… Here’s what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says are the best practices to keep people as safe as possible from COVID when someone in the home is infected.
The person who has tested positive should isolate
The member of the household who is infected with COVID-19 should stay in a specific “sick room” or area.
The CDC last week shortened the recommended isolation time from 10 days to five, citing data that show that the majority of COVID transmission happens in the first one to two days before symptoms begin and in the two to three days after.
For those who are asymptomatic or whose symptoms are alleviating, the CDC recommends they isolate for five days but wear a mask for the following five days when they’re around other people to reduce the risk of infecting others.
If possible, the person infected with COVID-19 should also use a separate bathroom, the CDC says. If the person needs to be around other people or animals, they should wear a mask.
The CDC notes that if the separation of the person with COVID from others in the home isn’t possible, “the other members of the household will have ongoing exposure, meaning they will be repeatedly exposed until that person is no longer able to spread the virus to other people.” …
While the CDC recommends the infected person isolate by themselves with their own bathroom, that’s not an option for many. But there are a number of suggestions for limiting the risk of spreading the virus while sharing.
According to the CDC, others in the home should wait as long as possible before using the bathroom after a person with COVID has used it.
They should also wear a mask, and clean and disinfect surfaces when using the bathroom after a person with COVID.
Keeping distance
The person who has tested positive for COVID should avoid close contact with others and if possible, and keep 6 feet of distance from others in the home.
When to wear a mask
If the person who is sick has to be around other people or pets, the CDC suggests wearing a mask.
The person who is sick doesn’t need to wear a mask when they are alone.
Wash hands
The person who is sick with COVID should wash their hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.
Washing hands is particularly important after blowing their nose, coughing, sneezing, going to the bathroom, and before eating or preparing food. The sick person should avoid touching their eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands. …
The CDC recommends a person sick with COVID-19 avoids sharing household items like dishes, drinking glasses, cups, utensils, towels, or bedding with other people in the home.
After the infected person uses those items, they should be washed thoroughly with soap and water or put in the dishwasher or washing machine.
Clean and disinfect surfaces
The person who is sick should clean and disinfect the high-touch surfaces in their isolated area and bathroom every day, and wear disposable gloves while doing it.
“High-touch surfaces” include phones, remote controls, counters, tabletops, doorknobs, bathroom fixtures, toilets, keyboards, tablets, and bedside tables, according to the CDC.
If the person who is sick is sharing spaces with others, they should disinfect surfaces and items after each use, the CDC says.
The CDC suggests using a designated, lined trash can for the person who is sick. The person handling the trash should use gloves when handling it and then wash their hands once they’re done.
What if a sick person needs a caretaker?
If the sick person needs help, only one person should take care of them to limit the number of people who come into contact with the infected person. For those who are taking care of the person infected with COVID, the CDC suggests they and the sick person put a mask on before entering the room, wear disposable gloves, clean and disinfectthe area the sick person is in only if it’s necessary, and open windows or doors or use fans to increase air circulation.
The person who is cleaning the space should wait as long as possible after the person who is sick has used the bathroom before coming in to clean and use the bathroom.
What those who are exposed should do
The CDC recommends quarantinefor certain peoplewho are in close contact with someone who has COVID-19. A “close contact” is defined as having been within 6 feet of someone for a total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period.
If a person who has been exposed to COVID has received a booster shot, is within six months of their second dose of an mRNA vaccine, or is in within two months of receiving a Johnson & Johnson vaccine, they don’t need to quarantine. The CDC recommends they wear a mask around others for 10 days and get tested for COVID on day 5, if possible. If they develop symptoms, they should get tested and stay home.
For those who received their second shot of an mRNA vaccine more than six months ago and are not boosted, received the Johnson & Johnson shot more than two months ago and are not boosted, or are unvaccinated, the recommended procedures are different. The CDC suggests anyone who falls into one of those categories stays home for five days and get tested on the fifth day, if possible. After those five days, they should continue to wear a mask around others for five additional days.
She doesn’t have a national presence yet, but that could change quickly. She is heading into 22 as the Democratic Governor of the second largest state controlled by Democrats. Governors have done well since 1980, Reagan, Clinton, Bush. Senators typically struggle because they have to account for many votes on hard issues, whereas Governors are mostly administrators but can also push their own agenda. Obama was an outlier, only a Senator for two years when he started running for President, so few votes in his short national career. And he was the anti-war candidate in 07 and 08 when the country was very sick of the Iraq war, plus he had a fantastic campaign apparatus. Trump was another kind of outlier, the ultimate non politician, with no votes or political track record.
