Today's politics recap
- Americans should receive the Pfizer or Moderna coronavirus vaccine rather than the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, a panel of outside advisors recommended to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been linked to rare but serious blood clots and the two-shot Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have shown to be more effective in preventing infection.
- US hospitals are bracing for another potential surge in coronavirus cases as the Omicron variant spreads across the country. Omicron now accounts for nearly 3% of all Covid cases in the US as of Saturday – up from only 0.4% the week before, according to data from the CDC.
- After getting a briefing on the pandemic from advisers, Joe Biden said the Omicron variant is “now spreading and it’s going to increase”.“For the unvaccinated, we are looking at a winter of severe illness and death,” he said, urging Americans to get vaccinated and get their boosters as soon as possible.
- The supreme court has returned the case involving Texas’ six-week abortion ban to a federal appeals court. Much to the disappointment of abortion rights advocates, the case was sent to a court that has twice upheld the controversial law.
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The US Food and Drug Administration said it would permanently ease restrictions on abortion pills, allowing patients to receive the medication without having to go to a clinic or doctor’s office in person.
The medications are used to end pregnancies in the early stages, up to 10 weeks’ gestation. The policy comes as the date of abortion rights remains uncertain in the hands of the supreme court. - Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said he wants to pass a voting rights bill “in time for the 2022 elections,” per CNN. As of now, the Democratic leader does not have the votes to pass voting rights legislation because centrist Senator Kyrsten Sinema remains opposed to altering the filibuster to clear the way for such a bill.
- Centrist Senator Joe Manchin’s concerns about the Build Back Better Act have stalled negotiations, essentially eliminating the possibility of Democrats passing the bill before the end of the year. Manchin has reportedly expressed concern about the cost of the bill’s provision to continue the expanded child tax credit program.
– Joan E Greve and Maanvi Singh
Updated
Joe Biden has conceded that his Build Back Better plan is unlikely to pass this year.
In discussions, Joe Manchin “has reiterated his support for Build Back Better funding at the level of the framework plan I announced in September. I believe that we will bridge our differences and advance the Build Back Better plan, even in the face of fierce Republican opposition,” Biden said in a statement.
Centrist Manchin’s concerns about the Build Back Better Act have stalled negotiations. Most recently, he has reportedly been concerned about the cost of expanding the child tax credit program, a provision of the legislation.
“My team and I are having ongoing discussions with Senator Manchin; that work will continue next week. It takes time to finalize these agreements, prepare the legislative changes, and finish all the parliamentary and procedural steps needed to enable a Senate vote. We will advance this work together over the days and weeks ahead; Leader Schumer and I are determined to see the bill successfully on the floor as early as possible,” he said.
Updated
FDA permanently eases restrictions on abortion pills by mail
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it would permanently ease restrictions on abortion pills by mail, allowing patients to receive the medication by mail without having to go to a clinic or doctor’s office in person.
The medications are used to end pregnancies in the early stages, up to 10 weeks’ gestation. The policy change from the FDA comes as the US Supreme Court considers an abortion ban in Mississippi at 15 weeks. During oral arguments this month, justices signaled they are open to rolling back or gutting Roe v Wade, the landmark decision that established the right to abortion in the US.
The FDA initially temporarily lifted restrictions on getting the pill mailed during the pandemic when it was risky for patients to visit doctor’s offices and clinics in person.
Updated
The US postmaster appointed under Trump is still raising alarm – but can he be stopped?
Jake Bittle reports:
Joe Biden this month took another step toward the removal of the controversial postmaster general Louis DeJoy, even as the Trump-era appointee continues to make his mark on the embattled postal service, rolling out new plans to slow down delivery and close postal stations around the country.
DeJoy, a Republican logistics executive, caused a national furor last year over his attempts to slow down mail delivery before the 2020 presidential election, in which millions of Americans voted by mail.
