Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar » COVID-19 roundup
SUBSCRIBE to Capitol Fax      Advertise Here      About     Exclusive Subscriber Content     Updated Posts    Contact Rich Miller
CapitolFax.com
To subscribe to Capitol Fax, click here.
COVID-19 roundup

Wednesday, Oct 6, 2021 - Posted by Rich Miller

* I forgot to post this yesterday

Gov. J.B. Pritzker was asked Monday if he’ll follow California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s lead in mandating the vaccine for school children in Illinois.

“That’s not something that we’re looking at doing,” Pritzker said.

* Daily Herald editorial

According to a Centers for Disease Control report made public on Monday, while 86.8% of nursing home residents in Illinois have been vaccinated, only 65.7% of the people who care for them have received shots.

And that’s just the average. According to our Marni Pyke’s reporting, just 257 of the state’s 705 nursing homes, less than a third of the total, boast employee vaccination rates of 75% or higher. But fully 163 locations have dismal staff inoculation rates of 50% or lower. […]

When New York mandated that health care workers be vaccinated or be fired, people got vaccinated. When the mandate went into effect on Sept. 27, 92% of New York’s more than 650,000 hospital and nursing home workers had already gotten at least one dose. Forcing the issue works.

The Pritzker administration should push the Illinois mandate one step further and require nursing home workers to get vaccinated. Yes, people will quit, and that’s a concern in an industry where staff shortages are chronic. But when our elderly can no longer live at home and need the round-the-clock care that nursing homes are expert at, they and their loved ones should be assured that COVID, at least, will not be an issue.

Not to mention that very old and infirm vaccinated people are susceptible to quite harmful breakthrough cases. And not that many people will actually quit.

* Way too much weight is given to the opinions of literal dead-enders

Dozens of Belvidere residents and parents crowded the parking lot outside the Belvidere School District Administration Building to protest Governor JB Pritzker’s vaccine mandate for school workers and the school district abiding by the mandate

Protest organizer Jim McIlroy believe the state is forcing people into an unfair situation by trading the vaccine for their job.

“The biggest bribe and blackmail right now is somebody’s job if you don’t get the shot,” McIlroy said. “I want to stand for people to be able to have that freedom of choice, and that’s what we’re all standing for.”

However, the school district says less than five people are not in compliance with the governor’s order.

Five. People.

* The unvaxed who constantly whine that vaccinated folks need not fear them are particularly loathsome for ignoring the fact that some people can be harmed by breakthrough cases and many others cannot be vaxed

No one else in the family was sick. Adrian James just had a bit of a cough. She gave him cough syrup and put a humidifier in his room.

But by Friday he was sweaty and his breathing was labored. Jackson took him to an emergency room in her small town of Mt. Vernon, Illinois. Doctors and nurses there did a chest X-ray and swabbed him for COVID - and then airlifted the child to Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital in St. Louis, about 80 miles away.

Jackson followed in a car, her grandmother at the wheel. They made the usually 90 minute-drive in about an hour.

“I didn’t know if he was going to make it or not,” Jackson said. “I was very emotional and just very upset.”

Her boy is one of nearly 840,000 children under the age of four to contract COVID-19 in the United States, according to statistics from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Vaccinations against COVID-19 have not been approved for young children, and the United States is being ravaged by a surge of cases driven by the highly contagious Delta variant, which Adrian has.

Go read the rest. With luck, Adrian will be 3 next month.

* Hopefully, we won’t see a repeat of last fall and experience an even worse wave when the unvaxed move back inside

The COVID-19 Delta variant “wildfire” is still burning in southern Illinois, but it’s finally simmering down, hospital officials said Tuesday.

After a month that saw intensive care units stretched to the limit across the 20 counties that span the southern tip of the state, public health officials reported 17 ICU beds were available as of Monday night.

Critical care units across the region’s 22 hospitals are still operating at 79% capacity, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health — but that’s a great deal better than the past few weeks, when only one or two beds were available on most given nights for southern Illinois’ 400,000-plus residents.

* Another possible surge next month is just one of the problems with figuring out what to do with the mask mandate

The governor still has not given an exact benchmark for when he’ll lift the statewide mask mandate.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker had an indoor mask mandate in place for more than a year until he let the order expire in May. He then re-instituted a mask mandate in July for all indoor gatherings. On Monday, he couldn’t say what the benchmark would be to lift the mandate. […]

The only thing Pritzker can point to for when he’ll lift that mandate is whatever comes from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control And Prevention.

When asked about mask mandates, Pritzker Monday said for schools he’s following recommendations from the CDC.

“And that’s one of the reasons that we have kids who are masked,” Pritzker said. “It’s important to make sure to keep them safe, it’s what scientists here in the United States are recommending and so we’re following it.”

