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BARCELONA Initially hailed as the vaccine for the world when it appeared on European shores early this year, the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID inoculation, which was created in just 65 days and costs around $2 a dose, far below competing shots made by Pfizer and Moderna, held the promise of turning the tide on the pandemic.

But after eight months of mounting frustration over still undelivered doses along with worries over rare associated blood clots, studies showing that it wasnt as effective as other vaccines and a court action alleging the drug company was in breach of contract, the European Union is all but ditching the shot.

The story behind the AstraZeneca vaccines European sojourn has been rife with putdowns, broken promises, rancor and vaccine nationalism that at times looked like it would turn into an export war between the EU and the U.K., the country that at the end of 2020 Brexited leaving the European Union it helped create.

Even before AstraZenecas shot came to market, Russian officials were indulging in crudely comical insults, calling it the monkey vaccine. (Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed in September that, unlike Russias vaccine Sputnik V, the AstraZeneca drug, which is derived from a chimpanzee adenovirus, would turn those who got it into simians.)

Such narratives are apparently directed at countries where Russia wants to sell its own vaccine, EU official Joseph Borrell said in blog post about what he considered to be Russian disinformation.

Empty vials of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. (Matthias Schrader/AP)

But there were more credible sources of criticism from the start. Dr. Anthony Fauci made waves in November, saying AstraZenecas vaccine presented a dilemma: While preliminary studies showed the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines provided protection against COVID-19 by upwards of 90 percent, AstraZeneca appeared to have efficacy rates around 70 percent higher than the 50 percent deemed necessary for vaccines to work, but relegating it to runner-up status compared to the mRNA vaccines.

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Who are you going to give a vaccine like that to? Fauci asked, and he and his colleaguesat the National Institutes of Health questioned the data included in AstraZenecas clinical studies submitted in the U.S., effectively telling them to try again.

The original clinical studies confusingly employed trials using two dosing schedules and two different doses of the drug. The larger trial, among the studies which AstraZeneca submitted to the U.K., showed efficacy of 60 percent and in late December was swiftly granted emergency use approval. Following suit, the European Medicines Agency also approved its use for all adults in the EU while noting that the trials did not include enough results in participants over 55 years of age. But the health authorities in a dozen European countries, including Germany and France, refused to grant the vaccine approval for anyone over the age of 65, a decision that quickly led to confusion and mistrust. The German newspaper Handelsblatt incorrectly reported that the vaccine was only 8 percent effective for those 65 and older, a rumor that spread.

In January, French President Emmanuel Macron dealt another blow, erroneously calling the AstraZeneca vaccine quasi-ineffective for people over 65, some say those 60 years or older. Though he did reverse that assessment a month later, the damage was done. The French, who were given a choice as to which shot they wanted, were choosing Pfizer over AstraZeneca in far greater numbers a situation which prompted the head of Frances doctors union to urge the French to stop AstraZeneca bashing.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson receives his second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, June 3, 2021. (Matt Dunham/Pool via AP)

Adding to AstraZenecas woes, the company had promised to ship 90 million doses of the vaccine to the EU in the first quarter of 2021, but less than a third of that number showed up. As a result, the continents vaccine program for its 445 million citizens looked pathetic, particularly in comparison to the U.K., which appeared to be swimming in the British-made immunization.

AstraZeneca has unfortunately underproduced and underdelivered and this painfully, of course, reduced the speed of the vaccination campaign, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, announced in March, promising that whatever it took, the EU would get its fair share of the AstraZeneca inoculation.

By March, less than 10 percent of Europeans had been vaccinated, while the U.K. was approaching 45 percent immunization levels. And then Germany reported that of the 2.7 million Germans who had received the AstraZeneca vaccine, 31 people, most of them young women, had developed rare blood clots, and nine had died.

Countries across Europe slammed on the brakes, suspending use until the European Medicines Agency investigated. The EMA soon reported that while there appeared to be a link to blood clots, the risk was minimal and certainly less than the danger of COVID-19 itself. However, health authorities in Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium and beyondthat had earlier advised the shot shouldnt be used in those over 55 or 65, in March reversed their positions and said the vaccine should now be used only for those over 60. Those flip-flops further undermined public trust. (A recent study found that both AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines could both produce blood clots, but that COVID-19 produced more clots than either vaccine.)

