COVID-19 roundup
Monday, Aug 30, 2021 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Lauren Cross at the Southern Illinoisan…
Two “realities” seem to co-exist in Southern Illinois these days.
One is rooted in denial and full of birthday parties, packed concerts, crowded restaurants and even large, maskless funerals. In this reality, the black-and-white ink of a loved one’s obituary dare not mention the person died from COVID-19.
In this reality, the coronavirus is not a threat.
And then there’s another, more grim reality that health care workers like Darren Ackerman, a registered nurse and day shift supervisor in the intensive care unit at SIH Memorial in Carbondale, have been living in for the last year and a half.
Nurses are mentally, physically and emotionally drained — from picking up double shifts to pleading with the community to take this pandemic more seriously.
* Also from the Southern…
In a small town where sports are sacred, Anna-Jonesboro Community High School wants to use nearly half of its $1.9 million in federal COVID-19 relief dollars to install artificial turf on the football field and to resurface the track.
A significant but smaller portion of the school’s COVID-19 dollars is also going toward a social worker’s salary and benefits for three years; 30 Jet Pack wifi hotspot subscriptions for three years; and a HVAC system for the lower gym and related upgrades, documents show.
* Neil Steinberg writes about the “limp logic of anti-maskers”…
The truth is, some balk at being forced to do anything new. Even in a crisis. Even to save lives A stance so selfish that some try a second approach. They wander into the realm of science, so unfamiliar to them, and cherry pick a shiny fact to decorate their infantile “I don’t wanna!” Like a bright ornament on a dead Christmas tree.
“Do the research,” demands one reader. “Find out how large the air openings are on any mask. The ‘smallest’ openings are 3 microns. Now, even Stevie Wonder could see this coming — please tell us how a 3000 nM opening can keep out a 50 nM virus?”
Tell you how? Happily, for all the good it will do. The same way a chain link fence keeps a dog’s teeth out of your ankle, even though the teeth are smaller than the fence links. Because the teeth are in the dog. The viruses are in much larger moisture droplets blasted out of your nose and mouth. Masks catch those.
This did not sway the reader one bit, of course. He immediately waved another deceptive fact. That’s why I try not to argue. What’s the use? That anyone could look at this national crisis — the extra contagious Delta variant surging across the country — and start clutching at himself and conjuring up imaginary harms, it’s just insane. “Those firemen! They’re breaking into my house! They’re pouring water on things!”
From my inbox…
Since you are using Jacobson vs. Mass to justify forced vaxxing, you should study up on the Nuremberg Code
Some folks just can’t help themselves.
* Interesting…
Pop’s in Sauget is joining a growing list of venues that will require concertgoers to show proof of COVID-19 vaccinations or negative tests taken within 72 hours of show times.
The 40-year-old “dance and night club” posted its new COVID Safety Policy on Facebook last week. It took effect immediately.
More…
“If you are opposed to this, you may have to sit out these shows until things get better. If you feel the need to attack us in the comments, we don’t check them. It may actually raise the rank of our Facebook page due to a high engagement…social media is a nightmare.
“We are just trying to stay open, keep our employees/artists safe and working. We are celebrating 40 years and would like to celebrate 50 in 2031.”
* It’s not always about deaths…
CHAMPAIGN — A case of COVID-19 came and went for Kate Maurer last November, or so she thought.
It was a mild case, with a fever and cold symptoms that went away on their own, Maurer said.
Then, a few weeks after she felt better, she was hit with crushing fatigue, dizziness and insomnia, plus a frightening feeling of motion sickness and being disoriented that seemed to be triggered by driving at higher speeds on interstates.
Nearly 10 months later, Maurer said she’s about 80 percent back to her pre-COVID-19 health, but recovery has taken time.
* More…
* Mask mandate now back in effect across Illinois
* Child-Care Workers Might Not Come Back: Centers are closed, pay is low, and young kids aren’t vaccinated. Some caregivers have had enough.
