Axios Homepage

1. Health: CDC: Suicides decreased in 2020 — Americans are worried about variants — The race between COVID vaccines and emerging variants.
2. Vaccines: Pfizer says COVID-19 vaccine 91.3% effective through 6 months — Ruined J&J doses may only be a "blip."
3. Economy: S&P 500 hits 4,000, defying pandemic — The staying power of the stay-at-home economy — The vaccine rollout is a boon for the pharmacy business.
4. Sports: Mets-Nationals Opening Day game postponed.
5. Axios-Ipsos poll: The misinformed are less likely to get vaccinated.
6. Coronavirus variant tracker: Where different strains are spreading

Derek Chauvin's former supervisor, retired police Sgt. David Pleoger, testified Thursday that officers could have stopped restraining George Floyd sooner.

The big picture: The testimony capped off the fourth day of the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Chauvin, who faces murder and manslaughter charges.

Facing a brutal new wave of coronavirus cases, India on Thursday made anyone over 45 eligible for vaccination. But the scramble to vaccinate as many people as possible has also meant sharply curtailing exports.

Why it matters: The hopes of vaccinating the world have largely fallen on the shoulders of India, a vaccine manufacturing powerhouse and home to the world’s largest producer, the Serum Institute.

President Biden is unlikely to propose reinstating state and local tax deductions in his second tax-and-spending package despite pressure from several fellow Democrats, according to people with direct knowledge of the planning.

Why it matters: That stance could complicate his goals of passing a multitrillion-dollar infrastructure proposal.

Vaccine side effect for pharmacies: It's a boon for business.

Why it matters: Pharmacies are at the forefront of the biggest countrywide undertaking of our lifetime, the vaccination rollout.

Visit our live coronavirus variant tracker online ↗

America is in a race to vaccinate people before the country is overwhelmed by variants that are spurring a fourth wave of COVID-19.

Why it matters: Spring is here, and when cases were dropping, hope was rising for a more normal summer. But experts warn this will only happen if people keep social distancing, wearing masks and getting vaccinated as soon as they can.

The League of United Latin American Citizens, the nation's oldest Latino civil rights group, isn't getting any younger — but the people it represents are, a reality that's quickly reshaping its focus.

Why it matters: LULAC's median membership age is 66 and its meetings still open with the Pledge of Allegiance and a prayer. But the median age of today's U.S. Latino population is 19.

The bubble didn't burst. That's the main lesson to be drawn from the failures of Greensill and Archegos — headline-grabbing implosions that were certainly bad for Credit Suisse, among others, but that did nothing to slow the broader market's surge to new all-time highs.

The big picture: Speculative financial bubbles tend to be self-fueling. Investors using cheap borrowed money invest in assets that go up in value, generating paper profits that in turn get levered up even further and invested even more aggressively.

George Floyd's girlfriend, who was in a relationship with him when he died, was visibly distressed Thursday as she recounted her first encounter with Floyd and answered questions about their opioid use.

Why it matters: The prosecution and defense fought to sway jurors on Day 4 of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin's murder trial, casting Floyd as a devoted partner and a drug-addled drifter, respectively. Prosecutors are seeking Chauvin's conviction on murder and manslaughter charges.

Facebook, Google and Patagonia are the latest major corporate players to express concern about Georgia's law curbing voting rights, which critics say will disproportionately impact Black communities.

Why it matters: States often take cues from how hard businesses push back. But many of these corporations, several of which are based in Georgia, could have spoken up earlier when the law was being considered or before the governor signed.

The S&P 500 crossed the 4,000 mark on Thursday, a little over a year after the index hit its pandemic low.

Why it matters: Stocks don't only go up. From a peak of 1,552 at the height of the dot-com bubble in 2000, the S&P 500 dropped to a low of 667 in 2009, at the worst point of the financial crisis. Since then, however, the strength of the stock market's 12-year ascent has astonished investors and market strategists.

The pandemic proved a large swath of the population can produce services and consume goods without leaving their homes — if supported by other workers.

Why it matters: We risk becoming an even more divided society — with Peloton-riding, Amazon Prime-ordering office workers living within a convenient, luxurious stay-at-home economy and essential workers servicing that lifestyle while scraping by themselves.

The White House decided to go big or go home in proposing a more than $2.2 trillion bill that, if enacted, would be the most far-reaching climate legislation ever adopted by the U.S.

Between the lines: This could be a long slog on Capitol Hill, given Republican opposition to another big spending package and divisions among Democrats over specific provisions.

Baseball is back, America. After a 60-game season in 2020, this year's complete 162-game schedule begins this afternoon in the Bronx.

Driving the news: MLB saw just 17 positive tests out of 72,751 conducted (0.02%) last Friday. But five Nationals are currently in quarantine due to a positive test — a reminder of how fragile any sense of stability will be.

