npr--2020-12-11--Without Clear Pandemic Rules, People Take On More Risks As Fear And Vigilance Wane

Without Clear Pandemic Rules , People Take On More Risks As Fear And Vigilance Wane She 's embarrassed to admit it , but there were moments over the summer when Adriana Kaplan almost forgot about the pandemic .
In the beginning , the Philadelphia native had taken the coronavirus seriously : She had all her groceries delivered and worked her software engineering job from her South Philly home .
For the first two months of the pandemic , she barely left the house .
By the end of May though , she was starting to get restless .
`` I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ home , '' Kaplan , 29 , said .
`` I felt trapped . ''
Slowly , she began inching her way out of the house , first buying groceries at the corner store during off-hours , when she expected fewer shoppers .
She started hanging out with her neighbors again — first with masks , but then , increasingly , without .
She went to the office a few times , and before long was heading in most days .
She traveled home to visit her parents .
She went on dates @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the pandemic was n't as serious as she 'd thought .
`` Nothing was happening to me ; I was n't hearing anybody close to me having it , '' Kaplan said .
`` The longer it went on , the more distant it felt . ''
COVID-19 is now killing more than 2,500 people a day in the United States — a mortality rate higher than during the first wave of the pandemic .
But without additional relief money from Congress , many state and local officials have been reluctant to reimpose @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Instead , they are relying heavily on personal responsibility in the hopes that individuals will , collectively , make the right decisions to curb the virus 's spread — to follow rules for mask-wearing and social distancing .
Yet for many , like Kaplan , the acutely felt problems generated by isolation and inactivity have pushed aside the ominous implications of soaring case counts .
Officials are relying on people to do their part to stop viral spread , but the public simply might not be afraid enough anymore for that to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , mayors and public health experts have become so familiar , they barely sink in anymore : Wash your hands , wear your mask , watch your distance .
Some officials have gone further , pointing to individuals ' failure to comply with this guidance as the reason cases are soaring .
`` If you 're socially distant , and you wore a mask , and you were smart , none of this would be a problem , '' New York Gov .
Andrew Cuomo recently proclaimed .
`` It 's all self-imposed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cheesecake , you would n't have a weight problem . ''
Governors such as Cuomo do n't want to impose sweeping lockdowns like the ones in the spring without federal relief funding that would help individuals and businesses hold out until a vaccine is widely available .
The problem with banking so heavily on human behavior as the only solution to pandemic mitigation though is that individuals are not great at assessing risk .
Research shows that when it comes to risk assessment , people are more likely to believe something hazardous will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : Maybe it 's already happened to them , or they 've seen or heard about it happening to someone they know .
`` For millions of years , we learned what was risky from our own personal experience , '' said Gretchen Chapman , a psychologist and decision researcher at Carnegie Mellon University .
`` Now , we 're supposed to learn about risk by looking at public health department websites , to see how the cases are going up .
Our cognitive system is just not set up to respond to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the time it might take for the human perception of COVID-19 illness risk to catch up to reality , thousands more people could die .
Unless the deaths affect you personally , it 's too abstract , and there 's no motivating fear to behave accordingly .
But what is real and palpable to many people is the economic pain and physical consequences resulting from shutdowns : Some 22 million Americans lost jobs in March and April .
There is a documented increase in psychological distress resulting from isolation , job loss and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than COVID-19 has soared ; people are seeking less health care for acute conditions as hospitals limit elective procedures and people avoid them as vectors of COVID-19 risk .
Chapman described the pandemic as a `` public good problem '' — something that does n't affect everyone in a society but does require everyone 's cooperation to solve .
Young , healthy people may not feel they are putting themselves at much risk of severe illness if they go maskless or hang out in larger groups .
But if they contract the virus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who wo n't survive .
Everyone must remain vigilant for protective measures to work for those most at risk .
But vigilance can be exhausting .
That 's why `` public good problems '' are n't usually left up to individuals to work out on their own , Chapman said .
`` We do n't say , like , 'Taxes would really help the federal government and community services , [ but ] we think it should be up to individuals to donate taxes to the government because if they do , it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ `` Chapman said .
`` That would not work .
People would not do that . ''
It 's only natural then that many Americans are having a hard time keeping their entire community in mind as they think about how they individually move through the world and behave during the pandemic .
Instead , Chapman said , people tend to focus on the patterns in their own behavior and , if they do n't end up sick , reach the seemingly logical conclusion that what they are doing is safe .
That @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her carefree summer , she was n't hearing scary stories about bodies piling up at morgues , or a friend 's parent hospitalized and on a ventilator — the anecdotes and images that would serve as daily reminders the pandemic was still killing people .
On the contrary , Kaplan was rewarded for her risky behavior .
Dating led to a relationship .
She felt connected to her family .
And it seemed like everyone else was doing the same thing .
In the evenings , for example , she 'd often take @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her house was a bustling thoroughfare , where outdoor tables had taken over the streets and life continued , almost as before .
Fear helps motivate people to stay vigilant , but then it wears off It 's hard to remain constantly vigilant against possible risks , especially for an invisible threat such as a pathogen .
The fact that some people stop trying is not unique to this pandemic , said Dr. Robert Aronowitz , who chairs the Department of History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania .
He @ @ @ @ @ @ @ usually end in a biological sense , rather they are simply foisted for the long term onto the social group most likely to contract them — usually one already marginalized .
`` AIDS has n't gone away .
There 's new cases of AIDS all over the place popping up , '' Aronowitz said .
`` There 's a sense among straight , middle-class people that it is n't going to hit them in their lifetime , '' he said , but maintaining that mindset involves `` ignoring the populations who are vulnerable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ forget , do .
As summer turned to fall , Kaplan had a scare .
She learned that a colleague she had spent a lot of time with at work had been exposed to COVID-19 , which meant Kaplan also had to go into quarantine .
She was suddenly flooded with guilt about having been so cavalier , going maskless .
It felt reckless .
`` While I was doing it , I did n't feel like it was wrong , but looking back at it , I can see it probably was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said .
Now , she 's buckling down again with her behaviors .
She canceled some travel and declined invitations to a few weddings she had planned to attend .
She did n't enjoy it at the time , but she 's glad she had that brush with exposure , because it helped jolt her back to reality — into remembering that the virus is still out there and dangerous .
Until that scare , it had started to feel like someone else 's problem .
This story comes from NPR 's reporting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .

