POLITICO NIGHTLY: Biden’s Ukraine tightrope

 

BY TYLER WEYANT GETTING LOUDER ON THE EASTERN FRONT — The White House continues to walk a tightrope when it comes to Russia, balancing shows of military strength with attempts to keep diplomacy alive. President Joe Biden made a move to bolster that strength today by announcing that about 2,000 U.S.-based troops are heading to Poland and Germany, while shifting 1,000 from Germany to Romania. Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said in a press briefing today that “these are not permanent moves,” but reassurance for allies as Russia continues its buildup of troops along Ukraine’s borders. And reassurance has also taken a linguistic turn, as White House press secretary Jen Psaki said today the White House would no longer use the word “imminent” to describe a potential Russian invasion, as it sent an “unintended” message. What do these shifts in the placement of troops and the selection of words mean for the prospect of war? To find the answers to this and more, we chatted over Slack with Defense reporter Paul McLeary. This conversation has been edited. What can 3,000 troops do? Is the main purpose for these forces a symbolic show of unity? Or will they have specific missions in helping deter Russian aggression in the region? The troops won’t be in Ukraine, and won’t be directly on the border, either. But as NATO debates whether to activate its 40,000-strong NATO Response Force, the deployments show that the United States is willing to move unilaterally, and with some force. The 1,700 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne heading to Poland are some of the best in the Army, and the highly mobile troops from the 2nd Cavalry Regiment moving from Germany to Romania can cover a lot of ground very quickly, and are something the Romanian government has previously asked to deploy to their country. Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby, seen in reflection, speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon in Washington. | AP Photo/Andrew Harnik Do we think this will be the only deployment of troops in the near term to Eastern Europe? And do we know if officials have come up with events that would trigger further moves? The Pentagon said today that there are still around 8,500 troops on alert in the U.S., and others in Europe that could move quickly if called upon. Hungary, which borders Ukraine, has already said it’s not interested in any more allied troops, but Slovakia and the three Baltic countries have all said loud and clear they would welcome more American troops at any time. The likeliest way would be for more troops to move from Germany into the Baltics, where the American footprint is very small. There are about 100 U.S. forces in Lithuania, and 60 in Latvia and Estonia on temporary assignments, as opposed to the 4,000 in Poland and 900 already in Romania. Just this past week, the 81st Stryker Brigade Combat Team — a National Guard unit from Washington state — arrived in Poland, and they could move into any of the three Baltic countries quickly. Along with troops, can we expect more equipment and weapons — what the Pentagon calls “lethal aid” — to enter the region? Without a doubt. The Biden administration is more than happy to publicize the weaponry it is sending to Ukraine, which included about 300 Javelin anti-tank missiles last month, and several tons of small arms ammo. It’s relatively easy for the U.S. to push new arms shipments into Ukraine, and over the last several weeks, Poland and the U.K. have very publicly delivered lethal weapons. But there’s a limit. The things the Ukrainians really want — Patriot air defense systems, multiple rocket launchers, advanced drones, armored vehicles, and artillery — are more expensive and take months to train crews to use them. In the short term, the U.S. assistance will likely remain at the level of ammunition, counter-mortar radars, medical supplies and anti-tank missiles. Do regional partners seem satisfied with the moves and support being provided by the U.S. up to now? It’s an incredibly fluid situation, but for the most part NATO seems to be speaking with one voice. That doesn’t mean there aren’t internal power dynamics at work. The French want the situation in Ukraine to be handled by continental powers ... with France in the lead. The British appear to be looking at the situation as an opportunity to flex some muscle and show leadership in the wake of Brexit and declining defense budgets, while Germany is pursuing a purely diplomatic track. The smaller NATO allies in the Baltic region and countries along the alliance’s eastern border (save Hungary, where PM Viktor Orban held a press conference with Vladimir Putin in Moscow Tuesday where he sympathized with the Russian stance) want more U.S. involvement, and they want it now. Today’s troop deployment announcement temporarily fills that need, but don’t be surprised to see more U.S. troops, and more weapons, heading to Europe in the coming weeks. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Washington’s professional football team has a new name: The Commanders. Hopefully they can command slightly more success than one playoff win since 2000. