What to know when the Vikings host the Washington Commanders on Sunday afternoon:

Vikings vs. Commanders
When: Noon Sunday
Where: U.S. Bank Stadium
TV: FOX
Radio: KFAN
Line: Commanders -1.5
Over/Under: 43.5

Keys for the Vikings

— Asked what he wants to see off out quarterback J.J. McCarthy moving forward, head coach Kevin O’Connell reduced it down to the decisions McCarthy makes with the ball in his hands. That can read as O’Connell freeing McCarthy of the teaching points that have defined this season. That can also read as O’Connell challenging McCarthy to stop turning it over. The latter will be extremely important if the Vikings want to upset the three-win Commanders. There should be opportunities for the Vikings to move the ball against the Commanders’ aging group of defenders. That advantage means nothing, however, if McCarthy can’t take care of the ball.

Keys for the Commanders

— The return of quarterback Jayden Daniels provides the Commanders with a huge boost heading into the game. Though he will likely be playing with some caution while returning from a dislocated elbow, Daniels is still capable of making a huge impact on every snap. That will be the difference in the game. If he can get off to a hot start and have the Commanders playing from ahead, they will put themselves in the driver’s seat to come away with a win.

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Next weekend you can catch one of the best meteor showers of the year. It’s the annual Geminid meteor shower, and if the clouds stay away it should be a good one this year because the moon will be mostly out of the sky.

Meteor showers occur when the Earth runs into a debris trail of dust and small pebbles as it orbits around the sun. For most meteor showers, the debris is left behind by a passing comet, but the Geminids are unusual because the debris trail was left behind by an asteroid dubbed by astronomers as 3200 Phaethon. This asteroid was discovered in 1983 and is thought to have a diameter of around three miles. It has a highly elliptical orbit that swings it by our part of the solar system every year and a half. Each time it passes it refreshes the debris trail. It’s a real cosmic litterbug.

(Mike Lynch)

By the way, 3200 Phaethon is not one of those killer asteroids that’s expected to bash into the Earth someday, at least not for now. Eventually, though, a large asteroid will hit the Earth, maybe in 10 years, 100 years, or several million years from now. Who knows? An asteroid or comet that hit the Earth 65 million years ago wiped the dinosaurs out and cleaned the slate for life forms on Earth.

Enough destruction talk. Getting back to the Geminid meteor shower, it will peak next Saturday night into Sunday, Dec. 13-14, but you’ll also see some Geminids this coming week and a few days after the peak next weekend. The best time to look for the meteors is between midnight to just before morning twilight begins. If you’re lucky enough to already be in the countryside or able to jump into the car to the darker skies, you may see well over 50 meteors an hour and maybe even 100. Even if you’re challenged with suburban light pollution you’ll see enough of them to make losing a little sleep worth it. Some of these meteors are slamming into our atmosphere at over 40 miles a second. These bits of dust and pebbles get incinerated at altitudes anywhere from 40 to 60 miles up. Most of the light you see from meteors though, is not because of combustion but from how they temporarily destabilize or excite the small column of air they’re charging through. That’s why you see meteors as streaks in the heavens, and some of the streaks stay visible for a second or two after they pass, as the column of air they came through stabilizes. Meteor streaks can also be different colors depending on their chemical composition and how fast they’re moving. In general, the reddish-tinged meteors tend to be slower meteors, and faster meteors are more bluish.

A meteor. (Mike Lynch)

This shower is called the Geminid meteor shower because all of the meteors from our vantage on Earth appear to be coming from the general direction of the constellation Gemini the Twins, which starts out the evening in the eastern sky and by morning twilight it’s stretched across to the low western heavens. By no means though should you restrict your viewing to the immediate part of the sky around Gemini because the meteors will be all over the heavens. The best thing to do is to be well layered in clothes, coats and blankets and lay back on a fully reclining lawn chair, rolling your eyes all around the sky and keeping count of how many meteors you see. Meteor shower watching is especially fun with a group of people because the more sets of eyes you have patrolling the sky, the more meteors you’ll see. Dress warm and enjoy the show.

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and retired broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis/St. Paul. He is the author of “Stars: a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations,” published by Adventure Publications and available at bookstores and adventurepublications.net. Mike is available for private star parties. You can contact him at mikewlynch@comcast.net.

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Often, when Sheena Harrison stood on downtown Minneapolis streets with her 1-year-old son Joseph, she counted. The then-homeless mom assigned the value of one to every person who walked past her instead of stopping to give her a dollar.

One hundred fifty-five such dollars meant a hotel room for the night.

She dared not dream for anything more. She was overjoyed when the occasional passerby bought her a bite to eat and something to drink. A downtown neighbor of hers got her pizza and orange juice one day, consoled her, and stayed to pray with her.