Without Clear Pandemic Rules, People Take On More Risks As Fear And Vigilance Wane
Enlarge this image toggle caption Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images
She's embarrassed to admit it, but there were moments over the summer when Adriana Kaplan almost forgot about the pandemic. In the beginning, the Philadelphia native had taken the coronavirus seriously: She had all her groceries delivered and worked her software engineering job from her South Philly home. For the first two months of the pandemic, she barely left the house.
By the end of May though, she was starting to get restless. "I'm not good at just sitting at home," Kaplan, 29, said. "I felt trapped."
Slowly, she began inching her way out of the house, first buying groceries at the corner store during off-hours, when she expected fewer shoppers. She started hanging out with her neighbors again — first with masks, but then, increasingly, without. She went to the office a few times, and before long was heading in most days. She traveled home to visit her parents. She went on dates. It started to feel like maybe the pandemic wasn't as serious as she'd thought.
"Nothing was happening to me; I wasn't hearing anybody close to me having it," Kaplan said. "The longer it went on, the more distant it felt."
COVID-19 is now killing 2,300 people a day or many more in the United States — reaching a mortality rate higher than during the first wave of the pandemic. But without additional relief money from Congress, many state and local officials have been reluctant to reimpose lockdowns or restrictions that might jeopardize businesses. Instead, they are relying heavily on personal responsibility in the hopes that individuals will, collectively, make the right decisions to curb the virus's spread — to follow rules for mask-wearing and social distancing.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Kimberly Paynter/WHYY Kimberly Paynter/WHYY
Yet for many, like Kaplan, the acutely felt problems generated by isolation and inactivity have pushed aside the ominous implications of soaring case counts. Officials are relying on people to do their part to stop viral spread, but the public simply might not be afraid enough anymore for that to work.
In pandemic, health becomes a classic "public good problem"
The repeated refrains from governors, mayors and public health experts have become so familiar, they barely sink in anymore: Wash your hands, wear your mask, watch your distance. Some officials have gone further, pointing to individuals' failure to comply with this guidance as the reason cases are soaring.
"If you're socially distant, and you wore a mask, and you were smart, none of this would be a problem," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently proclaimed. "It's all self-imposed. If you didn't eat the cheesecake, you wouldn't have a weight problem."
Governors such as Cuomo don't want to impose sweeping lockdowns like the ones in the spring without federal relief funding that would help individuals and businesses hold out until a vaccine is widely available. The problem with banking so heavily on human behavior as the only solution to pandemic mitigation though is that individuals are not great at assessing risk.
Research shows that when it comes to risk assessment, people are more likely to believe something hazardous will occur when they can easily picture it: Maybe it's already happened to them, or they've seen or heard about it happening to someone they know.
"For millions of years, we learned what was risky from our own personal experience," said Gretchen Chapman, a psychologist and decision researcher at Carnegie Mellon University. "Now, we're supposed to learn about risk by looking at public health department websites, to see how the cases are going up. Our cognitive system is just not set up to respond to that input for risks."
In the time it might take for the human perception of COVID-19 illness risk to catch up to reality, thousands more people could die. Unless the deaths affect you personally, it's too abstract, and there's no motivating fear to behave accordingly.
But what is real and palpable to many people is the economic pain and physical consequences resulting from shutdowns: Some 22 million Americans lost jobs in March and April. There is a documented increase in psychological distress resulting from isolation, job loss and illness. And mortality for causes other than COVID-19 has soared; people are seeking less health care for acute conditions as hospitals limit elective procedures and people avoid them as vectors of COVID-19 risk.
Chapman described the pandemic as a "public good problem" — something that doesn't affect everyone in a society but does require everyone's cooperation to solve.
Young, healthy people may not feel they are putting themselves at much risk of severe illness if they go maskless or hang out in larger groups. But if they contract the virus, they could spread it to someone who won't survive. Everyone must remain vigilant for protective measures to work for those most at risk.
But vigilance can be exhausting. That's why "public good problems" aren't usually left up to individuals to work out on their own, Chapman said.
"We don't say, like, 'Taxes would really help the federal government and community services, [but] we think it should be up to individuals to donate taxes to the government because if they do, it'll be so much better,' " Chapman said. "That would not work. People would not do that."
It's only natural then that many Americans are having a hard time keeping their entire community in mind as they think about how they individually move through the world and behave during the pandemic. Instead, Chapman said, people tend to focus on the patterns in their own behavior and, if they don't end up sick, reach the seemingly logical conclusion that what they are doing is safe.
That's what happened to Kaplan. Throughout her carefree summer, she wasn't hearing scary stories about bodies piling up at morgues, or a friend's parent hospitalized and on a ventilator — the anecdotes and images that would serve as daily reminders the pandemic was still killing people.
On the contrary, Kaplan was rewarded for her risky behavior. Dating led to a relationship. She felt connected to her family. And it seemed like everyone else was doing the same thing. In the evenings, for example, she'd often take a stroll. One block over from her house was a bustling thoroughfare, where outdoor tables had taken over the streets and life continued, almost as before.
Fear helps motivate people to stay vigilant, but then it wears off
It's hard to remain constantly vigilant against possible risks, especially for an invisible threat such as a pathogen. The fact that some people stop trying is not unique to this pandemic, said Dr. Robert Aronowitz, who chairs the Department of History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania. He said that pandemics and epidemics don't usually end in a biological sense, rather they are simply foisted for the long term onto the social group most likely to contract them — usually one already marginalized.
"AIDS hasn't gone away. There's new cases of AIDS all over the place popping up," Aronowitz said. "There's a sense among straight, middle-class people that it isn't going to hit them in their lifetime," he said, but maintaining that mindset involves "ignoring the populations who are vulnerable."
Those who can afford to forget, do.
As summer turned to fall, Kaplan had a scare. She learned that a colleague she had spent a lot of time with at work had been exposed to COVID-19, which meant Kaplan also had to go into quarantine. She was suddenly flooded with guilt about having been so cavalier, going maskless. It felt reckless.
"While I was doing it, I didn't feel like it was wrong, but looking back at it, I can see it probably wasn't the best choice," Kaplan said.
Now, she's buckling down again with her behaviors. She canceled some travel and declined invitations to a few weddings she had planned to attend. She didn't enjoy it at the time, but she's glad she had that brush with exposure, because it helped jolt her back to reality — into remembering that the virus is still out there and dangerous.
Until that scare, it had started to feel like someone else's problem.
This story comes from NPR's reporting partnership with WHYY and Kaiser Health News.


npr--2020-12-11--Global Causes Of Death: Significant Shifts From 2000 To 2019

Global Causes Of Death : Significant Shifts From 2000 To 2019 Coronary heart disease and stroke are the two leading causes of death for Homo sapiens on planet Earth , according to a new report from the World Health Organization .
This fact has remained unchanged for the past two decades .
But this analysis of global deaths over the past 20 years finds significant shifts in how people die — as well as dramatic differences in what leads to death in different regions .
Noncommunicable diseases such as dementia and diabetes are now claiming more lives , while infectious @ @ @ @ @ @ @ taking far fewer .
In this year 's report , Alzheimer 's disease and other forms of dementia ranked as the seventh-leading cause of death globally .
Two decades ago , they ranked as the 20th cause .
Conversely , HIV in the year 2000 was the eighth-leading cause of death and now it 's down to No .
19 .
In fact , the raw number of people dying from HIV and AIDS has been cut in half over the past two decades .
In 2019 , a million fewer babies around @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of life compared with the year 2000 .
But rates of lung cancer and pulmonary disease increased over the same time period .
Changes in the causes of death were even more striking at a regional level .
Samira Asma , the assistant director-general for the Data , Analytics and Delivery for Impact Division at the WHO , says the number of deaths from car crashes in Africa jumped 50 % over the past 20 years .
`` There has been a significant rise in road traffic injuries in the African region since @ @ @ @ @ @ @ year , 297,000 people were killed in traffic accidents in WHO 's Africa region , according to the report .
This is 100,000 more than in the year 2000 .
In the Americas , including the U.S. , people are dying more frequently from suicide and drug overdoses .
`` There was a nearly threefold increase in deaths from drug use disorders in the Americas between 2000 and 2019 , '' Asma adds .
The Americas was the only region in the world last year where drug use was ranked among the top @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 86,000 people succumbing to overdoses .
In South East Asia and Africa , hundreds of thousands of children continue to die each year from diarrhea , malaria and complications at birth .
Those issues do n't make the European region 's list of top killers , but for Europeans seven of the leading 20 causes of death are cancers .
This report from WHO includes data through the end of 2019 only , before COVID-19 was even named .
So far this year , COVID-19 has killed more than 1.5 million people .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ this year the pandemic 's death toll could rise to 1.9 million .
If that happens , COVID-19 would rank as the sixth-deadliest disease in the world .

Global Causes Of Death: Significant Shifts From 2000 To 2019
Coronary heart disease and stroke are the two leading causes of death for Homo sapiens on planet Earth, according to a new report from the World Health Organization. This fact has remained unchanged for the past two decades. But this analysis of global deaths over the past 20 years finds significant shifts in how people die — as well as dramatic differences in what leads to death in different regions.
Noncommunicable diseases such as dementia and diabetes are now claiming more lives, while infectious diseases such as HIV and tuberculosis are taking far fewer.
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In this year's report, Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia ranked as the seventh-leading cause of death globally. Two decades ago, they ranked as the 20th cause.
Conversely, HIV in the year 2000 was the eighth-leading cause of death and now it's down to No. 19. In fact, the raw number of people dying from HIV and AIDS has been cut in half over the past two decades.
In 2019, a million fewer babies around the world died in their first month of life compared with the year 2000. But rates of lung cancer and pulmonary disease increased over the same time period.
Changes in the causes of death were even more striking at a regional level.
Samira Asma, the assistant director-general for the Data, Analytics and Delivery for Impact Division at the WHO, says the number of deaths from car crashes in Africa jumped 50% over the past 20 years.
"There has been a significant rise in road traffic injuries in the African region since 2000," she says. Last year, 297,000 people were killed in traffic accidents in WHO's Africa region, according to the report. This is 100,000 more than in the year 2000.
In the Americas, including the U.S., people are dying more frequently from suicide and drug overdoses.
"There was a nearly threefold increase in deaths from drug use disorders in the Americas between 2000 and 2019," Asma adds. The Americas was the only region in the world last year where drug use was ranked among the top 20 causes of death with an estimated 86,000 people succumbing to overdoses.
In South East Asia and Africa, hundreds of thousands of children continue to die each year from diarrhea, malaria and complications at birth. Those issues don't make the European region's list of top killers, but for Europeans seven of the leading 20 causes of death are cancers.
This report from WHO includes data through the end of 2019 only, before COVID-19 was even named. So far this year, COVID-19 has killed more than 1.5 million people. Forecasters predict that by the end of this year the pandemic's death toll could rise to 1.9 million. If that happens, COVID-19 would rank as the sixth-deadliest disease in the world.


npr--2020-12-11--President Trump Signs Bill To Avoid Government Shutdown Ahead Of Deadline

After facing a series of delays , the Senate approved by voice vote a one-week temporary funding measure Friday afternoon to avert a government shutdown hours before a critical deadline .
The president signed the bill Friday evening .
Without it , federal agencies would have run out of money at midnight Friday .
The Senate 's move came as Sen. Bernie Sanders , the Vermont independent , relented on his demands to first a vote first on a measure to allow direct payments to Americans .
`` I am not one of the members of the Senate who shuts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and keeps people for weekends , I do n't do that , '' Sanders said on the Senate floor ahead of the voice vote .
The effort de-escalates a highly dramatic scene raised in the Senate overnight , creating worries that a sequence of fights among various members could trigger a shutdown .
However , Sanders said he 'll raise his demands again when the stopgap measure , also known as a continuing resolution , is set to expire in one week .
And he said Congress should not go home for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ `` I am prepared to withdraw my objection at this moment , but I will not be prepared to withdraw an objection next week , '' Sanders said .
`` We will deal with the financial crisis facing tens of millions of Americans . ''
It was one of a series of efforts that delayed the Senate passing the legislation before Friday afternoon .
A group of Republican members were pushing for a provision to stop members of Congress from receiving pay during government shutdowns in the future .
Sen. Mike Braun of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ members seeking a vote on his `` no budget , no pay '' bill ahead of the vote on the stopgap measure .
However , the measure was not addressed on the Senate floor before approval was given to the temporary funding measure .
`` We 're going to try to vote something out , '' Braun told a Capitol Hill pool reporter ahead of the voice vote .
The stopgap measure also met delays as the result of a traffic jam in the Senate .
The legislation was passed by a large @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Wednesday .
When it arrived in the Senate , it was stuck behind the National Defense Authorization Act .
`` The Senate needs to pass a stopgap funding measure today to prevent a lapse while the bipartisan , bicameral efforts close in on a full-year funding bill , '' Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell , R-Ky. , said in opening remarks Friday on the chamber floor .
Another key holdout , GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky , withdrew his demands Friday for the defense bill , saying he only wanted it held @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an afternoon vote on the National Defense Authorization Act , clearing the way for the temporary funding measure .
`` Our main point in filibustering the defense authorization bill was to point out that the president should have the prerogative to end a war , not just to start wars , '' Paul told a Capitol Hill reporter .
Soon after , lawmakers approved a procedural motion to allow a final vote on the defense bill .
President Trump has threatened to veto the measure , but overwhelmingly majorities in both chambers have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ now the House and Senate approving the defense bill with a veto-proof majority , it appears Congress may have the votes to override a potential Trump veto .