Biden has not said outright whether he wishes to oust DeJoy, although his press secretary, Jen Psaki, has said she is “deeply troubled” by his leadership. Even so, the president lacks the authority to dismiss the postmaster general. That power rests with the USPS Board of Governors, a nine-member panel that can remove DeJoy with a majority vote. There were three vacancies on the board when Biden took office, and he filled those vacancies with Democratic allies earlier this year.
Now the president has taken a further step toward reshaping the board by nominating two new governors to replace those whose terms are expiring. His decision not to renominate the Democratic board chairman, Ron Bloom, is significant, since Bloom was one of DeJoy’s biggest allies on the board and earlier this year said he considered DeJoy “the proper man for the job”.
Indeed, the postmaster general bought as much as $305,000 in bonds from Bloom’s asset management firm earlier this year, according to DeJoy’s financial disclosure paperwork. Bloom has said he doesn’t benefit from the purchase. The asset purchases and Bloom’s continued support for DeJoy led some Democratic senators to say they wouldn’t support Bloom’s renomination.
Even as Biden appears to inch closer to ousting DeJoy, the embattled postmaster general has begun to leave his mark on the agency. DeJoy abandoned his initial attempts to slow down mail delivery ahead of the 2020 election after he faced lawsuits and backlash, but soon after he announced a significant reduction in the agency’s 60,000-member administrative workforce.
DeJoy also released in April a 10-year plan for revamping postal operations. Some provisions are supported by unions and postal advocates, such as a $40bn investment in the agency’s vehicle fleet and logistics network, and modernizing thousands of retail post offices. The plan also calls for an end to a mandate that requires the USPS to fund retiree health benefits decades in advance, which postal management has decried for years as an unnecessary burden on its finances.
DeJoy’s plan would attempt to fill the postal service’s $160bn funding hole through a wide variety of cost-cutting measures.
Read more:
Melody Schreiber reports:
A wave of new Omicron cases is beginning to surge in America and could peak as early as January, the Centers for Disease Controls (CDC) has warned, as states are scrambling to prepare for overloaded hospitals. The US has passed 800,000 deaths, including 1 in 100 Americans over the age of 65.
The Omicron variant accounted for nearly 3% of Covid cases in the US as of Saturday – up from only 0.4% the week before, according to data from the CDC. The variant is expected to continue rising rapidly, based on the experiences of other countries and could be dominant within weeks.
“I suspect that those numbers are going to shoot up dramatically in the next couple of weeks,” said Céline Gounder, infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist at New York University and Bellevue Hospital, on Wednesday. She expects an Omicron wave to peak in late January and then come down sometime in February.
In a meeting with state health leaders on Tuesday, the CDC presented two scenarios, based on models, for how the variant might drive infections in the next few weeks and months. Omicron and Delta cases could peak as soon as January or a smaller surge of Omicron could happen in the spring.
It’s unclear which variant, Delta or Omicron, will dominate in the next few months or if they will coexist, Gounder said. Regardless, “we anticipate an increase in hospitalizations, an increase in deaths and an increase in the burden on the health care system over the next couple of months”.
The US was already in the grips of a Delta wave that began before the Thanksgiving holiday, and officials fear that travel and gatherings over holidays like Christmas and New Year’s could add explosive growth to an already strained situation.
Schools across the US are seeing rises in cases, and some are closing early or cutting back on in-person activities. In New York, Cornell University reported 903 cases among students this week – many of them cases of the Omicron variant among fully vaccinated people. The school closed early and went virtual.
In several states, hospitals are already close to being overwhelmed. In Michigan, hospital workers are now volunteering to work for free in ICUs, one doctor reports.
Read more:
Updated
Biden says the unvaccinated face “a winter of severe illness and death"
After getting a briefing on the pandemic from advisers, Joe Biden said the omicron variant is “now spreading and it’s going to increase”.
“For the unvaccinated, we are looking at a winter of severe illness and death,” he said, urging Americans to get vaccinated and get their boosters as soon as possible.
Updated
Today so far
That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- Americans should receive the Pfizer or Moderna coronavirus vaccine rather than the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, a panel of outside advisors recommended to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been linked to rare but serious blood clots, and the two-shot Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have shown to be more effective in preventing infection.
