Biden picks defense secretary as Trump hosts vaccine summit

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Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon in 2014. He will be Joe Biden’s pick for defense secretary.
Photograph: Paul J Richards/AFP/Getty Images

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Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine offers strong protection against Covid within about ten days – FDA analysis

Noah Weiland and Carl Zimmer at the New York Times bring us this rapid analysis of what is in the FDA’s assessment of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine:

The coronavirus vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech provides strong protection against Covid-19 within about 10 days of the first dose, according to documents published by the Food and Drug Administration before a meeting of its vaccine advisory group.
The finding is one of several significant new results featured in the briefing materials, which include more than 100 pages of data analyses from the agency and from Pfizer. Last month, Pfizer and BioNTech announced that their two-dose vaccine had an efficacy rate of 95 percent after two doses administered three weeks apart. The new analyses show that the protection starts kicking in far earlier.
What’s more, the vaccine worked well regardless of a volunteer’s race, weight or age. While the trial did not find any serious adverse events caused by the vaccine, many participants did experience aches, fevers and other side effects.
New coronavirus cases quickly tapered off in the vaccinated group of volunteers about 10 days after the first dose, according to one graph in the briefing materials. In a placebo group, cases kept steadily increasing.
The vaccine has a high efficacy rate in both men and women, as well as similar rates in white, Black and Latino people. It also worked well in obese people, who carry a greater risk of getting sick with Covid-19.

8.41am EST08:41

A very awkward TV moment for Operation Warp Speed Chief Science Adviser Dr. Moncef Slaoui this morning. What wasn’t so difficult was being asked about how and when the US expected to vaccinate the population. Slaoui said:

We are comfortable we will be getting vaccines to the people who need them as soon as possible because there are vaccine doses from Moderna, there are vaccine doses from Pfizer. We will work with Pfizer to try and increase capacity and have those vaccines available. We have two more vaccines, from J&J and AstraZeneca, that would be completing their phase three trials in January and most likely I hope they would be approved for use in February. We have 10s of millions of doses of those vaccines.

He said the US was still on track to immunise the US population by the middle of the year 2021.

However he was then questioned on the executive order which it is reported that Donald Trump will be signing this afternoon, which pledges “to ensure that United States government prioritizes getting the vaccine to American citizens before sending it to other nations.”

Asked what the means, he said:

Frankly, I don’t know. And frankly I’m staying out of this, so I can’t comment.

Good Morning America anchor George Stephanopoulos was somewhat perplexed. It is well worth watching the clip.

Good Morning America
(@GMA)
BREAKING: Pressed by @GStephanopoulos to explain Pres. Trump’s executive order prioritizing Americans’ access to COVID-19 vaccines before the United States helps other countries, “Operation Warp Speed” Chief Science Adviser Dr. Moncef Slaoui says, “Frankly I don’t know.” pic.twitter.com/Wk7ElJKDaw
December 8, 2020

8.24am EST08:24

One person who has added their voice to the condemnation of the US handling of the coronavirus is the late former Republican State Senator from Alabama, Larry Dixon. Wilson Wong reports:

The former senator, Larry Dixon, who died of Covid-19 last week at age 78, was also a former executive director of the Alabama Board of Medical Examiners.
Dr. David Thrasher, a pulmonologist in Montgomery who was a close friend of Dixon’s, said Dixon’s wife, Gaynell Dixon, told him that her husband’s last words to her were a warning to the people of Alabama.
“We messed up. We let our guard down,” Dixon said, according to Thrasher. “Please tell everybody to be careful. This is real, and if you get diagnosed, get help immediately.”
Thrasher said Dixon was exposed to the virus at a social gathering “with a couple of guys” that was hosted outside about two weeks ago.
Thrasher said he was unsure how many people attended, but he said he knew of two other men who attended and had tested positive.

8.12am EST08:12

FDA posts first review data into Pfizer/BioNtech Covid-19 vaccine

The UK today has become the first nation to start issuing the Pfizer/BioNtech Covid-19 vaccine to the public. Margaret Keenan, 90, received the first dose at the University Hospital in Coventry.

