| This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a Russian vaccine trial of Bloomberg Opinion's opinions. Sign up here. Today's Agenda Beware False Coronavirus Dawns Look, we get it. 2020 has been a long six years already, and there's still a ways to go before this pandemic ends. Everybody's looking for shortcuts. We keep watching the news for miracle cures, mutations or space-time wormholes that will get us to the end of this nightmare. But they haven't appeared yet. You might have briefly hoped deliverance was coming from Russia, which is rolling out what it claims is an effective vaccine, even supposedly giving it to President Vladimir Putin's daughter. But it has only barely begun to test the thing, and one expert called Russia's actions "dangerous and grossly immoral." Russia will be gambling with lives if it relies on this vaccine to resume anything like normal activity, writes Max Nisen. And if it flops, then it will undermine not only faith in Putin's government but also maybe in vaccines generally. More encouraging is growing evidence that some parts of the world may have developed "herd immunity" to SARS-CoV-2 more quickly than expected. We've long thought 60% to 70% of a population needs to be infected before the virus runs out of targets. Data from hard-hit regions suggests that percentage might be closer to 20, notes Tyler Cowen. This could mean "normal" life is closer than we realize. But Tyler warns we still can't let our guard down. Even if, say, New York already has herd immunity, there are reasons to fear it may be temporary if the virus still rages out of control elsewhere. A few superspreaders — maybe people with a false sense of security — could undo it. Further Coronavirus Reading: We want to send kids back to school safely, but we still lack smart, bold plans and the government money to make them reality. — Michael R. Strain Protect the Census Many of us probably think of the decennial census as just a source of Ancestry.com hints and Christopher Walken sketches. But the information it generates will affect how our government is run for the next decade; undercounting people could cut them out of government representation and services. The pandemic makes counting people difficult enough, but Trump keeps throwing up his own obstacles, in the apparent belief that denying the existence of minorities will help him politically. The only way to ensure an accurate census, writes Bloomberg's editorial board, is for Congress to stop Trump's efforts to undermine it. Pandemic Winners Won't Win Forever Americans had slowly been falling in love with online shopping for years before the pandemic, but the coronavirus was basically the shotgun forcing a wedding of consumers and their delivery people. Suddenly everybody is buying almost everything online, in what Conor Sen describes as "a decade of e-commerce adoption" happening "in a matter of months." But there's a price; all of this demand is leading to supply bottlenecks, Conor writes. We may feel it most acutely over the holidays, when the major shipping companies plan to raise rates. Our honeymoon phase with e-commerce could end with higher prices and product shortages — and lower stock values for today's e-commerce darlings such as Shopify and Wayfair. We're also cooking at home much more, either to the chagrin or to the delight of our families. That has been a boon to home-meal-kit makers such as Hello Fresh, notes Alex Webb. But as with the rest of e-commerce, the salad days (yes, pun intended, thank you) may already be over. It's really not possible to cook at home much more than we already do, unless all of the takeout restaurants die, in which case we have far bigger problems. Donald Trump, Crisis Actor Policy makers are still trying to make sense of Trump's executive orders over the weekend meant to skirt a deadlocked Congress to stimulate the economy. For better or worse, though, it seems the only legal parts of his orders lack the oomph to truly help the economy, writes Noah Feldman. These orders are the latest example of how Trump is following President Barack Obama's lead in governing by executive fiat — except far, far less competently, writes Ramesh Ponnuru. Obama and his advisers had the sense to make sure their orders were harder to undo. Obama also did not, as far as we can tell from some quick googling and thinking, sign any executive orders making it more likely that Americans eat diseased chickens. But Trump has been rolling back slaughterhouse safety regulations during the pandemic, all in the name of securing our nation's vital meat supply, which is actually not under threat any more, notes Amanda Little. The latest effort could result in chickens with a viral infection ending up on our dinner tables. Further Trump Governance Reading: The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on transgender rights wasn't the end of the story; people still must fight many Trump rules in court before their rights are fully protected. — Noah Feldman Update: Veepstakes Joe Biden, shocking no one, has picked Kamala Harris as his running mate. Way back in May, Francis Wilkinson wrote Harris was the obvious best choice. Further Veepstakes Reading: We should let voters pick the veep. — Stephen Carter Telltale Charts The ECB hasn't been as generous to junk bonds as the Federal Reserve, but that may have to change soon, writes Marcus Ashworth.  Further Reading Trump's mind is best understood as a machine-learning algorithm. — Cathy O'Neil A new Trump Iran nuclear deal might not be any tougher than the one he tore up. — Eli Lake China is building a rival to GPS that may top it. — Anjani Trivedi Masayoshi Son's successful OSIsoft exit only highlights how unsuccessful his Vision Fund's strategy has otherwise been. — Alex Webb Brent Scrowcroft was a model public servant who understood America's place in the world. We could use more like him now. — James Stavridis ICYMI The Pac-12 and Big Ten officially canceled football. Small businesses are quietly dying by the thousands. Moderna is trying to turn your body into a vaccine factory. Kickers Tuscany's medieval "wine windows" are back in use during the pandemic. (h/t Ellen Kominers) Prehistoric crocodilian had teeth the size of bananas. (h/t Mike Smedley) The periodic table, color-coded by the likely origin of each element. Stop procrastinating, maybe later. Note: Please send Tuscan wine and complaints to Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.net. Sign up here and follow us on Twitter and Facebook. | 
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