Former vice president and potential Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden gave a paid speech at a Michigan college last October in which he praised Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), who was then in the midst of a tight re-election battle — and Biden's remarks, subsequently used in the Republican's messaging, may have helped boost Upton to a narrow victory over his Democratic challenger, The New York Times reports.
In the speech, delivered for a $200,000 fee at Lake Michigan College, Biden described Upton — a long-serving congressman and coauthor of a 2017 bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act — as "one of the finest guys I've ever worked with." Biden, whose eldest son, Beau, died of brain cancer in 2015, also called Upton "the reason we're going to beat cancer," ostensibly for his work to fund cancer research. Both statements soon appeared in pro-Upton mailers, and Upton referred to the praise in a debate with his opponent, Matt Longjohn.
When asked about Biden's decision to effectively endorse a Republican candidate at the height of the midterms race, a spokesman told the Times that Biden "believes to his core that you can disagree politically on a lot and still work together in good faith on issues of common cause — like funding cancer research." Longjohn, meanwhile, said he was dismayed that Biden "[clapped] Mr. Upton on the back in an establishment political way" — and that when his campaign reached out to Biden for an explanation, "there was nothing but silence." Jacob Lambert
Moderna won't be able to seek emergency use authorization for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate earlier than late November, and the vaccine would likely not be available to the general public prior to March, its CEO says.
Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel told the Financial Times on Wednesday that the company wouldn't have enough data to seek emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for its coronavirus vaccine candidate before Nov. 25 at the earliest. He also told the Financial Times that the company wouldn't be able to file for approval to get the vaccine to the entire population until late January at the earliest, meaning that "late [first quarter], early [second quarter]" of 2021 is a "reasonable timeline" for approval.
This, CBS News writes, was both a "setback for Moderna" as well as a "blow to claims by" President Trump that a coronavirus vaccine could be ready prior to Election Day. Trump has repeatedly touted such a possibility, and he contradicted experts in his administration during the first 2020 presidential debate on Tuesday while claiming that "we're weeks away from a vaccine."
But Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told Congress last month that in terms of when a vaccine might be "generally available to the American public so we can begin to take advantage" of it to "get back to our regular life, I think we're probably looking at ... late second quarter, third quarter 2021."
Given the Moderna CEO's comments, the Financial Times writes that the "most realistic hope of a pre-election vaccine" would be from Pfizer, as that company's CEO says it should know whether its vaccine works by the end of October. But The New York Times writes that "the idea that it will be ready in October is far-fetched." Brendan Morrow
Internal talking points from the Department of Homeland Security directed federal law enforcement officers to speak sympathetically about Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old Trump supporter facing intentional homicide charges for the shooting deaths of two people in Kenosha, Wisconsin, during a chaotic night on Aug. 25, NBC News reports. Rittenhouse brought an AR-15-style rifle to Kenosha from his home in Illinois to guard private businesses alongside armed militia groups. According to police and video footage, he killed one protester, then shot two more after he tripped while trying to flee the scene.
The talking points obtained by NBC News urge federal officials to tell the media that Rittenhouse "took his rifle to the scene of the rioting to help defend small business owners," and that "Kyle was seen being chased and attacked by rioters before allegedly shooting three of them, killing two." Also, "subsequent video has emerged reportedly showing that there were 'multiple gunmen' involved, which would lend more credence to the self-defense claims," the documents claim.
It isn't clear if the talking points originated in the department of in the White House, where President Trump and his press secretary have defended Rittenhouse. Three former Homeland Security officials told NBC News law enforcement isn't typically instructed to discuss particular groups or people before an investigation is finished. "It is as unprecedented as it is wrong," said one, Peter Boogaard.
The talking points also advise telling reporters that Patriot Prayer, a right-wing group in Oregon that clashes with anti-racism protesters, is not racist. One protester, Michael Reinoehl, apparently shot dead a Patriot Prayer member in Portland, before Washington state law enforcement, working for the U.S. Marshals, fatally shot him outside an apartment. Before being killed, Reinoehl said he was acting in self defense, and a witness said the officers did not identify themselves before killing Reinoehl and disputed police assertions that he was armed and fired at police. Trump said at Tuesday's debate that the Marshals "took care of business"; earlier, he called Reinoehl's killing "retribution." Peter Weber
Chrissy Teigen and John Legend have tragically lost their child due to pregnancy complications.
Teigen and Legend shared the heartbreaking news in a statement on Teigen's Instagram and Twitter pages after she was recently hospitalized due to bleeding during her pregnancy, per CNN.
"We are shocked and in the kind of deep pain you only hear about, the kind of pain we've never felt before," the statement said. "We were never able to stop the bleeding and give our baby the fluids he needed, despite bags and bags of blood transfusions. It just wasn't enough."
The couple went on to say that they had picked out the name Jack for their third child, writing, "Jack worked so hard to be a part of our little family, and he will be, forever."
Teigen had recently shared that she had been hospitalized on Sunday after bleeding for around a month and after having been on "serious bed rest" for several weeks while about halfway through her pregnancy. She and Legend on Thursday said they are "so grateful for the life we have" with their two children, Luna and Miles, and thanked those who have sent their thoughts and prayers.
"On this darkest of days, we will grieve, we will cry our eyes out," the statement said. "But we will hug and love each other harder and get through it." Brendan Morrow
A study of 85,000 people with COVID-19 in two southern Indian states and 575,000 people they came in contact with found that children 17 and under contract and transmit the new coronavirus at rates similar to the rest of the population. Children age 5 to 17 passed the virus on to 18 percent of close contacts their same age, a team of U.S. and Indian researchers reported Wednesday in the journal Science.
These findings are particularly important given "previous reports suggesting a minor role of children in the pandemic," Antonio Salas, a Spanish researcher who was not involved in the Indian study, told the Los Angeles Times. "National policies on how to proceed with children in schools and other social activities could change dramatically if the scientific evidence underpins the idea that children can infect as efficiently as adults, and even more, they could also behave as super-spreaders."
The two Indian states studied, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, have robust contract tracing and other public health programs. The other major finding from the study involved super-spreaders. While 71 percent of people infected with COVID-19 did not appear to pass the virus on to anybody else, just 8 percent of infected people accounted for 60 percent of the new infections, said lead author Ramanan Laxminarayan of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics, and Policy in New Delhi.
"Super-spreading events are the rule rather than the exception," Laxminarayan said. "It has lots of implications for modeling COVID, for how to keep places safe."
While children 17 and under were found to be more efficient disease transmitters than previously understood, they had the lowest death rate of any age cohort. Overall, deaths increased with age up to 65, then appeared to drop off. New York Times science reporter Apoorva Mandavilli said that might be because people who make it past India's life expectancy of 69 years told tend to be wealthy, with good heath care. Peter Weber