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Stocks of major vaccine makers dropped on Monday after the Food and Drug Administrations (FDA) top vaccine official Dr. Peter Marks resigned, citing conflicts with Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Jr. over his views on immunization. RFK Jr. is a longtime critic of vaccines, and has a history of making controversial and scientifically inaccurate claims. Shares of Moderna (MRNA) slid 11%, Novavax (NVAX) was down 6%, BioNTech (BNTX) fell about 7%, and Pfizer (PFE) dropped 2% in early trading. Meanwhile, gene therapy developers including Solid Biosciences (SLDB) and Taysha Gene Therapies (TSHA) plummeted between 14% and 29% by midday. The SPDR S&P Biotech ETF fell almost 5%. At the time of this writing, Moderna was still down almost 9%, Novavax was down about 7%, and Pfizer was down about 1% in midday trading as vaccine stocks continue to slide. It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies, Marks wrote in his resignation letter to acting FDA Commissioner Sara Brenner, in reference to HHS secretary RFK Jr. According to the Wall Street Journal, Marks was forced on Friday to either resign or be fired. Marks has been with the FDA since 2012, and has overseen the division for vaccines, biotech drugs, and blood products since 2016. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Marks was a key member of the team that oversaw the production of COVID vaccines. His departure is raising serious concerns on Wall Street about the future of drug approval and safety in the U.S., with some analysts questioning if the move will hamper the FDA’s ability to ensure safe and effective treatments that will reach patients. Analysts are also expressing concern over how the situation might affect the biotech industry. “It’s no secret that biotech has been under immense pressure recently given broader macro issues,” BMO Capital Markets analyst Evan Seigerman told Reuters. “This unfortunate update does nothing to reassure investors or provide relief.” Marks’s departure comes as RFK Jr. plans to lay off 10,000 employees at the HHS department and close regional offices, in a bid to reshape the country’s health agencies as part of the Trump administration’s cost-cutting agenda.
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E-Commerce
Protesters against billionaire Elon Musks purge of the U.S. government under President Donald Trump demonstrated outside Tesla dealerships throughout the U.S. and in some cities in Europe on Saturday in the latest attempt to dent the fortune of the worlds richest man. The protesters were trying to escalate a movement targeting Tesla dealerships and vehicles in opposition to Musks role as the head of the newly created Department of of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, where he has gained access to sensitive data and shuttered entire agencies as he attempts to slash government spending. The biggest portion of Musks estimated $340 billion fortune consists of his stock in the electric vehicle company, which continues to run while also working alongside Trump. After earlier demonstrations that were somewhat sporadic, Saturday marked the first attempt to surround all 277 of the automakers showrooms and service centers in the U.S. in hopes of deepening a recent decline in the companys sales. By early afternoon crowds ranging from a few dozen to hundreds of protesters had flocked to Tesla locations in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, Minnesota, and the automaker’s home state of Texas. Pictures posted on social media showed protesters brandishing signs such as Honk if you hate Elon and Fight the billionaire broligarchy. As the day progressed, the protests cascaded around the country outside Tesla locations in major cities such as Washington, Chicago, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Seattle, as well as towns in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Colorado. Smaller groups of counterprotesters also showed up at some sites. Hey, hey, ho, ho, Elon Musk has got to go! several dozen people chanted outside a showroom in Dublin, California, about 35 miles (60 miles) east of San Francisco, while a smaller cluster of Trump supporters waved American flags across the street. A much larger crowd circled another showroom in nearby Berkeley, chanting slogans to the beat of drums. We’re living in a fascist state, said Dennis Fagaly, a retired