Health News at Your Fingertips

Gabrielle Canon and agencies:

Few homes were left standing in Grizzly Flats, California, the small northern California forest town leveled by the Caldor fire on Tuesday.

Streets in the town of about 1,200 people were littered with downed power lines and poles. Houses were reduced to smoldering ash and twisted metal with only chimneys rising above the ruins. A post office and elementary school were also destroyed. Two people were in the hospital with serious injuries.

Thousands more structures still lay in the path of the fast-moving fire. On Wednesday morning, the blaze was 0% contained, with crews desperately working to contain the damage.

The destruction in Grizzly Flats came as dangerously dry and windy weather continued to fuel huge blazes across the American west and prompted the nation’s largest utility to begin shutting off power to tens of thousands of customers.

Read more:

Samira Sadeque reports for the Guardian:

A proposed change in the processing of asylum applications in the U.S. aims to reduce the wait times of cases, and will redirect the applications to be reviewed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), as opposed to the Department of Justice (DoJ), which currently reviews them.

On Wednesday, DHS announced the proposal as a development in the Biden administration’s plans for a “fair, orderly, and humane immigration system”.

The proposed change would mean U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which is under DHS, will review the applications for asylum.

DHS Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas said this process will mean those who are eligible will receive their answers swiftly, while those who do not qualify will be immediately declined.

Currently, the applications are processed through immigration judges under DoJ.

Attorney General Merrick Garland has said this proposal would reduce the caseload in the immigration system, and will mark another “step forward” in creating an asylum process that is “fairer and more expeditious”.

In an interview ABC News, Joe Biden seemed to say there may not have been a way to withdraw from Afghanistan “without chaos ensuing”.

He told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos: “No, I don’t think it could have been handled in a way that, we’re gonna go back in hindsight and look – but the idea that somehow, there’s a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don’t know how that happens. I don’t know how that happened.”

The US said it has evacuated 3,200 people from Afghanistan but thousands of Americans and tens of thousands of Afghans who want to leave the country remain.

“Look, one of the things we didn’t know is what the Taliban would do in terms of trying to keep people from getting out,” Biden told ABC.

Follow more Afghanistan developments here:

That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Sigh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

• US health officials recommended offering booster shots to all American adults who received the Pfizer or Moderna coronavirus vaccine. The US expects to offer booster shots starting the week of September 20, and health officials urged Americans to get their third dose eight months after receiving their second shot. Joe Biden endorsed the recommendation, saying in a speech this afternoon, “It’s the best way to protect ourselves from new variants that could arise.”
• The World Health Organization criticized the US plan to distribute booster shots, given the lack of available vaccines in many low-income countries. WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “Vaccine injustice is a shame on all humanity, and if we don’t tackle it together, we will prolong the acute stage of this pandemic for years when it could be over in a matter of months.”
• Biden directed the department of health and human services to develop regulations requiring nursing homes to mandate coronavirus vaccinations for employees in order to receive Medicare or Medicaid funding. Noting that coronavirus vaccination rates among nursing home staff are significantly lower than those of the larger US population, Biden said, “I’m using the power of the federal government, as a payer of health care costs, to ensure we reduce those risks to our most vulnerable seniors.”
• The US embassy told Americans still in Afghanistan that it “cannot ensure safe passage to the Hamid Karzai international airport”. The embassy’s update came amid reports that some people have been beaten at Taliban checkpoints near the airport, preventing them from boarding departing flights.
• The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff insisted that he had not seen US intelligence suggesting Kabul could fall to the Taliban in a matter of days, contradicting reports that military leaders were warned of such a possibility. “There was nothing that I or anyone else saw that indicated a collapse of this army and this government in 11 days,” General Mark Milley said at a press conference this afternoon.

Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

Joe Biden endorsed US health officials’ new recommendation that all American adults who received the Pfizer or Moderna coronavirus vaccine get booster shots starting next month.

“This will boost your immune response,” Biden said. “It’s the best way to protect ourselves from new variants that could arise.”