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com. Or contact tonight’s author at tweyant@politico.com, or on Twitter at @tweyant. WHAT'D I MISS? — Trump considered blanket pardons for Jan. 6 rioters before he left office: In the final days of his presidency, Donald Trump seriously considered issuing a blanket pardon for all participants in the Jan. 6 riot , according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. Between Jan. 6 and Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20, Trump made three calls to one adviser to discuss the idea. “Do you think I should pardon them? Do you think it’s a good idea? Do you think I have the power to do it?” Trump told the person, who summarized their conversations. Another adviser to the former president said Trump asked questions about how participants in the riot might be charged criminally, and how a uniform pardon could provide them protection going forward. — CNN President Jeff Zucker resigns after relationship with colleague: CNN President Jeff Zucker resigned abruptly today, saying he had been engaged in a consensual relationship with a colleague that he didn’t disclose. “I was asked about a consensual relationship with my closest colleague, someone I have worked with for more than 20 years,” Zucker wrote in a memo sent to company staff, obtained by POLITICO. “I acknowledged the relationship evolved in recent years. I was required to disclose it when it began but I didn’t. I was wrong.” — Jan. 6 select committee subpoenas phone records of Arizona GOP chair: The Jan. 6 select committee has subpoenaed the phone records of Arizona GOP Chair Kelli Ward and her husband, Michael Ward, who both signed documents falsely claiming to be among their state’s presidential electors in 2020. The Wards filed suit Tuesday against the House panel in federal court in Arizona seeking to block the couple’s phone provider, T-Mobile, from sharing their records with the committee. The lawsuit has been assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Susan Brnovich, the wife of Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, an ally of Trump who is running for Senate. — Directed-energy could explain unsolved ‘Havana Syndrome’ cases, U.S. intelligence panel finds: A panel convened by the U.S. intelligence community has assessed that the core symptoms of some unsolved “Havana Syndrome” cases cannot be explained by mass hysteria or psychosomatic effects alone, and could be caused by pulsed electromagnetic or ultrasonic energy. The panel, which consists of medical experts and scientists both inside and outside the government, did not attempt to attribute the incidents to a specific device or operator. It instead examined “causal mechanisms” and found that the effects of the mysterious illness are “genuine and compelling,” according to an executive summary declassified this week and released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. AROUND THE WORLD Wolfgang Kindl of Austria speeds past the Olympic rings during a men's luge training run at the 2022 Winter Olympics in the Yanqing district of Beijing. | AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein PRE-OLYMPICS, MERKLEY SLAMS U.N. ON CHINA — Sen. Jeff Merkley slammed United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres’ decision to attend the upcoming Winter Olympics in Beijing despite diplomatic boycotts by multiple nations, including the U.S., over accusations of human rights violations by the Chinese government, Joseph Gedeon writes. “The U.N. has basically failed human rights,” Merkley (D-Ore.) said in an interview with POLITICO, citing China’s record on abuse, surveillance and freedom of speech. “It’s shameful for António Guterres to appear at the games.” A spokesperson for Guterres did not immediately return a request for comment on Merkley’s criticism. But the secretary-general was asked last month about attending the Olympics, which he said must be considered an “instrument for peace.” “The Olympic Games is an extremely important event, and it’s an event that symbolizes the role of sports in bringing people together and in promoting peace,” Guterres said at a January press conference. “And it is in this strict context and without any political dimension that I intend to be present in the opening.” Late last year, the United States signed into law the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which alleged that China is carrying out an ongoing genocide against the Uyghurs, a Muslim group in China’s western Xinjiang region. NIGHTLY NUMBER At least 53 The number of Republican House candidates who raised more than $500,000 last quarter, compared to 38 Democratic candidates, according to a POLITICO analysis of Federal Election Commission data. Back in the fourth quarter of 2019 — the same point in the last election cycle — some 60 Democrats raised more than $500,000, but only 27 Republicans did. PARTING WORDS RESTRAINT CAUCUS RESTRAINED — Biden’s face-off with Russian leader Vladimir Putin over Ukraine has deeply unsettled progressive lawmakers and other advocates of a restrained U.S. foreign policy, leaving them struggling to mount a coherent response, Nahal Toosi writes. These so-called restrainers had hoped that the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan marked the start of a new, more judicious phase of American power projection abroad. Less than six months later, many fear that — despite Biden’s pledge not to put American troops in the line of fire — the United States is bluffing its way into a war with Russia. In Congress, some progressive Democrats are trying to devise a unified message on how the United States should approach the Ukraine crisis, according to a senior Democratic staffer. The effort comes amid broad bipartisan support for a new sanctions package on Russia pushed by more hawkish lawmakers, including Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “Progressives are trying to carve out a space to support Ukraine’s democracy and independence while not getting drawn into the dumb hawkish bidding wars that end up foreclosing diplomatic options and getting more people killed,” the senior Democratic staffer said. Last week, two progressive Democrats issued a statement chiding the Biden administration for preparing troop deployments to Europe and military aid to Ukraine that the lawmakers said could escalate the crisis.   Follow us on Twitter Chris Suellentrop @suellentrop Tyler Weyant @tweyant Renuka Rayasam @renurayasam Myah Ward @myahward   FOLLOW US