Looking at the 2024 field, Biden will be 82, Sanders 82, Warren 75.
other than that she’s a governor of a big Democratic state and younger than Trump, Biden, Sanders, and Warren, what are the reasons you’d think she’d be a viable presidential candidate?
Hey Jim, I’ll play along. It’s so nice to see a hint of some new original discussion here other than rehashing postings of COVID news articles and other mainstream news briefs which seem to have dominated.
I don’t know much about Kathy, but if, if, if there were an opening for a fresh new candidate in 2024, she would have to compete with my favorite future possibility…
Folks not familiar with the new Infrastructure Czar, Mitch Landrieu, 61, should listen to this 2017 speech for an education in what leadership looks like. Think of 2024 & the future of America.
Bright spot on the horizon. Former New Orleans Mayor (8 years) and Lieutenant Governor Louisiana (6 years). Author of “In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History“.
The infrastructure position could give him the nationwide exposure he needs to move into a 2024 Presidential candidate, should Biden decide not to run (and he should) . He is a person that I think could pull together a national coalition of white & black Dems, Independents and even the “never-Trumper” crowd that could inspire the country, break through the polarization logjam and beat any Trump or Trump-backed run for President.
I’m trying to learn more about Kathy Hochul. What I find appealing at first glance is that she, like Joe Biden, has a connection to a demographic that is slipping away from the Democratic Party. She is from Buffalo, New York, one of six children of an Irish American family. She worked for Senator Patrick Moynihan, and served briefly in Congress. She was elected Lt. Governor of New York in 2014, and became Governor in August.
It looks to me like the Democrats will need to win Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin in 2024 to remain in contention. Thus, my interest in Democratic candidates that I think can do well in the Midwest, with moderate Democrats and independents.
For example, in 2012 she had a 100% Sierra Club rating, while her ADA rating was 30%. I would take her record in her brief time in Congress with some caution. One, I think the entire Democratic Party has moved, particularly on climate and taxation. The other is that it’s ten years later and she now has lots of executive experience in New York state government, which may have also affected her outlook on governance.
I was reading her information on Wiki. The only thing I would be leery of at this time is her being Catholic. There was a time in the past when people really thought politicians who were Catholic would be taking orders from the Pope. We laughed it off. Now we have SCOTUS which is intensely to the right and religious. Roe v Wade is hanging by a thread.
She appears to be qualified. When was the last time a governor ran for the Presidency? Rockefeller?
When JFK ran for President, it was a big deal he was a Catholic. He even needed to make a speech about his independence from Rome. Joe Biden is our second Catholic president. It has hardly come up as an issue, except for some conservative U.S. Bishops trying to deny him communion at Mass.
I think Rockefeller was the last NY Governor to run for President, although there was always a push on Mario Cuomo to run. In the last Democratic primary in 2020, four Governors ran for President: Deval Patrick, Steve Bullock, Jay Inslee and John Hickenlooper.
In the northeastern state of New Jersey, where daily case rates exceed 30,000, the positivity rate is at an unbelievable 100 percent, meaning that every test reported has confirmed an infection.
Scientists in Marseilles, France have released this preprint (not peer reviewed) entitled “Mergence in Southenr France of a new SARS-CoV-2 variant of probably Cameroonian origin harbouring both substitutions N501Y and E484K in the spike protein:
The research was funded by the French government under the “Investments for the Future” program managed by the National Agency for Research among other supporters.
In the paper, the researchers note that SARS-CoV-2 variants have become a major concern since they are able to escape from vaccine-induced immunity. The index case of yet another variant returned from travel in Cameroon three days prior to testing and, after exhibiting mild respiratory symptoms, underwent a private RT-PCR test from a sample collected in mid-November 2021, the day after symptoms appeared. It is important to note that the subject was vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2. The test revealed an atypical combination of mutations in the spike gene which did not correspond to the pattern of the Delta variant which was involved in nearly all of the SARS-CoV-2 infections at that time.
The researchers also collected samples from two adults and five children living in the same geographical area who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. The samples from all seven of these infected individuals exhibited the same combination of mutations that were seen in the traveller who had returned from Cameroon.
Samples from all eight individuals were sent to the University Hospital Institute (IHU) Mediterranee Infection for genome sequencing. The analysis of viral genomes revealed the presence of 46 nucleotide substitutions and 37 deletions resulting in 30 amino acid substitutions and 12 selections with 14 amino acid substitutions and 9 amino acid deletions being located in the spike protein. This suggests that a new variant has evolved which the researchers termed “IHU”, in reference to the name of their institute of study.
