Childcare provider KinderCare Learning Companies postpones $503 million IPO

 KinderCare Learning Companies, the largest private provider of early childhood education and care services in the US, postponed its IPO on Friday, citing regulatory delays. It had filed to raise $503 million by offering 25.8 million shares at a price range of $18 to $21.

KinderCare is the largest private provider of early childhood education and care services in the US by center capacity. The company serves children ranging from 6 weeks to 12 years of age across its market leading footprint of 1,490 early childhood education centers with capacity of more than 195,000 children and contracts for more than 650 before- and after-school sites located in 40 states and the District of Columbia as of October 2, 2021. KinderCare operates all of its centers under the KinderCare brand and utilizes a consistent curriculum and operational approach.

The Portland, OR-based company was founded in 1969 and booked $1.7 billion in revenue for the 12 months ended September 30, 2021. It had planned to list on the NYSE under the symbol KLC. Barclays, Morgan Stanley, Jefferies, BofA Securities, Goldman Sachs, Baird, Citi, Credit Suisse, and Macquarie Capital were set to be the joint bookrunners on the deal.

Relevant Profile: KLC

https://www.renaissancecapital.com/IPO-Center/News/88817/Childcare-provider-KinderCare-Learning-Companies-postpones-$503-million-IPO

Revenue cycle management platform Ensemble Health Partners officially withdraws $605M IPO

 Ensemble Health Partners, which provides a healthcare revenue cycle management platform, withdrew its plans for an initial public offering on Friday. It had filed to raise $605 million by offering 29.5 million shares at a price range of $19 to $22, but postponed ahead of pricing in October. 

The Cincinnati, OH-based company was founded in 2014 and booked $742 million in revenue for the 12 months ended June 30, 2021. It had planned to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol ENSB. Goldman Sachs, BofA Securities, Deutsche Bank, Guggenheim Securities, Credit Suisse, Evercore ISI, Wells Fargo Securities, SVB Leerink, Baird, and William Blair were set to be the joint bookrunners on the deal.

Relevant Profile: ENSB

https://www.renaissancecapital.com/IPO-Center/News/88845/Revenue-cycle-management-platform-Ensemble-Health-Partners-officially-withd

OSHA Mandate Stalled But Other Mandates To Suffocate Economy All Over US

 by Michael Snyder via TheMostImportantNews.com,

You can thank Joe Biden for the madness that is about to unfold. 

As I discussed yesterday, the OSHA mandate that would cover more than 80 million American workers has been officially put on hold, but Biden’s other mandates are still in effect.  So that means that vast numbers of patriotic young Americans are about to be kicked out of the military.  We better hope that Russia and China don’t decide to suddenly make some big moves after our military is ruthlessly gutted.  Countless numbers of federal employees are about to be forced out of their jobs as well, and that includes airport security screeners.  If you plan on traveling by air during Thanksgiving week, you could potentially be facing some enormous delays…

As many as 40% of U.S. airport security screeners haven’t been vaccinated for COVID-19 as an immunization deadline for federal employees and the busy holiday travel season converge.

Many Transportation Security Administration workers are resisting the requirement as the Nov. 22 deadline approaches, said Hydrick Thomas, president of the American Federation of Government Employees’ division representing front-line airport security officers.

Who was the genius that decided that the deadline should be right before the busiest travel days of the entire year?

Someone should definitely be fired over that one.

Biden’s mandate for healthcare workers is also still in effect, and the CDC is telling us that approximately one-third of all healthcare workers in our hospitals are currently unvaccinated…

Nearly one third of healthcare workers in U.S. hospitals are still not vaccinated against Covid-19, according to research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as tensions escalate over a looming—and contested—nationwide mandate that officials worry will leave the sector with a shortage of critical workers.

So what are we going to do when a third of all of our hospital workers are suddenly terminated right in the middle of a pandemic?

We can’t just pull random people off the street to be doctors and nurses.

Someday soon, you may go to the emergency room and find yourself waiting for hours and hours because there is nobody to treat you.

In fact, we have already been seeing people die in our emergency rooms as they wait for treatment that never comes.

This is America.  This sort of thing isn’t supposed to happen here.

But it is happening.

The good news is that some employers around the country are seeing the light and are now luring new employees with a promise that no vaccine will be required…

In the search for workers in this tight labor market, companies have courted new hires with the promise of higher wages, sign-on bonuses, ample vacation time, and childcare.

The latest: “No vaccine required.”

That three-word phrase is popping up across online job listings (sometimes emphatically in all caps and accompanied by exclamation marks) as businesses seek to turn the federal government’s proposed vaccine decree on its head and attract employees — notably those from a talent pool that’s been turned off by or turned away from employers that require a Covid-19 vaccination.

Of course CNN thinks that this is a horrible development, but in their article they also admit that this is working.

Companies that openly advertise that no vaccine is required are being deluged with applications.