That month, health authorities in Denmark, then Norway, followed by Austria in May stopped using AstraZeneca altogether, while those countries that were relying on it continued to experience shortages due to delivery delays; Spain, for one, was forced to temporarily halt its vaccination programs. AstraZeneca revised second-quarter delivery estimates downward from 180 million doses to just 70 million.

Upon learning that some AstraZeneca vaccines were being made in Europe and exported to other countries, the EU threatened to ban exports and raided a plant in Belgium in February and another in Italy in March, generating more embarrassing headlines and doing little to alleviate supply shortages.

People receiving the AstraZeneca vaccination in Cologne, Germany on May 8, 2021. (Martin Meissner/AP)

In May, after signing eight additional contracts with other pharmaceutical countries, the EU announced it would be taking AstraZeneca to court, and demanded 90 million more doses by July and $12 million in damages for delayed deliveries. AstraZeneca, which called the suit unfounded, countered that it had lived up to its contractual obligation to make the best reasonable effort to deliver the doses.

Ruling in June, the court largely sided with AstraZeneca, saying the drugmaker was obliged to deliver only 50 million more doses to the EU by September. By then, after 65 million EU citizens had been vaccinated with AstraZeneca, the EU was fed up; it declined to put in additional orders with the British-Swedish firm and across the continent, health authorities began phasing out the drugs use.

Along with other European countries, Germany announced that it would start mixing vaccines, a practice currently not approved by the World Health Organization. The first AstraZeneca shot that German Chancellor Angela Merkel received was followed up by a dose of Modernas mRNA vaccine, a practice that Germanys health minister said yielded clearlysuperior results than two doses of AstraZeneca. Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghis AstraZeneca jab was followed up with a shot from Pfizer. Overlooking pleas from the WHO to forestall booster shots until poorer countries are immunized, Germany will offer a third shot of an mRNA vaccine in September to elderly and immune-compromised citizens and to those who received two shots of AstraZeneca.

On the heels of learning that the EU will now be relying on mRNA vaccine, Pfizer and Moderna both announced price hikes. As reported by Financial Times, Pfizers price per shot is jumping to around $23 from $18.50, while Modernas is increasing to around $25.50 a jab from $22.60.

Meanwhile, millions of doses of AstraZenecas shots from European countries are being donated to COVAX and to low-income countries, where health officials say it can still help defeat the pandemic.

Boxes of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine arrive at the airport in Mogadishu, Somalia, on March 15, 2021.(Farah Abdi Warsameh/AP)

The AstraZeneca vaccine has the potential to be the real workhorse of immunization programs, Jonathan Kennedy, a public health lecturer at Queen Mary University of London, told Yahoo News. Its cheaper than the other vaccines, and its easy to transport. And without the extreme temperature requirements of mRNA vaccines such as Pfizer, which is kept at 94 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, he added, Its easy to store.

With only 1.1 percent of populations in low-income countries having received at least one shot, the WHO is now calling for vaccinations of at least 10 percent of the population of every country in the world by September, at least 40 percent by the end of the year, and 70 percent by the middle of next year, Dr. Siddharta Datta, regional adviser to the WHO/Europes Vaccine-Preventable Disease program, told Yahoo News. These are the critical milestones we must reach together to end the pandemic, and AstraZeneca vaccine doses together with the other available and approved vaccines will indeed play an important role in achieving them.

Earlier this summer, the EU announced it wouldnt be ordering any more of the AstraZeneca vaccine, and countries across the continent say they have begun donating unused vials to COVAX, a global coalition that distributes vaccines to countries around the world.

British media is portraying Europe as having squandered its AstraZeneca riches, while some politicians are accusing the EU of making a scapegoat of AstraZeneca to cover up their own failures.

The European leaders who trashed the AstraZeneca vaccine have blood on their hands, one unidentified politician, concerned that other countries may now reject it, is quoted as telling Politicos London Playbook.

