A day of news that captured the best and worst of 2020 - CNN

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I know I speak for millions of people when I say that Dr. Sanjay Gupta has been a national treasure this year. So let's give him the first and final word today.

"Lately," Dr. Gupta tweeted Monday, "I've been thinking a lot about the beginning of one of my favorite books: 'A Tale of Two Cities' by Charles Dickens. 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...' It is so prophetic on a day like today. On the same day that a truly extraordinary scientific feat is realized -- in the form of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine -- we are still experiencing a devastating amount of Covid-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths. Some of the same hospitals tasked with administering the vaccine are also stretched to the limit with patients."

Then he invoked another Dickens line: "It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness."

"It is true," Dr. Gupta wrote. "We are living through both ages at the same time. Remember, it will take a while for the vaccine to benefit mankind. In the meantime, wear a mask and #BeKind."

Darkness and light

In a day full of dark and light juxtapositions, this one stood out: The Johns Hopkins database of Covid cases and deaths, a primary source for many news outlets, surpassed 300,000 US deaths while HHS Secretary Alex Azar was being interviewed about the vaccine rollout on CNN. "I hate to interrupt," Jake Tapper said, "but we just crossed a horrific milestone with more than 300,000 deaths. We've crossed that line. It's now 300,267." That's the darkness of 2020 -- the daily climb of the death toll -- but it also makes the light all the more valuable.

"NBC Nightly News" anchor Lester Holt put this into perspective on Monday night's broadcast. "The vaccines point to a brighter future," he said, "but the here and now only became darker today when we crossed that 300,000 Covid death threshold. If I were to begin reading aloud all the names of those we've lost non-stop, it would be 10 days before I finished."

"We're seeing the light"

Sandra Lindsay, the critical care nurse at Long Island Jewish Medical Center who was vaccinated live on TV Monday morning, spoke with Anderson Cooper on Monday night. She said she feels great after receiving the vaccine. "I have no fear. I trust my profession is deeply rooted in science," she said. "What I don't trust is getting Covid-19, because I don't know how it will affect me and the people around me that I could potentially transfer the virus to."

Lindsay's overall POV about V-Day: "The light is brighter tonight in the tunnel, we're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, but it's certainly not over."

For the record

-- I found myself agreeing with CNN's Omar Jimenez, who tweeted while Lindsay was being vaccinated, "I never thought watching a vaccination on live TV would be so thrilling, yet here we are. What a moment." (Twitter)

-- A new ABC News/Ipsos poll finds that "more than eight in 10 Americans say they would receive the vaccine, with 40% saying they would take it as soon as it's available to them and 44% saying they would wait a bit before getting it." (ABC)

-- Chris Cuomo on the "good fortune" of the incredibly fast vaccine breakthroughs: "They're going to write books and probably make movies about it..." (CNN)

-- Sam Vinograd says the US should be on "heightened alert for Russian disinformation attacks" around the vaccine rollout, given the country's "long history of health-related disinformation..." (CNN)

-- "In just the last week Covid killed 17,000 Americans. I fear we are numbing to the numbers," Dr. Tom Frieden commented. (Twitter)

-- How to honor the 300,000+ lives lost? One way is through obituaries. "Families of some who perished have written pointedly about the virus," Julie Bosman writes. "They tell of agonizing final days. They plead for wearing of masks..." (NYT)

A three-screen day

Enough with the split-screen references -- sometimes it's not enough! Monday was more like a three-screen day, harkening back to the early months of the Trump admin in 2017, when multiple political fires were raging at the same time. Here's how the Washington Post juggles all the news on Tuesday's front page: The Electoral College vote at the very top, then a big headline about the vaccination effort, along with an above-the-fold headline about Bill Barr's exit.

Time to "turn the page"

CNN went from state capital to capital on Monday, showing electors gathering to vote, with coverage led by the same team that handled Election Week. "We are watching democracy be stronger than this assault of lies," Tapper said. That was Biden's message, too, in a 7:30pm speech that was carried live by all the major networks. He declared that it is time to "turn the page, to unite, to heal." With that in mind, I'll just point out that Fox Business and One America News did not carry his remarks live. Newsmax showed part of Biden's speech, but cut away for more Biden denialism. The 7pm host Greg Kelly said he doesn't "feel" like Biden is president-elect. However, multiple other hosts on Newsmax did admit the obvious, and pivoted to attack Biden...

Fox sweeps Biden's win under the rug

Oliver Darcy writes: "For weeks, Fox News viewers have been told that the media does not declare the winner of elections, but that the Electoral College does. So it's interesting that when the electors cast their votes and affirmed Biden's victory, the network did its best to brush the story under the rug. Unlike the extensive coverage on CNN, and to some extent MSNBC, Fox largely avoided covering the story in the morning and early afternoon. And when it came up later in the day, segments were often framed around Trump's nonsensical voter fraud claims. Fox did carry Biden's speech live at 7:30, but made sure to have Trump defender Charlie Kirk on right afterward..."

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A day of news that captured the best and worst of 2020 - CNN
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