- US hospitals are bracing for another potential surge in coronavirus cases as the Omicron variant spreads across the country. Omicron now accounts for nearly 3% of all Covid cases in the US as of Saturday – up from only 0.4% the week before, according to data from the CDC.
- The supreme court has returned the case involving Texas’ six-week abortion ban to a federal appeals court. Much to the disappointment of abortion rights advocates, the case was sent to a court that has twice upheld the controversial law.
- Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said he wants to pass a voting rights bill “in time for the 2022 elections,” per CNN. As of now, the Democratic leader does not have the votes to pass voting rights legislation because centrist Senator Kyrsten Sinema remains opposed to altering the filibuster to clear the way for such a bill.
- Centrist Senator Joe Manchin’s concerns about the Build Back Better Act have stalled negotiations, essentially eliminating the possibility of Democrats passing the bill before the end of the year. Manchin has reportedly expressed concern about the cost of the bill’s provision to continue the expanded child tax credit program.
Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
CDC advisers recommend Pfizer and Moderna vaccines over Johnson & Johnson
A panel of outside advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has voted to recommend that Americans receive the Pfizer or Moderna coronavirus vaccine rather than the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
The AP reports:
The strange clotting problem has caused nine confirmed deaths after J&J vaccinations — while the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines don’t come with that risk and also appear to be more effective, advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
It’s an unusual move and the CDC’s director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, must decide whether to accept the panel’s advice.
Until now the U.S. has treated all three COVID-19 vaccines available to Americans as an equal choice, since large studies found they all offered strong protection and early supplies were limited. J&J’s vaccine initially was welcomed as a single-dose option that could be especially important for hard-to-reach groups like homeless people who might not get the needed second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna options.
The news comes amid intensifying fears of a potential surge in US coronavirus cases linked to the Omicron variant, which has already been reported in at least 36 states.
A reporter asked Karine Jean-Pierre whether Joe Biden would support separating the expanded child tax credit program from the Build Back Better Act.
“We don’t have 60 votes in the Senate to do that as a stand-alone,” the deputy White House press secretary said.
The question comes as reports indicate Joe Manchin has voiced concern about the cost of the expanded program if it is continued for the next decade, although the current version of the Build Back Better Act only extends it for one year.
The principal deputy White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, was asked whether Joe Biden believes Senate Democrats should focus on voting rights before passing the Build Back Better Act.
The question comes one day after Biden told reporters, “If we can get the congressional voting rights done, we should do it. If we can’t, we got to keep going. There’s nothing domestically more important than voting rights. It’s the single-biggest issue.”
“Protecting the cornerstone of our democracy should not be a partisan issue, but sadly what we’re seeing is that has been the case,” Jean-Pierre said. “There is nothing more urgent than passing voting rights and getting that done.”
But Jean-Pierre did not specifically say whether the Build Back Better Act should take a lower priority than voting rights as Democrats continue to negotiate over both issues.
Deputy national climate advisor Ali Zaidi expressed confidence that the Biden administration will have the resources to replace millions of lead pipes in the US, even though the final infrastructure bill included significantly less funding than the White House initially sought.
Zaidi noted that $3bn of the $15bn for lead pipe replacement in the infrastructure law will be sent out over the course of the next year.
Asked when the first lead pipes might be replaced, Zaidi said, “It’s already making a difference in communities right now.”
$3 billion out of $15 billion will be sent out in 2022 for the Biden-Harris Lead Pipe and Paint Action Plan. Asked when the first lead pipes will be replaced, Deputy nat'l climate advisor Ali Zaidi tells @edokeefe "It's already making a difference in communities right now." pic.twitter.com/uGpqCqcKab
— CBS News (@CBSNews) December 16, 2021
The principal deputy White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, is now holding the daily briefing with reporters, and she is joined by deputy national climate advisor Ali Zaidi.
