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      Experts divided over Covid booster shots days ahead of US rollout

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      Biden administrationExperts divided over Covid booster shots days ahead of US rolloutHealth officials scramble to prepare for rollout despite a void of critical details amid chaos Alexandra VillarrealThu 16 Sep 2021 13.15 EDTLast modified on Thu 16 Sep 2021 13.29 EDTMere days ahead of the Biden administration’s self-imposed deadline to begin Covid-19 booster shots, experts remain deeply divided over the benefits of a third jab, while health officials are scrambling to prepare for the rollout despite a void of critical details.The vast majority of vaccinated adults in the United States want a booster, some so urgently that they are already fudging their vaccination records to get one.So – despite controversy and confusion about whether the additional shots are even necessary amid a global shortage – the White House is under immense political pressure to follow through with starting boosters next week.“Weeks ago, the administration decided that the public needs cake and deserves cake, and so shall have cake,” John P Moore, a virologist at Weill Cornell Medicine, told the New York Times. “Now, the public expects cake and would be very annoyed if its cake was taken away at this point.”Last month, the US’s top health officials announced a plan to officially greenlight boosters starting the week of 20 September, pending endorsement by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).Back then, they said Americans would qualify for a third dose of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine eight months after their second – a timeline that could make millions eligible next week.But Moderna didn’t provide adequate data on boosters, leaving only the Pfizer vaccine as a possibility in time for this month’s deadline. On Friday, an FDA advisory committee will consider Pfizer’s application concerning third doses for patients 16 and older.An advisory committee for the CDC – which usually dictates vaccination policy – is teed up for a meeting next week.Third doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are already available to those with compromised immune systems. But the plan for such an expansive booster rollout followed alarming reports of waning vaccine efficacy in Israel, where an urgent campaign to vaccinate quickly has made the country a data source for other parts of the world.It also coincided with yet another major uptick in US infections, driven by the highly infectious Delta variant. Those cases are currently on a downward trend.Joe Biden has described boosters as if they are a no-brainer and plans to get his own once they are widely available, according to Reuters.“As a simple rule – rule: eight months after your second shot, get a booster shot,” Biden said. “It will make you safer and for longer. And it will help us end the pandemic faster.”But some experts were upset by the administration’s perceived meddling in important health decisions, Politico reported.Earlier this week, two of the FDA’s top vaccine regulators – who are reportedly departing the agency at least in part because of opposition to the booster policy – joined an international group of experts in challenging the general population’s current need for additional protection.The vaccines remain highly effective against severe disease, they wrote in the Lancet, while boosters could pose risks if “widely introduced too soon, or too frequently”. “Current vaccine supplies could save more lives if used in previously unvaccinated populations than if used as boosters in vaccinated populations,” they wrote.As experts debate, state and local health officials are trying to get ready to possibly administer boosters next week. But amid the chaos, they are being left in the dark.“What is the interval for boosters? Is it any shorter than eight months at this point? What is the age cut-off? Will there be priority groupings?” Lori Tremmel Freeman, chief executive officer of the National Association of County and City Health Officials, told CNN.“We don’t want to appear uncoordinated on boosters.”TopicsBiden administrationCoronavirusUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Covid kills a 9/11’s worth of Americans every three days. The vaccine mandate shouldn’t be controversial | Jill Filipovic

