* From the Freedom Fighters of Adams County Facebook page…

The cases have been reassigned. Click here. But Sangamon County is no slam dunk by any means for the plaintiffs…

* Nov. 2020: Sangamon County judge dismisses lawsuits challenging Pritzker’s coronavirus orders

* Nov. 2020: 4 central Illinois restaurants ordered to close temporarily for violating COVID-19 mitigations

* Dec. 2020: Sangamon County judge tosses decision voiding Pritzker’s executive orders

* August 2021: Judge sides with Springfield hospital refusing ivermectin to treat COVID-19 patient

* Sept. 2021: Illinois judge to rule on Pritzker’s latest motion to dismiss dining prohibition lawsuit

I assume that the governor’s and attorney general’s offices are fairly pleased. Cook would’ve been better, but Sangamon has been dealing with these cases because the Supreme Court has transferred so many of them to the county. It’s almost become a specialized rocket docket.

* Considering what we already knew, this is predictable…

📣 PUT ALL 3,144 COUNTIES TOGETHER AND HERE'S AMERICA AS OF NOVEMBER 2021: pic.twitter.com/1uVbDmYYiz

— Charles #GetCovered-ba 🩺 (@charles_gaba) November 23, 2021

ILLINOIS. pic.twitter.com/CprN1AevbL

— Charles #GetCovered-ba 🩺 (@charles_gaba) November 22, 2021

* This Tribune story mainly focuses on a tiny handful of refuseniks, but check out the actual stats…

Under Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s directive, all city employees had until Oct. 15 to report their vaccination status but could choose to undergo regular COVID-19 testing, rather than get shots, through the end of the year. After police unions challenged the vaccine mandate in court, though, a judge suspended the Dec. 31 date for members to be fully inoculated, saying that needed to go through arbitration. Other unions representing city workers are also now seeking the same. […]

(A)s of Friday, 35 police and 26 Fire Department workers were on no-pay status. […]

As of Monday, 84% of Chicago police had reported their vaccination status on the city portal, including the lieutenant. But he is also among the 23% of respondents who indicated they are not fully vaccinated.

Meanwhile, the Fire Department was at a 97% response rate and, like police, about 23% of them said they aren’t completely inoculated

The vast majority of Chicago cops and firefighters are fully vaccinated and we don’t know how many more are waiting on their second shot. There’s more ground to cover (and will be once the arbitrator rules), but that’s still good news. The paranoid whiners are outliers.

* The big problem here is that infected kids can infect people like their grandparents, who are most susceptible to breakthrough cases. And if the oldsters aren’t vaxed, well, it can be really bad…

Coronavirus cases in children in the United States have risen 32% from about two weeks ago, a spike that comes as the country rushes to inoculate children before the winter holiday season, pediatricians said.

More than 140,000 children tested positive for the coronavirus from Nov. 11-18, up from 107,000 in the week ending Nov. 4, according to a statement Monday from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.

* It’s getting out of control in Michigan…

Over the previous seven days including Friday, Michigan reported 53,575 new COVID-19 cases, the highest weekly caseload since the pandemic began in March 2020.

As of Sunday, 3,785 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized across the state, including 784 in intensive care units. The vast majority of patients in the ICU and on ventilators, the MHA noted, are unvaccinated.

The state’s record for most adult hospitalizations with confirmed cases of the virus occurred on April 19 with 4,158 inpatients.

* And it’s worse in Minnesota…

Federal emergency relief teams from the U.S. Department of Defense are on their way to Minnesota to help doctors and nurses at two Minnesota hospitals. When the rest of the state is celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday, they’ll be fighting the state’s COVID-19 surge.

The shortage of ICU beds is so severe, doctors warn emergency care across the state is being compromised. Hennepin Healthcare says they are turning down up to 50 transfer requests a day for their advanced trauma facilities, as Minnesota grapples with one of the worst infection rates in the country.

“If you get into a car accident in rural Minnesota and are in need of complex trauma care, the additional 12 to 24 hours you have to wait for a bed to open up might mean the difference in long-term functional outcomes,” Dr. Daniel Hoody said. “If you are critically ill with non-COVID illness or COVID illness in a rural hospital not equipped to care for you, the additional wait times might be the difference between life and death.”

Hennepin Healthcare is the state’s largest Level 1 trauma center, and it’s so backed up it had five patients on ventilators in the emergency room Monday. HCMC says it has cancelled or postponed most non-emergency surgeries and procedures.

The National Guard has also been activated.

* On a lighter note, I’m pretty sure my friends and I would’ve done this to get out of going to school back in the day. So I have to admire the effort…

A school in the U.K. has warned parents to monitor their children while taking lateral flow COVID tests, after word spread that fruit juice can cause false positive results.

Gateacre School, in the English city of Liverpool, emailed parents on Wednesday to alert them that it had emerged children had become aware that orange juice and other similar drinks can trigger a false positive result on a lateral flow test.

* Related…

* America isn’t headed toward lockdowns, say White House officials

* Treatments will change the pandemic, but they can’t end it alone: Antiviral pills will be a key part of a large toolkit needed to manage the coronavirus, not a silver bullet

* COVID-19 average infections grow by 27% in a week, including 47-student outbreak in Villa Park

* City officials say Chicago will reach 77% vaccination rate by the week’s end

* Despite labor shortages, suburban retailers say they’re ready for Black Friday