| | |  | BY RENUKA RAYASAM | | With help from Myah Ward and Alex Ward SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK — It took me a few weeks, after I got vaccinated in April, to feel fully confident about returning to indoor socializing. My husband and I started slowly. I remember feeling so nervous about trying on clothes in a store even though I was masked and vaxxed. Then the Texas heat settled in and we fully embraced the idea of a return to normal — especially since it meant hanging out in air conditioning. We started taking the kids out to eat every Friday; we traveled; we even threw a dinner party with vaccinated friends. We moved to a new city last year in the middle of the pandemic. Once we were vaxxed, I thought, finally, we could find our bearings in a new place. But just when we were getting our footing, Covid cases started surging again, thanks to the Delta variant. In Texas, hospitals are on the brink of catastrophe. The budding sense of relief I had been feeling has been quashed by a renewal of anxiety and dread — this round, honestly, feels worse than the first. I reached out to a couple of experts who I have been in touch with throughout the pandemic to see if my paranoia was warranted. Distressingly, no one could give me the dose of optimism that I so desperately wanted. “We’re in uncharted territory,” Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, told me this afternoon. Osterholm has been warning for months that the country shouldn’t enter Covid complacency just because people were starting to become vaccinated. “We think we’re in control,” he said. “We’re not.” We’re in a phase now where lots of people are vaccinated — but not enough to keep Covid from spreading at high levels. On Tuesday CDC director Rochelle Walensky said the Biden administration always knew it would be tough to get enough people vaccinated.
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Clinicians depart a patient room after repositioning a Covid-19 patient into the supine position in the ICU at Lake Charles Memorial Hospital in Lake Charles, La. | Mario Tama/Getty Images | And just recently we learned that vaccinated people can spread the virus. The CDC found that fully vaccinated people can have the same viral load as the unvaccinated if infected. Even Covid precautions like proof of a negative test or vaccination didn’t keep the virus from spreading at an outdoor Dutch music festival — about 1,000 infections were linked to the two-day event attended by 20,000 people. And Covid is as worse as it’s ever been in places with low vaccination rates. Mississippi, where just 35 percent of state residents are vaccinated, reported its highest daily case count ever this week at almost 3,500. Hospitalizations have now surpassed what they were during the worst days of the winter surge, leaving Mississippi hospitals with almost zero ICU capacity. “It is distressing to see what’s going on and know that almost all of these deaths are preventable,” Mississippi State Health Officer Thomas Dobbs said today on a call with reporters that Nightly’s Myah Ward sat in on. Even unvaccinated younger adults and kids are getting sicker at higher rates than ever before. Covid patients are swamping children's hospitals. Is there any hope out there? Yes, says Abraar Karan, an infectious disease fellow at Stanford. “It’s not the same pandemic as a year ago,” he told me. “We are dealing with a different variant, but the variant is dealing with a different population.” Unlike the early days of the pandemic we aren’t debating how the virus spreads. We have treatments that are effective. And, despite the alarming headlines, vaccines are effective. In the U.K. high vaccination levels and public caution have led to cases to drop, though levels are ticking back up. If you have any doubts, check out this guy.
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| Breakthrough infections aren’t a sign of failure at all. If you are out and about, you will be exposed to Covid, Karan says. But if you are vaccinated, there’s a good chance you’d never know. Even Osterholm agrees that the decreasing death rate because of the high vaccination levels in older people is a bright spot. Still I wondered, how long do we have to keep making these complicated risk-benefit calculations? This was honestly one of the more exhausting parts of the pandemic — having to constantly weigh every social outing and decision. Karan said he has a friend whose father is vaccinated, but immunocompromised so they are constantly talking about risks and benefits of certain activities. On Thursday the FDA will authorize third doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for people with weakened immune systems. Last year Osterholm told me that he would see his five grandchildren in brief outdoor outings. Now that he’s vaccinated — the grandkids are too young to be — he’s being extra vigilant about limiting his exposure. “If I get infected, will I transmit the virus to them?” he said. “Maybe they get infected because they are out doing youth activities?” “This is a very difficult dance with this virus,” Osterholm said. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas for us at nightly@politico.com. Or contact tonight’s author at rrayasam@politico.com and on Twitter at @renurayasam.
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| | A message from AT&T: Accessible, affordable broadband helps communities reach their American Dream. That’s why AT&T is making a $2 billion, 3-year commitment toward helping close the digital divide, so more low-income families have the ability to succeed. Find out how. | | | | | | 
Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul speaks during a press conference at the New York State Capitol in Albany. | Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images | ‘THERE WILL BE TURNOVER’ — Governor-to-be Kathy Hochul separated herself from disgraced Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration during her first public address since Cuomo resigned Tuesday, POLITICO’s Anna Gronewold writes from Albany. Hochul, who will be New York’s 57th governor and the first woman to lead the state, said today she was “not aware of any of the allegations whatsoever” detailed in Attorney General Tish James’ damning report of sexual harassment claims against Cuomo by 11 women — nine of whom were employed by the state. But during a packed news conference in Albany, Hochul pledged to rid the administration of any staffer implicated in the report and create an environment of transparency and trust — a juxtaposition to the toxicity of Cuomo and his advisers that James laid bare after a five-month investigation. “No one who was named as doing anything unethical in the report will remain in my administration,” Hochul said. “There will be turnover.” The lieutenant governor, who chastised Cuomo’s behavior in the wake of the James report, avoided direct attacks today, but maintained her approach to government would be a departure from that of her predecessor.