President Trump Signs Bill To Avoid Government Shutdown Ahead Of Deadline
Enlarge this image toggle caption Stefani Reynolds/Getty Images Stefani Reynolds/Getty Images
Updated at 7:13 p.m. ET
After facing a series of delays, the Senate approved by voice vote a one-week temporary funding measure Friday afternoon to avert a government shutdown hours before a critical deadline.
The president signed the bill Friday evening. Without it, federal agencies would have run out of money at midnight Friday.
The Senate's move came as Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent, relented on his demands to vote first on a measure to allow direct payments to Americans.
"I am not one of the members of the Senate who shuts down, does this or does that and keeps people for weekends, I don't do that," Sanders said on the Senate floor ahead of the voice vote.
The effort de-escalates a highly dramatic scene raised in the Senate overnight, creating worries that a sequence of fights among various members could trigger a shutdown.
However, Sanders said he'll raise his demands again when the stopgap measure, also known as a continuing resolution, is set to expire in one week. And he said Congress should not go home for the holidays without addressing coronavirus relief aid.
"I am prepared to withdraw my objection at this moment, but I will not be prepared to withdraw an objection next week," Sanders said. "We will deal with the financial crisis facing tens of millions of Americans."
Enlarge this image toggle caption Senate Television via AP Senate Television via AP
It was one of a series of efforts that delayed the Senate passing the legislation before Friday afternoon.
A group of Republican members were pushing for a provision to stop members of Congress from receiving pay during government shutdowns in the future.
Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana said he was among the GOP members seeking a vote on his "no budget, no pay" bill ahead of the vote on the stopgap measure. However, the measure was not addressed on the Senate floor before approval was given to the temporary funding measure.
"We're going to try to vote something out," Braun told a Capitol Hill pool reporter ahead of the voice vote.
The stopgap measure also met delays as the result of a traffic jam in the Senate.
The legislation was passed by a large majority in the House of Representatives on Wednesday. When it arrived in the Senate, it was stuck behind the National Defense Authorization Act.
That remained the case Friday.
"The Senate needs to pass a stopgap funding measure today to prevent a lapse while the bipartisan, bicameral efforts close in on a full-year funding bill," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in opening remarks Friday on the chamber floor.
Another key holdout, GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, withdrew his demands Friday for the defense bill, saying he only wanted it held up for a day. That allowed an afternoon vote on the National Defense Authorization Act, clearing the way for the temporary funding measure.
The defense bill passed by a 84-13 vote.
"Our main point in filibustering the defense authorization bill was to point out that the president should have the prerogative to end a war, not just to start wars," Paul told a Capitol Hill reporter.
Soon after, lawmakers approved a procedural motion to allow a final vote on the defense bill. President Trump has threatened to veto the measure, but overwhelmingly majorities in both chambers have signaled support for the plan.
With now the House and Senate approving the defense bill with a veto-proof majority, it appears Congress may have the votes to override a potential Trump veto.


npr--2020-12-11--In Historic Vote, Argentina Chamber OKs Bill Legalizing Abortion

Argentina 's Chamber of Deputies approved a bill making abortion legal early on Friday , in a much-debated vote that many in the predominantly Roman Catholic country are describing as historic .
The bill now heads to the Senate .
`` Today we write a new chapter in history , '' Argentina 's Women , Genders and Diversity Minister Elizabeth Gómez Alcorta tweeted after the approval of the Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy Bill .
The new legislation would allow an abortion during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy .
Argentina currently outlaws abortion except in case of rape or if @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Lawmakers started formal debate of the bill on Thursday ; it was n't until the early hours of Friday that the chamber voted to approve the measure .
Several deputies said the change would bring regulation and remove stigmas from a practice that is already carried out clandestinely .
But Deputy Graciela Camaño said that through the measure , `` what is being done is to enable to discard the life of a human being . ''
Other lawmakers emphasized that women must have the right to make their own choices about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , but the answer is not in our uterus , '' Deputy Gabriela Cerruti said via Twitter .
On the contrary , she added : `` The world is unfair because it was built 500 years ago on a system based on the exploitation of women . ''
The vote — 131 in favor , 117 against and six abstentions — set off celebrations on the floor of the chamber , where the bill 's backers , many of them wearing green to show a unified front , shared hugs .
The margin @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bill that was later rejected by the Senate .
Argentina 's move toward legalizing abortion is being closely watched , in part because of the longtime influence of the Catholic Church on the country , the home of Pope Francis .
If the bill is enacted , it would signal a shift in a region that has long restricted the right to end a pregnancy .
Currently , Uruguay and Cuba are the only Latin American countries that allow abortions upon request , as NPR 's Scott Neuman has reported .
In South @ @ @ @ @ @ @ allow the procedure on request .
Despite those restrictions , U.N. health researchers say , there are more than 6.4 million abortions in Latin America each year — and only 1 in 4 of those procedures was deemed safe , according to the researchers ' 2017 study on abortion safety .

In Historic Vote, Argentina Chamber OKs Bill Legalizing Abortion
Enlarge this image toggle caption Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images
Argentina's Chamber of Deputies approved a bill making abortion legal early on Friday, in a much-debated vote that many in the predominantly Roman Catholic country are describing as historic. The bill now heads to the Senate.
"Today we write a new chapter in history," Argentina's Women, Genders and Diversity Minister Elizabeth Gómez Alcorta tweeted after the approval of the Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy Bill.
The new legislation would allow an abortion during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy. Argentina currently outlaws abortion except in case of rape or if the mother's health is in danger.
Lawmakers started formal debate of the bill on Thursday; it wasn't until the early hours of Friday that the chamber voted to approve the measure.
Several deputies said the change would bring regulation and remove stigmas from a practice that is already carried out clandestinely. But Deputy Graciela Camaño said that through the measure, "what is being done is to enable to discard the life of a human being."
Other lawmakers emphasized that women must have the right to make their own choices about reproduction.
"The world is unjust, but the answer is not in our uterus," Deputy Gabriela Cerruti said via Twitter. On the contrary, she added: "The world is unfair because it was built 500 years ago on a system based on the exploitation of women."
The vote — 131 in favor, 117 against and six abstentions — set off celebrations on the floor of the chamber, where the bill's backers, many of them wearing green to show a unified front, shared hugs. The margin was slightly larger than a similar 2018 bill that was later rejected by the Senate.
Argentina's move toward legalizing abortion is being closely watched, in part because of the longtime influence of the Catholic Church on the country, the home of Pope Francis. If the bill is enacted, it would signal a shift in a region that has long restricted the right to end a pregnancy. Currently, Uruguay and Cuba are the only Latin American countries that allow abortions upon request, as NPR's Scott Neuman has reported. In South America, Guyana and French Guiana also allow the procedure on request.
Despite those restrictions, U.N. health researchers say, there are more than 6.4 million abortions in Latin America each year — and only 1 in 4 of those procedures was deemed safe, according to the researchers' 2017 study on abortion safety.


npr--2020-12-12--Coronavirus World Map: Tracking The Spread Of The Outbreak

Coronavirus World Map : Tracking The Spread Of The Outbreak On Sept. 28 , the world marked a tragic milestone : 1 million deaths from COVID-19 .
That 's according to a tally maintained by Johns Hopkins University .
And public health experts believe the actual toll – the recorded deaths plus the unrecorded deaths – is much higher .
While the number of cases has slowed in many countries that were hit hard early on by coronavirus , the number of new cases continues to increase .
Since early July , new daily cases averaged over 200,000 worldwide .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ country-by-country breakdown of new and total cases since January .
At over 15 million cases , the United States leads the world 's COVID-19 crisis .
In late spring and early summer , new COVID-19 cases were largely driven by cases in the Americas .
While the U.S. has consistently had the most new daily cases of coronavirus in the region , Brazil 's new daily cases increased rapidly between May and August .
However , in September , several countries that had previously flattened their curve saw a resurgence in cases , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , daily case counts have risen swiftly since June .
Explore how the number of coronavirus cases have shifted in different parts of the world over time .
The first chart compares each continent to each other , while the next charts highlight the number of cases in select countries by region .
To compare country outbreaks , the chart below graphs trend lines for average new daily cases and deaths against each country 's totals to date .
This type of visualization highlights a state 's daily growth or decline relative to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ When both new and total case and death counts grow quickly , the curves bend upward .
As new cases and deaths slow , the curves level or bend down .
In countries like Israel , which is seeing a second wave of case growth after an initial wave in April , the line forms a V-shape , as the initially bent curve spikes upwards again .
Click here to see the state-by-state breakdown of cases in the United States .
This story was originally published on March 30 , 2020 .

