“Johnson & Johnson asked the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday to allow extra shots of its COVID-19 vaccine as the US government moves toward expanding its booster campaign to millions more vaccinated Americans.
J&J said it filed a request with the FDA to authorize boosters for people who previously received the company's one-shot vaccine. While the company said it submitted data on several different booster intervals, ranging from two to six months, it did not formally recommend one to regulators.” Read more at Boston Globe“The Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine continues to be 90 percent effective in protecting against hospitalization and death from covid-19 up to six months after the second dose, even in the face of the widespread delta variant, a major study has found.
The study was based on research from Pfizer and the Kaiser Permanente Southern California health system and analyzed more than 3.4 million people who were members between December 2020 and August 2021. The findings, published in the Lancet medical journal on Monday, had been released in August but were not peer-reviewed until this week.
The study also showed that the vaccine’s effectiveness at preventing a coronavirus infection dropped over time, from 88 percent to 47 percent six months after the second dose. This is ‘probably primarily due to waning immunity with time rather than the delta variant escaping vaccine protection,’ the study found.
The Pfizer vaccine remains one of the most widely used in the United States and elsewhere. The Food and Drug Administration granted the vaccine full authorization in August, and in September authorized its use for booster shots for Americans age 65 and older and those at high risk of severe illness.
A separate study last month found that a lower dose of the Pfizer vaccine — one-third the amount given to adults and teens — is safe and triggered a robust immune response in children as young as 5 years old, the drug company said. The finding, eagerly anticipated by many parents and pediatricians, is a crucial step toward the two-shot coronavirus vaccine regimen becoming available for younger school-age children.” Read more at Washington Post
“Vaccination rates in the US have improved only modestly since the FDA gave full approval to Pfizer’s vaccine in August, despite hopes that it would counter widespread vaccine hesitancy. From August 23 to September 3, the seven-day average of new Pfizer doses increased by 16%, from 575,000 per day to 668,000 per day. Yet, only 15% of newly vaccinated people during that time said full approval was a major reason they got the shot. Meanwhile, Europe’s drug regulator, the European Medicines Agency, has decided to recommend Covid-19 vaccine booster shots for the immunocompromised. In India, the country’s top court has approved a government plan to pay $670 for every coronavirus death in the country, given as compensation to their next of kin. That comes out to more than $300 million.” Read more at CNN
“As a New York City vaccine mandate for school workers went into effect yesterday, 99 percent of principals and 96 percent of teachers had gotten at least one dose.” Read more at New York Times
“Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen is scheduled to testify Tuesday morning at a Senate Commerce consumer protection panel . Haugen leaked documents to The Wall Street Journal and to lawmakers that she says showed Facebook lied to the public about its efforts to root out hate speech, misinformation and violence. Haugen, 37, was employed at Facebook for nearly two years. She worked on the civic integrity team as a product manager to combat election interference and misinformation. According to her written testimony, Haugen will compare Facebook to tobacco companies. ‘When we realized tobacco companies were hiding the harms it caused, the government took action,’ Haugen’s testimony says. ‘I implore you to do the same here.’” Read more at USA Today
“Imagine a world without Facebook.
For about six hours yesterday, that became a reality for the 2.75 billion people who rely on the social media giant to communicate, do business and consume news.
The outage, which Facebook blamed on a network configuration problem, was a boon to rivals of its instant messenger service WhatsApp, such as Signal and Telegram. Its photo-sharing app, Instagram, went dark too.
Today a former employee turned whistle-blower, Frances Haugen, is expected to testify in the Senate. As David McLaughlin and Anna Edgerton report, she’ll reveal internal Facebook research showing its products can be used to undermine democracy — like the misinformation that fueled the Jan. 6 Capitol riots in Washington and vaccine skepticism — and damage the mental health of young users.
Facebook shares already dropped 4.9% yesterday after Haugen appeared on CBS’s “60 Minutes” program, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s personal wealth taking a $6 billion hit.
Some U.S. lawmakers are calling for Facebook to be broken up. Others want limits on its ability to track users, especially kids, to expose them to more tailored, sometimes harmful content.
Yet U.S. regulators have been behind the curve from the outset. The same Federal Trade Commission that’s suing Facebook for allegedly buying companies such as Instagram and WhatsApp to absorb them originally approved both deals.
Globally, big tech is in the firing line, from crackdowns in China and South Korea to the European Union regulators’ $5 billion fine on Google, accusing it of uncompetitive behavior. Even ride-hailing and e-commerce companies are being targeted.
