* Fox 32…
When it comes to back-to-school this fall, Governor J.B. Pritzker has said the state of Illinois will follow CDC guidance.
That means vaccinated students and teachers are not required to wear masks. However, those who are not vaccinated do need to wear a mask in the classroom. The mandates are not sitting well with a lot of schools and parents.
* Unlike every other local reporter I’ve seen cover this topic in recent days, WCIA’s Mark Maxwell is the only one who actually asked someone in authority for a response…
Some Republican state lawmakers who have resisted most of the state’s Coronavirus restrictions are pushing back against the public health recommendations for unvaccinated people to wear a mask indoors.
“They feel like their kids are going to be discriminated against because they’re not vaccinated,” state representative Dan Caulkins (R-Decatur) said. […]
“He’s literally asking for a policy that is already in place and has been since Friday,” Pritzker spokesperson Jordan Abudayyeh said in an email.
The Governor’s office said while schools are “supposed to follow the CDC guidance,” “school boards run their school districts,” and the new recommendations are “not a mask mandate.”
Pick up the phone, for crying out loud.
* Rep. Caulkins, by the way, has some very strange ideas…
In his letter to Pritzker, Caulkins cited a study that measured how much carbon dioxide is caught in a face covering. The author suggested the elevated carbon dioxide levels near the nose and mouth could carry unspecified “adverse effects,” though other medical experts who reviewed the study found its measurement devices, methods, and analysis severely lacking. For example, the study measured the air trapped inside the mask, not the other air around it, only measured for a fraction of the time it takes to inhale, and did not measure actual blood-oxygen levels.
“The buildup of carbon monoxide (sic) has been detected in children’s masks which can lead to serious health issues,” Caulkins wrote, mistaking the air we exhale with a toxic flammable gas.
Other medical experts who reviewed the study said that even if children were breathing in that higher rate of carbon dioxide, the “elevated levels” cited in the study were so low, they were “not dangerous.”
“I don’t think the CDC is out here trying to torture children and wear a mask,” Abudayyeh said in a phone call.
Sheesh.
- Michelle Flaherty - Tuesday, Jul 13, 21 @ 2:08 pm:
If Dan Caulkins was that worried about respiration and air quality would he live in Decatur?
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Jul 13, 21 @ 2:10 pm:
===If Dan Caulkins was that worried about respiration and air quality===
And be demanding the immediate closure of coal-fired energy plants.
- Jocko - Tuesday, Jul 13, 21 @ 2:10 pm:
==a study that measured how much carbon dioxide is caught in a face covering.==
If by ‘face covering’ you mean a plastic bag put over your head.
- Nieva - Tuesday, Jul 13, 21 @ 2:14 pm:
12 and under can’t take the shot yet so the bulk of grades 6 and under will still be under the mask mandate. Will the teachers in those classrooms that are vaccinated be allowed to go without a mask?
- Perrid - Tuesday, Jul 13, 21 @ 2:18 pm:
You pull fresh air in through the mask and from around the mask, how much CO2 there is in the space between the mask and your face doesn’t matter
- me - Tuesday, Jul 13, 21 @ 2:22 pm:
If they are not required and have not been, then why was a school district placed on probation by ISBE for stating mask optional in May? and ISBE said this on Friday As of today, ISBE’s guidance calls for the following:
Requiring masks only for individuals who are not fully vaccinated.
So there is a mandate offered down through his administration.
- TheInvisibleMan - Tuesday, Jul 13, 21 @ 2:30 pm:
Last month I was tearing down an old garage on my property that was in pretty rough condition. There was all sorts of mold and whatnot in it. I wore a mask to prevent inhaling all those mold spores while working.
For reference, it was during the week when temps were in the 90s with likely the highest humidity of the year. Within about half an hour of working, the mask was basically saturated with water/sweat, and I was still able to breath through it without any problems, while doing highly physical work.
How fragile is Mr. Caulkins? Should we have him wear arm floaties any time he goes near a body of water?
Eventually, we are going to have to start treating people who espouse these things exactly like their rhetoric demands we treat them.
- Grimlock - Tuesday, Jul 13, 21 @ 2:32 pm:
Meanwhile, Mississippi is reporting 10 or 12 kids in the ICU due to Covid. Guess no one told them that Covid doesn’t hurt kids.
- Lincoln Lad - Tuesday, Jul 13, 21 @ 2:32 pm:
The knucklehead anti-vax/mask movement will have an interesting reversal when the deaths climb to a point they won’t be able to deny.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Jul 13, 21 @ 2:37 pm:
Since kids under 12 can’t get vaccinated, essentially, yes there is a mandate for elementary and part of jr high schools. Rediculous.
