Mandates on Way As Pfizer Vaccine Gets Full U.S. Nod

C M Y K Nxxx,2021-08-24,A,001,Bs-4C,E2

Late Edition Today, sunshine, humid, drying out, warmer, high 88. Tonight, clear, humid, low 72. Tomorrow, mostly sunny, heat persists, humid, high 90. Weather map appears on Page A18.

F.D.A. Approval Paves Way for Colleges, Hospitals and Corporations to Act

By SHARON LaFRANIERE and NOAH WEILAND WASHINGTON — The Food fears that they are experimental, and Drug Administration on Mon- have said they wanted to wait un- day granted full approval to til the agency spent more time Pfizer-BioNTech’s coronavirus studying their safety and fully ap- vaccine for people 16 and older, a proved them. decision that is likely to set off a In a roughly 10-minute address cascade of vaccine requirements on the approval, President Biden by hospitals, colleges and univer- said it should sweep away any lin- sities, corporations and other or- gering doubts about vaccines and ganizations. spur more mandates. Appealing Within hours, the Pentagon, to corporate, state and local lead- CVS, the State University of New ers, he said: “Do what I did last York system and the New York month. Require your employees City school system, among others, to get vaccinated or face strict re- announced that they would en- quirements.” In late July, he an- force mandates they had pre- nounced that all federal employ- pared but made contingent on the ees and on-site contractors must F.D.A.’s action. be vaccinated against the virus or The approval came as the na- be required to submit to regular NICOLE TUNG FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES tion’s fight against the pandemic testing and other measures. An Afghan family in Turkey. The family crossed illegally from Iran and was sent back. Thousands of Afghans have met a similar fate. has intensified again, with the Mr. Biden tried to cast the highly infectious Delta variant bit- F.D.A. approval as an example of ing deeply into the progress that how his administration was mak- the country had made over the ing headway against the pan- first half of the year. The Biden ad- demic, despite overflowing inten- Taliban Demand August Pullout A 1,400-Mile Trek to Turkey ministration hopes the develop- sive care units in some states and ment will motivate at least some an average of more than 1,000 As the U.S. Rushes to Evacuate Only to Be Told to Turn Back of the roughly 85 million Ameri- lives a day lost. He said the death cans who are eligible for shots but toll, while rising, was still far have so far rejected them to lower than it was last winter, be- By MARK LANDLER and MEGAN K. STACK change their minds. cause more than nine in 10 older By CARLOTTA GALL The regulatory move goes a Americans are now vaccinated. As a desperate U.S. effort to On Monday, a State Depart- VAN, Turkey — In the days be- over they would kill us — either in step beyond the emergency use With the F.D.A. yet to authorize evacuate Americans from Af- ment official said that some for- fore the Taliban took Kabul, an Af- fighting or they would recruit us. authorization that the agency a vaccine even on an emergency ghanistan gained momentum on mer Afghan military interpreters ghan woman was doubled over So this was the better option for granted in December. More than basis for children under 12, Mr. Bi- Monday, Taliban leaders rejected or other close U.S. allies, a desig- sobbing on a bench in a bus station the family.” 92 million people have already den also tried to reassure anxious a suggestion from President Bi- nated priority group for evacua- in eastern Turkey, her children Even before the past week’s been fully vaccinated since then parents about the growing num- den that American forces might tions, were being turned away wailing at her feet. harrowing scenes of Afghans with Pfizer doses. Some who have ber of children who are getting in- remain past an Aug. 31 deadline to from the airport by American offi- Fourteen Turkish security and thronging the Kabul airport to es- rejected the vaccines, expressing Continued on Page A12 complete the operation, injecting cials in order to give priority to migration officials swooped down cape the Taliban, many thousands fresh urgency into an already U.S. passport and Green Card on her and other Afghan asylum had been steadily fleeing their frantic process. holders in recent days. The official seekers as our reporting team was country over land, making their REQUIREMENT In a shift, Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York will order American officials are increas- was not authorized to brief the interviewing them, part of an in- way some 1,400 miles across the all Department of Education employees to be vaccinated. PAGE A12 ingly worried that even with the press, and spoke on condition of tensive crackdown by Turkey to length of Iran to the Turkish bor- vast number of Afghans, Ameri- anonymity. apprehend Afghans crossing from der. Their own desperate efforts to cans and people of other national- The official’s account was sup- Iran by the thousands and to pre- escape the Taliban have played ities evacuated in recent days — a ported by interviews with Af- vent journalists from reporting on out in quieter, though no less total of about 10,400 people in the ghans who have approached the their plight. As her husband tried painful, tableaus at remote border Holmes Legacy 24 hours from Sunday to Monday airport in recent days, and with to gather their belongings, the crossings like the one in the east- alone, according to the White American veterans’ groups and woman clutched her stomach and ern city of Van. Haunts Women House — many still remain to be other organizations that have retched. After prolonged ques- In recent months, as the NATO- rescued. In recent days, that oper- tried to organize evacuations for tioning, they were escorted to a led mission in Afghanistan was ation has increasingly focused on interpreters and other Afghans at police vehicle. collapsing, 30,000 Afghans were Atop Start-Ups the Americans still left, over the risk from the Taliban. “We came out of despair,” an- leaving Afghanistan every week, Afghans who worked with the On Monday night, the State De- other Afghan, Gul Ahmad, 17, said. not all but many across the Irani- United States. Continued on Page A6 “We knew if the Taliban had taken Continued on Page A7 By ERIN GRIFFITH SAN FRANCISCO — When Al- ice Zhang set out in 2018 to raise funding for her drug discovery

