COVID-19 rumor patrol
Friday, Mar 20, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* This video was passed around all over the place yesterday (it was even posted in comments here this morning before I deleted it). But notice the date when it was first posted on Facebook: February 19th…
😳😲😥 look what the freight just brought in..
Posted by Alex Hampton on Wednesday, February 19, 2020
Many, many thanks to SEIU Local 1 Communications Director Izabela Miltko-Ivkovich for tracking that down. I got so tired of receiving it yesterday that I started scolding everyone who sent it to me. The only thing that was forwarded to me more than that has been that stupidly ubiquitous Blagojevich meme. Please, stop sending that to me. Many thanks.
* The online uproar got so intense that the Illinois National Guard had to take to Twitter…
The governor’s office should put a prominent link to Snopes on its COVID-19 website.
* From a family member…
I am hearing on this group that ISP has shut down background checks.
* Illinois State Police…
The Firearms Services Bureau is still working diligently to process Firearm Transfer Inquiry Program submissions as quickly as possible. We have experienced a high volume of requests recently and are working to process these requests as efficiently as possible. Please remember not to calculate weekends and holidays when determining an approximate date for response. Temporary fluctuations in staffing made in response to COVID-19 may temporarily result in fluctuations in processing times, but FTIP submissions and processing have not stopped and continue in earnest. ISP also is rolling out telework capabilities as quickly as possible to increase efficiency in the days and weeks ahead. Thank you for your patience as we work to respond in as timely a manner as this emergency situation allows.
* This trailer was parked outside of Sycamore and some locals were freaking out…
Explanation…
* My all-time “favorite” however, is this, which was sent to a legislator who forwarded it on to me so I could mock it…
Great retort by a Golden Horseshoe Award winner…
…Adding… Thanks to a commenter for pointing to this Dahleen Glanton column…
Some folks actually believe that black people, either by genetics or some favor of God, cannot catch the coronavirus. Or if black people do get it, they are more likely to fully recover from it than other racial or ethnic groups. […]
Here’s the truth, according to the World Health Organization: Anybody can contract the coronavirus. People over the age of 60 are at a higher risk of developing a severe case of illness, and the highest death rate is in people over 80. But anyone who suffers from chronic health conditions such as high blood pressure, kidney disease, heart disease, cancer, diabetes or asthma is likely to get very sick or die.
Black people rank at or near the top of just about every one of these conditions. That places them among the most vulnerable groups for which the virus could be fatal.
- Precinct Captain - Friday, Mar 20, 20 @ 9:57 am:
We’re so blanked
- Left of the Lake - Friday, Mar 20, 20 @ 10:01 am:
Thank Rich. Just so many rumors. I feel like all day im texting friends and family trying to dispel rumors and calm them down.
- 32nd warder - Friday, Mar 20, 20 @ 10:01 am:
the worst REAL thing of the week is the silly oped the Tribune ran from convict blago. How pathetic that the tribune, once the subject of convict Blago’s illegal abuse of power as governor, ran this. he was working to disband their editorial board, for crying out loud! Shut your mouth, rod. NOBODY wants to hear from you. Tribune, be better. Governor Pritzker is doing an outstanding job handling this crisis (rod would have been locked in the bathroom). Stop undermining Governor Pritzker by running nonsense like this from that jailbird blago.
- JoanP - Friday, Mar 20, 20 @ 10:06 am:
It’s awful.
I was at my gym the week before it shut down, and a woman in the locker room was going on about how there’s no coronovirus in Africa and blacks don’t get it.
Dahleen Glanton had a column in the Trib this morning about how dangerous that thinking is, partcularly with the high levels of diabetes, high blood pressure, etc. in the African-American community. https://www.chicagotribune.com/columns/dahleen-glanton/ct-dahleen-glanton-coronavirus-black-immunity-myth-idris-elba-20200319-5auoqjzrmbcsphitbhpocth3qa-story.html
- Bigtwich - Friday, Mar 20, 20 @ 10:14 am:
If a video takes 25 minutes they need 5G.
- DownSouth - Friday, Mar 20, 20 @ 10:16 am:
Left of the Lake - I feel exactly the same way. Yesterday was especially horrendous. And then lo and behold this morning at 0430 like clockwork the texts, msgs, etc started rolling in all over again…I’m close to giving up on even trying to explain things and dispel rumors other than in perhaps morning, afternoon and evening timed notes, posts, etc. It seems to be a utter waste of energy at the moment to even begin to deal with the thundering herds individually.
- ktkat1 - Friday, Mar 20, 20 @ 10:17 am:
I’m trying to reassure my father that the rehab center two blocks from his home did not have two cases. People took a story out of NY and applied it locally while adding details. Exhausting and frustrating to say the least.
Hubs is a truck driver out making deliveries every day and he’s worried enough for all of us. Those staying in should not have to deal with made up stories. It’s too much.
- JoanP - Friday, Mar 20, 20 @ 10:28 am:
@32nd warder -
I nearly threw the paper at the wall when I saw that. Blago is probably the *last* person Pritzker need advice from (now or at any time0.
- Skeptic - Friday, Mar 20, 20 @ 10:29 am:
Pass it along…If it starts with the three words “I heard that…” the information is immediately suspect.
- VerySmallRocks - Friday, Mar 20, 20 @ 10:36 am:
“Is this a black helicopter I see before me?”, with apologies to “Macbeth”.
- JS Mill - Friday, Mar 20, 20 @ 11:22 am:
For me the worst is the insanity of toilet paper hoarding. Why? Just nuts.
- Yep - Friday, Mar 20, 20 @ 11:36 am:
Just FYI, my friend posted a live video of hundreds of military Humvees on a train going through Mount Prospect last night at 11:30pm. Looked similar to the video up there but was yesterday night through the Pacific NW line.
- Real - Friday, Mar 20, 20 @ 11:47 am:
I’m not sure if a February date means much of anything. Governments plans things long in advance.