* CPS reopening: Worries, excitement, busing woes mark first day as schools reopen fully
* Cook County judge rescinds order stripping unvaccinated woman of child custody rights
* Tough Road for Schools Fighting Gov. Pritzker’s Mask Mandate
* UI vaccination rates ’shock’ some, match others’ expectations
* Pritzker basing stronger mandates on science but pandemic politics also comes into play
* The Absurdity of Police Comparing Vaccine Mandates to Nazi Germany
* Are at-home covid tests accurate? What the results can and can’t tell you.
* The Wrong Way to Test Yourself for the Coronavirus
* ‘We’re doing it in the district already’: Local schools respond to governor’s vaccine mandate for teachers
* Ida slams Louisiana hospitals brimming with virus patients
- Nick - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 12:06 pm:
It’s genuinely sad how much of this seems to all be because some people just don’t like being told what to do. No matter the circumstance.
- Norseman - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 12:11 pm:
=== study up on the Nuremberg Code ===
If this wasn’t so sick, it would be laughable. The Nazi analogies are strong with these folks.
- OneMan - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 12:11 pm:
My wife has said that she fully expects significant long-term shortages of healthcare staff when this is all over (if not sooner), her system has a large number of nursing openings at this time and is offering hiring bonuses. Part of what is driving this the folks who keep pushing back on everything, it’s hard to stay motivated to help people who have no desire to help themselves
My oldest is back in school getting a BSN degree (She has a BS in Biology, proud dad) in nursing. A major medical system where is at is encouraging people to apply for nursing jobs well before they graduate.
- Give Me A Break - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 12:15 pm:
There seems to be a real dividing line between the HS sport’s world and the rest of the world.
I’m 100 percent pro-mask and pro-vaccine but as I sat outside Friday night watching a football game in Springfield, I couldn’t help but think mask are required inside so why is OK for kids to tackle each other and have their faces inches from each other on the bottom of a pile of tacklers?
I know it is outside but unless the kids are all vaccinated, why is allowed? And before I get blasted, I love Friday Night Lights had three cheerleading daughters.
- Bruce( no not him) - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 12:16 pm:
=== nearly half of its $1.9 million in federal COVID-19 relief dollars to install artificial turf on the football field===
wow, just wow.
I can’t wrap my head around that one at all.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 12:19 pm:
===In a small town where sports are sacred, Anna-Jonesboro Community High School wants to use nearly half of its $1.9 million in federal COVID-19 relief dollars to install artificial turf on the football field and to resurface the track.===
“Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose”
… amirite?
It’s only a global pandemic…
- bkhartbnjo - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 12:23 pm:
=== nearly half of its $1.9 million in federal COVID-19 relief dollars to install artificial turf on the football field===
As Letterman used to say, “this is why the rest of the world hates us.”
- JS Mill - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 12:24 pm:
=In a small town where sports are sacred, Anna-Jonesboro Community High School wants to use nearly half of its $1.9 million in federal COVID-19 relief dollars to install artificial turf on the football field and to resurface the track=
I wonder if they have received ISBE approval for this plan? Given the rules for the use of stimulus funds their plan does not seem to fit the requirements. There is no COVID relationship to improving a track and a field.
- Cassie - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 12:24 pm:
There must be some sort of rules or restrictions applied to the spending of covid money
- cermak_rd - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 12:31 pm:
The HVAC system I could believe as long as it allows a maximum amount of air exchange and ventilation. But why only the gym, why not the rest of the school too.
- Grateful Gail - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 12:31 pm:
As someone who lives in Southern Illinois I am just so disillusioned that there are so many people who are ignorant, and don’t choose to learn. A talk show host on a local radio station commented this morning, “This is the pandemic of the dumb”, and I agree. So sad that their ignorance is killing so many.
- truthteller - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 12:35 pm:
place all non-vaccinated people to the back of the line for all healthcare needs, increased their medical insurance cost by 5x and be shocked when behavior starts to change. Until there is a negative cost, behavior NEVER changes.