Zaidi outlined the Biden administration’s plans to replace lead pipes across the US, which he described as a “centerpiece of the bipartisan infrastructure law”.
The climate adviser noted that Kamala Harris met with child health advocates and labor leaders today to share the White House’s pledge to eliminate lead pipe and lead paint threats.
She is married to former US president Donald Trump but now you, too, can stare into the “cobalt blue eyes” of Melania Trump at the touch of a button and with your very own piece of trendy, digital art.
The former first lady has jumped into the latest internet craze by launching a non-fungible token (NFT) just in time for Christmas. It puts Melania right in the middle of a fashion frenzy in hi-tech art circles – though critics may regard it as the latest attempt by the Trump family to cash in on political success.
An NFT is a digital asset – typically pictures, songs or videos – bought in an online marketplace and stored on blockchain, a secure public ledger. Blockchain allows anyone to verify the NFT’s authenticity and keeps a record of who owns what.
In Melania’s first public venture since leaving the White House almost a year ago, an NFT named Melania’s Vision can be bought between 16 and 31 December with the SOL cryptocurrency or an old-fashioned credit card.
An irony-free statement from her office says it is “a breathtaking watercolor art by Marc-Antoine Coulon, and embodies Mrs Trump’s cobalt blue eyes, providing the collector with an amulet to inspire.”
“The limited-edition piece of digital artwork will be 1 SOL (approximately $150) and includes an audio recording from Mrs Trump with a message of hope.”
Joe Biden will attend South Carolina State University’s commencement ceremony tomorrow, the White House has just announced.
In its advisory, the White House said the president will travel to Orangeburg, South Carolina, to celebrate the graduates of the historically Black university.
Biden is expected to deliver remarks, and House majority whip Jim Clyburn, who graduated from the university in 1961, will participate in a ceremonial march during the ceremony.
When I earned my diploma from S.C. State in 1961, I did not have the opportunity to walk the stage.
— James E. Clyburn (@WhipClyburn) December 11, 2021
Next week, 60 years later, I'll have that chance — an occasion made all the more special as I have the honor of welcoming @POTUS back to my alma mater. https://t.co/FqFHIqd5A2
The Washington Post explains:
In December 1961, James E. Clyburn was a 21-year-old at South Carolina State University who had completed all his credits and was set to graduate. However, because the school at the time allowed only one commencement ceremony a year — usually in the spring — Clyburn received his diploma in the mail instead of marching alongside his classmates. He could have returned to walk in the 1962 ceremony, but by then he was busy with a new teaching job in Charleston.
Sixty years later, Clyburn, now an 81-year-old Democratic congressman from South Carolina and the House majority whip, will get the opportunity to experience the pomp and circumstance of the college graduation ceremony he never had. And a special guest will hand him his diploma: President Biden, who is giving the commencement address at the school on Friday.
‘It means a great deal to me,’ Clyburn said Thursday on MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe.’
Updated
Joe Biden posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor to Army Sergeant First Class Alwyn Cashe, and the medal was received by Cashe’s widow, Tamara Cashe.
Army Sergeant First Class Alwyn Cashe is posthumously awarded the #MedalofHonor for his distinguished service in Iraq.
— CSPAN (@cspan) December 16, 2021
Watch: https://t.co/0bpjpa4HYw pic.twitter.com/wmRswHfISI
The medal was also posthumously awarded to Army Sergeant First Class Christopher Celiz, whose wife Katherine and daughter Shannon accepted the award on his behalf.
Army Master Sergeant Earl Plumlee received the award for “acts of gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty on August 28th, 2013,” when he was serving in Afghanistan.
Army Master Sergeant Earl Plumlee is awarded the #MedalofHonor for his distinguished service in Afghanistan.
— CSPAN (@cspan) December 16, 2021
Watch: https://t.co/0bpjpa4HYw pic.twitter.com/dkSSBrTI7l
The Medal of Honor was also awarded to Sergeant First Class Christopher A. Celiz of the US Army and Master Sergeant Earl D. Plumlee of the US Army, both of whom served in Afghanistan.
