promoearn: This is the story of the American virus

Thursday, December 10

Artist Suzanne Firstenberg walks through an installation on the DC Armory Parade Ground on Friday, October 23, 2020 in Washington, DC. Titled "IN AMERICA: How Could This Happen," each flag represents a life lost to COVID-19 in the United States. At the time of the installation, the number of flags totaled just under 225,000.

How the U.S. failed to contain COVID-19. America's population is on the decline. It's Thursday's news.

The novel coronavirus has been an American horror story. That could change, and soon: Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine candidate could earn emergency authorization... today.

It's Ashley with the news everyone's talking about today.

But first, the 'Florida Man' did not slow down in 2020: Here are his best headlines of the year, from alligator attacks to nunchuck fights. 🐊

The Short List is a snappy USA TODAY news roundup. Subscribe here!

The pandemic is far from over

The U.S. wasn't prepared when the coronavirus crept into the country. Before the nearly 300,000 deaths, the financial devastation, the unending isolation, there was this: A tickle in a throat in Chicago. A woman's collapse in her kitchen. A playwright with one lung fleeing New York. Though the coronavirus didn't start in the U.S., government missteps and cultural realities helped make it our own, a USA TODAY report found. In early 2020, many countries took decisive steps to curtail crowds and otherwise prevent infection. But America's lack of action to curtail the virus was devastating, and failed efforts to reopen made things worse. As cases continue to mount across the U.S., USA TODAY talked to real Americans in the path of the virus to examine how America got sick and why the virus continues to spread.

Other important COVID-19 updates:

•	Will the Pfizer vaccine against COVID-19 vaccine be authorized? A key committee could pave the way for this decision by the time you read this.
•	A bipartisan group of governors has vowed to put politics aside to issue a comprehensive plan to defeat COVID-19 across state lines.
•	A scientist said she was ordered to destroy an email regarding attempts by political appointees to interfere with the publication of weekly CDC reports.

Susan Rice is joining Biden's squad

President-elect Joe Biden chose Susan Rice to be director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, a surprise choice that will give the foreign policy veteran a hefty domestic portfolio. Rice is a seasoned diplomat with extensive national security experience, but she has not been heavily involved in domestic policymaking. The 56-year-old Rice was seen as a top contender to be Biden's secretary of state, though she would have faced a difficult confirmation battle. As head of Biden's Domestic Policy Council, she will have broad influence over everything from health policy to immigration to rural affairs.

Speaking of influence, it's Biden's first ethics test: The investigation into Hunter Biden's taxes represents a test of Biden's pledge to guard the Justice Department from White House influence.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden (L) and National Security Advisor Susan Rice talk as U.S. President Barack Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi brief the press after a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office of the White House April 14, 2015 in Washington, DC.

Pool, Getty Images

What everyone's talking about

•	In deep 💩: Is the secret to warding off a "murder hornet" attack covering yourself in animal poop? It just may be, a new study suggests.
•	Surprise, Swifties: Taylor Swift announced another surprise album: "Evermore," a sister record to hit "Folklore."
•	A Grammys exec apologized to Tiffany Haddish after the star revealed they refused to pay for her time, hair, makeup or wardrobe when asked to host.
•	The only Anne Frank memorial in the United States was vandalized, a distressing display of hate.
•	In what officials called "a Christmas miracle," first responders spent six hours chiseling free a 4-year-old Texas boy who fell into a water well.

Ellen DeGeneres tests positive for COVID-19

Ellen DeGeneres has tested positive for COVID-19 but is "feeling fine right now," the television host announced Thursday. The diagnosis has put a pause on the production on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" until January, a spokesperson confirmed. DeGeneres, 62, said in a tweet, "I'll see you all again after the holidays." In October, "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" became one of the first television productions to return to inviting a limited number of in-studio audience members since the coronavirus forced widespread shutdowns in the entertainment industry.

•	DeGeneres has made headlines recently for claims of a toxic workplace environment on her show.

Ellen DeGeneres accepts the award for daytime talk show of 2020.

E! Entertainment, NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

Uh oh: The US population is tanking 📉

In another economic blow, the COVID-19 pandemic is taking a toll on the nation's population growth. The number of U.S. residents is likely to increase by just 700,000, or 0.2%, this year, the slowest pace since 1918, when the Spanish Flu and World War I combined to shrink America's population, according to estimates. A solidly growing population is a major economic engine, creating more consumers – whose spending makes up 70% of the economy – and a larger labor force to churn out more goods and services. The pandemic is curtailing population growth most obviously by killing Americans who otherwise would both consume and produce goods and services. But the crisis is also amplifying three other forces already impeding healthy population advances – a lower birth rate, rising mortality and reduced immigration.

Real quick

•	Five bicyclists were killed and four others were injured in a Nevada highway crash involving a truck, according to authorities.
•	The longest-serving marijuana crimes inmate in the U.S. was released from Florida prison amid a 90-year sentence.
•	The Supreme Court says three Muslim men wrongly placed on the no-fly list can sue for money damages.
•	Whale-y big news: A new whale species may have been discovered off a remote island in Mexico.
•	Half of Americans with incomes over $100,000 fear they'll never retire. Here are some changes you can make, if you have the same concern.

Happy Hanukkah, friends of The Short List

Today marks the start of the eight-night Festival of Lights, Hanukkah. During Hanukkah, the Jewish people light candles on a menorah to celebrate the miracle of a one-day oil supply lasting eight after the Maccabean Revolt in the second century B.C. But wait, is it Hanukkah or Chanukah? Both are correct. In fact, there are more than a dozen variations of how to spell the holiday's name in English. Here's everything you need to know about the holiday. And no, it's not the "Jewish Christmas."

•

This is America: My amazing editor of The Short List, Lindsay Deutsch, wrote a powerful piece on why anti-Semitism isn't a punchline and how hate speech begets action. One alarming stat: Almost two-thirds of millennials and Gen Zers don't know that 6 million Jewish people were killed in the Holocaust.

Jennifer Rivlin Roberts helps her daughter Isabel, 2, place the center candle into their family menorah, Friday, Nov. 9, 2007 in Atlanta.

Gregory Smith, AP

A break from the news

Ever wanted to see the Northern Lights? The answer is always yes. You might be able to catch a glimpse of the aurora borealis tonight if you live in the northern U.S. According to SpaceWeather.com, auroras could be sighted in U.S. states from Maine to Montana to Washington this week (if clouds work in our favor). The colorful event is courtesy of a solar flare, which erupted out of a sunspot Monday. A coronal mass ejection – a burst of plasma from the sun – also arrived on Earth early Thursday.

The northern lights in Alaska.

Elizabeth M. Ruggiero, Getty Images/iStockphoto

This is a compilation of stories from across the USA TODAY Network. Want this news roundup in your inbox every night? Sign up for The Short List newsletter here.