| Good Morning, The pandemic battle reached a milestone Monday when the federal Food and Drug Administration granted full approval to Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine for people 16 years and older. The Moderna vaccine is expected to receive full authorization soon and Johnson & Johnson also will apply for full approval. Up until yesterday, the COVID-fighting vaccines were given under the FDA’s emergency authorization. The announcement, which should ease the fears of some who so far have not been inoculated, also gives government greater ability to press the unvaccinated to get the shots. Louisiana’s 40,000 or so state workers can expect in coming days an order by Gov. John Bel Edwards that they must undergo regular testing if they still don’t get vaccinated. President Joe Biden has presented a similar plan to entice federal workers to get vaccinated. For the nearly 1 million students in public schools from kindergarten through college, state law requires proof of vaccination – or paperwork for those who opt out – once COVID vaccinations are added to the Louisiana Department of Health list of mandatory inoculations required to attend classes. The department is working on that now. University and lower school officials are starting to announce their plans. But Louisiana, like much of the South in particular, have a substantial group who loudly oppose mandatory vaccinations and the masks Edwards ordered worn indoors by most everyone, vaccinated or not. The masks are to help slow the spread of the delta variant that in the past few weeks have filled hospitals and killed a substantial number of mostly unvaccinated people. Last week, anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers appeared before a legislative committee complaining that the pandemic has been overstated and that masks on school children amount to child abuse. When the Board of Elementary & Secondary Education, which sets policy for the roughly 700,000 students in K-12th grade public schools, met to consider the masking policy, unmasked protestors so disrupted the hearing that the board abruptly adjourned, leaving the governor’s masking policy in place. Some Republican lawmakers, including the speaker of the Louisiana House, demanded that BESE set a special meeting to hear the issue. But BESE leaders have refused. Meanwhile, regulators last week approved rules that would allow the state to jump start sports betting by Thanksgiving, though an industry official predicts that by mid-September wagers can go to some of the 20 established casinos and place in-person bets on football, baseball and other sporting events. Louisiana is legally set up to allow bets over smart phones and kiosks at restaurants serving alcoholic beverages, but the authorizations and processes will take longer to get those platforms in place. As always, check throughout the day for the latest Louisiana political news at theadvocate.com/politics or NOLA.com/politics and on Twitter at @MarkBallardCNB, @tegbridges, @samkarlin, @blakepater, @WillSentell. Here are a dozen articles, commentaries and editorials that will catch you up for the week to come. One last item: Thank you to our subscribers. Your support means a great deal to us. If you're not yet a subscriber, we’ve got a special offer you can check out here. – Mark Ballard | 