Margaret Keenan, 90 years old, is the first patient in the UK to receive the Pfizer/BioNtech Covid-19 vaccine, administered by nurse May Parsons. Photograph: Jacob King/EPA

The US could follow within days. In the last few minutes, the Food and Drug Administration has posted its first review of the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine, offering the nation’s first detailed look at the shot’s safety and effectiveness.

I haven’t had a chance to look at the documents yet – but the headlines that are being reported by Reuters so far include:

safety data from nearly 38,000 participant suggests a favorable safety profile, with no specific concerns identified that would preclude issuance of an emergency use authorisation.
the vaccine appears to provide some protection after just one dose – with an efficacy of 52% before the second dose.
individual previously infected with Covid could benefit from the vaccine.
the FDA says there is currently insufficient data to make conclusions about safety of the Covid-19 vaccine in children less than 16 years of age, pregnant and immunocompromised individuals.
in the trials, one participant with baseline obesity and pre-exisiting atherosclerosis died three days after receiving the shot.

With the lack of a national strategy for fighting Covid, the vaccine has effectively been the Trump administrations only hope of combating a pandemic whose impact in the US just gets worse and worse.

Updated
at 8.27am EST

7.55am EST07:55

China has summoned the acting top US diplomat in Beijing to protest about US sanctions on 14 Chinese officials over Hong Kong, and vowed to take “reciprocal” counter measures, Reuters report.

China’s foreign ministry said on its website on Tuesday that Chinese vice foreign ministry Zheng Zeguang has summoned the acting representative in the U.S. embassy to express “solemn protest and strong condemnation”.

He also said that Beijing will take “reciprocal” counter measures.

The United States on Monday imposed financial sanctions and a travel ban on all 14 vice-chairpersons of China’s National People’s Congress over their role in adopting a national security law for Hong Kong and Beijing’s disqualification last month of elected opposition legislators in Hong Kong.

That’s not the only negative development in US relations with China. Taiwan faces military threats on a daily basis from “authoritarian forces”, President Tsai Ing-wen said on Tuesday, as the US announced a new $280 million arms sale package to the Chinese-claimed island, the sixth this year.

China expressed anger at the weapons sale, threatening unspecified retaliation. The outgoing Trump administration has ramped up support for the island democracy, with 11 arms sale packages in total, and on Monday the US government notified Congress of the sale of a new Field Information Communications System.

Such sales – $5 billion worth this year – have riled China, adding to existing tension between Beijing and Washington, with China placing sanctions on US companies involved and stepping up its military activities near Taiwan, including regular air force missions.

7.47am EST07:47

Eventually we’ll stop writing about Donald Trump’s failed attempts to overthrow his election defeat to Joe Biden. But not quite yet. Colleen Long and Ed White have looked for Associated Press today at the president’s desperate failure to make any headway in the lawsuits that he has spent millions of dollars on.

Judges have been among the harshest critics of the legal arguments put forth by Trump’s legal team. On Monday, US District Judge Linda Parker threw out a lawsuit challenging Michigan’s election results that had been filed two days after the state certified the results for Biden. Parker said the case embodied the phrase “This ship has sailed.”

The lawsuit sought to reverse the certification and impound all voting machines for inspection — “relief that is stunning in its scope and breathtaking in its reach,” the judge said. “Plaintiffs ask this court to ignore the orderly statutory scheme established to challenge elections and to ignore the will of millions of voters. This, the court cannot, and will not, do,” she said. “The people have spoken.”

Trump is rapidly running out of legal runway for his outrageous and unprecedented attempt by a sitting US president to subvert democracy. Out of roughly 50 lawsuits filed, more than 35 have been dropped or dismissed.

In Georgia, US District Judge Timothy Batten dismissed a lawsuit filed by attorney Sidney Powell. Batten said the lawsuit sought “perhaps the most extraordinary relief ever sought in any federal court in connection with an election.”

“They want this court to substitute its judgment for that of two-and-a-half million Georgia voters who voted for Joe Biden and this I am unwilling to do,” Batten said.

Much like Trump, the president’s lawyers try to blame the political leanings of the judge after their legal arguments are flayed. When a federal appeals panel in Philadelphia rejected Trump’s election challenge just five days after it reached the court, Trump legal advisor Jenna Ellis called their work a product of “the activist judicial machinery in Pennsylvania.”

