COVID-19 roundup
Tuesday, Oct 26, 2021 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Sen. Darren Bailey was interviewed at the recent Illinois Conservative Union conference…
Q: Why do you think the governor is pushing so hard for this vaccination mandate and doing away or at least amending the right of conscience act?
Bailey: I’ve said from day one, follow the money. I think it has a lot to do with the money. Big pharma money. I can’t prove that. But all the actions lead to that when we see each and every day the proof of even of even, you know, vaccinated people still dying from COVID, still catching it again. We’re not seeing the numbers and proof and the data and the facts that they say that they have.
Q: I’m thinking that money is a big part of this, probably the biggest part of this. But isn’t there a sense of we have the power to do this and this is a way we can control you?
Bailey: Again, we said it earlier. Marxism. Just how do you destroy a constitutional republic? This seems to be a pretty plausible roadmap to do that.
Whew. The drama is strong in that one.
* I’m assuming he wants his unvaccinated members to be paid in full by the city if they catch the virus and have to quarantine for 14 days…
Police union President John Catanzara said Tuesday his union members would agree to testing every day, but he’s still encouraging members to defy the city’s vaccine mandate.
“We will be OK with our members getting a rapid test every day they report to work, before they walk into roll call so they know if you’re contagious or not. Your vaccine status shouldn’t matter at that point,” Catanzara said.
Catanzara said officers who test negative would go to work.
“If you’re positive, you go home, go onto medical (leave) and quarantine for 14 days. It’s the simplest solution to stop the spread, if that’s what they really wanted to do,” he said.
Paying the unvaxed to stay home doesn’t seem fiscally prudent. If they take the risk, they should pay for the consequences.
* Tribune…
Fourteen employees of NorthShore University HealthSystem are suing the hospital system, alleging that NorthShore won’t let them keep their jobs because of their religious objections to getting COVID-19 vaccines.
Liberty Counsel, which describes itself as a Christian ministry that advocates for religious freedom, is representing the 14 NorthShore employees in the lawsuit, which it filed on Monday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. The lawsuit seeks class-action status.
Background on Liberty Counsel…
Liberty Counsel—an evangelical nonprofit legal foundation—has been offering pro bono representation for clients in pursuit of religious exemption. The group previously focused on more traditional culture-war issues like anti-abortion suits and cases seeking to deny LGBTQ Americans their rights but Liberty’s founder, Mathew Staver, shares many of his clients conspiratorial views about vaccines and likes to air them in public. In speeches, he’s called COVID-19 shots part of a “depopulation” conspiracy to force the world to “have a tracking mechanism to determine whether or not you’ve had one of these particular injections.”
Just recently, one of Liberty Counsel’s most prominent cases involved health-care workers in Maine with a suit aimed at overturning the state’s vaccine mandate for hospital and nursing home employees. Last week, the Supreme Court declined to grant an emergency injunction as the case plays out in lower courts.
* More…
* COVID-19 update: 2,213 new cases, 34 more deaths, 1,230 hospitalizations: The state’s positivity rate for COVID-19 cases is 1.9% based on a seven-day average.
* Illinois expecting 500,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses initially for kids, with pediatricians expected to play a big role
* Four Measures That Are Helping Germany Beat COVID: Ensure That Mass Events Don’t Facilitate Mass Transmission; Make Testing Cheap and Easy; Throw Out Those Cloth Masks (in favor of KN95 masks); Figure Out Contact Tracing
* Meatpacker Tyson: Mandate led 96% of workers to get vaccine
* Lawsuit by Chicago workers challenging vaccine mandates heads to federal court today
* Effort to Roll Back Vaccine Mandate Blocked as Police Union President Vows Retribution
- Ron Burgundy - Tuesday, Oct 26, 21 @ 1:26 pm:
-I think it has a lot to do with the money. Big pharma money.-
Shhh… no one tell him who manufactures Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin…
- Crash - Tuesday, Oct 26, 21 @ 1:31 pm:
Suddenly Bailey does not trust the free market to produce a good result.
