US: Over 15.8M Cases - 297K Dead - 9.2M Recovered
Worldwide: Over 69.5M Cases - 1.5M Dead - 48.2M Recovered

Private Industry Security Guard Deaths: 225  
Law Enforcement Officer Deaths: 163
*Red indicates change in total deaths

How a third wave of COVID-19 engulfed the US

America faces outbreaks of coronavirus in most communities as waves of disease strike places blasted by earlier surges and those previously spared. The spring surge was centered on New Orleans and urban areas in the Northeast. The summer surge primarily rocked Sun Belt states such as Texas, Arizona and Florida. Now, nearly every corner of America is getting hit with extraordinary case counts. usatoday.com

On this big day for vaccine development in the U.S.,
daily deaths from Covid-19 just exceeded the deaths from 9/11
The United States should be celebrating a day of great hope today, as a Covid-19 vaccine could get authorized for emergency use very soon.

Instead, it's a day of devastating loss. The daily death toll from Covid-19 reached a record high of 3,124 Wednesday, according to Johns Hopkins University. That's more deaths than those suffered in the 9/11 attacks. And experts say the death toll will get worse.

A new composite forecast from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention projects a total of 332,000 to 362,000 Covid-19 deaths by January 2. That forecast combines modeling from 40 independent research groups.

Covid-19 hospitalizations also reached a new record high of 106,688 on Wednesday, according to the COVID Tracking Project. And more than 221,000 new infections were reported in just one day -- inevitably leading to even more hospitalizations and deaths. cnn.com

Stealing to Survive:
More Americans are shoplifting food as aid runs out during the pandemic

Retailers, police departments and loss prevention researchers are reporting an uptick in theft of necessities like food and hygiene products

Early in the pandemic, Joo Park noticed a worrisome shift at the market he manages near downtown Washington: At least once a day, he’d spot someone slipping a package of meat, a bag of rice or other food into a shirt or under a jacket. Diapers, shampoo and laundry detergent began disappearing in bigger numbers, too.

Since then, he said, thefts have more than doubled at Capitol Supermarket — even though he now stations more employees at the entrance, asks shoppers to leave backpacks up front and displays high-theft items like hand sanitizer and baking yeast in more conspicuous areas. Park doesn’t usually call the police, choosing instead to bar offenders from coming back.

“It’s become much harder during the pandemic,” he said. “People will say, ‘I was just hungry.’ And then what do you do?”

The coronavirus recession has been a relentless churn of high unemployment and economic uncertainty. The government stimulus that kept millions of Americans from falling into poverty earlier in the pandemic is long gone, and new aid is still a dot on the horizon after months of congressional inaction. Hunger is chronic, at levels not seen in decades. The result is a growing subset of Americans who are stealing food to survive.

Shoplifting is up markedly since the pandemic began in the spring and at higher levels than in past economic downturns, according to interviews with more than a dozen retailers, security experts and police departments across the country. But what’s distinctive about this trend, experts say, is what’s being taken — more staples like bread, pasta and baby formula.

Though shoplifting tends to spike during national crises — it jumped 16 percent after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and 34 percent after the 2008 recession, according to the National Association for Shoplifting Prevention, which tracks data from U.S. courts — the current trend line is skewing even higher, according to Read Hayes, a criminologist at the University of Florida and the director of the Loss Prevention Research Council.

Hayes has been tracking theft since the coronavirus began sweeping across the United States in March, and has phone calls with the leaders of 60 major retail chains every other week to help them prevent losses. Most reports of retail theft have been anecdotal, he said, and even 10 months into the pandemic, it’s too early to know the full scope. washingtonpost.com

Outdoor dining isn’t quite “outdoors” anymore

Restaurants are getting creative with their winter setups. But some changes might make dining out riskier.

To the surprise of many restaurant patrons and public health experts, outdoor dining has begun to migrate indoors. Or, as one Twitter user put it, it’s become “indoor dining on the sidewalk.”

Pandemic restrictions on restaurants vary by jurisdiction or state, with some enacting bans or requiring reduced capacity on indoor dining. Many restaurants, therefore, heavily invested in outdoor dining setups when stay-at-home orders were lifted or lightened. That drew in customers — at least until temperatures began to drop.

In parts of the country with colder winters, restaurants have drummed up temporary solutions to persuade guests to dine out for as long as possible, before snow-induced winter hibernation sets in. Many establishments have been tasked with figuring out how to make outdoor dining appear invitingly cozy, with little to no federal or state regulations on how streetery setups should look.

