Politics recap
- US health officials recommended offering booster shots to all American adults who received the Pfizer or Moderna coronavirus vaccine. The US expects to offer booster shots starting the week of 20 September, and health officials urged Americans to get their third dose eight months after receiving their second shot. Joe Biden endorsed the recommendation, saying in a speech this afternoon, “It’s the best way to protect ourselves from new variants that could arise.”
- The World Health Organization criticized the US plan to distribute booster shots, given the lack of available vaccines in many low-income countries. WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “Vaccine injustice is a shame on all humanity, and if we don’t tackle it together, we will prolong the acute stage of this pandemic for years when it could be over in a matter of months.”
- Biden directed the department of health and human services to develop regulations requiring nursing homes to mandate coronavirus vaccinations for employees in order to receive Medicare or Medicaid funding. Noting that coronavirus vaccination rates among nursing home staff are significantly lower than those of the larger US population, Biden said, “I’m using the power of the federal government, as a payer of health care costs, to ensure we reduce those risks to our most vulnerable seniors.”
- The US embassy told Americans still in Afghanistan that it “cannot ensure safe passage to the Hamid Karzai international airport”. The embassy’s update came amid reports that some people have been beaten at Taliban checkpoints near the airport, preventing them from boarding departing flights.
- The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff insisted that he had not seen US intelligence suggesting Kabul could fall to the Taliban in a matter of days, contradicting reports that military leaders were warned of such a possibility. “There was nothing that I or anyone else saw that indicated a collapse of this army and this government in 11 days,” General Mark Milley said at a press conference this afternoon.
- In an interview ABC News, Joe Biden seemed to say there may not have been a way to withdraw from Afghanistan “without chaos ensuing”. He told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos: “No, I don’t think it could have been handled in a way that, we’re gonna go back in hindsight and look – but the idea that somehow, there’s a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don’t know how that happens. I don’t know how that happened.”
Updated
Bernie Sanders: The planet is in peril. We’re building Congress’s strongest-ever climate bill
The Vermont senator writes in an op-ed for the Guardian:
Just take a look at what’s happening right now: A huge fire in Siberia is casting smoke for 3,000 miles. Greece: burning. California: burning. Oregon: burning. Historic flooding in Germany and Belgium. Italy just experienced the hottest European day ever. July 2021 was the hottest month ever recorded. Drought and extreme weather disturbances are cutting food production, increasing hunger and raising food prices worldwide. Rising sea levels threaten Miami, New York, Charleston and countless coastal cities around the world in the not-so-distant future.
In the past, these disasters might have seemed like an absurd plot in some apocalypse movie. Unfortunately, this is now reality, and it will only get much worse in years to come if we do not act boldly – now.
The good news is that the $3.5tn budget resolution that was recently passed in the Senate lays the groundwork for a historic reconciliation bill that will not only substantially improve the lives of working people, elderly people, the sick and the poor, but also, in an unprecedented way, address the existential threat of climate change. More than any other legislation in American history it will transform our energy system away from fossil fuels and into energy efficiency and sustainable energy.
This legislation will be a long-overdue step forward in the fight for economic, racial, social and environmental justice. It will also create millions of well-paying jobs. As chair of the Senate budget committee my hope is that the various committees will soon finish their work and that the bill will be on the floor and adopted by Congress in late September.
Read more:
Updated
The World Health Organization has criticized wealthy countries’ approval of Covid-19 vaccine boosters when so many around the world remain unvaccinated, without access.
Agence France-Presse reports:
“We’re planning to hand out extra lifejackets to people who already have lifejackets, while we’re leaving other people to drown without a single lifejacket,” said Dr Mike Ryan, the director of the WHO’s health emergency programme.
“The fundamental, ethical reality is we’re handing out second lifejackets while leaving millions and millions of people without anything to protect them.”
Earlier this month, the WHO called for a moratorium on Covid vaccine booster shots to help ease the drastic inequity in dose distribution between wealthy and poor countries. That has not stopped a number of countries moving forward with plans to add a third jab, as they struggle to contain the Delta variant.
US authorities, warning that Covid-19 vaccination effectiveness decreased over time, said on Wednesday they had authorised booster shots for all Americans from 20 September. The booster would be given eight months after an individual has been fully vaccinated.
Read more:
Updated
Ted Cruz’s campaign spent more than $150,000 at US book chain Books-A-Million in the months after the Texas senator’s book was published, Forbes has reported.
In September, Cruz, who was prominent among the Republicans trying to block the certification of Joe Biden’s election, published One Vote Away: How a Single Supreme Court Seat Can Change History. A financial disclosure he filed on Monday, reported on by Forbes, shows he received almost $320,000 as an advance in 2020 from the book’s publisher Regnery Publishing.
“With a simple majority on the supreme court, the left will have the power to curtail or even abolish the freedoms that have made our country a beacon to the world. We are one vote away from losing the Republic that the founders handed down to us. Our most precious constitutional rights hang by a thread,” says Regnery of the title. “In One Vote Away, you will discover how often the high court decisions that affect your life have been decided by just one vote.”
