| CORONAVIRUS: Biden met with business executives from some of the country’s top companies on Wednesday to enlist their help in requiring workers nationwide to get vaccinated against COVID-19. The meeting (seen below), which included CEOs from Walt Disney, Microsoft and Walgreens, came less than a week after the president unveiled new policies targeting the unvaccinated, including requiring most federal employees to get COVID-19 vaccinations and private companies that employ more than 100 people to have their workers inoculated or tested weekly. Under the pending rule, private companies will also be required to provide paid time off for employees to get the shot. Biden said it would take time to implement his controversial mandate (Fox Business). 
© Getty Images The Hill: Presidential patience may have worn thin when it comes to the unvaccinated, but public health experts and psychologists suggest the government’s tough talk about requiring vaccinations is unlikely to melt the resistance of hard-line activists as well as people who are hesitating because of fear, lack of information or other considerations. Aboard the papal plane, Pope Francis, 84, on Wednesday had a few words for people who are skeptical about COVID-19 shots, including at the Vatican, offering reassurance while speaking to reporters (The Associated Press). “It’s kind of weird because humanity has a history of friendship with vaccines,” he said. “When we were children, we had the measles and other vaccines, polio and nobody protested, then came all this,” he added, referring to the protests against the vaccine. “Maybe it happened because of the uncertainty due to the pandemic, but also due to the diversity of the various vaccines and the reputation of some vaccines that are not suitable. …This has scared people,” he continued. “Even in the College of Cardinals there are some deniers and one of these people, poor guy, is hospitalized with the virus … irony of life,” the pope said. “There is a need for clarity and talk calmly with these people. In the Vatican we are all vaccinated, except for a small group, and we are studying how to help them.” > Boosters: The Food and Drug Administration said on Wednesday that vaccines cleared in the United States currently provide sufficient protection against severe disease and death from COVID-19 without additional doses, potentially complicating the Biden administration’s deliberations over the need for booster shots. The FDA released the findings in a report analyzing data submitted by Pfizer and BioNTech as part of their request for authorization for their vaccine to be given as a booster shot in people 16 years and older (The Wall Street Journal). The president has vowed to follow scientific advice, even as the administration prepared a booster rollout set to begin after Sept. 20. > The future: Continuing a debate about so-called herd immunity in the United States, Scott Gottlieb, a former FDA commissioner and physician who is a member of Pfizer’s board, told CNBC in an interview that likely more than 80 percent of adults have “some form of immunity either from prior infection or from vaccination" against the coronavirus. He predicts COVID-19 will eventually become an endemic virus in the United States and other Western nations, meaning persistently present but at a lesser level of emergency. ***** POLITICS: In the immediate aftermath of the California recall election, Republicans are anxious about whether Trump’s unfounded claims of election fraud will hurt the party in the upcoming 2021 and 2022 elections. As The Hill’s Julia Manchester reports, their concerns come after Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) handily beat back a GOP effort to boot him from office in California, where registered Democrats made up a disproportionately high number of mail-in votes. The GOP hand-wringing also follows a disappointing showing in Georgia’s Senate runoffs earlier this year, with many Republicans pointing to Trump for depressing turnout and costing the party control of the upper chamber. In a sign of attack lines to come from the GOP, Trump and longtime conservative radio talk show host Larry Elder, the leading Republican candidate in the recall effort, were already fanning the flames of election fraud before the recall race took place. As The Hill’s Reid Wilson writes in his post-mortem of the contest, the charges of a rigged election don’t go over fantastically when nearly 2 in 3 voters vote in one direction. “Has Trump killed mail ballots to the detriment of the party?” asked Rob Stutzman, a longtime Republican strategist who worked for Arnold Schwarzenegger during the 2003 recall. “If the votes don’t come in, Republicans are really going to have to struggle with how to turn that around.” > Capitol security: Lawmakers and their aides have been given a simple directive to avoid the Capitol on Saturday if at all possible ahead of the pro-Trump protest. "Unless required to be onsite, Members and staff are strongly encouraged to avoid the U.S. Capitol Complex on September 18th," House Sergeant-at-Arms William Walker wrote in a memo sent chamber wide on Tuesday evening. If they must travel to the Capitol, House members and staffers have been asked to park in underground garages and move between buildings by way of underground tunnels, rather than walking outside (The Hill). Niall Stanage: The Memo: Rally in support of Jan. 6 rioters is new headache for GOP. The Associated Press: Pennsylvania GOP lawmakers vote for a subpoena seeking voter information. Casper Star Tribune: Wyoming state Rep. Chuck Gray (R) suspended his campaign to unseat Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) as GOP candidates coalesce behind the Trump-endorsed contender. 
© Getty Images > Virginia: Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Glenn Youngkin square off at 7 p.m. in their first gubernatorial general election debate, preceded by plenty of social media sparring between the two candidates about COVID-19 vaccines and mandates. Susan Page of USA Today will moderate the debate, and political analyst Robert Holsworth and Richmond CBS6 news anchor Candace Burns will add to the questioning (The Washington Post). C-SPAN is covering the debate live. The Associated Press: Pope: No place for politics in Biden Communion flap. | 
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