Evening Briefing: CDC panel endorses Pfizer boosters for some

September 23, 2021

By Remy Tumin and Matthew Cullen

Good evening. Here's the latest at the end of Thursday.

Health care workers administering the Pfizer vaccine in West Palm Beach, Fla., last month.Saul Martinez for The New York Times

1. A day after the F.D.A. authorized Covid vaccine boosters for some Americans, the C.D.C. recommended the shots for older people and other at-risk groups.

Last night, the F.D.A. approved a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for people over 65 who received their second shot at least six months earlier, as well as for adults who were at high risk of coronavirus infection, including because of job-related exposure. An advisory group to the C.D.C. largely agreed with those recommendations.

The group supported the booster shot for adults over 65 and for residents of long-term care facilities; it also endorsed the shots for people between 18 and 64 who were at high risk for severe Covid-19. But they stopped short of endorsing those at risk because of their jobs. This measure would have applied to health care workers, teachers and other workers who do not meet the other criteria.

The C.D.C. director is expected to endorse the recommendations, and those who qualify could start getting the shots immediately afterward.

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Immigrants at a migrant camp on the U.S.-Mexico border in Del Rio, Texas, on Tuesday.John Moore/Getty Images

2. A senior U.S. diplomat to Haiti quit, citing the Biden administration's "inhumane" deportations of migrants back to Haiti.

The diplomat, Daniel Foote, was appointed special envoy to Haiti in July, just weeks after the country's president, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated. In his resignation letter, Foote severely criticized the Biden administration and blasted a "cycle of international political interventions in Haiti" that "has consistently produced catastrophic results."

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About 1,400 Haitians have been deported since Sunday. The deportation crisis is a stark example of how President Biden has deployed some of the most aggressive approaches to immigration put in place by his predecessor.

Delivery workers gathered outside the City Hall in New York.Jose A. Alvarado Jr. for The New York Times

3. New York passed sweeping laws that would improve conditions for delivery workers employed by food delivery apps.

The City Council approved a package of bills to establish minimum pay and improve working conditions for couriers employed by app-based services like Grubhub, DoorDash and Uber Eats. The measures would place New York City at the forefront of regulating a multibillion-dollar industry.

Among the new provisions: prevent the food delivery apps from charging workers fees to receive their pay; make the apps disclose to customers their gratuity policies; and require restaurants to make bathrooms available to delivery workers. Mayor Bill de Blasio is expected to sign the legislation.

Police officers responded to a shooting at a Kroger grocery store in Collierville, Tenn.Houston Cofield for The New York Times

4. A gunman opened fire in a Tennessee grocery store, killing one person and injuring at least 12 before he shot and killed himself, the authorities said.

Police officers went from aisle to aisle and room to room at the Kroger store in Collierville, about 30 miles east of Memphis, helping injured victims and escorting employees out of hiding. Some had hidden in freezers and locked offices. The Collierville police chief declined to say whether the attacker had been an employee at the store, saying it was part of the investigation. He said the injuries to the victims were "very serious."

The shooting was "the most horrific event that has occurred in Collierville history," he said. We have live updates here.

The Treasury Department will issue a report this fall on how to mitigate risks from the stablecoin sector.Stefani Reynolds for The New York Times

5. Federal regulators are racing to put in effect the first major rules on cryptocurrency to reduce the risk to consumers and the markets.

Their initial target for tighter regulation is a fast-growing product called stablecoin. Issued by a variety of firms that are only lightly regulated through a patchwork of state rules, stablecoins act as a bridge between cryptocurrency markets and the traditional economy. Regulators are concerned that their surge could lead to a digital-era bank run.

Also out of Washington:

The House approved $1 billion in funding for Israel's Iron Dome defense system after a bitter debate among Democrats.
House Democrats plan to push through broad legislation to uphold abortion rights. The vote on Friday will largely be symbolic because of Republican opposition in the Senate.

Refrigerators for sale at a Lowe's store in Hialeah, Fla., in May.Joe Raedle/Getty Images

6. The Biden administration curbed the use of HFCs, its first major regulation to directly limit greenhouse gases.

Under a new rule, the E.P.A. will reduce the use of hydrofluorocarbons, which are chemicals used in air-conditioners and refrigerators, by 85 percent over the next 15 years. That's the equivalent of eliminating about three years worth of climate pollution from the electricity sector, the White House said.

Without the measure, President Biden would be in danger of arriving at a pivotal U.N. summit in November with little to back up his calls for global action on climate change. John Kerry, Biden's climate envoy, is trying to convince countries to commit to sharply cut carbon emissions this decade. His sales approach is simple. "We've got to do what the science tells us to do," he said. But his task is enormous.

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A White Sands National Park program manager first discovered fossilized human footprints.Dan Odess

7. Humans may have arrived in the Americas much earlier than many archaeologists believed.

A new study reported that ancient footprints found in White Sands National Park in New Mexico were at least 23,000 years old. The discovery would date human arrival in the Americas to the Ice Age, about 10,000 years before many archaeologists had long maintained.

"I think this is probably the biggest discovery about the peopling of America in a hundred years," said Ciprian Ardelean, an archaeologist at Autonomous University of Zacatecas in Mexico who was not involved in the work.

The San Francisco Giants have hit 228 home runs, which is only seven short of their record.Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images

8. In the races for the baseball playoffs, old rivalries are taking center stage.

In the National League West, the San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers are the two most winning teams in all of baseball. The Giants currently have the upper hand with a two-game advantage and an easy schedule over the final 10 days of the season.

In the American League East, the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees are battling in a three-way race with the Toronto Blue Jays for two wild card spots. Both teams have had roller coaster seasons, and their playoff hopes may ride on a three-game series this weekend. The Blue Jays benefit from the surprise emergence of the Cy Young Award favorite Robbie Ray.

In other postseason news, the W.N.B.A. playoffs begin tonight. Here's what to expect.

"It's a phenomenal honor, and it's an overwhelming thing," Terence Blanchard said.Wayne Lawrence for The New York Times

9. In 138 years, the Metropolitan Opera has never staged a production by a Black composer — until now.

Terence Blanchard, a jazz trumpeter and composer best known for scoring a host of Spike Lee films, will reopen the Met on Monday with "Fire Shut Up in My Bones," which is based on the Times columnist Charles Blow's memoir of his turbulent upbringing in Louisiana. Our classical music editor described "Fire" as an unabashedly emotive tale of family troubles, sexual abuse, self-discovery and self-acceptance.

Blanchard rose as a jazz phenom in the early 1980s, taking over the trumpet chair in Art Blakey's fabled Jazz Messengers. Here are a few highlights from his discography.

Also in New York City: Jasper Johns's "Mind/Mirror," the largest survey of the artist's work anywhere to date, opens next week in two museums, in Manhattan and in Philadelphia.

Visitors to Dveri Bar, in the Podil district of Kyiv, Ukraine.

10. And finally, share the wanderlust.

This week The Times Magazine publishes its annual Voyages issue, in which writers and photographers capture snapshots of life from around the world.

For one writer, what was supposed to be a quick layover in Kyiv, Ukraine, turned into a party through the city's underground nightlife scene. On a trip to Las Vegas, a writer and his oldest friends reunited to mourn the ones they lost — and honor the time they had left. After 18 months of pandemic parenting isolation, Jon Mooallem decided that the place to be was a minor-league baseball game in Spokane, Washington. And, more stories from around the world.

Have an adventurous night.

Hiroko Masuike compiled photos for this briefing.

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