Odd how that works
- Buford - Tuesday, Oct 26, 21 @ 1:33 pm:
“Follow the money” and “I can’t prove that” in same sentence.
- Pundent - Tuesday, Oct 26, 21 @ 1:33 pm:
I only hope that Bailey sticks around long enough to make it to a debate with the governor. He needs a wider audience for his brand of nonsense. I’m sure the ILGOP leadership agrees as well.
- Jibba - Tuesday, Oct 26, 21 @ 1:35 pm:
===I can’t prove that.===
The slogan of the modern GOP.
BTW, you destroy a constitutional republic by holding onto power through abandoning all norms, denying people the right to vote, and staying insurrections. Again, the modern GOP.
- ArchPundit - Tuesday, Oct 26, 21 @ 1:39 pm:
The one good thing about a billionaire Governor is he isn’t doing things for a payoff.
Maybe it’s projection on Bailey’s part.
- Norseman - Tuesday, Oct 26, 21 @ 1:45 pm:
When I was a kid watching Looney Tunes, I never expected to grow up and live in Looney Times.
We have a pandemic that was downplayed and misrepresented by the GOP for political purposes. Science responds quicker than previous pandemics, yet the GOP hampers these efforts to play to the selfish narcissists who don’t want to do the hard stuff like wear a mask or get a shot. Their successful efforts to constrain public health have lead to the continuation of the pandemic leading to more deaths than 100 years ago and sustained economic hardship. But of course, their success allows them and others to blame the Dems for not getting America back to normal. Facepalm
- Manchester - Tuesday, Oct 26, 21 @ 1:49 pm:
So Bailey thinks that a billionaire Governor who self-funded his campaign is beholden to big pharma. What a doofus. LOL. Unfortunately, there are probably a number of uneducated right wingers who will buy into that line of thinking.
- JS Mill - Tuesday, Oct 26, 21 @ 1:51 pm:
First, and maybe this is nitpicky but words mean something to me, we are a Republic. Period. Not a constitutional republic. That is made up and seems more about the need of the hard right to get as much jingoistic jargon into every sentence possible. I would be impressed if he could get all of them into one sentence though.
=Again, we said it earlier. Marxism. Just how do you destroy a constitutional republic?=
Bailey is closer to a marxist than anyone running or our current governor. His $2.5 plus million in government subsidies are proof. Add in that he does not know what marxism is, just that Americans are programmed to hate it.
Maybe one of our hard right posters can help me, but I have not felt one ioat of additional government control since the pandemic started. I still decide what I want to do every day, like anything else there are always qualifications to do certain things whether public or private. But that doesn’t get the country folk riled up.
- hisgirlfriday - Tuesday, Oct 26, 21 @ 2:00 pm:
@ArchPundit
Pritzker being a billionaire doesn’t stop plenty of Darren Bailey supporters from spreading conspiracies on Facebook that Pritzker has investments in companies making money off the pandemic. The claim that Pritzker makes money off COVID tests is prevalent.
- ArchPundit - Tuesday, Oct 26, 21 @ 2:15 pm:
—The claim that Pritzker makes money off COVID tests is prevalent.
Ahh…And he may have some holdings I suppose.
- AC - Tuesday, Oct 26, 21 @ 2:16 pm:
From the linked article: “In the United States, meanwhile, use of KN95s and other surgical masks continues to be rare. Outside of hospitals and doctors’ offices, a lot of people—including many who evangelize the importance of masking—wear pieces of porous fabric that do comparatively little to prevent the transmission of COVID-19.”
This has been such a missed opportunity in this country, and from what I’ve seen poor quality surgical masks that offer the wearer little protection are what is generally used in a medical settings as well. Good masks are not that expensive and they are readily available, a regional home improvement chain has N95s for 85 cents a piece in a box of 20, and KN95s are typically less expensive than that.
- Pundent - Tuesday, Oct 26, 21 @ 2:19 pm:
For years many of us asked, what will the ILGOP do once Mike Madigan is gone? What will they do when they’re forced to run on policies and ideas? Now we know.