* People really need to pull their heads out of the sand so we can all move on to some semblance of normalcy

The ferocity of the delta variant surge has delivered a serious financial blow to hospital systems in parts of the country with low vaccination rates that are struggling to care for coronavirus patients, even as they combat plummeting income, reduced bailout funds and higher labor costs.

Many hospitals in Southern states and rural areas of the country — even in states with otherwise high vaccination rates — have been forced once again to temporarily curtail elective procedures such as hip replacements that bring in the most money.

Meanwhile, rates of burnout and nurse attrition have soared at institutions with overburdened ICUs and covid-19 wards, contributing to severe labor shortages that are driving up costs for replacement workers, hospital officials said.

Hospital officials had been hoping a semblance of normalcy would return as vaccines helped beat back the spread of the coronavirus. Instead, with huge swaths of the nation resistant to shots, and delta variant driving a large wave of infection, they got what one administrator called a “triple whammy.” Hiring temporary replacement workers drove extraordinary cost increases. Vital revenue from elective surgeries evaporated. And public taxpayer supports to help providers through the crisis last year are drying up.

* Other stuff…

* This Chicago health official is cautiously optimistic about holiday gatherings this year

* Chicago doctor, others deal with COVID denial: ‘You are welcome to leave, but you will be dead before you get to your car’

* CPS shortens quarantine time as COVID-19 transmission in schools remains low, officials say

* Will you fall into the conspiracy theory rabbit hole? Take our quiz and find out.

       

12 Comments
  1. - Keyrock - Wednesday, Oct 6, 21 @ 12:40 pm:

    Dear Gov. Pritzker,
    We need a vaccine mandate for COVID—just like for other communicable diseases. As soon as it’s approved for 5 year olds and up, it’s time. Don’t wait any longer. We want to get back to (near) normal. Vaccine mandates are the best path.


  2. - NonAFSCMEStateEmployeeFromChatham - Wednesday, Oct 6, 21 @ 12:44 pm:

    ==
    We need a vaccine mandate for COVID—==

    Not just for schoolchildren, but all state employees too. Not just Corrections and other “high contact” agency jobs. Either they get all vaccinated or get fired. And also require them to get the booster shot too regardless of age and health conditions.


  3. - Pundent - Wednesday, Oct 6, 21 @ 12:44 pm:

    There are a number of vaccines that kids are required to have before attending school. Why wouldn’t the Covid-19 vaccine be on that list?


  4. - West Side the Best Side - Wednesday, Oct 6, 21 @ 12:47 pm:

    Are their heads in the sand or up someplace else?


  5. - Amalia - Wednesday, Oct 6, 21 @ 12:55 pm:

    I’ve recently experienced a very loud anti vax anti mask person, someone who will not let it go, who talks back at any comment made to the contrary/ positive comments on their own. what I see is that these folks are very loud and they claim that there is a kind of half and half situation, when there is surely not. there are many more people who are getting the vaccine and masking…look at Missouri where they are lining up for vaccines in one affected area. I struggle with whether to fight back, shout down as it is damaging to put out incorrect information without answer. people actually die. it is not a violation of your civil rights to require a vaccine for employment. what about kids who are required to get certain vaccinations to go to school? is it a violation of my right to live if you endanger my health? The correct information must be put out to fight the wrong information but it is very difficult.


  6. - Pot calling kettle - Wednesday, Oct 6, 21 @ 12:59 pm:

    ==There are a number of vaccines that kids are required to have before attending school. Why wouldn’t the Covid-19 vaccine be on that list? ==

    The anti-vax movement has been growing for decades; they have used this opportunity to take it up to another level. One of the “problems” with vaccination is that it works so well people don’t know what polio, measles, mumps, etc, can do to a person.

    I got my #2 shingles shot the other day and I feel like c**p now, but I know people who have had shingles and feeling a bit ill for a few days is much better than the alternative.


  7. - Steve Rogers - Wednesday, Oct 6, 21 @ 1:10 pm:

    Springfield’s District 186 board voted to support covid vaccinations for its students. While it’s largely symbolic, it’s good to know the board believes vaccinations work, despite the cranks speaking otherwise at the meeting.

    https://www.sj-r.com/story/news/2021/10/05/springfield-d-186-supports-adding-covid-vaccine-regular-immunizations/5985074001/


  8. - Jakita Wagner - Wednesday, Oct 6, 21 @ 1:54 pm:

    Vaccine mandates for kids are probably the right thing to do. But so would jacking up the price of health insurance for the unvaccinated. Make it really uncomfortable for anyone to try to remain unvaxxed.