The president urged anyone 18 or older who got the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine to seek a booster shot eight months after their second dose, echoing the advice from his pandemic response team.

Biden concluded his prepared remarks and did not take any questions from reporters about the situation in Afghanistan.

Joe Biden formally announced that he is directing the department of health and human services to develop regulations to require nursing homes to mandate coronavirus vaccinations for their employees in order to receive Medicare or Medicaid funding.

The president noted that more than 130,000 residents of nursing homes have died of coronavirus since the start of the pandemic.

“At the same time, vaccination rates among nursing home staff significantly trail the rest of the country,” Biden said, adding that high vaccination rates help protect older patients in such facilities.

“I’m using the power of the federal government, as a payer of health care costs, to ensure we reduce those risks to our most vulnerable seniors,” Biden said.

Joe Biden fiercely criticized Republican governors who are attempting to ban mask mandates in classrooms, even though many children are not yet eligible to receive a coronavirus vaccine.

“They’re setting a dangerous tone,” Biden said of the governors. “This isn’t about politics. It’s about keeping our children safe.”

The president said he will direct his education secretary, Miguel Cardona, to use all of his oversight power, including “legal action if appropriate,” against governors who try to overrule school leaders on masking policies.

Biden added that money from the American Rescue Plan can be used to reimburse the salaries of teachers who are financially punished for trying to enforce mask mandates.

Joe Biden is now delivering his speech on the White House’s latest efforts to get more Americans vaccinated against coronavirus, as the Delta variant continues to spread across the US.

The president noted he just received a “lengthy briefing” from the White House pandemic response team, which included a discussion of the country’s latest coronavirus case numbers.

“We’re still in a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” Biden said. “There are people who are dying, and who will die, who didn’t have to.”

The president reiterated his plea to all eligible Americans to get their shot, saying, “If you haven’t gotten vaccinated, do it now.”

Joe Biden will outline his administration’s latest efforts to get more Americans vaccinated against coronavirus in a speech this afternoon.

The White House has now released a fact sheet previewing the president’s remarks, noting Biden will endorse health officials’ new recommendation for all Americans to get Pfizer and Moderna vaccine boosters starting next month.

Biden will also call on the department of health and human services to “develop new regulations requiring nursing homes to require that all of their workers be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of participating in the Medicare and Medicaid programs”.

That announcement is hugely significant because Medicaid covers more than 60% of all nursing home residents and roughly half of the costs for long-term care facilities, according to a 2020 report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The White House said the new HHS regulations “would apply to over 15,000 nursing home facilities, which employ approximately 1.3 million workers and serve approximately 1.6 million nursing home residents”.

Biden’s speech is set to begin in about five minutes, so stay tuned.

The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Mark Milley, said the US military does “fully intend to successfully evacuate all American citizens who want to get out of Afghanistan”.

The Kabul operation will likely become the second-largest civilian evacuation mission ever conducted by the US military, Milley noted.

One reporter pressed Milley and defense secretary Lloyd Austin about reports that Americans and vulnerable Afghans have had difficulty reaching the Kabul airport because of Taliban checkpoints near the airport.

Asked if the military was considering sending troops out into Kabul to help ensure people can safely reach the airport, Austin said that the focus right now is on maintaining the security of the airfield.

“We don’t have the capability to go out and collect up large numbers of people,” Austin said.

The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Mark Milley, insisted that US intelligence reports did not suggest the Taliban would be able to take control of Afghanistan so rapidly.

“There was nothing that I or anyone else saw that indicated a collapse of this army and this government in 11 days,” Milley said at a press conference with defense secretary Lloyd Austin.

That claim contradicts reports that military leaders had intelligence indicating the Afghan government could fall quite quickly once all US troops were withdrawn.

The Guardian’s Julian Borger, Hugo Lowell and Dan Sabbagh report:

Both the Trump and Biden administrations were warned by US intelligence that the Afghan army’s resistance to the Taliban could collapse ‘within days’ after an over-hasty withdrawal, according to a former CIA counter-terrorism chief.

