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--:-- Georgia Howe: The FDA has officially given full approval to the Pfizer vaccine. How does the new status affect the debate around vaccine mandates, and what can we expect going forward?
--:-- John Bickley: I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's Tuesday, August 24th, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The Taliban have issued an ultimatum to the West. Vacate by August 31st, or there will be consequences. If the U.S. or the U.K. wanted to extend the 31st of August deadline, would you agree to that?
--:-- John Bickley: No, no. Why not?
--:-- Georgia Howe: How has the Biden administration responded to the mounting pressure to evacuate the country? And what is the situation like on the ground?
--:-- John Bickley: And a COVID debt relief package that prioritized minority farmers over white farmers is meeting resistance in the courts. We'll discuss why judges in three states declared the Biden administration's program unconstitutional and how the administration is responding.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. Today's episode is sponsored by Legacy Box. With Legacy Box, you can revisit cherished moments from your family's past by having the footage from videotapes, film reels, slides, and other aging formats digitally preserved on a thumb drive, DVD, or the cloud. Visit legacybox.com slash keep to take advantage of this limited time offer of 40% off. That's legacybox.com slash keep to save 40%.
--:-- Georgia Howe: On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration granted full approval to Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine. Here to discuss the details is Daily Wire's Charlotte Pence Bond.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Hi, Georgia.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So Pfizer got full approval from the FDA. Tell us what that means.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Yeah, as you said, the FDA gave full approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for people 16 years of age and up. This is a significant development because all the vaccines have been operating under only an emergency use authorization since December.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The Pfizer vaccine is still available under that authorization for people ages 12 to 15, but it's not fully approved for them. So what are the steps for approval? And how is full approval different from the emergency use authorization?
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: That's a great question. So with an emergency use authorization, a treatment can be used by the FDA during public health emergencies if it appears to be effective and the potential benefits are deemed to outweigh the known risks.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Got it. To get full approval for a vaccine so it can be marketed throughout the U.S., a manufacturer has to submit a Biologics License Application, or a BLA for short, which includes lots of info and really specific requirements.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: The FDA then reviews that information. For comparison, most drugs take several years to clear the FDA, so it was remarkable that this got to market so quickly.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Right. But keep in mind, this was largely due to the massive effort to expedite the process and eliminate administrative lag time.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: The FDA explained that the BLA built on the data that supported that emergency use authorization. This included preclinical and clinical data and information, details about the manufacturing process. It also had vaccine testing results and inspections of the sites where the vaccine is made.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The vaccine is also getting an official name now. It will be called Comirnaty in the marketplace.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Comirnaty. It's going to be hard to get people to adopt a new name at this point.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Right. And what are experts hoping to see now? Pfizer CEO Albert Berla put out a statement saying that he is quote hopeful the approval will help increase confidence in the vaccine since experts are speculating this might persuade some unvaccinated people to get vaccinated.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: What other implications could this have? Are we going to start seeing more mandates, you think?
--:-- Georgia Howe: It certainly could lead to that. On Sunday, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said that the full approval might get workplaces and schools to officially mandate the vaccine.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: There are universities and businesses that have been considering putting in vaccine requirements in order to create a safer workplace or learning environment.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And I think that this announcement from the FDA would likely encourage them and make them feel more comfortable in putting such requirements in place.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: And what about K-12 schools? How is this going to impact them?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, currently, the CDC does not decide which vaccines are required for schools and child care centers. Each state makes that decision themselves.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: The federal government has historically been limited in how it can mandate vaccinations.
--:-- Georgia Howe: As we discussed last week, the Biden administration is now recommending boosters after eight months.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Right. How does the FDA approval play into that?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, the third shot still doesn't have full approval yet. The FDA has only approved the booster under the emergency use authorization for immunocompromised people.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Okay. And there are a lot of doctors who are against the idea of a booster shot, especially because a lot of people still aren't vaccinated and other countries are trying to get a first dose to people.
