What A Day - I've Vaccine Enough

Episode Date: November 10, 2020

Pfizer says an initial analysis of their vaccine found it was more than 90 percent effective in preventing COVID-19. President-elect Joe Biden announced his 13-member pandemic task force, which includes health experts that previously served in Republican and Democratic administrations.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell backed Trump’s refusal to accept the results of the election yesterday, while simultaneously welcoming new incoming Republican senators. In Georgia, current senators Perdue and Loeffler are demanding that the Republican secretary of state step down over the election, without providing evidence to support their vague claims of “failures.”And in headlines: Hurricane Eta made landfall in the Florida Keys, Blue Ivy Carter narrates an audiobook, and Trump ousts Secretary of Defense Mark Esper.

It's Tuesday, November 10th. I'm Akilah Hughes. And I'm Gideon Resnick. And this is What The Day, where we've heard that the little boy who mowed Trump's lawn has approached him about conceding the election. Yeah, we could barely hear him over the lawnmower, but I know that that's what he's trying to get across. Honestly, he should have turned it off before he asked. It just would have been easier. On today's show, Biden continues the transition process as some Republicans refuse to concede. Then some headlines.

We may have doses that we're able to give to people by the end of November, the beginning of December, probably well into December. Now, again, you have to go through the hoops of making sure all the I's are dotted and the T's are crossed about the safety and the regulatory aspects of it. But we would be giving vaccine to people very likely before the end of this year. That is good news. Wow. That was Dr. Anthony Fauci talking about a pretty significant update on a potential COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer yesterday. I found out on my phone and the best kind of early morning push alert, you guys, I'm starting to love mornings. But we knew that a number of companies were quickly getting to the point where they would

be ready to seek emergency authorization from the FDA. And it looks like Pfizer will be the first in the US. So let's talk about what the company's saying. Yeah. So Pfizer, which has been developing their vaccine with the German drugmaker BioNTech, said yesterday that an initial analysis of their vaccine found that it was more than 90% effective in preventing COVID-19. That is basically the best case scenario if it holds up. That number, of course, is incredibly high, and it would be akin to the effectiveness of common vaccines for children like measles. Pfizer is saying that they're going to ask the FDA for emergency use authorization of the vaccine by the end of the month. And so the vaccine requires two doses, and the company is planning to manufacture enough doses for 15 to 20 million people by the end of the year.

These initial results here came from an outside panel of experts assessing this, and the data itself was described in a press release as opposed to a medical journal. So it does look and sound really great, but experts are looking for more information as the trial goes on. Among the questions that have sprung up, according to the Washington Post, are how the vaccine worked for high-risk populations, whether it worked for severe cases, and how long protections last from the vaccine. Right, I would also like to know. These trials haven't been running that long, so it'll take time to see longer term efficacy. And then what happens next in the process? Yeah, before we get to that, to back up for just a second here, Pfizer had been really confident

that they would have an initial analysis done in October, which partly fueled all the Trump lines about a vaccine before election day. And that was going to be based on a point in the trials where 32 participants had gotten COVID-19. But the FDA wanted to wait, thinking that an authorization after such few cases would be kind of jumping the gun. Instead, they settled on analyzing the efficacy when there were 62 COVID cases. But actually, because the pandemic has gotten so widespread and just deeply out of control in the United States, Pfizer said that by the time they were ready to have the independent board assess the data they had, there had already been 94 cases among trial subjects. So that's the point that we're at now. Yeah. And next, the trial is going to continue until they reach 164 cases,

which again, the company thinks will not take long because we have out of control spread in the US at the moment. Then at the end of the month, Pfizer is planning to seek authorization and they're saying that by that time, they'll have two months of safety follow-up data. The FDA is looking for a bare minimum of 50% effectiveness at the very least.

So even if the effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine goes down over the course of the rest of this trial, if it is truly over 90% now, it has room to fall. There are lots of questions remaining, but if all goes well, the first doses, like Fauci said, could be ready as early as December. Yeah. And what do we know about who might be getting this initially? How can I kind of send my own application? I'm black. I have asthma. I need it. Pfizer, I hope you are listening. We are formally requesting to be considered.

