The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is seeking to simplify the COVID vaccine regimen, potentially moving to annual boosters similar to those given for the flu, the federal agency said in a report today.

An FDA advisory committee is expected to discuss the possibility of a simplified COVID vaccination schedulewhich could include one annual dose of an updated booster for many, and two doses for the high-riskon Thursday, according to a briefing document posted by the federal agency. The committee is also expected to discuss the decision-making process on the composition of future boosters, including a potential new version to be released this fall.

But it may be too soon to commit to annual boosters, some experts tell Fortune. The virus has not yet fully settled into a pattern of seasonality and may never. COVID spikes do tend to occur in winter, along with the flu, due to factors that drive both, like cold weather and increased indoor gatherings. But COVID waves can and do occur throughout the year, as new variants arise.

Timing of waves aside, those at high risk for COVIDdue to age and/or health conditionsmay continue to require more frequent dosing, they caution.

Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious-disease specialist and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, doesnt think a one-size-fits-all booster policy makes sense at this point in the pandemic, he tells Fortune.

Not everyone is at the same risk, he advises.

Dr. Michael Merson, visiting professor at New York Universitys School of Global Public Health, agrees with Adalja that a blanket policy may not be the best approach. And it may not be the most cost-effective one, he advises.

Perhaps we should devise such a strategy for the elderly and others at greatest risk of severe disease, he recommends.

A logical next stepeventually

A World Health Organization paper published Wednesday in The Lancet encouraged governments to develop strategies that promote vaccination, among even those whove experienced the illness. Hybrid immunity from both vaccination and prior infection provides better protection against severe disease and hospitalization than immunity from prior infection alone, researchers found.

Mass vaccination campaigns could be run before anticipated annual surges, such as in the winter, the papers authors suggested. They warned against creating nuanced vaccine guidance thats difficult to understand and could reduce uptake.

The move to an annual booster is a logical next step, given that the virus will be with us for the foreseeable future, Dr. Georges Benjamin, head of the American Public Health Association, tells Fortune. Evidence shows that while antibody immunity against COVID begins to wane after five or six months, protection against hospitalization, severe disease, and death remains intact a year out for many.

Plus, people are more likely to get vaccinated if we offer it annually, he says, adding that some, including the immunocompromised, will need more frequent boosters.

Dr. Bruce Y. Lee, professor of health policy and management at the City University of New York School of Public Health, agrees with Benjamin, saying that getting everyone on board with receiving multiple COVID boosters a year indefinitely would be a difficult, if not impossible, task.

But while an annual COVID booster is an admirable goal, there are many questions that must be addressed before work can begin, Lee says. Among them: Can other vaccine technologies be developed to offer better and longer-lasting protection? And how should an unexpectedly virulent strain that requires an additional tailored booster be addressed?

One of the continuing issues throughout the pandemic has been the lack of clarity and consistency in messaging that has gone out, he says of COVID vaccination guidance. You dont want to set expectations for the public before you know that you can deliver.

Proposal similar to predictions of Fauci, Jha last fall

While the FDA may propose the shift to an annual vaccine, its the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that would make the final decision, Benjamin says.

The FDA committee met in April and June of last year to consider the composition of what would eventually become the Omicron booster, rolled out in the U.S. around Labor Day.

Soon, healthy Americans may only require a COVID vaccine annually, with no need for boosters in between, Dr. Ashish Jha, the White Houses COVID response coordinator, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in September.

In the absence of a dramatically different variant, we likely are moving towards a path with a vaccination cadence similar to that of the annual influenza vaccine, with annual, updated COVID-19 shots matched to the currently circulating strains for most of the population, Fauci said at the time.

The prediction was met with criticism by some public health experts, including Dr. Eric Topol, professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research and founder and director of Scripps Research Translational Institute.

To give a false impression of year-long protection ([against] severe disease and death) with the data in hand is not acceptable, he said via tweet at the time.

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Googles chief executive officer told employees on Monday that job cuts were made in a bid to act decisively as the companys growth slowed.

In an internal meeting, Sundar Pichai, who is CEO of Google parent Alphabet Inc., said he had consulted with the companys founders and board in making the decision for 6% cuts, according to remarks reviewed by Bloomberg.

If you dont act clearly and decisively and early, we can compound the problem and make it much worse, Pichai said. These are decisions I needed to make.

Google said on Friday that it would eliminate about 12,000 jobs, becoming the latest tech giant to retrench after years of abundant growth and hiring. Although speculation about the cuts had swirled for months, the layoffs were nonetheless a shock to the system for some employees. Some realized they lost their jobs when they were unable to access corporate systems. Yet Pichai stressed the cuts were the product of careful consideration.

The process was far from random, he said.

The size of Googles workforce forced executives to keep the circle of decision makers relatively small, said Fiona Cicconi, Googles chief people officer, in the meeting with employees.

