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FARGO, N.D. — Trucks andcargo planes packed with the firstof
nearly three million doses of co-ronavirus vaccine fanned outacross
the country on Sunday ashospitals rushed to set up injec-tion sites
and their anxious work-ers tracked each shipment hourby hour.
The distribution of the first fed-erally approved vaccine
markedthe start of the most ambitiousvaccination campaign in
Ameri-can history, a critical, complicatedfeat that one top federal
officialcompared to the Allied landings atNormandy during World War
II.Now, the United States is trying toturn the tide of battle
against a vi-rus whose out-of-control spreadhas killed nearly
300,000 people,ravaged the economy and up-ended millions of
lives.
Early on Sunday, the first boxesof a vaccine developed by
Pfizerand BioNTech that received emer-gency approval from federal
regu-lators were packed in dry ice at aPfizer plant in Kalamazoo,
Mich.Workers applauded as the firsttruck left the plant, the
earliestwave of vaccines bound for distri-bution sites across all
50 states.
The first doses will go to healthcare workers, who could start
re-ceiving shots by Monday. Resi-dents of nursing homes, who
havesuffered a disproportionate shareof Covid-19 deaths, are also
beingprioritized and are expected to be-gin getting vaccinations
nextweek.
“I can’t wait to get it,” said An-gela Mattingly, 57, a
housekeeperat the University of Iowa Hospitalwho is scheduled to be
among hos-pital employees receiving doses ofthe vaccine on Monday
morning.For months, she has done thedraining work of cleaning
upmountains of used personal pro-tective equipment and even
strip-ping curtains from the hospital
As Toll Nears 300,000,First Doses of VaccineRace Across the
Nation
Hospitals NervouslyWait for Tools to
Stem the Tide
This article is by Jack Healy, AmyHarmon and Simon Romero.
Packing Pfizer vaccine doses with dry ice to keep them at 94
degrees below zero. About three million doses began to ship on
Sunday.POOL PHOTO BY MORRY GASH
Continued on Page A5
WASHINGTON — The Trumpadministration, scrambling tomake up for
lost time after a halt-ing start, is rushing to roll out a$250
million public educationcampaign to encourage Ameri-cans to take
the coronavirus vac-cine, which will reach the first pa-tients in
the United States thisweek.
Federal officials acknowledgethe effort will be a
complicatedone. It must compete with publicdoubt and mistrust of
governmentprograms amid deep political divi-sions created in part
by a presi-dent who has spent much of theyear belittling government
scien-tists, promoting ineffective treat-ments and dismissing the
serious-ness of the pandemic — and is nowrushing to claim credit
for a vac-cine that he has made a priority.
“When you have an anti-scienceelement together with a
divisive-ness in the country, it will be chal-lenging,” Dr. Anthony
S. Fauci, thegovernment’s top infectious dis-ease expert, said in
an interviewon Friday, while declining to talkspecifically about
PresidentTrump. “But you know, we’vedone challenging things
before.”
The Building Vaccine Confi-dence campaign, overseen by
theDepartment of Health and HumanServices, will unfold in an
atmos-phere of hope as vaccinations be-gin — but also despair as
dailydeath tolls from Covid-19 ap-proach 2,500 and the UnitedStates
nears 300,000 total deaths.The campaign is part of a broaderpublic
relations effort that was ini-tially supposed to feature
celebri-ties whom the administration con-sidered friendly to the
presidentbut came under scrutiny fromDemocrats who called it a
propa-ganda campaign intended to re-elect Mr. Trump.
The celebrity component —which was to include the actor
Last-Minute Dash toAssure the Public
on Inoculation
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERGand MICHAEL D. SHEAR
In Michigan, Democratic elec-tors have been promised police
es-corts from their cars into the StateCapitol, where on Monday
theywill formally vote for Joseph R. Bi-den Jr.
In Arizona, state officials areholding the vote at an
undisclosedlocation for safety reasons, farfrom what is expected to
be a
heated hearing on election integ-rity issues that Republicans
willconduct in the Statehouse.
Even in Delaware, the tiny,deeply Democratic home state ofthe
president-elect, officials relo-cated their ceremony to a
collegegymnasium, a site considered tohave better security and
publichealth controls.