- Moved East - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 12:40 pm:
Rich,
I just did “study up” on the Nuremberg Code. After perusing a Wikipedia article, I don’t think the person who emailed you has even studied up on that code because I do not understand their point. Also the Nuremberg Code is very different from the Nuremberg Laws.
- JoanP - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 12:45 pm:
= But why only the gym, why not the rest of the school too. =
Please. Everyone knows that sports are far more important than academics or other other extracurricular programs. /snark
- Cheryl44 - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 12:48 pm:
Turf is probably only good for keeping costs down. It’s apparently not good for the student athletes.
https://www.uhhospitals.org/for-clinicians/articles-and-news/articles/2019/08/artificial-turf-versus-natural-grass
- DuPage Saint - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 12:49 pm:
I understand a new HVAC system for the school but only for a lower level gym? Maybe they should also hire a nurse.
I know this has been asked but I never seem to see an answer. I truly do not believe these unvaccinated are anti vax. I bet almost all have their kids and themselves vaccinated for measles mumps and polio. And I bet if the government came out with a vaccine that prevented impotence or male pattern baldness most of these guys would be first in line. So it is this vaccine? Why? even if you are a Trump guy Trump took it and you can say Trump started it, so why the anger?
- Ron Burgundy - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 12:51 pm:
Just to be clear, the Nuremberg Code is not the law anywhere, and it is extremely odd that the America First crowd would look to a set of principles created overseas to defend their idiocy and think they somehow supersede US law.
- Josh - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 12:59 pm:
Gail
Who are they killing
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 1:02 pm:
=== Who are they killing===
Their audience. Some are killing themselves by first not getting the vaccination, and later doing things (“merely living life”) that more times than not doesn’t mean much, but can spread a deadly vaccine, or catch one too.
Are you that dense or merely silly?
- Josh - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 1:10 pm:
They are not killing anyone that has been vaccinated
If they choose not to get vaccinated
And they end catching covid and dying
Isn’t that their bad
No one is forcing smokers to save themselves by denying
Them a cigarette
It’s called Personal responsibility
- Norseman - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 1:13 pm:
OneMan, thank you for your family’s contribution to health care.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 1:16 pm:
===It’s called Personal responsibility ===
Yeah, exactly. And that means not spreading it to unvaxed children and adults and causing breakthrough cases among the vaxed.
Dummy.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 1:16 pm:
=== If they choose not to get vaccinated
And they end catching covid and dying
Isn’t that their bad===
It’s a global pandemic, and everyone not vaccinated and then is hospitalized … effects… doctors, nurses… takes up an ICU bed…
… it’s not a free choice when adults in a society need to worry about the ignorant that hurt themselves or others… and the propagandists encouraging no vaccine
===It’s called Personal responsibility===
Yeah, to that “smoking” thingy you think is so smart… can’t smoke in restaurants, on planes, society has made a choice… and you’re not gonna believe it… but people still go to restaurants, fly in planes… no smoking.
Are you trying to be silly or are you so dense you can’t grasp public health choices?
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 1:18 pm:
=== I am not scared or worried to be around them
I am vaccinated and don’t believe I will catch covid from them===
That’s sounds a bit illogical, and you not taking ownership to whom you may pass it on to, yikes.
- Josh - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 1:20 pm:
Then Why isn’t the government mandating
100 % people able to get vaccinated
Get vaccinated
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 1:22 pm:
=== Then Why isn’t the government mandating
100 % people able to get vaccinated===
Employers are.
- illdoc - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 1:25 pm:
Wrong, we have had 4 health care workers (vaccinated) that have now tested positive, 2 with symptoms. There is too much virus out there and too many people with out masks.
- Josh - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 1:27 pm:
How is that illogical
I’m vaccinated
Who am I passing it to
- Amalia - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 1:27 pm:
this is how you know exactly how bad things are….the mask sale prices that fueled my stash are no more, going up to what was before, selling out. Mask up.
