There was a very odd cut-away from Senator Elizabeth Warren during today’s televised Select Subcommittee on Coronavirus Crisis hearing. Just as Senator Warren begins her question about the potential for conflict of interest involving Trump’s chief adviser for the White House vaccine program, someone at NBC/Comcast master control gives the tv director the “suggestion” to cut away. Why?

Trump’s chief adviser and so-called “vaccine czar” Moncef Slaoui, stepped down from his position on the board of directors at Moderna, a Massachusetts-based pharmaceutical company which is already planning a clinical trial for a vaccine it developed, to take on the job. His White House position is unpaid, according to the Associated Press.

But Securities and Exchange Commission filings show that Slaoui still holds more than 150,000 stock options in Moderna. Those offerings were valued at more than $10 million on Monday before the company’s stock shot up after it reported promising early results from its vaccine testing. Shares have nearly tripled in value since the start of the year, Business Insider reported.

Moderna’s stock skyrocketed last month after the company announced it had received $483 million in federal funding for its vaccine development.

Sources: Salon

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