- thechampaignlife - Tuesday, Oct 26, 21 @ 2:27 pm:
===Science responds quicker than previous pandemics, yet the GOP hampers these efforts===
I feel like the only way to change their narrative would be to flip it back onto them by pushing a narrative that the greedy Dems have snapped up the vaccines, and the GOP are being denied access (false scarcity). And worse, they are calling them the Biden vaccines, when we all know that dear leader Trump created them (history revisionism).
It only furthers division, but it gets more vaccinated to get us out of this mess. My fear is that it would be all too effective.
- Dotnonymous - Tuesday, Oct 26, 21 @ 2:29 pm:
I don’t really know what it is …and I can’t prove it…but I know I hate it…because someone told someone else… who told another Guy… who told me…and the tragic part is that the first Guy was filled with hateful ignorant prejudice.
- In 630 - Tuesday, Oct 26, 21 @ 3:00 pm:
Simultaneously acting at the behest of giant corporations while doing Marxism would be one hell of a trick
- Big Mike - Tuesday, Oct 26, 21 @ 3:33 pm:
if I am mistaken the Federal Government pays for the covid vaccine not the state. Follow the money must include Trump and his buddies not our governor.
- Rudy’s teeth - Tuesday, Oct 26, 21 @ 3:39 pm:
Wonder if Darren Bailey minored in International Studies while he attended Lake Land College in Mattoon. Surprised that he is so knowledgeable about Marx and his theories.
Details…we need details, Darren.
- Commisar Gritty - Tuesday, Oct 26, 21 @ 3:46 pm:
“EVERYTHING I DON’T LIKE IS MARXISM:How to misunderstand things loudly.”
-Darren Bailey’s new smash book release.
- Consider the Source - Tuesday, Oct 26, 21 @ 4:00 pm:
If you’re doing it for the money, can it really be Marxism?
- zatoichi - Tuesday, Oct 26, 21 @ 4:09 pm:
From high school civics: Mr. Zat, you wrote in your test answer that big pharma money = Marxism. Would you please expound on this premise and take questions from the class? Or are you simply throwing out words to fill up the page?
- Norseman - Tuesday, Oct 26, 21 @ 4:40 pm:
Marxism, socialism, communism are all GOP scare words to use communicating with voting age people (notice I didn’t call them adults) because bogeyman only works on toddlers. Most GOP pols don’t have to know (nor do they care) what the words mean.
- Not a Commie - Tuesday, Oct 26, 21 @ 4:41 pm:
Natural immunity works. Why force vaccinations? Power and money are the only excuse left.
- Norseman - Tuesday, Oct 26, 21 @ 4:50 pm:
=== Not a Commie ===
ROFL
- danray - Tuesday, Oct 26, 21 @ 6:00 pm:
Bailey and his ilk are a threat to democracy. Why is this tolerated?
Darren likes socialism when it benefits his “farm.”
- ArchPundit - Tuesday, Oct 26, 21 @ 7:44 pm:
====Natural immunity works.
Just not as well as vaccines for Covid-19 or many diseases:
https://www.nebraskamed.com/COVID/covid-19-studies-natural-immunity-versus-vaccination
I don’t understand why anyone would listen to Dennis Prager or someone similar to him over doctors.
- Jibba - Tuesday, Oct 26, 21 @ 7:47 pm:
Not a Commie…
It’s cute that you don’t know what is wrong with your argument.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Oct 26, 21 @ 9:27 pm:
==If they take the risk, they should pay for the consequences.==
It’s an alien concept to anti-vaxers called personal responsibility.
Unless they call that Marxism too.
- Glenn - Tuesday, Oct 26, 21 @ 9:29 pm:
Sorry about the above anonymous at 9:27.
I take personal responsibility for my mistake.
- Ryan - Tuesday, Oct 26, 21 @ 9:40 pm:
I’d like to hear a reporter ask Darren to define Marxism.
- Rabid - Wednesday, Oct 27, 21 @ 4:02 am:
Marxism, Groucho with “what ever it is I’m against it”