A Malawian policeman guards AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines after a shipment arrived at the Kamuzu International Airport. (Thoko Chikondi/AP)

As of this month, the AstraZeneca shot makes up some two-thirds of the vaccines being supplied by COVAX, doses donated by countries and some donated by the drug maker itself.

AstraZenecas vaccine is highly effective against severe disease and hospitalization across all adult age groups, a spokesperson for the drug company told Yahoo News. It has demonstrated a high level of protection against all variants of concern and its overall safety profile is comparable to other vaccines.

Our vaccine is being supplied at no profit and is truly a vaccine for the world, the AstraZeneca spokesperson continued. We have now crossed the 1 billion dose milestone supplying more than 170 countries, and those doses have helped to save tens of thousands of lives. We are doing more than any other company to make the vaccine available to low- and lower-middle-income countries, as it is only through providing broad and equitable access to vaccines that we can end this pandemic.

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The rate at which Americans quit their jobs hit a historic high this spring, and workers may not be done job-hopping this year.

More than a third of workers (37%) are either thinking of leaving their current jobs or are already preparing to make the move, according to a Yahoo Finance/Harris Poll survey of 1,639 U.S. adults conducted June 25-28, 2021. Four in five of the potential quitters (83%) want to make the move in the next six months, while the same percentage said theyve been considering the move for the past year.

The top reasons why workers want to quit are better opportunities (46%), higher salary (42%), better work-life balance (34%), changing industries (27%), and not enjoying their work (27%). Survey respondents could select more than one reason.

People are leaving for more attractive jobs because there are lots of attractive jobs on offer, ZipRecruiter Economist Julia Pollak told Yahoo Money. The share of signing bonuses has very radically exploded, the share of jobs offering a four-day workweek has also about doubled.

The survey results come after the rate at which workers quit their jobs hit a record high of 2.8% in April and remained historically elevated in May at 2.5% much higher than before the pandemic. The number of job openings reached a high three months in a row from March to May meaning workers have more options if they decide to leave.

Accommodation and food services along with retail trade had the largest quit rates in May of 5.7% and 4%, respectively, according to data by the Labor Department.

There are many jobs where pay is low, and one doesn't have that much attachment to an employer, Pollak said. When suddenly warehousing and trucking and nursing are offering huge bonuses and reducing experience requirements and training requirements, they suddenly become much more attractive.

A help wanted sign advertises open jobs outside of a business near the boardwalk days before the Memorial Day weekend in the shore community of Wildwood, New Jersey, on May 27, 2021. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Younger workers are more likely to consider quitting than older ones, according to the data. Nearly half of millennials (46%) and 36% of Gen Z are thinking of leaving their jobs, while just 31% of Gen Xers and 21% of baby boomers are contemplating the move.

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Younger people do switch jobs more frequently typically, Pollak said, But now is an amazing time for many young people in the job market because many employers suffering from worker shortages are reducing the requirements for candidates, and so young people are becoming eligible for jobs that they may not have been able to get before.

While quitting is on the rise, retaining workers may not be that hard.

A 10% increase in annual salary would convince 37% of workers to stay with their current employer, the survey found. That syncs with other data on what workers want. For instance, workers earnings expectations reached a historic high in March 2021 of $72,341, according to the latest data available by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Employers can also retain workers by improving their benefits package according to 32% of workers including such perks as health insurance, retirement savings plan, stock options or by providing more time off, which 23% of workers selected.

We see an enormous preference for remote work, Pollak said, but, in general, historically, the things that people care about most are pay, benefits, and growth potential in a job.

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Denitsa is a writer for Yahoo Finance and Cashay, a new personal finance website. Follow her on Twitter @denitsa_tsekova

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What Happened: Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) is trading higher over multiple days, coming off a July 21 low of 29296.39 to a peak of over 34,000 Saturday July 24, a move of over 15%. Meanwhile, Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) is bouncing off a low of 1717.17 on Wednesday to a peak of over 2180 at the time of publication, up over 25% in four days.

