Now will you get vaxxed? The FDA has formally approved Pfizer’s COVID-19 shot for people 16 and up …
■ … and it now has a brand name: Comirnaty …
■ … pronounced like you mangled the word community …
■ … apparently a forced attempt to squeeze in a reference to mRNA.
■ The FDA’s OK sets the stage for more companies and governments to impose vaccine requirements—which could put Black and Latino populations, whose vaccination rates lag, at a disadvantage for employment.
■ The Rev. Jesse Jackson’s son says his mom and dad are “responding positively” to hospital treatment for COVID-19.
■ Jackson’s been vaccinated, but his wife’s vaccination status has been unclear.
■ Effective today, suburban Cook County joins Chicago in requiring masks at indoor public spaces.
■ Psychology professors are sounding an alarm about pandemic-scarred kids returning to school lacking mental health support—a national ratio of only one psychologist for every 1,200 students.
Smile. Police are getting a new tool to address a rash of shootings along Chicago-area expressways—more than 150 this year alone: A network of cameras to record license plate numbers on moving vehicles.
■ John Greenfield at Streetsblog Chicago: A murder on the CTA’s Red Line underscores the city’s failure to ensure transit riders’ safety.
■ Over the weekend in Chicago: More than 40 shot—at least seven fatally.
■ A Washington Post special report: “Big business pledged nearly $50 billion for racial justice. Where is the money going?”
‘Biden’s failure … is astonishing.’ Last Week Tonight host John Oliver says the president’s handling of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan is “a stain on Biden’s legacy. The only question is: How big does he want that stain to be?”
■ PolitiFact rates “Full Flop” Biden’s words since this April statement about Afghanistan withdrawal: “We’ll do it responsibly, deliberately and safely.”
■ Sun-Times columnist Laura Washington’s brother, an Afghanistan veteran: “Biden did the right thing.”
■ Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger—also a vet: Presidents Biden, Trump and Obama share responsibility for U.S.-allied Afghans trapped in Afghanistan.
■ Columnist Irv Leavitt: “It’s about time we stop picking fights we think we can win.”
■ Updating coverage: Gunfire in chaotic evacuations from Kabul’s international airport early today left at least one dead.
Hot, hot, hot. The week ahead brings the possibility of rain every day—and temperatures that could feel hotter than 100.
■ The disastrous and sudden flooding that took at least 22 lives in Tennessee Saturday was a consequence of what a National Weather Service meteorologist describes as “an incredible amount of water in the atmosphere”—a phenomenon symptomatic of global warming.
■ The Conversation is tackling kids’ questions, including this from a 14-year-old: “If we planted 8 billion trees a year for 20 years, what would happen on Earth?” (Cartoon: Keith J. Taylor.)
■ The Chicago Park District’s decision to let Amazon cram its delivery lockers into public spaces is under fire for helping the company bigfoot local businesses—and for doing so too cheaply.
‘A natural at going undercover.’ Farewell to a great and kind Chicago journalist, investigative reporter Bill Recktenwald.
■ In his new (free) email newsletter, documentarian Michael Moore recaps “A Brief History of Failed Attempts to Censor My Work”—beginning with his fourth-grade newspaper.
■ MSNBC’s “linchpin,” Rachel Maddow, is staying put—in a changing role.