According to a White House statement, Celiz participated in a July 2018 mission during which he “voluntarily exposed himself to intense enemy machine gun and small arms fire to retrieve and employ a heavy weapon system, thereby allowing U.S. and partnered forces to regain the initiative, maneuver to a secure location and begin treatment of a critically wounded partnered force member”. He later died of injuries sustained during the mission.
Plumlee was recognized for his actions in Afghanistan in August 2013, when he “instantly responded to a complex enemy attack that began with a massive explosion that tore a sixty-foot breach in the base’s perimeter wall,” according to the White House.
Biden awards Medal of Honor to three troops who fought in Iraq and Afhganistan
Joe Biden is now awarding the Medal of Honor, America’s highest military award to valor, to three troops who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The three troops receiving the award are:
- Sergeant First Class Alwyn C. Cashe, United States Army
- Sergeant First Class Christopher A. Celiz, United States Army
- Master Sergeant Earl D. Plumlee, United States Army
Biden noted that Cashe, who was killed in Iraq in 2005, is the first African American to receive the Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War.
According to a statement from the White House, Cashe’s squadron was attacked on October 17, 2005, during a nighttime patrol in Iraq.
Cashe sustained second- and third-degree burns trying to help his teammates reach safety, and he selflessly insisted that other injured troops be evacuated before he was. His actions saved several lives and cost him his own.
Supreme court returns Texas abortion case to federal appeals court
The supreme court has returned the case involving Texas’ six-week abortion ban to a federal appeals court, but much to the disappointment of abortion rights advocates, the case was sent to a court that has twice upheld the controversial law.
The AP reports:
Justice Neil Gorsuch on Thursday signed the court’s order that granted the request of abortion clinics for the court to act speedily. But the clinics wanted the case sent directly to U.S. Judge Robert Pitman, who had previously though briefly blocked enforcement of the Texas abortion ban known as S.B. 8.
When Pitman ordered the law blocked in early October, the appeals court countermanded his order two days later.
Texas has said it will seek to keep the case bottled up at the appeals court for the foreseeable future.
The supreme court ruled last week that abortion providers can move forward with their lawsuit over the ban, but the court, which skews six to three in favor of conservatives, allowed the law to remain in effect for now.
Republican political fixer Roger Stone is going to appear tomorrow before the House special committee investigating the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6 by extremist supporters of Donald Trump, but Stone will plead the fifth, according to reports.
New: Roger Stone's attorney suggests his client will appear before the Jan 6 committee to plead the 5th.
— Zachary Cohen (@ZcohenCNN) December 16, 2021
“Mr. Stone will be complying w/ the subpoena & will ... assert his 5th Amendment rights to each question posed,” he told @SaraMurray.
Deposition is scheduled for Dec. 17.
The committee issued a subpoena last month for Stone and others, demanding documents and testimony to expand the select committee’s inquiry focused on the planning and financing of the rally at the Ellipse, near the White House, by Trump on January 6, at which he exhorted his supporters to go to the Capitol and try to stop the certification by Congress of Joe Biden’s election victory.
Now the panel members faced with the prospect of Stone sitting down with them but deflecting all of their questions, exercising his constitutional right to protection against self-incrimination.
CONFIRMED: Roger Stone will appear for a Jan. 6 committee deposition tomorrow and plead the Fifth to each question asked, his lawyer says.
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) December 16, 2021
Confirming @SaraMurray / CNN report.
Biden signs bill raising the debt ceiling, averting potential default
Joe Biden has officially signed the bill raising the debt ceiling by $2.5tn, averting a default that would have had disastrous effects on the domestic and global economy.
In a statement, the White House noted that Biden also signed a bill awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to the US troops who were killed during the Kabul evacuation mission earlier this year.
The House approved the debt ceiling bill yesterday in a vote of 221 to 209, sending the legislation to the president’s desk.
The House vote came after Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer and minority leader Mitch McConnell reached an agreement to approve a temporary rule change allowing Democrats to end a Republican filibuster of the bill with just 51 votes. The debt ceiling bill ultimately passed the Senate in a vote of 50 to 49.
