Month: November 2020

As President-elect Joe Biden reveals his economic team, one nominee already is facing stiff resistance from Senate Republicans, leading Democrats to rally in her defense ahead of what could prove to be a rough and tumble confirmation process.

Neera Tanden, Biden’s choice to become director of the Office of Management and Budget, is celebrated by the president-elect’s team for her career pursuing policies in support of working families and what they call “broad-based” economic growth.

She is also the former policy director for the first Obama-Biden campaign and now serves as President and CEO of the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, a role in which she has frequently clashed with Republicans, though she evidently has attempted to clean up her Twitter account in recent weeks — deleting hundreds of tweets.

“As we get to work to control the virus, this is the team that will deliver immediate economic relief for the American people during this economic crisis and help us build our economy back better than ever,” Biden stated in his announcement naming Tanden and the other members of his economic team. “This team looks like America and brings seriousness of purpose, the highest degree of competency, and unwavering belief in the promise of America. They will be ready on day one to get to work for all Americans.”

If confirmed, Tanden, 50, would be the first woman of color and first South Asian American to lead the OMB.

The director of the Office of Management and Budget, while not a marquee Cabinet post in the presidential line of succession, is a critical economic adviser who has sometimes doubled as the president’s fiscal disciplinarian, serving as a check within the executive branch on any far-fetched spending plans fancied by other Cabinet members.

Known as a frequent political commentator on cable television, Tanden has been criticized for her past tweets blasting Republican lawmakers, as well as tacitly perpetuating a conspiracy that Russians hacked voter rolls in 2016 to take votes away from Hillary Clinton in favor of Donald Trump. Republicans also point out that she’s signaled support to cut Social Security benefits following the 2010 midterm elections when the Tea Party swept Republicans into the House majority.

After news broke Sunday that Biden was poised to announce Tanden as his selection for the wonky role, one Republican senator sent a warning shot, calling her “radioactive” and suggesting she is Biden’s “worst nominee so far” – a signal that her confirmation may be impossible.

“In light of her combative and insulting comments about many members of the Senate, mainly on our side of the aisle, that it creates certainly a problematic path,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said. “I’ve noted that she’s apparently deleted a lot of our previous tweets in the last couple of weeks, which … seems pretty juvenile, and I mean it’s as if people don’t have access to it.”

Additional Republicans have highlighted her policy views as justification to oppose her nomination.

Republicans currently have locked up 50 seats in the Senate for the next session of Congress, as two other GOP incumbents fight to win run-offs in early January. If Sens. Kelly Loeffler or David Perdue win, then the Senate will remain in Republican hands and Biden’s nominees would have to win bipartisan support in order to earn confirmation. If both lose, then the Senate power would be split and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris would cast potential tie-breaking votes to shift control to Democrats.

Tanden will also need to win initial approval from the Senate Budget Committee, led on the Democratic side by Sen. Bernie Sanders, someone she has clashed with since the 2016 presidential campaign.

While Sanders has remained muted in the wake of Biden’s announcement naming the Clinton loyalist as his nominee for OMB director, other Democrats have publicly rallied to her defense.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters Monday that Biden’s Cabinet nominations should receive hearings in January “immediately” after the Georgia runoff elections, adding that Republicans are “grasping at straws” to explain their opposition to Biden’s nominees, including Tanden.

“I fully expect to see some crocodile tears spilled on the other side of the aisle over President-elect Biden’s Cabinet nominees, but it will be very tough to take those crocodile tears seriously,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said. “Our Republican colleagues are on the record supporting some of the least qualified most unethical and downright sycophantic nominees in recent memory.”

Given the uphill climb that many of his nominees will face in their confirmation battles, Biden’s selection of a political lightning rod like Tanden signals that the future president will not shy away from choosing nominees who are no strangers to controversy.

“In Neera Tanden, the President-elect’s team gets another deeply experienced and historic nomination,” stated Virginia Democratic Rep. Don Beyer, the future chairman of the Joint Economic Committee. “Tanden would be the first woman of color to lead the Office of Management and Budget, and her policy experience and devotion to strengthening the middle class are beyond question.”

