Today's D Brief: 300,000 US COVID deaths; The race to contain SolarWind hack; Electors affirm Biden; Sticky bomb kills Kabul leader; And a bit more.
Another grim milestone: More than 300,000 people have died from the novel coronavirus in the U.S. so far. It's an awful marker in what NPR's Will Stone calls "a generational tragedy — one still unfolding in every corner of the country — that leaves in its wake an expanse of grief that cannot be captured in a string of statistics.”
COVID is America’s leading cause of death this month, outstripping even cancer and heart disease, reports the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. Speaking of IHME, their model now projects half a million deaths by April 21 — fewer if more people can be convinced to wear masks and take other basic public-health precautions.
Complicating matters, “At least 181 U.S. public health leaders in 38 states have resigned, retired or been fired since the coronavirus pandemic began,” the Associated Press and Kaiser Health News report. “Some have become the target of far-right activists, conservative groups and anti-vaccination extremists who have coalesced around common goals: fighting mask orders, quarantines and contact tracing with protests, threats and personal attacks.”
That’s not all. "Lawmakers in 24 states have crafted laws to weaken public health powers," AP reports, and "just as the U.S. rolls out its biggest vaccination operation ever and faces what are expected to be the worst months of the pandemic."
In perspective: “What we’ve taken for granted for 100 years in public health is now very much in doubt,” said Lawrence Gostin, an expert in public health law at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. More, here.
Guard helps roll out vaccine: Guardsmen won’t generally be transporting the vaccine or giving shots, but they are in some states helping to break up shipments of the vaccine, which Pfizer releases in batches of 975 doses and which must be kept at minus 70 degrees Celsius. Guardsmen and women are also backfilling medical staff in some nursing homes and prisons, Defense One’s Patrick Tucker reported Monday.
Watch: Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller received his vaccination at Walter Reed on Monday. The Hill has the video, here.
What’s next: The FDA says it will soon publish its analysis of a second potential COVID-19 vaccine, developed by Moderna. More at the New York Times.
One big winner this pandemic: Hunting, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. "License sales, in long decline, jumped this year as newcomers ventured into the wild."
From Defense One
National Guard Helping to Roll Out COVID Vaccine // Patrick Tucker: Guardsman will divvy up some vaccine batches, backfill medical staff in nursing homes and prisons.
Feds Race to Turn Off SolarWinds Products Amid Biggest Hack in Years // Aaron Boyd, Nextgov: A critical flaw in software used throughout government was reportedly used to breach a major security company and at least two federal agencies.
Turn General Austin Into Secretary Austin // Charles A. Stevenson: Some advice from the author of “The Nearly Impossible Job of Secretary of Defense.”
How to Build Trust in the Vaccines // Brendan Nyhan, The Atlantic: To succeed in immunizing the population against COVID-19, the United States must draw on the resources it already has.
Trump Is Looking for Fraud in All the Wrong Places // Julian Sanchez, The Atlantic: The defeated president tried to sow doubts about Georgia and other swing states that laboriously upgraded their voting systems, while safe red states keep using antiquated equipment.
Welcome to this Tuesday edition of The D Brief from Ben Watson and Bradley Peniston. Send us tips from your community right here. And if you’re not already subscribed to The D Brief, you can do that here. On this day in 1981, the first contemporary suicide bombing occurred when an attacker from the Iraqi Shi'a Islamist group al-Dawa detonated his explosives-laden car outside the Iraqi embassy in Beirut, killing 61 people, including Iraq’s ambassador to Lebanon.
The National Institutes of Health, the State Department and DHS have all been added to the list of recent U.S. cyber intrusion victims, Reuters reported Monday.
That supply-chain hack was just “one of several entry points in a seriously impressive campaign,” the New York Times reported Monday. Of the 18,000 systems that downloaded the Trojanized SolarWinds software update, only a "few dozen" "high value targets" were actually compromised.
We’ll repeat that: A "few dozen...high value targets" were compromised in the cyber attack/intrusion — and we may find out more of those targets in the coming day. Remember SolarWinds’ customers include all five branches of the military, the State Department, the NSA, the White House, “more than 425 of the Fortune 500,” and more. (Until Sunday, SolarWinds touted these clients and more on its site; you can still see the list at the Internet Archive.)
Just catching up? AP has you covered beyond what we reported Monday in The D Brief.
“Democracy prevailed.” The Electoral College affirmed Joe Biden as the next president, a crucial milestone that President Trump has sought to upend with legal challenges. “In this battle for the soul of America, democracy prevailed,” Biden said in a televised speech Monday evening. “Now it’s time to turn the page, as we’ve done throughout our history – to unite, to heal.”
