US: Over 15.3M Cases - 291K Dead - 8.9M Recovered
Worldwide: Over 68.1M Cases - 1.5M Dead - 47.2M Recovered

Private Industry Security Guard Deaths: 225   Law Enforcement Officer Deaths: 162
*Red indicates change in total deaths

U.S. Covid Deaths Match April Peak With Hospitals Still Filling
The U.S. is now averaging about as many deaths per day from Covid-19 as it was in April when the pandemic ambushed the New York area. The seven-day average of reported fatalities rose to 2,201 on Sunday, just one shy of the peak on April 18, according to Johns Hopkins University data. Average daily deaths had been predicted in the range of 1,643 to 1,886 through Dec. 26, according to a four-week forecast from the University of Massachusetts Amherst's Reich Lab.

Several large states, including California, New York and Pennsylvania, are facing alarming upward momentum in Covid-19 hospitalizations. It's likely that reported fatalities will increase further due to the lags between infections, deaths and when the deaths are disclosed.

Indeed, many deaths reported in the past week are still coming out of the Midwest, suggesting the worst numbers are yet to come for the Northeast and West, which are in the throes of viral surges. bloomberg.com

Happy 'V-Day'
'Route out' of pandemic: UK gives 1st COVID-19 vaccine doses
A retired British shop clerk received the first shot in the country's COVID-19 vaccination program Tuesday, the start of an unprecedented global immunization effort intended to offer a route out of a pandemic that has killed 1.5 million.

Margaret Keenan, who turns 91 next week, got the shot at 6:31 a.m. on what public health officials have dubbed "V-Day." She was first in line at University Hospital Coventry, one of several hospitals around the country that are handling the initial phase of the United Kingdom's program. As luck would have it, the second injection went to a man named William Shakespeare, an 81-year-old who hails from Warwickshire, the county where the bard was born. apnews.com

FDA says Pfizer COVID vaccine is highly effective, even after first dose
The coronavirus vaccine manufactured by Pfizer and BioNTech is highly effective and poses no significant safety risks, according to documents published by a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel Tuesday. The positive results could mean that FDA clearance for the two-dose vaccine could come shortly after the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee meets on Thursday to publicly review the evidence.

Agency staff conducted their own analysis of the research presented by the companies and found the vaccine was 95 percent effective at preventing COVID-19 infection a week after the second dose was administered. However, the results also show some protection begins even after the first dose. COVID cases tapered off in the vaccinated group shortly after the first dose was administered; 50 cases of COVID-19, compared with 275 cases in the placebo group, according to the report. thehill.com

Goldman Sachs expects COVID-19 vaccine to lift the economy in 2021
Jan Hatzius, chief economist at Goldman Sachs, thinks the wide distribution of COVID-19 vaccines will help lift the U.S. economy in 2021. Mr. Hatzius, who has forecast growth in the nation's economy by three percent in the first quarter, raised his entire year projection from five to 5.3 percent.

"We estimate the vaccine boost based on the assumption of a sharp bounce-back in the most virus-sensitive industries, with reopening of businesses, reduced risks, pent-up demand for services, and a significant amount of accumulated excess savings all providing a tailwind," he said. finance.yahoo.com

Whistleblower Raid in Florida
'They pointed guns at my kids': Florida police raid home of fired data scientist who built state's COVID-19 dashboard
Florida police brandishing firearms raided the home of Rebekah Jones, the former state Department of Health employee who built the state's much-praised COVID-19 dashboard before being fired over what she said was refusing to manipulate data.

"They pointed a gun in my face. They pointed guns at my kids," Jones tweeted shortly before 5 pm Monday.

Jones - who launched her own COVID-19 dashboard after she was fired, and used crowdsourcing to raise money to support it - said agents knocked on her door around 8:30 a.m., took all her "hardware and tech" after showing her a warrant based on a complaint filed by the Florida Department of Health.

A video accompanying the post shows Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents in vests entering the house with guns drawn, asking who else was in the house. She said her husband and two children were inside as they escorted her out of the house. The video shows an agent entering the house with his gun drawn, calling for her husband to come down the stairs. When an agent told her to calm down, Jones said, "He just pointed a gun at my children!"

FDLE spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger sent a statement confirming the seizure of computer equipment at Jones' Tallahassee home and said agents are investigating. "FDLE began an investigation November 10, 2020 after receiving a complaint from the Department of Health regarding unauthorized access to a Department of Health messaging system which is part of an emergency alert system, to be used for emergencies only." usatoday.com

18 states now have contact tracing
Apple and Google's COVID contact tracing tech is finally coming to California
After a month of testing on university campuses, California's governor just announced that the state is launching its COVID contact tracing app to the public this Thursday, December 10th. The app is called CA Notify, and its launch makes California the 18th state (plus Washington, DC) to release a contact tracing app. It's also the largest to have done so since the technology was announced in April. The first app of its kind was released in Virginia back in August, so it's been quite a long time coming, especially considering California is home to Apple and Google, the two companies that developed the contact tracing technology the app uses. theverge.com

Apple's Covid Response Was Extremely Apple
Deirdre O'Brien, Apple's Senior VP of Retail & People, knew how bad the novel coronavirus was before the rest of us. As Apple's head of retail, she was privy in January to the news of a virus in China - and how serious it was. "It was truly amazing to see Apple go into just a crisis management mode," she says, describing how Apple pulled together its teams in security, health, and safety, as well as outside experts in subjects such as epidemiology. "We quickly determined that we did not have enough good knowledge to continue to feel comfortable operating our stores. And so we decided to shut our stores down. And we also closed down our offices." The company announced its China shutdown February 1; CEO Tim Cook made the final call. Though Apple wasn't exactly an outlier - factories and businesses in China were widely shutting down by then - the experience would inform Apple's retail strategy throughout the crisis. "Those learnings in China, we applied around the world," O'Brien says, "and you saw that we were one of the first retailers to close our doors across the United States and Europe and other parts of Asia when it was the right time to do so."

Apple's 2020 is best viewed on a dual display. On one imaginary monitor, you'd see a montage of engineers, fabs, and factories churning out a new generation of iPhones, upgrading its iPads, and most emphatically, launching a supercharged, battery-sipping class of Macintosh computers. But on another monitor, you'd see closed stores, empty offices, and intense meetings of WFH execs deciding how to change the way the company sells and supports its products while the world was getting sick. wired.com

CVS asks healthcare pros for help stopping COVID-19
CVS Health is looking to hire thousands of qualified pharmacists, nurses and technicians to help administer vaccines at its pharmacies across the U.S. The drugstore chain is appealing to prospective employees for help in ending the pandemic that has disrupted so much of American life. retailwire.com

Predictions on the return of travel
Leisure travel has been slammed over the last nine months as border closings multiplied, cruises and tours were canceled and wary travelers rescheduled and demanded refunds. Yet, with news of a vaccine on the horizon, there is cautious optimism that travel will return, in some form, this spring and, maybe, return to something closer to normal in the coming year or years.

Here are predictions from those in the tourism industry and others about travel's prospects in the medium term: linkedin.com

American Airlines Offers Preflight COVID-19 Testing for All US Destinations with Travel Requirements

In a 4-Month Sample, D.C. Traces 14 Percent of COVID-19 'Outbreaks' to Restaurants

Emergency room physician on battling COVID-19: We need to stop indoor dining