The Biden transition team trumpets Tanden as a policy veteran of multiple presidential administrations who has advocated for policies designed to support working families, citing her experience as a child relying on food stamps and Section 8 housing.

Aside from her tenure at the Center for American Progress, Tanden serves on the New Jersey Restart and Recovery Commission, and previously served as senior adviser for health reform at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services developing policies and provisions of the Affordable Care Act, as director of domestic policy for the first Obama-Biden presidential campaign.

A native of Bedford, Massachusetts, she received her bachelor of science degree from UCLA and her law degree from Yale Law School.

“I’ve known @neeratanden for over 2 decades,” Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., tweeted. “She’s brilliant and laser-focused on making our country a fairer place for all.”

“I’ve worked closely with Neera Tanden for a number of years, and I know that she will be a tremendous asset to President-elect Biden as he works with Congress to invest in a stronger economy for all Americans,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., added.

ABC News’ Trish Turner and Allie Pecorin contributed to this report.

Removing immigrants from the count would affect seats in Congress, federal funds

President Donald Trump‘s sweeping order to exclude undocumented immigrants “to the maximum extent feasible” from the 2020 census faced skepticism Monday from a majority on the U.S. Supreme Court, even as several key justices showed openness to affording Trump some discretion in a tally that could have a major political impact.

By subtracting millions of immigrants from the census total, Trump hopes to shape the apportionment of congressional seats, the allocation of billions in federal funds and the contours of the nation’s electoral map for at least the next decade. If he succeeds, it would be the first time in 230 years that the process would exclude large swaths of people inside the U.S.

“A lot of the historical evidence and longstanding practice really cuts against your position,” Justice Amy Coney Barrett told Trump acting Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall during oral arguments.

The Constitution requires an “actual enumeration” — or, census — be performed every 10 years to account for changes in population and that decennial redistricting be based on “the whole number of persons in each state,” regardless of citizenship or immigration status.

“There’s evidence that in the founding era, an inhabitant was a dweller who lives or resides in a place,” Barrett said. “If an undocumented person has been in the country for 20 years, even if illegally, as you say, why would some person not have a — such a person not have a settled residence here?”

Wall argued that Trump has discretion to exclude “at least some illegal aliens,” especially those without deep ties to the country such as those caught recently crossing the border or others in ICE detention slated for removal. But Wall could not specify how Trump might draw the line or how many undocumented immigrants fall into each subcategory proposed by the administration.

The uncertainty challenged the justices as they tried to chart a resolution.

“I find the posture of this case quite frustrating,” said Justice Samuel Alito. “It could be that we’re dealing a possibility that is quite important. It could be that this is much ado about very little. It depends on what the Census Bureau and the Department of Commerce are able to do.”

Some justices suggested the court should possibly wait to rule until after the count is complete and apportionment of congressional seats comes into focus.

“We don’t know what the president is going to do, how many aliens will be excluded. We don’t know what the effect of that would be on apportionment. All these questions would be resolved if we wait until the apportionment takes place,” Chief Justice John Roberts said.

Dale Ho, the ACLU attorney challenging the Trump order, countered that there is “at least a substantial risk of a shift in the apportionment now” that warranted immediate action by the court.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh called the case against a “categorical exclusion of all unlawful non-citizens” from the census “forceful,” but suggested Trump could potentially revise his order.

“Couldn’t he substitute a new policy,” Kavanaugh said, “by saying we’re going to exclude some subsets (of undocumented immigrants) and then there’ll be litigation on that and we’ll be right back here?”

“Whether or not that particular policy would be lawful is a different question,” replied Ho.

Justices Breyer, Kagan and Sotomayor suggested that they see the text of the Constitution and federal law as clearly requiring a fully inclusive census count for purposes of apportionment.

“The census says ‘where you’re living,'” said Sotomayor. “I’m not sure how you can identify any class of immigrant that isn’t living here in a traditional sense. This is where they are.”

New York Solicitor General Barbara Underwood agreed.

“You cannot declare them to be gone,” she said of undocumented immigrants. “Their undocumented status doesn’t remove their presence.”