  9. - Chief - Wednesday, Oct 6, 21 @ 2:13 pm:

    There are anti vaxxers and anti covid vaxxers, and they are not always the same people. The anti covid vaxxers I know are not against the traditional vaxxes we receive, just the covid one. Traditional anti vaxxers cross all parts of the political spectrum and are basically nuts.


  10. - JS Mill - Wednesday, Oct 6, 21 @ 2:34 pm:

    =“I want to stand for people to be able to have that freedom of choice, and that’s what we’re all standing for.”=

    Jim Mcilroy is my kind of guy, I have always wanted to go to work in my birthday suit. Nice to know I have some support out there. I also appreciate his pro-choice position. /s


  11. - Grateful Gail - Wednesday, Oct 6, 21 @ 3:28 pm:

    Just hoping Gov. Pritzker doesn’t back down on requiring AFSCME workers to get the vaccine at the developmental centers and prisons. Their rights also include responsibilities, and they don’t talk about their responsibilities towards others.


  12. - Perrid - Wednesday, Oct 6, 21 @ 5:31 pm:

    “Jackson followed in a car, her grandmother at the wheel. They made the usually 90 minute-drive in about an hour.”

    This reminds me of my mom, when I had appendicitis in my early 20s. I thought I had a stomach bug, and after the worst night’s sleep of my life -my side was really beginning to hurt- I called my mom to complain more than anything, and she almost screamed at me “WHY AREN’T YOU AT THE HOSPITAL ALREADY?” I was basically listing every possible symptom of appendicitis. which she knew, unlike me.

    She made the hour and a half drive in 50 minutes, before the doctor even called me back in the ER, and I was having surgery like 2 hours later. Speed limits seem to become optional in crisis.


Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.


* Buried nugget and magic beans
* Open thread
* SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Supplement to today’s edition and some campaign stuff
* SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Today's edition of Capitol Fax (use all CAPS in password)
* Live coverage
* Selected press releases (Live updates)
* Yesterday's stories

Support CapitolFax.com
Visit our advertisers...

...............

...............

...............

...............

...............

...............


Loading


Main Menu
Home
Illinois
YouTube
Pundit rankings
Obama
Subscriber Content
Durbin
Burris
Blagojevich Trial
Advertising
Updated Posts
Polls

Archives
October 2024
September 2024
August 2024
July 2024
June 2024
May 2024
April 2024
March 2024
February 2024
January 2024
December 2023
November 2023
October 2023
September 2023
August 2023
July 2023
June 2023
May 2023
April 2023
March 2023
February 2023
January 2023
December 2022
November 2022
October 2022
September 2022
August 2022
July 2022
June 2022
May 2022
April 2022
March 2022
February 2022
January 2022
December 2021
November 2021
October 2021
September 2021
August 2021
July 2021
June 2021
May 2021
April 2021
March 2021
February 2021
January 2021
December 2020
November 2020
October 2020
September 2020
August 2020
July 2020
June 2020
May 2020
April 2020
March 2020
February 2020
January 2020
December 2019
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
June 2019
May 2019
April 2019
March 2019
February 2019
January 2019
December 2018
November 2018
October 2018
September 2018
August 2018
July 2018
June 2018
May 2018
April 2018
March 2018
February 2018
January 2018
December 2017
November 2017
October 2017
September 2017
August 2017
July 2017
June 2017
May 2017
April 2017
March 2017
February 2017
January 2017
December 2016
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
August 2016
July 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
February 2016
January 2016
December 2015
November 2015
October 2015
September 2015
August 2015
July 2015
June 2015
May 2015
April 2015
March 2015
February 2015
January 2015
December 2014
November 2014
October 2014
September 2014
August 2014
July 2014
June 2014
May 2014
April 2014
March 2014
February 2014
January 2014
December 2013
November 2013
October 2013
September 2013
August 2013
July 2013
June 2013
May 2013
April 2013
March 2013
February 2013
January 2013
December 2012
November 2012
October 2012
September 2012
August 2012
July 2012
June 2012
May 2012
April 2012
March 2012
February 2012
January 2012
December 2011
November 2011
October 2011
September 2011
August 2011
July 2011
June 2011
May 2011
April 2011
March 2011
February 2011
January 2011
December 2010
November 2010
October 2010
September 2010
August 2010
July 2010
June 2010
May 2010
April 2010
March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
December 2005
April 2005
March 2005
February 2005
January 2005
December 2004
November 2004
October 2004

Blog*Spot Archives
November 2005
October 2005
September 2005
August 2005
July 2005
June 2005
May 2005

Syndication

RSS Feed 2.0
Comments RSS 2.0




Hosted by MCS SUBSCRIBE to Capitol Fax Advertise Here Mobile Version Contact Rich Miller