 The FDA approved Pfizer's COVID-19 treatment pill on Wednesday, allowing patients at high risk of severe outcomes to receive an at-home oral treatment for the first time. Pfizer's drug, Paxlovid, will be in limited supply at first, and is expected to be in high demand due to its mild side effects and 89% reduction in hospitalizations. An antiviral pill developed by Merck is also expected to receive FDA authorization soon. More: - All drugs previously authorized to treat COVID-19 were only available via injection or IV.
- The FDA only authorized the drug for those aged 12 and up who have tested positive for COVID-19, are symptomatic, and in a group at high risk of severe disease.
- Only about one-third of the 180,000 treatment courses of Paxlovid currently available have been allocated to the U.S. Pfizer says it is trying to decrease its manufacturing time from 9 months to 4.5 months.
- The pill has only been found to be effective within five days of the start of symptoms, leading to concerns that some patients may not receive a positive test in time to begin treatment.
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 West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin met virtually with Senate Democrats on Tuesday night to continue discussing the Build Back Better Act, which days earlier he'd said he would not support. President Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer both said Tuesday they would not give up on the bill, for which Manchin's support is required for passage in the fiercely-divided Senate. "Senator Manchin and I are going to get something done," Biden said on Tuesday following his televised address to the nation regarding the omicron variant. More: - During the meeting, Manchin reiterated his issues with the bill (primarily that it would increase the national debt and "dramatically reshape our society") and listened to Schumer and other colleagues, a source said.
- Schumer says he will bring the Build Back Better Act to the full Senate for a vote in January, where it will require support from at least 50 of the 100 senators to pass. He also plans to bring a measure to the body to change the filibuster rules, which would also require 50 votes.
- Democrats could then use altered filibuster rules to pass voting rights legislation, which has been stalled in the Senate amid Republican opposition.
- Manchin had reportedly offered to vote for the bill, including funding for universal pre-K and to fight climate change, if child tax credit payments were moved. Manchin reportedly told his staff in private that he feared some parents would use the tax credit to buy drugs.
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President Biden extended the pause on student loan payments for 90 days on Wednesday. The loan repayments, which have been on hold since the beginning of the pandemic, will now start again on May 1, 2022, instead of Feb. 1. In a statement, Biden said the extension is to help borrowers "still coping with the impacts of the pandemic." He also encouraged borrowers to "take full advantage of the Department of Education's resources," including public service loan forgiveness and income-based repayment plans to lower payments. More: - As a presidential candidate, Biden promised to forgive at least $10,000 per person of federal student loans. Thus far, no student debt has been canceled.
- Biden has since said he doesn't believe he has the authority to use executive action to cancel student debt, though some legal scholars disagree.
- In a letter from earlier this month, Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer, and Rep. Ayanna Pressley, urged Biden to extend the pause on loan repayment. The letter also encouraged the president to cancel up to $50,000 in student debt per person.
- According to a report from The Roosevelt Institute, a liberal think tank, canceling that debt would add $173.83B to the GDP after a year and increase Black wealth in the U.S. by 40%.
- Those who don't support canceling student debt point to how it only benefits the well-educated and could appear unfair to those who have already repaid their debts.
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 GOOD NEWS: Italy is expected to become the 16th European country to ban fur farming following a landmark vote in the Italian Senate. Should the full Italian Parliament approve the ban, it will become illegal to breed chinchillas, foxes, mink, and raccoon dogs in the country, and all fur farms will need to close by June 30, 2022. More: - The Budget Committee of the Italian Senate approved compensation for fur farmers.
- Humane Society International is declaring the move a massive victory following its presentation on how fur farms could be converted into "alternative, humane, and sustainable businesses."
- A number of luxury brands, including Yves Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen, and Gucci, have committed to going fur-free.
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 Plainclothes FBI agents regularly infiltrated Portland, Oregon's racial and social justice protests over the last year and a half, raising concerns within the federal government about violating protesters' First Amendment rights. FBI surveillance teams stood "shoulder to shoulder with activists," frequently videotaping and tailing vandalism suspects to help law enforcement make arrests, according to documents seen by The New York Times. Several anonymous sources told the Times that they worried the surveillance program risked becoming a repeat of the highly-criticized COINTELPRO of the 1950s and '60s. More: - Though the FBI had an informant in the crowd during the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, they placed no coordinated surveillance teams at the event, despite warnings of potential violence.
- The FBI's special agent in charge of the Portland field office told the NYT that its agents were focused specifically on "violent instigators" and not peaceful protesters.
- Portland's protest movement persisted into 2021 long after those in other cities had subsided. Protesters have been criticized for frequently devolving into vandalism and clashes with police.
- While the FBI regularly investigates and prosecutes members of extremist groups who engage in violence, this is the first evidence that agents have attempted to blend into protest crowds since the murder of George Floyd in May 2020.
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 NHL hockey players will not participate in the Winter Olympics in Beijing in February due to COVID-19 concerns. Participation among professional players in the Olympics is part of the NHL's collective bargaining agreement with its players' association, and the two groups agreed this week to withdraw player involvement in Beijing. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said it would not be possible for players to go to Beijing given that 50 games in the current NHL season have already been postponed due to COVID-19 outbreaks on teams. More: - NHL players also did not participate in the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, after the league suggested it would cost too much money and risk players getting injured.
- The NHL All-Star Game is still scheduled for Feb. 5, 2022, the day after the Olympics begin, and the league will work to reschedule postponed games should the number of omicron cases around the league subside.
- Rescheduling some games may prove difficult, as many of the teams' home arenas scheduled concerts or other events in February, anticipating a pause in the NHL season.
- NHL players are still planning to participate in the 2026 Winter Olympics in the Italian cities of Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo.
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- Amazon Web Services suffered a third December outage on Wednesday, with connectivity issues being reported in Boston, Chicago, and other cities.
- Americans distrust Facebook in handling their personal data more than other social media platforms. In a Washington Post-Schar School poll, 72% said they don't trust Facebook, 63% don't trust TikTok, and 60% don't trust Instagram.
- At least 64 people have died off the coast of Madagascar after a cargo ship not authorized to transport people sank on Monday night.
- The U.S. Treasury Department is issuing "general licenses" to facilitate the provision of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan while still not recognizing the Taliban as the legitimate government of the country and continuing economic pressure.
- U.S. regulators are investigating 580,000 Tesla vehicles sold since 2017, which allow games to be played on a touchscreen in the front seat.
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 |  | Jonathan Harris is a writer and editor who lives in Los Angeles. |  | | Editor | Eduardo Garcia is a writer and editor based in New York. He is writing an illustrated book about climate change that will be published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade. | |
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