THE VAX MANDATE FIGHT HITS THE FLOOR — President Joe Biden’s vaccine-or-test mandate for large businesses is hung up in the courts — but that’s not going to stop Republicans from trying to turn it into a winning political issue in the interim. The Senate on Wednesday night passed a measure disapproving the administration’s vaccine requirement, in a high-profile rebuke of a key component of Biden’s Covid-19 response, POLITICO’s Alice Miranda Ollstein reports. The vote was largely symbolic — and there’s no chance the White House would agree to wipe out its own mandate. But the 52-48 vote represents a first salvo in what’s likely to be a lengthy GOP assault on Democrats’ support for vaccination requirements. Senate Republicans likened the administration’s embrace of mandates to “authoritarianism” and panned it as “government in overdrive,” betting that voters will bristle at being told what to do. They also got some bipartisan cover in the process: Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.) sided with the GOP in supporting the disapproval measure. The two centrists are among a number of high-profile Democrats who’ve raised concerns about the requirement on businesses in recent days, as POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook reported earlier this week. Still, the GOP is walking a tightrope with its talking points. Some Republican senators went to lengths to stress they supported vaccination — but not a government requirement that people must get it. But that positioning is already tenuous, especially as influential conservatives continue to fuel resistance to the vaccine among Republican voters — and in some cases spread misinformation. Hours before the vote, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) used a tele-town hall appearance to recommend mouthwash as a treatment for Covid-19. There’s little evidence mouthwash can protect against Covid-19, and it’s certainly not better than the vaccines. But Johnson has previously pushed a series of other unproven treatments for the disease. As for the White House, its support for the mandate hasn’t wavered. “It’s based on a 50-year-old law, and we are confident in our ability to implement it,” press secretary Jen Psaki said. OMICRON DRIVES FRESH PUSH FOR BOOSTERS — Early signs that the Omicron variant can spread widely among vaccinated people are driving fresh urgency around the world to administer booster shots, POLITICO Europe’s Helen Collis reports. The effort comes amid studies from South Africa, Sweden and Germany that suggest the variant is better than prior strains at evading the protection provided by the Covid-19 vaccines. The new variant has cropped up around the world over the past few weeks, and some experts predict it could overtake Delta as the dominant strain in some areas by year’s end. It remains unclear how contagious Omicron is and whether a rise in cases will result in similar surges in severe illness. But global health officials are pushing for widespread booster campaigns to build as much protection against the virus as possible. “At the moment, triple vaccination is the best protection,” said Christian Drosten, head of virology at Berlin’s Charité hospital. “Don’t wait, just boost.” Vaccine makers are still conducting their own studies on their shots’ efficacy against Omicron. But Pfizer and BioNTech, as well as Moderna, have already indicated they could quickly develop modified vaccines that specifically target the new variant. PFIZER’s BOOSTER LIFTS IMMUNITY ACROSS AGE GROUPS — A new Israeli study indicates that a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine increases immunity against the Delta variant for those 16 and older, POLITICO’s Lauren Gardner reports. The findings, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that the booster cut infection rates and severe illness by similar amounts across all age groups. Meanwhile, a second Israeli study found that patients 50 and older who got a booster had 90 percent lower death rates from Covid-19 over nearly two months compared to those who didn’t get one. The studies were finalized before Omicron emerged, so it’s unclear how the booster would’ve responded to the new variant. But Pfizer earlier on Wednesday said preliminary lab results show its booster increases antibody defenses against Omicron 25-fold. That’s enough to provide a similar antibody level as the initial two-dose series does against the original virus and other variants. | 