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      OpinionCoronavirusCovid kills a 9/11’s worth of Americans every three days. The vaccine mandate shouldn’t be controversialJill FilipovicTrue leadership means making the right decision even when it’s unpopular. Biden’s vaccine rule will save lives and get the economy on track Wed 15 Sep 2021 06.15 EDTLast modified on Wed 15 Sep 2021 11.15 EDTThe Biden administration’s decision to require vaccinations for large segments of the workforce has been predictably controversial among Trump loyalists, vaccine deniers and rightwing media.It’s also the strongest moment of Joe Biden’s presidency.Leadership and strength are defined by moments like this one: a leader doing the right and necessary thing even when they know they will face criticism and possibly political consequences. Too many politicians follow rather than lead; they listen to the loudest voices and cow to the most aggressive bullies. This is today’s Republican party, with its many officeholders who have spent the years since November 2016 demonstrating that there is no bottom to the humiliations they are willing to endure and the compromises they are willing to make if it means they will keep their seats, prostrating themselves before the altar of Trumpism.Biden, like every politician, no doubt fears losing power. But he’s shown here that he has the integrity to put American lives and the stability of the nation ahead of his own professional ambitions. By one estimate, the Biden vaccine mandate will mean 12 million more Americans get the jab. That’s 12 million more people who will then be extremely unlikely to be hospitalized or die of Covid-19. It’s 12 million more people who can help keep the US economy afloat, and who are helping to keep their communities safe.The new Biden vaccine rules also reflect this administration’s insistence on responding effectively to a complicated reality instead of reacting to those who yell the loudest. It is true that there is a subset of the US population – disproportionately white, Trump-voting evangelicals – who strongly object to the Covid vaccine and say they will refuse to get it, requirements be damned. But there’s also a group of people who simply haven’t gotten their act together, or haven’t felt incentivized to get inoculated. There’s a lot to say about these folks – that they’re selfishly putting their communities at risk, that they aren’t being good citizens – and each of us is certainly entitled to our own moral judgments.But the Biden administration isn’t in the business of finger-wagging; it’s in charge of making effective policy. And the vaccine rule is exactly that: it gives people an excellent reason to choose vaccination, and gives many (although not all) categories of workers the alternative of a weekly Covid test – an inconvenience, to be sure, but hardly an unfair imposition in the face of a pandemic that is killing a 9/11’s worth of Americans every three days. Significantly, the vaccine rule also mandates time off work for vaccination and recovery from any side-effects.Resurgent Covid numbers are dragging the US economy down, and Biden is looking at a dark winter if more Americans don’t vax up. March 2020 kicked off an unprecedented financial disaster, with scores of people (a huge number of them mothers) losing their jobs as bars and restaurants shuttered, travel ground to a halt, schools closed and sent young children home, and we collectively understood that there was a “before time” and we were now living in the after. We know now that lockdowns didn’t primarily cause this massive economic contraction; fear of Covid did. And we know that the economic growth we’ve seen since Biden took office is partly credited to his administration’s massive vaccine rollout coupled with much-needed financial assistance to most Americans, which got inoculations into arms and people back into the streets, on to airplanes, and into restaurants with money to spend.The vaccine rollout gave Americans the choice to get the jab and protect their communities and their country, or forego it out of political obstinacy. (Some people, of course, cannot get the vaccine for health reasons, but those people are a small minority and not the ones dragging down the US’s stagnated vaccination numbers.) Shamefully, a huge number of Americans have refused to do the right thing. Some rely on arguments about individual freedom, and don’t seem to connect their individual decision to a collective problem – viruses, after all, don’t respect declarations of bodily autonomy and “my body, my choice”.And those refusing vaccination are also putting our collective livelihoods and our country’s economic wellbeing at risk: as the Delta variant continues to rage, more Americans are staying home. That means they are no longer supporting local businesses as often. Some are making the difficult decision to quit or scale back their own work so they can keep their unvaccinated kids at home instead of risking sending them to schools unmasked and with unvaccinated adults. All of those seemingly individual decisions add up to a bigger and much more troubling whole.So the Biden administration decided to take bold and decisive action, even though officials surely knew there would be outcry. One has to imagine they’re gambling on a payoff – an economy that doesn’t crash, for example, or the quieter majority of Americans who support vaccination and really want to see the pandemic get under control – but they are taking a risk nonetheless. Doing the right thing isn’t exactly an act of valor, but in today’s political universe of reactionary rightwing cowards, it is laudable.Yet many mainstream media sources have focused on the objections and the potential political blowback instead of the necessity of this rule, and the leadership that implementing it exemplifies.That’s a choice, too. Cynical conservatives have realized they can turn even the most commonsense measures into convenient political footballs, sending political reporters and talking heads scrambling to analyze the political fallout of rational rules and good policy. That in turn only reinforces the power of these bad actors.We don’t have to fall for it. Many Americans would surely agree that we want leaders who follow the scientific consensus and make decisions based on what is best for public health and the country’s economic wellbeing, even when those decisions are hard. Most of us would surely agree that we want leaders who lead instead of spinelessly acquiescing to the whims of those who throw the biggest tantrums.Joe Biden is leading despite the very predictable conservative outbursts. He’s refusing to keep the nation held hostage to the least informed but most self-righteous among us.That’s leadership, even if the Fox News crowd doesn’t like it.
      Jill Filipovic is the author of OK Boomer, Let’s Talk: How My Generation Got Left Behind
      TopicsCoronavirusOpinionUS politicsInfectious diseasesJoe BidencommentReuse this content More