Coronavirus world map: We've now passed the 600 million mark for infections
Editor's note: This page is no longer being updated. The last update was Sept. 5, 2022. For current data about COVID-19 cases and deaths around the world, Johns Hopkins University and Our World in Data are useful resources.
In late January 2020 only a few dozen COVID-19 infections had been identified outside of China. A year later, the world tallied its first 100 million cases. It took the globe just 7 more months to pass the 200 million mark— then another 5 months to hit 300 million, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University. Now the virus has spread to every corner of the globe and has been blamed for more than 6 million deaths.
The United States, India and Brazil in that order have had the most COVID cases and the three nations collectively account for almost half of all recorded infections so far in the pandemic.
Explore the chart below to find a country-by-country breakdown of new and total cases since January 2020.
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Explore how the number of coronavirus cases have shifted in different parts of the world over time. The first chart compares each continent to each other, while the next charts highlight the number of cases in select countries by region.
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This story was originally published on March 30, 2020.


npr--2020-12-12--Coronavirus Is Surging: How Severe Is Your State's Outbreak?

Coronavirus Is Surging : How Severe Is Your State 's Outbreak ?
More than 15 million people in the U.S. have had confirmed coronavirus infections and more than 280,000 have died of COVID-19 .
Tens of thousands of new cases are reported daily nationwide .
In the graphics below , explore the trends in your state .
View the data via a heat map ( immediately below ) , curve charts , a table of state-by-state trends over four weeks , or a map of total cases and deaths .
The map above shows the risk of infection in each @ @ @ @ @ @ @ capita .
The consortium of researchers and public health experts who developed these risk levels advises states in the red category to issue stay-home orders .
They advise orange states to consider stay-home orders , along with increased testing and contact tracing .
Yellow states need to keep up social distancing and mask usage , and all states should continue testing and contact tracing .
To compare state outbreaks , the chart above graphs trend lines for average new daily cases and deaths against each state 's totals to date .
This type @ @ @ @ @ @ @ growth or decline relative to the overall size of its outbreak .
When both new and total case and death counts grow quickly , the curves bend upward .
As new cases and deaths slow , the curves level or bend down .
In New York , the curve rose sharply before reaching over 170,000 total cases in April .
New cases fell from about 10,000 per day in mid-April to under 900 a day most of the summer , before starting to rise in the fall .
Explore the map above to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the country for both new confirmed cases and reported deaths from COVID-19 .
New York was the original epicenter of the pandemic in the U.S. As of mid October , California , Florida and Texas surpass New York for total cases to date , though New York still has the highest death total .
Click here to see a global map of confirmed cases and deaths .
To show trends , the table below shows the change in average new cases per day in each state , week over week for the last @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of red have growing outbreaks ; those in shades of green , are declining .
The graphics on this page pull from data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University from several sources , including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ; the World Health Organization ; national , state and local government health departments ; 1point3acres ; and local media reports .
The JHU team automates its data uploads and regularly checks them for anomalies .
This may result in occasional data discrepancies on this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and updates its feeds .
State-by-state recovery data are unavailable at this time .
There may be discrepancies between what you see here and what you see on your local health department 's website .
Figures shown do not include cases on cruise ships .
Fluctuations in the numbers may happen as health authorities review old cases and or update their methodologies .
For example , in early June , Michigan health authorities started including probable cases in its totals .
This resulted in a brief spike in the state 's daily numbers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reconcile the historical data .
On June 25 , New Jersey included 1,854 previously-unreported probable deaths in its totals , resulting in a spike in the state 's daily death numbers .
On Sept. 2 , Massachusetts changed its methodology for counting probable cases , which lowered its overall case and death numbers .
The JHU team maintains a list of such changes .
This story was originally published on March 16 , 2020 .
Elena Renken was a co-author on that version .
Sean McMinn and Audrey Carlsen contributed to this story @ @ @ @ @ @ @

Tracking the coronavirus around the U.S.: See how your state is doing
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Note: This page was last updated on Feb. 1, 2023. It will no longer be updated. For current data on COVID cases and deaths, demographics, and hospitalizations, consult the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As of Feb. 1, there have been more than 101 million confirmed coronavirus infections in the U.S. and more than 1 million people have died of COVID-19. In the graphics below, explore the trends in your state.
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The above charts show average new cases per 100,000 people for each state over the last 12 months.
Note: Actual cases may be substantially higher, since many who test positive with at-home tests don't report their cases.
For additional data about COVID-19 in the U.S, including cases and deaths, demographics, and hospitalizations, consult the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.
To show trends, the table below shows the change in average new cases per day in each state, week over week for the last 28 days. States marked in shades of red have growing outbreaks; those in shades of green, are declining.
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Methodology
The graphics on this page pull from data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University from several sources, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the World Health Organization; national, state and local government health departments; 1point3acres; and local media reports.
The JHU team automates its data uploads and regularly checks them for anomalies. This may result in occasional data discrepancies on this page as the JHU team resolves anomalies and updates its feeds. There may be discrepancies between what you see here and what you see on your local health department's website. Figures shown do not include cases on cruise ships.
Fluctuations in the numbers may happen as health authorities review old cases, process testing backlogs or update their methodologies. The JHU team maintains a list of such changes.
This story was originally published on March 16, 2020. Elena Renken was a co-author on that version. Sean McMinn and Audrey Carlsen contributed to this story. Carmel Wroth edited this story.


npr--2020-12-12--'I Have Lost Everything': Ethiopian Refugees Flee For Their Lives

' I Have Lost Everything ' : Ethiopian Refugees Flee For Their Lives The heat is unrelenting in the middle of a December day in eastern Sudan .
It 's hard to find any shade in this arid landscape .
It 's mostly dust and boulders — for now at least , the temporary home of tens of thousands of Ethiopian refugees who have crossed the border to flee the fighting in Ethiopia .
There 's not much to make a home .
The nearest town , Al Qadarif , is two hours away .
No water source exists at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in from miles away through rugged roads .
Refugees are sleeping in makeshift tents and in abandoned buildings .
Some are even sleeping outside with no shelter .
Last month , the Ethiopian government launched a military offensive against a rebellious regional government .
The ensuing conflict has killed hundreds and almost 50,000 Ethiopians have crossed the country 's northwestern border into Sudan .
It 's a refugee crisis that is straining the humanitarian infrastructure in the country .
The United Nations refugee agency has appealed for $ 150 million to help cope @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Camp , Measho Fishale , 34 , is trying to make a stew out of the sorghum that humanitarian groups have been handing out .
It is n't really working .
All she can do is stand above the stove in the sun , holding her toddler .
She has seven children , but when the fighting started in the town of Mai-Kadra in early November , her two oldest were not at home .
`` [ Militias ] were slaughtering people with knives and machetes , '' she says .
Many other @ @ @ @ @ @ @ claim members of Fano , a youth militia loyal to the government , rampaged through Mai-Kadra killing ethnic Tigrayans .
The government has repeatedly disputed that narrative , saying it was a youth militia affiliated with the Tigrayan rebels who killed ethnic Amharas , Ethiopia 's second-biggest ethnic group .
NPR could not independently corroborate the refugees ' claims , but dozens of them told the same story .
Measho says she had no choice but to run immediately .
She 's looked for the two children she left behind in Ethiopia , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the camp , but she has n't been able to find them .
Standing next to Measho is 55-year-old Kidan Berhe .
She wanted to stay home , despite the war , and did n't think she could make the arduous walk through the bush into Sudan .
But then armed men swept through the town and she thought about her children having to return to look for her .
She worried they would be killed as well , so she left everything and walked for hours toward Sudan .
`` This @ @ @ @ @ @ @ says , pointing to her clothes .
Tears well up in her eyes and she presses her hands against her face .
`` My gold .
My clothes .
I have lost everything , '' she tells NPR .
She says she now feels safe in Sudan but worries about her future and about the bleak living conditions at the camps .
Humanitarian workers are struggling to keep up with the flow of refugees and building up an infrastructure to accommodate them .
Nadir Ibrahim , a local humanitarian worker , says the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ no latrines ; they are doing open defecation . ''
If this continues , he warns , disease will run rampant at these camps .
Refugees are doing what they can with whatever they can .
They 're building shelter out of grass .
They are trying to make injera — the traditional Ethiopian bread usually made from a grain called teff — from the sorghum that is given out by aid agencies .
In Ethiopia , the situation appears more severe .
The United Nations has said that refugees in the Tigray @ @ @ @ @ @ @ started .
The more than 96,000 Eritrean refugees in Tigray , who have fled war and repression in the past two decades , the U.N. says , have run out of food rations .
The U.N. has received reports that refugees are leaving camps because of violence .
Ethiopia and the U.N. had reached an agreement giving aid groups access to the Tigray region , but last week , the Ethiopian military shot at a U.N. convoy and the government warned it did not need a `` babysitter . ''
On Friday , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ its staff members had been killed at one of the camps in Tigray .
Ethiopia has said that the military operation in the country is over , because it has taken control of the rebel capita , Mekelle .
But the Tigray People 's Liberation Front says it will not surrender to what it considers an invading army and fighting has continued on many fronts .
The war is a power struggle between Ethiopia 's new government and its old one ; it 's about what the Ethiopian political system will look like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with refugees , the war is about loss .
Everyone , no matter which side they 're on , is mourning .
Some have lost loved ones ; many others have lost homes .
And every inch of the refugee camps in Sudan has become about grasping at some semblance of what they had before the war .
At the Um Rakuba camp , Fitsum Kidanemariam , 25 , says he left his parents back in Ethiopia .
He has n't been able to call them , so he does n't know their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ man and his voice breaks as he explains his situation .
Back home , his love was art but he was forced to work in construction because , like anywhere in the world , `` There is no money in art , '' he says .
He walks past a huge tent filled with sacks of sorghum , past a little hut where women sell coffee .
He enters what looked like an abandoned schoolhouse .
It 's just a shell now — most of the windows are broken ; there are no @ @ @ @ @ @ @ His friends play cards on the floor .
On the windowsill , just behind them , he 's lined up seven sculptures that he made out of rocks he found in the camp .
On one of them , he carved the face of a woman on one side and the face of a lion on the other .
`` The woman is forgiving and respectful , '' he says .
`` The lion , like warring men , will lash out at the slightest touch . ''
Fitsum sculpts every day .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ using a piece of steel he found at the camp .
He 's trying to forget the violence , hoping that his parents are still alive .
He says he spent hours sculpting this rock , dreaming of a different life where humans were less like lions .