For decades, Electoral Collegevoters have served as the
rubber-stamping bureaucrats of Ameri-
can democracy, operating well be-low the political radar as they
pro-vided pro forma certification of anew president. Despite its
pro-cedural nature, the role has longbeen considered an honor,
be-stowed as a way to recognize polit-
ical stature or civic service.This year, the Electoral
College
is another piece of routine electionmechanics thrown into the
crosshairs of President Trump’s sus-tained assault on voting
integrity.After five weeks of lawsuits, re-counts and Republican
inquiriesinto unfounded claims of fraud,Americans will turn to the
538members of the Electoral Collegeto provide a measure of finality
to
An Honor Becomes an Ordeal as Harried Electors Finally MeetBy
LISA LERER
and REID J. EPSTEINDemocrats Are Pressed
by Trump Supporters
Continued on Page A14
ADRIANA ZEHBRAUSKAS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Comforting a migrant sent back to Mexico. Unauthorized entries
are on the rise. Page A12.A New Surge at the Border
CHICAGO — When Kim Millersat down in her Illinois house
tocompose her husband’s obituary,she could not hold back.
Not about the coronavirus thathad left Scott, her fit,
healthyspouse who loved to swim, golfand putter in the garden,
gaspingfor breath and unable to move hislimbs as he stood at the
kitchencounter. Not about what had killedhim swiftly and cruelly in
only afew days.
“This disease is real, it is seri-ous and it is deadly,” she
wrote inhis obituary. “Wear the mask, so-cially distance, if not
for yourselfthen for others who may lose aloved one to the
disease.”
“I couldn’t just write that helived and died and had two
chil-dren,” said Ms. Miller, a retiredcollege professor, who wept
as shespoke of her husband of 25 years.“I wanted people to read
this andreally read this.”
By Sunday, deaths from the co-ronavirus were approaching300,000
in the United States, a tollcomparable to losing the
entirepopulation of Pittsburgh or St.Louis. Reports of new deaths
have
more than doubled in the lastmonth to an average of nearly2,400
each day, more than anyother point in the pandemic. Thedeaths have
been announced inthe traditional fashion, in obituar-ies and
notices on websites and innewspapers that have followedthe same
format for decades, not-ing birthplaces, family members,jobs and
passions.
But in recent months, as thedeath toll from the coronavirus
inthe United States grows steadilyhigher, families who have lost
rel-atives to the disease are writingthe pandemic more deeply
intothe death notices they submit tofuneral homes and the
materialsthey share with newspapers’ obit-
Obituaries Full of Pain and a Plea: Wear a MaskBy JULIE BOSMAN
Grieving More Publicly,
Families Write of the Virus’s Devastation
Continued on Page A8
The Trump administration ac-knowledged on Sunday that hack-ers
acting on behalf of a foreigngovernment — almost certainly aRussian
intelligence agency, ac-cording to federal and private ex-perts —
broke into a range of keygovernment networks, includingin the
Treasury and CommerceDepartments, and had free accessto their email
systems.
Officials said a hunt was on todetermine if other parts of
thegovernment had been affected bywhat looked to be one of the
mostsophisticated, and perhapsamong the largest, attacks on
fed-eral systems in the past five years.Several said national
security-re-lated agencies were also targeted,though it was not
clear whetherthe systems contained highlyclassified material.
The Trump administration saidlittle in public about the
hack,which suggested that while thegovernment was worried
aboutRussian intervention in the 2020election, key agencies working
forthe administration — and unrelat-ed to the election — were
actuallythe subject of a sophisticated at-tack that they were
unaware ofuntil recent weeks.
