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For several months, GregoryHeller, an official with a Philadel-phia nonprofit group, has grap-pled with an unusual problem. Hehad $60 million in rental aid tohelp low-income tenants weatherthe pandemic — and a whole lot oftrouble spending it.

Designing questionnaires, veri-fying bank statements, process-ing stacks of paperwork: There is

a wide administrative gap be-tween the goal of getting money torenters who need it and the realityof cutting a check to their land-lord. People like Mr. Heller are try-ing to bridge it.

He is among hundreds of public

servants and nonprofit employeesnationwide who are scrambling tounload hundreds of millions of dol-lars in federal aid for tenants be-fore a Dec. 30 deadline. They don’thave enough money to address agrowing rental housing crisis yetare struggling to pay out whatthey have — an undertaking thathas become even more urgent asother federal emergency pro-grams, including unemployment

Evictions Loom as Millions in Aid Goes Unspent

By CONOR DOUGHERTY Red Tape Stops TenantsFrom Getting Funds

Continued on Page A7

WASHINGTON — The corona-virus vaccine made by Moderna ishighly protective, according tonew data released on Tuesday, set-ting the stage for its emergencyauthorization this week by federalregulators and the start of its dis-tribution across the country.

The Food and Drug Administra-tion intends to authorize emer-gency use of the vaccine on Fri-day, people familiar with the agen-cy’s plans said. The decisionwould give millions of Americansaccess to a second coronavirusvaccine beginning as early asMonday. The Pfizer-BioNTechvaccine, cleared last week, wasthe first to be authorized.

“This is great news, as this nowbrings us to two products withhigh levels of efficacy,” said RupaliLimaye, an associate scientist atJohns Hopkins Bloomberg Schoolof Public Health.

The review by the F.D.A. con-firms Moderna’s earlier assess-ment that its vaccine had an effi-cacy rate of 94.1 percent in a trialof 30,000 people. Side effects — in-cluding fever, headache and fa-tigue — were common and un-pleasant, but not dangerous, theagency found.

The F.D.A. said its analysis“supported a favorable safety pro-file, with no specific safety con-cerns identified that would pre-clude issuance of an emergencyuse authorization.”

The success of Moderna’s vac-cine has become all the more criti-cal to fighting the pandemic asother vaccine efforts have fal-tered. The hopeful news arrives ata time of record-setting numbersof coronavirus cases that are over-whelming hospitals and of anever-increasing death toll, whichreached a bleak milestone of300,000 on Monday.

The data release is the first stepof a public review process that willinclude a daylong meeting onThursday by an independent ad-visory panel of experts. They willhear from Moderna, F.D.A. scien-tists and the public before votingon whether to recommend author-ization. The panel is expected tovote yes, and the F.D.A. generallyfollows the experts’ recommenda-tions.

Distribution of about six milliondoses could then begin next week,significantly adding to the mil-lions of doses already beingshipped by Pfizer and BioNTech.Health care workers received thefirst shots on Monday of that vac-cine, which has an efficacy rate of95 percent.

Emergency authorization is not

MODERNA VACCINE HIGHLY EFFECTIVE,

NEW DATA SHOWS

APPROVAL LIKELY FRIDAY

Distribution of 6 MillionDoses Could Begin

Next Week

This article is by Noah Weiland,Denise Grady and Carl Zimmer.

Continued on Page A8

INVESTORS NOTICE Companiesdealing with vaccine storage anddistribution are in vogue. PAGE B1

SURAT, India — The crowdssurged through the gates, foughttheir way up the stairs of the 160-year-old station, poured acrossthe platforms and engulfed thetrains.

It was May 5, around 10 a.m. Su-rat was beastly hot, 106 degrees.Thousands of migrant laborerswere frantic to leave — loom oper-ators, diamond polishers, me-chanics, truck drivers, cooks,cleaners, the backbone of Surat’seconomy. Two of them were Ra-bindra and Prafulla Behera,brothers and textile workers, whohad arrived in Surat a decade agoin search of opportunity and werenow fleeing disease and death.

Rabindra stepped aboard car-rying a bag stuffed with chapatis.His older brother, Prafulla, clat-tered in behind, dragging a plasticsuitcase packed with pencils, toys,lipstick for his wife and 13 dressesfor his girls.

“You really think we should bedoing this?” Prafulla asked.

“What else are we going to do?”Rabindra said. “We have nothingto eat and our money’s out.”