'I Have Lost Everything': Ethiopian Refugees Flee For Their Lives
Enlarge this image toggle caption Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP via Getty Images Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP via Getty Images
The heat is unrelenting in the middle of a December day in eastern Sudan. It's hard to find any shade in this arid landscape. It's mostly dust and boulders — and, for now at least, it is the temporary home of tens of thousands of Ethiopian refugees who have crossed the border to flee the fighting in their country.
There's not much to make a home. The nearest town, Al Qadarif, is two hours away. No water source exists at the camps, so water is trucked in from miles away through rugged roads. Refugees are sleeping in makeshift tents and in abandoned buildings. Some are even sleeping outside with no shelter.
Last month, the Ethiopian government launched a military offensive against a rebellious regional government. The ensuing conflict has killed hundreds, and almost 50,000 Ethiopians have crossed the country's northwestern border into Sudan. It's a refugee crisis that is straining the humanitarian infrastructure in the country. The United Nations refugee agency has appealed for $150 million to help cope with the situation.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Nariman El-Mofty/AP Nariman El-Mofty/AP
At Village 8 Camp, Measho Fishale, 34, is trying to make a stew out of the sorghum that humanitarian groups have been handing out. It isn't really working. All she can do is stand above the stove in the sun, holding her toddler.
She has seven children, but when the fighting started in the town of Mai-Kadra in early November, her two oldest were not at home.
"[Militias] were slaughtering people with knives and machetes," she says.
Many other refugees describe the same scene: They say members of Fano, a youth militia loyal to the government, rampaged through Mai-Kadra killing ethnic Tigrayans. The government has repeatedly disputed that narrative, saying it was a youth militia affiliated with the Tigrayan rebels who killed ethnic Amharas, Ethiopia's second-biggest ethnic group.
NPR could not independently corroborate the refugees' claims, but dozens of them told the same story.
Measho says she had no choice but to run immediately. She has looked for the two children she left behind in Ethiopia, hoping they would have found their way to the camp, but she hasn't been able to find them.
Standing next to Measho is 55-year-old Kidan Berhe. She wanted to stay home, despite the war and didn't think she could make the arduous walk through the bush into Sudan. But then armed men swept through the town, and she thought about her children having to return to look for her. She worried they would be killed as well, so she left everything and walked for hours toward Sudan.
"This is all I have," she says, pointing to her clothes. Tears well up in her eyes and she presses her hands against her face.
"My gold. My clothes. I have lost everything," she tells NPR.
She says she now feels safe in Sudan but worries about her future and about the bleak living conditions at the camps. Humanitarian workers are struggling to keep up with the flow of refugees and to build up an infrastructure to accommodate them.
Nadir Ibrahim, a local humanitarian worker, says the refugees "need water; there are no latrines; they are doing open defecation." If this continues, he warns, disease will run rampant at these camps.
Refugees are doing what they can with whatever they can. They're building shelter out of grass. They are trying to make injera — the traditional Ethiopian bread usually made from a grain called teff — from the sorghum that is given out by aid agencies.
In Ethiopia, the situation appears more severe. The United Nations has said that refugees in the Tigray Region have received no aid since conflict started. The more than 96,000 Eritrean refugees in Tigray, who have fled war and repression in the past two decades, the U.N. says, have run out of food rations. The U.N. has received reports that refugees are leaving camps because of violence.
Ethiopia and the U.N. had reached an agreement giving aid groups access to the Tigray Region, but last week, the Ethiopian military shot at a U.N. convoy and the government warned it did not need a "babysitter." On Friday, the International Rescue Committee said one of its staff members had been killed at a camp in Tigray.
Ethiopia has said that the military operation in the country is over, because it has taken control of the Tigray Region capital, Mekelle. But the Tigray People's Liberation Front says it will not surrender to what it considers an invading army, and fighting has continued on many fronts.
The war is a power struggle between Ethiopia's new government and its old one; it's about what the Ethiopian political system will look like in the future. But in interviews with refugees, the war is about loss. Everyone, no matter which side they're on, is mourning. Some have lost loved ones; many others have lost homes. And every inch of the refugee camps in Sudan has become about grasping at some semblance of what they had before the war.
At the Um Rakuba camp, Fitsum Kidanemariam, 25, says he left his parents back in Ethiopia. He hasn't been able to call them, so he doesn't know their fate.
He's a slim young man and his voice breaks as he explains his situation. Back home, his love was art, but he had to work in construction because, like anywhere in the world, "there is no money in art," he says.
He walks past a huge tent filled with sacks of sorghum, past a little hut where women sell coffee. He enters what looked like an abandoned schoolhouse. It's just a shell now — most of the windows are broken; there are no doors; the paint is peeling. His friends play cards on the floor. On the windowsill, just behind them, he has lined up seven sculptures that he made out of rocks he found in the camp.
On one of them, he carved the face of a woman on one side and the face of a lion on the other.
"The woman is forgiving and respectful," he says. "The lion, like warring men, will lash out at the slightest touch."
Fitsum sculpts every day. For hours, he meticulously carves rocks using a piece of steel he found at the camp. He's trying to forget the violence, hoping that his parents are still alive. He says he spent hours sculpting this rock, dreaming of a different life where humans were less like lions.


npr--2020-12-12--Supreme Court Dismisses Texas Lawsuit Aiming To Overturn Election Results

Audio will be available later today .
The Supreme Court rejected a Texas lawsuit challenging the election results in fours @ @ @ @ @ a long-shot attempt by President Trump 's allies to overturn President-elect Biden 's victory .

Supreme Court Dismisses Texas Lawsuit Aiming To Overturn Election Results
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
The U.S. Supreme Court last night rejected a lawsuit that tried yet again to overturn the election results. This one was brought by Texas and 17 other Republican-run states alleging election fraud in four states won by Joe Biden. It was another reverse to Republican attempts to change what happened, which, to be clear, is that Joe Biden won 306 electoral votes to Donald Trump's 232. President-elect Biden also won the popular vote by more than seven million. We're joined now by NPR voting reporter Miles Parks. Miles, thanks so much for being with us.
MILES PARKS, BYLINE: Hey. Good morning.
SIMON: The court was short and direct last night, weren't they?
PARKS: They were, indeed. A three-sentence order which said they were denying the complaint that was brought by Texas for, quote, "lack of standing." Basically, Texas had said that the way other states vote was hurting them. But the court didn't buy it. The way voting in the U.S. works is that every state runs their own elections. And they all do it slightly differently. The court said Texas had not demonstrated an interest in how other states conduct their elections and that Texas had basically not suffered any injury here.
SIMON: And, Miles, refresh our recollection. What was at the heart of Texas's argument about results in other states?
PARKS: Sure. So on Tuesday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued four states Biden won, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. He was joined by 17 other states, all won by Trump. Paxton claimed that changes the four states made to election procedures because of the pandemic, things like increasing vote by mail, violated federal law. And he also alleged, without evidence, that the changes enabled voter fraud to occur. We should add that U.S. Attorney General William Barr has said the Justice Department has not found any evidence of widespread voter fraud in this year's election.
SIMON: And this court decision has set off a moment of national unity?
PARKS: (Laughing) Not - I wouldn't go that far. President Trump has already come out saying he's not happy about this. He'd been saying for months that the Supreme Court was kind of his secret weapon, the thing that was going to come in and save the election for him. Last night, he tweeted, the decision was a legal disgrace and an embarrassment to the United States.
There has been, from other sides of the country, some celebration and relief from those who opposed the lawsuit. Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said the court, quote, "saw through this seditious abuse of our electoral process." And he said he hoped it would make anyone trying to attack the election think twice.
I talked to University of Pennsylvania law professor Claire Finkelstein about all of the various lawsuits that the Trump campaign has brought over the past month. She said she was confident this was how the court would rule. And she's been, in general, encouraged by how the legal system has held up through all this. But she was still worried about the fact that it had to deal with these sorts of cases, you know, fraud without evidence cases at all.
CLAIRE FINKELSTEIN: It's a very problematic state of affairs because it tests our ability to engage in peaceful transition of power to the utmost. So our system is being stress tested. I think on the whole, we're coming out OK.
SIMON: Miles, are there any legal challenges left to the election results?
PARKS: Legal experts seem to think this is basically the end of the road. You know, Trump had, as I mentioned, pinned his hopes on the Supreme Court. And that obviously has not worked out. The Electoral College meets in all 50 states and D.C. on Monday to cast votes, solidifying Biden's victory.
Trump had previously said he would accept the Electoral College's decision. But, obviously, a statement like that is not binding. President Trump has been known to say something and do something else. So we'll see. He says he's going to continue fighting the election results. The question is, what form does that take?
SIMON: NPR's Miles Parks, thanks so much.
PARKS: Thanks, Scott.
Copyright © 2020 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.


npr--2020-12-12--Americans Await Distribution Of Pfizer's COVID-19 Vaccine

Audio will be available later today .
Americans are waiting for the first doses of Pfizer 's coronavirus vaccine , @ @ @ @ @ soon .
Moderna also has a vaccine waiting for federal review .