New York is one of 20 states asking the court for a swift decision before Trump, by law, must deliver his apportionment report to Congress in early January.

“So apportionment already begins,” Sotomayor said of the rapidly progressing timeline. “We’d have to unscramble the egg” if the court waits.

Moderna announced Monday it will ask the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization (EUA) for its COVID-19 vaccine, making it the second company, after Pfizer, to seek EUA for a COVID-19 vaccine in the United States.

Pfizer’s public FDA hearing — a crucial step in the authorization process — is scheduled for Dec. 10, and the FDA could make its official authorization decision shortly thereafter.

In an early morning press release, Moderna announced that its FDA hearing will be held a week later, on Dec. 17. Moderna also announced its coronavirus vaccine is more than 94% effective, according to the final analysis of its massive Phase 3 trial.

Among the more than 30,000 volunteers in Moderna’s Phase 3 trial, 196 ultimately developed COVID-19, but the vast majority of those COVID-19 cases happened among volunteers who had been given a placebo injection — an imbalance hefty enough for biostatisticians to feel confident the vaccine is highly effective.

“The newly published results from Moderna confirm our enthusiasm for the prospects of their vaccine,” said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist, chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and contributor to ABC News.

Pfizer said its vaccine was 95% effective in the final analysis, but it had a different number of COVID-19 cases in its trial, so the percentages shouldn’t be compared head-to-head without context, experts say.

“The results of both trials are just amazing,” said David Benkeser, an assistant professor of biostatistics and bioinformatics at Emory University Rollins School of Public Health.

He added that “94.1% and 95% are statistically indistinguishable at this point, probably coming down to a difference of just one or two cases of COVID-19.”

“We do have to be careful not to over-interpret these data, especially when in comparison to the Pfizer analysis,” Brownstein cautioned.

Moderna has promised to publish full details from the trial through a formal scientific review process. Additional details about the trial will become available through the FDA’s review process, which the agency has pledged will be transparent to the public.

“While 94.1% efficacy is phenomenal, we are still dealing with small sample sizes and likely we will see differences in vaccine effectiveness when deployed in the population,” Brownstein said.

But Monday’s press release included some new details about Moderna’s vaccine, including the fact that it appears to be equally effective among people of different races, ethnicities, ages and genders.

Among the 196 people who developed COVID-19 in the trial, 33 were older adults (ages 65 and up), 29 were Hispanic or Latino, six were Black or African American, four were Asian American and three were multiracial.

Moderna is also claiming that the Phase 3 data shows the vaccine was highly effective at preventing more severe cases of COVID-19. According to the press release, 30 out of the 196 volunteers developed severe illness, but all 30 were among the group of volunteers who got the placebo shot. This shows the vaccine demonstrated 100% efficacy at preventing severe COVID-19, according to the company.

According to Benkeser, this isn’t enough data to prove Moderna’s vaccine will prevent severe illness in every single person who receives it, “however, it is common for vaccines to be more effective against severe disease than mild disease,” he said.

“The idea is that though a vaccine might not fully protect you against infection, it can make the subsequent illness less severe,” he added. “Therefore, it really is quite plausible that the short-term efficacy against severe disease is indeed close to 100%.”

Meanwhile, no serious safety concerns about the vaccine have been reported to date. People who get the vaccine may experience a sore arm, redness at the injection site, headache, fever, fatigue or other short-term adverse reactions.

Monday’s announcement means Moderna is on track to see a possible FDA-authorized vaccine by the end of the year. The company is also on track to produce 20 million doses available for distribution around the U.S. by the end of December: enough doses to vaccinate 10 million people.

Moderna said it will also ask European regulators for a conditional approval, and the company is on track to manufacture 500 million to 1 billion doses globally in 2021.

Experts said that even the “final” analyses of both vaccine trials — Pfizer’s and Moderna’s — will not provide the final answer about just how well the vaccines will work, especially in the long term, but their results, both boasting greater than 90% efficacy, bode well for the future.

Benkeser said there is still a long way to go until vaccines are widely available, but when they are, Americans should trust the science.

“There’s a light at the end of the — as of yet — very dark tunnel,” he said, “but for the first time since March, I feel hopeful about turning a corner.”

