculated over half a million people. Gili Regev-Yochay, the trial’s lead researcher, said that the decision to give elderly people an extra dose was the right decision despite outside concerns, however, the results did not prove to be worth a large-scale rollout of a fourth dose.
Covid-19 – Due Diligence And Asset Management
Pandemic caused major shifts in investment portfolios, report finds
Brief: The 2022 bfinance Insurer Investment Survey has revealed major shifts in asset allocation, investment risk exposures and ESG practices during the pandemic, driven by long-term pressures and the effects of Covid-19. The survey found most insurers are set to further cut their fixed income allocations in the next 18 months. A further 61% of insurers are planning to enter unfamiliar asset classes, including Emerging Market Debt, Private Equity, and Infrastructure Equity and 74% are expected to increase portfolio liquidity. Insurers are also planning to increase their risk exposure with 73% saying there was the possibility to add more risk to their portfolios. The survey highlighted greater efforts towards ESG, including a 120% rise in the proportion of insurers integrating ESG factors since before the pandemic. It also found more insurers were taking part in exclusions/negative screening, carbon reporting and impact investment. bfinance stated the proportion of net-zero investment commitments is set to rise from 24% to 64%.
Return to pre-pandemic investment levels in Irish real estate
Brief: While 2022 may not surpass or even match the extraordinary €5.5 billion invested in Irish real estate in 2021, the ongoing emergence of society from the Covid-19 pandemic should mean another strong year for the commercial property market, according to CBRE. Outside of the continued appetite of investors for traditional office, residential, retail and industrial sectors, the growth in demand for alternative investments such as data centres, life sciences and senior housing is expected to see the momentum built up in the last 12 months continue. Speaking at the virtual launch of the 33rd edition of the commercial real estate agency’s annual Outlook report, CBRE Ireland managing director Myles Clarkesaid: “The landscape for commercial real estate is dramatically different from the last decade, yet long-term financial trends and the growth trajectory of the Irish economy remains intact. This presents immense opportunity. Indeed, the central theme of this year’s report is Identifying Opportunity”.
Pandemic Fuels Demand by Ultra-Wealthy for Investment Migration, Alternative Citizenship
Brief: Never again”—that’s the feeling among high-net-worth individuals after 18 months in which global travel has been limited by the Covid-19 pandemic, said Jean Francois Harvey, global managing partner of Harvey Law Group, an international law firm based in Montreal that helps clients immigrate to new countries. As international borders begin to reopen and the globe confronts a new, more contagious coronavirus variant, those who can are making plans to ensure they’ll never be so limited in their movement again. High-net-worth individuals are seeking real estate investments in historically safe real estate markets across Europe, the United Kingdom and the U.S., adding even more demand for prime properties in markets that are already seeing frenzied price growth. “During COVID, the only way to get into another country was to be a resident or a citizen,” Mr. Harvey said. “Suddenly, people realize that to have only one residence or one passport is not the best.”
Exchange-traded funds: Covid-19 spurs work-from-home ETFs
Brief: In the wake of the Covid-19 emergency, US ETF managers are launching funds that tap into the working-from-home phenomenon. The question is, will these ETFs outlive the pandemic? Peter Taberner reports. In June last year, New York-based Direxion launched the first ETF linked to the working-from-home (WFH) theme. It is designed to provide investors with exposure to companies at the forefront of the transition towards flexible work patterns. Three months later, BlackRock unveiled its own Virtual Work and Life ETF, where the investment objective is to track the investment results of companies that design products and services centred on employees working from home. Similarly, asset manager Emles, another New York-based company, designed its own @Home ETF, also identifying companies that will benefit from the new culture of increased home-based working.
Infrastructure roundtable: How Covid could benefit infra
Brief: Government spending at a time of economic crisis, as well as the heightened sense of ‘green’ investing, are both drivers for non-listed infrastructure investing. Another is the return of inflation. What are Europe’s infrastructure needs, to what extent is there government support for infrastructure development, and how would infrastructure investment make our societies better? Tania Tsoneva, CBRE Investment Management – We have relatively high-quality infrastructure in the UK as well as in Europe. However, infrastructure investment has diminished over time, probably due to sovereign balance sheets being under pressure. We went through the financial crisis, then the sovereign debt crisis, so we saw a declining trend and there is going to be a need for catch-up. The drivers of infrastructure investments going forward are going to be decarbonisation and digitalisation. Europe is the role model when it comes to the energy transition and the greening of the power generation fleet.
