If this is where it is going I would rather go backwards:
"Crowd-safety tech company Evolv inks $1.7 billion SPAC deal to go public; The Waltham company’s investors include Bill Gates, Theo Epstein, and Peyton Manning" by Anissa Gardizy Globe Staff, March 8, 2021
They wrote a blank check and forgot to sign it.
At a time when large crowds are hard to come by, a Waltham technology company focused on crowd-safety screening has inked a deal to go public.
Evolv Technology said Monday that it will merge with NewHold Investment Corp., a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, in a deal valuing the company at about $1.7 billion.
Evolv, founded in 2013, makes artificial intelligence-powered imaging systems that are used to spot weapons and other security threats. The company aims to end the need for metal detectors and physical pat-downs, saying its technology is 10 times as fast and 70 percent less expensive than other security methods.
On a call with investors Monday morning, Peter George, the chief executive, presented a photo of a security checkpoint bottleneck at a sports venue. He said that is “what’s happened to professional sporting stadiums right after the Boston Marathon” bombings.
“Everybody was asked to grab the most innovative technology at the time, and unfortunately that’s an 83-year-old metal detector,” he said. “We completely upend that.”
The company says guests can walk through its screening system without breaking stride. George said the technology can differentiate between a phone and a weapon, and the company can add additional threats to the detection software as they arise. Last year, in response to the pandemic, Evolv began checking for elevated body temperatures.
That has my blood boiling.
Evolv’s technology has been used at Six Flags amusement parks and sports venues, including Gillette Stadium. The company offers its product via subscription for $2,000 to $3,000 per month with a four-year contract.
Evolv says it has screened more than 50 million people, making it second in the United States only to the Transportation Security Administration.
Evolv has also raised $300 million through a private funding round with investors including retired NFL quarterback Peyton Manning and former Red Sox executive Theo Epstein. Previous investors included Bill Gates, Lux Capital, and General Catalyst.
Once again, it's your Great Re$et and its $elf-$erving medical tyranny and fear-based society forever.
Evolv expects to have $470 million in gross proceeds, which it will use to increase production and enter international markets. The SPAC merger is expected to close in the second quarter.
Kevin Charlton, the chief executive of NewHold Investment Corp., said the Wall Street acquisition vehicle was “looking for a merger partner with a disruptive, proprietary technology that was transforming its industry.”
“We also were looking for a company with proven revenue and gross margins that was ready for accelerated growth,” he said on a call with investors Monday. “Evolv is in the center of the bull’s-eye for the kind of company we’re looking for.”
That is where humanity is in their sights.
Evolv has nearly 100 employees, half of whom work in Waltham.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
So are you ready for a "peek at life in a vaccinated world?"
"New CDC guidelines stir hope of a return to ‘almost normal’ after COVID-19 vaccination; Fully vaccinated people can gather privately without masks under rules" by Kay Lazar and Robert Weisman Globe Staff, March 8, 2021
It seems like they are making this up because it has become so damn absurd at this point, but it's actually part of the plan.
It's a colossal jerk-job and mind-fuck, the greatest in human history.
Americans got their first peek Monday at what life may be like in a post-vaccinated world with new federal guidelines that say people who are fully vaccinated can gather privately indoors without masks and without physical distancing.
Can do that even without being vaccinated or having government or official approval, so.... just want to set that straight at the top.
The college kids proved that, God bless 'em, and I'm sure discipline will be forthcoming regarding your room assignment.
The much-anticipated recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, described as a first step toward returning to everyday activities, identify someone as fully vaccinated two weeks after their final shot. The timing of the announcement — just weeks before the beginning of spring — comes as many people are tempted to visit family or interact with friends after months of careful isolation.
Jean and Mike Lynch circled their calendar when they heard the news. On Easter Sunday in early April, the Franklin couple hope to hug some of their grandchildren again in their first up-close and almost normal visit since the pandemic began.
By then, the Lynches will have completed their COVID-19 vaccinations and, under the new guidelines, their maskless visit with family will be considered safe — or as safe as possible in pandemic times.
“The world will open back up,” said Jean Lynch, 71, a retired critical care nurse. “We’re people people, and the last year has been isolating.”
The new guidelines say fully vaccinated people can visit indoors with unvaccinated people from another household without either wearing masks or staying 6 feet apart as long as everyone in the other household is at low risk for severe disease.
Fully vaccinated people can also skip quarantine or COVID-19 testing when they’re exposed to someone potentially infected with the virus unless they show symptoms, under the new rules. Small groups of people who have all gotten their shots, for instance, could gather for dinner privately without masking or other precautions, under the rules.
Why would they have to worry at all?
F**k you and your f**king hoops!
Dr. Daniel Kuritzkes, chief of the division of infectious diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, called the CDC guidance “a very reasonable” approach.
“This really does show us that there’s light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. “We just have to persist through the tunnel.”