At least 10 men have been attacked since Nov. 10 in Waltham, Massachusetts.

One man was out for an evening stroll when someone came up behind him and bashed him in the face with a blunt object. Another victim was taking out the trash at his apartment complex when he was ambushed, and a U.S. Postal Service carrier was badly beaten while out delivering the mail after dark.

Residents of Waltham, Massachusetts, are on edge after police said at least 10 men have been targeted by a mystery assailant in a string of unprovoked assaults that have occurred since Nov. 10.

“Waltham police are using all means necessary to bring these cases to an end as quickly as possible,” Detective Sgt. Steve McCarthy said in a statement.

McCarthy said the latest attack occurred around 8 p.m. on Friday when a culprit came up behind a man walking on a residential street, hit him in the face with a blunt weapon and ran off under the cover of darkness. As in the other cases, McCarthy said the person responsible for the serial assaults appears to be lying in wait and attacking victims by surprise.

On Saturday, police released surveillance video of an individual they described as “a suspect in the string of recent assaults around Waltham” and urged the public to contact them with any information on the person’s identity.

The video shows a man dressed in a dark hooded coat, light blue jeans and sneakers running down a street. Police did not specify when or where the video was taken.

Investigators only have a general description of the assailant, saying he appears to be a Black male, 5-foot-6- to 5-foot-10-inches tall and 160 to 180 pounds.

Police also took the unusual step of making reverse 911 calls to alert residents of the city, cautioning them to be vigilant and remain aware of their surroundings, especially after dark.

Authorities said that in all of the “random, unprovoked” attacks, the suspect has struck between 5:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. in the city 22 miles northwest of Boston.

Initially, the assailant appeared to be targeting residents of an apartment complex but has since spread out across the community of roughly 63,000 people, attacking several recent victims in the city’s downtown area, according to police.

David Cameros, one of the victims, told ABC affiliate station WCVB-TV in Boston, that he was attacked Wednesday night outside his apartment complex. He said he had just taken out his garbage and was talking on his cell phone while having a smoke when he was clobbered in the head by what he believes was a baseball bat.

Cameros said he was knocked unconscious and left with a fractured skull.

“I don’t know if it is only one or there are more attackers. The aggressor always attacks from behind,” Cameros said.

Another victim, who would only give his first name, Emerson, a mechanic, told WCVB he was targeted while out for an evening stroll also on Wednesday evening. Emerson remains in a hospital being treated for several fractures to his face and skull.

Emerson said the attacker came up behind him like a “coward” and that he didn’t have a chance to see his face.

“I did not have the opportunity to defend myself,” Emerson said Saturday, adding that he is awaiting surgery on his face.

Melissa Gallant, a friend of Emerson, said she and other residents of the city have been left rattled by the attacks.

“I know he’s beat up bad, bad, bad and he’s such a nice guy,” Gallant told WCVB of Emerson. “It’s heartbreaking. It’s not right. He helps everybody. He’s a very good man.”

Some runners-up include coronavirus, malarkey, schadenfreude, icon and kraken.

In what would have been unthinkable a year ago to what seems like a fairly obvious choice now, Merriam-Webster announced on Monday that its Word of the Year is “pandemic.”

“Sometimes a single word defines an era, and it’s fitting that in this exceptional — and exceptionally difficult — year, a single word came immediately to the fore as we examined the data that determines what our Word of the Year will be,” Merriam-Webster said in its announcement.

According to the publishing company, the first big spike for people looking up the word “pandemic” happened on Feb. 3 — the same day that the first COVID-19 patient was released from a Seattle hospital — when searches for the word skyrocketed by 1,621% more compared to the same time the year before.

Searches for the word, however, according to Merriam-Webster, had actually been slowly increasing since Jan. 20 — the same day as the first positive case of COVID-19 occurred in the U.S.

“People were clearly paying attention to the news and to early descriptions of the nature of this disease,” the publishing company said. “That initial February spike in lookups didn’t fall off — it grew. By early March, the word was being looked up an average of 4,000% over 2019 levels. As news coverage continued, alarm among the public was rising.”

