*** UPDATED x1 *** COVID-19 roundup
Tuesday, Aug 3, 2021 - Posted by Rich Miller
* School board meeting on mask mandates…
* I think vaxes are up a bit as more people are realizing that COVID is still a thing and is even more dangerous now…
The Illinois Department of Public Health reports 6.1 million Illinoisans 12 years and older are fully vaccinated, or 56.7% of the eligible population. IDPH reports nearly 7.9 million residents have received at least one dose of a vaccine, or 72.9% of the eligible population.
Illinois has seen a recent spike in the last week in vaccination rates.
* As someone who is now having serious second thoughts about my Rolling Stones concert tickets purchase, I can relate…
Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Monday “there’s no mixed message” in his last-minute decision to skip Lollapalooza this weekend over concerns about the delta variant of the coronavirus after previously saying that the event would be safe and he planned to attend.
Pritzker less than two weeks ago said that he and his wife, M.K., planned to attend the massive festival, which drew roughly 100,000 concertgoers per day to Chicago’s Grant Park. “I think it’s OK, but again, people need to be aware that we are not past this pandemic. It is with us,” he said at the time.
Pritzker planned to go Saturday but his press secretary issued a short statement the following morning saying the governor chose not to attend “out of an abundance of caution.”
*** UPDATE *** Important…
* Other news…
* Chicago-based federal appeals court upholds Indiana University’s vaccine mandate
* US employers losing patience, ratchet up the pressure on the unvaccinated
* Watch the U.K. to Understand Delta - The country lifted all its COVID-19 restrictions just as Delta peaked. What happens next will tell us how well vaccines are working.
* Unvaccinated People Need to Bear the Burden - Beyond limiting the coronavirus’s flow from hot spots to the rest of the country, allowing only vaccinated people on domestic flights will change minds, too.
* ‘It just went boom.’ ICUs are being overwhelmed with younger — and sicker — patients
* Fearing ‘tsunami of evictions,’ county touts free programs to help landlords, tenants
* Naperville District 203 to require masks regardless of vaccination status
* Masks now mandatory for Stevenson High students, staff
* District 186 school board approves universal masking for start of the school year
* Constable: Into the valley of those dead set against vaccines, masks
- Joe Bidenopolous - Tuesday, Aug 3, 21 @ 12:39 pm:
I have tickets for a concert deep in the Ozarks the first week in October. Can’t imagine going and honestly, don’t even care if I have to eat the cash. No way would I set foot in Missouri any time soon. You shouldn’t either, even if it is the Stones
- Pundent - Tuesday, Aug 3, 21 @ 12:47 pm:
I think we have to continue to keep in mind that this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated. Yes breakthrough infections can occur and vaccinated folks can transmit the disease to the unvaccinated. But that problem is solved by getting them vaxed. If the only people that adjust their behavior are those that are already vaccinated, we aren’t accomplishing much.
- JM - Tuesday, Aug 3, 21 @ 1:01 pm:
Commenting from St. Louis… After seeing the Lolla pictures, I am likely eating my Pitchfork Festival and RiotFest ticket costs.
While Missouri is a horror show on the COVID front, folks in STL are largely taking masking seriously and the vax numbers are much better. But the Stones concert is more akin to Lolla than a restaurant visit and a mass drawn from many corners of the Midwest brings Delta in droves…
- a drop in - Tuesday, Aug 3, 21 @ 1:03 pm:
“He says he is a teacher”
Don’t like what he is teaching.
- ArchPundit - Tuesday, Aug 3, 21 @ 1:10 pm:
I’ve got tickets in November for John Hiatt. I’m still hoping.
- EssentialStateEmployeeFromChatham - Tuesday, Aug 3, 21 @ 1:14 pm:
Although there are vendors and carnival operators already at the Fairgrounds now with 9 days left until opening day, is it too late to cancel both State Fairs this year? Or if you can’t cancel Springfield’s, at least cancel DuQuoin’s. (Maybe the latter even permananently–time to just have one state fair again).
- cermak_rd - Tuesday, Aug 3, 21 @ 1:19 pm:
You don’t get to use my kid to save anyone’s life? Good grief. How about your kid doesn’t get to infect my kid? If making the child mask is going to save anyone’s life wouldn’t that mean the child was infected? And should be home until not infected?
