Your Daily Roundup for December 10th

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

For the first time, over 3,000 deaths in a single day:

The U.S. set a tragic record on Wednesday for the most deaths in a single day. 3,053 people in the United States perished due to COVID-19. For context, this is a greater toll than the lives lost in the September 11th attacks. With hospitals nearing or at capacity around the country, the onslaught will only continue. 

Nearly a million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week:

In a drastic uptick, 947,000 Americans filed for state unemployment benefits in the last week alone. That was up 229,000 from the week prior, which dipped most likely due to temporary hirings to accommodate the Thanksgiving holiday. Another 428,000 individuals filed for the federal pandemic unemployment program. The economic recovery is effectively coming to a grinding halt as Congress has yet to pass comprehensive economic relief in months and several key programs expire at the end of the year.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is before the FDA today:

An advisory panel for the Food and Drug Administration will meet today for a public assessment of the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech -- the last step needed for approval. The meeting consists of a range of experts outside of the government specializing in vaccine development, infectious diseases, and understanding medical data. It is widely expected that the FDA will follow the advice of this panel and grant approval for the vaccine in the coming days.