TOWARD APPROVAL CLEARS A BIG STEP PFIZER S VACCINEDec 11, 2020 · tan office space into housing....
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U(D54G1D)y+,!z!,!$!z In California, countless redwoods, giant sequoias and Joshua trees have perished in wildfires this year. The blackened wreckage sends a clear message: These trees are in the fight of their lives. They Are Among the World’s Oldest Living Things. The Climate Crisis Is Killing Them. By JOHN BRANCH | Photographs by MAX WHITTAKER | Page A21 ADEM ALTAN/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES Graves at a burial site for Covid-19 victims in Ankara, Turkey’s capital, amid the virus’s resurgence. A Pandemic’s Landscape of Death The pandemic is pummeling New York City’s commercial real estate industry, one of its main economic engines, threatening the future of the nation’s largest business districts as well as the city’s finances. The damage caused by the emptying of office towers and the permanent closure of many stores is far more significant than many experts had predicted early in the crisis. The powerful real estate indus- try is so concerned that the shifts in workplace culture caused by the outbreak will become long- lasting that it is promoting a strik- ing proposal: to turn more than one million square feet of Manhat- tan office space into housing. Nearly 14 percent of office space in Midtown Manhattan is vacant, the highest rate since 2009. On Madison Avenue in Mid- town, one of the most affluent re- tail stretches in the country, more than a third of all storefronts are empty, double the rate from five years ago. The collapse of commercial real estate is another major burden for New York, since the industry pro- vides a significant portion of the city’s tax revenues. Filings to erect new buildings in the city, a key indicator of industry Hard Questions For a Midtown Left Withering By MATTHEW HAAG and DANA RUBINSTEIN A shuttered business in Mid- town, where offices lay vacant. GABBY JONES FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES Continued on Page A7 HOUSTON — Over the last 135 years, Exxon Mobil has survived hostile governments, ill-fated in- vestments and the catastrophic Exxon Valdez oil spill. Through it all, the oil company made bundles of money. But suddenly Exxon is slipping badly, its long latent vulnerabili- ties exposed by the coronavirus pandemic and technological shifts that promise to transform the en- ergy world because of growing concerns about climate change. The company, for decades one of the most profitable and valu- able American businesses, lost $2.4 billion in the first nine months of the year, and its share price is down about 35 percent this year. In August, Exxon was tossed out of the Dow Jones industrial aver- age, replaced by Salesforce, a soft- ware company. The change sym- bolized the passing of the baton from Big Oil to an increasingly dominant technology industry. “Is Exxon a survivor?” asked Jennifer Rowland, an energy ana- lyst at Edward Jones. “Of course they are, with great global assets, great people, great technical know-how. But the question really is, can they thrive? There is a lot of skepticism about that right now.” Exxon is under growing pres- sure from investors. D.E. Shaw, a longtime shareholder that re- cently increased its stake in Exx- on, is demanding that the com- pany cut costs and improve its en- vironmental record, according to a person briefed on the matter. An- other activist investor, Engine No. 1, is pushing for similar changes in an effort backed by the California State Teachers Retirement Sys- tem and the Church of England. And on Wednesday, the New York State comptroller, Thomas P. Di- Napoli, said the state’s $226 billion pension fund would sell shares in oil and gas companies that did not move fast enough to reduce emis- sions. Of course, every oil company is struggling with the collapse in en- As Oil Demand Declines, Exxon Is at Crossroads By CLIFFORD KRAUSS Continued on Page A25 DALLAS — Lillian Blancas was a fighter, a proud daughter of im- migrants, part of the first genera- tion in her family to attend college and a lawyer in El Paso who was on the brink of fulfilling her dream of becoming a judge. Instead, Ms. Blancas, 47, died alone in her hospital room this week, just before a runoff election on Saturday in which she was the favorite, becoming part of a grim cascade of Americans who have died from the coronavirus as it rages out of control. More than 3,000 deaths were reported on Wednesday for the first time since the pandemic began. “We’re completely devastated. Heartbroken. We can’t find a rea- son,” said her sister, Gabriela Tie- mann, who recalled staring through the glass doors of Ms. Blancas’s hospital room, wishing that she could stroke her hair one last time. The new daily death record — 3,055 individuals who blew out birthday candles, made mistakes, laughed and cried before suc- cumbing to the virus — far sur- passed the spring peak of 2,752 deaths on April 15 and amounted to a stunning embodiment of the pandemic’s toll. In a single day, the country, numbed and divided, lost more Americans to the coronavi- rus