September 1, 2021

Two senior FDA officials who oversee vaccine reviews announce they are leaving, just as the agency weighs the White House push for booster shots for the general population. The timing draws notice: the administration had already floated a rollout date before its own regulators had signed off, and the departing scientists go on to argue that the data do not yet justify boosting healthy adults.

Podcast host Joe Rogan says he tested positive and took ivermectin among other treatments, and the same day the AMA, with two pharmacist groups, calls for an immediate end to prescribing the drug for COVID-19. Coverage treats the anti-parasitic as a badge of vaccine refusal rather than weighing the small trials its advocates cite. The WHO also flags a new variant called Mu, and a large randomized trial in Bangladesh is promoted as proof that surgical masks curb spread, though the reported effect is modest and cloth masks show no clear benefit.

The AP runs a piece questioning the catchphrase “pandemic of the unvaccinated,” noting that vaccinated people also catch and pass Delta. Former President Trump says he is proud of the vaccines his administration funded but rejects any effort to mandate them.