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      ‘Have at it’: Joe Biden dares vaccine mandate opponents to take him on

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      Joe Biden‘Have at it’: Joe Biden dares vaccine mandate opponents to take him onPartisan pushback comes as CDC releases study finding those who were not fully vaccinated recently were 11 times more likely to die of Covid Joan E Greve in Washington and Richard Luscombe in MiamiFri 10 Sep 2021 15.13 EDTFirst published on Fri 10 Sep 2021 14.08 EDTJoe Biden has dared political opponents plotting legal challenges to his large-scale workforce vaccine mandates to “have at it” – as one Republican governor promised to fight the White House “to the gates of hell” over the new coronavirus rules.A growing number of senior Republicans, including US senators, state governors and leading party officials, announced on Friday they would support or pursue legal avenues to try to block the president’s edict.Biden tells Republicans threatening to sue over vaccine mandate: ‘Have at it’ – live Read moreIn an address at the White House on Thursday, Biden said his new orders would affect 100 million workers and help “turn the tide of Covid-19” in the US.Among the most vocal was the South Carolina governor, Henry McMaster, who, in a tweet, painted the tussle over compulsory vaccination as a battle for personal freedoms.“Rest assured, we will fight them to the gates of hell to protect the liberty and livelihood of every South Carolinian,” he wrote.But on Friday, Biden did not appear to be flummoxed by the promised, largely partisan, resistance to his adminitration’s new workplace requirements.The new rules are part of his six-pronged strategy to tackle the Delta-variant fueled resurgence of the pandemic.“Have at it,” he said during a morning visit to a middle school in Washington on Friday, when a reporter asked for his response to Republicans threatening lawsuits.“We’re playing for real here, this isn’t a game. And I don’t know of any scientist out there in this field that doesn’t think it makes considerable sense to do the six things I’ve suggested,” the president said.Referring to Republicans such as Florida’s Ron DeSantis, currently embroiled in a lengthy legal fight over the right to ban mask mandates in schools, Biden added: “I am so disappointed that, particularly some Republican governors, have been so cavalier with the health of these kids, so cavalier with the health of their communities.”Republicans began seething over the new regulations almost as soon as the president finished delivering his remarks on Thursday afternoon, with some calling a vaccine mandate on private businesses with more than 100 workers “unconstitutional”.Others, such as Arizona’s Republican governor Doug Ducey, insisted it would not survive legal scrutiny.“This is exactly the kind of big government overreach we have tried so hard to prevent in Arizona – now the Biden-Harris administration is hammering down on private businesses and individual freedoms in an unprecedented and dangerous way,” Ducey said in a tweet.“This will never stand up in court,” he added. “The vaccine is and should be a choice. We must and will push back.”The partisan pushback came as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) put out studies on Friday one of which found that those who were not fully vaccinated in recent months were 11 times more likely to die of Covid-19 than the fully vaccinated. It was one of three major studies published by the federal agency that focus on the sustained high efficacy of the three Covid vaccines available in the US, against the highly infecious Delta variant.Meanwhile, Ronna McDaniel, the chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC), said the party’s executive intended to file a lawsuit as soon as the mandate was enacted.“Joe Biden told Americans when he was elected that he would not impose vaccine mandates. He lied,” she said in a statement.“Like many Americans, I am pro-vaccine and anti-mandate. Many small businesses and workers do not have the money or legal resources to fight Biden’s unconstitutional actions and authoritarian decrees, but when his decree goes into effect, the RNC will sue the administration to protect Americans and their liberties.”This is a reversal from Biden’s stance in July, when White House press secretary Jen Psaki said such mandates were “not the role of the federal government”.In Texas, US senator Ted Cruz, who refused to certify Biden’s election victory on the night of the 6 January Capitol insurrection, seized on a retweet by Ron Klain, the White House chief of staff, that he insisted was an acknowledgement that the administration knew its actions were illegal.The original message that Klain retweeted, by NBC journalist Stephanie Ruhle, referred to the emergency workplace safety rule by the occupational and safety and health administration (Osha) as “the ultimate work-around for the federal government to require vaccinations.”The use of the phrase “work-around”, and Klain’s subsequent retweet of it, is a damaging admission, in Cruz’s view, because courts are allowed to evaluate the intention and purpose of policies.“He said the quiet part out loud,” the senator tweeted. “Biden admin knows it’s likely illegal (like the eviction moratorium) but they don’t care.”In a subsequent post, Cruz said: “The feds have no authority to force employers make their employees get vaccinated.”Not all Republicans, however, are opposed to Biden’s move. Governor Phil Scott of Vermont retweeted the White House announcement of the new strategy and added: “I appreciate the president’s continued prioritization of vaccination and the country’s recovery as we move forward.“As Vermont’s experience shows, vaccines work and save lives. They are the best and fastest way to move past this pandemic.”Prominent health experts supported Biden.One, Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University’s school of public health, told the New York Times: “It’s going to fundamentally shift the arc of the current surge. It’s exactly what’s needed at this moment.”TopicsJoe BidenUS politicsCoronavirusVaccines and immunisationnewsReuse this content More

