Vox Sentences - WHO wants first shots, not boosters

Biden has announced new car emissions targets; WHO wants countries to slow down on booster Covid-19 vaccines.

Tonight's Sentences was written by Gabby Birenbaum.

A new car standard

Paul Warner/Getty Images

• In an executive order Thursday, President Joe Biden announced he will strengthen auto pollution regulations in order to spur the development and sales of more electric vehicles. [The New York Times / Coral Davenport]
• The order is supported by both automakers and autoworkers, who have agreed to Biden’s nonbinding target of making half of all vehicle sales in 2030 to be electric or plug-in hybrid. But environmental advocates say lost progress during the Trump administration means Biden should pick a bigger goal. [The Guardian / Oliver Milman]
• In addition, the order will restore tailpipe emissions standards for light-duty vehicles to a higher level after those regulations were weakened significantly by the Trump administration, raising them by 10 percent for next year and then an additional 5 percent each year. [CNN / Ella Nilsen]
• White House estimates place the energy savings at around 200 billion gallons of gasoline and 2 billion metric tons of carbon pollution from current levels. [USA Today / Joey Garrison and Courtney Subramanian]
• Biden’s goal is boosting electric vehicle sales, which have lagged at about 2 percent of new car sales annually in recent years. In the bipartisan infrastructure bill, billions of dollars would be allocated to boost electric vehicles and transit buses. [NPR / Roberta Rampton and Asma Khalid]
• Experts say car models from 2030 to 2035 will be a critical period; while automakers are eager to get in on the electric vehicle market, they will not want to spend money curbing emissions on existing models. [Politico / Alex Guillén]

WHO wants a booster pause

• The World Health Organization’s director-general is asking wealthy nations to implement a moratorium on coronavirus vaccine booster shots until other countries have greater access to vaccines. [USA Today / John Bacon, Jorge L. Ortiz, and Elinor Aspegren]
• Low-income countries have only been able to administer 1.5 vaccine doses per 100 people, according to WHO data. The organization wants a booster pause until the end of September. [Reuters / Manas Mishra and Dania Nadeem]
• Ultimately, WHO’s director-general wants every country to reach a 10 percent vaccination rate before nations introduce boosters to maximize existing supply. [The Hill / Nathaniel Weixel]
• Of the vaccine doses administered in the world thus far, 80 percent have gone to high-income and middle-income countries, despite these countries containing less than half of the world’s population. [The Washington Post / Emily Rauhala, Hannah Knowles, Lena H. Sun, and Laurie McGinley]
• Israel and the Dominican Republic are administering boosters, and Germany has planned to do so. The US Food and Drug Administration has not yet authorized booster shots. [CNBC / Rich Mendez]

AFL-CIO head and longtime labor leader Richard Trumka died at age 72. [NPR / Benjamin Swasey]

• Vaccine rates are rising significantly in states with high Covid-19 spread, with over 500,000 receiving their first doses daily. [The Hill / Justine Coleman]
• The Federal Aviation Administration wants greater prosecution of unruly passengers, with 3,715 having already occurred this year. [The Associated Press / David Koenig]
• The impeachment probe into Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) in New York’s state house is nearing an end, with the potential to draft articles of impeachment in early September. [CNBC / Christina Wilkie]

Support our journalism

“Biden cannot think of himself as the climate president with a 50 percent electric vehicles goal. FDR didn’t set a goal to half win the war, and JFK didn’t set a goal to get halfway to the moon.”

[Sunrise Movement executive director Varshini Prakash, on Biden’s goal of having 50 percent of new vehicle sales be electric by 2030]

The new Matt Damon movie, Stillwater, is based on Amanda Knox’s story. She wishes someone had asked her to tell it. [Spotify]

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