The end-of-year report from Cruz’s committee, filed with the Federal Election Commission, reveals that two weeks after One Vote Away was published, his campaign spent $40,000 at Books-A-Million. Shortly afterwards, it spent a further $1,500, and in December, $111,900 more. All of the purchases are described by the campaign as “books”, and Forbes speculated that they may have been used to boost his book sales, quoting Brett Kappel, a lawyer specialising in campaign finance, who said that “the FEC has issued a long series of advisory opinions allowing members to use campaign funds to buy copies of their own books at a discount from the publisher, provided that the royalties they would normally receive on those sales are given to charity”.
Read more:
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Caldor fire levels California town of Grizzly Flats as dry weather fuels blazes
Gabrielle Canon and agencies:
Few homes were left standing in Grizzly Flats, California, the small northern California forest town leveled by the Caldor fire on Tuesday.
Streets in the town of about 1,200 people were littered with downed power lines and poles. Houses were reduced to smoldering ash and twisted metal with only chimneys rising above the ruins. A post office and elementary school were also destroyed. Two people were in the hospital with serious injuries.
Thousands more structures still lay in the path of the fast-moving fire. On Wednesday morning, the blaze was 0% contained, with crews desperately working to contain the damage.
The destruction in Grizzly Flats came as dangerously dry and windy weather continued to fuel huge blazes across the American west and prompted the nation’s largest utility to begin shutting off power to tens of thousands of customers.
Read more:
Samira Sadeque reports for the Guardian:
A proposed change in the processing of asylum applications in the U.S. aims to reduce the wait times of cases, and will redirect the applications to be reviewed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), as opposed to the Department of Justice (DoJ), which currently reviews them.
On Wednesday, DHS announced the proposal as a development in the Biden administration’s plans for a “fair, orderly, and humane immigration system”.
Today, DHS and @TheJusticeDept are publishing a notice of proposed rulemaking to make the asylum process more efficient and ensure fairness. https://t.co/HNsLDNLwZg
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) August 18, 2021
The proposed change would mean U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which is under DHS, will review the applications for asylum.
DHS Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas said this process will mean those who are eligible will receive their answers swiftly, while those who do not qualify will be immediately declined.
Currently, the applications are processed through immigration judges under DoJ.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has said this proposal would reduce the caseload in the immigration system, and will mark another “step forward” in creating an asylum process that is “fairer and more expeditious”.
In an interview ABC News, Joe Biden seemed to say there may not have been a way to withdraw from Afghanistan “without chaos ensuing”.
He told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos: “No, I don’t think it could have been handled in a way that, we’re gonna go back in hindsight and look – but the idea that somehow, there’s a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don’t know how that happens. I don’t know how that happened.”
The US said it has evacuated 3,200 people from Afghanistan but thousands of Americans and tens of thousands of Afghans who want to leave the country remain.
“Look, one of the things we didn’t know is what the Taliban would do in terms of trying to keep people from getting out,” Biden told ABC.
Follow more Afghanistan developments here:
Updated
Today so far
That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Sigh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- US health officials recommended offering booster shots to all American adults who received the Pfizer or Moderna coronavirus vaccine. The US expects to offer booster shots starting the week of September 20, and health officials urged Americans to get their third dose eight months after receiving their second shot. Joe Biden endorsed the recommendation, saying in a speech this afternoon, “It’s the best way to protect ourselves from new variants that could arise.”
- The World Health Organization criticized the US plan to distribute booster shots, given the lack of available vaccines in many low-income countries. WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “Vaccine injustice is a shame on all humanity, and if we don’t tackle it together, we will prolong the acute stage of this pandemic for years when it could be over in a matter of months.”
- Biden directed the department of health and human services to develop regulations requiring nursing homes to mandate coronavirus vaccinations for employees in order to receive Medicare or Medicaid funding. Noting that coronavirus vaccination rates among nursing home staff are significantly lower than those of the larger US population, Biden said, “I’m using the power of the federal government, as a payer of health care costs, to ensure we reduce those risks to our most vulnerable seniors.”
- The US embassy told Americans still in Afghanistan that it “cannot ensure safe passage to the Hamid Karzai international airport”. The embassy’s update came amid reports that some people have been beaten at Taliban checkpoints near the airport, preventing them from boarding departing flights.
- The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff insisted that he had not seen US intelligence suggesting Kabul could fall to the Taliban in a matter of days, contradicting reports that military leaders were warned of such a possibility. “There was nothing that I or anyone else saw that indicated a collapse of this army and this government in 11 days,” General Mark Milley said at a press conference this afternoon.
Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Joe Biden endorsed US health officials’ new recommendation that all American adults who received the Pfizer or Moderna coronavirus vaccine get booster shots starting next month.
