authorization from the fda. of course they are the ones who make the actual changes to how these vaccines are authorized. then the cdc votes on recommending those authorizations, and that s how this ball gets rolling on this process. but it is significant given that so far, the many, many times we ve asked this question, they have said right now, the general population does not need them. but it does appear that s about to change. kaitlan collins is joining us now with our breaking news here on cnn. i just want to read the beginning of kaitlan s reporting here. i just got the wire. it says top health officials in the biden administration are coalescing around an agreement that most americans should get a booster shot eight months after becoming fully vaccinated. that s according to a source familiar with the discussions. kaitlan collins is reporting this. kaitlan, my question is when is the biden administration going to announce this? do you know? reporter: it could be as
health officials expect that a booster will also be needed for the one shot johnson & johnson vaccine. this is a major expansion, and it comes just a week after boosters were first recommended for people with weakened immune systems. an official announcement on the expansion could come this week, and it comes as the delta variant spreads new cases across the country leading to a crush of patients in hospitals, primarily among the unvaccinated. cnn s jeff zeleny is live at the white house this morning where this news emanated from, jeff. what s going on? reporter: john, good morning. the biden administration is coalescing around the argument and the idea that most americans will need booster shots. this is not going to come anytime soon in the coming days, so don t rush to your local pharmacy to get one, but they are reaching the idea that they believe that eight months after you received that first shot, most americans should receive a booster shot. once it is fully autho
kabul s international airport, president biden is standing by his decision to withdraw u.s. troops from afghanistan. the question is, how will the administration handle this foreign policy crisis moving forward? plus federal health officials are expected to recommend covid booster shots for most americans eight months after being vaccinated. the question is what about the folks who haven t received the first shot. and we re following two major storms, fred made landfall in florida and grace is bringing rain and winds to the caribbean, including haiti, the question is how much is that storm complicating haiti s earthquake response? it s way too early for this. good morning, and welcome to way too early. the show that remembers when august used to have slow news days i m jonathan lemire on this tuesday, august 17th. we ll start with the news. we begin with the chaotic scenes coming out of kabul s international airport where tens of thousands of afghans surrounded plan
sustained military mission in afghanistan is over. we ll be joined this morning by a top voice at the defense department when pentagon spokesman john kirby joins us as chaos grips a country now ruled by the taliban. plus new developments in the fight against covid. the biden administration has decided that most americans should get a booster vaccination eight months after they received their second shot. we ll have the details on that just ahead. good morning, and welcome to morning joe. it is tuesday, august 17th. and we re going to begin this morning with the chaotic scenes from kabul s international airport. with thousands of afghans surrounding planes in a desperate attempt to escape taliban control. richard engel has the latest from kabul. reporter: tens of thousands of afghans swarmed into kabul airport. desperate to leave at any price. they burst through security. climbed over walls. and spilled onto the tarmac. searching for any airplane that would take them f
way to france in 1940, to iraq in 2013, 2014. it was not only shocking, but enormously dismaying for all those coalition forces, including british and american, that worked so hard to train this army. we have heard quite a lot about the army looking very different on paper to the reality on the ground. shadow soldiers, and about the conditions for many of the soldiers, going without food sometimes, obviously scared, and elements of corruption. it is also shocking that this wasn t realised, wasn t really taken on board, for example, in washington. i think that there are a lot of reasons that they have collapsed, but let s put it in a simple phrase. you can t buy courage. the fact is, we made them capable, gave them the equipment, gave them the training, but if you take a look at the leadership, in many ways the leadership, in many ways the leadership of the military recently had been awarded to political hacks. you take a look at the corruption inside the government, that is c