Respiratory therapists and nurses work in the Covid-19 alternative care site, built into a parking garage, at Renown Regional Medical Center in Reno, Nevada, on Wednesday. Photograph: Patrick T Fallon/AFP/Getty Images
Respiratory therapists and nurses work in the Covid-19 alternative care site, built into a parking garage, at Renown Regional Medical Center in Reno, Nevada, on Wednesday. Photograph: Patrick T Fallon/AFP/Getty Images
Cedric Richmond, who is slated to be the director of the White House office of public engagement, tested positive for Covid-19. He was not in close contact with the president-elect, according to the Biden transition team.
An FDA advisory panel voted to recommend authorizing the Moderna coronavirus vaccine. The recommendation clears the way for the FDA to approve the vaccine for emergency use, a decision that could as soon as later this week.
The US has now confirmed more than 17 million cases of coronavirus. The virus continues to spread at an alarming rate, as the country sets new records for coronavirus cases and deaths. According to Johns Hopkins University, the US confirmed 247,403 cases of coronavirus yesterday, and another 3,656 Americans died of the virus yesterday as well.
Joe Biden had chosen Deb Haaland to run the interior department. If confirmed, the progressive congresswoman would be the first Native American to serve as interior secretary.
Another 885,000 Americans filed new claims for unemployment benefits last week, representing an increase from a week earlier. Economists warn that unemployment is moving in a startling direction as Americans prepare for the holidays amid more coronavirus-related layoffs.
Congress is expected to pass another stopgap funding bill to continue negotiations over coronavirus relief. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said it was “highly likely” lawmakers would work through the weekend to reach a deal on a relief package and a government spending bill. The government is currently set to shut down tomorrow night.
“From the wildfires across California and the west to the storms battering our coasts, our climate crisis is a grave and growing threat to the American people and the planet we all share,” said Kamala Harris, discussing the administration’s picks to lead climate policy, including Deb Haaland. “On the campaign, President-elect Biden and I proposed one of the most ambitious climate plans in history. The team we are announcing today will help make that plan a reality. They are seasoned public servants and climate experts who reflect the very best of our country. They have the knowledge and experience to confront this global challenge head-on with our allies and partners around the world. And they are the team the American people need and deserve to help protect our communities – and our planet – for generations,” Harris said in a statement.
Deb Haaland: ‘I am honored and ready to serve’ as Interior Secretary
Haaland would be the first Native American cabinet secretary. “A voice like mine has never been a Cabinet secretary or at the head of the Department of Interior,” she tweeted – her fist remarks since she was picked for the job.
A voice like mine has never been a Cabinet secretary or at the head of the Department of Interior.
Growing up in my mother’s Pueblo household made me fierce. I’ll be fierce for all of us, our planet, and all of our protected land.
SolarWinds: company at the core of the Orion hack falls under scrutiny
Kari Paul reports:
The revelation that elite cyber spies in past months conducted the largest hack against US officials in years has put the spotlight on SolarWinds, the Texas-based company whose software was compromised while servicing some of the biggest agencies and companies in the United States.
SolarWinds provides computer networking monitoring services to corporations and government agencies around the world, and has become a dominant player since it was founded in 1999.
“They’re not a household name the same way that Microsoft is. That’s because their software sits in the back office,” said Rob Oliver, a research analyst at Baird who has followed the company for years. “Workers could have spent their whole career without hearing about SolarWinds. But I guarantee your IT department will know about it.”
The firm was founded by two brothers in Tulsa, Oklahoma, ahead of the feared turn-of-the-millennium Y2K computer bug. On an October earning call, the company’s chief executive Kevin Thompson touted how far it had come since.
There was not a database or an IT deployment model out there to which the company did not provide some level of monitoring or management, he told analysts. “We don’t think anyone else in the market is really even close in terms of the breadth of coverage we have,” he said. “We manage everyone’s network gear.“
That dominance, however, has become a liability. On Sunday, SolarWinds alerted thousands of its customers that an “outside nation state” had found a back door into its most popular product, a tool called Orion that helps organizations monitor outages on their computer networks and servers.
The company revealed that hackers snuck a malicious code that gave them remote access to customers’ networks into an update of Orion. The hack began as early as March, SolarWinds admitted, giving the hackers plenty of time to access the customers’ internal workings.
Growing alarm as US government investigates extent of hacking campaign
Kari Paul reports:
US authorities on Thursday expressed increased alarm about a large and sophisticated hacking campaign affecting government networks.
The cybersecurity unit of the Department of Homeland Security warned that the hack “poses a grave risk to the federal government and state, local, tribal and territorial governments as well as critical infrastructure entities and other private sector organizations”.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (Cisa) also warned that it will be difficult to remove the malware inserted through network software. “Removing this threat actor from compromised environments will be highly complex and challenging for organizations,” the agency said in the statement.
Thursday’s comments were the most detailed yet from the agency since reports of the hack emerged over the weekend. The US government on Wednesday confirmed that an operation by elite hackers, suspected to be Russian, affected its networks and said the attack was “significant and ongoing”.
“This is a developing situation, and while we continue to work to understand the full extent of this campaign, we know this compromise has affected networks within the federal government,” said a joint statement issued by the FBI, Cisa, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (Odna).