On that question, though, who is actually going to get this first? A CDC advisory committee is going to make that determination ultimately after the vaccine gets authorized. But it's likely to first be health care workers and others at the highest risk. We'll get more of a breakdown later, even though there are a lot of challenges that await, including the distribution, because Pfizer's vaccine doses will need to be kept at extremely cold temperatures. Fauci said the results so far were, quote, extraordinary and that this could be good news for other vaccines using similar technologies. On that note, yesterday, President-elect Joe Biden announced more details about his COVID task force. Anything of note that was new there? Yeah, so he gave a speech just after the

vaccine news was announced. And while he mentioned that it was excellent news, he also spoke about how there's an important gap of time between now and when the vaccine news was announced. And while he mentioned that it was excellent news, he also spoke about how there's an important gap of time between now and when the vaccine becomes widely available. Here's a clip. The head of the CDC warned this fall that for the foreseeable future, a mask remains the most potent weapon against the virus. Today's news does not change that urgent reality. I won't be president until January 20th.

But my message today is to everyone is this. It doesn't matter who you voted for, whether you stood where you stood before Election Day. It doesn't matter your party, your point of view. We can save tens of thousands of lives if everyone would just wear a mask for the next few months. Not Democrat or Republican lives, American lives. Yeah, that's an important point. Well, this was a big part of his message that in order to get past the pandemic,

we need to depoliticize public health and things like masks. He also emphasized science more than once, which, gosh, really good to be back at facts and science. And with the speech yesterday, his team also released the names of the 13 task force members that will work to translate Biden's COVID plan into actual policy actions when he takes office. The names include President Obama's former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, as well as David Kessler, who worked as the FDA commissioner under Clinton and George H.W. Bush. The significance there is that he's drawing experts who have worked for both parties. There's also Dr. Atul Gawande, who's a surgeon, a public health leader, and has also been a writer for The New Yorker.

He's definitely a world-class person when it comes to communicating science to the general public. And then you have people like Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is not on this panel, but saying that he intends to stay on in his position at NIH. That's right. So this was a lot of productive news when it comes to the pandemic yesterday. The FDA also gave emergency authorization to an antibody treatment for COVID, all of which is great considering where things stand. Yesterday was the sixth consecutive day we've been above 100,000 cases. It's really horrendous. And all the numbers are going in the wrong direction. States like New Jersey and New York are warning of rising cases, with New Jersey putting in new

restrictions on restaurants and nightclubs, which there should be all the restrictions on nightclubs. And the Republican governor of Utah is now implementing a statewide mask mandate. I guess, you know, some people just have to live and learn and then get loves. Meanwhile, the outbreak among the Trump administration continues. We learned that HUD Secretary Ben Carson has COVID yesterday, along with David Bossie. That's the guy that Trump tapped to head up his last-ditch legal effort to contest the election results. Both of them were at Trump's indoor election night party at the White House last week, along with Mark Meadows, who we know has also tested positive. Honestly, they like COVID over there.

COVID is their mascot, I feel. But speaking of sore losers, we heard from a few more Senate Republicans about Trump's refusal to concede. Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader, but who knows for how long, Mitch McConnell, backed Trump's thwarting of justice, which doesn't make much sense as he was scheduled to take photos with new incoming Republican senators. So why, pray tell, are the downed ballot races not a hoax, but Trump is?

If you want to call the ballots into question, you know, you got to do the whole ballots on. You can't just pick and choose. He claims Trump is entitled to challenge the results when no one is saying he isn't. You know, he can call for a recount if he wants to lose again. That's fine. And in Georgia, current Republican senators Perdue and Loeffler are beefing with Georgia's Republican secretary of state over the election process in that state, and they're demanding that he step down. They, like Trump, are offering no evidence that there was anything untoward happening, but alleging as much because they're scared of the runoff. Good. So everybody, let's help Ossoff and Warnock take those seats. Yeah, look, if they're questioning the process,

there's always the option of just not participating in the runoff. And on McConnell, you know, people are thinking this could really be about amping up Republican voters for the Georgia races that we're talking about because they're all afraid of the Trump base. But anyways, Republicans are somewhat split on Trump's inability to accept the reality of the presidential race. Yesterday, Fox News actually cut away from Kayleigh McEnany's press conference because she was spreading misinformation about voter fraud again. What else is going on there? Honestly, it's so much, but I got to say, we love to cut off Kayleigh. So, you know, it's definitely a soul-searching week for the Republican Party and Republican media. Fox News host Sandra Smith was caught on a hot mic sharing her incredulity at the weirdo guests that they booked who were mad at the network for calling the election. And she shares a network with Tucker Carlson, the guy who said Joe Biden is a hologram and downplayed the coronavirus. So, you know, they have diversity of thought over there. There have been a lot of posts on social media and in the news about where Democrats can go from here.