- Steve in Spfld - Tuesday, Jul 13, 21 @ 2:37 pm:
Thank you to everyone above for reminding me daily why I left this state 6 years ago like every other adult that could since.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jul 13, 21 @ 2:41 pm:
=== Thank you to everyone above for reminding me daily why I left this state 6 years ago===
Egads.
If you dwell on this daily AND comment here to “brag” upon that… go live your life… I mean… how glad can you be if you feel the need to dwell?
To the post,
The victimhood is most important. That’s it.
The rest is a vehicle towards having victimhood, even if it costs lives. Maybe, their own.
- phenom_Anon - Tuesday, Jul 13, 21 @ 2:45 pm:
=Unlike every other local reporter I’ve seen cover this topic in recent days, WCIA’s Mark Maxwell is the only one who actually asked someone in authority for a response…=
Was he the only one who asked or the only one who got an actual answer from the administration?
And it should be pointed out that the answer flies completely in the face of everything the administration has been telling schools and reporters, including over the last few days. If the policy was truly in place Friday, then they told absolutely no one about it.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Jul 13, 21 @ 2:49 pm:
=== or the only one who got an actual answer===
lol
There were no “the governor’s office did not respond” disclaimers in any of the stories. So, if they did reach out and didn’t hear back, they were committing malpractice by not mentioning it.
Also, it’s a fairly simple task to get these questions answered, as Mark clearly shows above.
- Bob Meter - Tuesday, Jul 13, 21 @ 2:51 pm:
The radical right has been reporting this nonsense on Fox and other fringe outlets.
- EssentialStateEmployeeFromChatham - Tuesday, Jul 13, 21 @ 2:55 pm:
==And be demanding the immediate closure of coal-fired energy plants.==
As well as the Clinton nuclear plat just up the road from his home.
- Steve Rogers - Tuesday, Jul 13, 21 @ 3:09 pm:
Maybe his tin-foil hat has trapped too much electromagnetic radiation.
- Bud's Bar Stool - Tuesday, Jul 13, 21 @ 3:09 pm:
=== Caulkins cited a study that measured how much carbon dioxide is caught in a face covering ===
Has Rep. Caulkins ever had surgery? How remarkable the surgeon and the other docs and nurses managed to all get through without passing out.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Jul 13, 21 @ 3:15 pm:
Pick up the phone people. Though at the same time, the statements by ISBE did not specify that school districts will have authority. And Ayala referred to mask guidance as “required” in her Dear Colleague letter. Better to remove the ambiguity before this stuff can fester.
- wut? - Tuesday, Jul 13, 21 @ 3:22 pm:
phenom_Anon THERE WAS A PRESS RELEASE: https://www.dph.illinois.gov/news/illinois-department-public-health-adopts-cdc-covid-19-prevention-school-guidance
Also, on IDPH’s website: http://www.dph.illinois.gov/covid19/community-guidance/school-guidance
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jul 13, 21 @ 3:27 pm:
===Has Rep. Caulkins ever had surgery? How remarkable the surgeon and the other docs and nurses managed to all get through without passing out.===
Top shelf right there.
We’re lucky to have any surgeons with Caulkins’ ridiculous theory.
12-hour surgeries would have medical personnel victims too.
- Bruce( no not him) - Tuesday, Jul 13, 21 @ 3:28 pm:
I tried to wear a carbon monoxide alarm in my mask once. It did make it really hard to breathe. So maybe Rep. Caulkins is onto something.
- Dotnonymous - Tuesday, Jul 13, 21 @ 3:33 pm:
Dan Caulkins seems to be an expert…when it comes to fumes.
- phenom_Anon - Tuesday, Jul 13, 21 @ 4:07 pm:
=phenom_Anon THERE WAS A PRESS RELEASE:=
I think Anonymous answered this one well.
=Even adding something as simple as:
“Local school districts will ultimately have the authority to set mask-wearing policy in schools” would go a long way.=
Supers, parents, lawmakers, etc have been asking that one specific point for weeks, and the administration can’t be bothered to make that one contentious point clear?
Jordan’s snarky “school boards run their school districts,” is downright insulting to the supers who would happily tell you that that sudden new philosophy from isbe is news to them.
The confusion from schools is well founded after a year and a half of conflicting or opaque guidance, and multiple situations where they were told a “should” is overridden by a “shall” elsewhere in a complete different piece of guidance.
- Dotnonymous - Tuesday, Jul 13, 21 @ 4:10 pm:
They’re tryin’ to turn the children into flame breathing demons?
- Merle Webb - Tuesday, Jul 13, 21 @ 4:46 pm:
Since this is a public health issue, I wish the “openness” of the schools was based on the percentage of vaccination of the community from which it draws students. That would give the community at whole some skin on the game. I know it’s “dorm room philosophy” though…