Axios

President-elect Biden's COVID checklist includes getting Americans to wear masks as a patriotic duty, vaccinating 50 million people and reopening the majority of schools by the end of April.

Why it matters: The remote learning adopted by many of America's biggest school districts has been a disaster for students and parents alike.

President Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani said on the WABC radio show Tuesday that he is "doing fine" after being admitted to the hospital following a positive COVID-19 diagnosis on Sunday, noting he has a small cough but no fever.

Why it matters: Giuliani had been traveling the country and meeting with lawmakers, as part of the Trump legal team's push to overturn the results of the election. He has often been seen not wearing a mask at these events.

Peer-reviewed research published Tuesday confirms that the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University is moderately effective at preventing infection, and it appears to keep people out of the hospital.

Why it matters: Some questions remain about AstraZeneca's vaccine, but the findings released in The Lancet medical journal help validate that the product works and is safe.

Consumers and employers will drive changes in health care pricing and policy, Florian Otto, co-founder and CEO of Cedar, said on Tuesday at an Axios virtual event on the future of health care payments.

Why it matters: The U.S. spends more on health care than any other nation, but Americans do not enjoy better health outcomes. High health care costs affect how the country responds to major health crises — like the coronavirus — because people cannot afford to pay for testing or treatment, per the Washington Post.

President Trump's lawyer Jenna Ellis has informed associates she tested positive for the coronavirus, multiple sources tell Axios, stirring West Wing fears after she attended a senior staff Christmas party on Friday.

Driving the news: There are concerns about the potential for another White House superspreader event, though it was unclear whether Ellis posed a risk when she attended. Ellis declined to confirm the diagnosis to Axios.

The FDA's vaccine advisory committee released a detailed analysis on Tuesday finding that Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine appears to meet the safety and efficacy requirements necessary for an emergency use authorization (EUA).

Why it matters: The FDA's initial review suggests that the agency will issue an EUA after its advisory committee meets on Thursday. The publication of the analysis comes the same day that the U.K. began administering its first doses of the Pfizer vaccine, which regulators cleared for emergency use last week.

STAT News is planning a big expansion next year, thanks in part to explosive growth during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The big picture: The health, medicine and science outlet brought in over $10 million in revenue this year — up about 66% from last year, executives tell Axios. It plans to increase staff by roughly 40% next year to help launch new data products, events and custom reports.

More than half of Americans say they have little or no trust in social media when it comes to information on the COVID-19 vaccine, according to Harris Poll data shared first with Axios.

Why it matters: For a vaccine to be effective in taming the pandemic, people will have to receive accurate information — and then be able to identify it as such. For many, that will mean receiving it elsewhere than on social media.

Scott Gottlieb, former FDA commissioner and current Pfizer board member, confirmed on Tuesday that the Trump administration turned down Pfizer's offer for an additional 100 million coronavirus vaccine doses last summer, as the New York Times first reported.

Why it matters: With Pfizer and Moderna the only two manufacturers that have applied for emergency approval from the FDA thus far, vaccine supplies in the U.S. are expected to be too scarce to rapidly inoculate the entire population.

Hospitals are figuring out which of their workers to vaccinate first, with the understanding that there likely won't be enough vaccines for everyone initially, the Wall Street Journal reports.

By the numbers: It's expected that there will be enough vaccines for 20 million people in December, per federal officials.

Head Start programs may provide a model for how to implement coronavirus protections in child-care facilities, according to an analysis from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Why it matters: The evidence so far suggests that schools and day care centers aren't responsible for large outbreaks, and can be kept open safely. But proper precautions are still necessary to keep them safe and to protect the adults who work there.

When the coronavirus forced businesses to tell their employees not to work, most kept paying at least some of those workers’ wages — but not their health insurance premiums.

Why it matters: Millions of people have lost their income and their health care coverage at the same time during this pandemic, which could stick them with unaffordable medical bills or cause them to put off care they need.

U.K. medical teams began administering Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine doses on Tuesday, with people aged 80 and older the first to be inoculated.

The big picture: The U.K. last week became the first Western nation to give emergency approval for a COVID-19 vaccine. Margaret Keenan, 90, was the world's first person to get a fully tested, clinically authorized COVID-19 vaccine, at a hospital in Coventry, England. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said, "We will look back on today, V-day, as a key moment in our fightback against this terrible disease."

Go deeper: In photos: How the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded in 2020

Editor's note: This article has been updated with details of Keenan's vaccination.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday that Canada will begin receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine from next week.

Driving the news: "The first Canadians will be vaccinated next week if we have approval from Health Canada this week," Trudeau told a briefing confirming that the country will receive up to 249,000 doses of the vaccine by the month's end.

Florida state police on Monday raided the home of a former state health department data scientist who created her own coronavirus case tracker as an alternative to the state's COVID-19 dashboard.

Driving the news: The raid comes several months after Rebekah Jones was fired over what she said was refusing to "manipulate data" for the state, per the Tallahassee Diplomat.

The Trump administration is hosting a "vaccine summit" on Tuesday that will include President Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, pharmacies and logistics companies, but not any vaccine manufacturer representatives.

The big picture: Moderna and Pfizer declined the White House’s invitation, Stat News first reported. But a senior administration official said Monday that the administration ultimately deemed the vaccine manufacturers presence “not appropriate” due to their pending EUA applications.

Wyoming on Monday became the latest state to implement a mask mandate to fight COVID-19, amid a steep spike in cases across the country.

The big picture: States are reintroducing mitigation efforts like closing businesses and advising people to stay home as the U.S. averages the most daily cases of any point in the pandemic.

NIAID director Anthony Fauci cautioned on Monday that 10 people gathering indoors over the holidays may be too many.

Why it matters: The infectious disease expert, speaking at New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's coronavirus press briefing, emphasized that "the middle of January could be a really dark time for us" if the U.S. sees another coronavirus surge caused by travel to family gatherings over Christmas and Hanukkah — since the effects from the Thanksgiving COVID surge are still playing out.