But I just want to slow down the car to look at the train wreck of the Republican Party, who threw out most, if not all, of their credibility supporting Donald Trump through lie after lie for the past four to 10 years. They're tearing themselves apart because they got in too deep. It's kind of like when Scar gets thrown to the hyenas at the end of The Lion King. I kind of think they're just going to eat each other. You know, I mean, when you have Republicans chanting Fox News sucks in large groups, you know that things are all lost. I don't know how they can work their way back to reality, but it's probably going to be a little bit harder to reunite with the cultists than it will be for Democrats to embrace the younger, more progressive generation that showed up to the polls. Man, I do hope so. Well,

yesterday on the show, we mentioned the few Republicans in Congress who have congratulated Biden on his victory. They include Senators Murkowski, Romney, Collins and Sasse. So the current, quote unquote, moderate position is recognizing the results of a Democratic election. The bar is the floor. Personally, I'm not really putting any hope in Susan Collins. You know, she's two faced. I'm just going to say it. But if the runoff doesn't go to Democrats in Georgia, this will likely be the coalition that Biden and the Dems have to lean on to pass their agenda. But speaking of the agenda, Biden's team is ready and rearing to go with their transition team. But Emily Murphy of the General Services Administration just won't do her job.

She's supposed to sign off on the resources to let the winning party transition into the White House, but in a sign that Trump really is as deluded as we think, she is not budging. And it seems par for the course for an administration full of people without integrity. Last night, around 7 p.m., Attorney General William Barr authorized DOJ officials to probe, quote, substantial allegations of voting irregularities if they exist, which, again, they currently don't. They obviously have some tricks up their sleeves, so keep your eyes peeled. Hours after Barr's memo, the Justice Department official who runs investigations into voter fraud and election crimes resigned, according to an email obtained by The New York Times.

So we're going to continue following whatever is happening with our democracy, but that's the latest for now. It's Tuesday WOD Squad, and for today's Tim Check, we're talking about a new designer fragrance. Oregon indie bookstore Powell's Books is now selling their own perfume called Powell's by Powell's that promises to smell like old books. The $25 fragrance is available online, and the description claims it, quote, invokes a labyrinth of books, secret libraries, and ancient scrolls. So Giddy, now that we know some people want to smell like scrolls, what are some of your favorite everyday scents that aren't yet available as perfumes? I like when you get a crisp fall air smell. It's sort of wet. Oh yeah, I know what you mean. Yeah, it's a little bit wet, but it also is a little biting.

That's what I like in a smell that doesn't exist yet. I don't think it would work. So wet and fall. Yes, yes. Like damp leaves, but also the smell of cold, you know? I don't know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, I know what you mean.

I don't know if the listeners will, but I absolutely am here with you. Thank you. I appreciate that. That's probably what I would bottle up if I could. I think that's a good idea. I think that people want fall all year round. You know, pumpkin spice has a longer shelf life now. I think that we can just make fall air as long as that is at least. Yeah, it's like a you know, it make you feel a little bit crispy too. If you know it might be like a humid day or something like that. And you're like, how do I not have

this feeling of being damp in a way that I don't want to be damp. That's right. Spray some fall on myself. Same question for you, Akilah, though. What sense are you trying to bottle up here? Oh, man. Okay, so I really like the smell of boiling water. A lot of people are like, I can't smell it. I'm like, maybe I smell my pot. Maybe I'm just smelling, like, the evaporation.

But, like, there's something about it that's, like, very comforting. Like, you know the stove is on. It's not gasoline. It's not, like, any sort of, like, gas. that's like very comforting. Like, you know, the stove is on. It's not gasoline. It's not like any sort of like gas. It's just boiling water. I don't know that that would be a fragrance though. Cause like the thought of boiling would like always be in your mind. So my second choice is another kind of water.

It's not really an everyday scent, but as an avid Disney goer, there's a very specific smell to their water and their water rides like Pirates of the Caribbean and like all all of their like fountains that are for entertainment not the drinking fountains it's because they don't use chlorine to clean their water they use something else but i don't remember what it is and uh i love that smell i think that all water should smell like that it is like something about it is perfect i was gonna say if it was chlorine you know we can't advise scientifically that people should be spraying that on their bodies yeah good point and also like imagine being on like it's a small world

for 50 years because it gets stuck and they're singing that song at you and you're just huffing chlorine like no one wants that that's too much I like these ideas though the boiling water thing resonates with me more than Disney because I haven't been to Disney in a long time but I like that you're in the vicinity of water as well. I think that's like the right