Fully vaccinated people should still consider wearing masks and physically distancing in public and while visiting with unvaccinated people who are at increased risk of severe illness from COVID, federal regulators said.
Why?
Probably already have immunity for a virus they never knew they had, blah, blah, blah.
This f**king gobbledegook is f**king sickening at this point.
“We know that people want to get vaccinated so they can get back to doing the things they enjoy with the people they love,” said CDC Director Rochelle P. Walensky, during a news conference Monday.
Ah, the new shaman, same as the old shaman, and just as criminal!
She cautioned that over 90 percent of Americans are still not vaccinated and urged everyone, vaccinated or not, to avoid large gatherings and unneeded travel. That advice triggered some confusion, as people wondered whether Walensky’s green light for vaccinated grandparents to visit family suggested an OK to travel.
“We would like to give the opportunity for vaccinated grandparents to visit their children and grandchildren who are healthy and who are local,” Walensky said, “but our travel guidance currently is unchanged.”
Screw your half-measures, murderer!
CDC suggests Americans should avoid travel, but if they must, to get tested one to three days beforehand. Another test is advised three to five days after travel and the CDC suggests people stay home and self-quarantine for a full seven days after their trip, even if their test is negative.
“Every time there is a surge in travel we have a surge in cases in this country,” Walensky said.
She makes me sick!
Martha Sheridan, president of the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau, said she would have liked to hear new CDC guidance on travel, but for now, she said, she’s hoping Massachusetts follows the lead of neighbors like New York and Vermont by allowing vaccinated people from other states to visit without having to be tested or quarantine.
“I’m not surprised it wasn’t spelled out by CDC just yet on a national level,” Sheridan said. “On a lot of these things, they leave some state discretion, and that’s what may have happened here.”
Sheridan said she’s talked to representatives from that state Housing and Economic Development office and was told the state is considering lifting restrictions on all vaccinated visitors from other states.
Among many parents of school-age children, the new CDC guidelines aren’t likely to change attitudes toward attending gatherings or about sending kids back to school, said Somerville parent Keri Rodrigues, founder of Mass Parents United, an advocacy group.
Dr. David Hamer, an infectious diseases physician at Boston Medical Center and professor at Boston University School of Medicine, said he’s troubled that so little is known about whether people can become infectious after vaccination. Hamer said he’d favor a more conservative approach to socializing until more data can be collected.
“There’s still some unanswered questions on the potential for someone who’s been vaccinated to be infectious,” he said.
WTF is he talking about?
If you are still infectious after the vaccine, what good is it?
What it means is the VACCINE IS THE VIRUS!
It's IN the VACCINE!
These guys are F**KING NUTS if they expect the public to believe this anymore.
It's OVER, guys!
Take your loot and GO AWAY!
Hamer said people should be especially cautious about socializing with unvaccinated older people or others at higher risk of the virus.
He cited documented cases of people becoming infected with COVID-19 between their first and second shots of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, though there have been few cases of infection two weeks after the second doses.
No, but there have been over 1,200 deaths and over 25,000 injuries according to the CDC'S VAERS report.
Why is the Globe not only silent but obfuscating that fact?
Dr. Karen Tashima, director of clinical trials in the Immunology Center at Miriam Hospital in Providence, said the CDC’s lack of guidance on travel is an omission that presumably will be filled in future guidance. For now, people will have to rely on a patchwork of state and national guidelines on who can travel from where and with what restrictions, but overall, Tashima said, she thought the new guidance makes a lot of sense.
“People have been cooped up for a year now, and they want to know what they can do,” she said. “This is a measured approach. They’re not throwing caution to the wind.”
She also cautioned that the dangers of COVID-19 remain, especially with the spread of more easily transmissible virus variants.
“We’re still waiting for the infection rates to go way down and a lot more people to get vaccinated before we’ll get back to anything like normal,” Tashima said.
For now, Jean and Mike Lynch are eagerly planning visits with grandchildren.....
Let's hope they survive long enough, and if they are being featured in the Globe they probably will. They are part of the cho$en cla$$ for whom the world is being redesigned.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
King Baker is bribing the hospitals to keep their mouths shut and administer the death shots:
"In surprise move, Baker administration sets high insurance payments for vaccinations" by Priyanka Dayal McCluskey Globe Staff, March 8, 2021
As they prepared to roll out COVID-19 vaccines across Massachusetts, the Baker administration in December made a little-noticed decision about how much it would pay hospitals, health centers, pharmacies, and other providers for putting shots in arms of people covered by the state’s Medicaid program.
The administration initially said that program, MassHealth, would pay about $45 per vaccination, equal to the national Medicare rate for providers set by the federal government, but a month later, Governor Charlie Baker’s administration sweetened the pot, agreeing to pay providers twice the national Medicare rate, and it required private health plans to pay at least that amount.
We have so played when it comes to the costs associated with COVID -- like the additional $13,000 a case and $39,000 a death paid to hospitals while they were shut down.