high school teacher from neighboring Oakland, and we need to stop this or we’ll lose our whole country and everything that is good about the United States. Anti-Musk sentiment extends beyond the U.S. The Tesla Takedown movement also hoped to rally protesters at more than 230 locations in other parts of the world. Although the turnouts in Europe were not as large, the anti-Musk sentiment was similar. About two dozen people held signs lambasting the billionaire outside a dealership in London as passing cars and trucks tooted horns in support. One sign displayed depicted Musk next to an image of Adolf Hitler making the Nazi salutea gesture that Musk has been accused of reprising shortly after Trump’s January 20 inauguration. A person in a Tyrannosaurus rex costume held another sign with a picture of Musk’s straight-arm gesture that said, You thought the Nazis were extinct. Dont buy a Swasticar. We just want to get loud, make noise, make people aware of the problems that were facing, said Cam Whitten, an American who showed up at the London protest. Tesla Takedown was organized by a group of supporters that included disillusioned owners of the automakers vehicles, celebrities such as actor John Cusack, and at least one Democratic Party lawmaker, Rep. Jasmine Crockett from Dallas. Im going to keep screaming in the halls of Congress. I just need you all to make sure you all keep screaming in the streets, Crockett said during an organizing call this month. Another Democratic lawmaker, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, showed up at a protest in Seattle, which she represents in Congress. Musk backlash has included some vandalism Some people have gone beyond protest, setting Tesla vehicles on fire or committing other acts of vandalism that U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has decried as domestic terrorism. In a March 20 company meeting, Musk indicated that he was dumbfounded by the attacks and said the vandals should stop acting psycho. Crockett and other Tesla Takedown supporters have been stressing the importance of Saturdays protests remaining peaceful. But police were investigating a fire that destroyed seven Teslas in northwestern Germany in the early morning. It was not immediately clear if the blaze, which was extinguished by firefighters, was related to the protests. In Watertown, Massachusetts, local police reported that the side mirror of a black pickup struck two people at a protest outside a Tesla service center, according to the Boston Herald. The suspect was promptly identified by police at the scene, who said there were no serious injuries. Musk maintains that the company’s future remains bright A growing number of consumers who bought Tesla vehicles before Musk took over DOGE have been looking to sell or trade them in, while others have slapped on bumper stickers seeking to distance themselves from him. But Musk did not appear concerned about an extended slump in new sales in the March meeting, during which he reassured the workers that the companys Model Y would remain the best-selling car on Earth again this year. He also predicted that Tesla will have sold more than 10 million cars worldwide by next year, up from about seven million currently. There are times when there are rocky moments, where there is stormy weather, but what I am here to tell you is that the future is incredibly bright and exciting, Musk said. After Trump was elected last November, investors initially saw Musks alliance with the president as a positive development for Tesla and its long-running efforts to launch a network of self-driving cars. That optimism helped lift Teslas stock by 70% between the election and Trump’s January 20 inauguration, creating an additional $560 billion in shareholder wealth. But virtually all those gains have vaporated amid investor worries about the backlash, lagging sales in the U.S., Europe, and China, and Musk spending time overseeing DOGE. This continues to be a moment of truth for Musk to navigate this brand tornado crisis moment and get onto the other side of this dark chapter for Tesla, Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said in a recent research note. This story has been corrected to fix the misspelling of the surname of Rep. Pramila Jayapal, which appeared in an earlier version. Michael Liedtke, AP business writer Associated Press writers Terry Chea, Mustakim Hasnath, and Stefanie Dazio contributed to this report.