Why It's Important: The two leading cryptocurrencies have been range bound since a major correction earlier this year. Bitcoin set an all-time high of 64900 on April 21, Ethereum set a record high 4384.43 on May 21. Recent lows set by both are 1700 for Ethereum on June 21, while Bitcoin came down to 28600 on June 22.

In an email, Pankaj Balani, CEO of Delta Exchange tells CoinDesk For the first time in many weeks we are seeing bullish signs here and expect Bitcoin to head towards the upper end of the $30,000-$40,000 range,

What's Next: Data source Skew is reporting that Bitcoin options traders are pricing an 8% chance of the cryptocurrency reaching a new all-time high by the end of the year. Meanwhile the six-month implied volatility has dopped to 80%, a two month low, after peaking at 122% on May 17.

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Senior citizens and disabled workers could be looking at the biggest boost to their Social Security benefits in decades next year thanks to hot inflation now.

Beneficiaries could see their benefits increase by 5.8% in January 2022, according to a Bank of America analyst note, which would be the biggest boost since 1983. Thats also quite a bit more than January 2021s increase of 1.3% to the cost-of-living adjustment or COLA that hasnt been enough to keep up with this years inflation.

Read more: 3 surprising facts about Social Security

In June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index (CPI) a key gauge of inflation shot up to 5.4% from the previous year, marking the largest spike since August 2008. Some of the largest price increases were related to travel and cars, along with everyday items like laundry machines, bacon, fruit, and milk.

This has important implications for both retirees and disabled workers getting Social Security and SSI benefits, the note stated. It means their budgets are being squeezed now, but improve a lot next year.

The estimated COLA hike would translate to more than an additional $80 per month in benefits. (Photo: Getty)

That hike would translate to more than an additional $80 per month in benefits a fourfold increase than the extra $20 beneficiaries saw in the monthly benefits this year, per Bank of America.

With more Social Security dollars to dole out next year and inflation in 2022 expected to ease to 2.3% there will be about a $80 billion or so swing in net tax benefits that will help sustain the recovery into next year, according to the Bank of America analysts.

Read more: 4 Social Security tips to plan your retirement

Seniors and the disabled will be doing their share in keeping the economy hot, the note said.

The final say on the benefit increase rests with the Social Security Administration, which still has three additional months of data to collect before the official COLA percentage is determined.

COLA is measured by data fluctuations in the CPI, specifically those categorized as urban wage earners and clerical workers. A comparison is made in October using the CPI snapshot of the previous years third quarter and the current years third-quarter data; the change in growth, if any, determines the adjustment.

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Stephanie is a reporter for Yahoo Money and Cashay, a new personal finance website. Follow her on Twitter @SJAsymkos.

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Social Security benefits could get the biggest increase since 1983 - Yahoo Finance

Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely were an established team with solid credits when they entered into the orbit of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2008. After meeting in a creative writing program in 1994, the respective Buffalo, N.Y., and Bay Area natives forged a partnership and subsequently collaborated on the HBO biopic The Life and Times of Peter Sellers (2004), the indie mobster drama You Kill Me (2007) and, most prominently, the Chronicles of Narnia trilogy (2005-10).

Joining Marvel, however, would change everything and ultimately place them among the top three most successful screenwriters of all time thanks to their work on the saga-capping Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019).

But it all began with Captain America: The First Avenger, the first of three Cap movies they would co-write, and which opened in theaters 10 years ago, on July 22, 2011.

It started with a theoretical conversation, before Marvel was even making movies, where we said, Wouldnt it be neat to make a comic book movie starring a superhero at the time when they were actually created? Markus told us in a recent joint interview with McFeely to commemorate the films anniversary (watch above).

Their agent later alerted them the Kevin Feige-led Marvel Studios was doing exactly that with its first Captain America movie. Directed by Joe Johnston (Jurassic Park III, Jumanji, The Rocketeer), the film would trace the origin story of Steve Rogers as he transforms from a scrawny Brooklyn kid into a super soldier squaring off against Nazis in World War II.

We then chased Cap all year, McFeely says. And remember, these are early days for that studio. Theres six people in the whole building, theyre above a car dealership, theyre not the Marvel we think of now.

