32 Comments - Edyrdologist - Monday, Jun 14, 21 @ 12:00 pm: Downstate’s version of the Tribune Editorial Board strikes again. - Skeptic - Monday, Jun 14, 21 @ 12:00 pm: “What are you afraid of?” the person with the mask is asked by the guy carrying a concealed weapon. - Oswego Willy - Monday, Jun 14, 21 @ 12:02 pm: They were trying to “check all the woke boxes” I think I used that right. - Flying Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Monday, Jun 14, 21 @ 12:04 pm: Why are newspapers going under again? - Norseman - Monday, Jun 14, 21 @ 12:10 pm: I have trouble coming to grips with those who have politicized the response to a deadly pandemic for selfish or political purposes. Over 600,000 Americans have died. In large part because of the selfish desire to not take mostly minor steps to prevent that disease’s spread. The “Greatest Generation” this isn’t. More like the Selfish Whiner Generation. - lake county democrat - Monday, Jun 14, 21 @ 12:15 pm: At least they’re staunchly pro-vaccine and offer mild criticism for those who are avoiding it. What’s odd is that they, reasonably, say we should wait for high quality studies to see if Pritzker’s “draconian” measures were right or not, but they aren’t willing to wait and see if the science backing the risk-adverse they make fun of turns out to be correct. - Grandson of Man - Monday, Jun 14, 21 @ 12:16 pm: Noticed the gaslighting elsewhere as well, using MLK to express phony oppression. “relatively few having trouble coming to grips with independence” What’s the big deal if some people feel too nervous to take off their masks right now? What business is it of anybody’s? How infantile is mask shaming? We’re still coming off of a deadly pandemic. Many people need some time. - Oswego Willy - Monday, Jun 14, 21 @ 12:18 pm: Another perfect example of the selfishness of old, angry, white, rural folks being used here with MLK, Jr., because the racial underpinnings to a global pandemic and refusing to see how the haves and have nots have medically fared… They’re for freedom, but not safety of a society, they are for independence, but seeming mock purposely by repurposing the words of MLK, Jr.. This editorial board is signaling more to whites about anger of race in the pandemic than worrying about any restrictions we all faced. It’s nauseating. - Midwest Dumpster Filre - Monday, Jun 14, 21 @ 12:19 pm: * Conservative all-white Downstate editorial board which serves a liberal and diverse university/health care community quotes Martin Luther King, Jr. in its lede about the pandemic, tosses in a reference to chains (and, later, handcuffs) for effect and then mocks people with legit anxiety…* Always throwing in the racism where it doesn’t exist, and you why we can’t get along. - Anyone Remember - Monday, Jun 14, 21 @ 12:23 pm: Norseman - “E Pluribus Unum” has been replaced by “No one can tell me what to do!” - truthteller - Monday, Jun 14, 21 @ 12:32 pm: way I see it, all those who chose not get vaccinated should have to pay way more in healthcare cost by 3x-5x going forward. Actions should have consequences and even then, the ignorant have a hard time learning - 47th Ward - Monday, Jun 14, 21 @ 12:41 pm: ===The chains are off — mostly=== I can remember the feeling of relief I felt when the Governor’s staff came and unlocked me from the prison I’d been trapped in for 15 months. Oh wait, that didn’t happen. These chains must refer to the mild inconvenience of some restrictions on dining and drinking and some other entertainment during an unprecedented global health crisis. The horror. The horror. Chains. For the love of Pete. - Leap Day William - Monday, Jun 14, 21 @ 12:45 pm: == Always throwing in the racism where it doesn’t exist, and you why we can’t get along. == Sure. There’s no racism whatsoever in appropriating the struggle for Civil Rights and equating everything that Black people have gone through in this country to being the same as requiring a mask to eat at Applebee’s. *eyeroll* - Oswego Willy - Monday, Jun 14, 21 @ 12:49 pm: === Always throwing in the racism where it doesn’t exist, and you why we can’t get along.=== I did notice you *didn’t* argue that the facts aren’t true. Good on you. Ugh. Your victimhood is strong. This; === 1) 15 months, not 16. 2) We were never in “lockdown”; the stay-at-home order lasted 2.5 months and didn’t include a curfew or punishment? 3) Mitigations have been gone and everything’s been back open since February with expanded capacity since May. 4) Masks aren’t handcuffs.=== Hannah wins. - thisjustinagain - Monday, Jun 14, 21 @ 12:56 pm: I believe they threw in the kitchen sink, the cabinets, and there is a stove missing as well…. - Retired Educator - Monday, Jun 14, 21 @ 12:57 pm: I am a transplant survivor, and will continue to wear a mask until I feel safe. I won’t explain it to anyone, it is none of their business, Most of us transplant survivors are immuno-compromised, and we choose to extend out the protection. - jimbo26 - Monday, Jun 14, 21 @ 12:58 pm: I guess they forgot to point out the rapid test created at U of I Champaign. Why give credit to a local institution that provides income to the local businesses. - Cheryl44 - Monday, Jun 14, 21 @ 1:07 pm: I am not immunocompromised aand am fully vaccinated and I plan to wear a mask indoors everywhere anyone wants me to do so. Because it’s really not any kind of attack on my rights. - Ducky LaMoore - Monday, Jun 