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POLITICO NIGHTLY: The Medicare-size hole in Biden’s testing plan

 

 

BY RENUKA RAYASAM

Presented by AT&T

Covid-19 rapid at-home test kits rest on a table at a free distribution event for those who received vaccination shots or booster shots at Union Station in Los Angeles. | Mario Tama/Getty Images

A NEW KIND OF MEDI-GAP — With Covid daily case counts three times higher than the country’s previous peak last January, the Biden administration has made testing a larger part of its pandemic strategy.

The hyped website that offers free tests directly to the door of every American is actually a small part of the administration’s plan, limited to just four tests per household. The bigger part of the testing plan includes new guidance that, starting this week, private insurers must cover the costs of eight over-the-counter rapid tests per person every month — another 32 free tests for a family of four.

But there’s a giant loophole: The at-home tests won’t be reimbursed by Medicare, which covers about 64 million people who are either 65 and older or have long-term disabilities.

About 42 percent of Medicare beneficiaries are in what’s called an Advantage plan — run by private insurers with generally broader coverage that Medicare beneficiaries can buy into — and some of them will be covered. But the Advantage plans aren’t required to cover the tests.

And if you’re one of the 58 percent of Medicare beneficiaries without an Advantage plan? You can get a test through the new website or at a clinic or doctor’s office, but you can’t get reimbursed for buying the rapid, at-home tests over the counter.

These are the Americans who are in the demographic cohort that is most vulnerable to Covid complications. This is the group with the highest Covid risk factors . People 65 and older have made up almost three-quarters of all Covid deaths during the pandemic, according to the CDC.

Medicare, including the part with the Advantage plans, is not designed to cover things that people can get over the counter, without a prescription, said Tricia Neuman, a Medicare expert at the Kaiser Family Foundation, who was recently nominated by Biden to serve on Medicare’s board of trustees. The rules-heavy program bills enrolled providers like hospitals, doctors, labs and pharmacies directly for expenses. It doesn’t reimburse patients the way a flexible spending account or a commercial insurer sometimes does.

“There is not a structure in place that is ready made for reimbursement,” she said.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the agency responsible for running the program, told Nightly that people in the program can get tested for free through their health care provider or one of 20,000 testing sites. Medicare covers Covid tests that are done by a lab. A doctor can order a test, making them free to Medicare patients. Some clinics are also distributing free rapid, at-home tests.

CMS is also encouraging Medicare Advantage plans to voluntarily cover the tests. But it can’t require the plans to pay for them. It’s unclear right now how many of the Advantage plans are planning to reimburse people who buy the at-home tests.

Those measures aren’t enough, some advocates and lawmakers say. Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), chair of the Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee, urged the Biden administration, in a letter sent Wednesday, to expand the coverage of at-home tests to Medicare beneficiaries.

“There is a bigger question about how long it will take to adopt a fix and whether it would require a change of law or whether CMS could do this on its own,” Neuman said.

No one seems to know the answer to Neuman’s question. The agency didn’t get back to Nightly about whether it could fix the issue under the Medicare statute, without new legislation.

