Good morning. I'm James Holman from the Washington Post and this is the Daily

2002 for Tuesday, December 1st. In today's news, Scott Atlas resigns as President Trump's top coronavirus advisor.

The FDA moves at record speed to review the vaccine candidates.

And the pandemic forces some men to realize they need deeper friendships.

But first, the big idea.

For a couple who had spent five decades by each other's sides, Leslie and Patricia Mcwaters couldn't have been more different.

Patricia 78 was punctual. No nonsense. To the point. She had to be as a nurse for

35 years in a hospital operating room in Jackson, Michigan. Leslie, 75, was a retired truck driver.

He was known as LD to friends, which was pretty much anyone he met.

He cracked jokes, appreciated one-liners, and was always fun-loving. The duo was inseparable. They raised two daughters, three grandchildren and six great-grandchildren together, co-hosting every family gathering

from Thanksgiving to Christmas to summer pool parties. That was when they weren't on the

road and they their 59 Corvette.

They lived in tandem, and that's how they died.

Both together in the same hospital last Tuesday.

They each died at 4.23 PM from complications caused by COVID.

They are the latest of the tragic tales of longtime couples claimed by a virus that has taken at least

267,000 lives in the United States.

There have been hundreds of stories like this since March.

It's often felt like we're watching the notebook. hundreds of stories like this since March.

It's often felt like we're watching the notebook,

but a hundred times sadder.

At their famous pool parties, it was Patricia at the grill.

...