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Markus and McFeely landed the gig, boarding Cap well before its eventual star, Chris Evans.

And they worked in a production office loaded with concept art featuring other actors in the role. They would do sketches of the costumes and sometimes theyll just pick an actor and put him in the costume, McFeely remembers. Maybe its a wish-fulfillment thing or something but I remember a lot of Jake Gyllenhaal-as-Cap pictures.

Chris Evans and Sebastian Stan in 'Captain America: The First Avenger' (Paramount/Marvel)

They also watched Sebastian Stan audition for the title role before he was ultimately cast as Steves closest friend, Bucky Barnes, the future Winter Soldier.

He carried some of what he carried into Bucky, which then carried into [the 2014 sequel] The Winter Soldier, which is he has a darkness to him, Markus recalled about Stans take on Cap. Thats a more troubled Steve Rogers than I was counting on. But we do have a guy who could be troubled right over there! His troubledness has played off in spades.

Evans was initially reluctant to take on such an iconic role, especially after a pair of critically lambasted Fantastic Four movies. However, once he joined, he proved eager to help reshape Rogers.

He was very conscious of not wanting snark, Markus says. It was a very good understanding of Captain America, which is that if this guys going to fly as a character and as an authority figure, eventually, hes got to have the gravity right away, no matter what the situation. Which is what we all came to realize, that Steve Rogers was born Captain America, he just didnt have the body for it. And Evans got that. I think he may have taken a joke or two out is what I remember.

The script changed dramatically from the time Markus and McFeely came onboard in 2008 to its eventual release in 2011, with the writers saying the biggest difference involved a huge Hydra robot.

A large chunk of the third act was Cap fighting this robot, Markus reveals. It was a Nazi super robot under the control of the villainous Red Skull (Hugo Weaver) called Panzermax.

I think eventually it was a budget and time thing, Markus explains. Where it was like, We really cant be spending that much time.

Chris Evans in 'Captain America: The First Avenger' (Paramount/Marvel)

Cap never fought that huge Nazi super robot, but if you ask Markus and McFeely, the star-spangled hero did get into another type of entanglement offscreen.

The question of if and when Steve Rogers ever lost his virginity after being frozen in ice for 60-plus years has long been theorized and joked about by Marvel fans and pundits. One popular opinion is that Rogers didnt have sex until he stayed in the past to grow old with Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) following the time-hopping climax of Avengers: Endgame.

I think he loses his virginity! McFeely reacts emphatically. Why do people think hes a virgin?

McFeely suggests that Steve might have been doing a little more than singing and dancing during his USO Tour across the nation to introduce him as Captain America and promote war bonds.

If you look like that, and youre going to city to city, and youre signing autographs for the likes of the ladies that hes signing the autographs for, Ive got to imagine that [he lost his virginity], McFeely explains.

Yeah, Markus agrees. And the thing to remember is Steve Rogers isnt a prude. He may be occasionally presented that way. Hes a guy that believes in right and wrong and all these things, but hes not a choirboy. Hes a World War II veteran.

Since wrapping up their work on Avengers: Endgame, the second-highest-grossing film of all time, Markus and McFeely have been plenty busy themselves. Theyre now partners in AGBO, the production studio formed by Avengers directors Anthony and Joe Russo, and have several projects currently in the works. Among them: Cambridge Analytica, a drama about whistleblower Christopher Wylie; the Millie Bobby Brown-starring The Electric State; and a reunion with Evans in The Gray Man, which also stars Ryan Gosling.

Video produced by Anne Lilburn and edited by Jimmie Rhee

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President Joe Biden was asked at a town hall whether he was confident US lawmakers could cooperate.

A committee set up in June to investigate the Capitol riot is having trouble finalizing its members.

On Wednesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected two Republicans picked by GOP Rep. Kevin McCarthy.

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President Joe Biden had strong words for people questioning the seriousness of the January 6 Capitol insurrection.

"I don't care if you think I'm Satan reincarnated," he said Wednesday at a CNN town hall in Cincinnati. "The fact is you can't look at that television and say nothing happened on the sixth and listen to people who say this was a peaceful march."

