US clears Moderna vaccine for COVID-19, 2nd shot in arsenal— Pence, top congressional leaders get vaccines; Trump absent— 1 in 5 prisoners in the US has had COVID-19, 1,700 have died— Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte has announced a partial lockdown nationwide for most of the Christmas holiday season out of concern that gatherings of families and friends would reignite the virus’s spread.— Doctors say increasingly desperate California hospitals are being “crushed” by soaring coronavirus infections.
One Los Angeles ER doctor is predicting rationing of care is imminent.— T ens of millions of people are expected to travel to family gatherings or winter vacations over Christmas.