I like beaten-down stocks of certain high-quality growth companies like Meta Platforms; Chinese internet stocks have crashed; Should we get a fourth dose? Coronavirus e-mail

1) I think the beaten-down stocks of certain high-quality growth companies are screaming buys, starting with Meta Platforms (FB), for reasons my colleague Enrique Abeyta and I discussed last month on his Hard Money's Million Dollar Podcast.

More broadly, I think this tweet makes a good point – I'd much rather own the first basket than the second:

2) Few categories of stocks have gotten whacked as badly as Chinese Internet stocks, as this tweet highlights:

My take: Forced to go long or short these stocks, I'd go long – but fortunately, I don't have to do either...

I have always viewed Chinese stocks as outside of my circle of competence. And with so many beaten-down growth/tech/Internet stocks here in the U.S., why would I layer on unknowable risks associated with investing in China? Look at what happened to folks who bought apparently cheap Russian stocks...

3) On Sunday, I sent an in-depth update on the pandemic, both here and around the world, to my coronavirus e-mail list (to be added, simply send a blank e-mail to: cv-subscribe@mailer.kasecapital.com). You can read the entire e-mail here.

Here is the first part of my e-mail:

1) This presents a tough decision for a lot of folks: Biden Administration Plans to Offer Second Booster Shots to Those 50 and Up.

Here's a thoughtful analysis of this by Dr. Katelyn Jetelina: Another mRNA booster or not? She concludes:

Should we get a fourth dose?

This is an incredibly difficult question, and the Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") meeting will be important to follow. They will discuss some key questions:

1. What is the purpose of vaccines: to prevent infection or to prevent severe disease? Vaccines are still doing a great job at the latter.
2. What are the costs/benefits of vaccinating now compared to vaccinating in a few months prior to the fall/winter? In other words, should we wait a few months on the fourth dose and focus efforts on getting everyone the third dose? (Only 44% of Americans have the booster.)
3. Are there scientific results not publicly available, like the effectiveness of variant-specific vaccines? It's about time we see these.

The FDA may approve a fourth dose for 65-plus in the coming weeks. I would be very surprised if they approved another dosage for everyone.

But a fourth dose of the same thing would only be a short-term solution. It's not practical or sustainable to roll out mRNA vaccines every couple months given their reactogenicity (i.e., lots of side effects). Also, continuing more of the same may reach a threshold, like we saw in the Israel health care study. We really need to figure out our next move. There are a few options:

• Get intranasal vaccines to work (the Iwasaki lab at Yale is working day and night on this);
• Roll out a different mRNA formula, like an alpha or omicron specific vaccine;
• Start purposefully integrating a different biotechnology vaccine into the series, like an adjuvanted subunit vaccine; or,
• Push for more innovative second-generation vaccines, like a pancoronavirus vaccine. 

Whatever the solution, we need government support. With decreased funding, it's clear that we don't even have enough funds to purchase a fourth dose (regular formula) for everyone. Also, research, development, and innovation will soon fade without financial support. This happened with vaccine innovation after the SARS epidemic. We cannot repeat history and let this happen with SARS-CoV-2, too.

My take: I don't plan on getting a fourth shot in the near future because I'm low risk (age 55, in excellent health, boosted October 29) and just had COVID at the beginning of this year.

It's a little trickier for my parents, who are older (age 80 and 81), live in Kenya (less access to top medical care), and were boosted earlier (September). If they hadn't had COVID at the same time I did, I'd recommend that they get a fourth shot in the near future (but not so urgently that they should fly back to the U.S. to get it, as they did in February 2020 to get their first two jabs). But since they did, I told them to wait and plan to get a fourth shot when they come back to the U.S. this summer, likely before they fly home in September.

Here's what my friend Dr. Kevin Maki is thinking for himself: "I will wait to see what the April 6 panel has to say, but I am leaning toward boosting before COVID season (starts in summer in Florida, where I live)."

In the rest of my e-mail, I covered:

• Excess deaths are worst in Russia and Eastern Europe
• Why does the U.S. have so many excess deaths?
• Vaccine safety
• Hong Kong update
• Ivermectin study shows no benefit
• As Virus Data Mounts, the J&J (JNJ) Vaccine Holds Its Own
• Were lockdowns worth the cost?
• New Research Points to Wuhan Market as Pandemic Origin
• Deadliness of COVID vs. flu
• An in-depth look at long COVID

Again, to read it, simply click here.

Best regards,

Whitney

P.S. I welcome your feedback at WTDfeedback@empirefinancialresearch.com.