Nor has CMS told AARP how or whether it will address the issue, said Andrew Scholnick, AARP’s senior legislative representative in government affairs.

Going to a doctor or pharmacy or another site to get a lab-based test that Medicare will pay for is a huge barrier, Scholnick said. A supply of rapid, at-home tests laying around the house would help seniors more easily figure out whether they can gather with friends and relatives or go to a crowded setting.

“To say that they shouldn’t have the same level of access to at home tests is ridiculous,” he said. “This is unfair and bad policy.”

Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com. Or contact tonight’s author at rrayasam@politico.com, or on Twitter at @RenuRayasam.

 

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WHAT'D I MISS?

— Some Democrats not ready to give up on child credit: They’re balking at suggestions by the White House to drop their bid to revive their signature Child Tax Credit plan . One day after President Joe Biden appeared ready to concede it may fall by the wayside, some lawmakers said they are not giving up on the proposal, which is included in a sweeping package stalled in the Senate.

— Georgia DA asks for special grand jury in election probe: The Georgia prosecutor looking into possible attempts to interfere in the 2020 general election by former President Donald Trump and others has asked for a special grand jury to aid the investigation . Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis sent a letter to Fulton County Superior Court Chief Judge Christopher Brasher asking him to impanel a special grand jury. She wrote in the letter that her office “has received information indicating a reasonable probability that the State of Georgia’s administration of elections in 2020, including the State’s election of the President of the United States, was subject to possible criminal disruptions.”

— Jan. 6 panel will target Ivanka Trump for questioning: Jan. 6 investigators revealed today they’re going after Ivanka Trump, whom senior White House aides viewed as a last-ditch resort to convince Donald Trump to address rioters during the Capitol attack , according to evidence and testimony released today. “He didn’t say yes to Mark Meadows, Kayleigh McEnanay or Keith Kellogg, but he might say yes to his daughter?” a committee investigator asked of Kellogg, a top Trump White House official, during a recent interview, according to a testimony transcript published by the panel.

 

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— U.S. drops case against MIT professor accused of ties to China: The Justice Department dropped its case today against a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor charged last year with concealing research ties to the Chinese government , saying it could “no longer meet its burden of proof at trial.” The department revealed its decision in the case against Gang Chen in a single-page filing in federal court in Boston.

— SEC blocks Anthony Scaramucci’s Bitcoin fund: The Securities and Exchange Commission rejected Anthony Scaramucci’s proposal to launch a Bitcoin-based investment fund, saying it would be too risky for investors. The proposal by Scaramucci — a financier best known for his 10 days as former President Donald Trump’s communications director in 2017 — would have let investors on the New York Stock Exchange buy shares in a fund backed by the Bitcoin digital currency. It’s just one of several exchange-traded funds being pitched as a way to let individuals speculate on the price of Bitcoin without having to buy it directly.

 

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AROUND THE WORLD

President Joe Biden meets with members of his Infrastructure Implementation Task Force. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

BIDEN CLARIFIES ‘INCURSION’ REMARK — Biden personally sought to clarify his remarks about a potential “minor incursion” by Russian forces into Ukraine , which top Ukrainian government officials condemned as needlessly provocative amid a broader White House effort to clean up the president’s statements.

Speaking ahead of a White House infrastructure meeting, Biden said he has been “absolutely clear” with Russian President Vladimir Putin and that his Kremlin counterpart “has no misunderstanding: Any — any — assembled Russian units move across the Ukrainian border, that is an invasion.”

Such an invasion would be met with a “severe and coordinated economic response” by the United States and its European allies, which has already been “laid out very clearly” for Putin, Biden said.

“Let there be no doubt at all,” Biden added. “If Putin makes this choice, Russia will pay a heavy price.”

Biden’s latest remarks today represented a slight revision of his comments at a White House news conference Wednesday, during which he predicted Putin’s forces will “move in” on Ukraine and outlined his thinking surrounding potential responses to such aggression.