“He prayed with me a lot,” Harrison said. “That one day he asked me what was wrong because I was really hungry, and the baby was hungry, he was crying and screaming.”

Ben Steine disappeared from Harrison’s life for two months, also clueless about how the woman’s life could be improved in more tangible, permanent ways.

But Steine happened to fall in with Josh Liljenquist, a Minnesota TikToker who films himself helping the needy in Minneapolis and St. Paul, with financial help from his viewers. Such a content creator is sometimes called a “kindness influencer.”

Steine signed on as Liljenquist’s videographer. The two (with Australian influencer Samuel Weidenhofer and his videographer Luka Jackway in tow) went in search of people who were down on their luck. And there, tucked against Whole Foods in downtown Minneapolis, were Sheena and Joseph.

Liljenquist bought them a sandwich and watermelon. Weidenhofer handed Harrison $500.

And “I think it was Sam who told her, ‘We’re going to start a fundraiser for you to get you off the street,’” Liljenquist said.

This is the initial video sequence that would make Harrison internet-famous.

@joshlilj

Blessing a Homeless Mom! (GoFundMe 1N B1O)

♬ original sound – Joshlilj

“We were moved by her strength, her heart and the love she has for her son,” Liljenquist wrote on the GoFundMe page. “No one should have to sleep on the streets — especially not a mom and her one-year-old baby. Together we can change that.”

Harrison explains that she traveled to Chicago to help take care of her father, who had dementia. When he died, her mother kicked her and Joseph out. Since then, her priority was to “be a good mom” by landing an apartment and a job. But finding either during two months on the streets proved impossible.

Surprising success — and stress

Among the GoFundMe campaign’s now-laughably-modest goals: “Rent and utilities (we hope to secure a full year of housing).”

Before they knew it, Liljenquist and Weidenhofer had raised more than $600,000.

“I didn’t think it was going to be this crazy,” Liljenquist said. “I lost sleep. I was so stressed. You know, like I have more than half a million dollars and it’s not even my own money. … I was scared, I was really scared.”

The suddenly panicked Liljenquist did what he already does several times a day: He called his mother. Liljenquist already knew his team would be looking into buying a house — and Julie Liljenquist happens to be a Realtor.

Before long, she scoped out a property in Fairmont, Minn., two hours southwest of the Twin Cities and five blocks from where she lives and where she raised Liljenquist. She sweet-talked the current occupants into vacating early so Harrison could move in. That couple left behind toys for Joseph.

“I didn’t charge Sheena anything to do this,” Julie Liljenquist said. “I wanted a house that had the major things done. I wanted a (geographical) location where she would be safe.”

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The team took other steps, such as hiring an accountant and a financial planner for Harrison. The latter, Justin Grossinger, of Northwestern Mutual in Edina, came recommended by Steine.

“It’s a fact that when people come into large sums of money, sometimes it doesn’t last and then their life’s turned upside down from something so good,” said Grossinger, who, like Julie Liljenquist, sees himself as Harrison’s protector.

“When people come into large sums of money regardless of it being a lottery winner or an inheritance or anything, sometimes the people around them come out of the woodwork,” Grossinger said. “I don’t know how else to say that cleanly, right? But sometimes people that weren’t there for us when we needed them want to be now.”

Big reveal

Josh Liljenquist made a potentially controversial request of Harrison — he asked her not to monitor the GoFundMe page even though the money accumulating there belongs to her. “Just let it be a surprise,” he told her, and she agreed.

Liljenquist and Weidenhofer wanted dramatic “reveal” video, and they got it.

Harrison was led blindfolded to the front of the house. Instructed to remove the blindfold and turn around, her mouth became an “O” as the realization hit. Entering the front door, she saw photos by Jackway on all the walls.

@joshlilj

“It’s the greatest family I got!” @Samuel Weidenhofer

♬ original sound – Joshlilj

“It was when she looked at a poster on the wall of her holding up her son that she burst into tears,” Jackway recalled.

“The picture says, ‘Welcome home,’” Harrison said. “I broke down crying. I didn’t know what to say. I’ve never had people who are strangers come into my life and change it in a weekend and a half.”

Julie Liljenquist had stocked the house with furniture from her home, including a favorite couch of her son’s.

Sheena Harrison cooks Thanksgiving dinner in her new Fairmont, Minn., home. (Courtesy of Luka Jackway)

Harrison settled in — though sometimes waking with a start in the middle of the night, wondering where she was.

Harrison was thrilled to be able to host the Liljenquist family, Weidenhofer, the two videographers and others for Thanksgiving.

She went to church. “Everyone there was so loving and so welcoming,” she said.

Harrison discovered that she and Josh Liljenquist share a birthday, Dec. 29.

“So now Josh is a permanent brother,” she said. “So he is just a permanent baby brother.”

She added, “I think I am happier about gaining a family than I am about the money.”