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      Biden says ‘we can and we will turn the tide on Covid-19’ in White House speech – live

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      Key events

      Show

      5.14pm EDT
      17:14

      Key points: Biden’s pandemic plan

      5.05pm EDT
      17:05

      Biden explains Covid-19 strategy

      5.00pm EDT
      17:00

      Today so far

      4.44pm EDT
      16:44

      DeSantis suffers legal defeat over anti-riot law

      3.23pm EDT
      15:23

      Biden administration sues Texas over six-week abortion ban

      3.03pm EDT
      15:03

      Charter flight from Kabul safely lands in Qatar, White House says

      2.27pm EDT
      14:27

      Federal workers will have 75 days to get fully vaccinated under Biden’s new policy

      Live feed

      Show

      5.36pm EDT
      17:36

      “We have the tools. Now we just have to finish the job,” Biden said in his concluding remarks.
      More details of his pandemic plan will be revealed in the coming weeks, he said. He ended his speech with a whisper: “Get vaccinated”.
      He did not take questions from the press.

      5.27pm EDT
      17:27

      The president said he will also enact measures to disincentivize those seeking to undermine vaccine and masking mandates.
      Implicitly referring to leaders like Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who threatened to withhold salaries from school board members and superintendents in districts with mask mandates, Biden said: “Talk about bullying in schools.”
      “Right now, local school officials are trying to keep children safe in a pandemic while their governor picks a fight with them and even threatens their salaries or their jobs,” he said.
      If teachers’ pay is withheld by states, the federal government will step in to pay it, he said. “I promise you, I will have your back.”
      The president also said that the TSA will double fines for passengers who refuse to wear masks. “And by the way, show some respect,” he said.

