CDC advisers endorse booster shots that target omicron for Americans 12 and up
The United States should replace most of its COVID-19 booster shots with updated versions that target the dominant omicron strains, an influential group of vaccine experts that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.
In a vote of 13-1, the panel recommended that Americans ages 12 and up who have gone at least two months since their last shot roll up their sleeves for the reformulated boosters, which are engineered to combat the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants along with the original coronavirus that arrived in the U.S. in early 2020.
If CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky agrees with the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the “bivalent” boosters could begin going into arms in a matter of days. She is expected to make a decision by the end of the week.
The two offerings — one from Pfizer and BioNTech for people 12 and older and another from Moderna for adults 18 and over — represent the first substantial change to the COVID-19 vaccine recipe since the country’s immunization campaign began nearly two years ago.
—Los Angeles Times
Health care bill will cut costs and improve access, Kamala Harris tells Durham seniors
DURHAM, N.C. — With midterm elections just over two months away, Vice President Kamala Harris visited Durham on Thursday to promote the Biden administration’s efforts to reduce health care costs and increase access.
Harris spent the afternoon at the Durham Center for Senior Life, where she was joined by Gov. Roy Cooper, Durham Mayor Elaine O’Neal and U.S. Rep. David Price. After receiving a tour of the facility and speaking with seniors and advocates, the vice president delivered remarks about the recently enacted Inflation Reduction Act.
“Access to health care should be a right,” Harris said to an audience of approximately 200 people. “Not a privilege for those who can afford it. ... We’re not talking about a luxury. We’re talking about an essential need.”
The sweeping climate, health care and tax legislation, which caps the price of insulin at $35 per month for Medicare recipients and empowers health officials to begin negotiating the costs of certain prescription drugs for those on Medicare over the next several years, passed Congress on two party-line votes last month. The bill moved out of the Senate after Harris cast a tie-breaking vote.
—McClatchy Washington Bureau
Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court justice, reportedly urged lawmakers to overturn Biden’s win in Wisconsin
The wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas worked behind the scenes to overturn the results of the 2020 election in at least two states, according to The Washington Post, which reported Thursday it had seen emails from Ginni Thomas to Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin she hoped to influence.
Thomas, a Nebraska native who lives in Virginia, also reportedly reached out to nearly 30 GOP lawmakers in Arizona after the 2020 election, looking for their help in keeping former president Donald Trump in office. The Post said her outreach to a pair of Wisconsin lawmakers happened around the same time.
“Please stand strong in the face of media and political pressure,” read emails sent by Thomas on Nov. 9 — less than a week after the presidential election that was won by President Joe Biden.
Thomas is also said to have urged lawmakers to “reflect on the awesome authority” they hold, then appoint electors who would defy the wishes of their states’ voters.
—New York Daily News
IAEA chief leaves Ukraine nuclear plant after brief visit
International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi and some team members left a nuclear power plant occupied by Russian forces in Ukraine on Thursday after spending several hours there, amid reports of increased shelling in the area.
Five inspectors out of about a dozen in Grossi’s mission stayed on at the Zaporizhzhia facility, according to Energoatom, the Ukrainian state-run company that manages the country’s nuclear plants. They are unloading equipment and are expected to stay until Saturday, Energoatom said.
Grossi said his team of monitors collected important information during the visit and he had access to the “key things” he wanted to see, BBC Ukraine reported.
The United States called on Russia to allow the inspectors to stay as long as needed. It comes as increasing attacks in the vicinity of the site have stoked concern over a potential atomic disaster. Ukraine and Russia have blamed each other for continued fighting in the area, with no way to independently verify their claims.
—Bloomberg News
