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| Presented By AT&T |
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| Axios AM |
| By Mike Allen ·Sep 02, 2021 |
| Happy Thursday! Smart Brevity™ count: 1,197 words ... 4½ minutes. Edited by Zachary Basu. |
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| 1 big thing: Biden's booster case rises |
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| Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios |
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| New Israeli vaccine research strengthens the Biden administration's case for recommending COVID boosters for most Americans beginning Sept. 20, Axios' Caitlin Owens reports. - Why it matters: It's increasingly likely that later this fall, being "fully vaccinated" will mean getting a third shot if you had Pfizer or Moderna. Research about J&J is ongoing.
The Biden administration has unveiled plans to recommend boosters beginning Sept. 20 for most adults, pending regulatory approval. - But the idea is controversial because so much of the world's population hasn't even gotten a first shot, and the data on the need for boosters is sparse.
New Israeli research suggests the benefits can kick in quickly. Epidemiologists fear the summer surge won't be the last, and we'll continue to face the virus through the fall and winter. - The preprint study, released by Israeli researchers, found that adults who received a third Pfizer shot saw their risk of infection drop by 11-fold, and their risk of severe disease drop by more than 10-fold.
What we're hearing: A senior administration official told Axios that the Israeli government recently briefed Biden's COVID team on the data. - "I never thought of vaccines as short-term. This changes that paradigm," the official said. "I think ... once everybody sees that data, ... you'll understand the sense of urgency we have."
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| 2. New overnight: High court splits 5-4 on Texas abortions |
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| Graphic: "The Rachel Maddow Show," MSNBC |
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| A 5-4 Supreme Court ruling allows a Texas law that bans most abortions to remain in force. - Just after midnight ET, the court voted 5-4 to deny an emergency appeal from abortion providers who sought to block enforcement of the law, which went into effect at midnight CT on Wednesday.
It's the strictest law against abortion rights since the high court's landmark Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, AP reports. - The Texas law prohibits abortions once medical professionals can detect cardiac activity.
- That's usually around six weeks — and before many women know they're pregnant.
What we're watching: The justices suggested that their order likely isn't the last word, since other challenges can still be brought. |
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| 3. Private companies change who gets to space |
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| Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios |
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| Fewer than 600 people have flown to space, and most of them have been white men. But with the rise of commercial spaceflight, that's expected to change, Axios Space author Miriam Kramer writes. - Instead of spaceflight being governed by the stringent health and physical requirements NASA and other space agencies use to select their astronauts, private companies have more freedom to allow different types of people to fly.
Two crewmembers flying to space with SpaceX's Inspiration4 on Sept. 15 represent groups of people who have historically been marginalized when it comes to spaceflight. - Sian Proctor is set to become the first Black female to serve as the pilot of a space capsule.
- When Hayley Arceneaux — a childhood cancer survivor — takes flight, she will become the first person with a prosthesis to travel to space. "I couldn't have been a traditional NASA astronaut," Arceneaux told Axios. "Astronauts have really had to be physically perfect."
🎧 In our new podcast series, "The Next Astronauts," Miriam Kramer and the Axios "How It Happened" team follow the first all-civilian crew of astronauts as they prepare for their Sept. 15 launch. |
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| A message from AT&T |
| We are connecting communities to their American Dream |
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| We're making a $2 billion, 3-year commitment to help ensure broadband is more accessible and affordable, so low-income families like the ones Kamal works with have the opportunity to succeed. Learn more. |
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| 4. Flash flooding stuns NYC |
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| Photo: Anthony Behar/Sipa USA via Reuters |
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| At least eight people are dead after remnants of Ida caused flash flooding in the New York City area, The New York Times reports. The scene above is in Queens! - The FDNY is rescuing a woman from her car after it stalled under waist-deep water.
Central Park recorded 3.15 inches of rain in one hour, from 8:51 p.m. to 9:51 p.m. Photo: David Dee Delgado/Getty Images Rainfall floods the basement of Kennedy's Fried Chicken in the Bronx. - The National Weather Service called it "an exceedingly rare event with 6-10" of rainfall falling over a several hour period."
At 9:43 p.m., the Weather Service in NYC tweeted: "[T]his particular warning for NYC is the second time we've ever issued a Flash Flood Emergency (It's the first one for NYC). The first time we've issued a Flash Flood Emergency was for Northeast New Jersey an hour ago." - "We are seeing way too many reports of water rescues and stranded motorists," the Weather Service tweeted. "Do not drive through flooded roadways. You do not know how deep the water is and it is too dangerous. Turn Around Don't Drown."
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| 5. Our weekly map (which is back, sadly) |
 Data: The New York Times. Chart: Kavya Beheraj/Axios COVID infections continue to climb all across the U.S., with few new solutions on the horizon, Axios' Sam Baker writes. - There are some initial signs that things may be starting to get better in the South, which has experienced the worst of this wave.
About 160,000 Americans now test positive for COVID-19 each day — a 14% increase, nationwide, over the past two weeks. - A small handful of hotspots — Florida, Louisiana and Missouri — have begun to improve over the past two weeks, although cases are still rising in 44 states.
- The biggest increases remain clustered largely in the Southeast, along with Indiana, West Virginia and South Dakota.
COVID hospitalizations are beginning to tick down, largely due to improvements in the South, Bloomberg reports. - But five Southern states — Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Florida and Arkansas — are still using over 90% of ICU beds, per CNN.
- In Kentucky, the National Guard has been deployed to help overburdened hospitals.
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| 6. Exclusive: New boss for tech "SWAT team" |
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| Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Office of Management and Budget |
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| Mina Hsiang will lead the U.S. Digital Service, the Office of Management and Budget told Axios' Margaret Harding McGill, as the Biden administration beefs up its cadre of technological special forces tasked with solving problems across the federal government. - Why it matters: Washington is preparing to spend trillions in infrastructure money, including funds for digital systems.
Hsiang will be the first woman and first Asian American to be the administrator of USDS, which was launched in 2014 in the aftermath of the troubled rollout of the HealthCare.gov website. - Hsiang worked on the Obama administration's HealthCare.gov rescue. She helped the Biden administration launch Vaccines.gov.
Keep reading. |
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| 7. First look: Beto launches register-from-home tool |
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| Photo: Powered by People |
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| Beto O'Rourke today launches a voter registration tool allowing eligible Texans to register at home with volunteers deployed on request, Axios' Stef Kight reports. - Why it matters: The announcement comes two days after the Republican-controlled Texas legislature passed a bill that voting-rights activists say will make it more difficult for some Texans to vote.
The program is being launched in 10 counties by Powered by People, which O'Rourke founded. Other counties will be added. |
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| 8. FTC probes McFlurry fiasco |
| The FTC is probing why McDonald's McFlurry ice-cream machines are constantly broken — and a massive pain for franchisees to repair, The Wall Street Journal scoops (subscription). - The machines are out of order so often that they've become the years-long butt of late-night jokes. Conspiracy theories are bandied about.
- "The FTC wants to know how McDonald's reviews suppliers and equipment, ... and how often restaurant owners are allowed to work on their own machines."
Why it matters: "The Biden administration is scrutinizing a range of products, from phones to tractors, on whether manufacturers impede owners from fixing the products themselves," The Journal notes. |
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| A message from AT&T |
| We are connecting communities to their American Dream |
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| We're making a $2 billion, 3-year commitment to help ensure broadband is more accessible and affordable, so low-income families like the ones Kamal works with have the opportunity to succeed. Learn more. |
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