WHAT’s DRIVING BIDEN’s BOOSTER PLAN — The White House is expected to formally detail plans for giving Americans Covid-19 booster shots, a move that marks the administration’s next major step in its campaign to inoculate the country against the virus. It’s a moment the Biden team hoped wouldn’t arrive so soon, even as they had long planned for it. The administration spent months encouraging people to get their initial round of shots based on the mantra that “if you’re vaccinated, you’re protected.” And while officials privately acknowledged boosters would eventually be required, many were skeptical up until just a few days ago that they’d be needed so soon. Yet that all changed this past weekend, as top health officials pored over new CDC data showing a worrying drop in the vaccines’ effectiveness at preventing infection over time. The evidence coincided with the rise of the more contagious Delta variant, and proved alarming enough to set off a scramble to construct a booster plan. The administration now plans to offer extra doses as early as mid-September, starting with health care workers and nursing home residents. The boosters are expected to be made available to Americans who got their initial round of vaccinations at least eight months ago. But beyond the logistics, it also represents a fraught messaging challenge. The administration has struggled to communicate significant elements in its strategy, from mask-wearing to school reopenings. And after weeks of insisting that Covid-19 had become a “pandemic of the unvaccinated,” officials must now walk the public through the complicated science that led them to conclude the vaccines still work — just not well enough for people to go without an extra boost. In a sign of the importance of getting that message right, the White House Covid-19 task force is slated to brief the media on the booster plan this morning. Later, President Joe Biden will deliver his own remarks on the vaccination campaign. One more thing: It won’t just be the general public who’s skeptical. Already, health experts are questioning the need for giving Americans third shots when much of the rest of the world hasn’t gotten their first. There’s also the matter of how much good it will ultimately do on the whole, since the virus’s continued circulation around the globe means more variants are sure to emerge. “It’s unconscionable that some #COVID19 vaccine-producing companies are reporting record profits, and some countries are offering boosters, while so many people remain unprotected,” the head of the World Health Organization wrote Tuesday, in what can only be interpreted as a subtweet aimed squarely at the U.S. government. TEXAS GOVERNOR HAS COVID — Greg Abbott tested positive for the coronavirus, his office said Tuesday. The Republican governor, who’s bucked state and local masking policies, was fully vaccinated against the virus and is asymptomatic so far. Abbott is receiving Regeneron's monoclonal antibody treatment, an injection typically used in high-risk patients. The governor uses a wheelchair due to a spinal cord injury years ago that also damaged his kidneys, health conditions that could factor into his Covid treatment. “The Governor has been testing daily, and today was the first positive test result,” his office said in a statement. “The Governor will isolate in the Governor's Mansion and continue to test daily.” Abbott attended an event with hundreds of maskless people on Monday night where the governor — also without a face covering — spoke to a packed crowd in Collin County, Texas, Myah Ward reports. Despite rising case numbers and hospitalizations in the state, there was little social distancing in the dense crowd. “Another standing-room only event in Collin County tonight,” the governor posted on Twitter on Monday, with photos of the crowd. “Thank y’all for the enthusiastic reception.” Abbott has been one of the governors at the center of the debate surrounding face masks as children head back to school this month. In May, he issued an executive order banning any government entity in Texas from issuing mask requirements, including school districts. Abbott has stuck to this position in recent weeks, even as Covid cases and hospitalizations surge in Texas. THE VACCINE FIGHT DIVIDING TEACHERS UNIONS — The leaders of the nation’s largest teachers unions are pleading with educators to get Covid-19 vaccines — and facing resistance from their own members, our Juan Perez Jr. and Daniel Payne write. Calls for vaccine requirements are colliding with a membership consumed with battles over mask rules. Even where there’s support among school employees, local concerns and bureaucratic roadblocks have stood in the way of imposing mandates. There’s a patchwork of realities. In Florida, union leaders are pushing simply to uphold mask mandates. Meanwhile, Chicago educators need shots by October, but schools open in two weeks while teachers push for more student vaccinations. Some labor leaders simply aren’t interested in requirements, despite high-profile support for them from the presidents of the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers. School vaccination requirements are rare but gaining momentum , researchers with the Center on Reinventing Public Education concluded as part of their latest review of 100 large and urban school systems. “Just because we pass a policy doesn’t mean they’re going to change their minds,” Texas teachers union official Zeph Capo said of his state’s vaccine holdouts. “If the virus keeps getting worse, he said, his members won’t need to be convinced. “I just hope it’s not too late for our members and their families.” | 
