We Need More Covid Booster Shots, Not Less

We begin with the FDA’s decision on Friday not to allow Pfizer to offer Covid booster shots for Americans 16 and older but instead to make them available to those 65 and older, as well as to front line medical workers and to people who have compromised immune systems. Joining us with a criticism of the FDA’s decision is William Haseltine, Chair and President of Access Health International who was a professor at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health whose latest book is A Family Guide to Covid and a recently updated version of Variants: The Shape-Shifting Challenge of Covid-19. We discuss his article at CNN “The Covid crisis is sneaky. Booster shots can protect us from it” and how the potency of Pfizer wears off although not so much with Moderna, and that we should prepare ourselves for annual or semi-annual Covid vaccines in the years to come.

 

Rethinking U.S. Drone Policy While Repairing Trump’s Damage to Our National Security

Then we look into the August 29 drone strike in Kabul which killed an aid worker and nine members of his family including seven children. After calling it “righteous” the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs had to apologize along with the head of CENTCOM and we will speak with Rachel Stohl, Vice President For Research Programs at the Stimson Center who focuses on the international arms trade and children in armed conflict. She joins us to discuss her latest report, “A New Agenda For U.S. Drone Policy and the Use of Deadly Force” and how the damage done to U.S. national security during the Trump years is far from repaired. 

 

Biden’s Call to Reduce Methane Emissions by 30% by the End of the Decade

Then finally, following Friday’s virtual meeting with leaders from the UK, EU, Argentina, Bangladesh, Indonesia, South Korea and Mexico, in which President Biden called for a 30% cut in methane emissions by the end of the decade, we speak with Joe Von Fischer, a professor of biology at Colorado State University. He works with Google Streetview Cars to measure the leakage rate of this potent global warming gas from urban systems around the country to find that 6 times more methane is leaking than what the EPA has found. This in addition to leakage from agriculture, fracking, abandoned wells, two million miles of pipelines and household gas stoves and water heaters.