What to know about the new Covid-19 boosters

The FDA authorizes new omicron-specific vaccine booster shots; Iraq’s political turmoil lingers.

Tonight's Sentences was written by Jariel Arvin.

Same pandemic, new vaccine

Zabed Hasnain Chowdhury/NurPhoto via Getty Images

• Wednesday, the FDA authorized emergency use of new Covid-19 booster shots, marking the first time the vaccines have been updated. [Science / Gretchen Vogel]
• The Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech boosters target the BA.4 and BA.5 omicron subvariants of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which are now responsible for almost 90 percent of US cases. [Reuters / Mrinalika Roy and Julie Steenhuysen]
• The FDA authorized Pfizer/BioNTech’s booster for people 12 and older who completed their first vaccine series, while Moderna’s is approved for those 18 and older. The boosters should be taken at least two months after a previous dose. [NPR / Scott Hensley and Rob Stein]
• The new jabs are part of the federal government’s effort to encourage the public to get boosted to avoid a fall surge as people spend more time indoors. [Washington Post / Laurie McGinley]
• Because of time constraints, the booster effectiveness is based on animal studies and data from BA.1. It’s unclear exactly how well the vaccines will perform against BA.4 and BA.5; human trial data could be available in two months. [CNBC / Spencer Kimball]
• The CDC is meeting this week to determine guidelines for administering booster shots. If approved, new doses could arrive next week. [Vox / Umair Irfan]

📍 Go deeper

Vox’s Keren Landman explains why developing next-generation vaccines and improving air filtration should be the next big pandemic investments. [Vox / Keren Landman]

Iraq’s political turmoil erupts in violence

• Calm appears to have returned to Iraq’s capital, Baghdad, after dozens were killed and hundreds wounded in the worst violence in years. [BBC / Raffi Berg]
• Clashes began Monday when populist Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr announced his retirement from politics. [Al Jazeera / Ali Hashem] 
• Al-Sadr supporters angrily stormed Baghdad’s presidential palace, kicking off 24 hours of gun battles and rocket attacks in the government district and across the country. It ended when Sadr called off his supporters. [Washington Post / Mustafa Salim and Kareem Fahim]
• Iraq has faced political turmoil since October 2021 elections when Sadr’s nationalist party failed to win enough seats to form a government. Sadr refused to share power with the Coordination Framework, a rival Shiite group with ties to Iran. [CBS News / Omar Abdulkader]
• Sadr is calling for the dissolution of parliament and early elections; however, political leaders disagree about how to move forward, leaving the potential for more violence. [Associated Press / Samya Kullab]

The Department of Justice claims Donald Trump’s team likely obstructed efforts to recover classified documents from Mar-a-Lago. [Vox / Ben Jacobs]

• Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, died Tuesday at age 91. He leaves behind a complicated legacy. [AP / Kirsten Grieshaber and Patrick Quinn]
• Parts of California could see a brutal heat wave with triple-digit temperatures over Labor Day weekend. [Guardian / Maanvi Singh]
• Wednesday, Rep. Charlie Crist (D-FL) resigned from his US House seat. He faces the GOP’s Ron DeSantis in the race for Florida governor. [CNN / Steve Contorno]

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“We need to allow people to protect themselves from a virus that we can’t fully control.”

[Leif Erik Sander, an infectious disease expert at the Charité University Hospital in Berlin / Science]

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