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| LATEST WITH THE CORONAVIRUS | |
One small step for the FDA panel, one big leap for Americans: |
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© Getty Images A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee voted yesterday in favor of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine will now head to the FDA for emergency authorization. https://wapo.st/2KgQhX3 |
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| WHAT HAPPENS NEXT — IT ~COULD~ BE AUTHORIZED TOMORROW: |
| The FDA says it “will rapidly work toward” authorization. https://wapo.st/2KgQhX3 According to The New York Times’s Eric Nagourney and Noah Weiland, “Barring last-minute snags, the F.D.A. is expected to issue an emergency authorization on Saturday.” https://nyti.ms/37PIMOO |
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| WHEN VACCINATIONS COULD BEGIN: |
| Monday or Tuesday, according to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. https://bit.ly/3mbtd9a Azar said on ABC — assuming the vaccine is authorized in time: “We will work with Pfizer to get that shipped out and so we could see people getting vaccinated Monday, Tuesday of next week.” Watch Azar’s full analysis: https://bit.ly/3m3s1Vu |
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| WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT YESTERDAY’S VOTE: |
| The question the committee voted on: "Based on the totality of scientific evidence available, do the benefits of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine outweigh its risk for use in individuals 16 years of age and older?" The vote: 17-4, plus one abstention Why several members voted against the vaccine: Because the emergency authorization would include 16- and 17-year-olds, a group with limited trial evidence. https://fxn.ws/3aeDRdh One panel member who voted ‘no’ told CNN’s Erin Burnett: “I want to make it very clear that I am fully supportive of the emergency use authorization of this vaccine for use in adults 18 years and older,” said Archana Chatterjee, Dean of the Chicago Medical School. “The issue I had was with regard to the data … in those younger patients excusing those younger participants, where I felt like the data were limited. And since they are not a high risk category, at this point in time they're not high priority for vaccination.” https://bit.ly/2LvMkyp ^ Watch her full reasoning on CNN: https://bit.ly/37XXlQe |
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| REACTION FROM PRESIDENT TRUMP: |
| President Trump pressured the FDA to approve the vaccine: The president tweeted this morning, “While my pushing the money drenched but heavily bureaucratic @US_FDA saved five years in the approval of NUMEROUS great new vaccines, it is still a big, old, slow turtle. Get the dam vaccines out NOW, Dr. Hahn @SteveFDA. Stop playing games and start saving lives!!!” https://bit.ly/3m9fb84 |
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| THE NUMBERS: |
| Coronavirus cases in the U.S.: 15,632,336 U.S. death toll: 292,382 Breakdown of the numbers: https://cnn.it/2UAgW3y Op-ed: https://bit.ly/3a2hMOI |
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| Happy Friday! I’m Cate Martel with a quick recap of the morning and what’s coming up. Send comments, story ideas and events for our radar to cmartel@thehill.com — and follow along on Twitter @CateMartel and Facebook. Did someone forward this to you? Want your own copy? Sign up here to receive The Hill's 12:30 Report in your inbox daily: http://bit.ly/2kjMNnn |
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Are you guys kidding?: |
| There is a growing threat of a short government shutdown as multiple senators delay the bills that were expected to pass yesterday. https://bit.ly/3n8zaVK What Senate leadership expected to pass yesterday: A one-week government funding bill and the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The deadline: Midnight What’s holding up the bills?: “Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is slow walking the NDAA because it reins in President Trump’s ability to pull troops from Afghanistan; Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is using the continuing resolution (CR) to try to get a vote on a stimulus checks proposal; and in an ironic twist, a group of senators wants a vote on a bill to prevent future government shutdowns.” ^The last one is a bit ironic, huh? What happens if all senators don’t cooperate: “Without cooperation from all senators, the earliest the Senate could take an initial vote on the $740 billion defense bill is Friday, and after that it could still be subjected to an additional 30 hours of debate.” |
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| MEANWHILE WITH THE COVID-19 RELIEF NEGOTIATIONS — GOLF CLAP, GOLF CLAP: |
| Under pressure for a deal, Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Angus King (I-Maine) are making a last-ditch effort for a COVID-19 relief deal. https://bit.ly/3md8mlU What’s happening: Graham and King “are holding conversations on coronavirus liability protections for businesses and other organizations in an attempt to find common ground where other senators have failed.” The problem, even if they do come to an agreement: “Even if they reach a deal, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will have to be convinced that it should go to the floor for a vote.” |
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Joe Biden is quite literally fumigating the place: |