14, 21 @ 1:17 pm: Wow. I didn’t realize that the News-Gazette editorial board was a bunch of whiny little snowflakes. - Almost retired - Monday, Jun 14, 21 @ 1:26 pm: Sadly, the pandemic isn’t over. The virus isn’t gone. Now, it means the risk of death and severe illness for most of the vaccinated is low. Those vaccinated do lower the risk some what for those unvaccinated. The virus will find those unvaccinated and more will die and more will be severely sick. When editorials in local newspapers are this bad and this uninformed, how does one trust the validity of anything they publish. Even more amazing is they can’t figure out why they are a dying business. They are angry that they lost advertising dollars during the last 15 months. They simply do not respect or care about the value of a human’s life. - lake county democrat - Monday, Jun 14, 21 @ 1:30 pm: There’s a good reason to wear a mask in any situation: the vaccines, as miraculous as they are, don’t prevent mild cases for about 5-15% of the vaccinated (depending which one). There’s at least some evidence that even mild cases puts one at greater risk of deaths from other causes (e.g., the recent Washington University study). There’s so much we don’t know about COVID-19 that there’s no shame in being risk adverse. Given that new case numbers are low and there’s not a lot of data on longterm risks of mild cases, I wouldn’t be *critical* of anyone vaccinated going maskless, but I sure wouldn’t mock them. - Mr K - Monday, Jun 14, 21 @ 1:57 pm: Now that masks are off — I’m hoping to off my shirt and shoes, too. I’m sure folks will enjoy me shirtless and shoeless in Applebees. Cuz shirts and shoes have been my prison for years now. - zatoichi - Monday, Jun 14, 21 @ 1:58 pm: Chains? Please. As the article says “Carle’s statistics show that unvaccinated persons represent most of those who continue to be hospitalized as a consequence of contracting the virus.” If the vaccines had not come when they did those 600,000 deaths would likely be far higher. What was Pritzker supposed to do? Simply do nothing and wait. Then the NG could editorial on action that should have happened. The chains are simply people unwilling to comply with data based attempts to quell the virus. The long haul issues are still to come. But, but Pritzker’s actions have been a chain on my freedom. Please. Tell that to my friends who died from Covid. They may have a hard time understanding that point. - Ducky LaMoore - Monday, Jun 14, 21 @ 2:03 pm: “Cuz shirts and shoes have been my prison for years now.” Since the beginning of mask wearing, for every complaint I would hear about it, I would just replace the word “mask” with “pants” and argue with people that I should be allowed to walk through Walmart without pants because “freedom.” As ridiculous as my argument is, there is nothing that my pants cover that could kill you. - Strannik - Monday, Jun 14, 21 @ 2:20 pm: The editorial does make some good points - vaccinations are important, and we shouldn’t judge how effective Pritzker’s mitigation measures were until they can be studied. But that just makes the hyperbole, the inflammatory language and, at best, exaggeration of what the mitigation measures actually were that we got in the first few paragraphs completely unnecessary. - Nick - Monday, Jun 14, 21 @ 2:34 pm: I remember seeing people eat in person in restaurants even last winter when case counts were exploding dramatically. The *want* to feel victimized by so many when it comes to masks and other policies would be hilarious if it weren’t so sad. - thisjustinagain - Monday, Jun 14, 21 @ 2:44 pm: Everybody sing: “We’ve got to beat the virus that is causin’ such a fuss, We got to put down Covid cause our world depends on us, So get those arms injected, and mask up till we’re done, We’re gonna put down Covid, sorry it’s not much fun.” I bear no responsibility for any scenes caused by my going pantsless; the ladies need to calm themselves down. - Bourbon Street - Monday, Jun 14, 21 @ 3:13 pm: ==relatively few having trouble coming to grips with independence== There’s nothing like insulting some of your readers to drive up those circulation numbers. /s This editorial board seems to have missed the concept that some people were dying and others were getting seriously ill from something most of the planet had never even heard of until about 18 months ago, and that the Governor was trying his best to curb death and illness. - Pundent - Monday, Jun 14, 21 @ 4:12 pm: =then mocks people with legit anxiety…*= They are also mocking slavery and the civil rights movement by suggesting that they were no more egregious than asking people to put on a mask. The News-Gazzette doesn’t care about your health (physical or mental). And if you’re African American they’re telling you that in terms of oppression white people are now even. - Lt Guv - Monday, Jun 14, 21 @ 4:28 pm: Nothing good to say about the Ed Board, so Mama said. . . - MyTwoCents - Monday, Jun 14, 21 @ 5:33 pm: When Jim Dey is the Opinions Editor, that’s all that needs to be said. He has never met a hyperbole he didn’t love. - filmmaker prof - Monday, Jun 14, 21 @ 11:55 pm: The News Gazette’s audience are the people who live in Tolono, Mahomet, Monticello, Savoy, and St. Joe. In other words, the places where all the editorial board members live. They stopped serving CU long ago. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.