* I saw this over the holiday weekend and it piqued my interest…
* So, I asked the governor’s office for Illinois deaths per 100K since May 1. They sent along some other regional states as well for comparison…
Man, Indiana and Ohio. Whew. But they’re still not as bad as Florida and Texas. Get your shots so the trend stays more favorable.
* Also something I looked into during the break…
* From England…
The government is encouraged by statistics showing that the recent jump in coronavirus-related hospital admissions hasn’t led to a similar increase in the number of patients needed mechanical ventilation, Blain said.
“We know that admissions and occupancy are increasing significantly at the moment, we’re not seeing that same jump in beds requiring ventilation, which is pleasing, and almost certainly a function of both the nature of omicron and our successful booster program,'’ he said.
While number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in England has more than doubled over the past two weeks, the number of patients in mechanical ventilation beds has remained relatively stable, according to the latest government statistics.
That is not happening in Illinois, where ventilator use has almost doubled in the past couple of weeks. The English, however, are ahead of us in the omicron timeline. So, fingers crossed and get your shots.
* In other news, this presser is about the new Cook County requirement that people show proof of vaccination to get into bars, restaurants, etc., which is similar to the City of Chicago’s requirement…
MEDIA ADVISORY: House Republicans Stand Against Recent Cook County Mandate
WHO: State Representative Tom Morrison (R-Palatine), State Representative Chris Bos (R-Lake Zurich), and State Representative Martin McLaughlin (R-Barrington Hills).
WHAT: House Republicans to discuss the burden left on Cook County residents, local governments and businesses amid the new mandate effective this week.
WHEN: 11:00 A.M. on Tuesday, January 4th, 2022.
The only people I feel sorry for are the workers who have to deal with irate, unvaxed fools.
* The governor was asked yesterday whether he’d be implementing a similar statewide “mandate” soon…
They’re not requiring vaccinations. That is not a vaccine mandate. What they are requiring is that if you go into a certain kind of establishment, they have a category of them, that you have to show that you’ve been vaccinated. … I think that the city and the county are doing the right thing for the people of the city and the county. I encourage local leaders to do what’s right in their communities. Every community is a bit different, as you know, some counties have very few restaurants, they’re, you know, quite far apart from one another. They don’t have huge crowds in those restaurants. And so it’s hard for them to have exactly the same kind of mitigation that the City of Chicago might have. And so it’s been my view that we need leaders locally to step up and do the right thing for their communities. But again, anybody who’s willing to step up and make the tough calls, and we’ve been making tough calls at the state level as well, at the city level at the county level, I applaud.
* Another day, another lawsuit…
Arguments continue in cases brought by teachers challenging the governor’s vaccine mandates in schools and parents challenging mask and exclusion mandates on students.
Earlier Monday in Springfield, Sangamon County Judge Raylene Grischow heard arguments from defendants to have a different judge oversee the teacher’s case. That case has dozens of teachers and school staffing suing 22 districts. The judge said the issue has been delayed long enough.
“We’ll run out of judges before it’s heard and that causes a prejudicial effect to the plaintiffs,” Grischow said. “We’ve been dealing with this COVID issue, it needs to be decided and I’m going to deny the motion.”
Attorney Thomas DeVore argues on behalf of parents and teachers in separate cases the issue is about individual due process rights to challenge quarantine orders.
* Related…
* Record number of COVID-19 patients fill Illinois hospital beds: ‘This is largely a problem of the unvaccinated’
* Rising student, teacher COVID-19 cases during winter break leave some suburban educators scrambling to reopen schools safely
* CTU Plans Vote On Whether Teachers Should Work Remotely During COVID Surge
* CDC shortens Pfizer booster recommendation to 5 months
* How you can download the Illinois SMART Health Card to prove COVID vaccination status
* Pritzker, Illinois Health Officials Warn of ‘Fly-by-Night’ Pop-Up COVID Testing Sites
* Chicago-area hospitals delaying elective surgeries, as Illinois sees record number of COVID-19 hospitalizations
* School bus companies got pandemic aid from CPS, along with PPP loans, but still laid off drivers: district watchdog
* California Deputy DA Who Fought Vaccine Mandate Dies Abruptly After Falling Ill With COVID at Age 46
- Smalls - Tuesday, Jan 4, 22 @ 12:17 pm:
==encourage local leaders to do what’s right in their communities==
Translation: I am in campaign mode and refuse to lead the state. He had no issues doing things statewide all during the pandemic, even not allowing local leaders to do what they thought was right for their communities.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Jan 4, 22 @ 12:22 pm:
===He had no issues doing things statewide all during the pandemic===
We still have several statewide mandates, but we also have the vaccine.