- Golden Country - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 1:28 pm:
All the scared nanny maskers on this board. tsk tsk
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 1:29 pm:
===Who am I passing it to===
Who’s to say in your frivolous ways you aren’t asymptomatic right now… see a niece, nephew, see someone who isn’t vaccinated…
Maybe Facebook is a better fit for your logic
- TheAardvark - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 1:29 pm:
Regarding Anna-Jonesboro’s COVID fund spending on artificial turf, their spending plan has been submitted to ISBE but has not yet been approved.
Most of the community was not aware of the spending plan until after it had been submitted, largely by design. There is significant backlash with the Southern’s story coming out, although there are people who support it; the majority seem to disagree with it, at least.
As someone with two children going to that school, I am absolutely furious about it. I was told about it around the time it was being voted on by someone close to the school, and was disappointed about it. Hearing now about comments from the school superintendent and at least one board member, I am livid. They clearly never wanted the community at large to learn about any of it, but now that the story has popped up, I am curious how the ISBE will respond.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 1:30 pm:
=== All the scared nanny maskers on this board.===
You can’t un-die.
Ask the three anti-vax radio hosts… maybe a mask coulda helped.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 1:31 pm:
===on this board===
How old are you?
- Josh - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 1:34 pm:
No you can’t undie
But again
It’s very sad
But that was their choice
To take that gamble and they lost
At the end of the day
Feel bad for them
But not my responsibility for their choice
Not my place to make someone do something to save themselves
And do what I can
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 1:36 pm:
===But not my responsibility for their choice===
ENTER: mask mandates.
- Chicago Cynic - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 1:47 pm:
“Who am I passing it to”
Seriously? Well you could be passing it by unvaccinated kids like mine. You could be passing it to other immunocompromised persons like my friend who has been vaxxed but the vax doesn’t work because he had a stem cell transplant. As a member of society, we all have responsibilities to each other. So yea, what you do matters to the rest of us.
- Give Me A Break - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 1:47 pm:
I bet those school board members in Anna just hate all that wasteful spending in Chicago and believe in doing more with less.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 1:51 pm:
Seeing a little surge in comments from out-of-state anti-vaxxer/maskers today. Weird.
- Bruce( no not him) - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 1:57 pm:
===Seeing a little surge in comments from out-of-state anti-vaxxer/maskers today. Weird.===
You’re going viral Rich.
- Leslie K - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 1:59 pm:
==But that was their choice
To take that gamble and they lost==
In addition to what has already been said, I would remind you that every transmission of the virus is an opportunity for more–and more dangerous–mutations. The willfully unvaxxed are choosing to put all of us at risk, including those of us who are vaccinated. The next variant could be worse than Delta.
- OneMan - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 2:03 pm:
Cheryl44
A ‘feature’ of FieldTurf is, at least from my perspective (reffing a game on it) it is really hot on warm sunny days. Those black pellets in particular really reflect the heat, had games on it Friday and Saturday morning.
- DuPage - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 2:05 pm:
I know people that are worried about their 8 and 10 year old kids being sent into classrooms where virtually none of the students are vaccinated. Their 8 year old was sent home to quarantine because someone in his sub-group became sick with Covid.
- Thomas Paine - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 2:08 pm:
Josh -
You don’t really seem to know the science of this.
The Delta Variant is more contagious, more vaccine resistant and more deadly than the original Alpha variant.
Where did the Delta Variant come from?
Not a Chinese meat market or secret government lab in Wuhan.
The Delta Variant was manufactured in. bioweapons lab owned by “Unvaxxed and Unmasked Inc.”
Everyone who refuses to wear a mask and get vaccinated, and is subsequently infected becomes a test tube for developing a tougher variant.