Respiratory samples collected until the end of November 2021 from four additional SARS-CoV-2 positive patients living in the same city or borough as the index case were also shown to contain the IHU variant, showing the same combination of spike mutations.
Here is the rather stunning conclusion of the study:
“Overall, these observations show once again the unpredictability of the emergence of new SARS-CoV-2 variants and their introduction from abroad, and they exemplify the difficulty to control such introduction and subsequent spread.“
<a href=”https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-joe-biden-business-florida-donald-trump-509e1d6da26c2f094b86de5687df7d79″>Trump reschedules ‘airing of grievances</a>
(AP) — Former President Donald Trump has canceled a press conference he had planned to hold in Florida on the anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by his supporters.
Trump said in a statement Tuesday evening that he would instead be discussing his grievances at a rally he has planned in Arizona later this month.
Trump had been expected to use the press conference to rail against the congressional committee investigating the events of Jan. 6, when a mob of his supporters violently stormed the Capitol in an effort to halt the peaceful transfer of power, and to repeat his lies about the 2020 election.
Trump continues to falsely insist the election was “stolen” and that the “real” insurrection was on Election Day, Nov. 3, 2020, the day Democrat Joe Biden won the votes that led to his 306-232 Electoral College victory. Federal and state election officials, Trump’s own attorney general and numerous judges — including some he appointed — have all said repeatedly that the election was fair and that there is no credible evidence of serious fraud
In the last week, 45,029 new breakthrough cases — infections in people who have been vaccinated — were reported, with 370 more vaccinated people hospitalized, Massachusetts Department of Public Health officials said Tuesday. It’s a 122% increase in the rate of new breakthrough cases in Massachusetts — last week saw 20,247 new COVID infections in vaccinated people.
The new report brings the total number of breakthrough cases to 179,594, and the death toll among people with breakthrough infections to 942.
Both figures remain a tiny percentage of the total number of all people who have been vaccinated.
that said, there’s still a lot we don’t know; those who are “fully vaccinated” had two shots at least two weeks ago, but we don’t know how long ago; the Israeli experience was that Pfizer effectiveness wanes quite a bit after 6 months, and i’ve yet to see a breakdown of how long ago those with such infections were vaccinated….likewise, except for a few high profile cases like Ayanna Pressley and Elizabeth Warren, we don’t know how many of these breakthrough infectees had also received a booster shot..
here’s a study providing a breakdown of breakthrough infections by vaccine:
New report on 1.23 million breakthrough symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections by vaccine –Several vaccines have been developed against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) to curb the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. As of December 28, 2021, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have reported at least 77.6% of the U.S. population over the age of five have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccineA new research letter published in JAMA Network Open evaluates whether the estimated vaccine effectiveness changes against infection over time in an effort to help inform public health policy and clinical practices.The results indicated that out of the 1,237,097 individuals included in the study, 59.2% were women, 40.7% were men, and 0.1% were unknown. The study also involved diverse groups that included Asians, Black or African Americans, White, Hispanic, Alaska Natives, Pacific Islanders, and American Indian individuals. Of the vaccinated individuals, 27.1% received the BNT162b2 vaccine, 16.8% received the mRNA-1273 vaccine, and 4% received the JNJ-78436735 vaccine. The results reported that individuals who received the messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccines had the lowest incidence rate, while unvaccinated individuals had the highest. The unvaccinated individuals were found to have 412%, 287%, and 159% more infections as compared to those who had received the mRNA1273, BNT162b2, or JNJ-78436735 vaccines, respectively.
Ten House Republicans voted to charge President Donald J. Trump with inciting the Capitol attack. All of them are still struggling with the consequences.
The 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Donald J. Trump did so with the same conviction — that a president of their party deserved to be charged with inciting insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021 — and the same hope — that his role in doing so would finally persuade the G.O.P. to repudiate him.
But in the year since the deadliest attack on the Capitol in centuries, none of the 10 lawmakers have been able to avoid the consequences of a fundamental miscalculation about the direction of their party. The former president is very much the leader of the Republicans, and it is those who stood against him whom the party has thrust into the role of pariah. …
A majority of senators voted Saturday to convict former President Donald Trump on an impeachment charge of inciting an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
But the Democrats’ side needed 17 Republicans to join them in order to reach the two-thirds threshold needed to convict.
Seven GOP senators voted with Democrats — the most bipartisan impeachment vote in U.S. history — but well short of the 17 needed to convict the former president.
Of those seven Republicans, two are retiring and only one — Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski — faces her state’s voters in the next election cycle, 2022. …
That these people do not have the courage to simply become Democrats is arguably less disturbing than the likelihood that GOP political power in the Red states will likely result in the tyrant/monster Trump retaking the presidency in 2024.