“This will boost your immune response,” Biden said. “It’s the best way to protect ourselves from new variants that could arise.”
The president urged anyone 18 or older who got the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine to seek a booster shot eight months after their second dose, echoing the advice from his pandemic response team.
Biden concluded his prepared remarks and did not take any questions from reporters about the situation in Afghanistan.
Joe Biden formally announced that he is directing the department of health and human services to develop regulations to require nursing homes to mandate coronavirus vaccinations for their employees in order to receive Medicare or Medicaid funding.
The president noted that more than 130,000 residents of nursing homes have died of coronavirus since the start of the pandemic.
BREAKING: Biden announces nursing home workers who serve people on Medicare or Medicaid will be required to get vaccinated for COVID
— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 18, 2021
"I'm using the power of the federal government, as a payer of health care costs, to ensure we reduce those risks to our most vulnerable seniors" pic.twitter.com/un5hcjo53d
“At the same time, vaccination rates among nursing home staff significantly trail the rest of the country,” Biden said, adding that high vaccination rates help protect older patients in such facilities.
“I’m using the power of the federal government, as a payer of health care costs, to ensure we reduce those risks to our most vulnerable seniors,” Biden said.
Biden directs education secretary to take 'legal action if appropriate' over mask bans
Joe Biden fiercely criticized Republican governors who are attempting to ban mask mandates in classrooms, even though many children are not yet eligible to receive a coronavirus vaccine.
“They’re setting a dangerous tone,” Biden said of the governors. “This isn’t about politics. It’s about keeping our children safe.”
The president said he will direct his education secretary, Miguel Cardona, to use all of his oversight power, including “legal action if appropriate,” against governors who try to overrule school leaders on masking policies.
Biden added that money from the American Rescue Plan can be used to reimburse the salaries of teachers who are financially punished for trying to enforce mask mandates.
Joe Biden is now delivering his speech on the White House’s latest efforts to get more Americans vaccinated against coronavirus, as the Delta variant continues to spread across the US.
The president noted he just received a “lengthy briefing” from the White House pandemic response team, which included a discussion of the country’s latest coronavirus case numbers.
“We’re still in a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” Biden said. “There are people who are dying, and who will die, who didn’t have to.”
The president reiterated his plea to all eligible Americans to get their shot, saying, “If you haven’t gotten vaccinated, do it now.”
Biden to announce vaccine requirement for nursing homes participating in Medicaid
Joe Biden will outline his administration’s latest efforts to get more Americans vaccinated against coronavirus in a speech this afternoon.
The White House has now released a fact sheet previewing the president’s remarks, noting Biden will endorse health officials’ new recommendation for all Americans to get Pfizer and Moderna vaccine boosters starting next month.
Biden will also call on the department of health and human services to “develop new regulations requiring nursing homes to require that all of their workers be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of participating in the Medicare and Medicaid programs”.
That announcement is hugely significant because Medicaid covers more than 60% of all nursing home residents and roughly half of the costs for long-term care facilities, according to a 2020 report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
The White House said the new HHS regulations “would apply to over 15,000 nursing home facilities, which employ approximately 1.3 million workers and serve approximately 1.6 million nursing home residents”.
Biden’s speech is set to begin in about five minutes, so stay tuned.
The state department spokesman, Ned Price, has been talking about the backlog of Afghan applications for special immigration visas (SIVs), which are supposed to be issued to those who worked as interpreters or other employees of the US military or US government.
Many Afghans have been waiting for years for their SIV approval, complaining of endless bureaucratic obstacles.
Ned Price @StateDeptSpox said that when the Biden admin took office there had been no SIV (special immigration visa) interviews with Afghans in Kabul since March 2020. Said interviews were back up and running within 2 weeks of taking office.
— Julian Borger (@julianborger) August 18, 2021
Price said the Trump administration stopped issuing SIVs in March last year, which is weeks after signing the Doha agreement with the Taliban, clearing the way for US withdrawal.
“When we came into office, there were more than 70,000 individuals in this backlog,” Price said. “When we came into office, not a single SIV interview had been conducted since March of 2020.
“Now of course Covid had a say in that it was a difficult operating environment, but within two weeks of this administration taking office, those interviews had resumed. We were able to expedite the processing time for SIV applications over that time; we took the number of visas granted from just over 100 to just over 800 people a month.”
The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Mark Milley, said the US military does “fully intend to successfully evacuate all American citizens who want to get out of Afghanistan”.
The Kabul operation will likely become the second-largest civilian evacuation mission ever conducted by the US military, Milley noted.
Gen. Mark Milley (@thejointstaff): "Right now there are troops at risk and we are the United States military and we fully intend to successfully evacuate all American citizens who want to get out of Afghanistan."
— CSPAN (@cspan) August 18, 2021
Full video here: https://t.co/cE0HJsEUrg pic.twitter.com/xaqK3kiWA3
One reporter pressed Milley and defense secretary Lloyd Austin about reports that Americans and vulnerable Afghans have had difficulty reaching the Kabul airport because of Taliban checkpoints near the airport.