In an ideal world, we would have given managers a heads up, but we have over 30,000 managers at Google, Cicconi said. We wanted to give certainty sooner.

Another executive said severance packages had been structured to reward workers with long tenures at the company. 

Alphabet Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat stressed in the meeting that the cuts were intended to free the company up to continue investing in key priorities.

Act early, and you then create the capacity to invest for long-term growth, Porat said. As difficult as this was, those were the takeaways.

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The ultra-wealthy arent typically known for asking to be taxed, but a group of 200 millionaires challenged that reputation with an open letter at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week.

Known as the Patriotic Millionaires, the groupwhich includes celebrity Mark Ruffalo and heiress Abigail Disneycalled for a solution to end extreme wealth in a petition endorsed by PMUK, Tax Me Now, and Millionaires for Humanity. You, our global representatives, have to tax us, the ultra rich, and you have to start now, they said in a letter addressed to the leaders attending the Davos forum. 

Its an echo of a similar open letter they sent to Davos attendees last spring. Citing the growing wealth inequality over the past 50 years, they noted that the worlds 10 richest men saw their wealth double during the pandemic, while 99% of the population watched their incomes shrink as they struggled to afford todays cost of living. Indeed, a growing number of billionaires have been making out like kings over past few years.

Billionaires wealth has increased daily by about $2.7 billion ever since 2020, according to research from international poverty nonprofit Oxfam in conjunction with the Patriotic Millionaires. Meanwhile, poverty increased for the first time in half a century. Oxfam said imposing a 5% tax on multimillionaires and billionaires could raise $1.7 trillion annually, helping 2 billion people escape poverty.

Taxing the ultra-rich is simple, common-sense economics, the Patriotic Millionaires write in their letter. It is an investment in our common good and a better future that we all deserve, and as millionaires we want to make that investment.

They said that wealth inequality is tied to other dangerous extremes such as nationalism and climate change. They called upon those at Davos to address the root cause of division, adding that defending democracy is tied to creating a fairer economy.

Extreme wealth is eating our world alive, said Abigail Disney in a press release. It is undermining our democracies, destabilizing our economies, and destroying our climate. But for all their talk about solving the worlds problems, the attendees of Davos refuse to discuss the only thing that can make a real impacttaxing the rich.

The World Economic Forum did not immediately respond to Fortunes request for comment. Disney has been a longtime critic of the systems that support the ultrarich, most recently blasting those who used private jets instead of opting to fly business class.  

But a growing group of billionaires is slowly promising to give away their fortunes. When asked by CNN if he planned to give away most of his wealth during his life, Jeff Bezos said, Yeah, I do. He recently endowed a $100 million gift to Dolly Parton to give to a charity of choice. Mackenzie Scott, Bezos ex-wife, has donated $12 billion in two short years.

Warren Buffett also plans to give 99% of his wealth away within 10 years of his death, possibly to every child across the globe. Along with Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates, he created the Giving Pledge, a campaign that some of the worlds richest people have signed as a promise to donate the majority of their fortunes to philanthropic causes.

Last year, Gates tweeted that he will one day give virtually all my wealth to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In a recent Reddit Ask Me Anything, Gates referred to chipping away at his wealth as a full-time job. While he said he wouldnt ban any billionaires, he said he was surprised taxes hadnt been increased.

But these promises of eventual charity arent fast and binding enough to address real-time wealth inequality, at least if you ask The Patriotic Millionaires. 

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Kim Kardashian is always a topic of  interest for the internet, from her fashion choices to her  ex-husbands, or her ad campaigns. So when Kim Kardashian gave a talk at Harvard Business School, its no surprise that some people had a lot of feelings about it. 

On Saturday, Kardashian posted a picture on Twitter and Instagram about speaking at a class called Moving Beyond Direct to Consumer. She wrote that she addressed the class along with her business partner, Jens Grede, with whom she co-founded the multi-million dollar shapewear company, SKIMS, and called her visit to the school her bucket list dream.

Then came the backlash. 

Some users on social media just didnt get why the reality TV star was being called to address students at a prestigious business school.

On Instagram, one user commented: What happened to you, Harvard. Another account tagged Harvard Business School and wrote what happened to your standards?????

Harvard business 101: getting born into wealth and becoming a celebrity through some bs tv show. What a great and interesting guest lecturer to pick!a third user wrote.

Meanwhile on Twitter, users had similar thoughts about Kardashian being invited to address students on marketing and business.

One user wrote: Harvard Business School must be desperate for speakers. They are taking the low fruit for sure.

But despite the critical comments, several people rushed to Kardashians defense, including a mix of celebrities and high-profile business people. Amongst those who were cheering her on in her Instagram post were Alicia Keys and Paris Hilton, who applauded her achievement. 