      5.18pm EDT
      17:18

      “My message to unvaccinated Americans is this: what more is there to wait for? What more do you need to see?” Biden said. “We’ve made vaccinations free, safe and convenient.”
      “We’ve been patient but our patience is wearing thin and your refusal has cost all of us,” he said.
      Here’s an overview of vaccination stats across the US:

      5.14pm EDT
      17:14

      Key points: Biden’s pandemic plan

      David Smith

      The Labor Department will require all employers with more than 100 employees to ensure their workers are vaccinated or tested weekly. Employers must also provide paid time off to allow workers to get vaccinated. This will affect more than 80 million workers in private sector businesses. Companies that do not comply could face fines of up to nearly $14,000 per violation.
      Workers in healthcare settings that receive Medicaid or Medicare reimbursement must be vaccinated, a move that applies to 50,000 providers and covers more than 17 million healthcare workers.
      All federal government workers, as well as employees of contractors that do business with the federal government, must get vaccinated, or regularly tested.

      Updated
      at 5.14pm EDT

      5.09pm EDT
      17:09

      “We are in a tough stretch and it could last for awhile,” Biden said, stressing that the Delta variant had complicated the US recovery.
      Stressing that vaccines protect people from hospitalizations and deaths from the Delta variant, he called the surge in cases a pandemic of the unvaccinated.
      A quarter of adults still haven’t gotten any vaccine shot, he said. “That 25% can cause a lot of damage, and they are,” he said. He implicitly called out the Republicans who are hindering a vaccination push – calling the behavior “unacceptable”.

      Updated
      at 5.50pm EDT

      5.05pm EDT
      17:05

      Biden explains Covid-19 strategy

      “We can and will turn the tide of Covid-19,” the president said.
      Speaking from the White House, Biden started by recapping progress made so far in getting Americans vaccinated.
      “We have the tools to combat the virus if we come together and use those tools,” he said, acknowledging frustrations with the 80m who are unvaccinated.

      5.00pm EDT
      17:00

      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:

      Joe Biden will soon lay out his new strategy to combat the spread of coronavirus. The White House has said the president will outline six steps to boost vaccinations and limit the spread of the Delta variant. Biden is expected to announce he is requiring coronavirus vaccinations for all federal workers, without the option to undergo regular testing instead of getting vaccinated.
      The justice department filed a lawsuit against Texas over its six-week abortion ban, a week after the supreme court declined to block the law’s implementation. “The act is clearly unconstitutional under longstanding supreme court precedent,” attorney general Merrick Garland said at a press conference this afternoon.
      Biden confirmed he will withdraw the nomination of David Chipman to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Chipman had attracted intense criticism from Republicans and a handful of Democrats for his advocacy work with the gun control group Giffords. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the White House is in “active discussions” with Chipman to find another role for him in the administration.
      Liz Cheney signaled she is ready for a fight following Donald Trump’s endorsement of one of her primary opponents, Harriet Hageman. After Trump mocked Cheney as the “number one provider of sound bites” for Democrats, the Republican congresswoman replied, “Here’s a sound bite for you: Bring it.” Cheney has repeatedly criticized Trump over his lies about fraud in the 2020 election, and she supported his impeachment for inciting the Capitol insurrection.
      A charter flight carrying US citizens out of Kabul has safely landed in Qatar, the White House said. The flight’s departure was facilitated by the US government, as the Biden administration continues its efforts to evacuate American citizens out of Afghanistan, even after the military formally ended its Kabul mission last week.

      Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

      4.44pm EDT
      16:44

      DeSantis suffers legal defeat over anti-riot law

      Richard Luscombe

      It’s been another busy day in court for Florida’s litigious Republican governor Ron DeSantis, who followed up yesterday’s rebuff by a federal judge over his ban on mask mandates in schools with another defeat on Thursday – this time over his flagship anti-riot law.
      US district court judge Mark Walker, in a 90-page ruling, determined that the state’s HB 1, which DeSantis signed into law in April, is unconstitutional. Touted by the governor as a means of enhancing public safety and clamping down on mob violence in the wake of protests nationwide in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, the law created, among other provisions, a new crime of “mob intimidation” and protected motorists who hit protestors during a riot.
      Walker, however, was not impressed with the language contained in the law. “[Its] new definition of ‘riot’ both fails to put Floridians of ordinary intelligence on notice of what acts it criminalizes, and encourages arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement, making this provision vague to the point of unconstitutionality,” he wrote.
      His temporary injunction effectively prohibits enforcement of the law while legal challenges to it make their way through the courts.
      If DeSantis’s recent actions are anything to go by, it won’t be long before the issue is back in the courtroom. On Thursday, DeSantis filed an emergency appeal to reverse Wednesday’s mask mandate ruling, asserting a “high likelihood” of winning the case on appeal, and claiming that the court of district judge John Cooper “abused its discretion” by lifting a stay the governor had previously won that halted Cooper’s earlier order freeing school districts to require masks.
      A decision is likely within the next few days.