Americans Await Distribution Of Pfizer's COVID-19 Vaccine
Americans are waiting for the first doses of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine, expected to be distributed very soon. Moderna also has a vaccine waiting for federal review.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
It's what so many have been waiting for. The FDA late last night issued its first emergency-use authorization for a COVID-19 vaccine. And just today, Army General Gus Perna, who's leading Operation Warp Speed, announced that distribution of the two-shot vaccine is already underway.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
GUS PERNA: Make no mistake. Distribution has begun. Right now, boxes are being packed and loaded with vaccine, with emphasis on quality control.
SIMON: Containers shipping doses will start to move tomorrow. We'll get to how each state will deal with its allocated vaccines a bit later. But first, we're now joined by NPR science correspondent Joe Palca. Joe, thanks so much for being with us.
JOE PALCA, BYLINE: You're most welcome.
SIMON: It is not approval. It is authorization. Is that different from the way these things are normally done?
PALCA: Yeah, this is a big step. It's not an approval, as you say. It's a special category that was created so that in a pandemic, in a health emergency, products could be made available as soon as it was clear that their known benefits outweighed any known risks. And that's what they concluded in this case.
SIMON: And what information did the FDA draw from to make their decision to authorize?
PALCA: Well, the sponsors, Pfizer and BioNTech, did a study of 44,000 volunteers. Half got two shots of a vaccine. Half got two shots of a placebo. And then they waited to see who got sick with COVID disease. And the people who got sick in the trial were - almost 90%, 95% were in the group that got the placebo. So the suggestion is, of course, that the vaccine was protecting people. There were side effects from the vaccine. People complained about having a sore arm or sometimes feeling lousy like they were sick. But in a way, that's saying yes, your immune system is responding to the vaccine and preparing itself should the real virus ever come along. And these side effects were temporary.
SIMON: What's the best thinking now as to who should get the vaccine, even if it's months away, and who should avoid it?
PALCA: Well, the recommendation is for people older than 16. There was some discussion about whether that was justifiable from the data that was collected so far. But in a press conference this morning, FDA officials were saying, yes, we're confident that 16 is a safe age. I mean, they don't make recommendation about whether pregnant women or women who are breastfeeding should take it because, again, they just don't have a lot of data. There was a question about whether it was prudent not to recommend the vaccine for people who get severe allergic reactions to things because of what happened to a couple people who got the vaccine in the United Kingdom. But Peter Marks, who heads the division of FDA responsible for approving this vaccine, said the agency decided not to do that.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PETER MARKS: We feel comfortable and that we're telling people that unless they've had a severe allergic reaction or one of its components, they can receive it.
PALCA: They just want to make sure that all the places that give out the vaccine have the medicines you need to take care of a severe reaction, should one occur.
SIMON: And a few more vaccines in the pipeline, right, Joe?
PALCA: That's right. Moderna has a vaccine very much like the Pfizer-BioNTech one, and that could be approved next week - as soon as next week.
SIMON: NPR's Joe Palca, thanks so much for being with us.
PALCA: You're welcome.
Copyright © 2020 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.


npr--2020-12-12--What Most Biden Picks Have In Common: Time In Obama Administration

What Most Biden Picks Have In Common : Time In Obama Administration As President-elect Joe Biden crafts his Cabinet and White House team of advisers , he has pledged to make it the most diverse team in history .
But in his picks so far , there is one thing that most of his team will have in common : previous service in the Obama administration .
Biden , who was Obama 's vice president , has emphasized his personal relationships with many of these advisers .
And he also has highlighted that he wants people who are `` ready @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lead the country 's recovery from the coronavirus pandemic .
`` Each of these nominees are forward-thinking , crisis-tested and experienced , '' said transition spokesperson Sean Savett , `` They are ready to quickly use the levers of government to make meaningful differences in the lives of Americans . ''
It 's not unusual to pick top advisers from an earlier White House because they know the ropes , said Kathryn Dunn Tenpas , who has studied administrations back to President Ronald Reagan .
And Biden 's team members will face a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ did last time around , she said .
`` We are certainly not in an era right now where it 's status quo .
We have a pandemic on our hands .
The economy is faltering .
We have really high racial tension in our country .
I do n't think it was like that in 2009 , '' she said .
But progressives make the same case : It is n't 2009 anymore , and fresh faces and perspectives are needed to tackle huge problems including climate change and racial justice .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ urge Biden to made some bolder picks to fills his remaining Cabinet spots for attorney general , climate and energy posts , education , transportation and labor .
`` We were n't in the greatest place ... before Donald Trump took office , '' said Cori Bush , a progressive Democrat who became the first Black woman elected to Congress from Missouri in November .
`` We have some amazing people that are doing wonderful work ... all across this country , '' Bush told reporters , saying that Biden had missed an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ things that they 've been working on in their organizations , in their communities , in their businesses , to this place — because we have to do a lot of work . ''

What Most Biden Picks Have In Common: Time In Obama Administration
As President-elect Joe Biden crafts his Cabinet and White House team of advisers, he has pledged to make it the most diverse team in history. But in his picks so far, there is one thing that most of his team will have in common: service in the Obama administration.
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Biden, who was President Barack Obama's vice president, has emphasized his personal relationships with many of these advisers. And he also has highlighted that he wants people who are "ready on Day 1" to help him lead the country's recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
"Each of these nominees are forward-thinking, crisis-tested and experienced," said transition spokesperson Sean Savett. "They are ready to quickly use the levers of government to make meaningful differences in the lives of Americans."
It's not unusual to pick top advisers from earlier administrations because they know the ropes, said Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, who has studied administrations back to President Ronald Reagan. And Biden's team members will face a completely different set of challenges than they did last time around, she said.
"We are certainly not in an era right now where it's status quo. We have a pandemic on our hands. The economy is faltering. We have really high racial tension in our country. I don't think it was like that in 2009," she said.
But progressives make the same point: It isn't 2009 anymore. And they say fresh faces and perspectives are needed to tackle huge problems including climate change and racial justice. Progressive activists have redoubled their efforts to urge Biden to made some bolder picks to fills his remaining Cabinet spots for attorney general, climate and energy posts, education, transportation and labor.
"We weren't in the greatest place ... before Donald Trump took office," said Cori Bush, a progressive Democrat who became the first Black woman elected to Congress from Missouri in November.
"We have some amazing people that are doing wonderful work ... all across this country," Bush told reporters, saying that Biden had missed an opportunity "to bring some of those things that they've been working on in their organizations, in their communities, in their businesses, to this place — because we have to do a lot of work."
NPR congressional correspondent Susan Davis contributed to this story.


