Rising tensions between Canada and China are threatening to derail what was once touted as a promising partnership to develop a covid-19 vaccine.

The Race...CanSino Biologics, a Chinese company, led the vaccine race by starting trials on humans in March. CanSino's early success was in part due to a partnership with the National Research Council of Canada which allowed for tests to be conducted in Canada as well as Canadian technology contributed to the vaccine's development. Over the last few months the Chinese-Canadian candidate has yet to start final stage trials, falling behind competitors.

The Delay...Vials of the vaccine were slated to be shipped to Canada by now in order for Phase III trials to begin in the fall, but the shipments were never approved for export by Chinese customs authorities.

The Tension.. The delayed shipment is not a bureaucratic error but a result of a rocky relationship between Canada and China, sparked by our arrest and detainment of Huawei's CFO Meng Wanzhou at the request of the US, and China's subsequent retaliatory measures.

The Fallout...CanSino's stock (OTC:CASBF), which has risen 150% over the course of the year, fell 40% on this news. Now that Canada may be off the table as a trial site, the company announced Russia as a new site, which led to another 11% loss.

Big Picture...This dust up may be a set back for what started off as the most promising vaccine, but there are plenty of other candidates moving at warp speed, experts still see chance for an approval this fall.

Telecom behemoths on both sides of the border have submitted an unsolicited joint offer to buy out Cogeco Inc and Cogeco Communications Inc. (TSE: CGO, CCA), a Montreal based rival for $10.3 billion. The deal would see Altice USA Inc. (NYSE: ATUS) take on Cogeco's US assets and Rogers Communications Inc. (TSE: RCI) would absorb the Canadian business at a price tag of $3.4 billion. Rogers already owns 41% of Cogeco Inc. and 33% of Cogeco communications.

Broken Telephone
A big hurdle in getting this deal done is, of course, shareholder approval. Gestion Audem Inc. a company controlled by the Audet family, the founders of Cogeco, control the vast majority of voting rights in CGO and CCA. Gestion Audem has indicated they will not support the proposal.

What Does It Mean
The Audet Family's resistance may be posturing to gain leverage for a better deal. So, what does it mean if the deal goes through? According to Rogers "consolidated assets will lead to better earnings," but with a lack of competition and sky high broadband and telecom pricing in Canada, it could be bad news for consumers.

As the pandemic hit, hospitals cancelled elective surgeries and braced for the wave of patients they expected to flood their halls. Thankfully, caseloads in Canadian hospitals never surged but elective surgeries have only slowly resumed.

A new study estimates Ontario has a backlog of 148,346 surgeries that were cancelled between March 15th and June 13th. Clearing the backlog will take 84 weeks, it involves adding 717 surgeries on top of the 11,000 already performed weekly in Ontario hospitals.

The surgeries are elective, so what? They're only 'elective' in the sense that an operation was not needed immediately to save the patient's life. The delay's included:

How do we get out of the hole? It might be tough, the study suggest increasing surgical capacity by 10% , meaning adding an extra day of of operations each week to 50% of Ontario's operating rooms. Our health systems front line workers have already had to work long hours in hospitals and filling in the gaps at long term care homes. Catching up will be another push.

The months ahead...We may have a second wave of covid hitting us shortly, experts suggest hospitals need to find a way to accommodate elective surgeries through a second wave or risk falling even further behind.

Scientists have discovered the largest space collision ever, the combination of one black hole, the size of 85 suns and another black hole the size of 66 suns formed a new giant black hole the size of 142 suns. The collision was 5.3 billion lights years away but big enough to be picked up by sensors here on earth.

Remind me, what's a black hole? According to NASA, a black hole "is a place in space where gravity pulls so much that even light can not get out. The gravity is so strong because matter has been squeezed into a tiny space. This can happen when a star is dying."

What's the big deal with this big hole?