      4.27pm EDT
      16:27

      Kamala Harris sharply criticized the Texas abortion law this afternoon, as the vice-president met with reproductive health providers and patients to discuss abortion rights.
      Harris noted many US states beyond Texas have enacted restrictive laws that have made it extremely difficult to access abortion services, underscoring the need for a robust response to such policies.

      Tim Perry
      (@tperry518)
      NEW: @VP Kamala Harris makes first on camera comments about the DOJ lawsuit filed against the state of Texas following TX Senate Bill 8. Harris says the DOJ understands that the TX law is “patently unconstitutional” pic.twitter.com/LUJrAxibQp

      September 9, 2021

      “The United States department of justice has spoken loudly in saying that this law is patently unconstitutional,” Harris said of the new federal lawsuit against Texas.
      Asked what other steps the Biden administration can take to protect abortion rights, the vice-president said, “We need to codify Roe v Wade.”

      4.10pm EDT
      16:10

      The abortion rights group NARAL praised the Biden administration for filing a lawsuit against Texas over its six-week abortion ban.
      “We are pleased to see the Biden administration taking action to fight for Texans’ reproductive freedom by filing a lawsuit to block SB 8—the harshest and most extreme ban on abortion in the country,” NARAL acting president Adrienne Kimmell said in a statement.
      “Let’s be clear: Texas is the tip of the iceberg. This lawsuit sends a strong message to anti-choice lawmakers across the country who are racing to enact copycat versions of SB 8 in their own states. The threat to the future of safe, legal abortion is looming larger than ever, and safeguarding reproductive freedom requires bold and immediate action.”

      3.54pm EDT
      15:54

      Merrick Garland noted the justice department is seeking a preliminary injunction to prevent enforcement of the Texas abortion law, out of concern for private citizens acting as “bounty hunters” to ensure the statute is respected.
      “The department of justice has a duty to defend the Constitution of the United States and to uphold the rule of law,” the attorney general said at his press conference.
      “Today, we fulfill that duty by filing the lawsuit I have just described.”

      3.41pm EDT
      15:41

      A reporter asked Merrick Garland whether he expected the justice department to file additional lawsuits against states threatening to pass laws similar to Texas’ six-week abortion ban.
      “The additional and further risk here is that other states will follow similar models with respect not only to this constitutional right but theoretically against any constitutional right,” the attorney general said.
      “So if another state uses the same kind of provisions to deprive its citizens of their constitutional rights, and in particular to deprive their citizens of the ability to seek immediate review, we will bring the same kind of lawsuit.”

      3.23pm EDT
      15:23

      Biden administration sues Texas over six-week abortion ban

      The Biden administration is suing Texas over its six-week abortion ban, which went into effect last week after the supreme court declined to block the law’s implementation.

      CBS News
      (@CBSNews)
      Garland says Texas’ abortion ban is “clearly unconstitutional” and the state doesn’t dispute that. He says the ban creates “bounty hunters” who can file lawsuits “to prevent women from exercising their constitutional rights by thwarting judicial review for as long as possible” pic.twitter.com/jPwMJHFf02

      September 9, 2021

      Attorney general Merrick Garland confirmed the news at a press conference this afternoon.
      “The act is clearly unconstitutional under longstanding supreme court precedent,” Garland said.
      The attorney general warned that the law “deputizes all private citizens, without any showing of personal connection or injury, to serve as bounty hunters” to ensure the law is respected.
      “The obvious and expressly acknowledged intention of this statutory scheme is to prevent women from exercising their constitutional rights by thwarting judicial review for as long as possible,” Garland said.

