Evening Briefing: Another vaccine is in the pipeline

December 15, 2020

Your Tuesday Evening Briefing

By Remy Tumin and Jeremiah M. Bogert, Jr.

Good evening. Here’s the latest.

Scott McIntyre for The New York Times

1. The approval of a second coronavirus vaccine is quite likely days away.

The Food and Drug Administration is expected to approve the coronavirus vaccine by Moderna on Friday after new data found it to be highly protective. Slight differences have emerged between the Moderna vaccine and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which was approved last week. Most notable, Moderna produced more evidence that its vaccine can prevent severe disease.

As the mass vaccination campaign entered its second day in the U.S., pictured above in Miami, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, strongly recommended that President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris receive a vaccine quickly, along with President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.

A new survey found that more than 25 percent of Americans said they probably or definitely would not take a coronavirus vaccine, with Republican, rural and Black Americans among the most hesitant.

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Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times

2. Senator Mitch McConnell congratulated President-elect Joe Biden on his victory, breaking with President Trump’s drive to overturn his election loss.

“The Electoral College has spoken,” Mr. McConnell said. “So today, I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden.”

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Mr. McConnell, the Senate majority leader, also privately pleaded with Republican senators not to object when Congress tallies the electoral results on Jan. 6.

Mr. McConnell’s moves — more than a month after Mr. Biden was declared the winner — amounted to a clear effort by the powerful Republican to halt his party’s attempts to undermine the election and to avoid a messy partisan spectacle in Congress.

Erin Schaff/The New York Times

3. A day after securing his presidency with the Electoral College vote, President-elect Joe Biden went to Georgia seeking victories that would give Democrats control of the Senate.

In Atlanta, Mr. Biden urged voters to cast ballots “as if your life depended on it” for the Democratic Senate candidates in two critical runoffs on Jan. 5. About 168,000 Georgia voters showed up at early voting sites on Monday, exceeding by tens of thousands the number of votes cast on the first day of in-person early voting for the general election.

The president-elect also picked Pete Buttigieg, the 38-year-old former mayor of South Bend, Ind., as his transportation secretary nominee; Jennifer Granholm, a former governor of Michigan, to be the next secretary of energy; and Gina McCarthy, a former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, as senior White House adviser on climate change.

But as Mr. Biden tries to define the personnel and polices of a new administration, he is struggling to manage his party’s competing interests, confronting outbreaks of factionalism and fierce impatience.

The New York Times

4. While the Moderna vaccine will ensure millions more Americans have access to a coronavirus shot, poorer nations are struggling to secure enough doses for their citizens.

The U.S., Britain, Canada and other countries ordered quantities of vaccine doses that far outnumber their populations. They’ve already laid claim to more than half of the doses coming on the market through 2021, in many cases supporting vaccine development in exchange for securing priority access.

In the developing world, some countries may be able to vaccinate at most 20 percent of their populations in 2021, with some not expected to reach full immunity until 2024.

Bryan Anselm for The New York Times

5. The East Coast is preparing for a nasty nor’easter tomorrow.

Heavy snow, freezing rains and strong winds are forecast to sweep through the Mid-Atlantic States and barrel north through New York and New England, dropping up to two feet of snow in some areas. Though the fast-moving system won’t stick around for long, forecasters warned there could be power outages, downed trees and hazardous travel. Above, stocking up in Jersey City, N.J.

The storm also has the potential to snarl distribution of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine.

Up to a foot of snow is expected in New York City from Wednesday afternoon to Thursday evening. That will pose a significant test for how the city’s now-permanent outdoor dining program, which has helped keep restaurants afloat during the pandemic, can withstand severe winter weather. The city has ordered restaurants to close by 2 p.m. Wednesday.

Mintaha Neslihan Eroglu/Anadolu Agency, via Getty Images

6. The fashion mogul Peter Nygard is being held in jail on sex-trafficking charges involving dozens of women, some of them underage, federal prosecutors said. Mr. Nygard, 79, was arrested in Canada at the request of the U.S. attorney’s office in New York City.

In February, The Times detailed how a feud between Mr. Nygard and his billionaire neighbor in the Bahamas had led to a lawsuit accusing Mr. Nygard of sexually assaulting minors there. Interviews with dozens of women and former employees described how alleged victims were lured to Mr. Nygard’s Bahamian home.

He is accused of sexually assaulting some of the victims, many of whom came from disadvantaged economic or abusive backgrounds, while others were assaulted or drugged by his associates “to ensure their compliance with Nygard’s sexual demands,” prosecutors said.

Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

7. Cutting greenhouse gas emissions to zero appears technically feasible and even affordable, but it won’t be easy.

That’s the conclusion of a major study by a team of energy experts at Princeton, who set out several exhaustively detailed scenarios for how the U.S. could eliminate emissions by 2050, a goal that has been endorsed by President-elect Joe Biden.

But work would need to start right away. Among the scenarios: building a staggering amount of new energy infrastructure, doubling the number of efficient electric heat pumps and shutting down the country’s 200 remaining coal-burning power plants by 2030.

Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

8. Giannis Antetokounmpo will remain a Milwaukee Buck, ending weeks of speculation.

Antetokounmpo, who won back-to-back Most Valuable Player Awards and was also named Defensive Player of the Year last season, redoubled his commitment to the only N.B.A. franchise he has known by indicating he would accept a five-year contract extension worth an estimated $228 million.

“This is my home, this is my city,” Antetokounmpo wrote on Twitter. “I’m blessed to be able to be a part of the Milwaukee Bucks for the next 5 years.”

The extension will be the largest contract in N.B.A. history, surpassing the five-year, $207 million contract Russell Westbrook signed with the Oklahoma City Thunder in September 2017.

via Pomegranate Arts

9. Two holiday classics — one spiked, one straight.

Taylor Mac’s “Holiday Sauce … Pandemic!” is a tinselly tumult of color with catwalk-dramatic costumes and gorgeous guest stars singing familiar carols and original songs.

“Acknowledging the pain that can lurk inside this time of year, the show wants to create some winking, slightly naughty, even splendid new memories,” our reviewer writes. As for the Irish Rep’s virtual staging of “Meet Me in St. Louis,” she says: “Give your eyes a rest. Just listen.”

Our dance critic also remembered Ann Reinking, one of Bob Fosse’s most important dancers. Discipline and abandon gave the dancer an ingrained elegance, Gia Kourlas writes. Ms. Reinking died over the weekend at 71.

Bryan van der Beek/Bloomberg, via Getty Images

10. And finally, a touch of wanderlust.

It took over a dozen visits for Sebastian Modak, our former 52 Places traveler, to fall in love with Singapore. But when he did, he fell hard, marveling at the 19th-century, pastel-painted shophouses tucked away in neat rows between gleaming apartment buildings; the street food markets; and the city’s diversity and rags-to-riches story — a fishing village transformed into a global metropolis.

With a little work in the kitchen, a handful of books and some time in front of the TV, there are ways to make you feel as if you are in the Lion City for a night. This guide is the latest installment of “how to pretend” you’re not on your couch and instead traveling to a far-flung destination. You can also “visit” Hawaii, Dakar and Tokyo.

Have an otherworldly night.

Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern.

Want to catch up on past briefings? You can browse them here.

What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes.com.

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