Dr. Céline Gounder, Adviser to Biden, on the Next Covid Attack Plan
If you have widespread community transmission, there may come a tipping point where you do need to go back to virtual schooling. But I think the priority is to try to keep schools open as much as possible, and to provide the resources for that to happen.
From an epidemiologic perspective, we know that the highest-risk settings are restaurants, bars, gyms, nail salons and also indoor gatherings — social gatherings and private settings.
I would consider school an essential service. Those other things are not essential services. The smarter we are about being very responsive to trends in transmission — to closing indoor restaurants sooner — the longer you’re likely to be able to keep schools open.
We know that the risk of transmission in schools is not zero, but they’re not amplifying transmission the way some of these other places are.
At the bottom of today’s APR, you’ll find the lengthy “election shenanigans section”, if that’s what you are looking for.
‘More people may die’: Biden urges Trump to aid transition
President-elect Joe Biden on Monday warned of dire consequences if President Donald Trump and his administration continue to refuse to coordinate with his transition team on the coronavirus pandemic and block briefings on national security, policy issues and vaccine plans.
The remarks marked Biden’s toughest comments to date on Trump’s failure to acknowledge his election loss and cooperate with the incoming administration for a peaceful transfer of power.
A Vox ‘splainer:
What Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine results mean for ending the pandemic
Moderna says its vaccine is 95 percent effective. Here’s what you need to know
However, there are some caveats: The results are preliminary, the vaccine requires two doses, there are some side effects, the clinical trial isn’t complete, and the findings were announced in a press release instead of a peer-reviewed paper. Moderna did not respond to requests for comment.
And while demonstrating high efficacy is important, the road to getting millions of people vaccinated is fraught with logistical challenges. While this is an important result, a lot of difficult work on a Covid-19 vaccine still lies ahead.
Fauci warns that White House transition delays could slow vaccine rollout
“The vaccines are effective. We want to get it approved as quickly as we possibly can,” said the nation’s top infectious disease expert.
Anthony Fauci suggested Monday that the Trump administration’s refusal to begin a transition of presidential power could not only harm the federal coronavirus response at the pandemic’s most dire moment, but might also stall the rollout of potential vaccines amid positive medical developments.
“The virus is not going to stop and call a time out while things change. The virus is just going to keep going. The process is just going to keep going,” Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, told NBC’s “Today” show in an interview.
Adopting mask mandates, some GOP governors give up the gospel of personal responsibility
A growing number of Republican governors, including some who had written off mask mandates as unenforceable or unacceptable to freedom-loving Americans, are now requiring people to cover their faces in public — a response to escalating coronavirus outbreaks overwhelming hospitals across the country.
It’s got to be bad for these guys to see the light.
The Democrats Went All Out Against Susan Collins. Rural Maine Grimaced.
The $180 million Senate contest, a political scientist said, “was like being a local in Woodstock in 1969: When it first started, it was exciting and fun, but by the end, it was muddy and dirty.”
Also, brand matters. Collins has hers, Democrats were saddled with ‘socialism’.
Liz Plank/MSNBC:
White women didn't desert Trump in the election. Polls show some white men did.
Election polls show white men turned their backs on Trump for the reason that may bother him most.While there has been a lot of chatter about white women, infamously labeled “wine moms,” deserting Trump, embarking on an apology tour and promising to kick him out of office, that trend doesn’t seem to have materialized in the exit polls so far. Based on the exit poll data we have, which, it must be noted, is preliminary and can be flawed, more white women seemed to have voted for Trump than they did in 2016. White women, and especially those without college degrees, have shown time and time again that they are one of the most loyal voting blocs for Republicans (even when they say they find their candidate disgusting and sexist).Again, exit polls can be flawed; according to data journalist Mona Chalabi, they can be more or less trusted if interpreted with at least a 5 percent margin of error.
But what’s surprising here is not white women’s unflagging devotion to Trump, but white men’s apparent desertion of him. One of the most surprising trends in the exit polls was that Trump seems to have gained traction with every single demographic of voters, with the exception of white men.
Rachel Gutman/The Atlantic:
The Pandemic Safety Rule That Really Matters
Don’t spend time indoors with people outside your household.
There’s never a good time to get sick with COVID-19, but in the next few weeks it will be especially dangerous. America’s coronavirus epidemic is really, really bad right now.
One-hundred-seventy-thousand-new-cases-a-day bad. Hospital-systems-on-the-brink-of-collapse bad.
I asked Atlantic writers who have spent months reporting on the pandemic for their simplest advice on making it to the new year. Some Americans live with roommates, some can’t work without child care, and some have to work in crowded conditions—everyone’s situation is different—but these basic tips can, we hope, be helpful in a variety of situations. My colleagues’ guidance boils down to this winter’s golden rule for interacting with anyone outside your immediate household: Don’t spend time indoors with other people.
Post election shenanigans Section
Did you hear about Wayne County, MI not certifying the Detroit election results? Ds and Rs split 2-2 with the Rs at first refusing to certify. But they came around and, in the end, did certify.
One of the two Repubicans:
And:
Don’t rest easy until this election is final. It is unsettling, disappointing, but ultimately clarifying to see how far the GOP will go in their quest to retain power.That they will fail is hardly reassuring.
Crisis averted. But barely. Basically, the GOP members couldn’t face their neighbors, who were the vote counters.
WaPo:
Board in key Michigan county fails, then agrees, to certify vote totals by deadline
Among those who spoke during the public comment period was Jennifer Redmond, the deputy chair of elections from Wayne County. She choked up as she addressed the board about their decision not to certify the election results. Redmond recounted how she and her staff have worked 16 hours a day to certify the results for the counties, involving more than 1,100 precincts where 878,000 ballots were cast, to meet a nearly impossible two-week deadline...
“I believe as things went on that the Republicans were looking for a way out,” said an experienced Michigan election lawyer who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private discussions. Then a Democratic member of the board proposed a compromise — that the 2020 vote be certified and that an audit of the Detroit vote follow.
As Trump’s election lawsuits fizzle, Giuliani goes to court. It doesn’t get better
On Tuesday, Giuliani tried a new venue — federal court in Pennsylvania. Although the former New York City mayor has served as the president’s personal lawyer for years, it was his first appearance on Trump’s behalf before a judge. It didn’t go well.
In an episode emblematic of Trump’s faltering legal effort to overturn the election result, Giuliani argued without evidence that there was a massive conspiracy behind Joe Biden’s victory even though there were no such allegations in the Trump campaign’s actual lawsuit.
Source: Daily Kos
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