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Over 1 million people in U.S. have received the COVID-19 vaccine

23 December 2020
 Dan Ackermann

More than 1 million people in the U.S. have received the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine as of Wednesday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Why it matters: The U.S. began its largest vaccination campaign in U.S. history last week as COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths surged nationwide.

By the numbers:

  • 9,465,725 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines have been distributed as of Wednesday.
  • 1,008,025 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine have been administered.
  • Of note: The CDC does not yet have data on the number of the Moderna vaccine doses administered. The FDA granted Moderna an emergency use authorization for its vaccine late last week.
  • The U.S. has recorded over 18 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and more than 324,000 deaths as of Wednesday afternoon, per Johns Hopkins University data.
  • Some 117,777 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Tuesday evening, according to the COVID Tracking Project.

The big picture: Health care workers and people living in long-term care facilities, as well as some lawmakers, were the first to receive the vaccine in the U.S.

Go deeper: U.S. buys another 100 million doses of Pfizer vaccine

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.