September 25, 2021

The Netherlands offers a glimpse of where vaccine-passport politics can lead. State secretary Mona Keijzer is fired after telling a newspaper she doubted the point of the country’s coronavirus pass, saying it made little sense to demand proof of vaccination in restaurants while workers went unchecked. Her dismissal for voicing that criticism, rather than the criticism itself, becomes the story.

In the United States the school fight continues on two tracks. USA Today reports that a court has temporarily blocked New York City from enforcing its vaccine mandate for teachers, even as the paper highlights studies said to show that masks keep students safe and that outbreaks were more common where districts did not require them. The studies arrive already framed as ammunition against officials like Ron DeSantis who question whether masking curbs transmission in classrooms.

The origins question resurfaces quietly. Researchers report that viruses found in bats in Laos are the closest known relatives of SARS-CoV-2, and outlets promote the finding as strengthening the case for a natural spillover, at a moment when scrutiny of U.S.-funded research in Wuhan is also mounting.