Both commented with fire emojis, with Paris Hilton using her classic catchphrase: thats hot.

Users on Twitter and Instagram also said she changed the game and described her as an icon for our generation. And close Elon Musk associate and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Jason Calcanis wrote that Kardashian is more successful than 99.99% of graduates from HBS but would have never been accepted to attend the program. Tells you everything you need to know.

Kardashian is best known for her family reality TV show, Keeping Up With The Kardashians, which aired in 2007. Since then, she has started several businesses including her own private equity fund, Skky Partners, announced in September 2022. 

Her apparel, underwear and shapewear company, SKIMS, was valued at $3.2 billion according to estimates from January 2022 after the company clocked in record sales and raised funds. 

Fortune was not immediately able to get in touch with representation for Kim Kardashian.

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Gemini Trust is eliminating another 10% of its workforce, according to a person familiar with the matter, as the digital-asset firm founded by billionaire twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss remains pressured by a monthslong industrywide slump.   

The New York-based company previously announced the firing of 10% of its staff in June after the collapses of the Terra stablecoin ecosystem and Three Arrows Capital hedge fund sent token prices tumbling. Then in November, Gemini customers lost access to their money when Genesis Global Capital froze redemptions from a lending product the companies offered jointly. Genesis sought bankruptcy protection last week.

Representatives from Gemini didnt respond to multiple request for confirmation or comment on the latest round of layoffs. The cuts were reported earlier Monday by the Information.

The Winklevoss brothers have been waging a public battle with Barry Silbert whose Digital Currency Group is the parent of Genesis over the millions of dollars lost via the Gemini Earn product, which had rewarded users for lending out their crypto. Gemini is listed as the largest creditor to Genesis, which owes the firm $765.9 million. 

Gemini has also seen the departure of some key personnel, including Chief Operating Officer Noah Perlman, who left recently, as well as General Counsel Niels Gjertson. 

The Gemini layoffs coincide with deep job cuts across the industry, including at Genesis itself, as well as at Coinbase Global Inc., Blockchain.com, Crypto.com and others. They have collectively shed hundreds of jobs in the first few weeks of 2023 alone. 

Though crypto isnt the only industry to see layoffs recently companies within tech, among others, have also announced dismissals its been plagued by a number of hardships, including the fall of the once-vaunted FTX empire, as well as an overall downturn in crypto prices. In addition, the job cuts industrywide are coming at a time when many analysts and economists are projecting a US recession for 2023. 

When Gemini announced the mid-2022 workforce reduction, the firm noted at the time that the industry was settling into a period of stasis.   

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Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates is a big fan of new technologies to fight climate change. Gates has backed companies working on all kinds of solutions including next-gen nuclear reactors, cutting-edge carbon capture designs, and, most recently, an Australian startup working on a nutritional supplement to make cows less gassy.

Breakthrough Energy, the organization founded by Gates in 2015 to invest in and support new climate technologies, is the latest investor in Perth-based startup Rumin8, a company designing a synthetic supplement primarily made of seaweed for cattle which reduces the amount of methane in cows burps and fartsa major contributor to global warming.

Gates, along with Australian billionaire investor Andrew Forrest, participated in Rumin8s $12 million Phase 2 seeding round, the company announced in a statement Monday. The fresh funds will accelerate Rumin8s road to commercialisation, according to the statement, as the company plans out new international trials, branding projects, and a pilot manufacturing plant.

The demand for sustainable protein has never been more apparent, which is why [Breakthrough Energy] is keenly interested in reducing methane emissions from beef and dairy, Carmichael Roberts, co-lead at the companys investment committee, said in the statement.

Gates investment in Rumin8 marks his first Australian venture with Breakthrough Energy, but it is far from his first investment in climate tech-startups overall, the billionaire said Monday in an interview in Sydney with Michael Fullilove, executive director of the Lowy Institute, an independent think tank.

Were invested now in over 100 startups. This one here in Australia, Rumin8, I think its the 103rd, he said, adding that around 6% of global planet-warming emissions come from cows.

Reducing methane emissions from livestock

The agricultural industry is increasingly coming under fire for its greenhouse gas emissions, specifically methane, a relatively short-lived but powerful greenhouse gas that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found in a 2013 report has 80 times the planet-warming power of carbon dioxide over the first 20 years it is in the Earths atmosphere.

Methane accounts for around 30% of global warming that has occurred since the Industrial Revolution, according to the UN. And a major source of methane is agriculture, specifically the methane released from livestock manure, burps, and farts, which account for 32% of human-caused agriculture emissions.

Rumin8 uses anti-methanogenic compounds found in seaweed, active ingredients that can target and eliminate methane-producing bacteria, to reduce methane emissions and even conserve livestock animals energy. The company says early trials suggest methane emissions from cows fed with the supplement fall by more than 85%, which amounts to two tonnes of greenhouse gasses removed from the air each year for every cow being fed with the supplement.