The company said that the single largest spike in searches for the word “pandemic” happened — perhaps unsurprisingly — on March 11 when the World Health Organization officially declared “COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic.”

The increase on that day was 115,806% higher than on the same day in 2019.

Merriam-Webster defines “pandemic” as “an outbreak of a disease that occurs over a wide geographic area (such as multiple countries or continents) and typically affects a significant proportion of the population.”

“This has been a year unlike any other and pandemic is the word that has connected the worldwide medical emergency to the political response and to our personal experience of it all,” said Merriam-Webster.

While “pandemic” may have been named the Word of the Year, there were plenty of other words that saw huge spikes in searches throughout the year that Meriam-Webster acknowledged as well.

The other words in the top 10 were coronavirus, defund, mamba — which saw a surge after the death of Kobe Bryant, kraken, quarantine, antebellum, schadenfreude, asymptomatic, irregardless, icon — which spiked after the deaths of John Lewis in July and Ruth Bader Ginsburg in September, and — last but not least – malarkey.

His 6’7″ frame got him noticed by “Star Wars” director George Lucas.

LONDON — Dave Prowse, the British actor who played Darth Vader in the original “Star Wars” trilogy has died at the age of 85, according to his agent.

“It’s with great regret and heart-wrenching sadness for us and [millions] of fans around the world, to announce that our client DAVE PROWSE M.B.E. has passed away at the age of 85,” Bowington Management said in a tweet early Sunday morning.

Prowse, born in the city of Bristol in the southwest of England, was originally a body builder and won the British heavyweight lifting championship ship for three consecutive years starting in 1962, according to the Associated Press.

At 6’7”, Prowse broke into the film industry and was cast in parts that featured his size such as Frank Alexander’s bodyguard, Julian, in Stanley Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange” in 1971 which soon got him noticed by “Star Wars” director George Lucas who eventually asked the actor to audition for the part of Darth Vader of Chewbacca.

Prowse also played the monster of Frankenstein in three separate films during his career but was most well-known for his portrayal of the iconic villain, Darth Vader, who was voiced by James Earl Jones.

Prowse was awarded an MBE (Member of the British Empire) in 2000 for his work playing the role of the Green Cross Code Man — a superhero who was invented to promote British road safety in a television campaign from 1971 to 1990.

“So sad to hear David Prowse has passed,” said Mark Hamill who played Luke Skywalker in the “Star Wars” saga. “He was a kind man & much more than Darth Vader. Actor-Husband-Father-Member of the Order of the British Empire-3 time British Weightlifting Champion & Safety Icon the Green Cross Code Man. He loved his fans as much as they loved him. #RIP”

Edgar Wright, who directed “Ant-Man” and “Baby Driver” also weighed in on Sunday.

“As a kid Dave Prowse couldn’t be more famous to me; stalking along corridors as evil incarnate in the part of Darth Vader & stopping a whole generation of kiddies from being mown down in street as the Green Cross Code man. Rest in Peace, Bristol’s finest.”

The soccer champ was recruited for Saturday’s game vs. Missouri.

No woman has ever played in a Power 5 conference game. That all changed on Saturday, when Sarah Fuller took to the field as Vanderbilt plays Missouri.

Fuller kicked off for Vanderbilt to start the second half of the game, in Missouri.

The history-making move came on the heels of a Southeastern Conference championship-winning soccer season for the Vanderbilt senior, who sported her soccer jersey number — 32 — for Saturday’s game. Vandy beat Arkansas, 3-1, in the SEC title game on Nov. 22. Fuller, the team’s starting goalkeeper, made three saves.

Just a day later she was hitting the football field to practice kicks.

Fuller told reporters after the game that she was “really calm” during her kickoff. “I was really excited to step out on the field and do my thing,” she said, adding that her soccer championship game was “more stressful.”

The athlete also had a message for her young fans.

“I just want to tell all the girls out there that you can do anything you set your mind to, you really can,” she said. “And if you have that mentality all the way through, you can do big things.”

For the game, Fuller wore “Play Like a Girl” on the back of her helmet, a nod to a nonprofit that encourages girls to become leaders in STEM by keeping them engaged in sports.