Asked if the military was considering sending troops out into Kabul to help ensure people can safely reach the airport, Austin said that the focus right now is on maintaining the security of the airfield.
“We don’t have the capability to go out and collect up large numbers of people,” Austin said.
US intelligence did not suggest possibility of rapid Taliban takeover, Milley says
The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Mark Milley, insisted that US intelligence reports did not suggest the Taliban would be able to take control of Afghanistan so rapidly.
“There was nothing that I or anyone else saw that indicated a collapse of this army and this government in 11 days,” Milley said at a press conference with defense secretary Lloyd Austin.
“There was nothing that I or anyone else saw that indicated a collapse of this army and this government in 11 days.”
— The Recount (@therecount) August 18, 2021
— Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley on Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/bQxERmYkMo
That claim contradicts reports that military leaders had intelligence indicating the Afghan government could fall quite quickly once all US troops were withdrawn.
The Guardian’s Julian Borger, Hugo Lowell and Dan Sabbagh report:
Both the Trump and Biden administrations were warned by US intelligence that the Afghan army’s resistance to the Taliban could collapse ‘within days’ after an over-hasty withdrawal, according to a former CIA counter-terrorism chief.
Press accounts of White House decision-making in recent days have suggested that Joe Biden was led to believe that it might take 18 months for Kabul and Ashraf Ghani’s government to fall. Last week, unnamed officials were widely quoted as saying it could be 30 to 90 days.
Speaking to the nation on Monday, Biden said: ‘The truth is: This did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated.’
Douglas London, the CIA’s former counter-terrorism chief for south and south-west Asia, said the president was being ‘misleading at best’.
Updated
Biden speaks to Merkel about situation in Afghanistan as evacuations continue
Joe Biden spoke to German Chancellor Angela Merkel today about the situation in Afghanistan, as evacuations efforts continue in Kabul.
“They praised the ongoing efforts of their military and civilian personnel who are working closely together in Kabul on the evacuation of their citizens, vulnerable Afghans, and the courageous Afghan nationals who worked tirelessly over the last 20 years to provide security, promote peace, and deliver development assistance to the Afghan people,” the White House said in a readout of the call.
“They also discussed the need for close coordination on the provision of humanitarian aid for vulnerable Afghans in country as well as support for neighboring states, and agreed to continue planning for this work in the upcoming virtual meeting of G7 partners.”
Biden’s conversation with Merkel comes one day after he spoke to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, which marked the US president’s first conversation with a major ally since the Taliban took control of Kabul.
Biden and Johnson “discussed the need for continued close coordination among allies and democratic partners on Afghanistan policy going forward,” according to the White House. “They agreed to hold a virtual G7 leaders’ meeting next week to discuss a common strategy and approach.”
Speaking at the White House press briefing yesterday, national security adviser Jake Sullivan pushed back against criticism that the Biden administration was caught flat-footed when it came to evacuating Americans out of Afghanistan.
“We communicated with American citizens for weeks, telling them to get out of the country. We offered financial assistance for those who wouldn’t be able to afford to get on flights themselves,” Sullivan said.
“Many chose to stay right until the end, and that was their choice. We now are faced with a circumstance where we have to help evacuate those. That’s our responsibility as the US government.”
He added, “The point I’m making is that when a civil war comes to an end with an opposing force marching on the capital, there are going to be scenes of chaos, there are going to be lots of people leaving the country. That is not something that can be fundamentally avoided.”
Updated
The Guardian’s Ben Doherty, Warren Murray and agencies report:
Taliban promises of “safe passage” to the Kabul airport for Afghans trying to flee the country have been undermined by reports of women and children being beaten and whipped as they try to pass through checkpoints set up by the militants.
With the Taliban in control of Afghanistan’s land border, Kabul airport is the only way out of the country. The US military has secured the airfield itself, after chaotic scenes over the weekend, but the Taliban control the road to the airport and have set up numerous checkpoints in Kabul’s north.
The US says the Taliban has committed to “safe passage” for people who want to reach the airport. But reports from the Afghan capital say there has been violence at checkpoints on Airport Road, including photographs of a woman and a child with head injuries after reportedly being beaten and whipped after trying to cross a checkpoint.
Sources in Kabul told the Guardian the Taliban were checking documents and forcibly turning some people around at checkpoints, refusing to let them reach the airport.
US embassy says it 'cannot ensure safe passage' to Kabul airport
The US embassy in Kabul has released a security alert informing Americans still in Afghanistan that it “cannot ensure safe passage to the Hamid Karzai international airport”.
“U.S. government-provided flights are departing. U.S. citizens, LPRs, and their spouses and unmarried children (under age 21) should consider travelling to Hamid Karzai International Airport,” the embassy said in the alert.
“Please be advised that a significant number of individuals have registered and space on these flights is available on a first come, first serve basis. You may be required to wait at the airport for a significant amount of time until space is available.”
"THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT CANNOT ENSURE SAFE PASSAGE TO THE HAMID KARZAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT," says US Embassy Kabul security alert today.
— Jennifer Hansler (@jmhansler) August 18, 2021
It also advises that space on evacuation flights will be first come, first serve https://t.co/immbKKzbB6
The embassy’s update comes amid reports that people have been beaten at Taliban checkpoints near the airport, preventing them from boarding departing flights.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan acknowledged those reports yesterday, saying at the White House briefing, “There have been instances where we have received reports of people being turned away or pushed back or even beaten.
“We are taking that up in a channel with the Taliban to try to resolve those issues. And we are concerned about whether that will continue to unfold in the coming days.”
Updated
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris received a briefing this morning from their national security team on the situation in Afghanistan, the White House said.
“They were briefed on intelligence, security and diplomatic updates. They discussed efforts to accelerate evacuations of U.S. citizens, SIV applicants, and other vulnerable Afghans, and to facilitate safe passage to Hamid Karzai International Airport,” the White House told the press pool.
“The President, Vice President, and their team also discussed their focus on monitoring for any potential terrorist threats in Afghanistan, including from ISIS-K.”
Among those conducting the briefing were defense secretary Lloyd Austin, secretary of state Antony Blinken and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Mark Milley.
A CNN reporter spotted Milley at the White House earlier today:
Gen. Milley and Sec. Austin were at the White House this morning to brief Pres. Biden on Afghanistan. He'd been meeting them over videoconference at Camp David but arrived back to the White House late Tuesday. pic.twitter.com/9FKkSBcbMo
— Kevin Liptak (@Kevinliptakcnn) August 18, 2021
Israeli PM to visit White House next week
Joe Biden will host Israel’s new prime minister Naftali Bennett in Washington on August 26, the White House has just announced.
A statement put out by White House press sec Jen Psaki touched on what the two will talk about.
They “will discuss critical issues related to regional and global security, including Iran.
“The visit will also be an opportunity for the two leaders to discuss efforts to advance peace, security, and prosperity for Israelis and Palestinians and the importance of working towards a more peaceful and secure future for the region.”
Bennett became prime minister in June after Israel’s longest-serving leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, was ousted from office by a loose coalition of rivals from across the political spectrum, united by their wish to end his 12-year run in power, my colleague Oliver Holmes wrote from Jerusalem at the time.
The opposition leader, Yair Lapid, a centrist former TV news anchor, won a confidence vote in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, by a razor-thin advantage of 60-59 seats on Sunday evening.
Lapid did not initially become prime minister. Instead, under a power-sharing agreement, his former foe and far-right advocate for the settler movement in the Palestinian territories, Naftali Bennett, was sworn in as the country’s leader.
Bennett, who has ruled out a Palestinian state and wants Israel to maintain ultimate control over all the lands it occupies, will be prime minister for the first two years of a four-year term before handing over to Lapid.
Ahead of the Knesset vote, Bennett attempted to give a conciliatory speech, even as Netanyahu’s allies heckled him from their seats. The 49-year-old prime minister-designate thanked the outgoing leader for his “lengthy and achievement filled service”.
Psaki’s press release did not mention Afghanistan as a topic of planned conversation. It said: “Prime Minister Bennett’s visit will strengthen the enduring partnership between the United States and Israel, reflect the deep ties between our governments and our people, and underscore the United States’ unwavering commitment to Israel’s security.”
Biden sent the invitation to Bennett last month and aides for each leader have been meeting, virtually and recently in person. Local Israeli media had noted that Bennett might not be able to make it to the White House until September, and then could stay on to address the annual General Assembly of the United Nations in New York that month.
But clearly he has found a spot in his calendar and the trip is on for this month.
Students in Florida’s Broward County went back to school under a mask mandate today, even as their school board faced threats of severe penalties for defying Republican governor Ron DeSantis.
Reuters further repots:
And school officials in Hillsborough and Miami-Dade counties planned to address the public health measure later Wednesday, hoping to reduce infections in classrooms.
In Miami, Florida’s largest school district with 334,000 students, a task force of medical experts recommended students should be required to wear masks when they return to classrooms next week.
Superintendent Alberto Carvalho agreed and the school board was expected to meet to discuss the measure Wednesday.
In Broward County, the state’s second-largest district with 261,000 students, two teachers and an assistant teacher died from COVID-19 last week. In Miami, a 13-year-old student and four district employees have died from the virus in recent weeks, Carvalho said.
Hospitalizations have risen this week in the state after slowing down over the weekend. Hospitals are reporting 16,721 patients with COVID-19, compared to Tuesday’s tally of 16,521, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services.
About 55% more than 3,600 patients of intensive care unit patients have COVID-19.
Many hospitals across the state are expecting critical staffing shortages in next week. Half the hospitals in Florida have stopped accepting transfer patients from other facilities.“There can be no question that many Florida hospitals are stretched to their absolute limits,” said Mary Mayhew, president of the Florida Hospital Association.