- The Opinions Bureau - Tuesday, Jan 4, 22 @ 12:23 pm:
“Translation: I am in campaign mode and refuse to lead the state. He had no issues doing things statewide all during the pandemic, even not allowing local leaders to do what they thought was right for their communities.”
As the governor has said time and time again, he enacted blanket statewide orders during the initial emergency. As we’ve learned more about the virus and developed better tools to counter it more locally, mitigations have become more targeted.
- twowaystreet - Tuesday, Jan 4, 22 @ 12:26 pm:
That chart from the Gov office is also using 2019 estimates which is about 200,000 people less than what was captured on 2020 census.
Doesn’t lower the death per 100,000 significantly but puts us at 52.3.
- Blue Dog - Tuesday, Jan 4, 22 @ 12:28 pm:
From an old geezer vaccinated and boosted, it looks like the percentages of those that are the same, are not going to increase to much greater levels. Hopefully herd immunity gets here sooner than later and does so in a way that reduces deaths.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Jan 4, 22 @ 12:28 pm:
===2019 estimates which is about 200,000 people less===
I asked about that 2019 estimate months ago and apparently it’s what the CDC uses for all states.
- Coles County Beer - Tuesday, Jan 4, 22 @ 12:40 pm:
so you can walk around unvaccinated inside the Woodfield Mall in Cook County, but you need to show proof of vaccination to buy food at the food court. Logical.
- Sweet Mama - Tuesday, Jan 4, 22 @ 12:53 pm:
==so you can walk around unvaccinated inside the Woodfield Mall in Cook County, but you need to show proof of vaccination to buy food at the food court. Logical.==
There is a statewide indoor mask mandate.
- natty lite - Tuesday, Jan 4, 22 @ 12:58 pm:
Very frustrating that there aren’t vaccine mandates. Anything that the state can put a vaccine mandate on, they should.
- Smalls - Tuesday, Jan 4, 22 @ 1:04 pm:
==We still have several statewide mandates, but we also have the vaccine.==
We also have hospitals on the brink of collapse. More needs to be done.
- Anyone Remember - Tuesday, Jan 4, 22 @ 1:10 pm:
Point to ponder that is slightly off topic.
Has DoD released any data on troops “bad reactions” to COVID vaccinations? Thousands upon thousands of troops are vaccinated yearly for numerous things, yet there doesn’t seem to be much news about “bad reactions” … .
- Pundent - Tuesday, Jan 4, 22 @ 1:17 pm:
=More needs to be done.=
Ok. The “more” is vaccinating the unwilling. Unless you have a plan for that you’d like to share you’re yelling at the clouds. The responsibility at this point falls on us. The governor has done his part.
And if your argument is that he’s campaigning it’s an odd one considering that the GOP has been screaming for local control since day one. But instead of claiming victory they’re now criticizing the governor for the current surge all the while resisting mitigations and mandates.
- ArchPundit - Tuesday, Jan 4, 22 @ 1:19 pm:
DOD reports all adverse events to VAERS so the data exist.
- Siualum - Tuesday, Jan 4, 22 @ 1:25 pm:
Not that it has anything to do with Illinois, but Novak Djokovic gets a vaccine exemption to play in the Australian Open (nickname “Novax”). Certainly doesn’t help the cause.
- Thomas Paine - Tuesday, Jan 4, 22 @ 1:29 pm:
=== Man, Indiana and Ohio. Whew. But they’re still not as bad as Florida and Texas. ===
Its a very illustrative graph, Rich. you or Hannah Meisel should ask for the same data by county for Illinois.
A couple of side notes: Missouri and especially Iowa have problems with coroners who refuse to list COVID as cause of death. They are much worse than reporting suggests.