Some Republican lawmakers are finally congratulating Biden following the Electoral College declaration Monday. CBS News’s Nancy Cordes began keeping a tally on Twitter after the electors voted. The Associated Press has more on tepid GOP support, here.
BTW: Russia’s president congratulated Biden before Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, the Wall Street Journal’s Yaroslav Trofimov noticed this morning after Vladimir Putin’s office sent out a congratulatory tweet early today. See McConnell's remarks on the Senate floor today, here.
On Thursday, Trump’s State Secretary Mike Pompeo will formally meet Tony Blinken, his Biden-nominated counterpart to lead the State Department, CNN reports.
Did somebody say Gitmo? No? Ok. Closing the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is a very low priority for the incoming administration — in somewhat sharp contrast to the Obama-era White House, the New York Times reports. Carol Rosenberg and Eric Schmitt have more on Biden’s “tough decisions” regarding the future of Gitmo — whose challenges seem to be more infrastructure-related than they are contingent upon latent U.S. policy decisions about where to send terrorists in captivity — here.
Attorney General Bill Barr will be out of his job by Christmas, President Trump tweeted Monday — just after the Electoral College voted to elect Joe Biden as America’s 46th president.
Barr’s AG legacy is likely to be remembered for two events in particular:
- “[H]is role leading the forceful removal of peaceful protesters from Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C., in the summer of 2020 to clear the way for a presidential photo-op in front of a nearby church”;
- And “his handling of special counsel Robert Mueller's report on the Russia investigation,” NPR reports.
A sticky bomb attached to his automobile killed the deputy governor of Kabul today, Tolo News reports from Kabul. Mahboobullah Mohebi was on his way to work when the blast happened at about 9:40 a.m. local. Earlier in the morning, gunmen attacked police in a separate district of Kabul, killing one officer. No groups have yet claimed either attack.
By the way, "A deputy provincial council member was killed in a similar [sticky bomb] attack in the western province of Ghor earlier on Tuesday," Reuters reports. And "Last week, a government prosecutor was shot dead in Kabul while he was on his way to work."
And the Taliban killed 10 Afghan soldiers in the northern province of Kunduz Sunday night, Tolo reported separately on Monday.
Peace talks latest: President Ghani says the next round of intra-Afghan peace talks should be held in Kabul. Said Ghani in a meeting Monday: “While the Taliban is claiming that they are on Afghan soil, why aren’t they holding talks on Afghan soil? Afghans can negotiate under a tent, too, and in cold weather. This is not the time for luxury hotels to be considered as preconditions. It is necessary that all the people should see how the talks are moving forward, what are the areas of focus, and why.”
Background, via Tolo: “The peace negotiations witnessed a breakthrough earlier this month after the two sides agreed on procedural rules for the talks. The working groups of both teams held three meetings to discuss the agenda of the talks last week. Their meetings were expected to be held this week but were delayed as the two sides were consulting internally on the demands to be included in the agenda of the talks.” More here.
The U.S. sanctioned Turkey on Monday, which is about 18 months after Turkish leaders ignored requests from U.S. officials to not purchase Russia’s S-400 air defense system, ABC News reported. “Monday's sanctions include banning all U.S. export licenses to Turkey's Presidency of Defense Industries, also known as SSB, as well as freezing the assets of and banning U.S. visas for its president Ismail Demir and other senior officials.” More here.
An oil tanker in Saudi Arabia's port city of Jiddah exploded Monday after some sort of object hit it, the Associated Press reported Monday. The apparent attack “marks the fourth assault targeting Saudi energy infrastructure in a month.” And fortunately in this incident, no one was injured.
Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was poisoned by a Russian state security team, the open-source investigators at Bellingcat reported Monday in conjunction with CNN.
Watch CNN’s Clarissa Ward ask likely Russian assassins some uncomfortable questions at their doorstep just outside of Moscow.
And finally today: What are your thoughts on the U.S. military’s evolving posture abroad, including in places like Afghanistan? The Iran-watchers at the D.C. think tank the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies have a new series of reports out today all about the U.S. military “Defending Forward.”
The report is broken down into five sections with 22 essays, a conclusion, and a foreword by former CIA Director and SecDef Leon Panetta. There are sections on priorities for Central Command, European Command, and Indo-Pacific Command — as well as essays on China, the cyber realm, special operations, Israel, and more. Begin reading, here.