Pfizer, Santa, Scott Golly discussed on Squawk Pod
Automatic TRANSCRIPT
And lily drugs, but they're building it back up. Guys, Meg, we were talking a little bit earlier about this idea of whether you could get the defense production act in place, and that could actually create a lot more volume of the Pfizer drug. As you just said, 10 million doses by the summer, 10 million doses by the summer, maybe too late. When we talk to Scott golly about this, he seems to suggest there was still a 6 month lag in terms of even if you started right now. It would take 6 months to really be able to ramp properly. The question is, is if you start now, it may be that by the time of the summer, you could get to a 100 million if you really went to it. Is there a resistance by Pfizer to do that? Well, certainly companies never like when the defense production act is used to force them to do something. Sometimes it could be beneficial to them because it puts them in the front of the line for materials and supplies. We saw that with the vaccines it was helpful to the companies if they were on that end, but it also has knocked down effects. Other drugs get pushed to the side. So it's something that people in the industry hope is used very precisely. In terms of the supply, though, Pfizer did increase its full year forecast for supply for the world to a 120 million courses yesterday up from 80 million. The U.S. is only order 10 million at this point. Could we see them increase that and when could more get delivered is a big question, but Doctor Fauci did talk yesterday about how complicated this drug is to manufacture and that it does have that time of 6 to 8 months for the active ingredient. And then finally there's an incentive question, which you just raised, which is those that are unvaccinated are almost I don't want to say have a greater incentive, but in some ways they will probably have access to this drug before those who are vaccinated. It's sort of the anti incentive to get vaccinated. I don't know if you read yesterday Chapman online, had made this statement that got a lot of people very upset, which was that he said, basically, that unvaccinated people should not be taken care of. I don't think anybody agrees with that, but how do you change that incentive structure in this case? Yeah, it's a real problem. It's an ethical question, but something we saw with the antibody drugs when they were in short supply too. If you got a prioritize the highest risk folks, that's folks who don't have the vaccine, so we'll have to see how that plays out in these treatment guidelines. Complicated stuff. Meg, thank you. Appreciate it. We have something of a holiday tradition on squawk box, checking in annually with the top secret military mission at norad, the North American aerospace defense command. Which fields thousands of tips and questions from the public about a certain flying object every December 24th. Santa was spotted over Petersen Air Force Base, Colorado Springs, Colorado. Let's get back to Becky. The recent boom in space tourism has the skies more crowded than ever, but that isn't deterring our next guest and her team from their mission of tracking Santa's voyage around the world on Christmas Eve. Let's welcome this morning, U.S. Air Force captain, sable Brown, who is a public affairs officer at the North American aerospace defense command, which is otherwise known as norad. She's also a member of the norad track Santa team. This, by the way, is the 66th year that norad is going to be tracking Santa's global journey and captain, thank you for being with us today. I would imagine that this job has gotten a lot more difficult over those 66 years because there's so much more stuff in the air, including all of the stuff that's in space right now. How are you guys doing this? How are you handling it? Well, thank you for having me, Becky, and yes, the job of watching the United States and Canada's skies is a little bit tougher, but we're able to keep up with it by working with our partners and allies around the world and in regards to tracking Santa. It takes a lot of contributors and a lot of volunteers to get that job done and they are happy to do it every year. So how do you guys do this? Let's track through all the technology that you have to actually watch Santa as he goes around the globe because this is something little kids have been so curious about for forever. Right. And when we get children that call in the op center, we give them all the answers about how norad tracks Santa every year. And it starts when he makes his first movements out of the North Pole. The radar in the northern Canadian and northern Alaskan Arctic area track him with those north warning satellites. And then as he moves west across the international date line, are satellites can watch the infrared signature from Rudolph's red nose as he flies around the world. And when he makes it back to Canada and the United States are fighter escort pilots, make sure to give him a wave and safely escorted him through North American airspace and then he heads back home to the North Pole to get ready for next year. I know we can all follow along by watching on the Internet on the website. How many people actually call into the limestone? Back in 2019, we had over a 150,000 calls. The phone never stops ringing. What do kids say when they call in? And how did this whole thing start by the way? Well, it started back in 1955 when there was a misprinted ad for a department store saying that children can call Santa at a certain phone number. But the misprint actually led to the conad back then it was continental air defense command. The call center there, a red phone that colonel Harry shop famously picked up and he went along with the call and so did the rest of his crew all night and that's how the tradition of norad tracks Santa got started. Well, it's a great tradition and we appreciate you all keeping it up this year. We'll be watching and we know you all will too as Santa takes off on Christmas Eve. Captain Brown, thank you so much for joining us. And good luck to you and your staff with handling all these calls this year. Thank you. And happy holidays and hope to see you tracking Santa with us. Merry Christmas, we will be. I haven't seen Christmas vacation, the movie this year. That's an annual app might be my favorite. I think, just because of cousin Eddie because of Randy Quaid, but you remember where they're at the table and Clark griswold says you know sand has been spotted coming across the border there. And he looks at him and just goes, are you serious, Clark? Exactly. But there's about a hundred lines from that movie that I use, I think of some of the other ones I've been using. Oh, yeah. Jelly of the month club. Jelly of the month club, given out, didn't get a bonus, already broke ground. Gift that keeps going giving every year every week, every month. Next, on squawk pod, don't let champagne problems ruin your holiday. Bubbly shortages hitting liquor stores, but food and wine's ray aisle says there are plenty of options if you know where to look. People love rose rosa champagne to have a little more body in a power to them. They can be great as a dinnertime wine, a roast chicken and a rose champagne fantastic. It's been quite a 2021, so let's raise a glass. After this. You gotta take a listen to this. It's squawk pod. That's right, CNBC's flagship business news show is a podcast. Squawk pot. It is not just the show, folks. It might be even better because it's only audio. Join me, Katie Kramer as I take you inside the squawk box control room and beyond the headlines of our TV broadcast with Joe kernan Becky quick and Andrew Ross Sorkin. Every weekday. Subscribe to squawk pod on Apple podcasts, Spotify, stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts..