Morning Wire - Tuesday | October 12, 2021

Episode Date: October 12, 2021

Thousands of airline flights are cancelled, Merck requests FDA approval for its new “game-changer” Covid treatment, and tensions escalate between China and Taiwan. Get the facts first on Morning Wire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Southwest Airlines continued to cancel hundreds of flights on Monday, after canceling over 2,000 flights this past weekend and stranding passengers across the country. The airline denied allegations that the cancellations were due to a pilot walkout prompted by vaccine mandates. I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley. It's Tuesday, October 12th, and this is Morning Wire. On Monday, Pharmaceutical giant Merck asked the FDA for emergency use authorization of its new drug for treating COVID. The oral pill has been shown to slash hospitalization rates by 50% and deaths by even more. We'll speak to a leading expert about the promising new treatment.

And tensions between China and Taiwan have escalated in recent weeks, with China ramping up the rhetoric for reunification and displays of military might. What is America's role in this worsening situation, and how has it responded to China's, quote, provocative military activity? Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. This show is sponsored by Birch Gold Group. Inflation is destroying the dollar.

Birch Gold Group can help. Protect your IRA or 401K with a precious metals IRA. Text wire to 98989898 to claim a free info kit on physical gold and silver. There's zero obligation. Text the word wire to 989898 to protect your savings today. This weekend, mass flight cancellations from Southwest Airlines left thousands of travelers scrambling, to get home at airports around the country. Though the airline publicly blamed weather and air traffic control problems for the move,

others have speculated that vaccine mandates may have played a role. Here with more is Daily Wire Managing Editor Cabot Phillips. So, Cabot, what's going on with Southwest? Yeah, so on Saturday, out of the blue, they canceled 808 flights. That's about 25% of all of their flights for the day nationwide. Another 34% of their flights were delayed as well. Then on Sunday, they canceled another 1,000. and 18 flights or 30% of their total flights for the day. Keep in mind, this was a three-day

weekend with Columbus Day on Monday, so airports were already packed, and these cancellations caused mass chaos with tens of thousands of travelers stuck without a way home. So the obvious question is why? I mean, what caused the cancellations? That's where this gets complicated. So we don't know for sure what caused them, but we do know that the explanation coming from Southwest appears to contradict reality on the ground. So the airline claimed the flights were canceled due to bad weather, staffing issues, and air traffic control problems. But the weather excuse doesn't really make any sense because other airlines would have been affected by that and they weren't. Other airlines only canceled 1 to 2% of their flights

over the weekend. And the air traffic control excuse also doesn't make much sense. The FAA themselves publicly refuted Southwest saying that they had no issues on Saturday and Sunday. They issued a statement saying, quote, some airlines continue to experience scheduling challenges due to a aircraft and crews being out of place. But that's basically them washing their hands of it. Yeah, I mean, a lot of people weren't buying the explanations from Southwest. And there was speculation on social media that it might have been a result of Southwest's vaccine mandate.

So what can you tell us about that? Well, that's the leading theory right now for a lot of people. Southwest did announce last week that in order to comply with President Biden's vaccine order, they'd be requiring the shot for all employees by December 8th. Then on Friday, the same day the cancellations really started, the union for Southwest pilots challenged the mandating court, calling it unlawful in a lawsuit. So people are saying it's no coincidence that the mass cancellation started the day the pilots union issued a legal challenge. Senator Ted Cruz, for example, tweeted that the cancellations were, quote, Joe Biden's illegal vaccine mandate at work. Others have also pointed out that Southwest has publicly been dealing with staffing shortages

since earlier in the summer and say the odds of this all coming to a head the day the pilots union sued the airline over the vaccine mandate seems slim. Well, has the pilots union said anything about this vaccine mandate or the role? That's kind of the thing. They say that they have nothing to do with the shortage. The Southwest Union issued a statement saying they're aware of the cancellations, but, quote, can say with confidence that our pilots are not participating in any official or unofficial job actions.

Now, one possible explanation is that under the Railway Labor Act, airline employees are not allowed to go on strike without first entering mediation with the airline itself. That's something that they haven't done yet. So this could be an unofficial strike that the union just can't address for legal purposes, but again, that's speculation at this point. Over the weekend, numerous flight experts said an airline canceling this many flights with no real explanation was almost unheard of. Brian Summers, the editor at large of Travel Sight Skift, said, quote,

something doesn't add up about Southwest's explanation. Southwest should tell his customers more about whatever issue is causing this meltdown. And that seems to be the general sentiment right now from people on both sides of the political aisle, and especially from stranded passengers. So what's next? Are things getting any better? Well, on Monday, there were still a few hundred flights canceled, along with mass delays, particularly in Denver, Baltimore, and Dallas, and other. Southwest hubs. And the continued problems have already had a massive financial ramification as well.

Southwest shares were down more than 3% over trading on Monday. Moving forward, the airline said they're offering increased overtime to address worker shortages and that they expect things to straighten out by the end of the week. But a lot of travelers who are stranded right now are kind of saying, we'll believe it when we see it. Yeah, an intriguing mystery. Cabot, thanks for the update. Anytime. That's Daily Wire, Managing Editor, Cabot Phillips. On Monday, pharmaceutical giant Merck announced that they're seeking FDA authorization for a new oral medication that's been shown to drastically reduce both hospitalization and death from COVID-19. Joining us to discuss the promising new treatment is Dr. Namanjay Bumpus,

professor and director of the Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Dr. Bumpus, thanks so much for joining us today. Thanks for having me. So last week, Merck made big news when it announced that its new COVID-19. pill malnupiravir seem to have a high rate of success in treating COVID patients. What can you tell us about this new treatment? Yes, so what we know currently is really what has been released by Merck so far as far as information.

And what they're saying is that this is a drug that they've designed to inhibit replication of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. So this is essentially for use in people that have mild to moderate SARS-CoV-2 infection or COVID-19 disease. And so in their study, what they found is that in people with that mild to moderate COVID-19 that were within five days of symptom onset, that they saw about a 50% decrease in risk of hospitalization. And also importantly, they saw in their treatment group no deaths, where apparently in the placebo group there were eight deaths. So they seem to also see elimination, at least, of death in the treatment arm in this initial study. So importantly,

by blocking replication of the virus, the idea is that you already have the virus in your body, but that this drug would prevent it from being able to just continue to reproduce and spread throughout your body. So hopefully it would stop it from replicating or at least substantially slow it down so that you wouldn't progress to severe disease. Also, they did the study in people who were at risk of severe COVID-19.

So that also seems to be critical. People at risk for severe COVID-19, and hopefully slowing down progression to that potentially by inhibiting replication of the virus. Why is there so much excitement around this medication other than the obvious success rate? Well, I think that, you know, it offers a potential treatment option. It's an oral treatment and there are currently monoclonal antibodies that have emergency use authorization for treatment in the United States and are used also, you know, throughout the world. those are given by intravenous or subcutaneous injections, so it's different than being able to take a

treatment orally. So I think that there's enthusiasm to have something else on the menu of options, but also something that can be given orally for many people, they would much prefer even an oral medication over an injectable. Okay, so the next step here is FDA approval. Is there a timeline on that or an expectation for that approval? And I think certainly there's the expectation in hope that this drug could be in use at the end of the year, the beginning of 2022, I think it's going to really depend on when everything is submitted to the FDA and international regulatory bodies and then how quickly things go as far as, you know, looking at the data and how the data really look when lots of scientists, these agencies are looking at them and regulators

are looking at them. But certainly the hope is end of this year, early 2022. Great. Yeah, let's hope that's the case. Dr. Bumpus, thanks so much for joining us today. Thank you for having me. That was Johns Hopkins University's Dr. Namange Bumpus. In recent weeks, tensions have worsened in Asia, with Chinese military aggression being directed toward Taiwan, as China looks to capitalize on what is being portrayed as military weakness on the part of the Biden administration.

