7 Things: COVID-19 vaccine may not come soon enough to stop coming wave, Tuberville lashes out at socialism and communism, AL AG involved in election challenges and more …

7. Demands are already being made

  • As media outlets have declared former Vice President Joe Biden the projected winner of the 2020 presidential election, Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors is now working to get a meeting with Biden.
  • Cullors said they “want to be heard and our agenda to be prioritized.” She added that Black Lives Matter “would like to be actively engaged in your Transition Team’s planning and policy work. Let’s get to work!”

6. No one is going anywhere

  • Mississippi State Rep. Price Wallace (R) has suggested that the state should “succeed from the union” over former Vice President Joe Biden being declared the president-elect.
  • Wallace’s comment was in response to a Twitter thread posted by fellow State Rep. Robert Foster (R), where Foster was advocating for only legal votes to be counted.

5. Georgia will recount all ballots

  • Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has announced that the state will be doing a full recount of the 2020 presidential election by hand. During his announcement, he said this “will be a heavy lift, but we will work with the counties to get this done in time for our state certification.”
  • In Georgia, former Vice President Joe Biden is currently leading with just over 14,000 votes, but the state hasn’t been called for either candidate. It has been such a close race in Georgia, and they’re working to verify the results.

4. Alabama’s AG involved in election challenges

  • Attorney General Steve Marshall announced this week that he was joining with other attorneys general from around the country to challenge the decision in Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court that changed the way the state does elections by extending the deadline for mail-in ballots, which the state legislature was opposed to.
  • Marshall noted that this is not just about what is happening in Pennsylvania, but what will happen in the future all over the country “is more broad than just simply this election.” He added, “This relates fundamentally to how we conduct elections in this country. For us moving forward, it is very important for the court to weigh in whether Pennsylvania ends up being a state that ultimately matters and whether or not President Trump or Joe Biden becomes the president, it is something the matters for many elections to come.”

3. Tuberville is showing what kind of senator he will be

  • Former Auburn football coach and U.S. Senator-elect Tommy Tuberville appeared on Fox News where he said that Republicans are “fighting for the future of the country” against the “socialists and communists” of the Democrat Party.
  • As he advocated against moving toward socialism or communism, Tuberville added, “[W]e better start going by the rules and the Constitution and understand what this country was about and how we got here and the fundamentals.”

2. Rising hospitalizations and cases hit Alabama, U.S.

  • The record number of coronavirus cases hospitalizations, including Huntsville, Mobile and Birmingham, and widespread outbreaks are leading to governors revisiting restrictions. This includes Democrats and Republicans both looking for a way to stop the spread, including appeals for people to stay home when some courts have struck some restrictions down.
  • Statements by former Vice President Joe Biden’s choices for his team that will attempt to tackle the ongoing coronavirus pandemic continue to show that the strategy for the virus will probably be lockdowns, mask orders and helping the rest of the world get the vaccine before the United States does.

1. Experts: COVID-19 vaccine won’t stop this wave

  • While it does seem that an effective coronavirus vaccine is going to be delivered to states by the end of the year, some health officials are trying to remind people that doesn’t mean the vaccine will stop the current wave of cases we’re seeing in Alabama or the record numbers of cases nationwide.
  • Director of the division of infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo is trying to remind everyone to continue taking precautions. She added, “Ten to fifteen million is not enough to immunize people who are high risk for complications. …It’s a ray of hope, but right now we have to slog through what these numbers are showing.”