Full approval for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
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The F.D.A. urged people to stop trying to treat Covid with a drug used in livestock.
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After months of struggling to get enough doses, Taiwan started using a homegrown vaccine on Monday.
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Britain is starting an antibody surveillance program.
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Get the latest updates here, as well as maps and a vaccine tracker.
Full approval for Pfizer’s shot
On Monday morning, the F.D.A. granted full approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for people 16 and up.
It is the first vaccine to move beyond emergency-use status in the U.S., and officials hope it will persuade some of the 85 million unvaccinated Americans who are eligible for shots but have not received them.
Data from 44,000 clinical trial participants in the United States, the European Union, Turkey, South Africa and South America showed the vaccine was 91 percent effective in preventing infection. So far, more than 92 million Americans — 54 percent of those fully inoculated — have gotten Pfizer shots; most of the rest received Moderna’s vaccine.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will continue to be authorized for emergency use for children ages 12 to 15 while Pfizer collects the data required for full approval. Authorizing the vaccine for children younger than 12 could be at least several months away.
The decision is expected to accelerate the pace of vaccine mandates from government agencies, universities, corporations and other organizations.
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The Pentagon said on Monday that it would require all active-duty military personnel to receive a Covid-19 vaccine. There are over a million active-duty service members; 64 percent are fully vaccinated.
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New York City announced that it would require all 148,000 Department of Education employees to have at least one vaccine dose by Sept. 27.
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New Jersey announced an even broader education vaccine rule, covering employees of private and charter schools.
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United Airlines recently announced that its employees must show proof of vaccination within five weeks of regulatory approval.
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Chevron became the first major American oil producer to require vaccines for its field workers.
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CVS said that its pharmacists must be fully vaccinated by Nov. 30.
President Biden, who has required all federal employees and on-site contractors to be immunized or submit to regular testing, urged corporate, state and local leaders to follow his lead. “Do what I did last month. Require your employees to get vaccinated or face strict requirements,” he said in a national address.
Some experts also hope that the approval may convince people who are on the fence. A recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that three of every 10 unvaccinated people said that they would be more likely to get a shot that had been fully approved.
Dr. Thomas Dobbs, the chief health officer for Mississippi, said the F.D.A. move would help “shake loose this false assertion that the vaccines are an ‘experimental’ thing.”
Others were less optimistic. “I think that is a vanishingly small number of people in real life,” said Alison Buttenheim, an associate professor of nursing at the University of Pennsylvania and expert on vaccine hesitancy.
More important, she said, would be the effect of requirements: “Mandates simplify things for people.”
Fewer nurses, fewer beds
As the Delta variant pushes cases skyward, hospitals are filling up: About one in four I.C.U.s across the country has at least 95 percent of beds occupied, according to a Times analysis.
“It’s like a war zone. We are just barraged with patients and have nowhere to put them,” said Cyndy O’Brien, an emergency room nurse and patient care coordinator at Singing River, a small health system on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi.
She arrived for work one day to find people sprawled out in their cars gasping for air as three ambulances with gravely ill patients idled in the parking lot.
The problem is not just physical capacity. More than a year into the pandemic, hospitals are facing a critical nursing shortage, with potentially fatal consequences. Nearly 30 percent of Singing River’s 500 beds are empty because of 169 unfilled nursing positions.
Mississippi, which has the most new cases per capita in the U.S., has 2,000 fewer registered nurses than it did at the beginning of the year, according to the state’s hospital association.
Across the country, more than 1,200 nurses died from the virus during the pandemic. Now, the United States is enduring a fourth wave of infections, many nurses are angry, depleted and traumatized.
Thousands have taken early retirement, left the profession or opted for less stressful nursing jobs at schools, summer camps and private doctor’s offices.
“We’re exhausted, both physically and emotionally,” O’Brien said, choking back tears.
What else we’re following
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Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas said he tested negative but would continue to quarantine.
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The Rev. Jesse Jackson and his wife, Jacqueline, have been hospitalized with Covid-19.
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Some frustrated employees cannot wait to return to the office.
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Rice University reported high rates of false positive coronavirus tests, which had prompted a shift to online-only classes.
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Some college students who have disabilities or are immunocompromised are fighting to keep online classes.
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Delays continue to snarl global trade and disrupt supply chains. Just look at this adult tricycle company.
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From Opinion: “I don’t like being told what I have to do,” said a 53-year-old man in an Arkansas hospital. He’s one of the Americans who have died in the name of vaccine freedom.
What you’re doing
Last year, my son was safely tucked in at home learning online. This year he’ll be in the classroom five days a week, even though cases are rising in our community. He’s vaccinated and good about wearing the mask, but still we worry. And we’re angry that schools aren’t doing more to keep kids safe. Our strategy is to get through it and have as much fun as possible outside of school. It’s going to be stressful. — Chrissy Gilbert, 50, Columbus, Ohio
On Friday, for the next edition of “Our Changing Lives,” we plan to focus on the school year. We’d love to hear from you. We may feature your response in an upcoming newsletter.
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Coronavirus Briefing: What Happened Today - The New York Times
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