THE BIG STORY

What you need to know about the first COVID vaccine the FDA is expected to authorize

On Thursday, an expert FDA panel voted to recommend Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. The move brings the US much closer to controlling a pandemic that’s killing 3,000 people a day.

The independent panel of medical safety experts, in a 17 to 4 vote, found the vaccine’s two shots, which are likely 95% effective in preventing the disease, had benefits that outweighed their risks.

The final decision now heads to FDA chief Stephen Hahn, who is expected to soon issue an emergency use authorization for the vaccine.

The US will not be the first nation to approve the vaccine — the United Kingdom has that distinction, followed by Bahrain and then Canada. On Wednesday, the UK began administering shots of the vaccine.

Health officials have promised that they will ship out an initial 2.9 million doses nationwide within 24 hours of Hahn’s decision. Here’s everything you need to know about Pfizer’s vaccine.

A nurse from the Belfast Trust Vaccine Team prepares to inject care home staff with the Pfizer/BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine. Liam Mcburney - Pa Images / Getty Images

STAYING ON TOP OF THIS

ICE’S controversial leader plans to resign after 5 months on the job

Tony Pham, a refugee from Vietnam, has been leading Immigrations and Customs Enforcement since late August. It’s barely been 5 months, but Pham plans to resign by the end of the year.

During his tenure, Pham oversaw an effort to plaster billboards with the faces of immigrants along highways in Pennsylvania. Current and former ICE officials, along with legal experts, called the move politically motivated.

Pham led the agency as it struggled to contain COVID-19 outbreaks within detention centers holding immigrants.

SNAPSHOTS

Here are the names of 106 members of the House who refuse to accept that Biden won. These House Republicans are backing a Texas lawsuit that seeks to overturn the election results in key battleground states.

The only Anne Frank memorial in the US was defaced with swastika stickers. Stickers bearing the Nazi symbol and the words "We are everywhere" were found Tuesday at the memorial in Idaho. Investigators are currently reviewing surveillance video.

Nina Turner is bringing Bernie Sanders’ revolution home to Cleveland. The former Sanders campaign co-chair wants to go to Congress. She’ll have to get past Cleveland’s political establishment to get there.

Ellen DeGeneres announced that she tested positive for COVID-19. The talk show host said she’ll return to TV after the holidays and encouraged her followers to “stay healthy and safe.” As of recently, her show has featured a small in-studio audience.

Taylor Swift released her ninth album, Evermore, and it’s Folklore’s sister record. It’s Swift’s second album in five months, after the critically acclaimed Folklore. People had good tweets about the surprise.

"FACEBOOK GETS PAID"

Facebook’s global ad machine is the company’s $80 billion annual lifeblood. Workers say it puts profit over people.

In 2020, Facebook is on track for record ad revenue. That Facebook is very good at drawing advertisers is probably not a surprise.

But former and current workers say Facebook’s success is partly due to its uneven approach to stopping scammers, hackers, and disinformation peddlers who buy ads that rip off and manipulate people.

In interviews, they painted a picture of an ad business built with the same lax controls and outsourcing of critical moderation work that has caused Facebook to become a fount of disinformation, foreign influence operations, hate speech, and harassment.

Craig Silverman reports on the myriad ways Facebook placed its priorities on their ad business profit, over concerns from workers.

REST AND REFLECT

Spend your time with these longreads this weekend

How we ate our way through 2020. As the year wore on, and the calamities added up, so many of us turned to food to address anxieties. Meanwhile, food affordability and the politics of who makes food became headline news. Venessa Wong looks at the year in food.

No, Elliott Page is not a lesbian defector. Anti-trans pundits want you to think that trans people like Elliot Page pose an existential threat to lesbians. As Shannon Keating writes, that couldn’t be less true.

Big Mouth confronts its race problem. The animated Netflix series once came under fire for its handling of race. In its new season, it gives its Black, brown, and queer characters more depth, writes Michael Blackmon.

Give yourself permission to unwind,

Elamin