 

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NIGHTLY NUMBER

About 10 days The amount of time between now and when the intelligence community’s expert panel on Havana Syndrome is expected to wrap up its work, according to Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.). Top senators are downplaying and criticizing a new interim CIA assessment on the mysterious illness known as Havana Syndrome, the latest salvo in a years-long battle for transparency between Capitol Hill and the intelligence agencies.

PARTING WORDS

‘PLEASE DADDY, NO MORE ZOOM SCHOOL’ — The Omicron surge is depleting California teachers and keeping students home in unprecedented numbers, but political leaders aren’t yet willing to broach the alternative: distance learning.

Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic leaders who allowed school shutdowns early in the pandemic are holding firm on keeping classrooms open, Alexander Nieves writes. They’ve had support from the California Teachers Association despite some educators on the ground saying that working conditions are untenable due to staff shortages. And school districts are going to extreme lengths to keep students in classrooms, pulling retired teachers off the sidelines and recruiting office staff — at times even superintendents — to teach lessons.

It’s a dramatic turn for a state that once had the nation’s longest pandemic closures.

“I’m very, very sensitive to this, the learning opportunities that are lost because kids are not safely in school, the challenges of going online,” Newsom said when asked this month about distance learning. “My son, we had fits and starts, he’s in and out of school, said, ‘Please, Daddy, no more Zoom school.’”

The Sacramento City Unified School District released a statement Friday calling on local residents to “Sub-in and be a hero” by getting an emergency substitute teacher credential. Palo Alto schools have turned to parent volunteers for food service, office assistance and other on-campus jobs.

 

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POLITICO NIGHTLY: Biden’s next foreign policy crisis

 