      Joe Biden had previously promised that he would pursue a “whole-of-government effort” to respond to the supreme court’s decision, specifically looking at what tools the justice department may have to push back against the Texas law.

      Updated
      at 5.04pm EDT

      3.03pm EDT
      15:03

      Charter flight from Kabul safely lands in Qatar, White House says

      A charter flight carrying American citizens out of Kabul has now safely landed in Qatar, the White House said in a new statement.
      The flight’s departure was facilitated by the US government, as the Biden administration continues its efforts to evacuate American citizens out of Afghanistan, even after the military formally ended its Kabul mission last week.
      “The Taliban have been cooperative in facilitating the departure of American citizens and lawful permanent residents on charter flights from HKIA,” Emily Horne, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, said in the statement.
      “We will continue these efforts to facilitate the safe and orderly travel of American citizens, lawful permanent residents, and Afghans who worked for us and wish to leave Afghanistan.”
      It’s unclear how many US citizens were on the charter flight and how many Americans remain in Afghanistan. Ron Klain, the White House chief of staff, said on Sunday that there were roughly 100 Americans still in Afghanistan.

      2.45pm EDT
      14:45

      Jen Psaki hinted that Joe Biden will be pursuing actions to put pressure on major employers to set coronavirus vaccine requirements for their workers.
      A reporter asked the White House press secretary at her briefing, “Can the Department of Labor or anybody else compel major employers, large employers, to force the vaccine mandates on their employees?”
      Psaki replied, “Yes. Stay tuned. More to come this afternoon.”

      CBS News
      (@CBSNews)
      Reporter: “Can the Department of Labor or anybody else compel major employers, large employers, to force the vaccine mandates on their employees?”Jen Psaki: “Yes. Stay tuned. More to come this afternoon.” https://t.co/yRbPtR0ZVi pic.twitter.com/HsNZGEDUWb

      September 9, 2021

      The president is scheduled to deliver a speech on his new strategy to boost coronavirus vaccinations and limit the spread of the Delta variant in about two hours.
      Biden is expected to sign an executive order requiring coronavirus vaccinations for all federal workers, without a testing alternative to opt out of the mandate.
      Some major private-sector employers, including McDonald’s, Google and United Airlines, have already established vaccine mandates for their workers.

      2.27pm EDT
      14:27

      Federal workers will have 75 days to get fully vaccinated under Biden’s new policy

      Jen Psaki offered some details on Joe Biden’s speech this afternoon, in which he will outline his new strategy to boost coronavirus vaccinations and limit the spread of the Delta variant.
      The White House press secretary said federal workers will have 75 days to get fully vaccinated under an executive order that Biden will sign later today.

      Bloomberg Quicktake
      (@Quicktake)
      Federal employees will have about 75 days to get fully vaccinated under the executive order Biden will sign Thursday, Psaki says https://t.co/jYfQW3U8gY pic.twitter.com/jNVpgN4qng

      September 9, 2021

      Psaki noted the vaccine order will include “limited exceptions for legally recognized reasons,” such as religious objections and disabilities that prevent vaccinations.
      Biden announced in July that federal workers would be required to get vaccinated or undergo regular coronavirus testing, but the newest order will not include a testing option.
      Psaki confirmed that federal workers who do not comply with the vaccination mandate will go through the “standard HR process,” which could include facing “progressive disciplinary action”. She later added that employees could potentially be terminated if they do not get vaccinated.

      2.08pm EDT
      14:08

      One reporter asked Jen Psaki whether Joe Biden intends to name another nominee to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, now that David Chipman’s nomination has been withdrawn.
      “We certainly would at an appropriate time,” the White House press secretary said. “I don’t have a timeline on that at this point in time.”
      As Psaki previously noted, there has only ever been one Senate-confirmed ATF director in the history of the bureau, so it will likely be extremely difficult to get any nominee confirmed. More