And look for Ohio and Indiana to gain ground on Florida and Texas this winter. Humidity drives transmissionin the summer in The South while indoor crowding drives transmission in the winter in the North.
- Anyone Remember - Tuesday, Jan 4, 22 @ 1:30 pm:
===DOD reports all adverse events to VAERS so the data exist.===
“Fifteen cases is the numerator of a fraction. What is the denominator? Fifteen cases out of how many that received the vaccine? Fifteen out of fifteen? That’s shocking! Fifteen out of a million? Hardly the same.
This is an important limitation of VAERS. It cannot be used, on its own, to figure out if an event following vaccination is common or rare.”
Number of medical separations from the Services would be more useful data.
https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/covid-19-critical-thinking-health/dont-fall-vaers-scare-tactic
- Annonin' - Tuesday, Jan 4, 22 @ 1:35 pm:
Morrison looked pretty scary with that fake mustache
- Club J - Tuesday, Jan 4, 22 @ 1:40 pm:
Looks like DeVore has teamed up with the Edgar County Watchdogs once again and they are disputing everything from the vaccine to the IDPH reports. They came out with an article from December 2020 that they are flipping out over. The Dogs have become analysts and have proven all this media hype about the virus is all nothing but a sham.
By golly there’s more sick people in the hospital than COVID people using those ICU beds. I’ve never seen grown men who celebrate about the strangest things.
- Grandson of Man - Tuesday, Jan 4, 22 @ 1:51 pm:
Very striking, but predictable. This is right wing America, where small government is for opponents but big government bans local government pandemic mandates. People are expendable, and it’s money over life. They call that freedom?
- Chicagonk - Tuesday, Jan 4, 22 @ 1:52 pm:
Have to say having to show my ID after showing my vax card is getting old. I hope this is temporary.
- ArchPundit - Tuesday, Jan 4, 22 @ 2:03 pm:
===This is an important limitation of VAERS. It cannot be used, on its own, to figure out if an event following vaccination is common or rare.”
Yeah, I wasn’t saying that raw VAERS data is useful, but the data are all there for analysis.
===Number of medical separations from the Services would be more useful data.
That doesn’t tell you much about the number of reactions other than those that might die. Most who have a negative outcome from a vaccine may not be discharged at all and certainly not immediately.
- Cool Papa Bell - Tuesday, Jan 4, 22 @ 2:06 pm:
Those per 100k numbers are staggering. What I still can’t understand is how a certain group of people can’t process that information and see the root cause. Nearly every death since May has been vaccine preventable. Its an incredible shame what has happened to our country.
- Lurker - Tuesday, Jan 4, 22 @ 2:09 pm:
Death rates of vaccinated vs unvaccinated would be interesting to see for Illinois.
- Pundent - Tuesday, Jan 4, 22 @ 2:36 pm:
=Death rates of vaccinated vs unvaccinated would be interesting to see for Illinois.=
Particularly if measured starting around the middle of 2021 when vaccines became widely available. I think we can still do more to draw the stark contrast between the two populations. The anti-vax crowd continues to point to a small number of vaccinated cases with poor outcomes as a evidence to bolster their position. Continuing to show how dramatically different outcomes are between the vaccinated and unvaccinated would counter that narrative.
- Dog Lover - Tuesday, Jan 4, 22 @ 2:36 pm:
My father was a nursing home resident in Indiana when he contracted Covid and died within a few days. His death certificate says he died of natural causes. I don’t pretend to know when it’s Covid or when it’s something else, but I do believe that Covid was the proverbial straw in his case.
- Magnus in the Middle - Tuesday, Jan 4, 22 @ 2:46 pm:
Florida’s vaccination percentage is higher than Illinois currently.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Jan 4, 22 @ 2:49 pm:
===Florida’s vaccination percentage===
Because they include non-resident snowbirds, fly-ins, etc. We’ve covered this before. They have areas where well over 100 percent are said to be vaxed.
Florida’s numbers are a farce.
- Dog Lover as well - Tuesday, Jan 4, 22 @ 2:58 pm:
Dog Lover, from one dog lover to another, I just want to send you my condolences for the loss of your father. Hopefully your dog is able to bring you some comfort.