The flipside is that some governments are already using regulatory pretexts to compel social-media platforms to censor opposition groups and opinions critical of them.
For all its troubles, Facebook isn’t going away anytime soon. The company, worth almost $1 trillion, remains a money-making juggernaut.” — Karl Maier Read more at Bloomberg
“Crews along Southern California's coast deployed skimmers and attempted to corral oil-slicked ocean waters in booms Monday following an enormous oil spill that threatened to close beaches for months. Officials are looking into whether a ship's anchor may have struck a pipeline on the ocean floor, causing the leak of crude, authorities said Monday. The head of the company that operates the pipeline, Amplify Energy CEO Martyn Willsher, said he expected there would be a clearer picture of what caused the damage by Tuesday. California Gov. Gavin Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency in Orange County, directing state agencies ‘to undertake immediate and aggressive action to clean up and mitigate the effects’ of the spill. A state spokesman told USA TODAY that numerous government probes of the company's actions and of the spill have begun.” Read more at USA Today
“Half of the Nobel Prize in physics was awarded on Tuesday to Syukuro Manabe of the United States and Klaus Hasselmann of Germany for laying the foundation of our knowledge of the Earth’s climate and how humanity influences it, including predicting global warming.
Giorgio Parisi, a theoretical physicist at the Sapienza University of Rome, won the other half of the prize for describing fluctuating physical systems and disorder on scales from atoms to planets.” Read more at Washington Post
President Biden discussed the need to raise the debt ceiling yesterday.Doug Mills/The New York Times
“Tick, tick, tick
The uncertainty over the federal debt ceiling is starting to get serious.
The U.S. government will run out of its ability to borrow money sometime this month, the Treasury Department has said. Economically, that does not need to be a problem, because investors remain enthusiastic about lending money to Washington. Doing so has been among the world’s safest investments.
Politically, however, the debt-ceiling deadline presents a problem. Over the next few weeks, Congress will need to pass legislation to increase borrowing, and nobody in Washington seems to know how that will happen. The uncertainty has the potential to roil financial markets and ultimately increase Washington’s borrowing costs, as happened during a debt-ceiling fight in 2011.
Today, we will explain the three most obvious ways the current standoff could end, as well as the obstacles to each.
1. The bipartisan solution
The debt ceiling is a strange creation. In many other countries, the legislature effectively approves government borrowing when it passes a spending bill or a tax cut, and many economists consider that policy to be wise. It’s akin to the way a household budget works: You decide whether you can afford a car before you buy it — rather than buying it and later debating whether to pay off the auto loan.
Today’s federal debt stems from a mix of Democratic and Republican policies, including Donald Trump’s tax cut and President Biden’s first Covid-19 rescue bill. And for much of American history, the solution would have been straightforward: After some grandstanding from both parties, Congress would have raised the debt ceiling along bipartisan lines.
But congressional Republicans have become more aggressive about using the debt ceiling as a political tool in recent decades. This time, Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate leader, has taken that aggressiveness to a new level.
McConnell has said that he agrees the debt ceiling needs to rise. But he has also said Republicans won’t vote for it because they oppose Biden’s agenda and because Democrats control Washington. Senate Republicans have gone even further than withholding their votes: Last week, they filibustered a Democratic bill to raise the ceiling. There is little Senate precedent for a filibuster on the debt ceiling.
Speaking at the White House yesterday, Biden reiterated that Democrats were willing to raise the debt ceiling on their own and described the Republicans’ filibuster as ‘hypocritical, dangerous and disgraceful.’
Many Democrats continue to predict that Republicans will cooperate in the end, given the huge economic consequences that a government debt default would have. Yet that prediction seems based more on hope than evidence.
McConnell seems to believe that voters will punish Democrats for economic chaos, given that they hold the White House and control Congress. It’s a reminder of why many Republicans consider McConnell to be a ruthlessly effective leader — and also why one biography of him is titled, ‘The Cynic.’
Senator Mitch McConnell.T.J. Kirkpatrick for The New York Times
2. Scrap the filibuster
The filibuster — which effectively requires 60 out of 100 Senate votes to pass a bill — is merely a Senate tradition, not a law. A majority of senators can end it at any time, as they already have for judicial nominations.
One option for Democrats is to declare the debt ceiling, and by extension the American economy, too important to be subject to a filibuster. They could then quickly pass a bill to lift the ceiling — and also change the law to eliminate future debt-ceiling showdowns. Virtually every other country takes a version of this approach.