By flipping (hijacking?) the vote in 3 or 4 pivotal states.
Despite recent threats, she won’t receive security detail
Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins is set to be sworn in as US attorney on Monday, and will take office without a federal security detail, despite requests for protection amid recent threats, according to two people with direct knowledge.
Rollins, the first Black woman to serve as US attorney for Massachusetts, submitted her resignation letter (as Suffolk county DA) to Governor Charlie Baker on Wednesday afternoon. Baker is expected to soon name Rollins’s successor, who will serve in an acting role until Rollins’s term expires at the end of the year. …
Rollins has lobbied federal marshals in recent weeks for a full-time security detail, saying racist online attacks and death threats have only increased since her confirmation vote in which Republicans attacked her as a dangerous, pro-criminal prosecutor. She plans to continue trying to persuade officials she needs security, according to two people with direct knowledge.
In late December, dozens of Boston clergy and community leaders wrote US Attorney General Merrick Garland and expressed dismay that the government had declined to provide her protection.
“We deplore the continuing death threats against her life, and we are very aware of forces across this country, and within our cities and towns, that seek to further divide our nation along racial lines.” said the letter, written on Twelfth Baptist Church letterhead. “We implore you to immediately provide security for US Attorney Rollins and will hold you accountable to provide her protection.”
The US Marshals office, which provides protection for 30,000 federal employees, was apparently unmoved. The office has not changed its stance, according to the person with direct knowledge. …
… Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins, who was confirmed last week as US attorney for Massachusetts after an unusually contentious vote (*) in the Senate, said Monday that she faces death threats as a woman and a person of color.
Rollins, who will be the first Black woman to serve as the state’s top federal law enforcement official, made the remarks during an interview on GBH’s “Greater Boston” when host Jim Braude asked her about the “trickle-down impact” of comments made by Republican lawmakers, who sought to paint Rollins as a radical with a soft-on-crime record.
“A lot of people don’t recognize [that] as women and as women of color, and particularly as a Black woman, the level of racist, hate-filled death threats that we receive,” she said. …
* – Senate Republicans were united in their opposition to Rollins’s nomination on Wednesday. The vote ended in a 50-50 draw and required Vice President Kamala Harris to deliver the tie-breaking vote.
what to do if someone you live with tests positive for COVID
Does anyone else see Kathy Hochul as a very viable presidential candidate in 2024?
Not remotely close. Zero national presence
She doesn’t have a national presence yet, but that could change quickly. She is heading into 22 as the Democratic Governor of the second largest state controlled by Democrats. Governors have done well since 1980, Reagan, Clinton, Bush. Senators typically struggle because they have to account for many votes on hard issues, whereas Governors are mostly administrators but can also push their own agenda. Obama was an outlier, only a Senator for two years when he started running for President, so few votes in his short national career. And he was the anti-war candidate in 07 and 08 when the country was very sick of the Iraq war, plus he had a fantastic campaign apparatus. Trump was another kind of outlier, the ultimate non politician, with no votes or political track record.
Looking at the 2024 field, Biden will be 82, Sanders 82, Warren 75.
other than that she’s a governor of a big Democratic state and younger than Trump, Biden, Sanders, and Warren, what are the reasons you’d think she’d be a viable presidential candidate?
Exactly what could she do in the next 18 months to gain a national presence?
Hey Jim, I’ll play along. It’s so nice to see a hint of some new original discussion here other than rehashing postings of COVID news articles and other mainstream news briefs which seem to have dominated.
I don’t know much about Kathy, but if, if, if there were an opening for a fresh new candidate in 2024, she would have to compete with my favorite future possibility…
Folks not familiar with the new Infrastructure Czar, Mitch Landrieu, 61, should listen to this 2017 speech for an education in what leadership looks like. Think of 2024 & the future of America.
https://youtu.be/WQ29Uwz5yPU
Bright spot on the horizon. Former New Orleans Mayor (8 years) and Lieutenant Governor Louisiana (6 years). Author of “In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History“.
The infrastructure position could give him the nationwide exposure he needs to move into a 2024 Presidential candidate, should Biden decide not to run (and he should) . He is a person that I think could pull together a national coalition of white & black Dems, Independents and even the “never-Trumper” crowd that could inspire the country, break through the polarization logjam and beat any Trump or Trump-backed run for President.
Jim:
Have you read her background?