Biden was responding to the moderator Don Lemon's question on whether he had confidence Republicans and Democrats could work together, given that the two sides were having trouble establishing a bipartisan investigation into the Capitol insurrection, per the Associated Press.

A 13-member House committee - consisting of both Democrats and Republicans - was mooted last month to investigate the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi earlier Wednesday rejected two Republicans nominated by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to be on the committee.

Pelosi questioned whether the two nominees - Reps. Jim Banks of Indiana and Jim Jordan of Ohio - would compromise the integrity of the inquiry. In the hours after the Capitol insurrection, the two voted to overturn election results. They are also vocal supporters of former President Donald Trump.

"With respect for the integrity of the investigation, with an insistence on the truth and with concern about statements made and actions taken by these members, I must reject the recommendations of Representatives Banks and Jordan to the Select Committee," Pelosi said in a statement seen by the AP.

In response, McCarthy said Republicans would not participate in the investigation if Democrats did not accept the people he picked.

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Biden also had strong words for GOP legislators pushing voting restrictions and changes to the way elections are run, calling it "Jim Crow on steroids."

"I stand by what I said," Biden told Lemon. "Never before has there been an attempt by state legislatures to take over the ability to determine who won - not count the votes, determine who won."

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Biden tells crowd: 'I don't care if you think I'm Satan reincarnated. The fact is you can't look at that television and say nothing happened on the...

In March 2020, just weeks into a nationwide shutdown as the coronavirus began wreaking havoc all over the country, Matt Damon and his co-stars from Contagiontook to the internet with a series of PSAs for COVID-obsessed Americans.

At the time, Steven Soderberghs 2011 startlingly accurate film about a fictional devastating pandemic found new popularity on streaming services. That prompted Damon (who played a man immune to the disease), Kate Winslet and company to collaborate with medical experts to encourage people to trust science and embrace social-distancing.

You can actually sit on the couch or in a chair, like Im doing, and watch TV and save a life at the same time, said Damon.

Sixteen months later and the U.S. now has free and readily available vaccines for a disease that has killed more than 600,000 Americans yet there remains a strong vaccine hesitancy among many Americans, particularly in more conservative states like Oklahoma, home to the Donald Trump-supporting roughneck Damon plays in his new dramatic thriller Stillwater. Only 56 percent of Americans over the age of 12 are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC, even as the more highly transmissible Delta variant threatens to create another deadly wave across the nation.

There are a lot of reasons that people have, and I dont want to belittle them, Damon told us in an interview this week promoting Stillwater, in which his oil-rig man Bill Baker travels to France to aid his imprisoned daughter (watch above). Its tough for me, I have a couple friends who are immunocompromised and they cant get the vaccine, so they have no choice but to rely on the rest of us to do our part to get to herd immunity. So I look at it that way.

Matt Damon in 'Stillwater' (Focus Features)

For Damon, it comes down to doing whats best for the greater-good and trusting medicine and science over the rash of misinformation and irresponsible rhetoric spreading across social media.

I wish at the beginning of this people came out and said, Look, if we all do this, then well protect each other better, rather than Well, Im not in this cohort so I dont have to worry and its not going to hurt me that much. Its just about looking at this as a me thing or an us thing.

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But look, its a personal choice. Thats the beauty of America, its a free country. And none of us would have it any other way. But I fall heavily on the side of trusting science more than something you read on Facebook.

Stillwater opens July 30.

Video produced by Jen Kucsak and edited by Jason Fitzpatrick

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Bottom line: The hard seltzer boom is over.

Shares of Boston Beer crashed 20% in pre-market trading on Friday as the maker of Truly hard seltzer and Sam Adams badly whiffed on its earnings expectations and slashed full-year guidance. The culprit: Execs overestimated the potential of the hard seltzer market, which continues to slow amid rising competition and people returning to bars coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic as Yahoo Finance has reported.

"We overestimated the growth of the hard seltzer category in the second quarter and the demand for Truly, which negatively impacted our volume and earnings for the quarter and our estimates for the remainder of the year," Boston Beer founder Jim Koch told analysts on a conference call. "We increased our production of Truly to meet our summer peak and have had lower than anticipated demand for certain Truly brand styles, which has resulted in higher than planned inventory levels at our breweries and increased supply chain costs and complexity."