--:-- Georgia Howe: As of Monday, over 62% of adults in the U.S. were fully vaccinated. So we have yet to see if a full approval leads to more Americans voluntarily getting the vaccine.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: And of course, we'll be watching to see what potential mandates come from this.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Charlotte, thanks for the reporting.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Thanks for having me.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Coming up, the Taliban issues an ultimatum to the Biden administration. Did you know your internet provider is legally allowed to log your internet activity and sell it to advertisers? We here at The Daily Wire make sure this doesn't happen with ExpressVPN, which secures your online activity from your ISP. Get an extra three months of ExpressVPN free at expressvpn.com slash wire.
--:-- Ian Howarth: Morning, John.
--:-- John Bickley: Morning, Ian. Before we discuss the tension between the Biden administration and the Taliban, can you update us on the evacuation efforts?
--:-- Ian Howarth: Well, the situation in Afghanistan and around the Kabul airport more specifically is becoming ever more chaotic and in some cases deadly.
--:-- John Bickley: On Saturday, seven people, including a toddler, were killed outside the airport, bringing the total death count up to well over a dozen so far.
--:-- Ian Howarth: How did they die?
--:-- John Bickley: Well, we don't have that full information yet, but one young girl, the daughter of a woman who worked as an interpreter for an American company, was crushed to death.
--:-- Ian Howarth: Yeah, and this isn't the only example of violence we've seen. As we've discussed, there have been reports that Taliban members are assaulting American citizens, as well as threatening them with violence unless they hand over their passports.
--:-- John Bickley: And on Monday, U.S. and German troops engaged in a firefight at the airport against unidentified attackers. At least one Afghan guard was killed.
--:-- Ian Howarth: So the situation is becoming more fraught by the day. What are we hearing from the Biden administration on this?
--:-- John Bickley: President Biden is shifting on his earlier rhetoric that his administration had planned for every contingency and is now saying that the evacuation of the thousands of U citizens and Afghans would have been difficult regardless of timing
--:-- Ian Howarth: The evacuation of thousands of people from Kabul is going to be hard and painful no matter when it started, when we began. There is no way to evacuate this many people without pain and loss of heartbreaking images you see on television. It's just a fact.
--:-- John Bickley: And with the evacuation process proceeding slowly, it's looking increasingly unlikely that all U.S. personnel will be withdrawn by August 31st. And that's the deadline President Biden set.
--:-- Ian Howarth: Do we expect that he'll extend that deadline?
--:-- John Bickley: Well, President Biden said he hopes to adhere to his own deadline, but he did admit that an extension might be needed.
--:-- Ian Howarth: But the Biden administration's concern that their actions could provoke the Taliban is also playing a part here.
--:-- John Bickley: In a frankly bizarre interview with Sky News, a Taliban spokesperson effectively threatened the Biden administration, saying that they would not allow an extension to carry out evacuations.
--:-- Ian Howarth: You can say it's a red line. President Biden announced 31st of August they would withdraw all their military forces. So if they extend it, that means they are extending the occupation. If they are intent on continuing the occupation, so it will provoke a reaction.
--:-- John Bickley: Now, this comes following news that the United Kingdom's prime minister will use the upcoming emergency G7 summit to ask President Biden to extend the August 31st deadline.
--:-- Ian Howarth: This is after British officials stated that more people died in the crush outside the Kabul airport. It's reported that the number of people outside the airport is now in the tens of thousands.
--:-- John Bickley: And we should also note other countries, such as the UK and Germany, are sending forces beyond the airport to rescue civilians.
--:-- Ian Howarth: For example, a Washington Post reporter was rescued by British troops, and this is all happening while Biden continues to hold back U.S. forces.
--:-- John Bickley: Truly horrific scenes in Kabul right now.
--:-- Ian Howarth: Thanks for the update, Ian.
--:-- Ian Howarth: Thanks for having me.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: The Biden administration has forged ahead with a COVID-19 debt relief package that prioritized minority farmers to the exclusion of white farmers. Earlier this year, judges in three states ruled against the administration's farmer relief policy, with one judge calling it, quote, Here to discuss is Daily Wire editor Ash Short.
--:-- Ash Short: Thanks for having me on.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So first, tell us about this policy and the court's rulings about it.