They were among tens of mil-lions of migrant workers strandedwithout work or food after PrimeMinister Narendra Modi imposeda national coronavirus lockdownin March. By spring and summer,these workers were so desperatethat the government providedemergency trains to carry them

back to their home villages. Thetrains were called Shramik Spe-cials, because shramik means “la-borer” in Hindi.

But they became the virustrains.

India has now reported morecoronavirus cases than any coun-try besides the United States. Andit has become clear that the spe-cial trains operated by the govern-ment to ease suffering — and tocounteract a disastrous lack of

lockdown planning — insteadplayed a significant role in spread-ing the coronavirus into almostevery corner of the country.

The trains became contagionzones: Every passenger was sup-posed to be screened for Covid-19before boarding but few if anywere tested. Social distancing, ifpromised, was nonexistent, asmen pressed into passenger carsfor journeys that could last days.Then the trains disgorged pas-sengers into distant villages, in re-gions that before had few if any co-ronavirus cases.

One of those places was Gan-jam, a lush, rural district on theBay of Bengal, where the Beherabrothers disembarked after their

Rails Spread Virus as Workers Fled India’s CitiesThis article is by Jeffrey Gettle-

man, Suhasini Raj, Sameer Yasirand Karan Deep Singh.

Migrant workers leaving Mumbai in May. India’s government sent desperate laborers home on trains that became contagion zones.ATUL LOKE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Chaos From LockdownLed Millions to Leave

on Crowded Trains

Continued on Page A12

ANDREA MORALES FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

A physician in Arkansas received a coronavirus vaccine Tuesday.The U.S. is said to be working to get more Pfizer doses. Page A6.

Building a Stockpile

President-elect Joseph R. BidenJr. is confronting factionalism andfierce impatience within his ownparty, as the groups that make upthe Democratic coalition see Pres-

ident Trump crumbling as an ad-versary and turn toward the battleto define the personnel and poli-cies of a new administration.

With just five weeks left beforehe takes office, Mr. Biden and hisallies and advisers acknowledge itmay be a considerable challengeto convert the array of constituen-cies he rallied against Mr. Trumpinto a sturdier governing force. Al-ready, the competition for senioroffices has strained valuable polit-ical alliances, vexing some of Mr.Biden’s key supporters from theDemocratic primary contest, aswell as numerous minority and fe-male lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

Mr. Biden has so far sought notto muffle Democratic dissensionor impose a tightly focused mes-sage on the party, but rather to rollout a team focused on addressingthe coronavirus crisis while pla-

cating various interest groups. Onpolicy as well as nominations, ad-vocacy groups have been mobiliz-ing to demand swift executive ac-tion on matters from student debtand police overhauls to unionrights and climate change.

Mr. Biden will soon unveil twomore cabinet nominations: He in-tends to name former Gov. Jenni-fer Granholm of Michigan to serveas energy secretary, and PeteButtigieg, the former presidentialcandidate and mayor of SouthBend, Ind., as his transportationsecretary, people familiar with hisplans said Tuesday.

If confirmed, Mr. Buttigiegwould be the first openly gay per-son to serve in a presidential cab-inet, and at age 38 he would repre-sent youth in a cabinet that has sofar skewed closer to Mr. Biden’s

Cracks Appear in Democrats’ Victory CoalitionBy ALEXANDER BURNSand JONATHAN MARTIN

Pete Buttigieg is said to be ontap for a cabinet position.

JIM WATSON/A.F.P. — GETTY IMAGES

Continued on Page A15

Breaking with PresidentTrump’s drive to overturn his elec-tion loss, Senator Mitch McCon-nell of Kentucky on Tuesday con-gratulated President-elect JosephR. Biden Jr. on his victory and be-gan a campaign to keep fellow Re-publicans from joining a doomedlast-ditch effort to reverse the out-come in Congress.

Although Mr. McConnell waiteduntil weeks after Mr. Biden wasdeclared the winner to recognizethe outcome, his actions were aclear bid by the majority leader,who is the most powerful Republi-can in Congress, to put an end tohis party’s attempts to sow doubtabout the election.

He was also trying to stave off amessy partisan spectacle on thefloor of the House that could di-vide Republicans at the start ofthe new Congress, forcing them tochoose between showing loyaltyto Mr. Trump and protecting thesanctity of the electoral process.

“Many of us hoped that thepresidential election would yield adifferent result, but our system ofgovernment has processes to de-termine who will be sworn in onJan. 20,” Mr. McConnell said in aspeech on the Senate floor. “TheElectoral College has spoken. Sotoday, I want to congratulate Pres-ident-elect Joe Biden.”