The one-time change to the filibuster has led to suggestions from some Senate Democrats that the chamber should be able to make similar adjustments to approve a voting rights bill.
“We think it’s so important that we change the rule in order to save the economy,” Senator Raphael Warnock told NBC News this week.
“Well, the warning lights on our democracy are blinking right now, and we seem unwilling to respond with the same urgency to protect the democracy that we have to protect the economy.”
Tommy Vietor, who previously served as National Security Council spokesperson under Barack Obama, criticized Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer for his new deadline to pass a voting rights bill before the 2022 elections.
I don't understand making pronouncements like this without any discernible path to success. I would love for the Senate to focus on and pass voting rights legislation, but this just feels like lurching from one rhetorical cul de sac to another... https://t.co/vnDoGmVJRj
— Tommy Vietor (@TVietor08) December 16, 2021
“I don’t understand making pronouncements like this without any discernible path to success,” Vietor said on Twitter. “I would love for the Senate to focus on and pass voting rights legislation, but this just feels like lurching from one rhetorical cul de sac to another.”
As of now, Schumer does not have the votes to pass a voting rights bill because centrist Senator Kyrsten Sinema remains opposed to altering the filibuster, which would be necessary to approve such a bill.
Today so far
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said he wants to pass a voting rights bill “in time for the 2022 elections,” per CNN. As of now, the Democratic leader does not have the votes to pass voting rights legislation because centrist Senator Kyrsten Sinema remains opposed to altering the filibuster to clear the way for such a bill.
- Centrist Senator Joe Manchin’s concerns about the Build Back Better Act have stalled negotiations, essentially eliminating the possibility of Democrats passing the bill before the end of the year. Manchin has reportedly expressed concern about the cost of the bill’s provision to continue the expanded child tax credit program.
- US hospitals are bracing for another potential surge in coronavirus cases as the Omicron variant spreads across the country. Omicron now accounts for nearly 3% of all Covid cases in the US as of Saturday – up from only 0.4% the week before, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Chuck Schumer, the senate majority leader, said Thursday that he wants to pass Democrats’ two sweeping voting bills in time for the 2022 election. But that looks increasingly more difficult the longer Democrats delay.
Advocates don’t think the window to do anything about the 2022 elections has passed, but it is rapidly closing.
In Texas, a state that has some of the most gerrymandered maps in the country, the period for candidates to file for office next year ended on Monday. Overseas voters will begin to get mail-in ballots for the state’s 1 March primary in January. And the state’s voter registration deadline is 31 January.
Those fast-approaching deadlines puts Democrats at a huge disadvantage. Courts will likely be more hesitant to step in and make sweeping election changes now that the election process is well underway since doing so could potentially mean changing ballots and risk voter confusion.
Several provisions in the Freedom to Vote Act would require states to make significant overhauls to the way their elections are run, including implementing systems for same-day and automatic voter registration. Those changes take time to implement, and while it’s not impossible, would be increasingly difficult to do ahead of fast approaching spring primaries.
“I think that it’s doable. But if we want to ensure that it’s done correctly and well, it’s going to take some time and definitely some resources,” Tammy Patrick, a senior adviser at the Democracy Fund, said back in November.
“So the sands in the hour glass are slipping away and it is not something that if it’s not passed relatively soon, I don’t think there are ways in which many facets of the bill would be able to be implemented well.”
Democrats want voting rights bill before 2022 elections, Schumer says
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer is now saying Democrats want to pass a voting rights bill “in time for the 2022 elections,” according to CNN.
Schumer now saying that they want to get voting rights bill done "in time for the 2022 elections."
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) December 16, 2021
What Schumer didn't promise: a vote (which would fail) before Christmas
With Manchin/Sinema opposed to changing rules, there's no path to getting bill done even next year
There had been signs that Democrats were hoping to approve filibuster rule changes and pass a voting rights bill before the end of the year, as negotiations over the Build Back Better Act have stalled.
