A COVID-19 vaccine as soon as April? Boeing's 737 Max was cleared to fly again. It's Wednesday's news.
Vaccine makers are racing the clock amidst a surge in COVID-19 cases. School's ~physically~ out for New York City. And People's Sexiest Man Alive is ... Michael B. Jordan. 🔥
But first, it pays to be George Clooney's pal: The actor had a pretty thoughtful way to thank his 14 closest friends for their support through the years: a gift of $1 million each.
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Fauci talks vaccine. We listen.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading infectious disease expert who has guided the U.S. through the pandemic, projected that many Americans could expect their first doses of an approved coronavirus vaccine as early as April. Front-line health care workers are expected to get their first doses by the end of December or early January, followed by at-risk individuals and eventually the healthy general population, Fauci told the USA TODAY Editorial Board on Wednesday. If most of the population is vaccinated by summer and fall, Fauci said, people can start looking forward to returning to pre-pandemic normalcy. But to get there, vaccine hesitancy must be addressed. "When it gets approved by the FDA … I would take the vaccine and I would recommend that my family take the vaccine," Fauci said.
Pfizer to seek approval for vaccine within days: Pfizer and BioNTech, now saying its candidate vaccine is 95% effective, plan to submit a request "within days" to the Food and Drug Administration for emergency-use approval of the vaccine. You read that right: days. The companies hope to provide 50 million doses by year's end and 1.3 billion doses in 2021.
The first patient enrolled in Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore receives an injection May 4.
AP
School's out for NYC
The nation's largest public school system will temporarily halt in-person learning – again – in an effort to stem the continued spread of COVID-19, according to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. The first time schools were shut down was in mid-March, as the virus tore through the city. In September, New York City officials allowed students to return to in-person classes, but said that schools would shut down again if 3% of all the coronavirus tests performed citywide over a weeklong period came back positive. Amid a nationwide surge in cases, that milestone has been passed, triggering the closure. Now, all of the city's more than 1 million public school students will be taught entirely online.
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Give it to me straight: The U.S. has reported more than 11.3 million cases and more than 248,500 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The global totals: 55.5 million cases and 1.33 million deaths.
A man walks by a memorial for those who have died from the coronavirus outside Green-Wood Cemetery on May 27, 2020 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Green-Wood Cemetery, one of New York's oldest cemeteries, has been the site of hundreds of burials and cremations of COVID-19 victims.
Spencer Platt, Getty Images
What everyone's talking about
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"It's not real": In South Dakota, which has shunned masks and other COVID-19 rules, some people die in denial.
Boeing's 737 Max, the jetliner grounded for 20 months after two international crashes that tragically killed 346 passengers and crew, was cleared to fly again Wednesday by the Federal Aviation Administration. The troubled airliner's return to the skies won't be immediate, even with the issuance of the ungrounding order. The planes will need to be refitted with improvements mandated by the FAA, and pilots will need to be retrained on procedures. American Airlines, one of the largest operators, plans to have the planes flying again Dec. 29. The airline recognized some travelers may be hesitant. Critics say that despite the fixes approved by the FAA, the twin-engine plane's design is inherently flawed and shouldn't be allowed to fly again.
American Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 planes parked at the airline's maintenance base in Tulsa, Oklahoma
American Airlines
Trump is hoping to overturn results in Wisconsin
President Donald Trump will seek a recount of ballots in liberal Wisconsin counties, hoping to overturn the election results in his favor. Trump's campaign had paid the state $3 million as of Wednesday morning to start a partial recount, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission. The campaign said it would seek a recount in the state's two most populous and liberal-leaning counties: Dane and Milwaukee. A canvass of votes in the Nov. 3 election showed a 20,608 vote difference between Trump and Biden. A change of that many votes in a recount — especially a partial one — is a bit of a long shot. To win the presidency, Trump would also need to turn other states in his favor. A recount is already underway in Georgia.
The Department of Homeland Security's cyber chief, who presided over an elaborate election security effort guarding against foreign interference and fraud, was ousted by Trump on Tuesday as part of a continuing post-election purge of top national security officials. Trump announced the dismissal in two tweets Tuesday night, which were both flagged by Twitter with labels saying, "This claim about election fraud is disputed." The dismissal of Christopher Krebs, director of DHS's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, follows the agency's declaration that the general election was the most secure in U.S. history.
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