--:-- Ash Short: Sure. As you know, many aspects of the economy were hit hard by the COVID shutdowns, including farming.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Right. As part of President Biden's American Rescue Plan, $4 billion in COVID-19 debt relief was set aside specifically for, quote, socially disadvantaged farmers. This included Black, Hispanic, American Indian, and Asian American farmers.
--:-- Ash Short: And even though white farmers were also affected by the pandemic, they were excluded from receiving debt relief.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Quick question. How did they identify who was socially disadvantaged? Is that based just on race?
--:-- Ash Short: Yeah. And how did the white farmers react to this? They sued.
--:-- Georgia Howe: White farmers in at least three states, Florida, Tennessee, and Wisconsin, sued the administration alleging discrimination.
--:-- Ash Short: In each of those states, federal judges sided with the farmers and granted preliminary injunctions against the relief program.
--:-- Georgia Howe: A U.S. district judge in Florida tore into the policy saying Congress had a, quote, obligation to do away with governmentally imposed discrimination based on race and further writing that quote Congress moved with great speed to address the history of discrimination but did not move with great care
--:-- Ash Short: Okay so the program was ruled unconstitutional
--:-- Georgia Howe: How did the Biden administration respond?
--:-- Ash Short: Well, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has been pushing back on the rulings, arguing that socially disadvantaged farmers have struggled for generations because of, quote, systemic discrimination and a cycle of debt.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Vilsack also lashed out at the white farmers themselves, asking where they had been for the past century when this discrimination was taking place.
--:-- Ash Short: Vilsack's response didn't acknowledge the challenges that farmers of all races faced during the pandemic, which is what the debt relief program was intended to remedy.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Right. So Vilsack is defending the policy, but did the administration really think the program was legally sound?
--:-- Ash Short: Apparently not. Thanks to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by a civil rights attorney, we know that in a June 2nd email, an advocate for Black farmers wrote in a letter to Secretary Vilsack that President Biden's transition team told them that debt relief for Black farmers was, quote, unconstitutional.
--:-- Georgia Howe: This would indicate that the Biden administration knew back in November or December that such a policy was unconstitutional, but went ahead with it anyway.
--:-- Ash Short: Wow. On the other hand, the government has a variety of programs that are designed to aid minority communities. So what made this one unconstitutional?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, one of the federal judges who ruled in favor of white farmers actually addressed that.
--:-- Ash Short: Judge William Griesbach in Wisconsin wrote in his ruling that because this was a debt relief program, it should have considered the financial circumstances of the individual farmers, not their race.
--:-- Georgia Howe: He added that the government could have implemented a race-neutral program and given priority to farmers and ranchers who had been left out of previous pandemic relief funding.
--:-- Ash Short: But they couldn't make that determination based on race.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Interesting. So what's next for these farmers?
--:-- Ash Short: Well, things are still held up in the legal system. Even though the policy was ruled unconstitutional, that doesn't mean all farmers affected by the pandemic are now able to access the relief funds.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The fact is, we don't know when the money will be released to farmers in need.
--:-- Ash Short: Well, Ash, thanks for keeping us informed.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Anytime.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Other stories we're tracking this week. On Friday, the Mississippi Department of Health announced that those who test positive for COVID-19 must isolate for 10 days or face up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Massive flooding in Middle Tennessee over the weekend resulted in at least 22 deaths, with dozens still missing.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The rapid influx of rainwater caused local creeks to swell into dangerous rapids capable of sweeping up cars and wiping homes off their foundations.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And a rural council in Australia has outraged animal activists by allegedly shooting multiple impounded dogs.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The council claims the action was taken in order to prevent volunteers from violating COVID lockdowns in order to come pick them up.
--:-- Georgia Howe: According to the Office of Local Government, the incident may have been a violation of animal rights laws and activists are pushing for an investigation.
--:-- Georgia Howe: If you liked this episode and are interested in hearing more, subscribe to Morning Wire on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're listening, and give us a five-star review.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We'll be back tomorrow with the news you need to know. If you like this podcast, get the Morning Wire newsletter delivered straight to your inbox when you join at dailywire.com slash subscribe.
