FiveThirtyEight’s top stories this week

A [FiveThirtyEight]( email [Popular This Week] Sunday, December 27, 2020 [1. The 40 Weirdest (And Best) Charts We Made In This Long, Strange Year]( [graphics.WEIRDCHARTS.1221-1-social]( Over the course of 2020, FiveThirtyEight’s visual journalists covered a historic election, an unprecedented year in sports, a raging pandemic and an economy in free fall. So to cap off this long, strange, difficult year, we’re continuing our tradition of celebrating the best — and weirdest — charts we’ve published in the last 12 months. Charts are grouped by topic, but they’re not listed in any particular order beyond that. Click any of them to read the story where they originally ran. Enjoy! [Read more]( [2. Even After Getting Vaccinated, You Could Still Infect Others]( [Northwell Health Workers Receive First Doses Of Pfizer Covid-19 Vaccine]( Now that the world has successfully completed history’s fastest development of a new vaccine, you might be wondering why we don’t always just make one this fast. If the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are safe and effective and the process to produce them didn’t cut any corners … well, why does it normally take around a decade to do something we just did in less than a year? [Read more]( [3. California’s New Senator Will Make History. But Can He Win A Full Term In 2022?]( [Senator Kamala Harris Rallies With Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom Ahead Of The California Primary]( With Sen. Kamala Harris about to become Vice President Kamala Harris, California is getting a new U.S. senator for only the second time in 25 years. On Tuesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that he would appoint Democratic Secretary of State Alex Padilla to Harris’s soon-to-be vacant seat. [Read more]( [4. Warnock And Ossoff Are Testing A New Strategy For Democrats In The South]( [Democratic Senate Candidate Raphael Warnock Holds Press Conference]( For most of the past four years, the Midwest occupied the leading spot on the marquee of U.S. electoral politics. Voters there helped tip the Electoral College toward Donald Trump in 2016, as he eked out victories in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. And rebuilding the so-called blue wall was in part why Democrats chose an older, white, relatively moderate man as their presidential nominee in 2020. That strategy worked. Joe Biden narrowly carried all three states, providing him the Electoral College margins to win the presidency. [Read more]( [5. Democrats And Republicans Should Argue More — Not Less]( [ARGUMENTS-4×3]( This holiday season, as COVID-19 cases spike across the country, many Americans will forgo family celebrations. But for some people, these canceled plans may come with a silver lining: no squabbling about politics with in-laws, uncles or cousins. [Read more]( [6. The Best Movies That Are Kind Of About Christmas]( [AFFLECK]( You find yourself at a party where everyone is talking about favorite Christmas movies. Sure, you could say “Elf,” which you know in the deep ventricles of your cold and bitter heart is an uplifting film that inspires you annually. But instead, you go for the classic: “Oh, my favorite Christmas movie is ‘Die Hard.’” [Read more]( [7. It’s Hard Not To Believe In Luka Dončić]( [Memphis Grizzlies v Dallas Mavericks]( “MVP! MVP! MVP!” [Read more]( [8. What Makes LeBron James So Great]( [SPORTS-GREATNESS-Lebron-4×3]( We know which athletes are great, but we know less about what makes them great. To help, FiveThirtyEight is compiling The Greatness Files, a compendium of, well, what makes great athletes great. First up, a rising star named LeBron James. [Read more]( [9. Does It Matter Which COVID-19 Vaccine You Get?]( [VACCINES-BRANDS-4×3]( By the end of this week, the United States could have not one, but two COVID-19 vaccines authorized for emergency use. After nine months of isolation and lockdowns and more than 300,000 deaths, it is difficult to find superlatives to fit this moment. Any I come up with feel like they still understate how fantastic the news truly is. What’s more, there are even more vaccines waiting in the wings. Within a few months, we will likely have access to vaccines by Pfizer and Moderna … and Johnson & Johnson, and Novavax, and AstraZeneca. We’re going to go from desperately wishing for a vaccine, any vaccine, to having a cornucopia of choices. [Read more]( [10. The Jets Won The Battle And Lost The War]( [SportsChat-1221-4×3]( sara.ziegler (Sara Ziegler, sports editor): What a weekend in the NFL. Week 15 gave us an epic Saints-Chiefs matchup that could just be a Super Bowl preview, an entertaining tilt between former Oklahoma Sooners Jalen Hurts and Kyler Murray, and an AFC East title won by the Buffalo Bills for the first time since 1995. [Read more]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Weekly Listen [Play]( [Which NBA Teams Might Make Things Interesting This Season?]( [FiveThirtyEight] [View in browser]( [ABC News]( [Unsubscribe]( Our mailing address: FiveThirtyEight, 47 West 66th Street, New York, NY 10023.