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 13: A view of Truly: Hard Seltzer products during the Grand Tasting presented by ShopRite featuring Culinary Demonstrations at The IKEA Kitchen presented by Capital One at Pier 94 on October 13, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Rob Kim/Getty Images for NYCWFF)

The company now sees adjusted full-year earnings of $18 to $22 a share, down from $22 to $26 previously.

"Id say, just the proliferation of brands in this category [hard seltzer] has occurred, there's a herd like mentality in this business broadly. And I think people try to bring new brands into the marketplace and there's a sameness to these brands. There's a lack of originality. And I think what's happened a little bit, little bit of a luster to the specialistic segment for some consumers has been lost," added Boston Beer CEO David Burwick on the call.

Boston Beer's dreadful earnings day comes a few weeks removed from Molson Coors discontinuing Coors Light Seltzer due to a tepid response in a cooling market.

Here is how Boston Beer performed compared to Wall Street profit forecasts.

Boston Beer shares were promptly downgraded by Goldman Sachs on Friday in light of the miss. Others on Wall Street voiced concern about the company's near-term outlook, too.

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"Management reduced its guidance metrics for the year that will disappoint investors and likely put the shares in the penalty box through the back half of the year without any other obvious catalysts, in our view barring any major new innovations," said Guggenheim analyst Laurent Grandet in a new research note to clients.

But unlike his peers on the Street, Grandet is staying positive on Boston Beer shares and reiterated a Buy rating.

"While 2Q results were significantly below our projections and the U.S. hard seltzer category slowed more quickly than expected, we think its important to keep in perspective that its still a segment that is growing faster than any other across beer. Furthermore, the Truly brand is taking market share from the category leader, White Claw, with a share gap that is now less than 10% compared to more than 20% last year thanks to strong, impactful bolder flavors innovations that are helping reach new Black and Hispanic consumers to expand household penetration," Grandet explained. "Boston Beer will continue to be at the forefront of innovations in the spirit-based FMB category facilitated by the new partnership agreement with Beam Suntory to launch, in the first instance, a vodka-based Truly drink through wine and spirit distributors (the economics or financial mechanics are unknown) and malt-based Beam brands like Sauza through beer wholesalers."

Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.

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Boston Beer stock is crashing because the hard seltzer boom is basically over - Yahoo Finance

Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively co-starred in the box-office flop Green Lantern in 2011, then married in 2012, so you might think that they fell in love immediately. Not so.

"I met Blake on the darkest crease in the anus of the universe called Green Lantern," Reynolds told Will Arnett, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes on Monday's episode of their podcast, SmartLess. "And we were friends and buddies and then, about a year and a half later, we actually went out on a double date, but we were dating separate people."

Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively met when they co-starred in "Green Lantern." (Photo: Steven Ferdman/Getty Images)

When they met, as Green Lantern began filming in early 2010, Reynolds was still married to Scarlett Johansson, his wife since 2008. They split in 2010. Lively was in a relationship with Penn Badgley, her co-star on Gossip Girl, for several years, also ending in 2010.

So after single Reynolds and Lively crossed paths on this double date, there was a When Harry Met Sally... situation where they fell for each other.

"We hung out and kind of, you know, we always kind of kept in touch but sort of casually. And then next thing you know, she was going to Boston. I was going to Boston. So I was like, 'Ill ride with you,'" Reynolds said. Then he joked, "We got on the train and rode together and then I was just begging her to sleep with me."

Reynolds, who made the first move, noted that the romance moved quickly.

"Honestly, it was kind of one of those silly sort of ... like out of a fairy tale," he said. "Like a week later, I was like, 'We should buy a house together.' And we did."

Now they've been together almost a decade, which Reynolds described as "like 45 years in Hollywood terms."

The two are parents to three daughters: 6-year-old James, Inez, 4, and Betty, 1. (Taylor Swift fans already know this.)