the right place to be if you're shopping for perfume. Thank you. You know, I try. And just like that, we checked our tips. They are warm and sunny and fragrant like a fall day at Disney. And anyway, we'll be back with some headlines. Headlines. Hurricane Ada made landfall in the Florida Keys over the weekend as a Category 1 hurricane. People in Miami-Dade and Broward counties experienced dangerous flash flooding and storm surges. The entire state is expected to feel the effects of Ada throughout the week, in the form of heavy rain in some parts and potential tornadoes in others. Ada first made landfall last Tuesday in Nicaragua as a deadly Category 4 hurricane,

causing mudslides and massive destruction. It is the 28th named storm in the Atlantic and the 12th hurricane to make landfall in the U.S. Nicaragua as a deadly Category 4 hurricane, causing mudslides and massive destruction. It is the 28th named storm in the Atlantic and the 12th hurricane to make landfall in the U.S. during this record-breaking hurricane season. Wow. Eta is making its way through the Gulf of Mexico and is expected to make landfall in Florida again this week or weekend. Forecasters say, depending on dry air, the storm could be more fierce or weakened upon its return. The daughter of Beyonce and Jay-Z, Blue Ivy Carter, is already making major career moves at eight years old with a new job as the narrator of a children's audiobook.

The book Hair Love by Matthew A. Cherry is a story about a black father learning to style his daughter's hair. Too cute. A short animated adaptation of the book also won an Academy Award earlier this year, if you can believe that we had Academy Awards this year. Cherry made the latest announcement on Twitter yesterday, posting a short sample of the audio. Dreamscape Presents Hair Love by Matthew A. Cherry, narrated by Blue Ivy Carter. Okay, so I'm just like gonna cry. I don't know if I can finish the show. Narrating

this book will be adding to the long list of Blue Ivy's accomplishments, which already include being the youngest recipient of a BET award for her song Brown Skin Girl and winning an NAACP Image Award. There's also some speculation that she could be nominated for a Grammy in the spoken word category. Go off. If you're an eight-year-old WOD fan who feels inadequate because of this news, just channel those feelings into working as hard as you can to get adopted by Beyonce and Jay-Z. I believe in you.

Yeah, you can do it. Come on. Last week, the country got to say how we felt about Donald Trump, and now he's finally giving us what we asked for, minor personnel changes. Trump fired Secretary of Defense Mark Esper yesterday, announcing the news via tweet. Esper's departure came after he publicly disagreed with Trump on a number of issues, including the president's proposal to deploy U.S. troops to shut down racial justice protests this summer. Remember that? Soon after the news dropped yesterday, Esper used his sharp tactical instincts to invade the narrative, suggesting in an interview with Military Times that he had pushed back on Trump more than any other cabinet member. Okay. Esper also said, quote, God help us when his

replacement arrives, assuming that person would probably be a pushover. Well, we now know that Okay. little time to get his email switched over, set his desk toys up how he likes them, and start a war. Some former Pentagon officials have said the shuffle will create instability and could put our national security at risk. So in other words, Trump is closing out his show by playing the damn hits. Yeah, I can't wait for the show to end. This election was a victory not just for Joe Biden, but for Joe Biden's all over the world. One member of that group is the mayor of a small town in Japan who became a sensation this weekend when it was discovered that his name can be read as Joe Biden when it's written out using kanji characters. Kanji characters often have multiple phonetic readings, which is what allows the mayor's name to be Yukata Umeda, but also the same as the name of a newly elected former lifeguard from Pennsylvania. Umeda was delighted by the coincidence and said of the American Joe Biden, quote, I feel very close to him. It feels as though I've also won the election. Very kind, Mr. Mayor, but please stop joking about that because a two person same named presidency would destroy our fragile democracy. Umeda said he hoped his association with president elect Biden would bring recognition to a small town of 15000 people. I think it has. It might.

But, you know, these same name situations don't always end well. Just ask Four Seasons Total Landscaping in Philadelphia. Or did that end well for Four Seasons Total Landscaping in Philadelphia? I might buy a t-shirt. Those are the headlines. That's all for today. If you liked the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review,

salute the Donald Trump lawnmower boy, and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just names from other languages that can be read as Joe Biden like me, what a day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at cricket.com slash subscribe. I'm Akilah Hughes. I'm Gideon Resnick. And enjoy the smell of water.

We love it. It's what we came from you can boil it you can drink it splash it on your face it's great yeah get some in your hair yeah that's kind of it actually

that's basically that's as far as it can go it can only do so much leave it alone what a day is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Charlotte Landis. Sonia Tan is our assistant producer.

Our head writer is John Milstein, and our executive producers are Katie Long, Akilah Hughes, and me. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kshaka.