In other news, the Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against Google arguing that it holds a monopoly on search. Google VP Kent Walker responded today by saying their biggest competitor is actually Amazon and the DOJ didn't take that into account.
Personally, I think an anti-trust lawsuit against Google based on search alone doesn't have much merit and the motivations of the Trump regime can't be trusted. I could use Bing for search right now if I wanted to, but I don't want to.
Meanwhile, British and American trade officials say they've made progress toward a trade deal which is impossible, practically and logistically speaking, because Britain is still bound by European customs rules until January 1st. Both regimes are just trying to save face.
Finally, logistics companies say as many as 3 billion people worldwide are out of reach of the freezers that will be necessary for storing coronavirus vaccines.
Medical freezers that go down to minus 70 degrees Celsius are rare even in U.S. and European hospitals. Many experts believe the West African countries that suffered through a 2014-16 Ebola outbreak may be the best positioned, because a vaccine against that virus also requires ultracold storage.
For more than two-thirds of the world, however, the advanced technology is nowhere on the horizon, according to a study by German logistics company DHL. Meanwhile, billions of people are in countries that don’t have the necessary infrastructure to maintain the cold chain for either existing vaccines or more conventional coronavirus candidates, the study said.
Opportunities for vaccines to be lost expand the farther a vaccine travels. DHL estimated that 15,000 cargo flights would be required to vaccinate the entire planet against COVID-19, stretching global capacity for aircraft and potentially supplies of materials such as dry ice.
“We need to find a bridge” for every gap in the cold chain, DHL chief commercial officer Katja Busch said. “We’re talking about investments ... as a society, this is something we have to do.”