Still, Reynolds's career has not slowed down, and he thanks Lively for that. His list of projects in the works include another installment of his Deadpool franchise (presumably the character's first full-fledged foray into the Marvel Cinematic Universe) and a big-screen adaptation of the board game Clue.

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"The only reason I think I'm able to continue doing this in this way, I think, is that I'm present with my kids and my wife, and my marriage is incredibly important to me and that friendship is important to me, so Im able to kind of get through, you know," Reynolds said. "But then Blake and I don't do movies at the same time, so [when] shes ready to go back and do some stuff, I'll step down and then we go back and forth. She'll do a film and I'll just be with her on location, hanging with the kids."

He said that she's been especially impressive while dealing with kids and their schoolwork during the pandemic: "Blake was so much better than I was, because I'm also a child."

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Ryan Reynolds says early days of relationship with Blake Lively were 'like out of a fairy tale' - Yahoo Entertainment

WASHINGTON Coronavirus rates are rising and masks are returning in some areas, but President Biden had a simple message on Wednesday evening: Get your coronavirus vaccine and, having done so, dont worry about reports of breakthrough infections, which have caused some vaccinated people to test positive for the coronavirus.

There are very, very, very, very, very, very few people whove contracted COVID-19 after having been fully vaccinated, the president told reporters. And those infections, he added, are not life-threatening, because the coronavirus vaccines are exceptionally effective at preventing severe and critical illness.

Some vaccinated people could still experience unpleasant symptoms if they become infected but, as the president pointed out, are extremely unlikely to experience much more than that.

President Biden speaks to the media prior to boarding Air Force One in Hebron, Ky., on Wednesday. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

I know of none where theyre hospitalized, in ICU and/or passed away, Biden said of such breakthrough cases. He may have been referring to something that Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said last week, that 99.5 percent of Americans who died of COVID in June were unvaccinated.

The rise of the more transmissible Delta variant has stoked concerns that a new coronavirus wave is at hand. But while the variant spreads easily, it does not necessarily cause more severe illness.

We know the Delta variant can be easier to give and get, Dr. Kavita Patel, a Brookings Institution fellow and former Obama administration policy aide, told Yahoo News. We know that it can reproduce in the body faster. We do not think it leads to higher-than-expected deaths or hospitalizations.

Fully vaccinated people are as protected from Delta as they are from all other coronavirus variants. Theres no question that if youre vaccinated, you are far more protected and safer than someone who is not vaccinated because you are at a much, much lower risk of getting infected. Period, Patel said.

Biden has continued to plead with people to get vaccinated; there is unanimous agreement that vaccines, not masks or lockdowns, will lead to the end of the pandemic. Life has largely returned to normal in highly vaccinated parts of the country, even as the coronavirus proliferates in states like Florida, Arkansas and Missouri, where restrictions had been lifted but vaccinations have not been forcefully encouraged.

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Biden made his remarks about breakthrough infections late Wednesday night as he was leaving Cincinnati on the way back to Washington, D.C. He had just concluded a CNN town hall during which hed made much the same point.

Annie Velez receives a shot at a mobile COVID-19 vaccination site in Orlando on Wednesday. (Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

We have a pandemic for those who havent gotten a vaccination, Biden told CNN anchor Don Lemon, adding a little later, Theres a simple, basic proposition: If youre vaccinated, youre not going to be hospitalized, youre not going to be in an ICU unit and youre not going to die.

He added that this is not a pandemic, an apparent reference to areas of the country where community spread has effectively been halted. The difference in vaccination rates has given rise to two COVID nations, as Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine, put it recently to Yahoo News.

For the first months of his administration, Biden was accused by some critics of being too cautious on lifting the crippling restrictions that marked most of 2020. They said that he should have vigorously urged the reopening of schools for in-person instruction, and that he could have taken his mask off as soon as he and other White House staff were fully vaccinated.

More recently, though, it has been obvious that Biden is eager to move past the pandemic. After all, the return of lockdowns and other restrictions, such as a new year of remote learning in schools, would almost certainly frustrate the economic recovery that will help shape his administrations legacy.

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Keep calm and get vaccinated, Biden says of 'breakthrough' COVID cases - Yahoo News