start-up, investors kept asking GABRIELA BHASKAR/THE NEW YORK TIMES Tennesseans in Anguish as Flood Tears Homes and Friends Away her about Theranos, the blood Kathy Hochul was to be sworn testing start-up led by the entre- preneur Elizabeth Holmes that in as governor early Tuesday. This article is by Rick Rojas, Win- had collapsed in scandal. ston Choi-Schagrin and Tariro Others asked, too. At a Stanford Mzezewa. University event, the organizers wanted Ms. Zhang to talk about Cuomo Defiant WAVERLY, Tenn. — With flood- Theranos. One adviser told her waters rising rapidly, 15-year-old Lily Bryant and her older sister that when her start-up came up in And All Alone managed to find some wooden de- conversation, people responded bris to cling to, but it offered only by cracking jokes about Ms. In Final Hours short-term relief. The makeshift Holmes. raft hit a tree and split in two. Ms. Zhang was initially con- “Lily went one way and her sis- fused. Her start-up, Verge Ge- nomics, uses artificial intelligence By LUIS FERRÉ-SADURNÍ ter went the other way, and no one and KATIE GLUECK has seen her since,” said Tarry to aid the discovery of therapeutic On his last day in office, Gov. Lynn Gillinger Holderman, Lily’s drugs. That was completely differ- Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, a aunt. “She was washed away be- ent from Theranos’s business of three-term Democrat once envi- cause the current was so strong.” marketing blood testing machines sioned as a national standard- Lily’s sister, Kailynne, 19, made as a diagnostic tool. Ms. Holmes bearer for his party, appeared it to safety; Lily is missing. had also been accused of criminal alone. Kailynne, Ms. Holderman said, fraud. Ms. Zhang had not. Abandoned by virtually every is devastated. “She blames her- But the pattern was clear. When political ally he once had, the gov- self.” Verge Genomics raised funding ernor held no public event on The scale of the destruction later that year, a prominent indus- Monday, confining his lone ap- from the weekend’s storm in Ten- try columnist wrote an article that nessee came into grim relief on compared Ms. Zhang to Ms. pearance to a prerecorded Monday, as emergency workers Holmes. Although the compar- farewell address where he defi- and those who escaped the worst isons dissipated as her start-up antly cast his resignation as the spent the day searching for loved has grown, Ms. Zhang, 32, said she unavoidable outcome of a rush to ones. At least 21 people were con- hears the same stories from other judgment on sexual harassment firmed dead and about 10 others female founders today, even allegations made against him. remained missing, officials said, though “I could see no similarity Mr. Cuomo, seated by himself besides the fact that we’re both and staring into a camera, charac- in catastrophic flash flooding that HOUSTON COFIELD FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES women in the hard-science terized a damning 165-page report climate scientists warned would Some Middle Tennessee residents were bewildered at the disaster’s scope and still tallying its toll. become only more common. space.” by the state attorney general’s of- “This is exactly the type of A generation of female en- fice as a “political firecracker on event we expect to see with in- just days after at least five people tion. cluding this week in Tennessee. trepreneurs — particularly those an explosive topic,” forcing his creasing frequency in a warming were killed in flash floods in North Some scientists caution, howev- Flooding is a result both of heavy in life sciences, biotechnology and resignation and clearing the way climate,” said Gary Lackmann, a Carolina in the wake of Tropical er, that it can be difficult to deter- rainfall and of the way water is health care — is still operating in for his lieutenant governor, Kathy professor of atmospheric science Depression Fred. Extraordinary mine whether climate change is managed — through dams, levees the shadow of Ms. Holmes. Hochul, to succeed him. at North Carolina State Univer- floods in Germany, which sent wa- the driving force behind any indi- or retention ponds — as well as a Though Theranos shut down in Ms. Hochul takes over as gover- sity. ter crashing through the streets in vidual flood or is responsible for landscape’s hydrology, the way 2018, Ms. Holmes continues to nor on Tuesday, becoming the first The Tennessee disaster came July, caused widespread devasta- making it more catastrophic, in- Continued on Page A10 Continued on Page A13 Continued on Page A9

INTERNATIONAL A4-7 BUSINESS B1-5 Quiet Shift on Temple Mount Supply Chain in Disarray Jews who pray at the mount say they The problems ailing so many compa- are exercising their right to free wor- nies may only get worse heading into ship. But the change upsets a deal the holidays, as delays continue to snarl aimed at avoiding conflict. PAGE A4 global trade and shipping prices jump even higher. PAGE B1 NATIONAL A8-13 Warmer Europe, Worse Floods SPORTS B6-8 ARTS C1-6 Pining Anew for the Office Proud Boys Still Roam Climate change increases the likelihood An Afterthought No More A Stampede of Art of downpours like the ones in Germany As cases of the coronavirus continue More than 20 members of the far-right and Belgium, scientists say. PAGE A4 The Paralympics, which begin Tuesday to rise, remote work is being extended An exhibition that places 78 fiberglass group face charges tied to Jan. 6, but in Tokyo, have had a surge in interest for many workers. That has made cows throughout New York City may be members have mobilized again. PAGE A8 from fans and in TV exposure. PAGE B6 scaled down from 21 years ago, but it is SCIENCE TIMES D1-8 some employees increasingly eager to return to their cubicles. PAGE B1 still delighting passers-by. PAGE C5 Leniency for Brink’s Driver An Upside to Remote Learning He Was Simply Mr. Ranger Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo commuted the Online classes helped many students Rod Gilbert, who spent 18 seasons with OPINION A16-17 sentence of David Gilbert, a participant with disabilities get an education. They the team and is still its only player with in the infamous 1981 robbery. PAGE A9 want the option to continue. PAGE D1 over 400 goals, died at 80. PAGE B8 Michelle Goldberg PAGE A17 U(D54G1D)y+@!,!?!$!#