Evening Briefing: A step closer to vaccinating younger children

September 20, 2021

By Victoria Shannon

Briefings, Newsdesk

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

Eli Nazario, 13, about to receive the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine in New York in July.Olga Ginzburg for The New York Times

1. A step closer to vaccinating younger children.

The Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine has been shown to be safe and highly effective in children ages 5 to 11, the companies announced.

They plan to apply to the government by the end of the month for authorization. If the regulatory review follows a similar timeline to the ones for older children and adults, millions of elementary school students could be inoculated before Halloween.

Children now account for more than 20 percent of new cases, and the highly contagious Delta variant has sent more children to hospitals and intensive care units in the past few weeks than at any other time during the pandemic.

How many parents will have their children vaccinated? In a recent poll, about 25 percent of parents of children ages 5 to 11 said they would "definitely not" plan to do so.

Separately, the F.D.A. is likely to authorize Pfizer booster shots this week for Americans over the age of 65 and others at high risk of serious illness.

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The Guangzhou Evergrande football stadium under construction in Guangzhou, China, last week.Noel Celis/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

2. Stocks suffered their worst day in months, part of a global sag as a chain of worries weighed on investors' minds.

The S&P 500 ended 1.7 percent lower today, its worst one-day slide since mid-May. The index has dropped for two consecutive weeks. Before today's decline, it was down more than 2 percent from a record high on Sept. 2.

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The spiraling woes of Evergrande, once China's most prolific property developer and now its most indebted company, haven't helped the September malaise. Regulators fear that the collapse of a company the size of Evergrande could send tremors through the entire Chinese financial system.

Travelers at Hong Kong International Airport in June.Anthony Kwan for The New York Times

3. After more than a year of restrictions, the Biden administration will lift the travel ban to the U.S. for foreigners who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Tourism officials in New York City especially welcomed the move, which begins in November. Travelers from abroad normally account for just 20 percent of visitors, but they generate 50 percent of the city's tourism spending. Businesses that cater to tourists — restaurants, hotels and the performing arts — have been hit the hardest by the pandemic.

Unvaccinated Americans who want to travel home from overseas will need to test negative for the coronavirus one day before traveling, and show proof that they have bought a test to take after arriving in the U.S.

Members of a local election commission count ballots over the weekend at a polling station during the three-day parliamentary election in Moscow.Evgenia Novozhenina/Reuters

4. Putin's opponents were swept aside in Russia's elections.

Official results today showed the country's ruling party retained a two-thirds majority in the lower house of Parliament and claimed a sweeping victory in Moscow, a stronghold of anti-Kremlin sentiment.

Opposition leaders cried foul, citing partial results on Sunday evening that had shown significant gains by opposition parties and potential victories by several of their candidates.

Russian elections are not free and fair, and the country's most prominent figures opposing President Vladimir Putin were barred from the ballot, jailed or exiled before the vote.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau campaigns in Richmond Hill, Ontario, on Saturday.Carlos Osorio/Reuters

5. Canada's election tests Justin Trudeau's political calculus.

When the Canadian prime minister announced a snap election two years ahead of schedule, his aides were apparently hoping that a lift in approval ratings for his handling of the pandemic would give his Liberal Party the majority in Parliament that it lost in the last election in 2019.

Instead, the Liberals' standing dropped to a statistical tie with the Conservatives. The results of today's election may not be clear until early tomorrow morning.

Analysts have forecast that high support for Trudeau's party in the most populous provinces suggest that he will gain the most seats in Parliament, but not the majority he seeks.

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Prescription drugs at an Albertsons Pharmacy in Albuquerque in May.Paul Ratje for The New York Times

6. Democrats are at odds over how to pursue universal health care.

Some prioritize expanding health care coverage to more poor adults in states whose leaders have refused to do so. Others give more weight to expanding Medicare benefits to older people across income levels.

Under pressure to reduce the cost of their ambitious $3.5 trillion social safety net bill, congressional Democrats are facing tough decisions. Divisions over how to lower prescription drug costs and raise taxes will likely prevent the party from acting boldly on both fronts.

The Democrats also were dealt a major setback when the Senate's top rules enforcer said their plan to use the bill to create a path to citizenship for an estimated 8 million undocumented immigrants violated the chamber's rules. Separately, the Biden administration announced that it will raise the cap on refugee admissions to 125,000 beginning Oct. 1.

An oil rig that was contracted to Shell in the Permian Basin near Wink, Texas.Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times

7. An oil company moved another step away from fossil fuels.

Royal Dutch Shell sold its oil and gas production in the Permian Basin of West Texas, the biggest American oil field, to ConocoPhillips for $9.5 billion in cash.

The sale is the latest sign that Shell, like other European oil companies, is under pressure to sell off oil and gas production and produce cleaner energy in response to concerns about climate change among investors and the general public.

Shell has accelerated its shift to cleaner fuels over the last two years. In May, a Dutch court ordered the company to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 45 percent by 2030. Shell is appealing the ruling.

Girls studying in a classroom in Kabul, Afghanistan, last week.Victor J. Blue for The New York Times

8. The Taliban have made clear that it intends to severely restrict education for girls. The question is just how draconian the new system will be.

When schools reopened on Saturday for grades seven through 12, only male students were told to report for their studies. Many teachers say they have begun wearing niqabs — a garment that covers a woman's hair, nose and mouth — and have been preparing for classes segregated by gender.

The new government has said that some form of education for girls and women will be permitted, but those parameters have not been clearly defined. The Taliban seem intent on ruling not strictly by decree, but by inference and intimidation.

Hannah Waddingham, Jason Sudeikis and the team from "Ted Lasso" won seven Emmys on Sunday.Danny Moloshok/Invision, via AP Images

9. The best and the worst of the Emmys.

Streaming services won the major series awards for the first time, with Netflix taking the throne, winning the four major acting awards and best drama for "The Crown." But some aspects of the Emmys — long speeches, red carpet looks, occasional moments of inspiration — will always be with us. And for the first time in six years, the Emmys did not set or tie a record low for ratings. Here's what our colleagues have to say:

"There's a lot of variety on television, more than the Emmys seem to know about," Margaret Lyons writes on how the first 10 awards went to just four shows. "Monotony is a vice."

The HBO Max showbiz comedy "Hacks" gave "Ted Lasso" a run for its money, picking up three comedy awards before the big one — best comedy series — went to "Lasso." "The suspense was fun while it lasted," Sarah Bahr writes.
Debbie Allen, the actor, writer, director and producer, received the Governor's Award, a de facto lifetime achievement honor. It was a good reminder that some of TV's most transcendent talents have been at it for decades, Jeremy Egner writes.

Ruth Rogers in front of her wood oven at the River Cafe in London.Alex Atack for The New York Times

10. And finally, celebrities and their love affairs … with food.

Paul McCartney, Al Gore, David Beckham and Tracey Ullman are among the stars featured in a new podcast by the proprietor of the River Cafe in London, where the buffalo mozzarella appetizer goes for around $30. The podcast debuts tomorrow.

The owner, Ruth Rogers, asked Michael Caine — a regular for decades — what his comfort food was. "Years ago, it was sausage and mash," he replied. "Now, it's caviar." For Glenn Close, it's Oreos.

"Even though a lot of these people sound very glitzy," Ms. Rogers said, "the kitchen is a great equalizer."

Have a tasteful evening.

Shelby Knowles and Angela Jimenez compiled photos for this briefing.

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