than were killed in the Sept. 11 terror attacks or the attack on Pearl Harbor. Catherine Troisi, an infectious- disease epidemiologist at the UTHealth School of Public Health in Houston, said she had cried watching the faces of coronavirus victims on “PBS NewsHour” and expected the death toll to acceler- ate, in part because current num- bers likely do not reflect infections from Thanksgiving gatherings. “The worst is yet to come in the next week or two or three,” she said. “What happens after that is going to depend on our behavior today.” The most recent deaths come as the country is recording more new cases and hospitalizations than ever before. More than 290,000 people have died in the United States during the pandemic. With a current average of more than 2,200 deaths per day, Record U.S. Deaths Create a Wave of Devastation This article is by Sarah Mervosh, Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio and Neil MacFarquhar. Daily Toll Tops 3,000, but Experts Warn Worst Is to Come Continued on Page A8 Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine passed a critical milestone on Thursday when a panel of experts formally recommended that the Food and Drug Administration authorize the vaccine. The agency is likely to do so within days, giv- ing health care workers and nurs- ing home residents first priority to begin receiving the first shots early next week. The F.D.A.’s vaccine advisory panel, composed of independent scientific experts, infectious dis- ease doctors and statisticians, voted 17 to 4, with one member ab- staining, in favor of emergency authorization for people 16 and older. With rare exceptions, the F.D.A. follows the advice of its ad- visory panels. With this formal blessing, the nation may finally begin to slow the spread of the virus just as in- fections and deaths surge, reach- ing a record of more than 3,000 daily deaths on Wednesday. The F.D.A. is expected to grant an emergency use authorization on Saturday, according to people fa- miliar with the agency’s planning, though they cautioned that last- minute legal or bureaucratic re- quirements could push the an- nouncement to Sunday or later. The initial shipment of 6.4 mil- lion doses will leave warehouses within 24 hours of being cleared by the F.D.A., according to federal officials. About half of those doses will be sent across the country, and the other half will be reserved for the initial recipients to receive their second dose about three weeks later. The arrival of the first vaccines is the beginning of a complex, monthslong distribution plan co- ordinated by federal and local health authorities, as well as large hospitals and pharmacy chains, that if successful, will help return a grieving and economically de- pressed country back to some semblance of normal, maybe by summer. “With the high efficacy and good safety profile shown for our vaccine, and the pandemic essen- tially out of control, vaccine intro- duction is an urgent need,” Kathrin Jansen, a senior vice president and the head of vaccine research and development at Pfi- zer, said at the meeting. The vote caps a whirlwind year for Pfizer and its German partner PFIZER’S VACCINE CLEARS A BIG STEP TOWARD APPROVAL F.D.A. Authorization Is Expected Soon, as Caseloads Continue to Soar This article is by Katie Thomas, Noah Weiland and Sharon LaFraniere. Continued on Page A8 The president-elect chose Su- san Rice to lead the Domestic Pol- icy Council and Denis McDon- ough for V.A. secretary. Page A19. Two More Biden Picks WASHINGTON — President- elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. is facing pressure from congressional Democrats to cancel student loan debt on a vast scale, quickly and by executive action, a campaign that will be one of the first tests of his relationship with the liberal wing of his party. Mr. Biden has endorsed cancel- ing $10,000 in federal student debt per borrower through legislation, and insisted that chipping away at the $1.7 trillion in loan debt held by more than 43 million borrowers is integral to his economic plan. But Democratic leaders, backed by the party’s left flank, are pressing for up to $50,000 of debt relief per borrower, executed on Day 1 of his presidency. More than 200 organizations — including the American Federa- tion of Teachers, the N.A.A.C.P. and others that were integral to his campaign — have joined the push. The Education Department is effectively the country’s largest consumer bank and the primary lender, since 2010, for higher edu- cation. It owns student loans total- ing $1.4 trillion, so forgiveness of some of that debt would be a rapid injection of cash into the pockets of many people suffering from the economic effects of the pandemic. “There are a lot of people who came out to vote in this election who frankly did it as their last shot at seeing whether the govern- ment can really work for them,” said Representative Pramila Jayapal, Democrat of Washington and the chairwoman of the Con- gressional Progressive Caucus. “If we don’t deliver quick relief, it’s going to be very difficult to get Left Is Pushing Biden to Slash Student Debts This article is by Erica L. Green, Luke