The athlete drew support from both Vanderbilt and Missouri spectators at Saturday’s game, with one self-proclaimed Mizzou fan sporting a sign cheering for Fuller.

The Commodores ultimately lost the game, 41-0, and are now 0-8 for the season. The team’s lack of offense — just 183 total yards — didn’t allow for Fuller to attempt a PAT or field goal.

Fuller told Vanderbilt University the opportunity to help the team out would be “an honor.”

“I think it’s amazing and incredible,” Fuller said in an article on the athletic program’s website. “But I’m also trying to separate that because I know this is a job I need to do, and I want to help the team out and I want to do the best that I can. Placing that historical aspect aside just helps me focus in on what I need to do. I don’t want to let them down in any way.”

The Power 5 conferences are the SEC, Pac-12, Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC.

Vanderbilt’s head soccer coach, Darren Ambrose, said Fuller’s “the right person for the job.”

“So excited for you and for college football,” the coach said in a social media post.

Congratulations also poured in from the SEC, Tennessee Titans, Jen Welter, the first female coach in the NFL, tennis great Billie Jean King and Vanderbilt alums including Adena Friedman, the president and CEO of Nasdaq, who called Fuller a “tremendous athlete and role model.”

Fuller joins an elite company of female athletes who have competed in the Football Bowl Subdivision also as kickers: Katie Hnida for New Mexico in the early 2000s, and April Goss for Kent State in the mid-2010s. Hnida did dress for a game when she played at Colorado — a Power 5 school — but never played. She later transferred to play for the Lobos, where she became the first woman to score in an FBS game, converting two extra points in her career.

Ashley Martin is believed to be the first female athlete to play and score in an NCAA Division I football game in 2001, for Jacksonville State, which competes in the Football Championship Subdivision.

Stanford’s football program will also be affected by the measures.

The San Francisco 49ers will not be allowed to practice or play in their stadium for three weeks under new county health restrictions that prohibit contact sports.

Stanford University’s athletics, including its football program, will also be affected.

Santa Clara County health officials announced the new restrictions on Saturday, as the county reported a record 760 COVID-19 cases.

“Our case rates have been surging since November. In fact, we have the highest case rate of any county in the San Francisco Bay area,” county health officer Dr. Sara Cody said at a press briefing.

Hospitalizations have also doubled since Nov. 12, she said, with a record 239 reported on Saturday.

The restrictions, which start Monday and last through Dec. 21, impact gatherings, capacity limits and recreational activities.

Among them, professional, collegiate and youth sports that involve direct contact are temporarily prohibited.

Health officials confirmed that means that the 49ers will not be allowed to play home games at Levi’s Stadium. The team has games scheduled there on Dec. 7 and Dec. 13. It is unclear if the games will be moved or postponed.

The Stanford Cardinal football team also currently has a home game scheduled for Dec. 12.

Neither team has allowed fans into their stadiums this season.

Additionally, people who travel more than 150 miles from home will have to quarantine for 14 days. The 49ers are currently headed to Los Angeles for a game against the Rams Sunday afternoon, as noted by sports reporter Jennifer Lee Chan. It’s unclear if the new quarantine order will impact the team.

“We are aware of the Santa Clara County Public Health Department’s emergency directive,” the 49ers said in a statement. “We are working with the NFL and our partners on operational plans and will share details as they are confirmed.”

Stanford has not publicly responded to the new measures. Neither have the NFL or Pac-12.

The San Jose State football program would also be affected by the regulations. Training camp for the NHL’s San Jose Sharks, set to begin in early December, could also be affected.

Other new county restrictions will limit hotels to essential travel, health care workers and quarantine or isolation purposes. Card rooms will also close. Capacity at most indoor facilities will be reduced to 10% (grocery stores and pharmacies can operate at 25% capacity), and outdoor gatherings will be limited to 100 people.

Health officials also urged residents to stay home as much as possible.

“This pandemic is like a high-speed train, and our projections tell us that we are on target to derail by around the third week of December if we don’t apply brakes right now with all our collective might,” Cody said.

The current projections do not take Thanksgiving into account, with holiday gatherings and travel likely to “create a surge,” she added.