Similar technologies in other countries also suggest feeding livestock anti-methanogenic supplements could lead to cattle and sheep conserving more energy for food production. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research developed a similar feed last year to the one that Rumin8 is working on using tannins and compounds found in legume plants which reduced methane production by up to 20% and helped increase milk production in cows. 

Climate tech funding boom

Rumin8, like many other climate tech companies in Australia, has benefited from a burst of government funding towards green energy and emissions reduction projects in the past few months. 

Since being elected Prime Minister last year, Labor politician Anthony Albanese has reversed many of his predecessor Scott Morrisons environmental policies, which scientists and activists criticized as being unambitious and favoring fossil fuel companies over net-zero commitments.

In his less than a year as Prime Minister, Albanese has redirected an unprecedented amount of funds towards climate initiatives. In November, his office announced an AUD$500 million ($350 million) fund to help launch Australian businesses working on projects and technologies designed to reduce emissions.

Also in November, Rumin8 announced the government had provided AUD$5 million ($3.5 million) in R&D grants to 11 projects working on low-emissions feeding supplements for livestock. Rumin8 is involved in three of the federally-backed projects.

Its great to have Australia engaged in climate, Gates said in his interview. The world isnt going to trade with people who dont have serious climate commitments. Australia was a bit of an outlier until quite recently.

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As the crypto industry strives to create its own financial system, companies still rely on traditional banks for everything from on-ramps for customers to payroll to office expenses.

While many banks are skittish about crypto companies, just as they are for industries such as cannabis and pornography, several built their business models around working with the volatile sector.

The strategy paid off during cryptos boom cycle, but now two major crypto banksSilvergate and Signatureare having second thoughts due to blows to their balance sheets and regulatory uncertainty. Experts tell Fortune that the pullback from financial institutions could spell trouble for the already reeling industry.  

A real liability 

Joseph Silvia, the former counsel to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and a partner at Dickinson Wright, said that banks not only provide essential services like payment rails and custodial offerings for crypto companies, but also security and legitimacy. 

A chief example is New York-based Signature Bank, which established itself as a crypto ally with nearly a quarter of its $103 billion in deposits coming from crypto firms as of September 2022. Today, as bankruptcies roil the industry, Signature has been rethinking its association. Over the weekend, one of its clientsBinance, the worlds largest exchangesent a notice to customers that Signature would no longer process SWIFT fiat transactions for individuals of less than $100,000 starting at the beginning of February.  

SWIFT is a global messaging network that allows banks and financial firms to execute transactions and payments between themselves.  

As a result, Binance said, some users may not be able to complete bank transfers to buy or sell crypto with U.S. dollars. The company added that it was looking to find other solutions and told Bloomberg that only 0.01% of its average monthly users are serviced by Signature Bank.  

Whatever the impact on Binance, the episode reflects a broader trend amid crypto banking.

Whatever premium existed for U.S.-banks in the crypto-space in past years has now turned into a very real liability, said Ben McMillan, the CIO and co-founder of the investment platform IDX Digital Assets. 

Signature had already been scaling back its crypto exposure, announcing in December that it would shrink its deposits tied to cryptocurrencies by $8 billion to $10 billion. Its share price had dropped by over 65% since February.  

We are not just a crypto bank and we want that to come across loud and clear, Joe DePaolo, Signatures CEO, said at the time. 

The move was not enough to stem Signatures losses. In January, the bank reported a 17% year-over-year drop in deposits, the first time the bank had reported an annual decline since it began in 2001.  

Signature is not alone. Silvergate, another crypto-friendly bank, reported a $1 billion loss for the fourth quarter of 2022, with 90% of the banks deposit base coming from crypto firms.

Retail shockwaves 

After months of bankruptcies and hacks, the withdrawal of banking partners could further dissuade retail investment. Silvia, the former Federal Reserve counsel, said the potential removal of an easy on-ramp between customers and crypto exchanges is just another factor that will keep retail investors away.  

I feel like [customers] are looking to sit back on the sidelines for now, he said.  

McMillan, the IDX co-founder, added that Signatures decision could limit new entrants into the space.  

Banks hesitance to operate in the crypto sector will likely grow as regulators increase their oversight. In January, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued a joint statement outlining risks associated with crypto assets and advising that it would monitor exposure and safety concerns.

Lawmakers have also scrutinized crypto banking. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) warned of the dangers of crypto becoming intertwined with the banking system after the Wall Street Journal revealed that Signature and Silvergate were borrowing billions of dollars from Federal Home Loan Banks, an association of government-sponsored banks, in response to customer deposit withdrawals.  

As a result, Silvia said that traditional banks are rethinking their approach to crypto.  

Theres just too much negativity that is going on, he told Fortune.  

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