Wednesday, December 9 top news briefs

It is Wednesday, December 9. Here are today’s top news briefs.

The U.S. reported 2,597 new deaths from Covid-19 on Tuesday and 220,225 new cases. We’re still on a bad upwards trend with the coronavirus pandemic.

Health officials in Britain issued a warning that people with a history of serious allergic reactions should not receive the new Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine because two staffers with the National Health Service (NHS) exhibited an anaphylactoid reaction. Both workers carry EpiPens and are recovering well. Britain’s health regulators are now investigating and Pfizer/BioNTech said they are supporting them.

Canada’s health regulator, Health Canada, announced it has approved the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine after a rigorous review process. Canada will receive 249,000 doses this month.

Here in the U.S., a FDA panel will meet on Thursday to decide on granting the vaccine emergency authorization. So far it seems like they will approve it, based on scientific evaluations they released on Tuesday.

CNN reported that leaders in U.S. states are debating on who will get the vaccine first in their states. Most agree that health care workers and nursing home residents should be the first to receive them, but it becomes complicated when you look at the supply of the vaccines and try to get specific on who gets them first. Alabama and Alaska plan to vaccinate both groups at the same time, but Pennsylvania plans to vaccinate health care workers first before nursing home residents. A third group that gets priority is the “essential worker” — which includes police officers or teachers. State officials also have to figure out how to make sure the vaccines reach rural areas.

In Columbus, Ohio, a 23-year-old Black man named Casey Goodson was shot and killed on Friday noon while he opened the door of his home while holding a Subway sandwich. He fell on the kitchen floor and his 5-year-old brother and 72-year-old grandmother saw him before he died. A coroner report said he died from multiple gunshots to the torso. CNN reported that the police officer is Jason Meade, a 17-year veteran of the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office. He was working with the U.S. Marshal’s fugitive task force looking for violent offenders, but Goodson was not the person they were looking for. The officer said he saw a man waving a gun at them and later confronted him, telling him to drop his gun before he shot him. Goodson did have a gun with him and was a concealed carry permit holder. There is now a federal and local investigation. A family attorney representing the Goodson family said the officer should be held accountable. There are rallies scheduled for Friday and Saturday.

This early morning in Kansas City, Kansas, a FedEx semi truck driver died after the truck drove off a highway bridge and slammed into a road below, causing it to burst into flames. KSN News said the crash happened 4 a.m. and that all lanes of the K-10 highway were shut down as fire crews battled the flames. It is not known the driver’s name and there is an investigation.

That is all the top news briefs for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage

/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/pfizer-allergic-warnings-vaccine/2020/12/09/4e79ec72-3a16-11eb-aad9-8959227280c4_story.html

https://apnews.com/article/canada-coronavirus-pandemic-9cde42df20e80c50752768b6696d45d5

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/09/health/covid-vaccine-distribution-states/index.html

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/08/us/ohio-police-shooting-casey-goodson/index.html

https://www.10tv.com/article/news/local/coroner-preliminary-report-casey-goodson/530-7f9d3e0f-7fd0-4746-bdff-132a31c3325c

https://www.ksn.com/news/kansas/1-dead-after-truck-falls-from-highway-in-northeast-kansas/