BY NAHAL TOOSI With help from Renuka Rayasam Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed salutes members of the Ethiopian Military as they march during an inaugural celebration after Ahmed was sworn in for a second five year term in October in Addis Ababa. | Jemal Countess/Getty Images IF IT ISN’T HERE ALREADY — President Joe Biden is clearly not a fan of using U.S. military force unless absolutely necessary. (See: Afghanistan.) His administration’s preference is a “diplomacy first” approach to foreign policy. This might seem like a no-brainer. Of course you’d want to try talking before shooting. Plus, there’s no guarantee that shooting — meaning, using the U.S. military — will bring about a positive solution anyway. In fact, it could make things much worse. But diplomacy doesn’t always work, even when you bundle it with everything from economic sanctions to visa bans to trade penalties. Case in point: Ethiopia. This week marks a year since a vicious conflict erupted in that country, pitting federal forces against rebels from the Tigray region. The death toll is believed to be in the thousands, while hundreds of thousands face starvation. War crimes? Quite likely. The Biden administration has taken a step-by-step approach to the conflict , including repeatedly dispatching a special envoy to cajole the warring parties while authorizing sanctions, imposing visa bans and more. How is that going? The country’s capital, Addis Ababa, is now in danger, and the United States is slashing its embassy staff while urging Americans to leave the country. That sounds depressingly familiar. When I asked a senior State Department official why nothing seems to be working, the official seemed exasperated with me. His answer came down to this: The leaders in the conflict are too stubborn to listen. That includes Nobel Peace Prize-winning (yes, you read that right) Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. The official’s exact words: “The problem is that you have multiple objects that heretofore have proven largely unmovable,” he said. “It remains to be seen whether the shifting dynamic will cause at least one of those objects to show a little more flexibility.” So yes, maybe after the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, it makes a lot of sense to insist on a diplomacy-first U.S. foreign policy. But it is certainly no guarantee that you will achieve your goals. All is not lost in Ethiopia. Pressure from the United Nations and other African countries, and maybe even sheer exhaustion, could over time help bring the conflict down to a simmer if not extinguish it. Or maybe one of the parties will win on the battlefield. For now, though, it appears the best U.S. diplomacy can do is find ways to help the suffering civilians caught in the conflict while doing its best to nudge seemingly unmovable objects. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com. Or contact tonight’s author at ntoosi@politico.com, or on Twitter at @nahaltoosi.   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.     ON THE HILL AS THE VOTES TURN — After a multi-day whipping bonanza, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her leadership team dramatically altered course today to satisfy a handful of recalcitrant moderates who refused to back Biden’s $1.75 trillion social spending bill. Instead, Democrats are set to again delay a vote on that party-line measure and turn their sights to just the $550 billion Senate-passed infrastructure bill — bending to the demands of their most vocal centrists in a last-ditch attempt to deliver at least one legislative win for Biden. “Today we have an opportunity to proceed down a path to advance a very historic and transformative agenda,” Pelosi told reporters late this afternoon. Democrats do still plan to advance their broader $1.75 trillion climate and social safety net bill, set for passage without GOP votes, but it would only be a procedural move — some momentum, but not enough for many progressives. Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) issued a firm statement on Friday afternoon rejecting the move to vote on infrastructure without the broader spending plan. “If our six colleagues still want to wait” to vote on a party-line social spending bill in order to give time for a budget score, Jayapal said, “we would agree to give them that time — after which point we can vote on both bills together.” The maneuver, pushed by senior members of the Congressional Black Caucus, is a huge risk for Democratic leaders that reverses a promise to their left wing to move both of Biden’s priorities in tandem. While that move is certain to cost them at least a handful of liberal votes for the bipartisan infrastructure bill, senior Democrats believe they can make up most of those from the GOP side of the aisle.   BECOME A GLOBAL INSIDER: The world is more connected than ever. It has never been more essential to identify, unpack and analyze important news, trends and decisions shaping our future — and we’ve got you covered! Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Global Insider author Ryan Heath navigates the global news maze and connects you to power players and events changing our world. Don’t miss out on this influential global community. Subscribe now.     AROUND THE NATION STOCK UP THE MEDICINE CABINET — Nightly’s Renuka Rayasam emails: Until October, our family had largely steered clear of crowded indoor gatherings — our two toddlers aren’t vaccinated against Covid. But my husband, full of childhood nostalgia, couldn’t resist an invitation we got to a kids’ birthday party at Peter Piper Pizza, a cavernous space, teeming with other families celebrating fall birthdays with skeeball. Two days later, our eldest son started sneezing and coughing and was exhausted. I was next. Then the illness sidelined my mother-in-law, who spent a day watching my son while he was at home from daycare. At the end of the week, when my son still hadn’t recovered, we took him to the pediatrician who examined and tested him. Turns out it was just a routine cold. Get used to this, said Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco. After a year and a half of masking and hand sanitizer and social distancing, our immune systems have largely been shielded from pathogens that we commonly encounter in our lives. But now, as Covid fatigue sets in, the holidays approach, indoor gatherings rise and kids vaccinated against Covid start to venture out in the world, we are going to get sick — a lot. “People’s immune systems have been detrained,” Gandhi said. Pathogens are hungry for hosts. That means it could take a lot less virus to make us feel a lot more ill. The CDC is warning of a massive rebound of flu cases this winter, but as with Covid at least there is a flu vaccine. There are other viruses illnesses without vaccines that are spreading