npr--2020-12-12--Rural Health Systems Challenged By COVID-19 Surge

Debbie Roberts wishes her stepbrother had just slid away from his advanced Parkinson 's disease .
He died Nov. 29 , just one person among many who died in an outbreak of COVID-19 at North Valley Extended Care in the Okanogan County town of Tonasket , Wash. , — population about 1,000 .
So far , at least 16 people at the facility have died since Thanksgiving .
`` If only he had n't contracted this COVID and left this world in such agony , '' Roberts says .
`` We sort of talk to him among ourselves .
We @ @ @ @ @ @ @ so sorry you had to go this way . '
`` She says that her stepbrother was confused , would constantly pull off his oxygen mask , and his eyes were pleading near the end of his life .
Ken was 66 years when he died .
Roberts does n't blame the health care facility .
But there are dozens more sickened — including nearly half the staff .
The town 's health care system is in crisis , a striking example of the perilous state of rural health care .
Rural America @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this year : prisons , nursing homes and meat packers .
But there are few doctors , ICU beds and little backup when health care workers also get sick .
`` When we want to get a COVID test we have to go 30 miles away to Omak ( Washington ) , '' Roberts says .
`` So we ca n't just go to our local hospital .
They do n't have enough . ''
Confluence Health is a health system that covers north-central Washington , including Tonasket .
It has a dozen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ region .
Incoming CEO Dr. Douglas Wilson says as his hospitals fill with COVID-19 patients , they 're crowding out victims of car accidents , heart attacks and head injuries .
`` You hate to put someone on a helicopter or in an ambulance and fly them over the mountains in the winter , when they would 've done better had they been able to receive care here locally without traveling , '' Wilson says .
`` That 's a difference between life and death sometimes . ''
Carrie Henning-Smith is with the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
`` Rural residents on average are older than urban residents , '' Henning-Smith says .
`` Rural residents have more underlying health conditions .
And rural residents are less likely to have health insurance and reliable access to health care .
And you put all those together it means that once COVID gets into a rural area — and it 's in virtually every rural area — it 's more volatile . ''
Rural COVID-19 patients may have it worse for the long haul because COVID-19 has many symptoms needing specialty care @ @ @ @ @ @ @ areas .
Some counties do n't even have a single physician , says doctor Eyal Kedar , who 's been with the St. Lawrence Health System in New York State for about five years .
Kedar says when he first arrived , `` There was no nephrologist , there was no infectious disease person in my health system , we did n't even have a ( full-time person ) for pulmonology . ''
`` There was no neurologist , no dermatologist in my health system , there was and still is no dialysis @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is just a small list , '' he says .
Kedar says he is the system 's first rheumatologist .
And he says his health system is a model rural health system .
`` By rural standards , we 're pretty good , '' he says .
`` If you 're in a rural area and you need a subspecialist , there 's a very good chance that there 's not going to be someone around to help you . ''
He says even physical barriers like adequate transportation , high mountains and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ care they need .
`` There are two Americas here .
There is nothing like rural underserved , '' Kedar says .
`` Rural America has suffered from a lack of attention .
We 're not seeing the cracks in the walls of the system .
We 're seeing the absence of walls . ''
A 300-person November wedding near Ritzville , Wash. , in Adams County has been linked to an outbreak in a neighboring Grant County school and long-term care facilities .
So far this year , at least 65 people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — more than half have come in the past six weeks .
Theresa Adkinson is the Public Health Administrator for Grant County .
`` I am done with COVID , I am burned out , '' Adkinson says .
`` My staff are exhausted . ''
There are so many sick that her office has largely stopped contact tracing in the community .
Some schools and one county hospital are doing their own contact tracing and outreach to help .
Adkinson says it 's disheartening to put out press releases with brutal death @ @ @ @ @ @ @ posting about unmasked gatherings on Facebook .
`` The vaccine is coming , '' Adkinson says .
`` We can see the finish line .
But it 's a ways out there .
And how sad is it the people we lose just before we get to the finish line ? ''
Rhonda Piner leads nursing for North Valley Extended Care in Tonasket .
She kept working from home even after she got the virus .
But then , the day after Thanksgiving , her 25 years of nursing experience kicked in .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ no longer take care of myself , and so I called 911 , '' Piner says .
Piner was hospitalized for six days .
She says the prospect of returning to her remaining residents at the care center is daunting .
`` I do n't know all the names ( of the dead ) , '' Piner says .
`` I started crying , I will tell you .
I will be sad to know who did n't make it and who did .
So , yeah it 's gon na be tough @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is . ''
It may be even tougher than she knows .
Experts say without adequate ways of implementing super-cold storage that vaccines require , rural areas may wait longer to get the much-anticipated doses .

Rural Health Systems Challenged By COVID-19 Surge
Enlarge this image toggle caption Elaine Thompson/AP Elaine Thompson/AP
Debbie Roberts wishes her stepbrother had just slid away from his advanced Parkinson's disease.
He died Nov. 29, just one person among many who died in an outbreak of COVID-19 at North Valley Extended Care in the Okanogan County town of Tonasket, Wash., — population about 1,000. So far, at least 16 people at the facility have died since Thanksgiving.
"If only he hadn't contracted this COVID and left this world in such agony," Roberts says. "We sort of talk to him among ourselves. We say, 'Sorry Ken, we're so sorry you had to go this way.' "
She says that her stepbrother was confused, would constantly pull off his oxygen mask, and his eyes were pleading near the end of his life.
Ken was 66 years when he died.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Courtesy of Debbie Roberts Courtesy of Debbie Roberts
Roberts doesn't blame the health care facility. But there are dozens more sickened — including nearly half the staff. The town's health care system is in crisis, a striking example of the perilous state of rural health care.
Rural America has been the site of COVID-19 hotspots this year: prisons, nursing homes and meat packers. But there are few doctors, ICU beds and little backup when health care workers also get sick.
"When we want to get a COVID test we have to go 30 miles away to Omak (Washington)," Roberts says. "So we can't just go to our local hospital. They don't have enough."
Already filling up
Confluence Health is a health system that covers north-central Washington, including Tonasket. It has a dozen clinics across a wide swath of the region. Incoming CEO Dr. Douglas Wilson says as his hospitals fill with COVID-19 patients, they're crowding out victims of car accidents, heart attacks and head injuries.
"You hate to put someone on a helicopter or in an ambulance and fly them over the mountains in the winter, when they would've done better had they been able to receive care here locally without traveling," Wilson says. "That's a difference between life and death sometimes."
Carrie Henning-Smith is with the University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center.
"Rural residents on average are older than urban residents," Henning-Smith says. "Rural residents have more underlying health conditions. And rural residents are less likely to have health insurance and reliable access to health care. And you put all those together it means that once COVID gets into a rural area — and it's in virtually every rural area — it's more volatile."
Rural COVID-19 patients may have it worse for the long haul because COVID-19 has many symptoms needing specialty care that isn't usually available in rural areas. Some counties don't even have a single physician, says doctor Eyal Kedar, who's been with the St. Lawrence Health System in New York State for about five years.
Kedar says when he first arrived, "There was no nephrologist, there was no infectious disease person in my health system, we didn't even have a (full-time person) for pulmonology."
"There was no neurologist, no dermatologist in my health system, there was and still is no dialysis capability in my health system and this is just a small list," he says.
Kedar says he is the system's first rheumatologist. And he says his health system is a model rural health system.
"By rural standards, we're pretty good," he says. "If you're in a rural area and you need a subspecialist, there's a very good chance that there's not going to be someone around to help you."
He says even physical barriers like adequate transportation, high mountains and snow can keep rural residents from the care they need.
"There are two Americas here. There is nothing like rural underserved," Kedar says. "Rural America has suffered from a lack of attention. We're not seeing the cracks in the walls of the system. We're seeing the absence of walls."
Grant county 0utbreak
A 300-person November wedding near Ritzville, Wash., in Adams County has been linked to an outbreak in a neighboring Grant County school and long-term care facilities. So far this year, at least 65 people in Grant County have died from COVID-19 — more than half have come in the past six weeks.
Theresa Adkinson is the Public Health Administrator for Grant County.
"I am done with COVID, I am burned out," Adkinson says. "My staff are exhausted."
There are so many sick that her office has largely stopped contact tracing in the community. Some schools and one county hospital are doing their own contact tracing and outreach to help.
Adkinson says it's disheartening to put out press releases with brutal death counts, and then see lifelong friends posting about unmasked gatherings on Facebook.
"The vaccine is coming," Adkinson says. "We can see the finish line. But it's a ways out there. And how sad is it the people we lose just before we get to the finish line?"
Slow to vaccinate
Rhonda Piner leads nursing for North Valley Extended Care in Tonasket. She kept working from home even after she got the virus. But then, the day after Thanksgiving, her 25 years of nursing experience kicked in.
"And I knew that I could no longer take care of myself, and so I called 911," Piner says.
Piner was hospitalized for six days. She says the prospect of returning to her remaining residents at the care center is daunting.
"I don't know all the names (of the dead)," Piner says. "I started crying, I will tell you. I will be sad to know who didn't make it and who did. So, yeah it's gonna be tough when I go back, it really is."
It may be even tougher than she knows. Experts say without adequate ways of implementing super-cold storage that vaccines require, rural areas may wait longer to get the much-anticipated doses.


npr--2020-12-11--Supreme Court Shuts Door On Texas Suit Seeking To Overturn Election