Where is Captain Kangaroo and Mr. Rogers when we need them to teach us how to interact in a civil society? (I know they have both gone on to their rewards but why were there no successors?)
- 47th Ward - Tuesday, Aug 3, 21 @ 1:19 pm:
If you go Rich, try to stay as close as possible to Keith. Nothing can kill Keith. You’ll be safest near him.
- JS Mill - Tuesday, Aug 3, 21 @ 1:23 pm:
=”You don’t get to use my kid to save anyone’s life,”=
“You don’t get to use YOUR kid to TAKE anyone’s life,”
Fixed it.
- TheSouthern - Tuesday, Aug 3, 21 @ 1:24 pm:
In downstate (IDPH Region 5), we want to know where the Governor is on this? We now have a positivity rate over 8% for the 11th consecutive day as well as ICU bed under 20% for the 11th consecutive day?
- JS Mill - Tuesday, Aug 3, 21 @ 1:27 pm:
=In downstate (IDPH Region 5), we want to know where the Governor is on this? We now have a positivity rate over 8% for the 11th consecutive day as well as ICU bed under 20% for the 11th consecutive day?=
Maybe give Bailey or Miller a call. If I were the governor I would cut all of southern Illinois lose except for the metro east area.
Maybe I am being a little harsh, but all they have done is attack Pritzker no matter what he does.
- Pundent - Tuesday, Aug 3, 21 @ 1:29 pm:
We have to start considering a bifurcated approach to this that draws a clear distinction between the consequences for the vaccinated and unvaccinated. Breakthrough cases are not the problem. They serve to underscore the effectiveness of the vaccines. 94% of reported cases are from those that are unvaccinated. 97% of serious injuries and deaths are due to not being vaccinated. The vaccine is highly effective and is doing exactly what’s intended.
https://www.vox.com/22602039/breakthrough-cases-covid-19-delta-variant-masks-vaccines
- Scott - Tuesday, Aug 3, 21 @ 1:30 pm:
I’ve been pleasantly surprised that Macomb School District 185 is also requiring masks for everyone (indoors and if in close groups outside) this fall, regardless of vaccination status.
- Mr K - Tuesday, Aug 3, 21 @ 2:15 pm:
“If you go Rich, try to stay as close as possible to Keith. Nothing can kill Keith. You’ll be safest near him.”
Amen. The man is amazing. I used to be on a classic rock radio station downstate (and in Canton, MO!) — KQ102 — KQCA — but one of my favorite 45’s to spin from the bin (we had a bin of 500+ 45s and were always supposed to grab from the front and replace in the back — but I always searched for specifics) was KR’s song ‘Thru and Thru’. (It was on a Stones album, though).
Man, I loved that song. Always played it at the end of my shift.
- Cool Papa Bell - Tuesday, Aug 3, 21 @ 2:36 pm:
@Scott - Macomb is an interesting place. Small Illinois town but largely dominated by two employers (MDH - Hospital and WIU - University) So I’m glad to see that that end of the population seems to have won out on a mandate for masks.
As for the rest of that town, I can only imagine what its’ like.
- PublicServant - Tuesday, Aug 3, 21 @ 3:02 pm:
The squeeze is on for the anti-vaxxers. Keep turning the screws, amp up the inconvenience and exclusions. Show them that “freedom” ain’t free, as they say.
- Sal - Tuesday, Aug 3, 21 @ 4:23 pm:
Got tickets to Chiefs Football Game in late September in Missouri. Hope we are able to go.
- Manchester - Tuesday, Aug 3, 21 @ 4:41 pm:
It’s a scary thought that “Mr. Robinson” might be teaching anyone’s children. God help them.
- RetiredRep - Wednesday, Aug 4, 21 @ 10:56 pm:
I’m feeling fine going to the first 5 Rolling Stones shows. I’m faxed and masked. No significant risk to me. I will miss Charlie Watts who just pulled out for emergency surgery. Steve Jordan will stand in for him for the gigs, before Charlie plans to rejoin his bandmates later in the year