| Via Politico’s Alice Miranda Ollstein and Daniel Lippman, To prevent any further COVID-19 outbreaks at the White House, President-elect Joe Biden will have the White House disinfected before settling in. https://politi.co/2W6hf6c What that means: “A team deployed by the General Services Administration will go over every part of the White House's East and West Wings touched by human hands in the hours after Trump departs and Biden moves in … that includes plans to ‘thoroughly clean and disinfect’ all furniture, doorknobs, handrails and light switches, before Biden and his team move in. Additionally, a private contractor will provide ‘disinfectant misting services’ to clear the air of lingering droplets.” |
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The gist of Biden’s incoming administration — if it was good enough for Obama, then it’s good enough for me!: |
| Via The Hill’s Alex Gangitano, President-elect Biden is forming a team of insiders to run his White House. https://bit.ly/3oUVtir Like: A team mostly composed of “Obama-era officials, members of Congress, and people from his inner cycle for his White House.” The message that Biden is hoping to send: That Biden “is aiming for stability and expertise as he inherits a recession and public health crisis.” A look at Biden’s picks so far: https://bit.ly/3oUVtir |
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| THE HUNTER BIDEN STORY HAS NEW LIFE: |
| Via The Hill’s Niall Stanage, “News that Hunter Biden is facing a Justice Department investigation into his finances has breathed fresh life into a story that seemed to be fading in the waning days of the presidential campaign. It also presents new political challenges for his father, President-elect Joe Biden.” https://bit.ly/3maqX2b What this means for the Bidens: “Some Republicans are already calling for the appointment of a special counsel to investigate the matter. It seems unlikely, for now, that [Joe] Biden will accede to that request anytime soon after his Jan. 20 inauguration. But the controversy does, at the least, give conservatives a cause around which to rally from Day One of the Biden presidency.” |
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Two big wins in one year: |
| President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have been named Time’s 2020 Person of the Year.” https://bit.ly/3gEXGeP From Time: “The Democratic ticket was an unlikely partnership: forged in conflict and fused over Zoom, divided by generation, race and gender. They come from different coasts, different ideologies, different Americas. But they also have much in common, says Biden: working-class backgrounds, blended families, shared values. ‘We could have been raised by the same mother,’ he says. In an age of tribalism, the union aims to demonstrate that differences don’t have to be divides.” Read the full profile: https://bit.ly/3gEXGeP Photo of the cover: https://bit.ly/3gDgsmF |
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And because millennials love participation trophies — everyone’s a winner!: |
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© Twitter |
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Getting traction — I love this professor’s initial reaction: |
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© Twitter Watch: https://bit.ly/3m778ZC |
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Oh wow, that is quite the mask: |
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© Twitter |
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| The Senate is in. The House is out. President Trump and Vice President Pence are in Washington, D.C. President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris are in Wilmington, Del. President Trump has no public events scheduled. Vice President Pence has no public events scheduled. Today: President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris separately receive the President’s Daily Brief. 9:30 a.m. EST: The Senate met and is working on the defense policy bill and a short-term funding bill to keep the government open past midnight tonight. The Senate’s agenda today: https://bit.ly/2Kh0Vga |
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| 2:30 p.m. EST: President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris introduce key members of the administration. Livestream: https://bit.ly/3gCPueV Sunday morning: Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) appears exclusively on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Sunday morning: Bill Gates appears exclusively on CNN’s “State of the Union.” |
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| NOW FOR THE FUN STUFF...: | |
| Today is National Noodle Ring Day. And for weekend planning purposes, tomorrow is National Cocoa Day and Sunday is National Popcorn String Day. |
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Midnight was a big hour for music last night: |
| Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys dropped a collaboration. Listen to the new song from the ‘90s powerhouses: https://bit.ly/2IKHP1S Taylor Swift released a new album last night. Reactions from Billboard: https://bit.ly/3gH5s7R |
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Haha!: |
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© Twitter |
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| And to make you smile, here’s a puppy who finished its work early, with time for a great nap!: https://bit.ly/2KkjsrW |
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