What’s inside the $500 billion ‘skinny’ stimulus bill

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The late-stage coronavirus vaccine race hit a snag last night. Stat News reported that AstraZeneca put its trial on hold after there was a suspected serious side effect in one of the trial participants. It’s a standard chain of events in a clinical trial, but with the whole world watching, any setback is going to be heavily scrutinized.  

Elsewhere in healthcare news: A “skinny” coronavirus stimulus bill might be in our future, why a top Wall Street analyst thinks Moderna’s stock is poised to tumble, and a helpful graphic ranking the most protective face masks.

Also: Telemedicine company American Well updated its IPO filing last night, saying that it’s looking to price its shares between $14-$16. It would raise $488.5 million at the midpoint of that range. Blake Dodge has all the details here. 

McConnell is pushing Republicans to vote on a 'skinny' coronavirus stimulus. The $500 billion bill would boost unemployment payments by $300 but doesn't include another round of $1,200 checks.

• Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wants lawmakers to vote on a scaled-down stimulus this week.
• He introduced a bill Tuesday that would provide $105 billion to schools, $10 billion to the Postal Service, and $258 billion in loans to small businesses.
• The bill isn't likely to become law and instead is supposed to contrast Republicans with Democrats ahead of the election. 

Read the full story from Kimberly Leonard here>>

A top Wall Street analyst just predicted a 'winter of discontent' for Moderna and shared 3 key reasons the coronavirus vaccine frontrunner's stock is poised to tumble 30%

• Moderna, one of the frontrunners in developing a coronavirus vaccine, saw its stock fall by about 10% Tuesday morning, as investors weigh the market for a COVID-19 shot.
• A top Wall Street analyst expects shares to fall further. SVB Leerink biotech analyst Mani Foroohar downgraded Moderna to underperform with a $41 price target on Tuesday.
• While Foroohar expects Moderna's vaccine to succeed in trials, he's not convinced about the commercial opportunity.

Read the full story from Andrew Dunn here>> 

One chart shows the best and worst face masks for coronavirus protection — and which situations they're suited for

• The ideal face mask for coronavirus protection blocks large droplets along with smaller airborne particles.
• In general, masks should have more than one layer and be made of tightly woven fabrics.
• Based on several studies evaluating masks' protection levels, we've ranked the most common types from best (an N95 mask) to worst (masks with a built-in valve or vent).

Check out the full chart from Aria Bendix and Yuqing Liu here>>

More stories we're reading:

• Men may have a slower immune response to the coronavirus than women, and that could explain their higher mortality rates (Business Insider) 
• The head of Uber Health is leaving the company to start a new healthcare company (Stat News) 
• New York will ramp up testing corpses for COVID-19 and the flu to make sure death data is accurate (Business Insider)
• It's tough to get children tested for the novel coronavirus (The New York Times) 
• Jeff Bezos-backed Grail just filed to go public (Reuters)
• AI drug discovery company Recursion Pharmaceuticals raises $239 million (Forbes) 

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- Lydia

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