However, centrist Senator Kyrsten Sinema has indicated she is still opposed to amending the filibuster, leaving Schumer with no path to pass a voting rights bill this month.
If Sinema remains staunchly opposed to filibuster reform, Schumer will also not be able to pass a voting rights bill next year, as he needs all 50 members of his caucus on board to approve any rule changes.
Even fully vaccinated Americans may not be protected against the Omicron variant, particularly if they have not yet received their booster shots.
Ed Yong writes in the Atlantic:
As a crude shorthand, assume that Omicron negates one previous immunizing event—either an infection or a vaccine dose. Someone who considered themselves fully vaccinated in September would be just partially vaccinated now (and the official definition may change imminently). But someone who’s been boosted has the same ballpark level of protection against Omicron infection as a vaccinated-but-unboosted person did against Delta. The extra dose not only raises a recipient’s level of antibodies but also broadens their range, giving them better odds of recognizing the shape of even Omicron’s altered spike. In a small British study, a booster effectively doubled the level of protection that two Pfizer doses provided against Omicron infection.
But, but, but: those who have received booster shots should not assume they are entirely immune from contracting Omicron. Yong notes:
In South Africa, the variant managed to infect a cluster of seven people who were all boosted. And according to a CDC report, boosted Americans made up a third of the first known Omicron cases in the U.S.
Governments are bracing for high coronavirus case counts as the Omicron variant spreads around the world. More than 75 countries have now reported cases of Omicron, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said yesterday.
The New York Times reports:
The news over the past few days — both scientific studies and real-world data — has added to the evidence that Omicron is more contagious than any previous version of the Covid-19 virus.
In South Africa, where Omicron was first identified, the recent rise has been steeper than during any previous surge. ‘When Omicron enters a community, the increase in case numbers looks like a vertical line,’ Dr. Paul Sax of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston said.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are scheduled to receive a briefing from the White House pandemic response this afternoon to hear the latest updates on the spread of Omicron.
France will dramatically tighten restrictions on travel from Britain to slow the spread of the new Omicron variant, effectively banning all non-essential journeys.
The government announced in a statement that incoming travellers would require “an essential reason to travel to, or come from, the UK, both for the unvaccinated and vaccinated” from midnight on Saturday (11pm GMT Friday).
“People cannot travel for tourism or professional reasons,” it said, adding that the British government had itself said that the UK would face “a tidal wave” of new infections fuelled by the Omicron variant.
France had therefore “chosen to reinstate the need for an essential reason for travel from and to the UK”, it said.
In addition, all arrivals from the UK will need a negative PCR or antigen test taken within the previous 24, rather than 48 hours, and will have to quarantine in France for seven days – reduced to 48 hours if they can produce a new negative test.
Despite the growing concerns over the Omicron variant, Dr Anthony Fauci expressed hope that families will still be able to gather for the holidays if people are vaccinated and boosted.
"If you and your family are vaccinated and boosted hopefully, you should feel comfortable about having a holiday situation where you have dinners and gatherings in your own home."
— Good Morning America (@GMA) December 16, 2021
Dr. Anthony Fauci speaks on the COVID surge heading into the holidays. https://t.co/9OSjXvpVmJ pic.twitter.com/CtYzFHGs3W
“If you and your family are vaccinated and boosted hopefully, you should feel comfortable about having a holiday situation where you have dinners and gatherings in your own home with family and friends,” the president’s chief medical adviser told “Good Morning America” today.
Fauci added, “But that will only be safe if people get vaccinated.”
As of now, 65% of the Americans aged five or older are fully vaccinated against coronavirus, according to data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But only 30% of American adults have received booster shots as of now.
US hospitals brace for potential Omicron surge in January
A wave of new Omicron cases is beginning to surge in America and could peak as early as January, the Centers for Disease Controls (CDC) has warned, as states are scrambling to prepare for overloaded hospitals. The US has passed 800,000 deaths, including 1 in 100 Americans over the age of 65.
