September 9, 2021

President Biden announces vaccine requirements covering roughly 100 million Americans. He signs Executive Order 14043 mandating vaccination for federal employees and directs OSHA to draft an emergency rule forcing every business with 100 or more workers to require the shot or weekly testing. He voices open frustration with the unvaccinated and says the plan will “turn the tide” of the virus. Critics note that OSHA’s emergency-standard power has rarely been used and was written for grave workplace hazards, and states begin preparing lawsuits within hours.

Documents obtained by The Intercept through a FOIA suit revive scrutiny of U.S.-funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab. Newsweek reports the records suggest Fauci was “untruthful” to Congress about the work, and Senator Rand Paul says he deserves a five-year prison sentence. Scientists quoted in the pieces maintain the experiments did not cause the pandemic.

Nature promotes the large Bangladesh trial as masks passing “their largest test yet,” while conceding the surgical-mask effect was modest and that cloth masks fell short. Amazon draws fire from Democratic lawmakers for letting an anti-vaccine book top its COVID search results, and NPR features the deathbed plea of an unvaccinated TikTok user, the kind of story that recurs as the mandate campaign ramps up.