The coronavirus
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tronc/JCUDCE3LLJCSVGU2F6OV4L6XTA.jpg) Margaret Keenan receives the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Tuesday. (Jacob King/Pool/AP) |
WASHINGTON POST DAILY 202
“It took barely a second. She rolled up her sleeve and Britain's Margaret Keenan became on Tuesday the first person to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine shot outside of clinical trials, as the first mass coronavirus immunization campaign in the West began.,” William Booth and Karla Adam report. “The 90-year-old grandmother received her jab, as the Brits would say, at University Hospital in Coventry, England, at 6:31 a.m. local time. … ‘I feel so privileged to be the first,’ Keenan said, adding that it meant she could ‘finally look forward to spending time with my family and friends in the new year after being on my own for most of the year.’”
Police raid the home of a fired Florida scientist who says the governor juked covid stats.
“Florida police officers with guns drawn raided the home of an ousted health department data scientist Monday morning, searching for the former agency employee’s most powerful tools: her computer, her phone and other hardware that supports the coronavirus website she set up after accusing the state of manipulating its official numbers,” Reis Thebault reports. “Law enforcement officials allege the scientist, Rebekah Jones, may have also used the devices to hack into a health department website in November and to send an unauthorized message to Florida emergency personnel, urging them to speak out against the state’s pandemic response. She has denied the accusation. This is the latest clash between Jones and state officials, who have traded accusations since she was fired from the Florida Department of Health this summer. …
“Jones is an outspoken critic of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), and she has alleged her ex-managers directed her to doctor virus case data to downplay risks of infection and death in the state. … On Twitter, Jones said she would not be cowed by what she characterized as a state-sanctioned intimidation campaign. ‘If Desantis thought pointing a gun in my face was a good way to get me to shut up, he’s about to learn just how wrong he was,’ she wrote. ‘I’ll have a new computer tomorrow. And then I’m going to get back to work.’”
- James Phillips, the Walter Reed emergency room physician who publicly criticized Trump’s decision to drive with Secret Service agents to greet supporters while hospitalized with the coronavirus, was removed from the hospital’s schedule starting in January. Phillips is chief of disaster medicine at George Washington University and an attending physician on a contract basis for Walter Reed. On Oct. 4, he called out the president for his “completely unnecessary” drive-by, warning agents could get sick or die “for political theater.” (CBS News)
Millions of Americans head into the holidays unemployed and over $5,000 behind on rent.
“Nearly 12 million renters will owe an average of $5,850 in back rent and utilities by January, Moody’s Analytics warns. Last month, 9 million renters said they were behind on rent, according to a Census Bureau survey,” Heather Long reports. “Economists say the data underscores the deepening financial disaster for many families as the pandemic continues to shut off work opportunities, lending new urgency to negotiations over a second round of stimulus that could reinstate federal unemployment insurance and rental assistance, among other forms of aid. … The numbers of those behind on rent and utilities were especially high for families with children, with 21 percent falling behind on rent, and among families of color. About 29 percent of Black families and 17 percent of Hispanic renters were behind, the Census Bureau reported. … ‘The tidal wave is coming. It’s going to be really horrible for people,’ said Charlie Harak, a senior attorney at the National Consumer Law Center.”
- A $4.5 billion Trump food program is running out of money early, leaving families hungry and food assistance charities scrambling. Trump’s Farmers to Families Food Box program was set to end Dec. 31. Vendors in some states are running out of money already. (Laura Reiley and Greg Jaffe)
Today is the “safe harbor” date by which state presidential votes that have been certified will go forward to Congress, where they must be counted. Biden has enough votes to win the Electoral College handily.
And yet, the lawsuits continue, as the Trump efforts continue to lose in court. Today, the Supreme Court rejected a request from Republicans in Pennsylvania to block the certification of the results in that state. The Supreme Court’s decision appeared to be unanimous, and likely signaled that the justices would like to stay away from Trump’s challenges to the election results.
