WTF Just Happened Today

Monday, January 31, 2022

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1/ A bipartisan group of governors told Biden that the country needs to “move away from the pandemic.” The daily average of U.S. cases remains near 519,000 – more than double from last winter – while daily deaths are averaging more than 1,000 per day. Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a Republican, said the U.S. should move toward treating the virus as endemic, asking Biden to “help give us clear guidelines on how we can return to a greater state of normality” in order to “move beyond the pandemic.” New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat who also attended the meeting, added that “We’re not going to manage this to zero. We have to learn how to live with this.” White House officials, meanwhile, have reportedly grown so frustrated with Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, saying he “is taking too passive a role in what may be the most defining challenge to the administration.” (CNN / New York Times / Washington Post)

2/ The FDA granted full approval to Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine. Moderna’s vaccine, which was previously available under emergency use authorization, is the second coronavirus vaccine to get full FDA approval. (Washington Post / Politico / New York Times)

3/ Biden’s nominee to lead the FDA doesn’t have the Senate votes needed to give the agency its first commissioner in more than a year. Biden nominated Robert Califf more than two months ago. Califf lead the FDA during the Obama administration, but the former commissioner has reportedly struggled to secure the support of the 50 senators needed over concerns about his past ties to the drug industry and regulatory track record on opioids. Five Democrats have signaled they’ll oppose him, while four Republicans have publicly backed his candidacy. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, meanwhile, indicated that she would support Califf’s nomination after he agreed to not seek employment or compensation from any pharmaceutical or medical device company that he interacts with “for four years” following his time in government. (Politico)

4/ The EPA will resume enforcing limits on the release of mercury from coal-fired power plants. The Trump administration reversed the 2012 Mercury and Air Toxics Standards in May 2020, which were first implemented during the Obama administration, claiming they were not “appropriate and necessary” because they were too burdensome to industry. The EPA, however, determined that it was “appropriate and necessary” to limit mercury and other toxic air pollutants from power plants using the Obama-era method of measuring the impact of regulation, concluding that the costs to industry is offset by public health benefits, such as prevention of disease and premature deaths. The EPA is expected to start enforcing the rule later this year and said it’s also examining whether to make the rules more stringent. (New York Times /