Press accounts of White House decision-making in recent days have suggested that Joe Biden was led to believe that it might take 18 months for Kabul and Ashraf Ghani’s government to fall. Last week, unnamed officials were widely quoted as saying it could be 30 to 90 days.

Speaking to the nation on Monday, Biden said: ‘The truth is: This did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated.’

Douglas London, the CIA’s former counter-terrorism chief for south and south-west Asia, said the president was being ‘misleading at best’.

Joe Biden spoke to German Chancellor Angela Merkel today about the situation in Afghanistan, as evacuations efforts continue in Kabul.

“They praised the ongoing efforts of their military and civilian personnel who are working closely together in Kabul on the evacuation of their citizens, vulnerable Afghans, and the courageous Afghan nationals who worked tirelessly over the last 20 years to provide security, promote peace, and deliver development assistance to the Afghan people,” the White House said in a readout of the call.

“They also discussed the need for close coordination on the provision of humanitarian aid for vulnerable Afghans in country as well as support for neighboring states, and agreed to continue planning for this work in the upcoming virtual meeting of G7 partners.”

Biden’s conversation with Merkel comes one day after he spoke to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, which marked the US president’s first conversation with a major ally since the Taliban took control of Kabul.

Biden and Johnson “discussed the need for continued close coordination among allies and democratic partners on Afghanistan policy going forward,” according to the White House. “They agreed to hold a virtual G7 leaders’ meeting next week to discuss a common strategy and approach.”

Speaking at the White House press briefing yesterday, national security adviser Jake Sullivan pushed back against criticism that the Biden administration was caught flat-footed when it came to evacuating Americans out of Afghanistan.

“We communicated with American citizens for weeks, telling them to get out of the country. We offered financial assistance for those who wouldn’t be able to afford to get on flights themselves,” Sullivan said.

“Many chose to stay right until the end, and that was their choice. We now are faced with a circumstance where we have to help evacuate those. That’s our responsibility as the US government.”

He added, “The point I’m making is that when a civil war comes to an end with an opposing force marching on the capital, there are going to be scenes of chaos, there are going to be lots of people leaving the country. That is not something that can be fundamentally avoided.”

The Guardian’s Ben Doherty, Warren Murray and agencies report:

Taliban promises of “safe passage” to the Kabul airport for Afghans trying to flee the country have been undermined by reports of women and children being beaten and whipped as they try to pass through checkpoints set up by the militants.

With the Taliban in control of Afghanistan’s land border, Kabul airport is the only way out of the country. The US military has secured the airfield itself, after chaotic scenes over the weekend, but the Taliban control the road to the airport and have set up numerous checkpoints in Kabul’s north.

The US says the Taliban has committed to “safe passage” for people who want to reach the airport. But reports from the Afghan capital say there has been violence at checkpoints on Airport Road, including photographs of a woman and a child with head injuries after reportedly being beaten and whipped after trying to cross a checkpoint.

Sources in Kabul told the Guardian the Taliban were checking documents and forcibly turning some people around at checkpoints, refusing to let them reach the airport.

The US embassy in Kabul has released a security alert informing Americans still in Afghanistan that it “cannot ensure safe passage to the Hamid Karzai international airport”.

“U.S. government-provided flights are departing. U.S. citizens, LPRs, and their spouses and unmarried children (under age 21) should consider travelling to Hamid Karzai International Airport,” the embassy said in the alert.

“Please be advised that a significant number of individuals have registered and space on these flights is available on a first come, first serve basis. You may be required to wait at the airport for a significant amount of time until space is available.”

The embassy’s update comes amid reports that people have been beaten at Taliban checkpoints near the airport, preventing them from boarding departing flights.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan acknowledged those reports yesterday, saying at the White House briefing, “There have been instances where we have received reports of people being turned away or pushed back or even beaten.

“We are taking that up in a channel with the Taliban to try to resolve those issues. And we are concerned about whether that will continue to unfold in the coming days.”