Speaking of vaccines, the FDA is asking a federal judge to keep certain Pfizer vaccine data under wraps until the year 2076…

The FDA has asked a federal judge to make the public wait until the year 2076 to disclose all of the data and information it relied upon to license Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.   That is not a typo.   It wants 55 years to produce this information to the public.

As explained in a prior article, the FDA repeatedly promised “full transparency” with regard to Covid-19 vaccines, including reaffirming “the FDA’s commitment to transparency” when licensing Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.

Why would they want to hide this information from the public?

There is so much about all of this that smells really, really bad.

Meanwhile, Biden’s mandates threaten to severely harm a U.S. economy that is already rapidly crumbling.  On Thursday, we learned that CVS will be closing 900 stores…

CVS Health is closing 900 stores over the next three years, amounting to nearly 10% of its footprint, in response to the changing of “consumer buying patterns.”

The drug store chain said Thursday that the closures will result in a retail presence that ensures it has the “right kinds of stores in the right locations for consumers and for the business.” A list of locations shutting down, which will happen beginning next spring, was not immediately released.

Needless to say, CVS wouldn’t be closing hundreds of stores around the nation if we were on the verge of an economic renaissance.

The months ahead are looking exceedingly bleak.  A new wave of the pandemic has already begun, and some experts are warning that this could be the biggest wave of all.

We are already seeing absolutely insane authoritarian measures being implemented all over Europe, and the Biden administration will undoubtedly try to push the envelope wherever it can.

More lockdowns, shutdowns and mandates will crush economic activity, and the economic outlook for next year was already not very promising at all even before this new wave came along.

As I have said before, I have such a bad feeling about 2022.  The stage is being set for so many of the things that I warn about in my latest book.  If you have not been paying much attention to global events, you need to wake up, because it appears that things are about to start getting really crazy.

I hope that you are able to spend time with family and friends over the next couple of months, and I would encourage you to warn them about what is coming.

Because the “good times” are almost over, and the vast majority of the population is going to be absolutely blind-sided by what is coming next.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/osha-mandate-may-be-stalled-other-mandates-are-about-suffocate-economic-activity-all-over

Dems take victory lap on Biden spending plan as Pelosi downplays looming Senate changes

 House Democrats on Friday celebrated the passage of a sweeping $1.75 trillion tax and spending plan that makes up the bulk of President Biden's economic agenda, billing the measure as "transformational," even as it faces an uphill battle – and looming changes – in the Senate. 

The bill is "monumental, it's historic, it's transformative, it's bigger than anything we've ever done," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said during a press conference shortly after the bill's passage, 220 to 213, on Friday morning. She was accompanied by six fellow House Democrats, including Rep. Richard Neal, chair of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee. 

But the legislation still has a difficult road ahead in the 50-50 Senate, where Democratic leaders must ensure that every member of the caucus votes in lockstep.

The specifics of the bill are almost guaranteed to change in the upper chamber, where two Democratic centrists – Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona – have not explicitly endorsed it. With the narrowest possible majority, it would be possible for one lawmaker to sink the spending bill.

The bill must also comply with a review by the Senate parliamentarian, a non-partisan referee who will determine whether it adheres to the complicated rules of budget reconciliation, the tactic that Democrats are using to pass the bill with a simple majority.

Pelosi downplayed concerns about changes in the Senate, insisting the "biggest challenge was to meet the vision of President Biden."

"We had so much agreement within the bill," she said. "And then whatever comes out in the Senate, we'll be working together with them so that we have agreement when it comes back to us." The California Democrat had previously insisted that she would not bring the reconciliation package to the House floor for a vote until it was clear it could also pass in the Senate. 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said he wants to pass the bill – known as the Build Back Better Act – by Christmas. But he will need to get all 50 members of his caucus across the political spectrum to back the same sweeping plan, a feat that seems increasingly challenging. 

Manchin has sounded the alarm about rising inflation (the government reported last week that prices have risen 6.2% over the past year, a 31-year high), while Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has questioned House Democrats' repeal of a Trump-era limit on the state and local tax deduction, a policy that predominantly benefits wealthy Americans in coastal states.

"As soon as the necessary technical and procedural work with the Senate Parliamentarian has been completed, the Senate will take up this legislation," Schumer said. 

The House bill imagines spending $1.75 trillion over the next decade on child-care subsidies, a one-year extension of the boosted child tax credit, universal pre-kindergarten, expanded Medicaid, a five-year repeal of the $10,000 SALT deduction cap and programs designed to combat climate change. It would be funded largely by higher taxes on wealthy Americans and corporations.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/democrats-biden-spending-plan-pelosi-senate-changes

Fauci says babies and toddlers could be eligible for COVID-19 vaccine by early 2022

 Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci said Thursday that though he "can't guarantee it," babies and toddlers aged 6 months to 5 years could be eligible for COVID-19 vaccination by spring.

"Hopefully within a reasonably short period of time, likely the beginning of next year in 2022, in the first quarter of 2022, it will be available to them," Fauci told Insider in an interview, though he cautioned that he was speculating, adding, "you've got to do the clinical trial." 

