Good morning, NBC News readers.
This morning we take a look inside America's chaotic vaccine rollout, the timeline that led to the GameStop-Robinhood-WSB explosion and the legacy Cicely Tyson leaves behind.
How delayed doses, unfulfilled requests and last-minute allocations slowed vaccine rollout
Since the distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine started last month, every week has been a test of patience for Dr. Patricia Schnabel Ruppert.
"We don't know how many doses we'll get, so we don't know how to organize staffing or how many volunteers we need," said Ruppert, health commissioner in Rockland County, New York.
Ruppert is not alone. Health clinics across the country have been left in the dark about how many doses they’ll receive, forcing them to scramble at the last minute to schedule appointments — making the distribution of the life-saving vaccine a logistical nightmare.
"Think of it this way: We are the last in line to get information, but we're the first in line for the public," said Lori Freeman, CEO of the National Association of County and City Health Officials.
It all comes as scientists warn that the U.S. is in a race against time to vaccinate as many people as possible before other potentially more worrisome variants of the coronavirus emerge.
The first U.S. cases of the South African variant were found in South Carolina on Thursday, health officials announced.
In other developments:
- The biotech company Novavax says its Covid-19 vaccine is 89.3 percent effective. The vaccine appears to protect against the U.K. and South African variants, although efficacy was lower for the South African strain.
- Even as the Covid vaccine rollout expands, Black Americans are still being left behind.
- Democrats say they are preparing to go it alone on an aggressive Covid relief package if Republicans don't cooperate.
- New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been accused of undercounting Covid-19 nursing home deaths by as much as 50 percent.
- Follow our live blog for all the latest Covid-19 developments.
A look at how GameStop-Robinhood-WSB reached this boiling point
The stock market frenzy around GameStop has been years in the making, NBC News' technology reporters David Ingram and Jason Abbruzzese report.
The seemingly sudden explosion actually reflects the parallel growth of two extreme online communities: users of the stock trading app Robinhood and members of a Reddit message board.
Check out a timeline of how r/wallstreetbets, also known as WSB, and Robinhood came to be.
On Thursday, online brokers restricted GameStop trading in an effort to protect users, but ended up infuriating them instead.
MSNBC anchor and NBC News Senior Business correspondent Stephanie Ruhle digs into how a Reddit chat room "gamed" the stock market in her latest podcast.
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Plus
- An Arizona GOP lawmaker introduced a bill to give the state Legislature the power to toss out election results.
- "You almost had me murdered": Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez demands Sen. Ted Cruz resign over the Capitol riot.
- GM plans to phase out gas and diesel engines and go all-electric by 2035.
- A liquid nitrogen leak at a Georgia food packing plant killed at least six people Thursday. How did the element routinely used at poultry plants become deadly?
- Catch up on the latest news with your children: Check out the Nightly News Kids Edition.
THINK about it
Trump's rise and fall unified the two most pernicious, racist myths about America, Phillip Gorski, a professor of sociology and religious studies at Yale University, writes in an opinion piece.
Live BETTER
Can I travel after I get a Covid-19 vaccine?
Shopping
Godiva has announced it will close all its North American stores. One frequent visitor describes how she'll miss the simple, sweet break from life it always delivered.
RIP Cicely Tyson
We lost another legendary actress yesterday with the death of Cicely Tyson.
The groundbreaking film, television and stage actress known for "Sounder" and other roles, died Thursday at the age of 96, her family said.
Tyson, who was born and raised in Harlem, was first discovered as a model for Ebony Magazine. She gained fame in the early 1970s when Black women were finally starting to get starring roles.
In 2016, President Barack Obama awarded Tyson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.
"Cicely made a conscious decision not just to say lines but to speak out," Obama said as he presented Tyson with the honor.
Thanks for reading the Morning Rundown.
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Thanks, Petra
