| Biden begins building his transition team; Pfizer makes progress on a Covid-19 vaccine. Tonight's Sentences was written by Benjamin Rosenberg. | | | | | | | President-elect Biden's transition team is hard at work | | | | | Drew Angerer/Getty Images | | - President-elect Joe Biden has already made it clear that unlike Donald Trump, he will make responding effectively to the Covid-19 crisis a top priority. He announced a 13-member coronavirus task force on Monday, to be led by three medical doctors: David Kessler, a former chair of the Food and Drug Administration; Vivek Murthy, US Surgeon General under President Barack Obama; and Marcella Nuñez-Smith, associate dean for equity health research at the Yale School of Medicine. [Vox / Brian Resnick]
- Biden is expected to institute a nationwide mask mandate upon taking office, as well as increased Covid-19 testing. He looks to restore the country's relationship with the World Health Organization, and said he would impose a national lockdown if health experts advise it. [CNBC / Noah Higgins-Dunn and Christina Farr]
- Climate change will be another priority for the Biden administration. He plans to sign a series of executive orders reversing Trump policies on the environment, including requiring methane pollution limits for oil and gas companies and protecting the Clean Air Act. [Vox / Umair Irfan]
- Biden said he will rejoin the Paris climate agreement, which the US officially left last Wednesday. His climate plans include investing $1.7 billion into clean energy and green jobs, which would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 75 gigatons of carbon dioxide by 2050. [CNN / Helen Regan]
- Biden's climate plan is the boldest of any president in American history, but it could face stiff opposition from Senate Republicans, in the likely event that the GOP maintains its Senate majority, as well as conservative attorneys general. [Washington Post / Juliet Eilperin, Dino Grandoni, and Darryl Fears]
- Climate legislation would be more powerful than executive action, but a GOP-controlled Senate would likely make that difficult to achieve. It remains to be seen whether Biden will be able to leverage his reputation for bipartisan dealmaking to make progress. [NPR / Jennifer Ludden]
- Biden took a somewhat moderate stance on climate change during his campaign, explicitly saying he does not support a ban on fracking or the Green New Deal. Now that he has won, he will have to answer to more progressive Democrats who disagree with him on those issues. [Vox / David Roberts]
- Beyond climate change and Covid-19, Biden has a chance to rebuild America's relationships with key foreign allies. He has committed to hosting a summit of the world's democracies in his first year to "put strengthening democracy back on the global stage." [Vox / Alex Ward]
| | | Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine shows promise | | - Early analysis from the drugmaker Pfizer shows that its potential Covid-19 vaccine is more than 90 percent effective. Less than 10 percent of the first 94 cases among more than 43,000 trial participants had received the vaccine, with more than 90 percent having received a placebo. Though these results are based on a very small group, they are promising. [Vox / Umair Irfan]
- Pfizer plans to approach the Food and Drug Administration later this month about emergency authorization of the vaccine, and by the end of the year it expects to have enough doses to immunize 15 million to 20 million people, according to company executives. [NYT / Katie Thomas, David Gelles, and Carl Zimmer]
- "I think we can see light at the end of the tunnel," Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said. "I believe this is likely the most significant medical advance in the last 100 years, if you count the impact this will have in public health, on the global economy." [CNBC / Sam Meredith]
- Some top Republicans questioned Pfizer's release of the data on Monday, after President Trump lost reelection. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas asked rhetorically, "Why now?" and Donald Trump Jr. sarcastically called the timing "pretty amazing." [Bloomberg / Robert Langreth, Naomi Kresge, and Riley Griffin]
- Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, called the results of Pfizer's early trials "just extraordinary," adding that "not very many people expected it would be as high as" 90 percent effective. [AP / Lauran Neergaard and Linda A. Johnson]
| | | | | | | Despite Biden being declared the winner of the election by every major network and media outlet, Trump still plans to challenge the results, though many Republicans have urged him to concede. | | | [Politico / Josh Gerstein and Zach Montellaro] -
Trump can still do plenty of damage during his lame-duck period. The president has already signed more executive orders than George W. Bush or Obama did in their first terms, and more will likely come in the next two-plus months. [Vox / Rani Molla] -
Azerbaijani forces have seized an important city in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, central to the ongoing conflict with Armenia. The capture of Shusha (also known as Shushi) is the most important military development since the conflict re-escalated in late September. [AP / Avet Demourian] -
Alex Trebek, the much-beloved host of the game show Jeopardy since 1984, died Sunday of pancreatic cancer at age 80. [Vox / Libby Nelson] | | | | | "Joe Biden ran on climate. How great is this? It'll be time for the White House to finally get back to leading the charge against the central environmental crisis of our time." | | | | | | | | | | |
Republican lawsuits in the 2020 election don't amount to much. But the future of election law under a new US Supreme Court is a different story. [YouTube / Laura Bult] | | | | | | | | |  | This email was sent to edwardlorilla1986.paxforex@blogger.com. Manage your email preferences, or unsubscribe to stop receiving all emails from Vox. If you value Vox's unique explanatory journalism, support our work with a one-time or recurring contribution. Vox Media, 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20036.
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