Pfizer-BioNTech previously stated that results from their clinical trial in children in the age ranges of 2 to 5 years and 6 months to 2 years are expected as soon as the fourth quarter of this year.

According to a report by ABC Tampa in late October, Pfizer expects to apply this month for approval for its COVID-19 vaccine in children ages 6 months to 5 years, the last age range in the U.S. not yet being vaccinated.

"The Food and Drug Administration and CDC won't approve the vaccine until there's some data showing safety and efficacy," Philip Landrigan, a pediatrician and immunologist at Boston College, told CNN Health earlier this month.

"There's every reason to think that it will be safe, and it will be efficacious," Landrigan added. "But the agencies need to be cautious, justifiably so, and so they're not going to give the approval until they have the data."

According to CNN, Pfizer is the furthest along in trials for those aged 6 months to 5 years, but Moderna is also conducting studies in very young children.

"We don't have enough data now to present it for a regulatory approach, but right now, the data are being collected and analyzed," Fauci said when speaking to CNN earlier this month. "So we will be able to answer the question, I believe, within a reasonable period of time regarding the safety and the immunogenicity among those lower than 5 years old."

 

According to CNN, Johnson & Johnson is currently in the first phase three study in adolescents ages 12 to 17 years old and expect results in the coming months. 

 

The White House announced Wednesday that 10 percent of children ages 5 to 11 have received their first coronavirus shot, following the approval of the Pfizer pediatric dose. 

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/582380-fauci-says-babies-and-toddlers-could-be-eligible-for-covid-19-vaccine-by

Austria going into full lockdown, mandating vaccines as COVID-19 cases soar

 Austria will become the first country in Europe to return to a total COVID-19 lockdown amid a rise in cases across the country, Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg announced Friday, according to multiple news outlets.

The lockdown will start Monday and last for 10 days and officials may extend it an additional 10 days, CNN noted.

The nation will also be the first in the European Union to make COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory, beginning Feb. 1.

"We have not succeeded in convincing enough people to get vaccinated," Schallenberg told reporters at a press conference in Vienna, according to Reuters.

"It hurts that such measures still have to be taken," he added.

Austria's vaccination rate is on the lower end for Europe, with 65 percent of the population fully vaccinated. The country's infection rate is one of the highest in Europe, with a seven-day incidence of 991 per 100,000 people, Reuters reported.

The moves come only days after the country imposed a lockdown for all unvaccinated persons over 12 years old. While Austrian Health Minister Wolfgang Mückstein said Friday that schools and kindergartens would be open during the lockdown, Schallenberg told parents that they could take their children out of school, according to CNN.

Once the national lockdown is lifted, the lockdown measure will remain for unvaccinated individuals. Mückstein said everything being done is crucial to avoid a "fifth wave," the news outlet noted.

Mückstein also urged residents to wear FFP2 masks when in enclosed spaces. 

Germany also announced plans to impose COVID-19 restrictions on the unvaccinated as the country faces its fourth wave of the pandemic. Outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel said the situation in her country was ''dramatic'' and ''very worrying," CNN noted.

https://thehill.com/policy/international/europe/582316-austria-going-into-full-nationwide-lockdown-as-covid-19-cases

Conn. officials warn of marijuana laced with fentanyl after reports of overdoses

 

• Dozens of people in Connecticut who claimed only to smoke marijuana experienced opioid overdose symptoms and required naloxone.
• Authorities said the cases were “dispersed across Connecticut.”
• This comes as more than 100,000 people died from drug overdoses in the United States during the 12-month period ending April 2021.

Health officials in Connecticut are warning residents about the possibility of fentanyl-laced marijuana circulating around the state. 

The Connecticut Department of Public Health on Thursday said they have received nearly 40 reports of people who experienced opioid overdose symptoms and required naloxone, a drug used to reverse narcotic overdoses, for treatment. The patients claimed to have only smoked marijuana and denied ingesting any type of opioid. 

Authorities said the cases were “dispersed across Connecticut.” 

In October, authorities managed to secure a sample of marijuana at a scene of one of the overdoses in Plymouth, Conn. An analysis of the sample confirmed the marijuana was laced with fentanyl. 

“This is the first lab-confirmed case of marijuana with fentanyl in Connecticut and possibly the first confirmed case in the United States,” Connecticut Public Health Commissioner Manisha Juthani said in a release. 

The cases were first reported in July, when a total of 11 such overdoses occurred. Nine cases were tallied in August and September and 10 in October. 

Health officials urged those using illegally obtained substances to “know the signs of an opioid overdose, do not use alone, and have naloxone on hand.”

Authorities are continuing to investigate the matter. 

This comes as more than 100,000 people died from drug overdoses in the United States during the 12-month period ending April 2021. The figure is a record high and is a nearly 29 percent increase from the previous year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Opioids made up close to 75,000 deaths, while synthetic opioids like fentanyl killed 64,000 people.

https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/582390-connecticut-officials-warn-of-marijuana-laced-with-fentanyl-after