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| | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president’s ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | | | — Federal judge says Trump’s accountants must turn over tax records to House panel: A federal judge has ruled that former President Donald Trump’s accountants must turn over two years’ worth of his tax and financial records to a House committee investigating whether Trump and his businesses profited from his White House tenure. U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta today approved a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee subpoena for Trump’s records covering 2017 and 2018 — but turned down most of the panel’s request for similar information dating back to 2011. — GOP prays Sinema and Manchin pare back Dems’ big spending bill: Senate Republicans can’t stop Democrats from spending as much as $3.5 trillion more on social priorities like climate change in the coming months. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema can, though, and the GOP lobbying effort is already underway . After 19 GOP senators boosted a bipartisan infrastructure plan past a filibuster and onto the House, Republicans are yearning for results from their cooperation with Manchin and Sinema’s effort. Namely, they’re hoping to persuade the senior Democratic senators from West Virginia and Arizona to buck their party and shave down the social spending bill by holding out their votes. — Newsom to announce nation’s first vax-or-test rules for teachers: Gov. Gavin Newsom announced today that California will require all teachers and school employees to be vaccinated or submit to regular Covid-19 testing, the first such state requirement amid growing Delta variant concerns, according to sources familiar with the plan. Under the policy, school employees would have to show proof of vaccination to their districts. The move comes after three large California districts announced similar requirements on their own Tuesday and just two days after American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten voiced support for such a mandate. — Biden’s highest-ranking Muslim nominee mired in GOP blockade: Accusations of Islamophobia and anti-Israel bias are bogging down the confirmation of an under-the-radar Biden administration nominee, who, if confirmed, would be the highest-ranking Muslim in its ranks. The White House tapped Dilawar Syed for the No. 2 post at the Small Business Administration in March, but the Senate Small Business Committee has been unable to advance Syed’s nomination as Republicans criticize what they say is the veteran businessman’s association with an “anti-Israel” Muslim American group. — Rand Paul cut off from YouTube for a week following criticism of face masks: YouTube took action against Sen. Rand Paul this week, removing a video from him and halting his ability to publish content for a week. The ban came after Paul — an ophthalmologist who graduated from Duke Medical School — posted a clip challenging the utility of mask-wearing to slow the spread of the coronavirus. It is the second time the platform has removed a video from Paul, who has made himself a frequent antagonist to Anthony Fauci when the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has testified before Congress.
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| | | | | THE REPORT STILL SHAKING THE WORLD — The planet’s top scientists said in a monumental report released on Monday they have definitively linked greenhouse gas emissions to the type of disasters driven by a warmer climate that have touched every corner of the globe this year. And, in the below video, climate and energy reporter Zack Colman explains why policymakers will need to pay attention to the report’s findings.
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| | SUBSCRIBE TO "THE RECAST" TODAY: Power is shifting in Washington and in communities across the country. More people are demanding a seat at the table, insisting that politics is personal and not all policy is equitable. The Recast is a twice-weekly newsletter that explores the changing power dynamics in Washington and breaks down how race and identity are recasting politics and policy in America. Get fresh insights, scoops and dispatches on this crucial intersection from across the country and hear critical new voices that challenge business as usual. Don't miss out, SUBSCRIBE . Thank you to our sponsor, Intel. | | | | | | | GRIM UPDATE OUT OF KABUL — The Taliban could take Kabul within 90 days, according to a new military assessment. With that news in mind, we reached back out to Alexander Ward, who writes POLITICO’s new National Security Daily newsletter, to see whether he changed his analysis about the war in Afghanistan. He sends us this dispatch: “The situation in Afghanistan has only gotten worse since we last spoke. The Taliban has captured more cities, the Afghan government is replacing its army chief of staff, and the U.S. is discussing options about how to get its own personnel in the country to safety. This isn’t to say Afghanistan is ‘lost’ to the Taliban, but it’s not looking good. “We’re not in the worst-case scenario yet, which is when the Taliban makes a serious play for control of Kabul. But the new military assessment shows that it’s possible we’ll reach that worst-case scenario sooner than we think. “But the Biden administration isn’t wavering, and instead says the Afghan government has enough training, equipment, and troops to fight back. The president himself said he doesn’t regret his decision, even as the militant group sweeps across the country faster than many expected. Biden and his team are steadfast that the U.S. is out of the war and that airstrikes against the Taliban will cease by August 31. “The Pentagon may ask for authorization for one-off strikes from the White House, but who knows if Biden will sign off. It’s something to watch for sure, as the pressure will definitely be on Biden to ‘do something.’”
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| | | FROM REDISTRICTING TO REPRESENTATION — A newly drawn San Francisco supervisor district anchored by the Castro, a famous gay neighborhood, helped Harvey Milk become the first out elected official in California. Now, the same principle that lifted Milk decades ago is at the center of a redistricting campaign to boost lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender candidates around the country next year, Ally Mutnick writes. The LGBTQ Victory Fund is launching a first-of-its-kind effort to lobby redistricting authorities in different states to consider gay populations as “communities of interest” in map-drawing, the same status given to Black and Latino voters, and other racial and ethnic groups. That means mapmakers draw some districts so those groups can elect their candidate of choice in local, state or federal races. Those “opportunity districts” have contributed to explosive growth of people of color in elected office. And even four decades later, Milk’s story illustrates the potentially transformative power of redistricting. The famed gay rights icon lost two previous campaigns in San Francisco before the creation of a new district that didn’t dilute the electoral power of gay voters. “It’s about the awareness that these communities exist, and not to just ignore them and to dismiss them,” said state Rep. Brianna Titone, the first trans legislator in Colorado, who signed a letter urging her state’s redistricting commission to keep gay neighborhoods united. “We do have a collective voice that we want to be heard.”
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