Your Daily Roundup for December 17th

Good morning. As the COVID-19 pandemic takes a toll on life in America, our team at Future Majority is tracking the latest updates: 

A day of grim milestones:

As vaccines were given across the country, Wednesday marked a day of three tragic milestones over the course of the pandemic. A record-high number of new cases in one day of COVID-19 at over 244,000. A record number of people in American hospitals with COVID-19 with over 113,000 in hospitals. And most upsettingly, a record number of deaths in a single day: over 3,600 Americans perished yesterday alone due to COVID-19. 

Moderna’s vaccine now takes center stage:

An independent advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration will meet today to review data from the vaccine produced by Moderna. The public review process is the last step before FDA approval, and it is expected that the committee will vote yes followed by FDA approval on Friday. The Moderna news comes as nearly 3 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine have begun to be administered around the U.S.

Nearly 1 million Americans newly filed for unemployment claims:

935,000 people filed claims for state unemployment benefits in the previous week, a staggering number that is well above pre-pandemic levels. The seasonally adjusted number of claims is 885,000, which is an uptick from the week prior. Another 455,000 people filed for the federal unemployment assistance program for workers not traditionally covered by state programs. It is long overdue for Congress to pass additional economic relief for Americans as two critical programs for unemployed people expire at the end of the month.