October 6, 2020

The FDA releases new safety guidelines for COVID-19 vaccine authorization that effectively rule out an Election Day approval, requiring manufacturers to follow trial participants for at least two months after receiving the second shot. The White House had been fighting to block the stricter standards, but The Guardian reports the administration appears to have dropped its objections. The move is a victory for the FDA’s career scientists and a blow to Trump’s “October surprise” vaccine strategy. Trump calls off coronavirus relief talks with Democrats until after the election, sending the stock market down and leaving millions of unemployed Americans without additional support. Facebook and Twitter remove a Trump post falsely claiming the flu is more lethal than COVID, and Facebook announces a ban on all QAnon groups.

Newsweek reports that anti-vaccine sentiment is increasingly fueled by Democrats’ own skepticism of a Trump-accelerated vaccine—a phenomenon that complicates the media narrative that vaccine hesitancy is a right-wing problem. Nature publishes a piece titled “Face masks: what the data say,” arguing the evidence supports masks saving lives while acknowledging the scientific debate continues. California’s governor’s office tells diners to wear masks “in between bites,” guidance that generates widespread mockery and further tests the credibility of public-health messaging. Fauci appears at the New Yorker Festival and says the U.S. is “not in a good place” as cases rise in 30 states. A PBS report notes rising levels of pandemic fatigue in Europe, with the WHO warning that populations are growing weary of restrictions whose endpoint remains undefined.