The Omicron variant accounted for nearly 3% of Covid cases in the US as of Saturday – up from only 0.4% the week before, according to data from the CDC. The variant is expected to continue rising rapidly, based on the experiences of other countries and could be dominant within weeks.
“I suspect that those numbers are going to shoot up dramatically in the next couple of weeks,” Céline Gounder, infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist at New York University and Bellevue Hospital, told reporters on Wednesday. She expects an Omicron wave to peak in late January and then come down sometime in February.
In a meeting with state health leaders on Tuesday, the CDC presented two scenarios, based on models, for how the variant might drive infections in the next few weeks and months. Omicron and Delta cases could peak as soon as January or a smaller surge of Omicron could happen in the spring.
Although Joe Manchin’s criticism is the most significant issue in the Build Back Better negotiations right now, it is far from the only hurdle that the bill faces in the Senate.
Punchbowl News reports:
Democrats are fighting among themselves over [the state and local income tax deduction] and immigration. That’s not Manchin’s fault. And the parliamentarian hasn’t finished scrubbing the bill for possible Byrd Rule problem. And that isn’t Manchin’s fault.
So let’s be real. It’s not just Manchin. He’s a big problem for the leadership and White House, easily the most high profile headache, but hardly the only one. They don’t have the text of the legislation finished. The parliamentarian is still grinding away. [Centrist Senator Kyrsten Sinema] hasn’t publicly endorsed the package, which makes some Senate Democrats uneasy.
According to reports, Joe Manchin has expressed criticism of the proposal to continue the expanded child tax credit program through the Build Back Better Act.
The coronavirus relief package that Joe Biden signed in March included changes to the program, such as allowing families with children to receive monthly checks (rather than an annual lump sum after filing taxes) and making the credit fully refundable (so more low-income families could access the benefit).
Democrats want to continue the expanded program for one year through their $1.75tn spending package, but Manchin has reportedly expressed concern about the cost of doing so.
The main issue is that Manchin believes all the programs in the bill should be viewed on a 10-year basis, even though some of them expire after just a year or a few years.
And if the expanded child tax credit program were extended through the next decade, which the current version of the bill does not call for, it would require significantly more funding than the bill allocates.
But the expanded tax credit is a point of pride for Biden and other Democrats from the relief bill, so they will likely be very hesitant to cut it from the spending package. The negotiations continue, so stay tuned.
Centrist senators throw up roadblocks for Build Back Better and voting rights
Greetings from Washington, live blog readers.
Senate Democrats had initially hoped to pass their Build Back Better Act before the end of the year, but that deadline is slipping away, as talks between Joe Biden and Joe Manchin drag out.
Politico reports:
The legislation looks increasingly likely to stall over the impending holiday break, prompting Biden himself to bemoan the slow pace. And Manchin (D-W.Va.) grew frustrated on Wednesday when questioned about whether he opposes a provision in the bill to extend the expanded child tax credit, deeming those queries ‘bullshit’ and denying that he wants to end the $300 monthly check many families receive for children. ...
‘The talks between [Biden] and Manchin have been going very poorly. They are far apart,’ the source said.
Because of the stalled negotiations, Democrats were instead looking to pass a voting rights bill this month, by approving changes to Senate rules to circumvent a Republican filibuster on the issue.
But now Kyrsten Sinema is putting the brakes on that idea as well. Here is Politico again:
The Arizona moderate is making clear that she intends to keep protecting the Senate’s 60-vote requirement on most legislation and she isn’t ready to entertain changing rules to pass sweeping elections or voting legislation with a simple majority. ...
In a statement to POLITICO, a spokesperson said that Sinema ‘continues to support the Senate’s 60-vote threshold, to protect the country from repeated radical reversals in federal policy which would cement uncertainty, deepen divisions, and further erode Americans’ confidence in our government.’
This centrist opposition means that Biden’s hopes of ending his first year in office with a significant legislative accomplishment are quickly disappearing, along with Democrats’ agenda.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
