Question of the day
Friday, May 1, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I had a good question today, but now it’s too late to post it. Drats! Let’s instead take a look at what the governor said today in response to a question…
So I just want to make sure I’m hearing that right because that sounds like news to me that you’re saying before May 30, if there is a region with low hospitalization low ICU availability of ventilator that region may open?…
Yes, if it’s heading down the other side of this slide that even the national plan proposed, that is for 14 days on a downslide of those numbers. Then absolutely. Listen, I want as much as everybody else does for everybody to get back to work and for us to move toward normalcy.
But I also want to say that I’m not going to do it until we know people are safe and it isn’t going to be because some protester has a sign that says, you know, liberate Illinois.
He also said there would have to be regionally adequate hospital bed and ICU and ventilator capacity before he’d open ‘em up.
* The Question: Your thoughts on this? And make ‘em quick because I’m shutting this thing down soon.
- Candy Dogood - Friday, May 1, 20 @ 4:10 pm:
14 days us a long time to produce statistics showing that everything is in decline regarding the growth of this pandemic.
My only concern is that there are mechanisms to create artificially low infection rates, either intentional or otherwise that could impact the validity of the data.
Pope County may have an issue with getting cases reported there because serious patients are transported out of Pope County. No positive tests doesn’t mean no COVID-19 infections spreading
- Oswego Willy - Friday, May 1, 20 @ 4:11 pm:
Yikes, i just did….
To cross tab it…
This won’t be the last we hear from this marker.
Now the Eastern Bloc thoughtless along with the trolling Ms. Hammond, they are going to push and prod to get a “Breen” and a re-examine.
Let’s hope those folks, even Ms. Hammond trolling, understand what “14 days” means.
- Ok - Friday, May 1, 20 @ 4:14 pm:
So, when the Eastern Bloc sees a rise in cases over the next month because of their recent protests, they will be the only place still under stay at home orders…
- Cool Papa Bell - Friday, May 1, 20 @ 4:15 pm:
Its good. I think it matches with what other states are doing and it for experts to watch what happens when something like this is tried.
Just be ready to tell people a stay at home may have to come back in that area. And you need to be prepared for number of infections and deaths when seeing if the process can “work”. The order was never about the elimination of the virus rather a containment of it. So let’s see if you can contain it or not.
- Nick - Friday, May 1, 20 @ 4:16 pm:
I think this was mainly rhetorical, at least for now
If you’re basing it on IDPH regions, I doubt any currently meet the entire 14 day criteria of downward cases/positive test rates/hospitalizations, etc.
But at some point I think people did just need to hear that, no, the entire state is not going to open up at Chicago’s pace, yes, other places *can* (but not necessarily will) open up sooner.
- Wensicia - Friday, May 1, 20 @ 4:17 pm:
Well, a sharp increase in positives may not show up for a couple of weeks in opened communities. By the time it does, we’ll be back at square one.
- Perrid - Friday, May 1, 20 @ 4:20 pm:
It sounds reasonable, if still very hypothetical. I personally find most of the “regionalization” people tiresome because it’s mostly a motte and bailey argument. They mean “It’s a Chicago problem why should we care” but they can’t say that.
I’d kinda like to know how we’re defining regions, myself. How many regions are there in IL? If there’s an outbreak in Decatur does Champaign-Urbana have to re-close, for example? Is it city limits, county, what are we talking about?
- Grandson of Man - Friday, May 1, 20 @ 4:23 pm:
I want parts of the state to reopen too but we have to have science to back it up, not because of the empty cauldrons out protesting, making the loudest noises.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Friday, May 1, 20 @ 4:24 pm:
Wensicia is correct. The 14 day window is too short, because we know it is too short to detect an uptick in cases.
We are going to go back to closing the barn door after the chickens have scattered.
- Lester Holt’s Mustache - Friday, May 1, 20 @ 4:26 pm:
== but they can’t say that==
Judging from the protester lady with the swastika sign today, I think they’ve stopped worrying about what they can and cannot say.
To the post: sure, if the case numbers are going down and the hospitals have capacity, why not? JB said he would do this a couple weeks ago given certain parameters, so he’d be a liar if he didn’t
- TinyDancer(FKASue0 - Friday, May 1, 20 @ 4:35 pm:
The incubation period is up to 14 days. Think about that.
Nothing should open up without testing and tracing.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, May 1, 20 @ 4:36 pm:
=== The lockdown is crumbling. In 14 days there won’t be much left.===
Wishing something isn’t making it so.
Polling says your wrong today.
More infections and worse won’t make people think it’s time to start opening things up.
- RH - Friday, May 1, 20 @ 4:40 pm:
The National plan appears to be well thought out (surprisingly) it makes sense to use it to open up areas of our state. It’s clear by comments that politics are playing into people’s thoughts. We need to not take the bait, it’s a humanitarian issue and we need to just be decent human beings.
Just my thoughts
- Enviro - Friday, May 1, 20 @ 4:40 pm:
Can we contain the virus until we bend the curve or there is a vaccine? The people will decide with their actions.
- Anyone Remember - Friday, May 1, 20 @ 4:44 pm:
Don’t open up until hospitals / nursing homes accept visitors. Be like Dr. Max Starkloff of St. Louis, not Dr. Wilmer Krusen of Philadelphia.
- Mugs - Friday, May 1, 20 @ 4:52 pm:
I think I heard the Governor or Dr. Ezike speak of “hospital regions.” There are 11 in Illinois. The IDPH website has a map of them and a tally of the number of ICU beds and ventilators available in each region. There are some arresting numbers: in West Suburban Region 8, 88 of 508 ICU beds are available. In Chicago Region 11, 179 of 1,078.
- Chambanalyst - Friday, May 1, 20 @ 4:59 pm:
Prefacing this by stating that I trust people to do the right thing. But I wonder if, let’s say some “very excited” regions may either try and increase bed and ventilator capacity as a way to game the numbers. It’s also my understanding that some of these ventilators come and go from hospital to hospital as needed - so are we doing anything to ensure ventilators are not being shipped from newly-opened region to a non-open region in order to subsequently increase their availability? I know they’re just one component of a hospital’s capacity to deal with this but I fear that those numbers could be manipulated.
- Former Merit Comp - Friday, May 1, 20 @ 5:14 pm:
I’ve been doing at home stats on infection rates and for the past 10 days they have decreased ever so slightly. April 21 we had a 21.6 rate of infection and as of yesterday it was 19.8. I didn’t factor in hospital stats, just simply infection rates. They started to go down as testing increases it seems like