Leading COVID-19 vaccine candidates rely on new technologies that have fast-tracked development and testing. Vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna have completed early phase 3 clinical trials and are reportedly under review at the US FDA for emergency use authorization (EUA) although safety surveillance continues. This video explains the principles underlying the leading DNA, messenger RNA (mRNA), and viral vector vaccine candidates, and how they might induce immunity to SARS-CoV-2 infection.

With the Pfizer and Moderna coronavirus vaccines reportedly under review at the US FDA for emergency use authorization (EUA), Paul A. Offit, MD of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, returns to JAMA's Q&A series to provide an update on what to expect, prospects for vaccine rollout and distribution in the coming months, and ongoing safety surveillance. Recorded December 2, 2020.

Fall 2020 is seeing continued global spread of COVID-19 with uncertainties about the effects of school reopenings on transmission and the prospects for dual COVID-19 and influenza outbreaks heading into colder months. Vaccine trials are heading into phases 2 and 3, and the FDA’s earlier-year reliance on emergency use authorizations (EUAs) under perceived political pressures to deliver pandemic solutions is raising concerns about the integrity of approval processes for vaccines potentially offered to millions of otherwise healthy people.

Browse the JAMA Network COVID-19 collection below, including Q&A's with NIAID's Anthony Fauci, an interactive map of the outbreak courtesy of The Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and past publications on vaccine development, infection control, and public health preparedness.

So many weird perfume ads on TV at this time of year.

Featured twice on ABC's Good Morning America - song is "Christmas Can Can" by Straight No Chaser. This is my first year decorating and this is my first sequence ever. I built almost everything from scratch using wood and acrylic. I am a music/teacher director for a living (COVA Conservatory in Oakland and Centerville Presbyterian Church in Fremont), hence the massive instruments! The guitar is 17', the piano is 19' and the drums are standard. About 6,500 channels running around 70,000 lights. Come by and see it in person on the corner of Lafayette and Ruschin in Newark, California! Fair use for educational purposes. Merry Christmas everyone!

We can’t stop the Trumpistas from Trumping. We can’t stop the rest of them from pretending like they were never big Trump fans in the first place. But we can stop them running away from the facts or their record. We can remind them how they failed to stop Trump’s corruption and this murderous pandemic.

We can stop them skewing the political spectrum so far that the Biden team tacks to center ground that is already six steps to the right. We can hold the new White House to its promises at the same time as holding the old Republican party to what used to be its principles.

But this work comes at a price. Back in the late 19th century, the French writer Gustave Le Bon wrote that “the crowd” has never rewarded the truth.

“They turn aside from evidence that is not to their taste, preferring to deify error, if error seduce them,” he wrote. “Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim.”

You can reward the truth if you want to. It’s one of the best ways to demolish the legacy of the last four years.

It may well just be me at Christmas time.
I’ve posted pictures of my Christmas tree over the years. It’s 14 feet tall and plastic. My daughter, Vanessa, persuaded me to stop using real trees about a decade ago and I must admit plastic ones are easier cause the lights are already attached (but I add some red heart-shaped lights). It’s also easy to put up but the decorating part takes 2 days each way…2 days to put up and 2 days to take down and this Holiday I’ll be on my own to do it…with a very tall ladder.

Still, I’m going to do it. I decided today. I’ll start the day after Thanksgiving. I mean, if I’m going to do it I might as well have it up a full month.

My squirrel can see the tree through the window. She’s quite fat now. We’re talking liposuction fat. Should I stop feeding her? There are squirrel experts among you that’s why I’m asking. BTW, when I’m late putting peanuts (in their shells) in her feeder, she comes onto my porch and looks through the window for me.

Most of my time these days is spent writing climate articles and my opening for our weekly virtual Fire Drill Fridays and reading. I read about a book a week. I stop everything around 6pm, watch the Rachel Maddow show and then scroll around for shows to watch. I’ve pretty much scraped the bottom of the barrel watching things I never thought I’d see. I won’t name names. But last night, the new season of “The Crown” started and it’s really good. Also, a multi-parter on Showtime about Ronald Reagan which tells the real story of his rise and the effect he had on American politics. Finally the truth!

I did it myself. It took 2 days. I put the TV music station on a listened to cool jazz. My college music.

The Kraken is a gigantic sea monster from Scandinavian folklore that rises up from the ocean to devour its enemies. It's also become an internet meme representing a sprawling, unsubstantiated set of claims that purport to outline the case for widespread fraud in the US presidential election.

Pro-Trump groups including QAnon conspiracy theorists have amplified the idea under the hashtag #ReleaseTheKraken, and it's being widely shared by those supporting the legal campaign to challenge the election results.

Lawyer Sidney Powell - who was until recently part of Donald Trump's legal team and is now acting independently - has described the case she was mounting as a "Kraken" that, when released, would destroy the case for Democrat Joe Biden having won the US presidency.

However, once the documents, almost 200 pages of them, were released, it became clear they consisted predominantly of conspiracy theories and unfounded allegations that have already been widely debunked. Some of these claims have already been rejected in court cases, while others - such as accusations that voting machines are part of a plot originating under former Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez - are not backed up with any credible evidence. Ms Powell did not respond to a BBC request for comment.