A short time later, on a privatecall with Senate Republicans, Mr.McConnell and his top deputies

pleaded with their colleagues notto join members of the House inobjecting to the election results onJan. 6, when Congress meets toratify the Electoral College’s deci-sion, according to three people fa-miliar with the conversation, whodescribed it on the condition of an-onymity.

A small group of House mem-bers, led by Representative MoBrooks of Alabama, plans to use aconstitutional process to object tothe inclusion of five key battle-ground states that day. There is al-most no chance they will succeed.But if they could persuade at leastone senator to join them, theycould force a vote on the matter,transforming a typically perfunc-

Senate LeaderSeeks to AvoidVote Challenge

McConnell RecognizesBiden Win at Last

By NICHOLAS FANDOS

Mitch McConnell, the Senatemajority leader, on Tuesday.

POOL PHOTO BY CAROLINE BREHMAN

Continued on Page A19

WASHINGTON — The exten-sive hack of American govern-ment computer systems, almostcertainly orchestrated by theKremlin, underscores the daunt-ing foreign policy challenge thatPresident Vladimir V. Putin ofRussia poses to the incomingBiden administration.

Until Tuesday, the Russianleader had yet to acknowledgethe Biden victory, and for weeksKremlin-backed news outlets hadgleefully amplified PresidentTrump’s groundless claims ofelection fraud.

“I am ready for contacts andinteractions with you,” Mr. Putinsaid in a message of congratula-tions to President-elect Joseph R.Biden Jr., according to a Kremlinstatement issued Tuesday.

Yet there is little doubt Mr.Putin is unhappy that Mr.Trump’s see-no-evil approach toRussia is coming to an end, sug-gesting a tense if not hostilerelationship with Mr. Biden.

Many of Mr. Biden’s key goals— reviving arms control, com-bating climate change, endingthe coronavirus pandemic and

Putin IntendsTo Put BidenOn Tightrope

NEWS ANALYSIS

By JENNIFER STEINHAUERand MICHAEL CROWLEY

Continued on Page A10

Taylor Mac aimed to make his holidayspecial look like a public-access show onLSD. He may have succeeded. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-8

The Host of Christmas Present

The Federal Reserve has joined a net-work of global financial regulatorsfocused on reshaping policy to aid theenvironment. PAGE B5

BUSINESS B1-7

Fed Joins Climate NetworkA new biography traces James Beard’sinfluence as a writer and the pain heendured for his sexuality. PAGE D1

FOOD D1-10

A Darker Look at a Food SageMonarch butterflies meet the criteriafor federal protection, but thin re-sources mean they will be on their ownfor a while. PAGE A14

NATIONAL A14-21

An Endangered SpeciesTeachers’ unions largely support plansto give priority to educators, but thatmight not be enough to open moreschools in the spring. PAGE A5

TRACKING AN OUTBREAK A4-8

Vaccinating Teachers

Yotam Ottolenghi was late to the wholeChristmas thing, but his Brown SugarRoulade tastes just right for it. PAGE D5

Untraditionally Traditional

Thomas L. Friedman PAGE A22

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A22-23The fashion executive Peter Nygard wasarrested in Canada at the request of theU.S. on sex-trafficking charges. PAGE A10

INTERNATIONAL A9-13

Trafficking Charges for Mogul

Ann Reinking, an exuberant “Chicago”star, a Tony-winning choreographer anda Bob Fosse muse, was 71. PAGE B11

OBITUARIES B10-11

Broadway’s Roxie HartTara VanDerveer of Stanford was set toearn the most coaching victories inwomen’s college basketball. PAGE B9

SPORTSWEDNESDAY B8-9

A Quiet Run to a Record

In New York City and some other U.S.school districts, students will studyremotely in winter weather. PAGE A20

Tough Sledding on Snow Days

Fifteen workers have died this year,some after citing workdays stretchingfrom dawn until past midnight. PAGE A9

South Korea’s Courier ProblemDespite President Trump’s loss, hisstyle of pop-cultural grievance won’tend, James Poniewozik says. PAGE C1

The Culture War Goes On

European Union and British authoritiesreleased draft laws that would meanbigger fines and stricter rules. PAGE B1

Getting Tough on Big Tech

Late Edition

VOL. CLXX . . . . No. 58,909 © 2020 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2020

Today, snow, high 32. Tonight, heavysnow and sleet, windy, low 27. To-morrow, windy, snow ending, 6 to 12inches, difficult travel, high 30.Weather map appears on Page B12.

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