US News Roundup: Biden to introduce team tasked with ambitious climate agenda on Saturday; Congress works through the weekend to finalize COVID aid package and more

Fairbanks clinician is third Alaskan with adverse reaction to COVID-19 vaccine A Fairbanks clinician suffered anaphylactic symptoms after being given the Pfizer Inc coronavirus vaccine, a hospital said on Friday, becoming the third Alaska health care worker to suffer an adverse reaction to the new drug.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Texas doctors in rural hotspots left out in cold on vaccine

Running in between patients, Dr. Eileen Sprys pauses to catch her breath, tries to gather herself, but cannot mask her frustration: The health care workers in her COVID-besieged West Texas hospital were left out of the first shipment of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine, and they have no idea when they may get it. Not a single rural hospital in this state that prides itself on its country roots received any doses of the vaccine this week, despite such medical outposts serving around 20% of the state's population, or 3 million people.

Click, then drive: Last-minute U.S. holiday shoppers do curbside pickup

Many U.S. holiday shoppers, wary of going into stores during the latest surge of the COVID-19 pandemic, went from their computers, phones or other devices to their cars on the Saturday before Christmas to make last-minute gift purchases and then drive to the store to pick them up. Super Saturday is traditionally the busiest day of the year for holiday purchases, and this year online retail has been extra busy, and high-priority vaccine shipments have many Americans fretting that deliveries could be delayed this week.

French modelling agent who knew Jeffrey Epstein placed under investigation

Jean-Luc Brunel, a longtime French modelling agent who knew the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, was placed under investigation and remanded in custody, the office of the Paris prosecutor said on Saturday. Brunel, 74, was detained on Wednesday as part of a probe opened last year into allegations of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment. Police arrested him at Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport before he boarded a plane to Senegal.

Fairbanks clinician is third Alaskan with adverse reaction to COVID-19 vaccine

A Fairbanks clinician suffered anaphylactic symptoms after being given the Pfizer Inc coronavirus vaccine, a hospital said on Friday, becoming the third Alaska health care worker to suffer an adverse reaction to the new drug. The clinician, whose name was not released, started showing symptoms about 10 minutes after being inoculated on Thursday, according to Foundation Health Partners, operator of the Fairbanks Memorial Hospital.

Congress works through the weekend to finalize COVID aid package

Democratic and Republican lawmakers in Washington were working through the weekend to complete a $900 billion coronavirus aid bill for American individuals and businesses struggling from the economic fallout of pandemic lockdowns. It would be the largest relief package since this spring, when Congress approved more than $4 trillion in aid. The COVID-19 pandemic has killed 311,000 Americans, by far the most in the world, and put millions out of work. Economists say growth will likely remain sluggish until vaccines are widely available in mid-2021.

Moderna, McKesson and U.S. Army general ready to roll out new COVID-19 vaccine

U.S. distribution of a second COVID-19 vaccine, from Moderna, is ready to start shipping to more than 3,800 sites this weekend, vastly widening the rollout begun last week with Pfizer, the drug company and distributor McKesson said. The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved an emergency use authorization for the Moderna Inc vaccine, the second after Pfizer Inc and its German partner BioNTech SE.

U.S. authorizes Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, elderly next in line for shots

Moderna Inc's coronavirus vaccine on Friday became the second to receive emergency use authorization (EUA) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, welcome news to a nation with a staggering COVID-19 death toll of over 307,000 lives lost. Millions of doses of the Moderna vaccine are expected to be added to the U.S. rollout, which began this week with healthcare workers. Older people in long-term care facilities are next in line for vaccines, with a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expert panel on Sunday set to recommend what groups follow, as industries compete to have their workers given precedence.

Biden to introduce team tasked with ambitious climate agenda on Saturday

President-elect Joe Biden is scheduled to publicly introduce his climate and energy team on Saturday, a history-making group that will be tasked with advancing his ambitious climate policy and strengthening safeguards against pollution. Biden has promised to make tackling climate change one of the pillars of his Democratic administration. But with a slim majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and control of the U.S. Senate still undecided, Biden and his new team may see little success in Congress and instead rely on rules from his regulatory agencies to enact sweeping change.

Alaska's Iditarod sled-dog race rerouted due to COVID-19 pandemic

The famed Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race across Alaska will not run to Nome in 2021, a drastic change called necessary to protect the mushers from the COVID-19 pandemic and reduce its spread in rural Alaska, race officials announced on Friday. Instead, the 2021 Iditarod race route will take racers and dogs to the halfway point - the abandoned gold-mining town of Iditarod for which the trail is named. Then they will double back to the starting point.

New York City changes admissions at many schools to ease racial segregation

New York City is overhauling how it admits students to some of its most competitive public schools to make them less segregated by race and wealth, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Friday. Some selective Manhattan high schools, particularly in wealthy neighborhoods, are allowed to give children who live nearby priority in admissions, which has tended to put children living in poorer neighborhoods at a disadvantage. These so-called geographic priorities will be ended over the coming two years, making it easier for children from anywhere to apply for a spot, the mayor said at a news conference.