Run,
I’m trying to learn more about Kathy Hochul. What I find appealing at first glance is that she, like Joe Biden, has a connection to a demographic that is slipping away from the Democratic Party. She is from Buffalo, New York, one of six children of an Irish American family. She worked for Senator Patrick Moynihan, and served briefly in Congress. She was elected Lt. Governor of New York in 2014, and became Governor in August.
It looks to me like the Democrats will need to win Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin in 2024 to remain in contention. Thus, my interest in Democratic candidates that I think can do well in the Midwest, with moderate Democrats and independents.
I would characterize Hochul as a moderate Democrat. Her votes on various issues are available at Vote Smart: The Voter’s Self Defense System – Vote Smart
For example, in 2012 she had a 100% Sierra Club rating, while her ADA rating was 30%. I would take her record in her brief time in Congress with some caution. One, I think the entire Democratic Party has moved, particularly on climate and taxation. The other is that it’s ten years later and she now has lots of executive experience in New York state government, which may have also affected her outlook on governance.
Jim:
I was reading her information on Wiki. The only thing I would be leery of at this time is her being Catholic. There was a time in the past when people really thought politicians who were Catholic would be taking orders from the Pope. We laughed it off. Now we have SCOTUS which is intensely to the right and religious. Roe v Wade is hanging by a thread.
She appears to be qualified. When was the last time a governor ran for the Presidency? Rockefeller?
Run,
When JFK ran for President, it was a big deal he was a Catholic. He even needed to make a speech about his independence from Rome. Joe Biden is our second Catholic president. It has hardly come up as an issue, except for some conservative U.S. Bishops trying to deny him communion at Mass.
I think Rockefeller was the last NY Governor to run for President, although there was always a push on Mario Cuomo to run. In the last Democratic primary in 2020, four Governors ran for President: Deval Patrick, Steve Bullock, Jay Inslee and John Hickenlooper.
just a short excerpt from a much longer article…
fwiw, from a normally meticulous blogger i’ve followed for ~10 years who has a problem with the mainstream Covid narrative:
<a href=”https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-joe-biden-business-florida-donald-trump-509e1d6da26c2f094b86de5687df7d79″>Trump reschedules ‘airing of grievances</a>
Trump reschedules ‘airing of grievances’
Massachusetts is one of the few states reporting breakthrough cases:
that said, there’s still a lot we don’t know; those who are “fully vaccinated” had two shots at least two weeks ago, but we don’t know how long ago; the Israeli experience was that Pfizer effectiveness wanes quite a bit after 6 months, and i’ve yet to see a breakdown of how long ago those with such infections were vaccinated….likewise, except for a few high profile cases like Ayanna Pressley and Elizabeth Warren, we don’t know how many of these breakthrough infectees had also received a booster shot..
here’s a study providing a breakdown of breakthrough infections by vaccine:
New report on 1.23 million breakthrough symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections by vaccine –Several vaccines have been developed against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) to curb the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. As of December 28, 2021, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have reported at least 77.6% of the U.S. population over the age of five have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccineA new research letter published in JAMA Network Open evaluates whether the estimated vaccine effectiveness changes against infection over time in an effort to help inform public health policy and clinical practices.The results indicated that out of the 1,237,097 individuals included in the study, 59.2% were women, 40.7% were men, and 0.1% were unknown. The study also involved diverse groups that included Asians, Black or African Americans, White, Hispanic, Alaska Natives, Pacific Islanders, and American Indian individuals. Of the vaccinated individuals, 27.1% received the BNT162b2 vaccine, 16.8% received the mRNA-1273 vaccine, and 4% received the JNJ-78436735 vaccine. The results reported that individuals who received the messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccines had the lowest incidence rate, while unvaccinated individuals had the highest. The unvaccinated individuals were found to have 412%, 287%, and 159% more infections as compared to those who had received the mRNA1273, BNT162b2, or JNJ-78436735 vaccines, respectively.
A Long, Hard Year for Republicans Who Voted to Impeach After Jan. 6
(So sad. They should just switch parties, yes?)
(And what about these Senators who voted to impeach Trump after Jan 6?)
7 GOP Senators Voted To Convict Trump
@Fred,
Thus proving once again that the GOP is no longer a party, it’s a Trump cult. Shame.
That these people do not have the courage to simply become Democrats is arguably less disturbing than the likelihood that GOP political power in the Red states will likely result in the tyrant/monster Trump retaking the presidency in 2024.
By flipping (hijacking?) the vote in 3 or 4 pivotal states.
Rachael Rollins to be sworn in Monday as US attorney for Boston
Rollins discusses her confirmation as US attorney for Mass., in TV interview, and threats she has faced