Cedric Richmond, Biden's incoming White House senior advisor, tests positive for Covid-19
Cedric Richmond, who is slated to be the director of the White House office of public engagement, tested positive, according to Biden transition spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield
Richmond was not in close contact with Joe Biden, nor was he in close contact with Georgia senate candidates Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, for whom he campaigned at an event this week. Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Stacey Abrams and Nikema Williams, who also attended campaign event, were also not considered to be in close contact.
“After his rapid test came back positive, we initiated contact tracing protocols immediately, and have determined that he was in CDC-defined close contact with two individuals, neither of whom are Biden, Warnock or Ossoff staff,” Bedingfield said in a statement. “Those individuals, two people who drove his car during the campaign trip, have been notified and are self-quarantining consistent with CDC guidelines.
The Vermont senator, who has long been advocating to include direct payments as part ofo the relief bill, said the deal that lawmakers are now closing in on is a “step forward”.
"The American people want help, they need help. This will be a step forward in providing a modicum of relief to people who are struggling right now." Sen. Sanders says as lawmakers near an agreement on a Covid-19 relief bill that could provide a new round of stimulus checks. pic.twitter.com/02c6k1YKO0
A federal judge today rejected a request from the Republican party to change the rules for absentee voting in Georgia even as some have begun casting votes ahead of the 5 January election.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports:
The lawsuit by the Twelfth Congressional District Republican Committee sought to eliminate the use of absentee ballot drop boxes in Georgia and prohibit local election officials from opening ballot envelopes before Election Day. It also sought to invalidate guidance from the Secretary of State’s Office on how local officials should verify signatures on absentee ballots.
J. Randal Hall, chief judge of the U.S. District Court in Augusta, rejected the requests. He found Republican claims that the rules have abetted voter fraud to be “highly speculative” and said they did not warrant changing the rules in the middle of the election.
“We are not even on the eve of an election,” Hall said in dismissing the case. ‘We are, as it relates to this particular election, closing in on halftime.”
The lawsuit is part of an extraordinary effort by Republicans to ask courts to change the rules for absentee ballots amid the runoff election that will determine which party controls the U.S. Senate. Through Wednesday, more than 423,000 Georgians had already cast absentee ballots for the runoff. Early in-person voting began Monday.
Two people are dying of Covid-19 every hour in Los Angeles county, as California set daily records for newly reported cases and deaths and hospitals struggle to keep up with the surge of coronavirus patients.
Most California residents are under a stay-at-home order as California battles a deadly surge in Covid-19 cases and intensive care unit capacity across the state dwindles. Across the state, a record 53,711 new cases and 293 deaths were recorded on Wednesday. Los Angeles county, with 10 million residents, the state’s most populous, reported more than 22,000 new cases.
Two people are dying every hour in the county, said Barbara Ferrer, the public health director for the county. “We’re experiencing an explosive and very deadly surge,” she said.
The rise in cases is presenting unprecedented challenges for the state’s hospitals. Los Angeles county has 2,500 ICU beds but within a month could easily need far more, said Dr Christina Ghaly, the county’s health services director. “Hospitals are under siege and our models show no end in sight,” she said.
Southern California and the Central Valley have exhausted their regular supply of intensive care beds, with many medical centers there tapping into their “surge” capacity. Available ICU beds in the San Francisco Bay Area dropped below 15%. Health officials in Southern California’s Orange county issued an order preventing hospitals from diverting ambulances to other medical centers.
That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
An FDA advisory panel voted to recommend authorizing the Moderna coronavirus vaccine. The recommendation clears the way for the FDA to approve the vaccine for emergency use, a decision that could as soon as later this week.
The US has now confirmed more than 17 million cases of coronavirus. The virus continues to spread at an alarming rate, as the country sets new records for coronavirus cases and deaths. According to Johns Hopkins University, the US confirmed 247,403 cases of coronavirus yesterday, and another 3,656 Americans died of the virus yesterday as well.
Joe Biden plans to nominate Deb Haaland to run the interior department, according to multiple reports. If confirmed, the progressive congresswoman would be the first Native American to serve as interior secretary.
Another 885,000 Americans filed new claims for unemployment benefits last week, representing an increase from a week earlier. Economists warn that unemployment is moving in a startling direction as Americans prepare for the holidays amid more coronavirus-related layoffs.
Congress is expected to pass another stopgap funding bill to continue negotiations over coronavirus relief. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said it was “highly likely” lawmakers would work through the weekend to reach a deal on a relief package and a government spending bill. The government is currently set to shut down tomorrow night.
FDA advisory panel recommends authorizing Moderna vaccine
Jessica Glenza
An advisory committee for the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recommended the agency authorize a second Covid-19 vaccine, this one developed by Moderna and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
The recommendation paves the way for the FDA to give emergency approval for a second highly effective vaccine to be used in the US. That approval could come by the end of the week. An FDA analysis found Moderna’s vaccine is more than 94% effective at preventing Covid-19 in a trial of more than 30,000 participants.
The likely authorization of the second vaccine comes after more than 300,000 Americans have succumbed to Covid-19, in a winter-time “third wave” of the disease that is filling hospitals with patients and exhausting healthcare workers.
The recommendation comes from the FDA’s Center for Biologics and Evaluation and Research vaccine advisory committee, an independent panel of experts who last week recommended the agency authorize a vaccine developed by Pfizer/BioNTech.
“The question is never when do you know everything, it’s when do you know enough,” said Dr Paul Offit, a vaccine and infectious disease expert at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The answer to whether the advisory committee should recommend emergency authorization of the vaccine is, “Clearly, yes.”