rapidly: rhinoviruses, adenoviruses, other coronaviruses that cause common colds, paramyxovirus, parainfluenza, croup and strep throat. On Monday, when I thought our family was in the clear, the kids — and my husband — started throwing up. We saw a version of this in the spring when people first started venturing out. Out of season colds and RSV cases surged in the United States. But things are set to get a lot worse this winter with even more people circulating indoors. Students at the University of Dayton have coined the term “Dayton Plague” for a non-Covid respiratory illness that’s been making the rounds. Still, the return of routine pathogens isn’t actually all bad. “For the average child, having a cold is a wonderful training ground for an immune system,” said C. Buddy Creech, a pediatric infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University. There is evidence that getting sick early in life can protect us against more severe illnesses in the future. Gandhi, who was part of the NIH’s Human Microbiome Project, has been worried that our immune systems aren’t seeing enough germs. “I’ve been trying to get my kids colds recently,” she said. “I know the desperate need for immune diversity.” Still this spike in formerly routine illnesses isn’t without risk. Colds can lead to ear infections and pneumonia too, warns Creech. The other complication? The FDA is set to authorize molnupiravir, an oral antiviral, that is most effective when given early. But because respiratory viruses often share symptoms with Covid, more testing will be required to figure out whether a patient has a severe cold or mild Covid. “It’s going to be a confusing winter,” Gandhi said. WHAT'D I MISS? Alma Powell, widow of former Secretary of State Colin Powell, shakes hands with guests as she leads family and friends out of Washington National Cathedral following her husband's funeral service. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images — Family, friends gather to honor Colin Powell: Friends, family and former colleagues gathered today at Washington National Cathedral to honor Colin L. Powell, the trailblazing soldier-diplomat who rose from humble Bronx beginnings to become the first Black chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and later served as the first Black secretary of state. The funeral drew dignitaries and friends from across a wide political and military spectrum. They included former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, former Secretaries of State James Baker, Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton, former Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the current chair of the Joint Chiefs, Army Gen. Mark Milley, as well as other service chiefs. — State Dept. names new coordinator on ‘Havana Syndrome’ cases: The State Department named a new coordinator today for its investigation into cases of so-called Havana Syndrome , responding to increased pressure from lawmakers to investigate and respond to hundreds of brain injuries reported by diplomats and intelligence officers. Secretary of State Antony Blinken appointed a high-ranking deputy, Jonathan Moore, to coordinate the department’s task force on the cases. He replaces Pamela Spratlen, a retired diplomat temporarily called back into service by Blinken before leaving in September. She had faced criticism from some victims. — U.S. hiring rebounded in October, with 531,000 jobs added: America’s employers stepped up their hiring in October, adding a solid 531,000 jobs, the most since July and a sign that the recovery from the pandemic recession may be overcoming a virus-induced slowdown. Today’s report from the Labor Department also showed that the unemployment rate fell to 4.6 percent last month, from 4.8 percent in September. That is a comparatively low level but still well above the pre-pandemic jobless rate of 3.5 percent. — Florida begins recount in nearly tied contest for Alcee Hastings’ former seat: Florida has formally ordered a machine recount in the Florida congressional race where the top two candidates in the crowded Democratic primary are separated by just three votes . Secretary of State Laurel Lee approved the recount for Florida’s 20th congressional district late Thursday evening, and local election offices began running ballots through machines this morning. The winner of the Democratic primary is all-but guaranteed to win the safely Democratic seat that was held for years by Rep. Alcee Hastings, who died in spring. The special election will be held on Jan. 11. — Pentagon bearing down on Biden to shelve nuclear reforms: Biden’s pledge to limit the role of nuclear weapons is facing growing resistance from Pentagon officials and their hawkish allies, who are arguing to keep the status quo in the face of Chinese and Russian arms buildups. Biden’s top national security advisers will soon review the conditions under which the United States might resort to using nuclear weapons. Among the options are adopting a “no first use” policy, or declaring that the “sole purpose” of the arsenal is to deter a nuclear conflict and not use them in response to a conventional war or other strategic assault like a cyberattack. NIGHTLY NUMBER 2 The number of times Virginia Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin’s 17-year-old son, who is not old enough to vote, tried to cast a ballot in Tuesday’s gubernatorial election, Fairfax County officials said in a statement published by multiple outlets today. AROUND THE WORLD FOR THOSE TIRED OF OLD DISEASE WORRIES — France has put the entire country on high alert for bird flu, the French ministry of agriculture announced today. According to new measures, all French poultry farmers will have to keep their flock indoors. Other protective restrictions include the prohibition of any gathering together of live flocks, enhanced conditions for bird transport and daily clinical monitoring of all farms. Since the beginning of August, 130 cases or outbreaks of bird flu have been detected in wildlife or in farms in Europe, particularly in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea regions. “In this context and with the approach of the migratory period at risk, France is in a situation of strong vigilance,” the ministry said in a statement. Last winter, French authorities were forced to cull some 700,000 ducks to stop the spread of the virus. PUNCHLINES ELECTION PIZZA HANGOVER — The seismic election results in Virginia and New Jersey were fertile ground for political satire and cartoons, and Matt Wuerker covers the latest in his Weekend Wrap , also featuring the ongoing congressional negotiations on Biden’s agenda and the COP26 conference.   Follow us on Twitter Chris Suellentrop @suellentrop Tyler Weyant @tweyant Renuka Rayasam @renurayasam Myah Ward @myahward   FOLLOW US

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