Here to tell us more is Daily Wire's Ian Howarth. Hi, Georgia. Hey, Ian. So what's the latest on the tensions between China and Taiwan? Well, the last time we chatted, things were getting tense in the Indo-Pacific. Earlier this month, the Chinese Air Force sent over 150 military jets into Taiwan's airspace, with their foreign minister responding saying they would fight to the end if China attacked, and since then, things have gotten a lot worse.

Over the weekend, Chinese President Xi vowed to achieve so-called reunification with Taiwan. He did so while speaking in what the CCP called the Great Hall of the People to commemorate the 110th anniversary of the 1911 Revolution, saying that, quote, those who forget their heritage, betray their motherland and seek to split the country will come to no good. He added that he wanted a peaceful reunification under the controversial one country, two systems. Now, in the past, the Taiwanese government has had a pretty firm message against the so-called reunification. Are they holding to that?

Yeah, they are. Taiwan's president spoke out against Xi's call for reunification, saying that the island would not bow to pressure. She said that Taiwan would continue to build up his defensive capabilities to stop China for imposing a path, which, quote, offers neither a free and democratic way of life for Taiwan nor sovereignty for our 23 million people. China was also performing some military drills that some people thought were sort of an intimidation technique. Yeah, that's right. Yesterday, China's military claimed it had carried out beach landing and assault drills in the province directly across the sea from Taiwan. However, video of the drills showed calm weather while a tropical storm is currently moving through the area. So there is some doubt about when the video was filmed. So it is possible that this is nothing more than a saber-rattling propaganda move,

but we'll still be very concerning for Taiwan to witness. Now, the Biden administration has, in the past, at least, tried to ride the fence when it comes to China. Have we seen any change in strategy from the White House in light of these recent events? Not really, no. Earlier this month, the U.S. did warn China that provocative, military activity would undermine any regional peace and stability, but it seems that this warning was just ignored. Made worse by the fact that the U.S. military presence in Asia has been eroding over time, all while the Chinese military has grown at dangerous rates. So not only do some people

think it's unlikely that the U.S. would intervene if China invaded, it's not even clear that the U.S. would even win if they did intervene. For example, the Pentagon organized a war game simulation in October of 2020, and an American team struggled against Chinese weaponry in a simulated battle over Taiwan. This means that even though the White House press secretary promised unwavering support for Taiwan earlier this year, it's not clear what this even means anymore. Our support for Taiwan is rock solid. Taiwan is a leading democracy and major economy and a security partner. And we will continue to strengthen our relationship across all areas, all the areas we cooperate, including on economic issues. So with the U.S. being portrayed as weak in the

Indo-Pacific by an ever more aggressive Chinese Communist Party, all on the back of Biden's disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, it's quite possible that China could soon seize what they're seeing as an opportunity. Ian, thanks for reporting. Thanks for having me. That's Daily Wires, Ian Howarth. Other stories we're tracking this week. On Monday, Sydney, Australia began lifting some of its strict lockdown measures, at least

for fully vaccinated residents. Sydney is now allowing vaccinated customers back into cafes, gyms, and restaurants. After they were shut out due to its zero COVID policy, a policy the country is now rethinking. In response to the reopenings on Monday, Australian celebrated the so-called Freedom Day. And New York parole officers are voicing concern in response to a new bill signed by Governor Kathy Hochel,

which would allow for the immediate release of over 160 people currently being held at Rikers on nonviolent charges. While inmate advocates are cheering the law, parole officers argue that the legislation removes accountability for individuals still completing their sentences and will ultimately lead to more crime. If you like this episode and are interested in hearing more, subscribe to Morning Wire on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,

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