The latest Some senior health officials in the Biden administration are pushing urgently to expand vaccine booster shots to all adults. The goal is to get ahead of a looming winter wave of infections by offering more people the extra protection. Of particular concern is the resurgence of cases sweeping across Europe, which these officials worry could foreshadow what's in store for the United States if they don't act quickly. But not everyone is on board. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has voiced reservations about such an expansion. She and other heath advisers want to scrutinize data from the vaccine makers before moving forward, my colleagues Laurie McGinley, Lena H. Sun and Tyler Pager report. Some state officials aren't waiting for the federal government's green light. In Colorado, where cases are surging, the governor unilaterally declared everyone 18 and older eligible for a booster and ordered pharmacists not to deny anyone. California officials took similar action, urging all adults to get a booster and telling health-care providers not to turn them away. Nationwide, booster shots are most popular in states with high infections, low vaccination rates and scant public health mandates, according to a Washington Post review of state data. Take Montana, for example. It has one of the country's highest infection rates and ranks in the bottom third of U.S. states for vaccinations. Local mask mandates are essentially unenforceable. Yet Montana's booster rates are sky high. In the absence of other safeguards, one Montana health expert said, "getting that booster shot is one of the few tangible things that you can do to protect yourself." As the coronavirus ripped across the country in early 2020, members of the Trump administration repeatedly interfered with the CDC's efforts to get the word out and protect the public, six current and former health officials told congressional investigators. One of the agency's former top experts, Nancy Messonnier, said she was reprimanded by then-Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar for saying the virus's spread was inevitable. Other officials described how the White House curtailed the CDC's media requests and pressured the agency to present more optimistic messaging in weekly reports. The information sheds new light on how the Trump administration undermined those in government who were best equipped to manage the nation's response during the pandemic's critical early stages. As debate over the Biden administration's vaccine rules heats up in federal court, Italy is showing what one of the Western Hemisphere's strictest vaccine mandates has accomplished in the fight against the pandemic. In the two months since Italian officials rolled out government-issued health passes for the nation's workers, vaccination coverage has ticked up by 4.4 percentage points, more than any other Western European Union member in that period. There are still pockets of deep resistance, but health experts and officials say the payoff is worth it. Intensive care units have saved countless people from life-threatening covid-19. But for many ICU survivors and their families, life never goes back to normal. Some suffer from fatigue, anxiety and other conditions that constitute "post-intensive care syndrome." My colleagues Lenny Bernstein and Dan Keating take an intimate look at what the struggle is like for these patients, their loved ones and the health workers who treat them. Other important news The great resignation continues: A record 4.4 million Americans quit their jobs in September amid rising coronavirus cases. President Biden has asked a former Food and Drug Administration commissioner to return to lead the agency. He's viewed as a safe choice. The FDA announced the recall of more than 2.2 million of Ellume's at-home coronavirus tests because of reported issues with false positive results. A jailed Chinese pandemic vlogger who documented Wuhan's strict containment measures went on a hunger strike. Her family is pleading for her release. Johnson & Johnson, maker of the single-dose vaccine, is splitting into two companies. | 
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