Vox Sentences - Biden spends big on Covid

Covid-19 pills, boosters, vaccine investments, and shots for kids show the virus is here to stay; mass arrests threaten Ethiopia's Tigrayan minority.

Tonight's Sentences was written by Ellen Ioanes.

Biden makes big moves to combat Covid-19

Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images

• As the pandemic approaches the two-year mark, the Biden administration is making a number of investments in the continued fight against Covid-19. Encouraging boosters, vaccinating children, bulk purchases of new treatments, and investments in vaccine manufacturing seem to be acknowledgments that the virus is here to stay.
• To start with, the FDA could authorize booster shots for all adults as soon as Thursday, bypassing their advisory panel to do so. The CDC’s independent advisory panel is set to meet Friday to discuss the data on vaccine boosters and make its own recommendation to that body about whether to recommend vaccine boosters for all adults. [NYT / Noah Weiland and Sharon LaFraniere]
• The White House also announced that about 10 percent of American kids, or 2.6 million children, ages 5 to 11 have received the vaccine in the two weeks since it was authorized for pediatric use. In comparison, according to White House Covid response coordinator Jeff Zients, it took nearly two months for that percentage of US adults to get their first dose. [The Hill / Justine Coleman]
• The Biden administration also announced plans to purchase Pfizer’s Paxlovid, an antiviral shown to be 89 percent effective in reducing the risk of death or serious illness in Covid patients. Pfizer announced that it submitted the medication for FDA authorization Tuesday; the company also announced that it would license the drug to the Medicines Patent Pool so it can be generically manufactured in poorer countries. [WSJ / Jared S. Hopkins]
• The administration announced its goal to produce an additional 1 billion vaccine doses per year, investing billions in vaccine manufacturing. The goal is to be able to provide low-cost mRNA vaccine doses to poorer nations, as well as crank up vaccine manufacturing capabilities for future pandemics. [Reuters / Jeff Mason and Alexandra Alper]

Mass detentions of Tigrayan civilians reported in Ethiopia

• Since the government of Ethiopian President Abiy Ahmed declared a state of emergency November 2, it has rounded up and detained large numbers of Tigrayans, the ethnic group with which it has been locked in a year-long civil war. Ethnic Tigrayans — even those not aligned with the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the political and militant group representing Tigrayan interests — have been detained, snatched from their workplaces, homes, and streets. [NYT / Abdi Latif Dahir]
• The UN reports that at least 1,000 people have been detained in the arrests in the past week, although the number could be much higher. “Many of those detained have not been informed of the reasons for their detention, nor have they been brought before a court of law or other tribunal to review the reasons for their detention, and have not been formally charged,” a UN spokesperson said. [United Nations]
• Those who have been detained are reportedly subject to inhumane treatment, with inadequate facilities and food. Arrests have been taking place throughout the country, including in the capital of Addis Ababa. [Deutsche Welle]
• US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in the region, aiming for a diplomatic solution to the Ethiopian civil war as well as dealing with a number of other crises in Africa. Thus far, the conflict has killed thousands, displaced millions, and pushed the northern state of Tigray to the brink of famine. [The National / Joyce Karam]

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Muhammad A. Aziz and Khalil Islam are expected to be exonerated for their alleged roles in the murder of Malcolm X; Islam died in 2009, and Aziz, 83, was released from prison in 1985. [NYT / Ashley Southall and Jonah E. Bromwich]

• The House of Representatives will censure Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) over an anime video depicting him murdering Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). [Washington Post / Felicia Sonmez, Amy B Wang, and Marianna Sotomayor]
• US federal agencies accuse Iranian hackers of targeting US critical sectors like transportation and health care with ransomware. [CNN / Sean Lyngaas]
• Switzerland will start allowing same-sex marriages in 2022, after two-thirds of the country voted in favor of doing so in September. [Politico / Thibault Spirlet]

“I think he should go to jail, but what’s currently within the power of the DoD is to remove his pension.”

[Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) calling for former national security adviser Michael Flynn to have his military pension ended after reports of Flynn calling for the DoD to seize ballots during the 2020 election.]

Dylan, German, and Jerusalem discuss possible exit strategies for the Covid-19 pandemic. [Spotify] 

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