Updated at 4:53 AM ET on Saturday The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday night rejected an eleventh hour challenge to Joe Biden 's election as president .
The court 's action came in a one-page order , which said the complaint was denied `` for lack of standing . ''
Texas , supported by President Trump , tried to sue Pennsylvania , Georgia , Wisconsin , and Michigan , claiming fraud , without evidence .
But in order for a state to bring a case in court , especially the Supreme Court , a state must show it has been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said Texas could not show that it was injured by the way other states conducted their elections .
`` Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections , '' the court wrote .
Justice Samuel Alito , joined by Justice Clarence Thomas , wrote that in their view the court does `` not have discretion to deny the filing of a bill of complaint in a case that falls within our original jurisdiction . ''
But the two said that while they would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , they would not have granted Trump or Texas , any of the relief they sought .
Kevin McCarthy , the top ranking Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives , had earlier in the day attached his name to 125 fellow House Republicans who supported Trump 's longshot bid .
McCarthy was the most notable congressman to back the suit .
On Tuesday , Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued four states where Biden had been certified the winner : Georgia , Pennsylvania , Michigan and Wisconsin .
The suit , filed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ styled as `` an original '' case , pitting one state against another .
Paxton claimed that the targeted states made changes to election procedures due to the pandemic that violated federal law .
He alleged the changes enabled voter fraud .
And he asked the Supreme Court to extend the Dec. 14 deadline for the Electoral College electors to cast ballots in those four states , contending more time was needed to allow investigations of the election results .
Paxton 's suit came in the face of repeated findings by state officials @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the results , as well as statements by U.S. Attorney General William Barr that the Justice Department did not find evidence of widespread fraud in this year 's election .
The Texas suit set in motion a cascade of legal motions at the high court .
Not only did President Trump seek to join the Texas suit , so did 17 other states — all overwhelmingly won by Trump .
More support would follow , including the brief filed by a majority of the GOP members of the U.S. House of Representatives .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ back in briefs filed in the Supreme Court .
`` Texas invites this court to overthrow the votes of the American people and choose the next president of the United States , '' wrote Georgia Attorney General Christopher Carr , chairman of the Republican Attorneys General Association .
`` That Faustian invitation must be firmly rejected , '' he said .
`` Georgia did what the Constitution empowered it to do , '' the state 's brief said .
It `` implemented processes for the election , administered the election in the face @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and confirmed and certified the election results — again and again and again .
Yet Texas has sued Georgia anyway . ''
Pennsylvania was equally acerbic .
`` The court should not abide this seditious abuse of judicial process , and should send a clear and unmistakable signal that that abuse must never be replicated , '' it said in its brief .
And Wisconsin said the Texas bid `` to nullify [ Wisconsin 's ] choice [ for president ] is devoid of a legal foundation or factual basis . ''
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the Texas attorney general , decided to carry Trump 's water in the case .
Especially since all four targeted states have Republican-controlled legislatures , and to date , both state and federal courts at lower levels , including Trump-appointed judges , have found the fraud allegations baseless .
The unprecedented nature of the Paxton suit , plus the fact that the state 's chief appellate lawyer , Kyle Hawkins , did not sign the Texas brief as he usually would do , has spurred speculation that Paxton is seeking a pardon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ securities fraud , and is being investigated by the FBI on bribery and abuse of power allegations .
Although the Supreme Court has jurisdiction over disputes between states , such cases are rare , and are almost exclusively confined to disputes that ca n't be handled by other courts , such as those over borders or water rights .
Earlier this week , the Supreme Court rejected an effort to block Pennsylvania from certifying its election results in favor of Biden .
Trump distanced himself from the legal blow and hitched his wagon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it `` the case that everyone has been waiting for . ''
Trump reportedly had conversations with some of the Republican attorneys general who were meeting this week in Washington , urging them to support the Texas lawsuit .
And several news organizations reported that Sen. Ted Cruz , R-Texas , had agreed to represent Trump in the event the Supreme Court had agreed to hear the case .
Initial reaction to the Texas suit , however , has been dismissive at best .
Sen. John Cornyn , R- Texas , told CNN @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ] to understand the legal theory '' of the suit , noting that election disputes in our system are `` decided at the state and local level and not at the national level . ''
The Texas suit had other problems .
First was the question of legal standing .
Essentially , how do Texas , or the states joining it , have legal standing to complain about the procedures for voting and counting votes in other states ?
Next , the Texas lawsuit asked the Supreme Court to delay the vote in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Edward Foley of the Moritz College of Law observed , the date for electors to cast their votes is set by federal law under the Constitution , which requires that the day `` shall be the same throughout the United States . ''
The date chosen by Congress this year is Dec. 14 .
Rick Hasen , an election law expert at the University of California , Irvine called Paxton 's lawsuit `` dangerous garbage . ''
`` This is a press release masquerading as a lawsuit , '' he wrote .
`` @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Court to grant a remedy even if the claims were meritorious ( they are not ) , '' he wrote .
On Friday evening after the decision , Hasen wrote that the fact that `` courts across the nation , with both Democratic and Republican judges , held the line for the rule of law '' is `` something really to celebrate . ''
Benjamin Ginsburg , a longtime election law guru for the Republican Party , told CNN on Wednesday that he did n't think `` for an instant '' that the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ case .
That said , with three Trump appointees on the court , and a newly strengthened 6-3 majority of conservative Republican-appointed justices , the president apparently believed that the Supreme Court would view the case differently than did `` election experts . ''
He was wrong .
Trump later weighed in on the decision on Twitter .
`` The Supreme Court really let us down , '' he wrote .
`` No Wisdom , No Courage ! ''
Barring unforeseen events , the result of the court 's action is that on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ each state will cast their ballots , and Joe Biden will formally become the president-elect , with only one more step , in the House of Representatives where the Electoral College votes are certified , before he is sworn in on January 20th .

Supreme Court Shuts Door On Texas Suit Seeking To Overturn Election
Enlarge this image toggle caption Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images
Updated at 4:53 a.m. ET Saturday
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday night rejected an eleventh hour challenge to Joe Biden's election as president.
The court's action came in a one-page order, which said the complaint was denied "for lack of standing."
Texas, supported by President Trump, tried to sue Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin and Michigan, claiming fraud, without evidence. But in order for a state to bring a case in court, especially the Supreme Court, a state must show it has been injured. In essence, the court said Texas could not show that it was injured by the way other states conducted their elections.
"Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections," the court wrote.
Justice Samuel Alito, joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, wrote that in their view the court does "not have discretion to deny the filing of a bill of complaint in a case that falls within our original jurisdiction."
But the two said that while they would have allowed the filing of the complaint, they would not have granted Trump or Texas any of the relief they sought.
Kevin McCarthy, the top ranking Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives, had earlier in the day attached his name to 125 fellow House Republicans who supported Trump's longshot bid. McCarthy was the most notable member of Congress to back the suit.
On Tuesday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued four states where Biden had been certified the winner: Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. The suit, filed directly in the Supreme Court, was styled as "an original" case, pitting one state against another.
Paxton claimed that the targeted states made changes to election procedures due to the pandemic that violated federal law. He alleged the changes enabled voter fraud. And he asked the Supreme Court to extend the Dec. 14 deadline for the Electoral College electors to cast ballots in those four states, contending more time was needed to allow investigations of the election results.
Paxton's suit came in the face of repeated findings by state officials, including Republican state officeholders, certifying the results, as well as statements by U.S. Attorney General William Barr that the Justice Department did not find evidence of widespread fraud in this year's election.
The Texas suit set in motion a cascade of legal motions at the high court. Not only did President Trump seek to join the Texas suit, so did 17 other states — all overwhelmingly won by Trump. More support would follow, including the brief filed by a majority of the GOP members of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Late Thursday the four targeted states struck back in briefs filed in the Supreme Court.
"Texas invites this court to overthrow the votes of the American people and choose the next president of the United States," wrote Georgia Attorney General Christopher Carr, chairman of the Republican Attorneys General Association. "That Faustian invitation must be firmly rejected," he said.
"Georgia did what the Constitution empowered it to do," the state's brief said. It "implemented processes for the election, administered the election in the face of logistical challenges brought on by Covid-19, and confirmed and certified the election results — again and again and again. Yet Texas has sued Georgia anyway."
Pennsylvania was equally acerbic. "The court should not abide this seditious abuse of judicial process, and should send a clear and unmistakable signal that that abuse must never be replicated," it said in its brief. And Wisconsin said the Texas bid "to nullify [Wisconsin's] choice [for president] is devoid of a legal foundation or factual basis."
It was unclear how or why Paxton, the Texas attorney general, decided to carry Trump's water in the case. Especially since all four targeted states have Republican-controlled legislatures, and to date, both state and federal courts at lower levels, including Trump-appointed judges, have found the fraud allegations baseless.
The unprecedented nature of the Paxton suit, plus the fact that the state's chief appellate lawyer, Kyle Hawkins, did not sign the Texas brief as he usually would do, has spurred speculation that Paxton is seeking a pardon. He is currently under indictment over securities fraud, and is being investigated by the FBI on bribery and abuse of power allegations.
Although the Supreme Court has jurisdiction over disputes between states, such cases are rare, and are almost exclusively confined to disputes that can't be handled by other courts, such as those over borders or water rights.
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court rejected an effort to block Pennsylvania from certifying its election results in favor of Biden. Trump distanced himself from the legal blow and hitched his wagon instead to the Texas lawsuit, calling it "the case that everyone has been waiting for."
Trump reportedly had conversations with some of the Republican attorneys general who were meeting this week in Washington, urging them to support the Texas lawsuit. And several news organizations reported that Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, had agreed to represent Trump in the event the Supreme Court had agreed to hear the case.
Initial reaction to the Texas suit, however, has been dismissive at best. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told CNN that he "frankly struggle[d] to understand the legal theory" of the suit, noting that election disputes in our system are "decided at the state and local level and not at the national level."
The Texas suit had other problems. First was the question of legal standing. Essentially, how do Texas, or the states joining it, have legal standing to complain about the procedures for voting and counting votes in other states?
Next, the Texas lawsuit asked the Supreme Court to delay the vote in four targeted states, but as professor Edward Foley of the Moritz College of Law observed, the date for electors to cast their votes is set by federal law under the Constitution, which requires that the day "shall be the same throughout the United States."
The date chosen by Congress this year is Dec. 14.
Rick Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California, Irvine, called Paxton's lawsuit "dangerous garbage."
"This is a press release masquerading as a lawsuit," he wrote.
"It's too late for the Supreme Court to grant a remedy even if the claims were meritorious (they are not)," he wrote.
On Friday evening after the decision, Hasen wrote that the fact that "courts across the nation, with both Democratic and Republican judges, held the line for the rule of law" is "something really to celebrate."
Benjamin Ginsburg, a longtime election law guru for the Republican Party, told CNN on Wednesday that he didn't think "for an instant" that the Supreme Court would consider taking up the case.
That said, with three Trump appointees on the court, and a newly strengthened 6-3 majority of conservative Republican-appointed justices, the president apparently believed that the Supreme Court would view the case differently than did "election experts." He was wrong.
Trump later weighed in on the decision on Twitter. "The Supreme Court really let us down," he wrote. "No Wisdom, No Courage!"
Barring unforeseen events, the result of the court's action is that on Monday, the Electoral College delegates in each state will cast their ballots, and Biden will formally become the president-elect, with only one more step, in the House of Representatives where the Electoral College votes are certified, before he is sworn in on Jan. 20.