Yahoo Finance’s Anjalee Khemlani discusses reports that China is underreporting data on its COVID outbreak and what that means for global efforts to curb the spread, plus news that Bayer and Google have announced deal to accelerate drug development.

Video Transcript

RACHELLE AKUFFO: All right, well, let's take a closer look at news out of China. The nation ceasing to report daily COVID-19 data after it abruptly reversed course on its zero-COVID policy. All this raising fears about international efforts to respond to new variants. Here with more, Yahoo Finance's Anjalee Khemlani. Anjalee.

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: That's right, Rachelle. Unfortunately, we know that with the repeal of the zero-COVID policy, China has been under the spotlight and under the microscope once again globally in trying to track what is going on in the country. They first stopped reporting COVID cases and now are stopping the tally on COVID deaths. They're being called out by the World Health Organization with emergencies program director Mike Ryan saying that their deaths are heavily underreported. And that's a quote from China.

And so that really remains a concern as we know that what happens in China could then flow out in waves across the world. We know that right now, the BF.7 variant, one of the two dominant ones there, is still here in the US. We haven't seen it to cause as much damage as it is right now in China with the overflowing of hospitals, but definitely something to watch.

RACHELLE AKUFFO: And Anjalee, staying with pharmaceuticals, Bayer and Google announcing a deal to help fast forward new drug and treatment research. Tell us more about that.

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Yeah, so this is interesting. We're actually seeing this trend pop up a lot in the health sector where tech companies are having a large say in helping with efficiencies with drug companies. So Bayer is one of them. We also know, for example, that Amazon Web Services has been a part of the process. Perfect example-- Moderna's vaccine. That relied on looking at all the molecule buildup and what the correct formula could be for the vaccine.

And that's where this tech comes in. The cloud computing power is now being used to help create a faster way to develop these formulas and identify what could be the most efficient. This takes away months to years of testing in R&D. And that's where this news is really interesting. So it definitely is an interesting race that's heating up right now between these two clouding mega powers.

RACHELLE AKUFFO: Certainly, tech just dropping into everything at the moment. A big thank you to Anjalee Khemlani.