First Thing: one-stop Covid shot gets closer to US approval

Good morning.

The one-shot coronavirus vaccine from Johnson & Johnson appears to be safe and effective in trials, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said in documents published yesterday. The vaccine effectively reduced the risk of Covid-19, and prevented confirmed cases of the virus, at least 14 days after vaccination, according to FDA briefing documents. This takes the prospective vaccine a step closer to approval, with an advisory panel of independent experts set to meet on Friday to decide whether to recommend that the FDA take the step.

In a trial of more than 44,000 participants, the vaccine was 72% effective in the US, but just 57% effective in South Africa, where the B1351 variant is widespread, indicating the vaccine might be less effective against other variants of the virus. It’s also unclear how long the vaccine protects people, and the degree to which it stops asymptomatic transmission.

In California, access codes meant to give people of colour priority to vaccine slots have been circulated around other residents in the state, allowing people to cut the line and take appointments designated for Black and Latino residents. The codes were given to leaders in underserved communities in LA and the Bay Area to be distributed to eligible individuals, including those over 65 and essential workers, but the codes have been shared by text message. Often, the codes are distributed with misinformation saying the slots simply need to be filled.

• The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is 94% effective at cutting symptomatic cases and nearly as high at reducing severe illnesses after two doses, the first large real-word study of the vaccine showed. Until now, most data on the vaccines has come from clinical settings, but research in Israel, which has had one of the fastest rollouts in the world, indicates the results still translate into the real world.

Biden continues to chip away at Trump’s legacy

Joe Biden formally reversed a series of executive orders made by Donald Trump yesterday, from immigration to architecture. He reversed an order that blocked many green card applicants from entering the US; Trump argued it would protect US workers amid high unemployment, Biden argued it prevented families from reuniting and harmed US businesses. The president also undid an order that attempted to cut funding from cities Trump deemed “lawless” and “anarchist jurisdictions”, and another mandating that federal buildings should be designed in classical architecture.

• California lawmakers are pushing to stop state prisons coordinating with Ice agents, introducing legislation that would prevent incarcerated people from being handed over to immigration authorities. The practice has been widely scrutinised in recent months, particularly after the Guardian revealed that California had transferred prisoners to Ice who had served as incarcerated firefighters, after they had completed their sentences.

Evangelical leaders criticised the role of Christian nationalism in the Capitol attack

More than 100 prominent evangelical Christian pastors and church leaders have condemned the “perversion” of Christian nationalism, and its role in the insurrection at the Capitol on 6 January. In an open letter, the leaders said they were speaking out because they did not want to be “quiet accomplices in this ongoing sin”, and called on all members of the church to make it clear that Christianity was not compatible with “calls to violence, support of white Christian nationalism, conspiracy theories, and all religious and racial prejudice”.

• A Honduran man has finally left the church he lived in for more than three years over fears he would be deported under Trump. Alex García, who is married and has five children, was set to be removed from the US in 2017, but the Christ Church United Church of Christ in St Louis offered him sanctuary. He left yesterday after the Biden administration pledged the deportation would not go ahead.

A navy veteran died after police knelt on his neck

A US navy veteran who was in the midst of a mental health crisis died after a police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes, causing asphyxiation, his family’s lawyers have said. The sister of 30-year-old Angelo Quinto called police for support after he suffered a bout of paranoia, anxiety and depression at his family home in northern California.

According to his family, the responding officer quickly took Quinto from his mother’s arms and knelt on his neck for almost five minutes while another officer held his legs. He was taken to hospital unconscious, and pronounded dead three days later. Quinto’s family have field a wrongful death claim, and allege that the police carried out an illegal chokehold.

In other news …

• A former aide to Andrew Cuomo said he kissed her without consent after a private meeting. Lindsey Boyland has previously accused the New York governor of sexual harassment but offered new details yesterday. She alleged he would touch her on her lower back, arms and legs and once joked they should play strip poker.

• GameStop shares have surged again by more than 100% as the trading frenzy returned, after a furore over the firm’s stocks in January when small investors caused the stock price to hike, causing Wall Street bankers who had bet the share price would drop to lose billions of dollars. Analysts could not pinpoint why they had begun to surge again.

Stat of the day: there was a 60% increase in the number of adults identifying as LGBTQ between 2012 and 2020

An estimated 18 million Americans identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer, an increase of 60% between 2012 and 2020, according to a new poll. The figure means the LGBTQ community now makes up 5.6% of American adults, up from 4.5% in the same poll in 2017. Researchers said the figures reflected “the way society is changing”, and that “younger people are growing up in an environment where being gay, lesbian or bisexual is not as taboo as it was in the past”.

Don’t miss this: meet the woman who refused to give up her bus seat before Rosa Parks

As a teenager, Claudette Colvin refused to give up her seat to a white passenger when returning home from a segregated school in the Jim Crow south, in March 1955. She was dragged from the bus by two white police officers and convicted of violating segregation laws, disturbing the peace and assaulting a police officer. Nine months later, Rosa Park’s similar act of defiance led to the Montomgery bus boycott and was immortalised in history, but it took 40 years before Colvin got credit for her actions. Oliver Laughland meets her.

Last thing: the UK health service takes Gwyneth Paltrow to task

Gwyneth Paltrow has established a reputation for dubious health claims (who could forget the vagina egg?), and she’s now focusing her attention on coronavirus. Paltrow revealed she was suffering from long Covid, and said it could be treated with “intuitive fasting”, herbal cocktails and regular visits to an “infrared sauna”. The national medical director for NHS England urged influencers like Paltrow not to spread misinformation, saying that he wished her well in her recovery, but said that “some of the solutions she’s recommending are really not the solutions we’d recommend in the NHS”.

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