AMC Shares Up 120%

[Bobby Henderson]

I sympathize with people who live in poorer, less developed countries who have very limited access to vaccines. It will be tragic for those people to continue getting COVID-19. In the US the vaccines have been very easy to get for quite some time. Any American adult not vaccinated at this point is that way by choice.

I was able to get my first shot on March 5 without an appointment, just walk-in style, (when I was technically not yet eligible) because so many eligible people were refusing to get vaccinated. Around 4 million people live in Oklahoma, but as of May 26 only 1.313 million residents have been fully vaccinated. 1.62 million have had at least one dose. That's well under half the state's residents. But most restrictions have been lifted; no more mask mandates. Even theater chains like AMC have dropped their mask requirements.

Most people will like getting rid of the masks whether they're vaccinated or not. The ones who aren't vaccinated will be taking a gamble as they gain "liberation" from having to wear masks (if they were wearing them in the first place). There is a lot of those people in "red" states like Oklahoma. That translates into a lot of continued opportunity for SARS-CoV-2 to spread.

[Marcel Birgelen]

I'd say for the so-called developed countries we are, the EU really botched their vaccine rollout by just not ordering enough. They were seemingly worried to get stuck with supplies, whereas the solution for any over-supply is simple: Send it over to the poor countries that have issues filling their supply lines. The sooner the world has been vaccinated, the sooner any chance of widespread new mutations will diminish.

After more than a year, yeah, that mask is getting on my nerves, but still, this mask beats the oxygen mask. But the sooner we have vaccinated the planet, the sooner we can finally drop those damn things. And then, let's get our egos together and make sure whatever happened the last two years, doesn't get a sequel in the next few years...

[Bobby Henderson]

Initially supplies of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines in the US were somewhat limited. Those companies soon dramatically upped production. I think there are still supply constraints for covering other nations.

There is a battle going on over whether patents should be removed from the ingredients of those drugs to make it possible for other drug makers to make similar drugs. Pfizer/Bio-N-Tech and Moderna can make only so many doses (and those are two-dose vaccines, which makes them less practical to use in developing nations). Johnson & Johnson has only so much capacity to produce its single dose vaccine. If other drug makers can manufacture similar drugs it might get much of the world vaccinated far sooner.

Regarding masks, I didn't really mind them so much. I've seen a lot of creative looking masks with interesting graphics or messages on them. Another advantage: I didn't have to shave my face as often. I'm a little surprised some major theater chains (like AMC) removed the mask mandates. I was prepared to bring one with me the next time visiting the cinema.