Most school districts have adopted optional mask policies or given options to parents to easily opt out of requirements. Mask-wearing is option in schools in Hillsborough County, the third-largest district, with more than 206,000 students. Within days, infections forced thousands of students into isolation, having tested positive for COVID-19, or into quarantine, which means they had close contact with a positive case.
By Wednesday morning, the number of COVID-19 cases in Hillsborough County schools stood at 1,695 students, teachers and staff, according to the district’s COVID-19 dashboard. Through Tuesday, some 8,400 students and 307 employees were either in isolation or quarantine.
Today so far
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- US health officials recommended offering booster shots to all Americans who received the Pfizer or Moderna coronavirus vaccine. The US expects to offer booster shots starting the week of September 20, and health officials urged Americans to get their third dose eight months after receiving their second shot. Research on booster shots for those who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine remains ongoing.
- The World Health Organization criticized the US plan to distribute booster shots, given the lack of available vaccines in many low-income countries. WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “Vaccine injustice is a shame on all humanity, and if we don’t tackle it together, we will prolong the acute stage of this pandemic for years when it could be over in a matter of months.”
- Joe Biden is scheduled to deliver remarks on his administration’s vaccination strategy this afternoon. Biden will receive a briefing from members of the White House pandemic response team and then deliver his speech, which will likely focus on the announcement about booster shots.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
The ONE Campaign, which is dedicated to ending extreme poverty and preventable disease in the world, warned that the US plan to administer coronavirus vaccine boosters “threatens to widen the gap between the haves and the have-nots”.
“It’s outrageous that a healthy, vaccinated individual will be able to get a third shot before the elderly and health workers in low-income countries can get a single dose,” Sarah Swinehart, the senior director of communications for ONE’s North America operation, said in a statement.
The group noted that just 1.3% of people in low-income countries have received at least one coronavirus vaccine dose, according to data.
“While we understand the Biden administration’s goal to further protect Americans, today’s decision will further exacerbate global vaccine inequities and prolong the pandemic at home and abroad,” Swinehart said.
“In order to save lives, reduce the emergence of variants, and stop the spread of COVID-19, the US and wealthy countries must share more doses immediately.”
WHO criticizes US plan to distribute coronavirus vaccine boosters
Global health authorities have harshly criticized an American plan to provide Pfizer and Moderna coronavirus vaccine booster shots to people eight months after their second dose.
In a briefing, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he called for a “temporary moratorium” on booster shots globally as low-income countries have vaccinated “barely 2%” of their populations. Just 10 countries have administered 75% of all vaccines, Ghebreyesus said.
“Vaccine injustice is a shame on all humanity and if we don’t tackle it together, we will prolong the acute stage of this pandemic for years when it could be over in a matter of months,” Ghebreyesus said in remarks.
However, Biden administration officials said they remained committed to protecting Americans and donating vaccines globally.
“I do not accept the idea we have to choose between America and the world,” said Dr Vivek Murthy, US Surgeon General.
White House Coronavirus task force coordinator Jeff Zients said the US has, “more vaccine doses donated than all the other countries in the world combined”.
“Our war-time effort will continue doing everything we can to get more people vaccinated, both here at home and around the world,” said Zients.
“We can and must do both at the same time, because that’s what it’s going to take to end this pandemic, and we will not stop until we get the job done.”
Members of the White House pandemic response team emphasized that they are not recommending average Americans get a vaccine booster shot today.
Booster shots will be made available to all Americans who received the Moderna or Pfizer coronavirus vaccine starting the week of September 20, and health officials are recommending getting a booster eight months after a second dose.
We are not recommending you go out and get a booster today. But, starting the week of September 20th, fully vaccinated adults could begin getting booster shots 8 months after their second shot of an mRNA vaccine.
— White House COVID-19 Response Team (@WHCOVIDResponse) August 18, 2021
That strategy will allow for vulnerable populations who were among the first to be vaccinated, including healthcare workers and elderly Americans, to get their booster shots starting next month.
For younger Americans who were vaccinated later in the year, they may not get their booster shots until late 2021 or early 2022.
A reporter asked the White House pandemic response team to respond to criticism over offering booster shots to Americans while many countries still do not have enough first doses for their citizens.
Pandemic response coordinator Jeff Zients said the US was committed to both protecting Americans against coronavirus and distributing vaccines to countries around the world.
Zients said he expects the US to administer about 100 million vaccine booster shots in the coming months, while simultaneously distributing more than 200 million vaccine doses to other countries.
Dr Vivek Murthy, the US surgeon general, added, “I do not accept the idea that we have to choose between America and the world. We clearly see our responsibility to both.”
Coronavirus vaccine booster shots will be free, Zients says
The White House pandemic response coordinator, Jeff Zients, said the coronavirus vaccine booster shots will be free for all Americans.