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E-Commerce
For most baseball fans, hope springs eternal on Opening Day. Many of those fansmore than you might thinkare women. A 2024 survey found that women made up 39% of those who attended or watched Major League Baseball games, and franchises have taken notice. The Philadelphia Phillies offer behind-the-scenes tours and clinics for their female fans, while the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees offer fantasy camps that are geared to women. The number of women working professionally in baseball has also grown. Kim Ng made history in 2020 when she became the first woman general manager of an MLB team, the Miami Marlins. As of 2023, women made up 30% of central office professional staff and 27% of team senior administration jobs. In addition, 43 women held coaching and managerial jobs across the major and minor league levelsa 95% increase in just two years. As a fan and scholar of the game, Im happy to see more women watching baseball and working in the industry. But it still nags at me that the girls and women who play baseball dont get much recognition, particularly in the U.S. Women take the field In the U.S., baseball is seen as a sport for boys and men. Girls and women, on the other hand, are supposed to play softball, which uses a bigger ball and has a smaller field. It wasnt always this way. Women have been playing baseball in the U.S. since at least the 1860s. At womens colleges such as Smith and Vassar, students organized baseball teams as early as 1866. The first professional womens baseball team was known as the Dolly Vardens, a team of Black players formed in Philadelphia in 1867. Barnstorming teams, known as Bloomer Girls, traveled across the country to play against mens teams from the 1890s to the 1930s, providing the players with independence and the means to make a living. The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, founded by Philip K. Wrigley in 1943, also offered women the chance to play professionally. The league, which inspired the 1992 film A League of Their Own, enforced rigid norms of femininity expected at the time. Players were required to wear skirts and makeup while playing and were fined if they engaged in any behavior deemed unladylike. Teams were open only to white women and light-skinned Latinas. Black women were not allowed to play, a policy that reflected the segregation of the Jim Crow era. Three Black womenConnie Morgan, Mamie Peanut Johnson, and Toni Stonedid play in the otherwise male Negro Leagues in the early 1950s. However, their skills were often downplayed by claims that theyd been signed to generate ticket sales and boost interest in the struggling league. The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League folded in 1954, and by the late-1950s womens participation in baseball had dwindled. Starting in the 1970s, many girls who wanted to play baseball were encouraged to play softball instead. [Photo: Bettmann/Getty Images] Girls funneled into softball Softball was invented in Chicago in 1887 as an indoor alternative to baseball. Originally aimed at both men and women, it eventually became the accepted sport for girls and women due to its smaller field, larger ball, and underhand pitching styleaspects deemed suitable for the supposedly weaker and more delicate female body. The passage of Title IX in 1972 further pushed the popularization of fast-pitch softball, as participation in high school and college increased markedly. In 1974, the National Organization for Women filed a lawsuit against Little League Baseball because the leagues charter excluded girls from playing. The lawsuit was successful, and girls were permitted to join teams. In response, Little League created Little League Softball as a way to funnel girls into softball instead of baseball. As political scientist Jennifer Ring has pointed out, this decision reinforced the gendered division of each sport and cemented the post-Title IX segregated masculinity of baseball. Girls can still play baseball, but most are encouraged to eventually switch to softball if they want to pursue college scholarships. If they want to keep playing baseball, they have to constantly confront stubborn cultural beliefs and assumptions that they should be playing softball instead. A global game You might be surprised to learn that the U.S. fields a national womens baseball team that competes in the Womens Baseball World Cup. But they receive scant media attention and remain unknown to most baseball fans. In a 2019 article published in the Journal of Sport and Social Issues, I argued that the U.S. has experienced inconsistent success on the global stage because of a lack of infrastructure, limited resources, and persistent gendered assumptions that hamper the development of womens baseball. Other countries such as Japan, Canada, and Australia have established solid pathways that allow girls and women to pursue baseball from the youth level through high school and beyond. That being said, opportunitie for girls to play baseball are increasing in the U.S. thanks to the efforts of organizations such as Baseball for All and DC Girls Baseball. Approximately 1,300 girls play high school baseball, and a handful of young women play on mens college baseball teams each year. In recent years, numerous womens collegiate club baseball teams have been established; theres even an annual tournament to crown a national champion. Pro league in the works Momentum continues to build. MLB recently appointed Veronica Alvarez as its first girls baseball ambassador, who will oversee development programs such as the Trailblazers Series and the Elite Development Invitational. A new documentary film, See Her Be Her, is touring the country to celebrate the growth of womens baseball and raise awareness of the challenges these athletes face. Perhaps most significantly, the Womens Pro Baseball League announced that it is planning to start play in summer 2026 with six teams located in the northeastern U.S. Over 500 players from 11 countries have registered with the league, with a scouting camp and player draft scheduled for later this year. Should the league have success, it will mark a revitalization of womens professional baseball in the U.S., a nod to the rich history of the womens game and a commitment to securing opportunities for the girls and women who continue to defy cultural norms to play the game they love. Callie Maddox is an associate professor of sport leadership and management at Miami University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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E-Commerce
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