September 29, 2020

Disney announces it is laying off 28,000 employees, a figure that lands as a shock even in a year of relentless bad economic news. The layoffs are concentrated in the parks division, where the prolonged closure of Disneyland in California has gutted the workforce. U.S. retail store closures hit a record in the first half of 2020, the Wall Street Journal reports, and Burger King eyes shutting 25 UK stores. The HHS ad blitz—the $300 million taxpayer-funded campaign to tout the administration’s pandemic response—sputters as celebrities back away amid widespread criticism that the effort is thinly veiled political propaganda.

Nature publishes an editorial titled “COVID vaccine confidence requires radical transparency,” calling on drug companies and academic partners to disclose protocols and results data. Fauci says Americans should trust the credibility of the vaccine process, blaming “mixed messages that have come out of Washington” for waning public trust. Florida’s Miami-Dade County pushes back on DeSantis’s statewide reopening, with the county mayor saying the loosening comes too soon. Regeneron reports promising early data from its antibody cocktail, and Germany is profiled by Bloomberg as a country that “has its own Dr. Fauci—and actually follows his advice.”