Scrapping the filibuster for the debt ceiling would be a way for Democrats to answer McConnell’s toughness with a similar toughness. But Senator Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Democrat, indicated yesterday that he was opposed: ‘We have other tools that we can use,’ Manchin said.
3. Use reconciliation
Manchin seemed to be alluding to an existing exception to the filibuster known as reconciliation. Under reconciliation, a simple majority of senators can pass a very small number of budget bills each year.
Democrats are planning to use that process to pass the centerpiece of Biden’s agenda, a bill that would expand pre-K, community college, Medicare, the child-tax credit, clean-energy programs and more. The party could also lift the debt ceiling through reconciliation, although that would come with downsides. The process is sufficiently complex that it would probably take a couple of weeks and distract Democrats from their negotiations over Biden’s agenda — another reason that McConnell is taking a hard line.
Adding to the urgency of the issue, the Treasury Department has said that the government is likely to breach the debt ceiling less than two weeks from now, on Oct. 18. Some analysts think the Treasury may be able to take some technocratic measures to push back that deadline by several days or more.
Legally, the government has options beyond these three — like minting a trillion-dollar coin — but they seem highly unlikely.
What now?
There is genuine uncertainty about what happens next. Congressional Republicans have a history of using the debt ceiling for political advantage, even when it damages the economy. Senate Democrats seem unlikely to change the filibuster. Democrats also seem reluctant to use reconciliation, with Biden yesterday saying that it was ‘fraught with all kinds of potential danger for a miscalculation.’
One possibility is that investors will get nervous in the coming days, causing declines in stock or bond prices. If that happens, it could change the politics of the situation and make Republicans more open to cooperation.
For now, the most likely scenario seems to be that Democrats will resort to reconciliation to lift the debt ceiling without Republicans’ help — but not do anything to prevent future debt-ceiling fights.” Read for New York Times
“The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has released an exposé of the financial secrets and offshore dealings of dozens of heads of state, public officials and politicians from 91 countries and territories. Hundreds of journalists spent two years investigating the nearly 12 million confidential files, now known as the Pandora Papers. In all, they reveal a parallel financial universe where great wealth is kept beyond the reach of taxes, creditors and accountability. The ICIJ pointed out that many who could end offshore practices actually benefit from it. Washington Post reporter Greg Miller says that these accounts often aren’t illegal, because they abide by the local jurisdictions where this offshore wealth is kept. But it’s a practice that’s highly exploitative and contributes to wealth inequality. Such practices, Miller says, also frequently go hand and hand with corruption and criminal activity.” Read more at CNN
“A single ticket sold in California matched all six numbers drawn Monday and was the lucky winner of a Powerball jackpot of nearly $700 million, officials said.” Read more at USA Today
“Facebook down: Monday’s outage of Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp marooned billions of users who rely on the social media giant and its apps.” Read more at USA Today
“President Joe Biden will travel to Howell, Michigan, on Tuesday to promote his $3.5 trillion budget bill and $1 trillion infrastructure package. The town is in the district of Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., a moderate House Democrat who has said she will ‘very seriously’ examine a final reconciliation package. Though a majority of Democratic lawmakers and the president support both bills, the party's razor-thin majorities in both chambers of Congress mean that any small group of lawmakers could jeopardize the passage of a bill. Later this week, Biden will host lawmakers from different factions of the party for talks over the spending bills, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement Saturday. “ Read more at USA Today
“Energy prices are climbing around the world amid extreme weather, rising demand and supply constraints.
China and India have electricity crises, a dozen power companies in the U.K. have gone belly-up, and Brits all over the country are facing massive gas lines, Axios business editor Kate Marino writes.
Key stat: Prices for both oil and natural gas have roughly doubled over the last year, and gasoline at U.S. pumps is up by about 50% on average.
The big picture: Higher energy costs slow economic recovery. Every dollar that goes to electric and heating bills is a dollar that isn't spent on holiday shopping or going out to eat.
Prices may go up further this winter. Bank of America analysts estimate Brent crude oil could hit $100 per barrel — a price not seen since 2014.
Share this story.” Read more at Axios
“Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate whether personal financial investments by senior Federal Reserve officials, including Vice Chairman Richard Clarida, violated insider-trading rules.
In a letter to SEC Chairman Gary Gensler on Monday, Ms. Warren said the agency should determine the legality of ‘ethically questionable transactions’ by three Fed officials. Two of those officials, Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren and Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan,resigned from their positions last week after disclosure forms released in early September and first reported by The Wall Street Journal showed both men traded extensively in individual stocks last year.
