Forbes - Vaccine Winners And Losers

Plus: NYC shuts down indoor dining (again) as cases surge

After a vaccine advisory panel yesterday recommended that the FDA grant Emergency Use Authorization to the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, America is waiting with bated breath to see if, and when, the vaccine will be authorized. It is projected that the FDA will issue the authorization later tonight or on Saturday, in which case Covid-19 vaccinations for frontline healthcare workers could start as early as Monday or Tuesday. And Pfizer isn’t the only big pharma company seeing vaccine success. In an interview today, Dr. Anthony Fauci said that Johnson & Johnson may also be on track to produce an effective Covid-19 vaccine in the coming months. Not all vaccines are a success story, however. A vaccine from Sanofi and GSK has been delayed after it did not seem effective in the elderly. And Australia also dropped a once-promising Covid-19 vaccine candidate after volunteers for the trial falsely tested positive for HIV (to be clear, none of them actually had the disease). 

Business

The Senate passed a $741 billion defense bill, narrowly averting a government shutdown and buying slightly more time for a potential stimulus package. 

A new poll finds that the concert industry will lose more than $30 billion due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

The pandemic has contributed to an eviction crisis in America, and more than 14 million U.S. households are currently at risk of losing their homes.

Science & Health

AstraZeneca and Oxford have announced that they will be collaborating with Russia’s Sputnik V on a combination Covid-19 vaccine. 

Even when a vaccine for Covid-19 is approved, we will still need broad access to rapid testing to end the pandemic. Here’s why.

On The Upside

Take A Break: If you can get somewhere dark this weekend, take a look up. The next few days will be some of the best of the Geminids meteor shower, with hundreds of colorful shooting stars in the sky each hour.