Broadwater and Stacy Cowley. Continued on Page A19 Without government aid, dire predic- tions of economic strife are coming true. Now, the virus surge’s toll on jobs is what one economist calls “a slow- moving disaster.” PAGE B1 BUSINESS B1-6 Jobless Claims Jump Health officials warned that the number of daily cases could soon reach record highs, and said the latest wave was by far the hardest to control. PAGE A4 TRACKING AN OUTBREAK A4-8 South Korea Is Battling a Surge Over 70 farm workers were killed by Boko Haram militants, who claimed they were informers. PAGE A16 INTERNATIONAL A10-16 A Massacre in Nigeria Town squares in Germany stand empty of the usual lights as the pandemic has quashed Christmas markets. PAGE A10 A Holiday Less Bright Two shows by Futura, who initially won fame by painting subway cars, are his first in New York in 30 years. PAGE C1 Graffiti King Returns to Roots Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia urged the Supreme Court to re- ject a bid to undo the election. PAGE A18 NATIONAL A17-25 Blue States Attack G.O.P. Suit Federal and state cases against the social network are far from a slam dunk. The standards of proof and the complexities of antitrust laws are formi- dable. PAGE B1 Facebook’s Antitrust Fortress The federal tax investigation into his son will test Biden’s commitment to independent law enforcement. PAGE A20 Political Peril or Distraction? Paul Krugman PAGE A26 EDITORIAL, OP-ED A26-27 Breaking with Olympic guidelines, the U.S. federation announced it would not penalize athletes who participate in peaceful demonstrations. PAGE B8 No Longer Protesting Protests Looking for ideas for the voracious readers on your gift list? Our editors have some great suggestions. PAGE C12 WEEKEND ARTS C1-14 10 Can’t-Miss Books Dr. Vivek Murthy, the nominee for surgeon general, played a decisive role in the decision to cancel the N.C.A.A. basketball tournaments in March as the pandemic struck. PAGE B8 SPORTSFRIDAY B8-9 A Steady Hand in a Crisis Late Edition VOL. CLXX .... No. 58,904 © 2020 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2020 Today, partly sunny skies, mild. High 54. Tonight, partly cloudy. Low 46. Tomorrow, mostly cloudy, stay- ing mild, periodic light rain. High 54. Weather map appears on Page B12. $3.00
Transcript of TOWARD APPROVAL CLEARS A BIG STEP PFIZER S VACCINEDec 11, 2020 · tan office space into housing....
C M Y K Nxxx,2020-12-11,A,001,Bs-4C,E1
U(D54G1D)y+,!z!,!$!z
In California, countless redwoods, giant sequoias and Joshua trees have perished in wildfires this year. The blackened wreckage sends
a clear message: These trees are in the fight of their lives.
They Are Among the World’s Oldest Living Things. The Climate Crisis Is Killing Them.
By JOHN BRANCH | Photographs by MAX WHITTAKER | Page A21
ADEM ALTAN/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES
Graves at a burial site for Covid-19 victims in Ankara, Turkey’s capital, amid the virus’s resurgence.A Pandemic’s Landscape of Death
The pandemic is pummelingNew York City’s commercial realestate industry, one of its maineconomic engines, threateningthe future of the nation’s largestbusiness districts as well as thecity’s finances.
The damage caused by theemptying of office towers and thepermanent closure of many storesis far more significant than manyexperts had predicted early in thecrisis.
The powerful real estate indus-try is so concerned that the shiftsin workplace culture caused bythe outbreak will become long-lasting that it is promoting a strik-ing proposal: to turn more thanone million square feet of Manhat-tan office space into housing.
Nearly 14 percent of officespace in Midtown Manhattan isvacant, the highest rate since2009. On Madison Avenue in Mid-town, one of the most affluent re-tail stretches in the country, morethan a third of all storefronts areempty, double the rate from fiveyears ago.
The collapse of commercial realestate is another major burden forNew York, since the industry pro-vides a significant portion of thecity’s tax revenues.
Filings to erect new buildings inthe city, a key indicator of industry
Hard QuestionsFor a MidtownLeft Withering
By MATTHEW HAAGand DANA RUBINSTEIN
A shuttered business in Mid-town, where offices lay vacant.
GABBY JONES FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Continued on Page A7
HOUSTON — Over the last 135years, Exxon Mobil has survivedhostile governments, ill-fated in-vestments and the catastrophicExxon Valdez oil spill. Through itall, the oil company made bundlesof money.
But suddenly Exxon is slippingbadly, its long latent vulnerabili-ties exposed by the coronaviruspandemic and technological shiftsthat promise to transform the en-ergy world because of growingconcerns about climate change.
The company, for decades oneof the most profitable and valu-able American businesses, lost$2.4 billion in the first nine monthsof the year, and its share price isdown about 35 percent this year.In August, Exxon was tossed outof the Dow Jones industrial aver-age, replaced by Salesforce, a soft-ware company. The change sym-bolized the passing of the batonfrom Big Oil to an increasinglydominant technology industry.