Today, at his “vaccine summit,” Trump claimed credit for the “miracle” of the coronavirus vaccine and suggested that he, rather than the experts, had had a better sense of the timeline for its availability. In his remarks, he quickly veered to the election results, again insisting that he had won the election and urging Republicans at the state level or the Supreme Court to find the “courage to do what everybody in this country knows is right” and to award him a second term.
Meanwhile, the pandemic worsens. The U.S. just recorded a million new infections in five days, and today we marked more than 15 million infections. More than 285,000 of us have died of Covid-19.
There is confusion over the coronavirus vaccine. This morning we learned that the Trump administration is requiring states to share with federal registries the names, birthdates, ethnicities, and addresses of the people they vaccinate against the novel coronavirus. This requirement seems like a federal intrusion into a patient’s right to privacy, and another attempt to force states to gather information on undocumented Americans, which will almost certainly make them afraid to get the vaccine.
There is also a shortage of money for distribution. While the government has poured money into developing a vaccine, Congress has not appropriated any money for getting out the word about the vaccines, hiring people to give them, or making sure people get both of the shots they need. State officials estimate they will need $8.4 billion to distribute the vaccine.
Meanwhile, the economy is sagging and the country is desperate for a coronavirus relief bill. All sides have gritted their teeth and come together behind a $900 billion bill to provide support for the jobless, support hospitals and essential workers, and float loans to small businesses. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is refusing to bring that bill to a vote unless it stops all Covid-19 related lawsuits that allege injury or death because of corporate negligence.
As least he is now willing to talk about a package. This is likely because his control of the Senate could come down to the two runoff elections in Georgia, where voters want a relief package. In Georgia, Republicans David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler are being challenged by Democrats Jon Ossoff and the Reverend Raphael Warnock. Today Georgia Republicans began the process of restricting mail-in voting and getting rid of drop boxes for ballots. As journalist Ari Berman notes, Georgia Republicans wrote these laws and approved of them until the recent election, when Democrats and Black and Brown citizens began to take advantage of them. Now they are axing the laws that make it easier for people to vote.
The New York Times adds that Georgia’s third-largest county, Cobb County, dominated by Democrats, will have fewer than half of the early voting locations it had for the presidential election available for the Senate runoffs. Janine Eveler, the Cobb County director of elections, blamed the reductions on staffing shortages, but when fair vote groups offered to recruit volunteers, Eveler said there would not be time to train them.
Meanwhile, Biden has announced a three-part public strategy to combat the pandemic, pledging to require masks in federal buildings and interstate public transportation, to distribute at least 100 million vaccine shots, and to reopen most schools, all in his first 100 days.
He also continues to build out his cabinet, moving more quickly than his predecessors, at least in part to reassure Americans that he will hit the ground running after a long period when the country has been rudderless. Today Biden announced that he has tapped retired General Lloyd Austin III for Secretary of Defense.
Austin, who is 67, is a 41-year veteran of the army and headed the U.S. Central Command before he retired in 2016. Biden explained that Austin shares his desire to turn the leadership of foreign policy over to diplomats and development experts, using the military only as a last resort. Austin also oversaw the drawdown of 150,000 troops from Iraq, giving him the kind of logistical experience needed to distribute the coronavirus vaccine effectively. If confirmed, Austin will be the nation’s first African-American defense secretary.
But the nomination will require a waiver from both houses of Congress to overrule a law requiring that a military officer be out of the service for seven years before taking the post of defense secretary. This law is designed to emphasize that civilians are in charge of our military. Congress overrode the rule in 2017 for Trump’s first Secretary of Defense James Mattis, but lawmakers made it clear they did not want to make waivers a habit.
|
With the pandemic, the failing economy, and the Republicans’ unwillingness to recognize his presidency, Biden is facing an unprecedented crisis. But he definitely knows how Washington works.