Outdoor restaurants have exchanged their bright Campari umbrellas for space heaters and heat lamps, canopy tents with vinyl flaps, and plastic bubble igloos decked out with string lights. Some have even hired workers to construct semi-enclosed wooden huts, which serve as restaurant-adjacent sunrooms with more dining space. Most of these creative architectural creations are intended to keep customers warm in the winter. It might not, though, keep them safe — or as safe as outdoor dining could be with uninterrupted airflow and plenty of space between patrons. vox.com

Few NYC shops have applied for 'Open Storefronts' program
It is not an uncommon sight to find a table stacked with discount books for sale outside of a bookstore in Manhattan. As the U.S. continues into the next phase of the novel coronavirus pandemic, New York City has been hoping to motivate other types of retailers to take on that method of outdoor selling in order to give customers a safer way to shop and stores a way to keep their doors open. The Open Storefronts program outlines criteria for NYC businesses to set up shop and conduct business on the sidewalk. The program has been available since early October and ends on December 31. However, only 563 of the 40,000 eligible NYC businesses have applied to take part. retailwire.com

CVS ready to send 10K staffers to immunize seniors in nursing homes
CVS Chief Executive Larry Merlo said the company is ready to administer “vaccines into the arms of some of our most vulnerable populations” within 24 to 48 hours upon receiving its share of Covid-19 vaccines. He said the company has 10,000 health care professionals ready to administer the shots in nursing homes and assisted living centers. The government struck a deal in October with CVS and Walgreens to administer the coronavirus vaccinations at long-term care facilities across the country. cnbc.com

Canada Approves Pfizer Vaccine and Could Start Shots Next Week

Uber wants drivers and delivery workers to get priority access to COVID-19 vaccine

COVID-19 patient infected indoors after 5 minutes, 20 feet away: study

COVID Tracker Rebekah Jones Raises $200K+ on GoFundMe After Armed Raid on Her Florida Home
 

Tech Giants in the Crosshairs - Could Amazon Be Next?
Facebook should be broken up, FTC and states allege in twin lawsuits

The social network is under pressure to spin off Instagram and WhatsApp

Facebook's purchases of photo service Instagram and messaging app WhatsApp have helped fuel the social media giant's massive growth. They've also prompted concerns from federal and state authorities about Facebook's dominance in social networking.

The uneasiness with Facebook's power bubbled over on Wednesday as the Federal Trade Commission and 48 attorneys general filed separate lawsuits in federal court accusing Facebook of illegally stifling its competition by snapping up its rivals.

The lawsuits are the latest sign that lawmakers and regulators are ratcheting up their scrutiny of the power that tech giants wield. In October, the Justice Department filed a landmark lawsuit against Google for allegedly holding monopolies in both search and search advertising. cnet.com

Pandemic Closures Devastate Restaurant Industry’s Middle Class
In sheer economic terms, few workers have stood more directly in the path of the pandemic than the roughly 10 million people employed by restaurants at the start of the year. The industry shed close to half those jobs in March and April, and was still down almost 1.5 million as of October.

The winter will likely bring another round of pain: In recent weeks, reservations have dropped substantially in cold-weather states like Illinois, New York and Pennsylvania, according to data from OpenTable.

In good times, new restaurants open weekly, and workers with sought-after skills or high-end experience often enjoy plenty of job options. But a wave of closures has hit pricier restaurants harder than fast food and other down-market establishments, which have an easier time shifting to takeout, and those workers have become increasingly desperate. nytimes.com

U.S. Jobless Claims Jump to Three-Month High Amid New Shutdowns
Applications for U.S. unemployment benefits surged last week, topping estimates with the highest level since September, suggesting that widening business shutdowns to curb the pandemic are spurring fresh job losses. Initial jobless claims in regular state programs rose by 137,000 to 853,000 in the week ended Dec. 5, Labor Department data showed Thursday. On an unadjusted basis, the figure increased by almost 229,000. The prior week included Thanksgiving, and data tend to be volatile around holidays. bloomberg.com

Ho, ho - oh, no!
Values of troubled Manhattan retail properties sink 53%
New York City, like much of the globe, has been doing a lot more huddling than hustling lately. Tourism is expected to drop 66% for the full year, as the pandemic sets alarming new records. And lawmakers in Washington have yet to produce another pandemic aid package for struggling workers, businesses and cities, despite months of rancor. All that is pretty cheerless for Manhattan retail properties, which after nine months of COVID-19 restrictions that pummeled business also could now face losing further ground this crucial holiday shopping season to e-commerce. marketwatch.com

Starbucks plans to open about 22,000 stores in the next ten years

Designer Brands mulls the closure of as many as 80 stores

Eerie photos of abandoned malls and retail stores around the world

Publishing Note: LP Newswire will not be published this week and will resume publication next Thursday