- Magnus in the Middle - Tuesday, Jan 4, 22 @ 3:08 pm:
Yet all of Florida’s high population centers clearly voted Blue in 2020.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Jan 4, 22 @ 3:15 pm:
Magnus, that has what to do with anything? Go back to Facebook.
- Sneaky suspicion - Tuesday, Jan 4, 22 @ 3:20 pm:
I think the Republicans are counting on Covid to rid itself of the “loony” faction of its party that they wish they could do. A few more years of anti-mask and anti-vax and the conservative party will have an entirely different party profile which will make it easier for them to go back to their traditional bent.
Snark…or is it…
- Smalls - Tuesday, Jan 4, 22 @ 3:22 pm:
==Unless you have a plan for that==
Adopt what Chicago and Cook County are doing on a statewide basis to start. Capacity limits would also be big to stop the spread. Canadian provinces have put capacity limits of 1,000 or 50%, whichever is less. So no more putting 20,000 people in for basketball and hockey games. These would be huge steps in relieving the strain on the hospitals. But instead, “it is up to the locals to decide what is right for their community.” Does that include locals deciding that mask mandates aren’t right for their community. Can’s have it both ways.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Jan 4, 22 @ 3:32 pm:
===Can’s have it both ways===
This is government, not a sophomore dormitory debate. There’s nuance in governing. Even people who scream the loudest about local control want state control sometimes. It’s not an either or business.
- Back to the Future - Tuesday, Jan 4, 22 @ 3:38 pm:
The decrease in deaths per 100,000 is real and important news.
I would, from time to time, check our ratings on deaths per 100,000 and it seemed we always lagged the average state.
I recently was in Washington State where I had to show my vaccination card to check into a hotel, go to a restaurant, get a cab/Uber or go to any coffee shop.
I did check Illinois vs, Washington. Sure enough Washington had a lower number (among the best 3 in the nation), but Illinois had really improved a lot. The numbers show Illinois is doing much better. Clearly our over all vaccine approach is working.
This new step for those of us that live in Chicago and Cook County to require prove of vaccination for restaurants is a step in the right direction.
- Smalls - Tuesday, Jan 4, 22 @ 3:53 pm:
The leaders of the major hospitals in Illinois sent the Governor a list of requests on 12/30 to reduce the impact on hospitals. They continue to ask and get ignored.
https://twitter.com/IMPACT4HC/status/1476715526076383236/photo/1
- Manchester - Tuesday, Jan 4, 22 @ 4:22 pm:
I wouldn’t mind in the slightest having to show my vax card for entry to public places. Instead, in Sangamon County, despite record numbers of infections, I continue to see lots of unmasked individuals. Gee, I wonder if there’s any connection? /s
- JLW - Tuesday, Jan 4, 22 @ 4:40 pm:
I believe if you looked at death rates since May 1 by county in Illinois you would see similar shocking results in the less vaccinated counties but it’s hard to find those comparisons.
- Jibba - Tuesday, Jan 4, 22 @ 7:46 pm:
Here is a site that shows covid by county. As suspected, the worst Illinois death rates are in rural counties, some of which have per capita death rates more than 50% higher than any Chicagoland county.
https://usafacts.org/visualizations/coronavirus-covid-19-spread-map/state/illinois
- Jibba - Tuesday, Jan 4, 22 @ 7:52 pm:
One correction…the 50% number was for cases, not deaths. From what I could find, deaths can be as much as 6 times higher in rural counties compared to the lower urban counties (Kendall was 109 deaths per capita compared to Ford at 602).
- Lynn S. - Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 12:05 am:
If you really want a sobering look at how poorly the rural counties are doing, look at the table at the end of Jibba’s link.
Multiply Effingham County deaths by 6. Multiply Cumberland County deaths by 20.
Both times, you get a number close to 800.
Then look at Champaign County, which has high rates of vaccination and masking.
Death rate in Champaign County is about 1/3 of either Effingham or Cumberland.
I grew up in Cumberland. I’ve got lots of family in Effingham.
But it’s hard to feel sorry for people who refuse to mask or get vaxxed, and seem to want to basically strangle themselves to death. It’s like I’m watching people commit suicide or murder, just in slower motion.
SMH. Sighing deeply and walking away sadly.