“The United States governmentis aware of these reports, and
weare taking all necessary steps toidentify and remedy any
possibleissues related to this situation,”John Ullyot, a spokesman
for theNational Security Council, said ina statement. The
Department ofHomeland Security’s cybersecuri-
Russians HackU.S. AgenciesIn Bold Attack
Officials Admit Breachof Email Systems
By DAVID E. SANGER
Continued on Page A13
The “Queen’s Gambit” is drawing wom-en like the actress Beth
Behrs, above, tothe so-called game of kings. PAGE C1
ARTS C1-6
Making Her MoveAs residents turned to bicycles to avoidpublic
transit, that meant braving thecity’s notoriously bad traffic. PAGE
A9
INTERNATIONAL A9-11
2-Wheel Travel in Manila
Stores and schools will be closed, andpublic and private
meetings will berestricted over the holidays in an effortto bring
down infections. PAGE A7
TRACKING AN OUTBREAK A4-8
Germany Lockdown AheadApple TV+ was making a show aboutGawker,
until its chief executive, TimCook, found out. The message is
clear:Be careful who you offend. PAGE B1
BUSINESS B1-5
Corporate Red LinesAn in-depth look at how professionaland
college sports teams in Wisconsinfaced financial devastation amid
thepandemic, and how those relying on thesports industry also
suffered. PAGE D1
SPORTSMONDAY D1-6
A Year When Everybody Lost
Chinese are embracing the narrativethat the pandemic has proved
the supe-riority of authoritarianism. PAGE A10
Rallying Behind China’s Way“Evermore,” Taylor Swift’s new
sequelto “Folklore,” is a journey deeper in-ward, Jon Pareles
writes. PAGE C1
Not So Pop Anymore
The baseball team’s decision comesamid a wider push against
using NativeAmerican terms and imagery as namesand mascots. PAGE
D3
Cleveland to Drop ‘Indians’
Charley Pride began his career amidthe racial unrest of the
1960s, reachingfame with hits like “Kiss an Angel GoodMornin’.” He
was 86. PAGE D8
OBITUARIES D7-8
First Black Country SuperstarAfter a Black man was killed by a
depu-ty in Columbus, Ohio, residents heardconflicting stories. PAGE
A16
NATIONAL A12-17
Shooting Details in Dispute
Representative Max Rose of StatenIsland is all but certain to
run for mayorof New York City. PAGE A15
Same City, New Ambition
Charles M. Blow PAGE A19EDITORIAL, OP-ED A18-19
Continued on Page A6
LONDON — John le Carré,whose exquisitely nuanced, intri-cately
plotted Cold War thrillerselevated the spy novel to high artby
presenting both Western andSoviet spies as morally compro-mised
cogs in a rotten system fullof treachery, betrayal and person-al
tragedy, died on Saturday inCornwall, England. He was 89.
The cause was pneumonia, hispublisher, Penguin RandomHouse, said
on Sunday.
Before Mr. le Carré publishedhis best-selling 1963 novel “TheSpy
Who Came in From the Cold,”which Graham Greene called “thebest spy
story I have ever read,”the fictional model for the modernBritish
spy was Ian Fleming’sJames Bond — suave, urbane, de-voted to queen
and country. Withhis impeccable talent for gettingout of trouble
while getting wom-en into bed, Bond fed the myth ofspying as a
glamorous, excitingromp.
Mr. Le Carré upended that no-tion with books that
portrayedBritish intelligence operations ascesspools of ambiguity
in whichright and wrong are too close tocall and in which it is
rarely obvi-ous whether the ends, even if the
ends are clear, justify the means.Led by his greatest creation,
the
plump, ill-dressed, unhappy, bril-liant, relentless George
Smiley,Mr. le Carré’s spies are lonely, dis-illusioned men whose
work isdriven by budget troubles, bu-reaucratic power plays and
theopaque machinations of poli-ticians — men who are as likely tobe
betrayed by colleagues andlovers as by the enemy.
Author of Cold War ThrillersWhose Spies Were Imperfect
By SARAH LYALL
JOHN LE CARRÉ, 1931-2020
John le Carré was a spy ofsome kind for 16 years.
CHARLOTTE HADDEN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Continued on Page A17
Late Edition
VOL. CLXX . . . . No. 58,907 © 2020 The New York Times Company
NEW YORK, MONDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2020
Today, mostly cloudy, chilly, earlyrain, afternoon rain and
snow, high43. Tonight, clear, low 31. Tomorrow,partly cloudy,
breezy, high 38.Weather map appears on Page B7.
$3.00