Right now, Delta is infecting about four times as many US kids each week as Alpha did at its peak, and its jus5 getting started, mainly impacting smaller, rural southern communities now. The body counts of kids killed by COVID are piling up, and if it breaks through in the cities, it will be devastating.
In a nutshell, that is why What Other People Choose to Do is not “private”.
Your right to swing your fist ends at my face.
- MisterJayEm - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 2:11 pm:
“Cook County judge rescinds order stripping unvaccinated woman of child custody rights”
I think that everyone who can be vaccinated should be vaccinated, and that we should do all we can to encourage everyone to get vaccinated.
I also think that this judge’s original order was grotesquely authoritarian.
– MrJM
- Rich Miller - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 2:11 pm:
Bruce, I saw what you did there. lol
- thoughts matter - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 2:12 pm:
==Who are they killing==
Themselves, their best friends, the neighbors who can’t get vaccinated or whom don’t develop immunity if they do, the person who got vaccinated early in 2021 and who need a booster… and last but not least those who need ICU beds or treatments for something else but can’t get it because there aren’t beds or staff available.
Before you scoff at that, there was an mom on TV who recounted how her loved one needed immediate non Covid treatment but no beds were available in several states for several hours and it was too late when one was found. Her loved ones organs had shut down.
I don’t get it. We are a law abiding and rule following nation when it comes to how strangers are supposed to behave, but we think it’s ok for ourselves not to. If polio started happening again, wouldn’t every one line up for the sugar cube?
- Norseman - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 2:26 pm:
=== But it is still on them to save themselves ===
For the millionths time, it’s ALSO about saving others who can get the virus from them - including those who can’t get vaccinated, like children.
- Vaxxed - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 3:03 pm:
Plenty of black and brown parents have had their parental rights terminated for failure to vaccinate which is a statutory ground for child neglect (subject to medical and religious exemptions). Of course DCFS doesn’t file child neglect petitions against white suburbanite anti-vaxxers. But why shouldn’t DCFS go after any parent who refuses to vaccinate an eligible child? The mandate is already there in the law.
- Candy Dogood - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 3:30 pm:
The COVID-19 Pandemic has turned into a Dunning-Kruger driven nightmare.
- JS Mill - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 3:43 pm:
=I am curious how the ISBE will respond.=
In my experience, and understanding the funding usage guidelines, it will likely be a denial. Especially if this is an ESSER III request which requires proof of community input.
=A ‘feature’ of FieldTurf =
Just an FYI “FieldTurf” is a brand just like Astro Turf.
School save quite a bit of money going to artificial surface fields and useability goes way up. The surfaces today are safer and experience fewer injuries than the old brillo pad style surfaces. In the last decade they have come out with turf that does not get as hot as well. You can also hit it with water to cool it down.
- Dotnonymous - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 4:11 pm:
Some people seek doom?
- Amalia - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 4:54 pm:
“…scared nanny maskers” what a load of ….. go ahead, don’t wear a mask, don’t get the vaccine, and don’t bill your insurance when you get very sick and possibly die. the rest of us want to live and don’t want to pay in any way for your reckless behavior so we are wearing masks and getting the vaccine. we are responsible. you are responsible for spreading illness and death.
- MyTwoCents - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 5:05 pm:
According to the Anna-Jonesboro article the justification is that it would allow for outside activities year round for PE, band, and extracurricular activities, “improving air quality and allowing for social distancing.” I’m assuming the school board/administrators are thinking the “reason” is the ability to use the facilities when it’s wet because artificial & an all weather track isn’t going to help in the middle of January, even as far south as Anna-Jonesboro. But it seems like it’s not even putting in a track, but re-surfacing, which really is stretching things to the extreme.
- golface18 - Monday, Aug 30, 21 @ 5:19 pm:
I was looking through Craiglist (central IL) and saw listings for COVID vaccination cards for those that do not want vaxxed for sale for 40 bucks. WOW
- lauren_c - Wednesday, Sep 1, 21 @ 2:56 pm:
@golfface18 — where did you see this?