Democratic Party leaders are considering overhauling the 2024 presidential primary calendar, a transformation that would include ousting Iowa and New Hampshire from their cherished perches as the first states to vote.

Senior party leaders and Democratic National Committee members are privately exploring the idea of pushing South Carolina and Nevada to the front of the primary election schedule, as well as the possibility of multiple states holding the first nominating contest on the same day.


Two political heavyweights with longtime bonds to President Joe Biden — South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn and former Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada — are among those discussing the possible changes.


Both have long insisted that Iowa and New Hampshire have an outsized role in framing the presidential contest despite being unrepresentative of the rest of the country.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/31/democrats-primary-schedule-2024-478680

More than 2 million people in the United States are getting vaccinated against the coronavirus every day, but case counts are once again on the rise as some states begin to lift public health restrictions. Now, Americans are looking toward the warmer months ahead and wondering: What will our second summer in the COVID era be like?

Right now, a little more than one in six people, or 15.8 percent of the population, have been fully immunized. Federal guidance on how to go about life post-vaccination is still emerging, but what we know so far — like that fully vaccinated people can safely gather with other fully vaccinated people inside without masks — is encouraging.

The promise of protection from any of the three shots that have been authorized in the United States offers a much-needed beacon of hope, even as researchers are still collecting important data on these vaccines. A recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention involving Pfizer and Moderna’s mRNA vaccines concluded that fully vaccinated people were 90 percent less likely to become infected with the coronavirus in “real-world conditions” like the workplace. But there are a couple key questions we just don’t have the answers to yet.

___

Easing up on those prevention strategies too soon threatens to undo the significant progress that’s been made in this country over the past several weeks to get this virus under control. That’s why the push to get back to some version of “normal” life should “be a dial and not a switch,” according to Dr. Preeti Malani, chief health officer and a professor of medicine in the infectious diseases division at the University of Michigan.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/how-to-stay-safe-from-covid-this-summer-according-to-experts