“Is Exxon a survivor?” askedJennifer Rowland, an energy ana-lyst at Edward Jones. “Of coursethey are, with great global assets,great people, great technicalknow-how. But the question reallyis, can they thrive? There is a lot ofskepticism about that right now.”
Exxon is under growing pres-sure from investors. D.E. Shaw, alongtime shareholder that re-cently increased its stake in Exx-on, is demanding that the com-pany cut costs and improve its en-vironmental record, according toa person briefed on the matter. An-other activist investor, Engine No.1, is pushing for similar changes inan effort backed by the CaliforniaState Teachers Retirement Sys-tem and the Church of England.And on Wednesday, the New YorkState comptroller, Thomas P. Di-Napoli, said the state’s $226 billionpension fund would sell shares inoil and gas companies that did notmove fast enough to reduce emis-sions.
Of course, every oil company isstruggling with the collapse in en-
As Oil DemandDeclines, ExxonIs at Crossroads
By CLIFFORD KRAUSS
Continued on Page A25
DALLAS — Lillian Blancas wasa fighter, a proud daughter of im-migrants, part of the first genera-tion in her family to attend collegeand a lawyer in El Paso who wason the brink of fulfilling her dreamof becoming a judge.
Instead, Ms. Blancas, 47, diedalone in her hospital room thisweek, just before a runoff electionon Saturday in which she was thefavorite, becoming part of a grimcascade of Americans who havedied from the coronavirus as itrages out of control. More than3,000 deaths were reported onWednesday for the first time sincethe pandemic began.
“We’re completely devastated.Heartbroken. We can’t find a rea-son,” said her sister, Gabriela Tie-
mann, who recalled staringthrough the glass doors of Ms.Blancas’s hospital room, wishingthat she could stroke her hair onelast time.
The new daily death record —3,055 individuals who blew outbirthday candles, made mistakes,laughed and cried before suc-cumbing to the virus — far sur-passed the spring peak of 2,752deaths on April 15 and amountedto a stunning embodiment of thepandemic’s toll. In a single day, thecountry, numbed and divided, lostmore Americans to the coronavi-rus than were killed in the Sept. 11
terror attacks or the attack onPearl Harbor.
Catherine Troisi, an infectious-disease epidemiologist at theUTHealth School of Public Healthin Houston, said she had criedwatching the faces of coronavirusvictims on “PBS NewsHour” andexpected the death toll to acceler-ate, in part because current num-bers likely do not reflect infectionsfrom Thanksgiving gatherings.
“The worst is yet to come in thenext week or two or three,” shesaid. “What happens after that isgoing to depend on our behaviortoday.”
The most recent deaths come asthe country is recording more newcases and hospitalizations thanever before. More than 290,000people have died in the UnitedStates during the pandemic.
With a current average of morethan 2,200 deaths per day,
Record U.S. Deaths Create a Wave of DevastationThis article is by Sarah Mervosh,
Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio andNeil MacFarquhar.
Daily Toll Tops 3,000,but Experts WarnWorst Is to Come
Continued on Page A8
Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccinepassed a critical milestone onThursday when a panel of expertsformally recommended that theFood and Drug Administrationauthorize the vaccine. The agencyis likely to do so within days, giv-ing health care workers and nurs-ing home residents first priority tobegin receiving the first shotsearly next week.
The F.D.A.’s vaccine advisorypanel, composed of independentscientific experts, infectious dis-ease doctors and statisticians,voted 17 to 4, with one member ab-staining, in favor of emergencyauthorization for people 16 andolder. With rare exceptions, theF.D.A. follows the advice of its ad-visory panels.
With this formal blessing, thenation may finally begin to slowthe spread of the virus just as in-fections and deaths surge, reach-ing a record of more than 3,000daily deaths on Wednesday. TheF.D.A. is expected to grant anemergency use authorization onSaturday, according to people fa-miliar with the agency’s planning,though they cautioned that last-minute legal or bureaucratic re-
quirements could push the an-nouncement to Sunday or later.
The initial shipment of 6.4 mil-lion doses will leave warehouseswithin 24 hours of being clearedby the F.D.A., according to federalofficials. About half of those doseswill be sent across the country,and the other half will be reservedfor the initial recipients to receivetheir second dose about threeweeks later.
The arrival of the first vaccinesis the beginning of a complex,monthslong distribution plan co-ordinated by federal and localhealth authorities, as well as largehospitals and pharmacy chains,that if successful, will help returna grieving and economically de-pressed country back to somesemblance of normal, maybe bysummer.
