* Center Square…

Six nurses employed by Riverside Healthcare in Kankakee have filed a lawsuit against the hospital over their right to refuse the COVID-19 vaccine, citing the state’s Health Care Right of Conscience Act.

The Liberty Justice Center, a national nonprofit law firm, is representing the nurses. The nurses have religious beliefs they say conflict with getting the vaccine, Liberty Justice Center attorney Daniel Suhr said. […]

“At Liberty Justice Center, our job is to fight against overreach and protect people’s rights,” Suhr said. “This is not only overreach, it is wrong and it is illegal.” […]

Panozzo, a nurse practitioner for over 24 years at Riverside, said her faith is the reason for her decision.

“I have dedicated my life to living out my faith by serving my patients,” Panozzo said in a statement. “I believe I am called to love and serve my patients especially those who are frail and vulnerable, I am also following my faith teaching when I say I can not accept this vaccine.”

I just can’t understand someone who would not only knowingly work around “frail and vulnerable” people without being vaccinated against a disease that could kill her charges, but would put up a legal fight to do so.

* Effingham Daily News…

A temporary restraining order that allowed three Teutopolis students to attend classes without masks has been vacated by the Chief Judge of the Fourth Judicial Circuit, Douglas L. Jarman.

“Since the judge vacated the order, it requires masking for all students in the school district as per Executive Order No. 24 from the governor,” said Unit 50 Superintendent Matt Sturgeon.

Scroll down…

DeVore said in a telephone interview Thursday that he plans to transfer the Teutopolis case out of Effingham County to Macoupin County early next week. He said the Effingham County case would be transferred along with similar cases in Clinton and Montgomery counties to Macoupin County, where he currently has an existing case.

I’m not sure how he plans to pull off that transfer, but it’s part of a wider effort…

Sommer Stuehlmeye, a parent said she and a group of Unit 5 parents are raising funds to be considered for representation from Thomas DeVore, a lawyer who has successfully restored two Illinois school districts to regular status after a court dispute with the Illinois State Board of Education. […]

Who exactly is taking this case?

Stuehlmeye said she and the other Unit 5 parents linked up with a website called ‘Speak for Students.’

“It is a website that is an avenue to hire Tom DeVore, is his name the attorney, he’s been successful in some school districts south of us in the exact same thing as what we’re trying to do. Were raising funds to be considered by him. The funds would hire him, but we have to raise the funds before we can be considered,.for him to take on our case for the freedom of choice for parents. We’ve gone through this website and we need a certain number of parent representatives, or plaintiffs, to move forward,” said Stuehlmeye. […]

Stuehlmeye said the community has to raise the funds before they can submit a request for counsel on ‘Speak for Students.‘ […]

It costs $5,324 dollars. Right now the group of Unit 5 parents are at about $2,300.

* Cook County Record…

The possibility of natural immunity to COVID acquired by prior infection shouldn’t allow a group of Naperville firefighters to escape COVID vaccine and testing mandates, lawyers for Gov. JB Pritzker has argued in new court filings.

Further, the governor asserted state and local COVID vaccine and testing orders don’t violate the firefighters’ constitutional rights, as they claim.

“Even if all of the Plaintiffs (Naperville firefighters) did previously contract COVID-19, … the level of immunity can vary based on viral load and the severity of the infection,” lawyers for Pritzker wrote. “If Plaintiffs’ infections were early in the pandemic, then their immunity may have waned and vaccination is necessary to boost their immune response. If their cases were mild, then they may not have any immunity at all.

“Considering the nature of Plaintiffs’ jobs, they not only are at a higher risk of either infection or reinfection, but there is a higher risk that they will spread the disease as well.”

* More from the filing…

Moreover, one month before the Governor issued EO 2021-22, this very district court mandated that its employees be vaccinated, or otherwise get tested twice a week. As Chief Judge Pallmeyer stated when announcing the Northern District’s vaccination requirement, “COVID-19 vaccinations are the very best available line of defense against this virus. Many of us work directly with the public, and all of us have a responsibility not only to one another, but also to the members of our community who come before us.”

Emphasis in original.

* NBC 5…

Gov. J.B. Pritzker said it remains too early to give an indication of when he might lift Illinois’ indoor mask requirement, even as state COVID-19 metrics continue to dip.

Though the state’s test positivity rate is down to 2.5%, Pritzker said health officials must consider all metrics, in addition to other factors.

Pritzker cited rising cases in other states, including nearby Minnesota and Michigan, as well as current hospitalizations here in Illinois, where 1,500 people are in the hospital with coronavirus.

“If you go look at the hospitalizations — the new hospitalizations, as well as the ones that are, you know, existing in total — they are not dropping at the rate that they were dropping even a couple of weeks ago,” Pritzker said Thursday at an unrelated news conference while answering reporter questions. “So I’m concerned about that.”

OK, yesterday, there were 1,550 people in the hospital. Two weeks earlier, 1,744 were hospitalized (11 percent reduction). Two weeks before that, 1,962 were hospitalized (11 percent reduction). And two weeks before that, 2,305 were in the hospital (15 percent reduction).

I mean, I get why he doesn’t want to lift the mask mandate while some states to the north of us are surging again because he’ll only have to reimpose it, but it’s still a steady decrease.

* On to those aforementioned states…

.@GovPritzker https://t.co/fDVbCGrUCQ

— Amy Jacobson (@AmyJacobson) October 15, 2021

We talked about that state earlier this week…

Intensive care units are nearing capacity and health care workers are in short supply in Minnesota, as coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths all reach levels not seen since vaccines became widely available.

All of the state’s counties are at high risk for community transmission, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. New daily cases have risen by 29 percent in the last two weeks and hospitalizations by 17 percent, according to a New York Times database.

While a monthslong increase driven by the Delta virus variant is waning in much of the country, Minnesota is just one of several Upper Midwestern and Mountain West states where the virus is surging. Cases are up and hospitals have been overwhelmed in North Dakota, Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, all of which have low vaccination rates. Some areas have had to ration care and send patients to distant hospitals for treatment.

The Minnesota Department of Health said the state’s surge is overwhelming hospitals, with rural and metropolitan areas equally stretched.

Google is your friend, Amy.

* Related…

* The Great Resignation Is Accelerating: A lasting effect of this pandemic will be a revolution in worker expectations.

* Chicago police union also heads to court over vaccine mandate, hours after city sues FOP over threats to ignore today’s reporting deadline

* COVID-19 has taken a heavy toll on police, but suburban departments avoid vaccine mandates: “We are not requiring (Palatine Police Department) employees to be vaccinated because we are under no mandate to require it,” Palatine Chief David Daigle said. It was the same refrain elsewhere. Police departments and sheriff’s offices from Lake County to Bloomingdale to St. Charles are leaving the vaccine decision up to individual officers.