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An internal memo written by the Food and Drug Administration’s top vaccine regulator offers a concerning glimpse into the future of vaccine regulation in the US — and could have profound implications for both access to and the development of vaccines.

Vinay Prasad’s memo, which was leaked to the news media, makes alarming claims about the COVID-19 vaccine — including the assertion, made without any supporting evidence, that it has caused the death of “at least 10 children.” It also suggests that the FDA will make significant changes to the way vaccines are regulated.

The memo comes at a time of great turmoil at the agency, which intensified this week with the news of yet another leader’s potential exit, and amid increasingly aggressive efforts by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to both undermine confidence in and limit access to vaccines.

Prasad made the extraordinary claim about the safety of COVID vaccines in the email to his staff at the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER). He said an internal investigation found the children died due to myocarditis, a form of heart inflammation. Yet he provided no data or research to support the claim — an irresponsible and dangerous approach to regulatory oversight.

It is also wildly out of step with the agency’s typically careful process of reviewing safety data. Proving that a vaccine caused a death is a complex endeavor that requires significant evidence, explains Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, who previously served on the FDA’s vaccine advisory committee.

In this case, Offit says, regulators would need a raft of information, including an autopsy report that confirms a child had indeed died of myocarditis and not some other cause; documentation showing that the child wasn’t infected with COVID, which can also cause myocarditis; and evidence that they were not infected with one of the many other viruses that can cause fatal inflammation of the heart. If all the evidence pointed to the vaccine being the cause, the FDA’s next step would be to figure out exactly how the harm occurred.

Yet Prasad dropped the bombshell claims without providing proof that such a careful process had taken place. “He’s just raising this horrible specter that if you vaccinate your child, they may die,” Offit says. And he’s doing so, “knowing that the virus is still circulating, knowing that the virus is still causing hospitalizations and ICU admissions and deaths” in children.

Prasad also discussed a new framework for regulating vaccines, one that remains vague, but suggests companies could be asked to conduct much more onerous and expensive studies to prove the safety and efficacy of their vaccines. The goal, he said, is to “direct vaccine regulation towards evidence-based medicine.”

However, getting a new vaccine on the market already requires a rigorous, evidence-based process. When the FDA approved the first RSV vaccine in 2023, it marked the culmination of nearly 50 years of research to understand and develop a vaccine against the virus. To prove the vaccine worked, it was tested in multiple studies, including precisely the kind of large, gold-standard, placebo-controlled trial that Prasad routinely advocates for — in this case, one that enrolled 25,000 older adults.

And while new technologies like mRNA are speeding up vaccine development, the drugs must still undergo similarly massive studies to prove they are safe and effective. For example, last spring, Moderna published data suggesting its experimental mRNA flu vaccine is as good as or perhaps better than shots based on conventional technology. The two studies together enrolled more than 14,000 adults. Last month, Pfizer presented similarly promising data from its own mRNA-based flu shot trial, which recruited nearly 18,500 volunteers.

Prasad’s memo, meanwhile, also suggests changes are afoot for routine shots, including the seasonal flu vaccine. “We will revise the annual flu vaccine framework, which is an evidence-based catastrophe of low-quality evidence, poor surrogate assays, and uncertain vaccine effectiveness measured in case-control studies with poor methods,” he wrote.

Prasad didn’t explain what that revision would entail. But that single sentence could have profound implications. Public health officials have already struggled to convince Americans that the flu shot — an imperfect vaccine, but one that can prevent the worst outcomes of the virus — is worthwhile. Such inflammatory language about the shot (offered, again, without explanation or evidence) from the FDA’s top vaccine regulator is hardly likely to improve consumers’ confidence in its value.

Meanwhile, any regulatory changes that make it harder for people to access the vaccine could have dangerous consequences. Last year’s flu season was a reminder of the virus’ potential to cause severe illness: the CDC estimated it hospitalized 1.1 million Americans and killed 280 children.

The lack of specifics in the memo makes it difficult to assess the full impact on public health. Prasad has made accusations without identifying the data he believes is lacking, without outlining a better process, and without offering a timeline for when any of these changes might be implemented.

In the immediate term, though, the ambiguity is harmful to the environment for vaccine development. As Bloomberg News noted, shares of multiple COVID vaccine developers dipped on news of the memo and the anticipated scrutiny on their products.

It could also hold back investment in future vaccines. Drug developers depend on certainty from regulators about what is needed to approve new products. Instead, they are facing an agency in turmoil, increasingly driven by Prasad’s shifting notion of “gold-standard” science. All of this comes amid vocal skepticism and misinformation about vaccines coming from the highest reaches of US health agencies. Innovation will suffer for it — and so will public health.

Lisa Jarvis is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering biotech, health care and the pharmaceutical industry. Previously, she was executive editor of Chemical & Engineering News.

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