Cars snake around Dodger Stadium as people in Los Angeles, CA wait for coronavirus tests in the ballpark parking lot. Photo: Ringo H.W. Chiu/AP
Long lines for tests have reappeared across the U.S. with cases surging and families hoping to gather safely for Thanksgiving.
The big picture: Although the CDC advised Americans to not travel for Thanksgiving to prevent contracting and spreading COVID-19, AAA and the Transportation Security Administration expect millions of travelers this holiday.
In photos:
People line up for free COVID-19 test ahead of Thanksgiving in Queens, NY on November 18. Photo: Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty ImagesThe Judiciary Square testing site in Washington, D.C. was busy on Wednesday, Nov. 18. People exiting reported wait times of two and a half hours. Photo: Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post via Getty ImagesVehicles wait in lines with two-hour waits at drive-through testing at the Lawrence General Hospital parking lot in Lawrence, MA. Testing sites are throughout Lawrence, a high-risk city, during COVID-19 pandemic. Photo: David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty ImagesPeople wait in line to get tested for COVID-19 at the Ann Street School Testing Center in Newark, New Jersey on Nov. 12. Photo: TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty ImagesPeople line up in their cars as members of the Utah National Guard give COVID-19 swab tests at the Utah County Health Department on Nov. 20 Salt Lake City, Utah. Utah's governor called up the National Guard to assist in COVID-19 testing and tracing as the state has seen a large spike in positive tests the last several months. Photo: George Frey/Getty ImagesHealth care workers administer free COVID-19 tests to people in their cars in the parking lot of the Columbus West Family Health and Wellness Center in Columbus, Ohio on Nov. 19. Photo: STEPHEN ZENNER/AFP via Getty ImagesPeople have their temperature taken as they wait in line to be checked in to receive a free COVID-19 test at the Angarai Testing Center in Silver Spring, Md., on Wednesday, Nov. 18. Photo: Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post via Getty ImagesBays are set up for patients in their vehicles in long lines with two-hour waits at drive-through testing at the Lawrence General Hospital parking lot in Lawrence, Mass. on Nov. 17. Photo: David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty ImagesPeople wait in line at a COVID-19 walk-up test site in Los Angeles, California on Nov. 17. Photo: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty ImagesPeople wait inside vehicles at a drive-through COVID-19 testing site in Miami Beach, Florida on Nov. 17. Photo: CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images360 Clinic health care workers working with the Orange County Health Care Agency and city of Costa Mesa conducts testing at the drive-through self-administered COVID-19 testing super site at the Orange County Fair & Events Center on Thursday, Nov. 12. Photo: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Reproduced from Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker; Chart: Axios Visuals
The coronavirus pandemic has caused national health care spending to go down this year — the first time that’s ever happened.
The big picture: Any big recession depresses the use of health services because people have less money to spend. But this pandemic has also directly attacked the health system, causing people to defer or skip care for fear of becoming infected.
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci at the White House in November. Photo: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
NIAID director Anthony Fauci said Tuesday the U.S. could achieve herd immunity to COVID-19 by the end of next summer or fall if there's a "good uptake" of Americans vaccinating against the virus.
Driving the news: Fauci said during an online video conversation with Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) he expects the general population to have access to the vaccines U.S regulators are now considering by April.
A health care worker during the phase 3 COVID-19 vaccine trial by Pfizer and BioNTech in Ankara, Turkey, in October. Photo: Dogukan Keskinkilic/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
The U.K. government announced Wednesday it approved Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine, which "will be made available across the U.K. from next week."
Why it matters: The U.K. has beaten the U.S. to become the first Western country to give emergency approval for a vaccine that's found to be 95% effective with no serious side effects against a virus that's killed nearly 1.5 million people globally.