“With the high efficacy andgood safety profile shown for ourvaccine, and the pandemic essen-tially out of control, vaccine intro-duction is an urgent need,”Kathrin Jansen, a senior vicepresident and the head of vaccineresearch and development at Pfi-zer, said at the meeting.
The vote caps a whirlwind yearfor Pfizer and its German partner
PFIZER’S VACCINECLEARS A BIG STEPTOWARD APPROVAL
F.D.A. Authorization Is Expected Soon,as Caseloads Continue to Soar
This article is by Katie Thomas,Noah Weiland and Sharon LaFraniere.
Continued on Page A8
The president-elect chose Su-san Rice to lead the Domestic Pol-icy Council and Denis McDon-ough for V.A. secretary. Page A19.
Two More Biden Picks
WASHINGTON — President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. is facingpressure from congressionalDemocrats to cancel student loandebt on a vast scale, quickly andby executive action, a campaignthat will be one of the first tests ofhis relationship with the liberalwing of his party.
Mr. Biden has endorsed cancel-ing $10,000 in federal student debtper borrower through legislation,and insisted that chipping away atthe $1.7 trillion in loan debt held bymore than 43 million borrowers isintegral to his economic plan. ButDemocratic leaders, backed bythe party’s left flank, are pressingfor up to $50,000 of debt relief perborrower, executed on Day 1 of hispresidency.
More than 200 organizations —including the American Federa-tion of Teachers, the N.A.A.C.P.and others that were integral tohis campaign — have joined thepush.
The Education Department iseffectively the country’s largestconsumer bank and the primarylender, since 2010, for higher edu-cation. It owns student loans total-ing $1.4 trillion, so forgiveness ofsome of that debt would be a rapidinjection of cash into the pocketsof many people suffering from theeconomic effects of the pandemic.
“There are a lot of people whocame out to vote in this electionwho frankly did it as their last shotat seeing whether the govern-ment can really work for them,”said Representative PramilaJayapal, Democrat of Washingtonand the chairwoman of the Con-gressional Progressive Caucus.“If we don’t deliver quick relief, it’sgoing to be very difficult to get
Left Is PushingBiden to Slash
Student Debts
This article is by Erica L. Green,Luke Broadwater and Stacy Cowley.
Continued on Page A19
Without government aid, dire predic-tions of economic strife are comingtrue. Now, the virus surge’s toll on jobsis what one economist calls “a slow-moving disaster.” PAGE B1
BUSINESS B1-6
Jobless Claims JumpHealth officials warned that the numberof daily cases could soon reach recordhighs, and said the latest wave was byfar the hardest to control. PAGE A4
TRACKING AN OUTBREAK A4-8
South Korea Is Battling a SurgeOver 70 farm workers were killed byBoko Haram militants, who claimedthey were informers. PAGE A16
INTERNATIONAL A10-16
A Massacre in Nigeria
Town squares in Germany stand emptyof the usual lights as the pandemic hasquashed Christmas markets. PAGE A10
A Holiday Less BrightTwo shows by Futura, who initially wonfame by painting subway cars, are hisfirst in New York in 30 years. PAGE C1
Graffiti King Returns to Roots
Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin andGeorgia urged the Supreme Court to re-ject a bid to undo the election. PAGE A18
NATIONAL A17-25
Blue States Attack G.O.P. Suit Federal and state cases against thesocial network are far from a slamdunk. The standards of proof and thecomplexities of antitrust laws are formi-dable. PAGE B1
Facebook’s Antitrust Fortress
The federal tax investigation into hisson will test Biden’s commitment toindependent law enforcement. PAGE A20
Political Peril or Distraction?
Paul Krugman PAGE A26
EDITORIAL, OP-ED A26-27
Breaking with Olympic guidelines, theU.S. federation announced it would notpenalize athletes who participate inpeaceful demonstrations. PAGE B8
No Longer Protesting Protests
Looking for ideas for the voraciousreaders on your gift list? Our editorshave some great suggestions. PAGE C12
WEEKEND ARTS C1-14
10 Can’t-Miss BooksDr. Vivek Murthy, the nominee forsurgeon general, played a decisive rolein the decision to cancel the N.C.A.A.basketball tournaments in March as thepandemic struck. PAGE B8
SPORTSFRIDAY B8-9
A Steady Hand in a Crisis
Late Edition
VOL. CLXX . . . . No. 58,904 © 2020 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2020
Today, partly sunny skies, mild.High 54. Tonight, partly cloudy. Low46. Tomorrow, mostly cloudy, stay-ing mild, periodic light rain. High 54.Weather map appears on Page B12.
$3.00