The measures are in addition to a nightly curfew and nonessential business closures issued by the state for counties including Santa Clara that are in the “purple” tier, indicating widespread COVID-19 risk.

ABC News’ Abigail Shalawylo and Matthew Fuhrman contributed to this report.

American Airlines “successfully moved” thermal packaging in a trial flight.

There isn’t an approved COVID-19 vaccine just yet, but preparations are already underway for its distribution — including any extreme temperature requirements.

American Airlines announced this week that its cargo operation has started conducting trial flights from Miami to South America to test its process of shipping vaccines.

That includes stress testing a trial of “a major pharmaceutical company’s thermal packaging,” CEO Doug Parker said in a LinkedIn post earlier this week.

The flight did not involve any vaccine doses, a spokesperson confirmed to ABC News.

Parker said the airline “successfully moved” the thermal packaging of the company, which was not identified, last week.

Pfizer and BioNTech were the first to submit a request to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization of their COVID-19 vaccine candidate. Distribution of their vaccine poses a potential challenge: It must be kept at around minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit — far colder than a typical freezer can accommodate.

Because of these temperature requirements, the company will ship vaccine doses in special temperature-controlled thermal boxes packed with dry ice.

American Airlines said in a statement to ABC News that it has established a “network of team members that specialize in temperature-critical shipments,” and that it will work with the Federal Aviation Administration on “regulations governing shipments transported with dry ice.”

Utilizing cargo and commercial carriers will allow the vaccine to be “distributed as quickly as possible,” Parker said.

United Airlines has also been preparing to “support a vaccine distribution effort on a global scale,” a spokesperson said in a statement to ABC News.

The company is ready to “safely and effectively support” the vaccine transportation needs of its pharmaceutical customers, the spokesperson said.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that the airline has started flying Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.

Pfizer and BioNTech said they will be ready to distribute the vaccine within hours after authorization.

Representatives of the companies are set to meet with the FDA on Dec. 10, after which an independent advisory board will make a recommendation on authorization.

Moderna’s candidate will also likely be among the first vaccines distributed. Earlier this month, the company announced that initial phase 3 data showed its vaccine is up to 94.5% effective.

Gen. Gustave Perna of the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed vaccine program told ABC News this week that vaccines will be “on the street” in communities just 24 hours after being authorized by the FDA.

Elderly care facilities and health care providers will be the first offered the vaccine, according to U.S. officials.

ABC News’ Amanda Maile contributed to this report.

Iranian foreign minister: “Terrorists murdered an eminent Iranian scientist.”

One of Iran’s most prominent scientists was killed in an apparent assassination on Friday, according to Iranian authorities.

Iran Defense Minister Gen. Amir Hatami said that Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a deputy defense minister and the head of the Iranian army’s research and defensive innovations, was killed outside of Tehran as a “target of a terrorist operation.”

“At first, the car carrying him was shot at, and about 15 seconds later, a Nissan pick-up truck that was loaded with explosives blasted about 15 to 20 meters away from his car,” Hatami said. “He was severely injured and taken to a hospital as well as two others who were with him.”

While no one has claimed responsibility for the killing, the incident has brought out a full response from Iran’s top officials, including the country’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, who pointed the finger at Israel.

“Terrorists murdered an eminent Iranian scientist today. This cowardice — with serious indications of Israeli role — shows desperate warmongering of perpetrators,” Zarif wrote on Twitter.

Iran accused Israel of complicity in the killing of four Iranian nuclear scientists between 2010 and 2012, though it was never confirmed. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mentioned Fakhrizadeh by name during a 2018 presentation about Iran’s nuclear program, during which he alleged there was material stolen by Israel from an Iranian nuclear archive.

“A key part of the plan was to form new organizations to continue the work,” Netanyahu alleged at the time. “This is how Dr. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, head of Project Amad, put it. Remember that name — ‘Fakhrizadeh.'”

Fakhrizaseh was 59 years old. He had been added to the U.S. sanctions list against Iran in 2008, and additional sanctions were placed on his research organization last year. He used to teach nuclear physics at the Imam Hossein University, a military university in Tehran.