“It will be just as easy and convenient to get a booster shot as it is to get a first shot today,” Zients said.
White House: "It will be just as easy and convenient to get a booster shot as it is to get a first shot today."
— ABC News (@ABC) August 18, 2021
"Boosters will be free, regardless of immigration or health insurance status. No ID or insurance required." https://t.co/9Y5haKbmZO pic.twitter.com/OoH890orON
Zients noted that the US has enough vaccine supply for all Americans, and the booster shots will be available at roughly 80,000 locations across the country.
“Boosters will be free, regardless of immigration or health insurance status. No ID or insurance required,” Zients said.
Dr Anthony Fauci, the president’s chief medical adviser, laid out the data that led health officials to recommend booster shots for all Americans who received the Pfizer and Moderna coronavirus vaccines.
Fauci said data indicates that the antibodies provided by the vaccines decline over time, and higher levels of antibodies may be required to protect against the more highly transmissible Delta variant, which is spreading across the US.
Booster shots can help to increase antibody levels, thus providing more effective protection against the Delta variant, which is why health officials are encouraging Americans to get a third dose eight months after their second shot.
The four-point case for booster shots, from Fauci in the ongoing health briefing. pic.twitter.com/OJOFVleT99
— Josh Wingrove (@josh_wingrove) August 18, 2021
Dr Vivek Murthy, the US surgeon general, said that coronavirus vaccine booster shots will initially be made available to the vulnerable populations who received their first doses early this year.
That population includes healthcare providers, nursing home residents and other seniors, as well as residents of long-term care facilities, all of whom were among the first groups to be eligible to get vaccinated.
Murthy, who was one of the senior health officials who signed the official recommendation for booster shots, noted that third doses of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines will be recommended for those 18 and older starting the week of September 20.
That distinction is noteworthy, considering all Americans 12 or older are currently eligible to get their first vaccine doses.
The White House pandemic response team is now holding a briefing, shortly after senior health officials recommended Pfizer and Moderna vaccine boosters for all Americans.
Even with the announcement on boosters, the pandemic response team coordinator, Jeff Zients, said the Biden administration remains devoted to convincing more Americans to get their first vaccine dose.
“This remains a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” Zients said.
Zients noted that vaccinations have been on the rise in recent weeks, as the highly transmissible Delta variant continues to spread across the country.
Nearly 7 million Americans have gotten their first doses in the past two weeks, marking the highest rate of first doses administered since June, Zients said.
White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients announces that nearly 7 million Americans have gotten their first COVID-19 shot within the last two weeks, the highest rate since June. https://t.co/HjKUBaGam8 pic.twitter.com/i2Ip7t2fQw
— ABC News (@ABC) August 18, 2021
Updated
The health officials noted in their statement that the booster shot recommendation is pending the Food and Drug Administration’s evaluation of the safety of receiving third doses of the Pfizer and Moderna coronavirus vaccines.
The officials said they expected boosters to be recommended for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine as well, but more research needs to be done before making a determination on that.
“Administration of the J&J vaccine did not begin in the U.S. until March 2021, and we expect more data on J&J in the next few weeks. With those data in hand, we will keep the public informed with a timely plan for J&J booster shots as well,” the officials’ statement said.
US health officials recommend offering coronavirus vaccine boosters to all Americans
The Biden administration is officially recommending coronavirus vaccine booster shots be offered to all Americans, due to concerns about the decreased efficacy of vaccines over time.
The recommendation was announced in a statement signed by several senior health officials, including the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr Rochelle Walensky, and the president’s chief medical adviser, Dr Anthony Fauci.
The CDC announces support for booster shots for Americans: "we conclude that a booster shot will be needed to maximize vaccine-induced protection and prolong its durability." pic.twitter.com/sA4KZsxlS9
— Daniel Strauss (@DanielStrauss4) August 18, 2021
“Based on our latest assessment, the current protection against severe disease, hospitalization, and death could diminish in the months ahead, especially among those who are at higher risk or were vaccinated during the earlier phases of the vaccination rollout,” the statement said.
“For that reason, we conclude that a booster shot will be needed to maximize vaccine-induced protection and prolong its durability.”
The administration is recommending all Americans who got the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine receive a third booster dose about eight months after getting their second dose. Research on booster shots for those who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine remains ongoing.
Booster shots are expected to be made available to all Americans starting the week of September 20.
Updated
Afghan president is in the UAE after fleeing the country, state media says
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani is now in the United Arab Emirates, after fleeing the country as Taliban forces approached Kabul.
WAM news, a state-run media outlet, posted a statement on its website saying, “The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation can confirm that the UAE has welcomed President Ashraf Ghani and his family into the country on humanitarian grounds.”
Statement on President #AshrafGhani#WamNews https://t.co/SfIWODqAXD pic.twitter.com/cnKeH7Rla6
— WAM English (@WAMNEWS_ENG) August 18, 2021
It had been unclear where Ghani had fled to after leaving Afghanistan, and reports had suggested he might be anywhere from Saudi Arabia to Oman.