But Trump appointed the judge who wrote the opinion.

7.31am EST07:31

A data scientist in Florida who is embroiled in a dispute with the state’s Republican governor over the handling of coronavirus figures, has had her home raided by armed police and computers confiscated.

Rebekah Jones posted a video of the raid that showed state police carrying handguns escorting her out of her Tallahassee home. She can be heard saying: “He just pointed a gun at my children,” with her husband and two children apparently upstairs at the time. You can watch it here:

7.29am EST07:29

Virginia police officers face additional misdemeanor charges over actions during May BLM protest

There’s not a great deal of detail here yet to be honest, but Associated Press are reporting that two Virginia police officers face more misdemeanor charges relating to their actions during May’s Black Lives Matter protests against police brutality and racial injustice.

Richmond police detectives Mark Janowski and Christopher Brown were each charged with two more misdemeanor counts of assault and battery on Monday, building on a previous count of each charge. Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Colette McEachin confirmed the additional indictments but declined to provide further comment.

Authorities have released no details about what they allegedly did to merit the charges on 31 May, during the second night of protests sparked by the death of George Floyd.

A monument to Confederate President Jefferson Davis in Richmond covered with graffiti on Sunday, May 31, 2020, after overnight protests. — A monument to Confederate President Jefferson Davis in Richmond covered with graffiti on Sunday 31 May, 2020, after overnight protests. Photograph: Sarah Rankin/AP

Janowski, 34, has been with the department since 2014 and Brown, 28, joined in 2015.

In Richmond, protesters have raised various concerns over how police have responded to demonstrations. In July, McEachin’s office cleared Richmond police of wrongdoing after reviewing five civil complaints. The office had investigated whether an officer deliberately drove a vehicle through a crowd of protesters in June and whether an officer spat on a protester.

7.21am EST07:21

Alexandra Villarreal

While the police in Fort Worth, Texas, ransacked Nelda Price’s home, an officer directed her to put her hands together – as if she were praying – so he could restrain her with zip ties.

“I told him, ‘I am praying. Because I don’t understand why you’re here, and I don’t know what this is about,’” Nelda told the Guardian.

On 11 March, she and her husband John, both Black and in their late 60s, had been chatting in the dining room, dressed for bed, when a noise interrupted them. Nelda’s first instinct was to get up and investigate, but after John thought he heard gunshots, he pushed her to the floor.

By the time they looked up, Fort Worth police had already broken through their iron gate and were storming the front door, guns drawn. Without any explanation, the officers demanded that John and Nelda put their hands up, then took them outside for questioning.

In a traumatic spectacle that lasted hours, about 20 or 30 policemen loudly tore through the Prices’ belongings as emergency vehicles swarmed the block. The elderly couple waited outdoors in their pajamas and nightgown; after asking several times, Nelda was finally allowed to grab a sweater.

“It was like a nightmare,” she said. “You just don’t expect something like that to happen.”

No one would answer any of the Prices’ questions about what was happening, even as several officers pointed out red flags that their colleagues had targeted the wrong people. Police refused Nelda’s pleas for John’s medication – until his blood pressure spiked so high that they called an ambulance.

Once Nelda and John were allowed back inside, they discovered a search warrant lying on the dining room table, allegedly connecting them to methamphetamines and narcotics trafficking.

Read more of Alexandra Villarreal’s report here: ‘A nightmare’: why were an elderly black couple targeted in a shocking Texas police raid?

7.05am EST07:05

Women will hold more than 30% of seats in state legislatures for the first time in US history

Julia Manchester reports for The Hill that after this election cycle, US citizens will be represented in their state legislatures by more women than ever before.

According to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, women will hold more than 30 percent of seats in state legislatures for the first time in American history.
At least 1,684 women will serve as state representatives in 2021. That’s up from the previous record of 1,641. And at the state Senate level, at least 552 women will serve as state senators in 2021, besting the prior record of 521.
These numbers are likely to change as well, as there are 76 female candidates in races that have been deemed too close to call.
The gains women made at the state legislature level this cycle appeared to have reflected the record gains women made at the federal level as well.
“These two stories are the same,” said Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics. “The results of the state legislatures are mirroring the story that we saw at the congressional level.”

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