It is a CRIMINAL FRAUD complete with DEATHS, folks!
This means providers get a fee of at least $90 for giving two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines to anyone covered by MassHealth or private insurance. The administration has not set rates for the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Administration officials said they increased the payments to encourage swift vaccination of millions of residents, but the move came as a surprise — a pleasant one for hospitals that wanted the higher rates, and less so for insurers that must pay the additional costs.
At this point, insurers aren’t objecting loudly, but the decision is stirring concerns about how vaccinations will affect future health care costs.
Good!
Maybe they will get off the yacht and start rowing with humanity!
“It’s an emergency; it’s a good thing to get shots into people’s arms as quickly as possible,” said Jon B. Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts and a frequent critic of high medical costs.
“My major concern was: That’s a lot of money,” Hurst said. “Who’s going to pay for it? Is it going to increase premiums, particularly for small businesses?”
Consumers don’t pay anything out of pocket to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Insurers pay providers for administering the shots, and the federal government is paying for the cost of the vaccines themselves.
While the $90 fee per vaccination may be a relatively small price to prevent a devastating illness that is causing hospitalizations and deaths, the Massachusetts rate stands out.
Damn liars. Deaths have remained static, no excesses over the year, and the population has remained steady!
It's all about getting the va¢¢ine into you come hell our high water!
The Medicaid programs in neighboring New Hampshire and Connecticut, for example, are paying about $45 for each vaccination.
In fact, the vast majority of state Medicaid programs are paying the $45 rate, said Matt Salo, executive director of the National Association of Medicaid Directors. Some are paying more, but Massachusetts appears to be the only state paying as much as double that rate, he said.
The state is RIPPING OFF the American taxpayer, as usual, to shore up hospitals so they won't bolt on the fraud!
Medicare is a federal program that provides health coverage for seniors, while Medicaid, which covers low-income individuals, is run by states that can set their own payment rates.
Massachusetts is also unusual in setting the roughly $90 payment rate not just for its Medicaid program — $33.88 for the first shot and $56.78 for the second — but for requiring as much from private health plans, which typically negotiate prices directly with health care providers.
Baker administration officials set the rates through the emergency powers they’ve used to govern during the pandemic.
Around the time the administration set the initial rates in December, certain hospital leaders argued the payments were too low. They noted the time and effort involved in servicing vulnerable and hard-to-reach communities, where patients cannot drive to a mass vaccination site. That includes the work of determining who is eligible for shots, contacting them, and scheduling their appointments. For patients who don’t speak English, they also hire interpreters to help with paperwork.
Staff and volunteers from UMass Memorial Health Care, for example, are going to homes and churches to vaccinate people, focusing on people of color and those who are homebound.
Dr. Eric Dickson, chief executive of UMass Memorial, said he explained the challenges during a call with the governor. Hospital leaders have talked to Baker and Marylou Sudders, the state secretary of health and human services, frequently throughout the pandemic.
“I was one of the more vocal people on the call with the governor [saying] that this is just not enough for us to sustain these programs,” Dickson said. “We asked the governor for an increase in reimbursement, and he’s delivered.”
Well, bully for you!
State officials temporarily stopped sending new doses of COVID vaccine to hospitals last month but later restored hospitals’ supplies.
Steve Walsh, president of the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association, said hospitals have established more than 50 vaccination sites across the state — a costly endeavor — and many sites are in communities hardest hit by the coronavirus.
“This approach by hospitals is largely unique to Massachusetts,” Walsh said. “We fully support the vaccine administration rates set by the state, which will ensure these hospital vaccination initiatives are sustainable and accessible to residents for as long as possible.”
Massachusetts insurers expect to spend as much as $400 million on COVID vaccine fees this year, which, like other medical costs, they ultimately expect to build into insurance premiums.
Who would want to kill that golden goo$e, 'eh?
Insurance companies may be vexed by the higher-than-usual payment rates in Massachusetts, but they are not fighting the administration’s decision, at least partly because vaccinating all residents is a universal goal.
Did you get that?
And if we don't want your tube of poison the COVID camp awaits, right?
“Ending the pandemic is our shared goal, and we want to ensure that our members are vaccinated as quickly and equitably as possible,” said Amy McHugh, spokeswoman for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. “Although the Massachusetts rates for administering COVID-19 vaccines may be high compared to other states, we will of course follow all state guidance in an effort to help get us closer to herd immunity.”
Even if it kills ya'!
Blue Cross, the state’s largest insurer, expects to spend at least $150 million on vaccine administration this year.
Related:
Is that why eight hundred nurses at Saint Vincent Hospital in Worcester went on strike at 6 a.m. Monday in the first open-ended nursing strike in the state in nearly two decades?
Also see:
Uh-huh.
Well, it is past time for lunch so I am going to be leaving now.
You can join the Globe for a cocktail if you wish.
