Meet The MA Dad Who Sparked GameStop Stock Craze: Patch PM
MASSACHUSETTS — It's Friday, January 29. Here's what you should know this afternoon:
That GameStop stock craze you’ve been hearing about all week? You’ve got a 34-year-old Wilmington dad to thank for that.
Johnson & Johnson, which has worked with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in developing a new coronavirus vaccine, has good news on that front.
A high school senior who suffered a serious injury playing hockey this week sees an avalanche of donations.
Scroll down for those and other stories Patch has been covering in Massachusetts today.
Friday’s Top Story
The YouTube and Reddit user who was in large part responsible for the recent Gamestop stock craze is a Wilmington father and former MassMutual employee, the Wall Street Journal reported in an interview with him Friday.
Keith Gill, 34, is known on YouTube as Roaring Kitty and on Reddit by the expletive-laced handle DeepF-------Value. Until recently, Gill worked in marketing for Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. He has a 2-year-old daughter and films his popular YouTube cases for the stock from his Wilmington basement so as to not wake her up, the Journal reported.
As of Thursday, Gill had posted a $33 million total gain on his bet on the video game retailer, although he was down nearly $15 million overnight on the stock's wild volatility this week.
Today’s Other Top Stories In Massachusetts
Congresswoman gets COVID: U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan tested positive for the coronavirus Thursday afternoon, according to her office. Trahan, a Democrat who represents the state's 3rd Congressional District, said she is asymptomatic and self-quarantining at home. She was among members of Congress who sheltered in offices during the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol. Some members of Congress contracted the virus that day. Trahan had tested negative several times before her positive test this week, her office said.
They’ve got one shot at this: As public health officials and scientists grapple with new virus variants, manufacturers of another COVID-19 vaccine candidate, this one a single dose, reported Friday that it was 66 percent effective overall in preventing moderate to severe COVID-19 cases 28 days after vaccination. Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center collaborated with the company’s pharmaceutical arm to support the development of the latest vaccine candidate.
Donations pour in for injured hockey player: A Bishop Feehan hockey player who was injured during a game in West Springfield Tuesday night has received over half a million dollars in donations through a GoFundMe page set up by a family member and other private contributions. A.J. Quetta, a senior from North Providence, was playing against Pope Francis School when he went headfirst into the boards and was unable to move. He was transported from Baystate Health in Springfield to Massachusetts General Hospital on Wednesday evening to undergo spine surgery.
By The Numbers
7 degrees: That’s how cold it got in Boston Friday morning, the lowest temperature the city’s seen in just over two years. The lowest recorded wind chill today belongs to Worcester, where it hit 19 below.
In Case You Missed It
This article originally appeared on the Malden Patch