The third official, Mr. Clarida, moved between $1 million and $5 million out of one mutual fund and into two other funds on Feb. 27, 2020, which was the day before Fed Chairman Jerome Powell issued a statement signaling a potential interest-rate cut due to concerns over the budding pandemic.
The SEC declined to comment. The Fed said in a statement Monday it began discussions last week with its inspector general’s office to conduct an independent review of ‘whether trading activity by certain senior officials was in compliance with both the relevant ethics rules and the law. We welcome this review and will accept and take appropriate actions based on its findings.’” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Members of the Catholic clergy in France sexually abused more than 200,000 minors over the last seven decades, according to a landmark report set to be published today. The numbers are based on estimates from a survey for the commission, led by the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research. When including victims of abusers who were not clergy but had other links to the Church, such as Catholic schools and youth programs, the number of possible abuse victims rises to 330,000. In presenting the findings, Jean-Marc Sauvé, the president of the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church, said children were more likely to be abused within Catholic Church settings than in state-run schools, summer camps or in any setting other than the family. The investigation was commissioned in 2018 by French Catholic clergy groups, and many church leaders hope the findings, as horrific as they are, will lead to real change within the church.” Read more at CNN
“China has sent a record number of warplanes into Taiwan’s defense zone over the last few days. While they haven’t breached what Taiwan considers its sovereign airspace, and no suggestion has been made of actual combat, it’s still a provocative show of force by Beijing. Experts say the practice has a few goals: Intimidate Taiwan, wear out their military resources, and gain experience in the area. This has happened before, usually after Taiwan or one of its allies does something to upset China. The past week's incursions came as the US, Japan, the UK, New Zealand and the Netherlands conducted multilateral naval exercises near Japan. However, they could also have been planned to coincide with the anniversary of China's founding on October 1.” Read more at CNN
“Todd Akin, a six-term Republican representative from Missouri who gave up a safe House seat to run for the Senate in 2012, only to see his campaign collapse in a hail of recriminations after a remark about ‘legitimate rape,’ died on Sunday at his home in Wildwood, Mo., a St. Louis suburb. He was 74.
His death, after years of cancer treatment, was confirmed in a statement by his son Perry.
Mr. Akin, an opponent of abortion whose political rise was fueled by evangelicals, provoked ire across the political spectrum after he claimed in a television interview in August 2012 that women’s bodies could somehow reject pregnancies in instances of what he called ‘legitimate rape.’
‘The female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down,’ Mr. Akin said when asked about his stance on abortion in cases in which a woman had been sexually assaulted. ‘But let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work or something,’ he added. ‘I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be of the rapist, and not attacking the child.’
Mr. Akin’s comments infuriated Democrats and women’s rights groups. Leading experts on reproductive health dismissed his logic.” Read more at New York Times
“Lives Lived: The conservative political theorist Angelo Codevilla predicted the populist revolt against the Republican establishment that coalesced behind Trump. He died at 78.” Read more at New York Times
“NIH Director Francis Collins, 71, will announce his resignation today after three decades at the agency, including 12 years at the helm, the geneticist confirmed to The Washington Post.” Read more at Axios
The San Francisco Giants celebrated after winning their division on Sunday.Brandon Vallance/Getty Images
“A baseball playoffs primer
The M.L.B. playoffs begin tonight with the Yankees and the Red Sox, the sport’s biggest rivals, meeting for an elimination game in Boston. Whoever wins will be an underdog in the next round against the low-budget Tampa Bay Rays. Here’s our playoff guide:
The favorites: Oddsmakers like the Los Angeles Dodgers, the defending champions and practically an all-star team. But they have a long path to the World Series, as they first need to win a one-game playoff tomorrow against the red-hot St. Louis Cardinals.
The interlopers: The Dodgers must play tomorrow because their biggest rivals, the San Francisco Giants, stunningly won 107 regular-season games, one more than the Dodgers. Almost no one expected much from the Giants, a team built around veterans known as ‘the old guys.’
The villains: The Houston Astros have become baseball’s antiheroes, because of a scandal in which they banged on a garbage can to tip off batters about what pitch to expect. Yet the Astros are hitting almost as well now as when they were cheating. Statistical analysis has found that the garbage can wasn’t much help.
The Midwesterners. Two less glamorous contenders — at least on the coasts — are the Milwaukee Brewers (whose pitchers led the majors in strikeouts) and the Chicago White Sox (a young team led by a 77-year-old manager, Tony La Russa).
For more, The Times has Wild Card previews: Yankees-Red Sox history, and the St. Louis legend now on the Dodgers.” Read more at New York Times
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