San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly does not expect President Joe Biden's proposed $2 trillion infrastructure package to alter the central bank's path on interest rate increases or change its outlook for inflation, she tells Axios in an exclusive interview.

Why it matters: Many have worried the combination of trillions in spending on coronavirus relief, the Fed's ultra-loose monetary policy, and Biden's big stimulus plans for infrastructure, education and manufacturing will set the table for out-of-control price increases.

Pfizer and BioNTech announced Thursday that their COVID-19 vaccine was 91.3% effective at protecting against symptomatic disease up to six months after the second dose, with no serious safety concerns, according to an updated analysis of clinical trial results.

Why it matters: Real-world and trial data continue to indicate that the vaccine is highly effective, especially against COVID-19 hospitalization and death. The companies said updated trial results showed the vaccine offered 100% protection against severe disease as defined by the CDC, and 95.3% as defined by the FDA.

Apple CEO Tim Cook, an Alabama native with a lifelong interest in civil rights, joins condemnations of Georgia's new voting law, in a statement provided first to Axios.

What he's saying: "The right to vote is fundamental in a democracy. American history is the story of expanding the right to vote to all citizens, and Black people, in particular, have had to march, struggle and even give their lives for more than a century to defend that right."

A Baltimore plant ruined a batch of "drug substance" that would have gone into millions of doses of Johnson & Johnson's coronavirus vaccine — but sources familiar with the process say the setback ultimately may not be that bad.

The big picture: Anything that could slow down the vaccine production process is not good news, especially for the one-shot J&J vaccine. But some experts said the company and the overall U.S. vaccination effort will likely be able to recover quickly.

Big Tech dollars may be becoming toxic in Washington.

What's happening: The once lionized industry finds itself more and more cast as a pariah, with lawmakers comparing Big Tech to Big Tobacco during a hearing with tech CEOs last week and a key House Republican forswearing industry donations.

Coronavirus infections are on the rise yet again, all across the U.S.

The big picture: America may be at the beginning of a fourth wave in the pandemic. It will almost certainly be far less deadly than the previous three, but this persistent failure to contain the virus has real consequences, and will only make it harder to put COVID-19 behind us.

White House senior adviser Anita Dunn is making the case that Democrats can't lose by rallying around President Biden's infrastructure plan because its individual components poll even higher than the $1.9 trillion COVID stimulus passed last month.

Driving the news: "Key components of President Biden’s American Jobs Plan are overwhelmingly popular — among a bipartisan and broad coalition," Dunn wrote in a memo to "interested parties" obtained by Axios around Biden's rollout of the first of two infrastructure spending packages.

President Biden doesn't publicly talk about stock market performance during his time in office, but he's slightly outpacing his more boastful predecessor.

By the numbers: The S&P 500 increased by 4.6% during the first 50 trading days of the Biden presidency, from market close on Jan. 19 to market close on March 31. Trump's first 50-day bump was 4.4%, whereas President Obama was down 6.1%.

A new look at the data from our most recent Axios-Ipsos poll shows a strong correlation between the people who are influenced by COVID vaccine misinformation and those who are unlikely to get the vaccine.

The big picture: As this graphic shows, Americans who either believed misinformation or were unsure whether it was true or false were less likely to get the vaccine than those who knew that it was false.

April is financial literacy month, which means you should expect a steady stream of celebrities like Miley Cyrus exhorting us to "learn more about stocks."

Why it matters: Financial illiteracy is a real problem, but it's not one that can be fixed with a 90-second video or a jaunty slideshow.

A child was among four people killed in a shooting at an office building in Orange, Southern California, on Wednesday evening, authorities said.

Details: A female patient and the male suspect were both in critical condition at a local hospital with gunshot wounds following the shooting, Orange Police Department Lt. Jennifer Amat said at a briefing late Wednesday.

A Hong Kong court has found media tycoon Jimmy Lai, barrister Martin Lee and five other pro-democracy leaders guilty of participating in an an authorized protest in 2019, per Bloomberg. They'll receive sentences at a later date.

Why it matters: The verdict is a further blow for the city's pro-democracy movement. It comes a day after China's government a passed a law that critics say effectively ends democratic elections in Hong Kong. The pro-democracy figures were convicted under a draconian national security law the Chinese government imposed on the territory last year.

Flashback: Hong Kong again jails Jimmy Lai after release on bail

New Mexico Democratic officials on Wednesday nominated a white state lawmaker over Latina and Native American candidates for Interior Secretary Deb Haaland's former U.S. House seat.

Why it matters: The selection of state Rep. Melanie Stansbury to replace one of the nation's first Native American female U.S. House members could put a relatively safe Democratic seat in play for a special election in the heavily Latino central New Mexico district.

President Biden on Wednesday proposed a $2 trillion infrastructure package that could transform America's physical and economic landscape.

Axios Re:Cap speaks with White House economic adviser Jared Bernstein about the plan and the politics.