Good morning. it's Wednesday, Feb. 24, and we're covering a serious car crash involving Tiger Woods, reasons for optimism around vaccine supplies, and more. Have feedback? Let us know at [email protected].

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NEED TO KNOW

Tiger Woods Crash

Golf superstar Tiger Woods was hospitalized yesterday after suffering serious injuries in a single-car accident south of Los Angeles. Woods is expected to survive the accident but is said to have undergone emergency surgery for multiple open fractures to his lower right leg. Early reports suggesting the Jaws of Life—hydraulic tools for cutting through vehicle frames—was used were erroneous.

The 45-year-old golfer has not played competitively since December, having recently undergone a procedure to relieve a pinched nerve—his fifth back procedure in six years. Video of the crash site shows the car appeared to roll over at least once, with the crash occurring around 7 am local time. Woods was involved in a minor 2009 crash that precipitated a personal and professional crisis, and was cited for driving under the influence in 2017 after being found asleep at the wheel. He attributed the latter incident to the unintended effects of prescription drugs.  

Officials said there were no visible signs of impairment when Woods was recovered and are investigating the cause of the accident. 

Vaccine Surge on the Horizon

The US is projected to have more than 3 million vaccine doses available per day by April, according to congressional testimony from pharmaceutical executives yesterday. Officials from Pfizer and Moderna said they expected their companies to be able to provide about 13 million and 10 million doses per week, respectively, by that point. The companies, which rely on mRNA technology (see how it works), are the only two with COVID-19 vaccines currently available in the US. 

The figure would double the current number of vaccines administered daily in the US over the span of about four weeks. It also does not include supplies from other drug manufacturers, including Johnson & Johnson, whose single-shot vaccine will be considered by Food and Drug Administration advisers Friday. The company said it would be able to deliver a total of 20 million doses by the end of March. See how J&J's vaccine works here.

More than 44 million people in the US have received at least one vaccine dose (the country's population is around 330 million). The US has reported 502,660 COVID-19 deaths, with 2,350 yesterday (see averages). 

Capitol Testimony

Former and current security officials testified before two Senate committees yesterday on the planning of, and response to, the Jan. 6 storming of the US Capitol. The hearing marked the first such examination of the day's events by a congressional committee. 

Three of the five witnesses—Steven Sund (former Capitol Police chief), Michael Stenger (former Senate sergeant-at-arms), and Paul Irving (former House sergeant-at-arms)—resigned in the attack's aftermath. The four-hour session included multiple conflicting accounts and revealed little in the way of new information, but pinned the breach on a number of broad failures. These included lack of communication between different security organizations, bureaucratic delays in calling in reinforcements, worry over the optics of deploying the National Guard, and an underestimation of the degree of coordination by extremist groups present.

Watch a replay with bookmarked highlights here.

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IN THE KNOW

Sports, Entertainment, & Culture

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> Douglas Turner Ward, pioneering actor and playwright who cofounded the Negro Ensemble Company, dies at 90 (More) | Lawrence Ferlinghetti, American poet and social activist associated with the Beat movement, dies at 101 (More)

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Science & Technology

> Facebook reverses ban on news appearing in Australian users' feeds after lawmakers revise bill requiring a per-link charge; the ban also included a block of public government communications, which was considered news (More)

> Michigan study shows sleep plays a vital role for the brain to associate emotion with specific, newly formed memories; exact processes between brain circuitry remains unclear (More)

> Single-cell slime mold is capable of rudimentary memory functions despite lacking a central nervous system; organism modifies an internal tubular network in response to food sources (More)

Business & Markets

> Tech stocks fall 4% early, but US stock markets climb back to end mixed (S&P 500 +0.1%, Dow +0.1%, Nasdaq -0.5%) after Fed Chairman Jerome Powell eases concerns on rising bond yields (More)

> Electric vehicle maker Lucid Motors goes public via $4B SPAC (More) | Tesla shares fall 9%, enter negative return territory for the year (More) | Cherokee Nation requests Jeep change the name of its Cherokee SUV (More)

> Home Depot and Macy’s see continuation of US shopping trends as consumers favor home improvement over apparel, but Macy’s sees first profitable quarter since beginning of the pandemic (More)

Politics & World Affairs

> Longtime diplomat Linda Thomas-Greenfield confirmed as the US ambassador to the United Nations in a 78-20 Senate vote; Thomas-Greenfield becomes the fifth consecutive woman to hold the post (More)

> Family of Ahmaud Arbery files civil suit against three men and the involved officers over the 2020 fatal shooting in Georgia; Arbery, a 23-year-old Black man, was killed while jogging by three residents (More) | Grand jury declines to bring charges against Rochester, New York, officers in the March death of Daniel Prude (More)

> Greek tanker suspected ​in mysterious Mediterranean oil spill that left tar washed up along nearly 90% of Israel's coastline, forcing the closure of beaches (More)

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