Asked yesterday about Joe Biden’s relationship with Ghani, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said, “I’m not going to characterize anything about President Ghani at this point, who is no longer a factor in Afghanistan. And I don’t think there’s much merit in me weighing in more deeply on him.”
The first vice-president of Afghanistan, Amrullah Saleh, has declared himself the country’s “caretaker president” in Ghani’s absence, even as the Taliban moves to form a new government.
Salomé Gómez-Upegui reports on Florida parents’ outrage over the ban on school mask mandates:
In Pinellas county, Florida, Maggie, a mother of three, is sending her kids to school every day with two or three extra masks even if, in her fourth grader’s class, only a third of the children are wearing them. Just two days into the new school year, she received a call from school officials saying there were already five known cases of students with Covid-19.
“Based on my kids’ school, and the number of parents that have chosen to not mask their kids, it looks like we’re in the minority,” said Maggie, who asked to be identified by just her first name. “I think the voices who are very anti-mask are very loud.”
Despite recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stating that K-12 students should wear masks for in-person learning, Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, a Republican, signed an executive order on 30 July that bars school districts from putting mask mandates in place, even though children under 12 cannot yet receive a vaccine.
This has left some Florida parents making difficult individual decisions to have their children wear masks, often going up against the political and social norms of their schools and communities.
Texas governor Greg Abbott, who tested positive for coronavirus yesterday, has reportedly told people that he received a third coronavirus vaccine dose.
NBC News reports:
Abbott has told people he received a third booster dose of a vaccine, two sources said. Abbott’s office did not respond to a request for comment about a booster shot. Except for people with compromised immune systems, booster shots have not been authorized by the Food and Drug Administration, although the Biden administration is expected to announce a program to administer them soon.
If Abbott did receive a booster shot, his coronavirus case raises interesting questions about the possibility of breakthrough infections after getting a third vaccine dose, although breakthrough cases remain uncommon even without a booster.
Texas governor Greg Abbott tests positive for Covid
Alexandra Villarreal reports from Austin:
In case you somehow missed it yesterday: Texas governor Greg Abbott tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday, after weeks spent banning local mask requirements and meeting maskless crowds.
Abbott, a Republican, is fully vaccinated against the virus and is not experiencing symptoms, his office said in a statement. He is taking a monoclonal antibody treatment and isolating in the governor’s mansion.
Spokesperson Mark Miner said: “Governor Abbott is in constant communication with his staff, agency heads and government officials to ensure that state government continues to operate smoothly and efficiently.”
Texas has once again emerged as a hotspot for the coronavirus, with only 314 available intensive care unit beds statewide. Pediatric ICUs are running out of space while children head back to class.
Abbott has restricted cities, counties, school districts and public health authorities from requiring masks or Covid-19 vaccines. And when officials in Texas’s major cities defied his order, the state supreme court barred their local mask mandates – at least temporarily.
The Biden administration reportedly decided to recommend coronavirus vaccine boosters after viewing worrisome data about the declining efficacy of vaccines over time.
Politico reports:
The evidence, compiled by federal scientists over the past several months, showed a decline in the initial round of protection against Covid-19 infection that’s coincided with a resurgence in cases driven by the more contagious Delta variant. The data looked at vaccine effectiveness in individuals across age groups, with varying medical conditions and who received the shot at different times. It was presented to White House Covid-19 task force officials at a meeting Sunday.
‘This is what moved the needle,’ one senior administration official said, describing the CDC data and the decision to urge boosters.
That data — which is set to be made public later this week — brought a swift end to a debate over when to administer boosters that has raged within the administration for months, and spurred the buildout of a plan for distributing the additional shots in a matter of weeks.
Joe Biden addressed the potential need for booster shots late last month, in a speech on his administration’s latest efforts to get more Americans vaccinated.
“No American needs a booster now,” Biden said at the time. “But if the science tells us there’s a need for boosters, then that’s something we’ll do. And we have purchased the supply -- all the supply we need to be ready if that was called for.”
Biden expected to speak on Covid vaccine boosters today
Greetings from Washington, live blog readers.
Joe Biden will receive a briefing from the White House coronavirus response team, and the president will then deliver a speech on his administration’s vaccination strategy.
Biden is expected to address the likely approval of coronavirus vaccine boosters for Americans, as the country’s case numbers continue to climb due to the spread of the Delta variant.
According to the AP, US health authorities are expected to soon recommend receiving an extra dose of the vaccine eight months after getting the second shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. (Research is ongoing about boosters for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.)
Biden’s speech comes less than a week after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officially recommended booster doses for some immunocompromised people, who represent about 3% of the US population.
But with the White House still struggling to convince some Americans to get their first vaccine dose, it could be quite difficult to launch a new messaging campaign urging people to get a third shot.
The blog will have more details on the speech coming up, so stay tuned.
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